If I spent virtually every weekend of my childhood watching Return of the Jedi, I replayed The Empire Strikes Back at least half as often. Of course, as a nine-year-old, the heavier material of the second movie in the trilogy went over like a lead weight. I inevitably found myself turning back to the toy bin during the long hour between Hoth and Bespin.
You are probably correct, unbongwah, that, as a child with limited exposure to other media, the original trilogy seemed far more original than the prequels. Watching in the mid-1990s, I was probably also less critical of the slapstick comedy. As a rabid fan of G.I. JOE, one supposes that I must have had little reason to suppose that the Stormtroopers, all “bad guys,” were ever intended to be anything other than disposable (and therefore dim-witted) henchmen.
Nevertheless, I think that the prequels, and especially The Clone Wars, shift the trope-milking into much higher gear by comparison. Jabba was hokey yet believable. The Nemoidians were simply caricatures of Japanese capitalists. The Stormtroopers, who proved so ineffective against the main characters in the original trilogy, were clearly more than a match for the Rebel Alliance forces on Hoth. (As I recall, they also did fair slaughter among the Ewoks, and the fight came right down to the wire.) The Battle Droid armies of Phantom Menace were neat… until they were revealed as pathetic comic relief.
By the release of the prequels, I was also old enough to dock Lucas points for what his films weren’t as much as for what they were. I regretted that he’d chosen not to explore more deeply the question of whether the Jedi were, in fact, arrogating too much power to themselves, no longer confidence that “the common man” was capable of preserving the galaxy from evil.