This movie made a generation to learn that Lucas =/= Star Wars

Rating: 5/10 (31 October 2017)

I remember my first encounter with Star Wars quite clearly; the 1997 re-release of the Empire strikes back. I did not know back then, that I've seen the highlight of the entire franchise, and that it wasn't directed by Lucas, the man, who dreamed this entire universe a good 2 decades ago. I left the movie theater bewitched, and I knew I'll NEED to buy that (so far unknown) Slave 1 ship miniature, that was gathering dust in my hometown's toy shop.
3 years later I managed to see Episode 1, and really, I can't remember about my feelings at the end of the movie. Did I hate it? Did I liked it? Honestly, I don't know. There had had to be almost another decade, when I could finally put this movie into perspective. To summarize it in whole, it was a great, missed opportunity.
The opportunity, which was there to create a gripping back-story for one of the most epic villain of the film history. How it failed, I won't list here again. There are more than 3000 reviews about this film, which go into the details to explain this to you. The sloppy script, the lack of direction toward the actors, the over-used CGI, Jar-Jar-freakin' Binks, you name it.
I just want to point out, that for me it was this film, which dethroned the myth of Lucas, as a visionary genius, who single-handed made this franchise so great. There were, and are many others, who contributed greatly toward this whole thing, writers, sound editors, scenery makers, costume designers, and could go on endlessly.
This movie got 5 stars from me, because there are still traces of these enthusiastic people's work. From the masterpiece of John Williams to those, who spent countless working hours casting the Gungan war-gears, design the architectures on Coruscant, train Qui Gon and Darth Maul to the choreography of the final lightsabre duel, and so on. Thank you for keeping the magic alive, while the head of the whole project kept on ruining things.