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III had its good moments, but it also had plenty of awful moments, like Lucas's ham-handed attempts at making a political statement and the continuation of the cringiest love story ever put on the screen.

There were also several points in III where it was abundantly clear that Lucas had basically given up and just threw stuff together in order to be done with the whole thing.

- Mace & co. try to arrest Palpatine; everyone but Mace and Palpy dies without a fight.
- "It's over Anakin. I have the high ground."
- "She's lost the will to live."
- Yoda to Obi-Wan: "Btw, in the middle of the Jedi being wiped out and the galaxy being taken over by the Sith, learned how to do the 'life after death' thing I did. Teach you I will, so OT plot holes there will not be."

I liked it the least of the prequels. It seemed by that point all we had was various characters running around acting randomly just to get Lucas from point A to point B. Any semblance of coherency to the plot was long since gone, and the film pew pew pew'd its way to a ridiculous climax. Episode III is easily the low point of the franchise by my reckoning.

As far as getting better or worse, I'd say that the trend was unbroken for the first six films. Star Wars > Empire > Return > Phantom > Clone > Sith. Obviously, the trend stopped with the new trilogy, both films of which vastly exceed the prequels in quality.

First, I actually prefer the first Star Wars to Empire Strikes Back (marginally...they're both amazing).

Second, being the best prequel is like being the meatiest turd.

Finally, I think The Force Awakens was definitely superior to Revenge of the Sith.