Palpatine is the Phantom Menace,he is the genius, I said this in 1999 when everyone was bitching about how weak the movie was and that Darth Maul was cool but got killed off. In 1977 George Lucas said he did the middle part of his saga first because it was the area that was the most actioned oriented and the most likely to be a hit, well he was right and made alot of money and gained loads of respect as a filmaker. now with the new star wars films he is able to tell more of the events that lead up to what happened in the first three movies, and these events are not as exciting from the action oriented standpoint. these films are important in that without all the political stuff in them none of the action in the first three movies would have happened. the focal point of the new films is the downfall of the republic and the rise of the empire, and alot of that takes place in the senate not the battlefield. one thing i can say about the phantom menace is that it only makes me want to know more about palpatine, because he is the one who is running the show here, not the jedi not darth maul. in jedi the emperor failed to hold my interest, but that was because i did not know about all that is showing up in the new movies, now all i want to do is learn more about palpatine. he is far worse than any of the villans in any of the star wars movies, aside from boba fett he is my favorite character of all the movies. look under the surface of the phantom menace and it is a superior movie to even the first three. palpatine is the phantom menace.