ericadawn16 | Feb. 14th, 2012

I saw Star Wars: The Phantom Menace today.

I think I and others have been giving it a bum rap.

When I first saw it was a 16 year old, it was with that emotion best shown in Fanboys as refusing to believe George Lucas could do anything wrong. As the years passed, this view was colored by the next two films, critics and society who hammered Episode 1 as something quite horrible.

This time as a 29 year old, I was able to see something in between. It's not as light-hearted or easy to understand as 4,5 and 6 but it's without all the mushy romance or whining like 2 and 3. The action is exciting and the script, although he has admitted to not caring about the scripts for the prequels, wasn't that bad. It was full of importance and foreshadowing for all five of the other films. Sadly, the politics hit even more close to home now than in 1999.

However, we were the only ones in the auditorium.

I know, it was a Monday matinee and 2D at that, but still...

My mom was worried that George Lucas would cancel releasing the other five.

I'm a film snob especially when it comes to Star Wars.

Unless you've seen Star Wars on a big screen with the proper sound and were at least 11, then you've never properly seen it.

This means that those who are graduating this year from high school and everyone younger than them, with the exception of the animated Clone Wars film, has never properly seen a Star Wars film.

Actually, 4, 5 and 6 haven't been released since spring 1997 so if you're 26 years old or younger, you've never properly seen those either.

The big screen is also much more conducive to one of my more recent games to play with Episode 1:
Spot Keira Knightley!

When I was younger, I didn't know who she was so I thought that they had done a Hayley Mills and Natalie Portman played both roles all the time. Now, I know that Natalie Portman and Keira Knightley both played the Queen depending on whether Natalie was being Padme or not. There's this scene that never made sense to me. They're trying to take over the throne room and Padme has surrendered and then you have the decoy Queen and she swaggers in and swaggers out, very cocky.

It just didn't seem like how Natalie was playing the queen otherwise. She usually goes for confident rather than cocky. Today, I recognized the body language as definite young Keira Knightley.

Bonus points if you spot Dominic West as a palace guard.

I also like JarJar. It's clear that he can make up his own mind and can solve problems as well as making the best of a situation like using the droid gun to shoot other droids. The main problem is both his clumsiness and speech impediment which doesn't seem to be shared by the other Gungans. This makes me think that Jarjar has brain damage or some other disability. Perhaps he's even had a seizure in the past. Either way, I felt sorry for him knowing what he wants to say but not having the means to really express it. I know what that's like.