It’s been a long wait. It’s felt like a very very very long wait. I’m glad it’s finally over, and yet… on another level, the waiting seems to have been half the fun.

It certainly seemed that way in Leicester Square last night, as we joined the end of a long queue of moviegoers six abreast, which snaked around the square and buzzed with excitement and the combined power of 200 lightsabers. It was even more fun as the line advanced toward the Odeon, and we readied our tickets for the door, giggling and sweaty-palmed. As we found our seats and settled in, my heart did a bizarre drum’n'bass beat and an inane grin was plastered all over my face. When the lights went down, the entire audience (yes, all 1,934 of us) cheered and clapped and hollered. Yeah, that’s right, we were clapping darkness. Weird.

One hundred and thirty-three minutes later, I didn’t really know what to think. The smile was still there, though slightly more bemused. My knees ached from sitting and my eyes smarted from staring at the screen. The audience applauded, stood and left swiftly as the credits rolled against the night sky. Was that it?

I felt like a balloon that’s just been popped - a surprised and sudden void. I always knew this might be the case. I always knew there was a good probability that the film would differ from my expectations. It was always going to be odd to deal with the reality, rather than the wait. Yet strangely, I’m still finding this a hard emotion to deal with - especially when I remember that this time last week the only thing I was expecting was blessed relief. Well, I’ve got that, alright. But why the void?

Maybe it was because I was tired after seeing the movie in the early hours of the morning. Maybe it was because all the hype had blown the experience out of proportion. Maybe it was because I quite simply couldn’t take it all in at once. Whatever the reason, I felt anticlimactic and slightly disappointed.

Let’s get a few things straight, here, for the record. It was certainly, absolutely, positively fantastic to be part of the Star Wars world again, if only for 133 minutes in the middle of the night. The special effects were truly amazing. The pod race is possibly the most exhilarating thing you’ll see on screen this millennium. The lightsaber duels are everything you’d expect them to be - and more. Even familiar characters (though with different faces) seemed like old friends.

Yet there was a strange feeling of meeting these old friends on unfamiliar territory. At one point I found myself thinking “hang on, where has all this sprung from?” I found it hard enough to re-acquaint myself with Mos Eisley in the Special Edition a few years back, and then I had to come to terms with this. A whole new world, not just new planets.

I have got to remind myself as well that a whole new generation is now going to see The Phantom Menace over the coming months. They’re going to love it, I think. They’re going to enjoy getting to know all the characters, the bizarre and overly complicated plotlines, the dazzling scenery and special effects. They’re going to cheer at the right points and get as caught up in the movie as I did with Episode IV all those years ago.

What it boils down to is this: the past is a different country - they do things differently there. They certainly did things differently in 1977. Yeah, ok, so there weren’t such blinding effects and the acting was a little hokey at points. But you know what? I kind of liked the scruffiness of A New Hope. I actually liked that the Stormtroopers looked like men dressed up as Stormtroopers, and that they had terrible aim. That whole element of home-grown excitement was exactly what made the film exciting and fun.

Last night, the movie experience for me was, well, hollow. Just like being in a different country, I found that I didn’t speak the language, that I was on unfamiliar ground, that even the bits I thought I knew (from the trailers) seemed displaced and awkward. I was caught up in watching it - falling asleep wasn’t a problem, although it was way past my bedtime - but I couldn’t really figure out what I was watching. There was so much going on - dialogue, effects, accents, characters - I was overwhelmed with the content, and strangely underwhelmed with the overall package. It was, however, worth every penny to be in that cinema late last night. Even with the prospect of rising too damned early for work this morning.

I’m not slating The Phantom Menace - don’t get me wrong. It was everything I’d expected - and more, and less too. It was confusing, delighting, exciting, sad, funny and irritating - in varying amounts and at various points. Compared to the original trilogy, it was superior, inferior…. just different. Very different. Very different indeed.

But that’s understandable, isn’t it? Technology has changed, the world has changed, the audiences have changed. And so have I. I’m older, more experienced, more expectant and yes, more analytical and critical.

So as they say, every story has a beginning. Just as The Phantom Menace is the beginning of the Star Wars story, I’m going to let this be the beginning of the story of how I grew to appreciate The Phantom Menace. I can’t be a popped balloon forever, so I’m definitely going to go see it again - you just try and stop me. And maybe next time I’ll be able to just relax, stop expecting, stop worrying, stop waiting, and watch.