The Phantom of the Menace . . . in 3D!

Took Bella to see her first Star Wars movie on the big screen Saturday. We ended up missing half the movie because somebody decided to go to a last minute birthday party, but it was the boring half of the movie so that's ok.
Episode I isn't as bad as you remember (they should have put that on the poster!) but it remains the weakest of the saga, mainly due to the miscasting of little "Ani" (Jake Lloyd, where are you now?) and a plot that goes nowhere until the last half hour of the movie.
The 3D conversion was solid if not eye-popping, but the main appeal is seeing the podrace and the phenomenal lightsaber duel on the big screen again. Aside from those two action scenes, the best parts of the film are Liam Neeson (amazing how he manages to bring such gravitas to such an under-written character with no history), Ian McDiarmid, the amazing detail of the various worlds and the score (Johnny Williams never goes wrong). The CG characters are starting to look a little dated (though I still love Watto), but replacing the stroke victim Yoda puppet with the digital version was a welcome change. I still enjoy the senate scenes (the E.T.'s are a lot easier to spot on the big screen) and I've never understood why so many people complained about the boring politics of the prequels. That would be like watching a film about the fall of the Roman Empire and complaining there was too much talking in it. Lucas said as far back as the 80's that the prequels would be heavily focused on politics. It's not his fault the fans weren't prepared for that.
Jar Jar is perhaps not quite as annoying as he was 13 years ago, though I find it funny that my three year old didn't care about him but loved Darth Maul. The Phantom Menace is an enjoyable movie (outside of the verrrry slow section on Tatooine), but it's really just a teaser for the far superior episodes that follow it.