Of all 5 movies that I've seen in the series, I despised The Phantom Menace the most. You simply can't go into any of these movies expecting supurb acting.

The problem with TPM was that it was so boring. By the end, I didn't care that Liam Neson died. I didn't care about Darth Maul, and I hoped that little Anakin would drunk drive that space jet right into a meteor.

AOTC was very entertaining, IMHO. While the dialogue was sometimes inintentionally funny, the action made up for it. I think this third installment should be worth $8.