Released by 20th Century Fox

'A Long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...', Who doesn't know that immortal opening line of all the movies. From the opening Fox theme tune to that message you could tell that the audience were in familiar territory. Then the opening story scrolls up in true Star Wars stye. And the saga has finally begun where it was always implied to start. At episode one.

The story is set quite a few decades before the 1977 Star Wars: Episode 4 - A New Hope (as it'll probably have to be referred to now!) with a young Obi-Wan Kenobi (McGregor) and his master Qui-Gonn Jinn (Neeson) travelling to settle a trade dispute which is wreaking havoc with the Republic and in particular a planet called Naboo. Sound a bit boring? Well, lets face it, all hell breaks loose doesn't it!

The story follows our two heroes from naboo to tatooine where they encounter a young boy with an incredibly high amount of Jedi potential. His name is Anakin Skywalker (Lloyd) and we should all know what his later life leads to. Along with an eccentric (to say the least) Gungan called Jar Jar Binks and the droid R2-D2. We are in for plenty of action. Heck, we even see the fantasic visual experience of the Republic City of Coruscant which is gloiriously rendered to good effect.

I've tried not to give too much of the plot away as I hate movie reviews which practically tell you the entire transcript of the story from start to finish but needless to say, you can expect lots of space battles and lightsabre action from this one. There is quite a complex political plot bubbling away throughout the film but if you're a youngster then I'm sure that will be discarded in favour of the action. I liked the different sub-plots (many of which aren't resolved or left unsure whether finished - Episode 2 by any chance!)

Characters are in the true Star Wars tradition of sometimes delivering unrealistic statements and posing but then again, these characters are from another galaxy so why should they act exactly like us. The acting and scripts are certainly on a par with the others. A lot of people disliked the Gungans and Jar Jar in particular due to supposed racist overtones but I don't see it. Had all the bad guys spoken in the stereotypical 30s B-movie black characters as the Gungans do a little then I would understand but these are the good guys, the heroes. So how is this racist? I liked the character who provided the comic releif which was previously supplied by the two Droids R2-D2 and C3PO (who has a part in this film). I must admit to being disappointed with the much hyped Darth Maul but, if you haven't seen it, I can't tell you why. You must find this out for yourself (I knew I'd start talking like a Jedi if I kept this review up!).

Special effects are, as usual with Lucasfilm, excellent. As testament to the originals wonderful space special effects, with this one, despite all the new technology, you can hardly tell the difference. Corucscant and underwater sequences are excellently renedered and Computer generated characters are a lot more believeable than ever before. The technique of computer generated characters is still not perfect, there were a few glitches in the characters now and then and sometimes actors would appear to look through, or miss the rendered characters. This has always been the case with live/animation hybrids though so I can't be too critical on that. When watching the film for the first time though, you would be hard pushed to spot these things.

I liked this film but don't believe that once the first three are all out, a newcomer to Star Wars would be able to watch all six episodes in acending order from this one. It would simply spoil too much of the secrecy and twists in the original (A New Hope to Return of the Jedi) trilogy. Whearas some characters in Episode One's secrecy is maintaed by using names that aren't metioned in the original films but only the books.

As a new Star Wars movie dealing with the events before the original trilogy, I believe it will be just fine. I left feeling that I'd seen an excellent movie. I had seen better films but nothing 'feels' like a Star Wars movie and this had that feel which can only be attributed to the direction of George Lucas. I left feeling all the better for seeing it. I can't wait for the next one in 2001/2002. Hurry up George!

8/10 - As a Star Wars film, I preferred Return of the Jedi which would still get a 9 in my opinion. But this is a good film.