> Assuming many of you have been to Phantom Menace. And many of you were probably as disappointed as me.

No, because not all of us were expecting a movie better than Citizen Kane.

> First of all the jedi should have been visibly shaken within a mile of Anakin. And downright skittish when they shared the same room.

Why? That's just going way overboard. Anakin was strong with the force, but not *that* strong. And he wasn't yet trained to use the force, so "force-sensors" would not have been able to sense him very well -- certainly not so strongly so that it would be uncomfortable.

> Second in the pod race when the evil alien keeps trying to kill Anakin. A nice touch would have been to hear Anakins thoughts repeating to himself " I wish you would crash,I wish you would crash"

Not in character. One of the great virtues of Phantom Menace is that he *was* an innocent little boy with good intentions. We'll see the beginnings of his trip down the dark side in Episode 2. For episode 1, it is much much better than he be no more than what he is. One, because it is more realistic (otherwise, the movie would have to explain how Anakin *got* to have such evil tendencies in him *before* he ever came on scene in the movie -- and I shudder at the thought of what stupid plot nod might be used to do that), and two, because it allows the story arc of the six movies to cover the complete character development, from innocence to fall to redemption, of Anakin. So this is a terrible idea.

What I *would* have liked is to have seen Anakin inadvertently use the force to help him blow up the space station at the end, as that would have been quite preferable to having him blow it up by accident.

> And third this is a big plot twist that would need some tricky writing but it could work.

No comment, except that, no, it couldn't. This is just gratuitous plot twisting, now. Leave that to "Wild Things."

> Well I hope this stimulates some responses. Ever since reading Asimov I live for major unforseen twists.

"Major unforeseen twists" are interesting, but when done gratuitously, they're BAD. For one thing, they're only effective for a single viewing. After that, you know the twist is coming, and if the underlying story doesn't hold water, then one will become quickly, and rightly, discouraged. This was clearly the case with your third suggestion -- it would introduce so many plot holes as to become ridiculous. (Why would Anakin then assume Obiwan's identity? Why wouldn't he just say, "Yeah, that Vader's actually my old tutor who snapped a wire and went koo-koo. By the way, hi son." -- Then there's another side effect: the best plot twist in the whole series, by virtue of how it enhanced the story rather than plugging for a cheap, short-lived thrill, is utterly ruined. In episode 5, when Vader says the immortal, "Luke, I am your father," what do we get in light of your would-be episode 1-3's silliness?

You can't throw plot twists gratuitously. Your audience will hate it. *GOOD* plot twists are highly rewarding, but there's more to a "good plot twist" than it seems. For a plot twist to work, it can't be so outrageous as to induce laughter; rather, the audience ideally must have ALMOST seen it coming. It at least has to make sense.