Okay, here's what I think: cool effects, beautiful visualization, amazing sets, surprisingly flat acting, flimsy plot, stupendously useless title. I liked this film very much. I thought my money well spent. I will see it again so I can take my time looking at the amazing technical achievements which provide a rich background to a pretty tired story.

For the most part, when I go to a movie I don't notice any incipient plot holes while the action is going on. My brain catches up slowly on the ride home in the car. I noticed a couple of odd things while they were happening in this film, though. Number one, it was never explained why the blockade of the planet Naboo was so important that Jedi Knights were sent off to settle a trade dispute. There was no backstory on why so many important people got involved in what looked like a tiny backwater trade route contretemps. And yet it's the basis of the main plot.

Number two, little Anakin Skywalker, who exhibits nothing but courage, feistiness, and cheerful confidence no matter what outlandish and difficult tasks befall him, is accused by Yoda of harboring "much fear." One of the Jedi Council tells Anakin he knows he is thinking of his mother, and Anakin stoutly admits to it, saying he misses her. What a spark! There's no point in the movie when we see fear in him; quite the opposite. Yet we are expected to accept Yoda's word for it. I felt cheated. The screenwriter told me, he didn't show me. And that happened more than once.

And what's the deal with electing a queen?

I was enchanted by the different cities, particularly the underwater Gungan city on Naboo. There were enough alien races lavishly depicted to satisfy my science fictional appetite. I loved the costumes, and the animatronics, and the exciting pod racing. (It's not a Lucas film if there's not a race of some sort.) Jar Jar Binks is annoying but no more so than the Ewoks. Well, okay, maybe a little more; he got more screen time than they did. I thought Liam Neeson was wonderful as Kung Pao Beef, or Qui Gon Jinn, or whatever the hell weird pseudo Chinese name he was assigned. I would have handed over my child to him without question. Natalie Portman as Amidala was self-assured and pretty and addicted to high maintenance hair, much like Princess Leia (so we know where she got it from). Ewan MacGregor left me cold. He looked great, fought with verve, and was as bland as paste. Samuel Jackson was completely wasted on the Jedi Council. In fact, any scene with the Jedi Council was surprisingly devoid of power or energy. I guess bureaucracy tames even the Force.

I think the only character I liked unreservedly was Jake Lloyd who played Anakin. He was really impressive. There was a lot to like about the movie and I certainly recommend it heartily. I have gone out and rented the first three Star Wars movies because I don't remember them very well beyond the memory of being thoroughly entertained. Quibbles aside, I was once again thoroughly entertained. I enjoyed living in the heart of George Lucas' imagination once more, rapt by his vision and lost among that other galaxy far, far away.

But that title stinks.

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