I'm gonna merge this with the general Q&A thread.
Suck it up and play Black and White. I'm sick of people coming on and posting about how the Pokemon are crap and new and ugly and strange and such. I mean, this happens a bit, and it's nice to have your own opinion and all, but things change, things move forward. We can't be happy about them all, and if you really just can't stand it, you can go do something else. That's just how I feel after seeing all these "new Pokemon are ugly" topics/posts.
Gameplay wise though, I'd keep playing BW. They're really fun and plotwise, much better than previous games. Black and White 2 are actually much better though, and if you enjoy older Pokemon more than the new, they updated the Pokedex in that game so that there are gen I-IV Pokemon found in the wild, which is nice cause all Unova Pokemon got a bit tiring after a while, similar to how playing RBY/FRLG, you get tired of all Kanto Pokemon, though that's what they were going for haha.
And if you want a "blast from the past" feel, I recommend going to HeartGold or SoulSilver. They take everything that make GSC great and multiply it by 5. It's a great remake and keeps the original games well in tact, while adding its own flair to make it different, and that's really what makes the game special to me. Not to mention, there are no "weird" gen V Pokemon. Just gen I and II, and later you can find III and IV.
And Emerald is DA BOMB. To be honest though, if you're coming out of gen II and going straight to gen III, I think what might ease the blow is going through by generation. So go with Emerald (though you'd definitely want to buy one from a local store, as the ones sold online are often fake), then Platinum, HGSS if you want to, and then maybe pick back up with BW or B2W2. I think what happens with people in your situation are that they haven't played in so long, so the nostalgia goggles are still on lol. So I think if you just go through the games you missed in order, it all might not seem so strange. Then again, even to the hardcore fans, gen V Pokemon looked weird at first. All new Pokemon tend to look weird at first, but we get used to it and adjust.