I'm glad George Lucas made a Super Bowl commercial about what people think about Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, opening this weekend for a big-big-screen IMAX engagement 13 years after it originally broke the hearts of Star Wars fans over the age of, say, 14. (At 12 I loved it.) Half of the trailer seems devoted to scenes from every episode of Star Wars except The Phantom Menace, before it finally shows some obligatory pod racers, Darth Maul, and Liam Neeson scenes.
While I'm here, can I say how disappointed I was—even at 12—when Darth Maul, who they relentlessly touted for a solid year leading up the release, died (spoiler alert) like 10 minutes into the movie, not to return for any of the sequels? Before this Super Bowl commercial, that was the simplest analogy for the Star Wars prequels—most people were really excited for the first 10 minutes or so, and then found themselves cut in half by a lightsaber for the last two-and-eight-ninths movies.