I'VE read the reviews -- the good, the bad and the ugly. But, this is mine and if you want a category, then chalk it up as good (not the well-written kind of good, but the favourable kind).

Star Wars (Episode IV) hit us 23 years ago, made with the best special-effects technology available at the time. In fact, more than that, Lucas and his team went out and invented a whole raft of new techniques that have since become industry standards.

Episode IV had a certain feel and atmosphere about it, that as kids, (as most of us were back then) we fell in love with. Don't forget that it was among the first in the deep-space-fantasy-adventure genre setting a tone and standard for all to emulate.

The danger with making prequels so long after the original, I feared, would be that the already special-effects-rich original would look lame by comparison to the celluloid produced with late 1990's digital technology. After all, the massive advances in earth technology in the last twenty-odd years must surely be tempered by at least a slight regression in Federation and Republican technologies if we are travelling even further back in time to Obi Wan's youth.

That danger was not realised, at least, not for me, though the train spotters among us will debate every crease and fold for years to come. Believe me, they started in this office weeks ago and haven't even seen the movie yet.

Episode I is brim full of technology and special effects, but the atmosphere is uncannily true to the original. In fact, the plot, story-line and flow are almost predictably identical. And there in lies the secret of its success. The acting, too, was average across the board and in some cases decidedly flat. I bet that was also a deliberate ploy to keep the atmosphere true to the original. After all, it won no Academy Awards in that category 23 years ago.