Overambitious prequel that fails to deliver a much needed strong opening chapter to the vaunted saga. Overall, though, still a grand time at the movies.

##A long time ago…

I’t the spring of 1977. I’ve just turned 11 years old and
everyone is talking about this new movie called **Star Wars** that’s just hit
the screens. “What’s it like” I ask. “Like nothing you’ve ever seen” they
respond. They were right. It was an incredible visual feast. But that’s not
what made the movie great.

##What makes “Star Wars” great

Special effects had little to do with the greatness of **Star Wars**. as
George Lucas was once quotes as saying, they are a means to an end, a way
to **tell a story**, not an end unto themselves.

**Star Wars** was great because of the depth of the mythology that
Lucas created as a backdrop for a wiz-bang adventure. The apparent story
was shallow, but the actual story had tremendous depth. It was also great
because the characters were well developed and well understood by the
audience. It didn’t take long to realize that Han Solo was a space cowboy.
Because of who he was, you expected certain actions, and he delivered.

It seems as though George forgot these things when making Episode 1. Before
I go on, let me say that this is **not** a negative review. For the
most part, I enjoyed the movie. But there were some glaring problems that
I hope will be dealt with in the next two moies.

##Lack of intensity

The thing that bothered me most in the movie was the lack of intensity in
obviously tense situations. Here’s a few examples:

Battle droids suck. OK, right from the beginning of the movie, we
get to see the Jedis in action. Cool! I love the jedi knights and have
always wanted to *really* see them in action. We all always knew they
were just plain incredible, but did they have to know it also? They might a
well have been dancing to “Singin’ in the Rain” as much as they seemed to
care that lots and lots of battle droids were intent on killing them. They
tore through the droids like the weren’t even there, and like it was just a
slight inconvenience that they even had to deal with them.

##Too much of a good thing, or, less is more

OK George. We get it. You can do anything you want with computer generated
images. But doing so for the sake of doing so is never a good enough
reason. Here’s a couple of examples:

Why are the Gungans even there? The *only* reasons I can think
of are:

1. The underwater city looks spectacular
   
2. Jar Jar Binks
   
3. The journey through the planet core

and *none* of these have anything to do with the plot of the story.
In fact, they compromise the movie in places (see “Lack of intensity”
above).