16 years later, and we finally get to see the beginning of the Saga

Rating: 8/10 (3 February 2005)

The problems George Lucas had, when he began to piece together the prequel trilogy to the Epic Star Wars Saga are as follows -
1/ He's tied into a story that all the original fans already know, leaving him less scope for his ideas than he had before.
2/ He made such a fine job of the original movies, the fans will expect more of the same.
3/ He has to appeal to a new generation of Star Wars fans, and without the Impact of Groundbreaking special effects, its harder this time round. (Face it, Great special effects are seen in adverts these days)
So, evidently we end up with an inferior movie, but thankfully it's still a good one. Lucas has still managed to bring in some new characters, he has created some memorable scenes (the Pod Race scene is superb) and above all he's begun to fill in some background to the characters we Star Wars fans know and love, R2, C3PO, Obi-Wan and Yoda. I believe more time could have spent on some of the new characters build up, but he only has 3 films to reach the point where Star Wars started off, and there is a lot of story to cover.
There are some flaws in the film, but there is enough here to entertain you, and George is just warming up.
One thing i was massively impressed with, and strangely it was the movies biggest let down at the same time, Darth Maul and his truly brilliant light-sabre battle with Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon. The question is why not have more of him in the movie? But who am i to question George Lucas's motives.
8/10 Nice Effort, on a difficult first outing.