Nothing is going to live up to all that hype!

Rating: 8/10 (28 May 1999)

Not even the latest peek into Lucas' magnum opus is going to measure up against 16 years of anticipation. Knowing this, I said, "ooh! ah," at the appropriate moments of the trailers and went to see SW:E1-TPM with 3 expectations: a killer Williams soundtrack, lots of eye-candy and a story. I was not disappointed.
High points for me were: a continued tradition of outstanding martial artistry in the lightsaber-duel choreography; outstanding animation/graphics, generally; The apparent similarity in speech pattern/accent between McGregor and Guinness, making his playing the role of a young Kenobi quite believable, for me (I wonder if any work went into that or if it was just naturally occurring, not being familiar with McGregor's other work); and the performances of Neeson and Portman, both quite convincing.
I've heard many complain about a lack of emotion in one certain scene :) I didn't see that at all. I saw sufficient emotion masked by acceptance of what is meant to be ("...He was made to help you..." or whatnot. I've only seen it 3 times. I'll get all the important ones, eventually :) I'd like to see that whole area explored in a little more detail (prophesy specifics), but with so much else to consider, I doubt it will happen to my satisfaction.
Low points? Well, very few child actors really shine, at first. But I did find Lloyd to have a diminishing annoyance factor the 2nd and 3rd times I viewed the film. There are a few times when the drama is redlined, but hey, he's playing a kid. They have a tendancy to do that, IRL, even. The only other real low point, for me, that may become a high point is that Maul's deliciously evil persona was so short lived. I only say that it may become a high point because Lucas is going to have to produce one even more SERIOUSLY bad-a$$ed apprentice successor(s) in the next films to keep up the momentum (be he/they the younger Vader or any in between... :)
The 'comedy relief' could've come or gone, as far as I was concerned, but come on, after the success of the concept in 'Jedi, did you really think you'd seen the end of 'Ewoks' ?!! Only difference, now, is that instead of 'rabid Teddy Ruxpins with spears' we have 'Talking Elmo meets Barney the purple dinosaur with little clue'. The names may change...
Overall, I'd say that this was about as good as E6-ROTJ. I think there's just way too much story, at this point, to do complete justice to in so relatively few films. Knowing that Lucas is going to attempt to pack so much into each one, I'm willing to accept the mundane little oversights. There are a few in each movie, thus far, I expect little more from those in the future, in that respect (except, perhaps, a killer Williams soundtrack and lots of eye-candy).