As you all know, Wesley birthday was on Tuesday and for his birthday we decided to take him out for lunch and a movie. The movie that he wanted to see was, of course, the newly re-released "Star Wars: The Phantom Menace-Episode I".

 I can still remember the first time I saw this movie in the movie theater. It was so big at the time my high school newspaper did an article on it (in fact, I still have a copy of that issue).  I was a senior in high school (or actually I had just graduated when it came out) and my boyfriend at the time (like all males at that time) *had* to go see it. So, like a good girlfriend I went with him. I had seen the original trilogy and I was very interested in seeing what made Darth Vader turn to the Dark Side. Of course, you get none of that in this movie and not having seen the original movies as a refresher on everything before I went I was a little lost as to how it fit into the whole series. This time around it was so much better to watch it for many reasons:

 1. It was Wesley's birthday present and it is fun to take your kids to do stuff you know they will love and are excited for.
2. It is the only movie in the prequels that does not have Hayden Christensen (AKA worst actor EVER) in them. His acting makes what would be a good movie barely tolerable. It is very hard to believe such a whiner ends up as Darth Vader. When those movies come out in 3D I will graciously agree to stay at home with Henry while C and Wesley have a father/son day out.
3. The movie does contain a REALLY good actor-Ewan McGregor. Even though he has horrible hair and is not standing in a field of daffodils (Steph C. you know exactly what I am talking about!):

4. I had already seen this movie about 5 billion times at home so I knew the story line and could focus on other stuff going in in the background and whatnot.
5. Knowing ahead of time what Jar-Jar Binks is going to say means you can tune him out thus making him less annoying. I actually laughed at some his slapstick actions this time around instead of being annoyed every time he opened his mouth. 
6. I had Wesley reassure me every time something was going to happen so I wouldn' t have to worry about the outcome ("Mommy, this is the race but don't worry, Anakin is going to win!"-sorry for spoilers to anyone who has been living under a rock for the past 11 years). 




There were a few downsides though.It was in 3D. Now, normally I don't like to see 3D movies because:

1. You have to wear glasses.

2. It never looks like it is jumping out at you, it just always looks like the background is further away.

3. It gives me a headache. 

Also, they added a bunch of stuff to it and it made it quite a bit longer. Because the movie is slow on action anyway it had Wesley begging for a fast forward button. Ah, if only....

Overall, good experience.