Lucas gave a reason for why it seemed meh in the episode II DVD commentary. He gave the reason that he had to give information of things like how the senate worked and stuff like that.
Seeing all the negative comments towards Episodes I and II of Star Wars makes me feel kinda weird.
I actually LIKE both of those movies. Don't know why, but I do.
And from what I've seen of it, I've also liked the mini-series "Clone Wars"