Begun, the rewatch has. In honor of Episode IX coming up, I'm rewatching all 9 of the previous Star Wars movies. Going chronological and starting at the start again. I remember all of them very well, but just felt like a marathon rewatch this weekend to get in the right mood.

Episode I is... not as good as I remember. The VFX look pretty bad nowadays. The highlights are: the pod race sequence (so awesome), Duel of the Fates fight, and in general our introduction to Anakin. "He is the chosen one" and "what does your heart tell you?" and all of that. I'm thinking that as I keep watching the movies, while it seems more and more distant, the warmth of the original Ani and his love for Shmi remains relevant throughout as a potent reminder of where it all came from. It's an important emotional base to establish, even though this movie isn't that great overall. And much smaller in scale then I remember, too - everything takes place mainly between Naboo and Coruscant.

Other character highlights: Darth Maul is badass, Qui-Gon Jinn is cool and left us too early, Natalie Portman truly is an angel.