A Masterpiece that has been too harshly judged.

Rating: 10/10 (9 August 1999)

I have read and heard a number of reasons that this movie did not live up to it's predecessors. Personally, I loved it. I went into it with the only expectation I felt was reasonable. The beginning of the story. That's all. Nothing more was necessary. We knew the future of the story, but we needed the starting point. That is what George Lucas gave us. Now I know a lot of you out there have some gripes, so let's examine a few.
Let's start with the biggest: Jar Jar! Most everyone who had a gripe, had the biggest one with this character. Let's face it, every movie has to have a catch for every generation. While he was definitely my least favorite part of the movie, I realized his importance. If you accept Jar Jar for what he is, you can successfully look beyond him and not let him drag the movie down. 90% of the big movies that come out now a days appeal to all audiences. If you get all ages, you make more money. Jar Jar was there for the kids and comic relief. Not all that necessary, but he was there and that's that. Deal with it.
The other big gripe I have heard is how quickly the movie moved along and the lack of character development due to it. Did anybody out there see the movie "Star Wars"?!? This movie was no different. This movie, like episode IV, is meant to set us up for more character developement. Introduce the main players and then get into more detail in the next installment. The main point was to give the story of how everything came about. People p***ed and moaned about the movie being about a trade war. If those people had paid more attention in the first trilogy, they would have realized that Senator Palpatine is the Emperor and this is how he got to power. This "Trade War" is the begining of the Empire. I'd say that's a pretty important detail.
And finally, not enough Darth Maul. Well, I wanted more of the dueling as well, but what we did get was pretty awesome. You forget that we didn't get super long lightsaber duels in the other movies. There was always more to the story, so why would they change that now. Personally, if they kept a duel going to long, it would start to resemble a car chase that went on too long. Short and sweet. Worked for me.
I thought this movie was a triumph and a great beginning to the saga. I think that most of you out there need to ignore the hype as much as possible, and stop being so critical.