Wow, what a great weekend! Friday was the Star Wars party, and that was an absolute blast! Saturday we went over to K.T.'s and gamed, which was a lot of fun if only because Jeff was there having raptures over getting real social interaction. Sunday wasn't as exciting, but it was relatively relaxing, and that was nice. I finished making all the squares and rectangles for my afghan, and then spent about an hour or so deciding the best way to piece them together. That'll take a week or more, but I'm feeling very proud of myself for doing something that big!

I didn't get enough sleep, of course. We were up until well after midnight both Friday and Saturday, and for whatever reason, I don't sleep very well when we have guests sleeping on our couch. (Possibly I'm worried about the cat waking them up, but I'm not sure that's the real reason. Whatever.) So both Saturday and Sunday morning, I woke up around 8:30 or so. I was going to take a nap Sunday afternoon, but some of our laundry hadn't dried completely and it was spread out on the bed to dry and I couldn't think of anywhere else to put it. So I'm a little groggy this morning.

So, I'm sure you're dying to know what I thought of Phantom Menace. I promise, I won't have any spoilers here - I won't even reveal major plot elements, because I know a lot of people who didn't even want to know the characters' names until they saw the movie.

The short version is: It was fantastic, and I want to see it again so I can find all the little details that I missed!

Now. If you haven't seen the original trilogy - in fact, if you haven't seen the original trilogy at least twice - you're missing a lot of Phantom Menace. If you are over the age of about eight and haven't seen the original trilogy, then I strongly suggest renting it before you go to see Menace, because otherwise it won't be a very good movie. (Maybe that's why all the reviewers are dissing it.)

Menace doesn't stand on its own, and obviously was never meant to. This is a prequel, and you are expected to know the fate of a large number of the characters, and that knowledge will color everything they say or do. Additionally, Menace had the feel of an introductory chapter in a novel - its main purpose was to introduce you to all of the characters and to give you some idea of their capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses. It wasn't a perfect movie by any means. If you are familiar with the original trilogy, then some of the subtleties of Menace were simply not very subtle, and for those who are not familiar with the original trilogy, a great many references and twists are probably confusing. At least one concept was introduced that I didn't like and am going to simply ignore in the next two movies. And despite all the effort put into it, I wasn't especially surprised by any of the plot twists.

I enjoyed it immensely, though. The computer animations are getting better and better - there were even times when the CG aliens looked real. It had one of the sleekest, sexiest starships I've seen in a long time. I liked all of the characters, even the ones that everyone else is going to insist are Ewok-substitutes and therefore hate. Even though the outcome of each individual situation was pretty easy to guess, I enjoyed watching them reach those outcomes.

Oh, and one teeny spoiler, because I sortof wish someone had told me this beforehand: That terribly evil-looking Darth Maul that you've been seeing all over the place, with the red and black face paint? He's actually a sort of minor character. He only speaks about two lines, and has no personality development whatsoever. I'm spoiling this for you now, because I was terribly disappointed in him when the movie was over, and I was irritated that the media had made him into the primary bad guy when he's not.

All in all - thumbs up!

Now, if you've already seen the movie, or you don't care about spoilers, you can check out this discussion of the movie.