Goodbye, Mr. Chips is kind of underrated in my opinion, just because it gets over shadowed by Gone With the Wind and The Wizard of Oz, because they all came out in the same year. It's still noted by critics to be one of the greatest films of all time (their opinion, but that's the point) but it's only ever mentioned after the other two. Maybe in America, but all the Korean and Japanese foreign exhange students at my school never shut up about Battle Royale. I think you're exaggerating. The original franchise can still be watched and enjoyed on its own. It still exists (more or less) the way it was intended to. Love them or hate them, the Star Wars prequels didn't alter the original parts of the franchise, they only added to it. You can always just not watch them and be content that other people like what they like.
