Star Wars: The Phantom Menace has finally proved the haters wrong

I have gazed into the cool, still waters of Naboo and seen my own face looking back at me. I have plunged my hands into the sand of Tatooine and let the grains fall through my fingers. I have sat cross-legged on the floor of the Jedi Temple, stared at Yoda’s vegetal head and memorised every crevice. All of which is to say: I have, over the course of my life, watched the 1999 space opera dozens, perhaps even hundreds, of times. And my only regret is that