> Darth Maul was just Ep1's Boba Fett. The character was really hyped-up as the ultimate bad-ass, background shrouded in mystery... Combined, the two characters had ten lines of dialogue, if that. They show up, look really menacing, then poof! Dead.

Your second sentence contradicts your first. Boba Fett was never hyped up as the ultimate badguy -- his popularity arose after the fact. That alone makes Darth Maul more (or just different) than Ep1's Boba Fett.

But I don't know what the problem is. Darth Maul was *cool*. I disagree that he did nothing but "look really menacing." As Dame Judi Dench will tell you after her appearance in "Shakespeare In Love," you don't need a lot of lines and screen time to make an impact on a movie. Darth Maul was *cool*, and I liked him particularly *because* he wasn't on screen very much and said very little. That great scene where he flies out of nowhere and attacks Qui-Gon is startingly effective. The Jedi don't know what this thing is, yet it is amazingly athletic, skilled with the Force, aggressive, evil, and obviously in pursuit of a very definite though unknown goal. The neat thing is that even though we, the audience, saw him before in the movie and have a better idea what he's up to than Qui-Gon and Anakin do, we're still not entirely sure about him, and his sudden effective attack takes us by surprise in quite the same way. This is truly a "phantom" menace.

Better still is the climactic light saber battle, which isn't just another cool duel but the most interesting, suspenseful, and well-staged of all the various "climactic battles" in episode one. Ray Park's agility is astounding. The "Darth Maul Theme" John Williams composed for the character is brilliant. It is a testament to the strength of the characters that what, at its core, is a silly plot-serving fabrication -- the energy field doors -- actually made for one of TPM's most original and memorable scenes. Who can forget Darth Maul stalking back and forth like a caged tiger -- nay, like a caged tiger *in control*.

Killing a Jedi, I think, isn't even an important accomplishment on Darth Maul's resume. That's a plot detail, not an attribute of the character. Far more importantly, Darth Maul *owned* his scenes, in a way Boba Fett never did. And I *loved* that his character died a mystery. Had anything more been done with him, I think it would have ruined the incredible aura of mystique that was built around the character.

Boba Fett may or may not be overrated -- personally, I think he's "cool" but not necessarily more, although I'll reserve judgment until I see his appearances in episodes 2 and 3 -- but Darth Maul most assuredly went far beyond that.