This movie is... *gasp!*

Rating: 9/10 (28 May 2002)

*** RISK OF INCLUDING SPOILERS ***
I've got a confession to make (no - not about my crappy English...): I love Star Wars. Star Wars for me is the ultimate movies about the fight between good and evil. The only movie that has been able to threat the saga until now is Lord of the Rings - but that hasn't got anything to do with what I am going to write here, so I'll skip that for now.
To start off, I'll admit, that I didn't think, that The Phantom Menace was a huge mistake - but on the other hand I wouldn't call it the best in the saga either. But already after the first trailer being released ("Breathing"), I could see, that this film would be something... different. And all the following trailers only confirmed this ("Mystery", "Forbidden Love" and "The Clone War"). So when I went in to see the movie, I new the basics of what I was going to see, and I was not disappointed at all. When I came out of the cinema, I felt relieved, and realized, that Lucas is still on the roll even after 20 years of vacancy.
There are so many scenes in that movie, that I would like to talk about, but don't have time for. Yoda, Count Dokuu/Darth Tyranus, Boba & Jango Fett, the Clone Army and so on...
But I must admit, that the full potential of the movie is only released, if you know some of the background stories. E.g. that Dokuu was part of "The Twenty", which explains why he left the Jedi order. Also many of those parts of the script people point at as major holes in the story can be explained by using the knowledge in the background stories. E.g why does the specter of Yoda, Obi Wan and Anakin appear, but not Qui Gonn's? Why could Luke become an apprentice as a 20 year old, when Anakin was too old as an 8-10 year old? And so on. But without that it is still a very entertaining movie.
I've noticed, that many of the reviews are giving the movie very low marks because of the acting. And I agree - the acting is not on the same level of e.g Se7en. But let me ask you this: Who watches the StarWars saga because of the acting??? The acting has NEVER been the primary part of the saga. Only some of the actors have been able to give a decent level of acting, while the rest is below average. I won't consider Christopher Lee, Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Frank Oz (OK - it is limited how much acting he is doing...), Harrison Ford and Ian McDiarmid as being bad actors...
Also by seeing the prequels to the original 4-6, the characters in the original trilogy makes much more sence after seeing their story before we met them for the first time. Why Vader is as he is. How did Sidious/Palpatine get all that power? Who is Yoda, and what is he doing in that swamp? And why is he a Jedi Master, when all he is doing is waddling around? And so on and so forth.
Yes - I have seen this movie more than once, and yes, I am going to see it again. And I am looking very much forward to Episode 3 - where Anakin will take the final step towards the Dark Side and become Darth Vader as we now him from Episode 4-6.
The grade? 9½/10.