Star Wars

I agree. That is what feeds into both my opinion that the plot is bizarre, and my enjoyment of the worldbuilding.

I have long thought that showing such a young Anakin was pointless, aside from establishing that he was born as the chosen one, which could have been covered in a flashback, timeskip, or just some dialog. All the other elements of the plot that were relevant to the trilogy would have worked with a 16 year old or so Anakin that was already in training. The plot of the movie just doesn't quite work.

Putting that aside, I just really like Naboo. I like the planet, the designs, the society. Gungans (Jar-Jar aside) are actually really interesting. I like the dynamic they have with the Naboo human population. Plenty of room for side stories there.

Podracing, despite utterly dragging down the pace of the important story, is awesome. The designs, the vibe.

Darth Maul is, at least visually menacing. He is so interesting that later writers retconned his death and turned him into a real character.

There's so much rich unique design and worldbuilding in Ep1 that it feels like skimming through a visual encyclopedia or something.