All in all, I was impressed, but ignore the hype.

Rating: 9/10 (21 May 1999)

Okay, I'll admit it, I was camped out on the sidewalk for hours on Tuesday night for tickets. I had quite an adventure (which I won't go into) but shuffling my way into the theater, my ticket in hand, I began to have doubts about if it was really worth it. I wanted so badly for it to be a great movie, to quell my fears, and as the Lucasfilms icon appeared on the screen I was so tense I wanted to scream.
Well to make a long story short, I wasn't disappointed. I felt my hours of cold and hunger had not been wasted. I hadn't gone in expecting the movie to live up to it's massive expectations, no movie could possibly do that. We would all have had to have died and ascended to a higher spiritual plane halfway through the film to accomplish that. I went in expecting a Star Wars movie, and that's what I got. It's technically the first movie, the introduction to the universe we've all come to know and love, and as an intro, it does very well. A visual feast, if I do say so myself, even if the marvelous cast was given very little to do. I am greatly looking forward to the next two installments, as Ewan McGregor has surpassed my expectations as Obi-Wan Kenobi, and hoping that Liam Neeson will have a part. Things have been set in motion now that will carry through into the Luke Trilogy and I'm very curious to see how all these puzzle pieces will fit together.