Journey back with me if you will to May 1999, before internet ticket buying, and assigned seating (God bless those who invented assigned seating). You are standing in line outside the newest multi-screen theater, publicly ridiculing but secretly admiring those who dressed up. After about two hours, the ushers start letting you into the theater where you will wait another half hour illegally saving seats and buying overpriced candy and soda. The enthusiasm of the crowd is electric, and you can't help but feel like a kid on Christmas, especially if you have waited twenty years for this moment. The lights go down, the familiar music blares out of the DTS sound system, and your entire childhood seems to return in an instant. But about ten minutes into the movie, your heart starts to sink, and you realize that, as flashy and pretty as it is, this is not YOUR Star Wars.
Yes, I was describing my experience at the opening night of The Phantom Menace, and with the 3D version soon hitting theaters, all of that old pain and disappointment has been drudged up. So, I am finally going to put all of my complaining and criticizing to a constructive use in order to help others see the story that might have been. Think of this as my "Ninety-Five Thesis" except less important, and not as long - although because I have a lot to say, I will split it into parts, this being the intro.
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