Only this time, its very real assets have been almost completely dismissed. After two decades, we've grown so used to George Lucas's fairy-tale kingdom that we've forgotten what was so magical about it in the first place. And magical it is. While most films today have the ability to render anything on screen, few realize that potential as well as The Phantom Menace . All of this covers territory that three other films have passed before, and yet finds something startlingly original there.
Every character here has a background, every building a story to be told.
Lucas has infused so much detail into his world that it attains a completeness that few other science-fiction films even aspire to. Every shot feels real, no matter how wild or fanciful its appearance. Against that backdrop, any story would be hard-pressed to keep up. Anakin's trials, and the beginnings of the evil that will eventually consume him, are drawn along with high energy, exhilaration, and a genuine sense of wonder. Of course not.