For shits and giggles I decided to watch it. It's been a while, I'd forgotten most of it, so I dived in. And boy, what a contrast of awesome and awful. Not so bad as a kids film perhaps, but for the rest of us...

I remember the buzz, that first trailer showing the gorgeous city on Naboo, the iconic poster of the kid and the shadow of Vader behind him; all that weird Taco Bell merchandise; standing in line with a gazillion other people at seven in the morning...

And I remember coming out of the cinema stunned and feeling somewhat divided, and after this latest showing - yep - the same.

Awesome:

The pod race.
Queen Amidala's costumes. (And I guess that was a young Keira Knightley who played her body double/ bodyguard?)
Darth Maul.
The climactic fight between Maul, Qui Gon Jinn and Obi Wan Kenobi (best lightsabre scenes in the entire franchise)
Ian Mcdairmid's chancellor.
That blue creature with wings. He was amazing.

Awful:

Jar Jar (goes without saying)
Ewan McGregor's accent. Actor was horribly miscast.
Liam Neeson's wig.
Brian Blessed's fish creature.
Those roger roger droids. Really?
The dialogue.
Midi - freakin - chlorians.

I promised myself I'd watch parts two and three, so if I'm a little weird and wonky over the next few days, this is why.

Haven't seen any of those three movies, and I can't remember watching the first three, though I'm sure I saw the first one. If I did, I can't tell you one damn thing about it. I've never been a real fan of pure sci-fi.

I have kids who love Star Wars so I have seen Phantom Menace over twenty times for sure. I completely agree with you about what makes it awesome. I love love love the fight between Qui Gon, Kenobi and Maul. The best one in the franchise and it managed to make Yoda/Dooku from Attack of the Clones and Kenobi/Anakin from Revenge of the Sith seem underwhelming in comparison. I also love the Pod Race, watching it with the sound system cranked up is amazing.

I disagree with you on McGregor, I think he's fantastic and he really does seem like a young Alec Guiness to me. Jar Jar, of course, is a travesty, almost bringing down the entire movie.

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Mike Styczen: As far as I can tell, all of Toronto is on the lookout for some sort of demented leprechaun. If Toronto didn't exist, we'd have to invent it

Jar Jar?? Twenty times??

That's some going, although I wonder if a lot of the kids love him, and it's a bit like us horror readers whinging about sparkly vampires when we're totally the wrong demographic.

The third movie explains why Jar Jar was in it from the start. He was stupid and annoying and the perfect pawn for the Emperor. I think that was just genius on the part of Lucas. Jar Jar perfectly captures the saying "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."

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The GOP doesn't trust women when it comes to vaginas any more than they trust scientists when it comes to science.