The long awaited prequel trilogy. The thrill of seeing it for the first time... again. Settling into your seat, you know this is a day to remember. The lights dim, and the movie begins.

         The movie is about the discovery of Anakin Skywalker, a young slave on Tatooine, a desert planet. The one thing that makes him special plot wise is that he has a high count of mediclorians, something made up for this movie as a sort of "Force rating" for Jedi, and is almost never mentioned again in anything Star Wars. Two jedi, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jin, discover this "prodegy" while helping the queen of an Earth-esque planet escape a trade blockade headed by the Sith, an evil Jedi order thought long ago to be extinct. It is never actally explained why the Sith are revealing themselves now, and for this reason, but the movie sludges on.

         After a rather go-nowhere few scenes on Corouscant, everyone goes back to Naboo, their hopes of help utterly rejected. They then organise a huge battle with the help of the other native species on the planet, and manage to take back the palace in the capital city, and capture the head of the blockade. Meanwhile, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon are fighting the Sith apprentice, Darth Maul, in possibly one of the best lightsaber battles in all of Star Wars. The movie then wraps up several loose ends, and the two warring native species on Naboo make official peace. Aaaaaaawwwwww.

         You come out after the movie, excited about seeing at least ten more times in theatres. This effect lasts approxiamately 2-3 weeks. Then you cast a critical eye on the movie. First: Jar Jar Binks. Too much said about him in this review already. Second: Anakin. What horrible acting. I could have done sooooooo much better than that. Third: plot. Sorry, what? What plot? Did I miss it in all eleven screenings? Doubtful.

        Then, of course, you realise a couple of things. George Lucas himself has said that the prequels were more backstory than anything else. That rules out having much plot in any of them. Anakin was horribly acted because the boy was supposed to be that young. When you think about, all the things Anakin does would have been what a 9 year old would have done. While Jake Loydd can't act, this was perfect for the character, and reflected the naivetie of Anakin at that time. The final thing, though, is that this is Star Wars. It doesn't matter how much they butcher it, the fans will always be there.

       Overall, this movie was good as a movie, but somewhat lousy as a Star Wars. I would give it a 4 out of 10 as a Star Wars.