There are a number of arguable minor details. But rejoice, all of the major drawbacks of "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" have been removed. And everyone - even those who doubt the power of the Force - will be overwhelmed with pleasure and awe.

Ten years after the events of Episode I, the republic is in distress, millions of clones are in the making and Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan's talented apprentice, is already experiencing ambiguous feelings toward his father figure, as the embryo of the dark side slowly and definitely grows in him. His romance with Senator Amidala, whom he is supposed to protect, is a cliched picture from heaven. And the battle scenes - which take up a good part of the movie, as usual - are as gripping as ever: Just imagine hundreds of Jedis fending off thousands of droids...

The main drawback for me, of course, was that the premiere was in Russian. So Yoda's grammatically incorrect wisdom, the sacred "May the Force be with you" and other musts sound a little unreal. Other than that, the dialogue is lacking as usual, the computer graphics are not always convincing enough and too much of the humor is based on what we already know from the future. Plus there are other, purely personal minor criticisms, like R2D2 never used to (nor will be able to) fly by himself.

But all this can be willingly overlooked by simply marveling at the alien landscapes, alien planets, alien bars, million-strong armies of clones and droids, Yoda's computer-generated class for Jedi third-graders and... Let's just leave it at that so as to not spoil what I am sure is THE cinematic experience... 'til 2005.