Being the Star Wars nut I am I feel obliged to like the movie The Phantom Menace, and I do, but I find myself making excuses for it. The Darth Maul duel at the end is still one of my favorites in the whole series, and... well... I like the movie anyway, I say, and who are you to judge me!? 
 Oh! And I do like Nute Gunray even if he does lip sync like an oriental in a Godzilla or crap kung-fu movie, but that's just because he and I share a desire to see Natalie Portman dead in later movies. Really, it's George Lucas' fault. I've seen her in other movies, and she does just fine, but Lucas has a way of bringing the wooden ham out of any actor. 
 I learned my lesson from previous books and read the afterword first. By doing so I was able to catch things I would've missed otherwise, most importantly Mace Windu's lines, each of which has a Samuel L. Jackson reference. I didn't catch all of them since I'm not familiar with every movie he's done, but the ones I did find made me laugh out loud a couple of times. 
 "Our Ev'ry resource we'll to this employ, 
 So this dark menace to society 
 May swiftly be discover'd..." 
 (After hearing the Sith may have returned). 
 "Nay, though the Force may be unbreakable 
 Within the boy, he shall not trained be.... 
 "It is but basic: he hath grown too old." 
 "Yet who was he destroyed in the shaft? 
 The master or apprentice? None can say." 
 Yoda still speaks in haiku, but my favorite part of this is what the author did with Jar Jar even if his spoken lines still use the "meesa okee dokee" kind of pattern. He plays the part of the fool, but he's actually quite intelligent and uses everyone's preconceived notions of a Gungan to his advantage (like Mexicans who pretend they don't understand English but are actually following everything just fine). In short, everyone gets played by Jar Jar. The Gungans and Naboo settle their long standing differences because of him. It's done really well. He also gets called fun Shakespearean names by Qui Gon such as brainless knave, simple beast, piteous native with a simple mind, lackwit, kind brute, amphibious buffoon, etc. (Qui Gon is actually quite a dick in this). Jar Jar's foolish antics are sincerely funny in this instead of cringe inducing. I guess speaking out your actions in William's accustomed style makes all the difference? 
 This is from Jar Jar's narration of the final battle between the Gungans and the battle droids, specifically when he accidentally kills a ton of droids: 
 "...A battle droid lies broken on the ground, 
 Yet blaster shall not come loose from its grasp. 
 Thus, jump upon it now, and trigger fire, 
 Destroying other droids that are nearby! 
 This fool is not so foul against a foe. 
 Clutch tightly, hands, around the catapult, 
 Releasing all the power'd spheres within. 
 Though they are meant to fly into the air, 
 They do as well a'rolling on the ground 
 And striking our grim enemies mid-spin. 
 Now for the final act, the fool's finale 
 Make use of this small sphere, a boomer, aye, 
 And strike this droid and his vast battle tank..." 
 I'm one of the few people who likes the pod race scene in the movie, or at least I don't have any problem with it, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading it in here. Anakin isn't as annoying either, nor as stupid. 
 Also, Ian seems to have hit a stride with his writing. I'm no Shakespearean scholar, but everything in this feels more polished than the first 3. He's effectively taken a lackluster and sometimes painful story and made sorely needed improvements with this installment. 
 As usual, this would best be enjoyed by Star Wars fans who also have at least a nodding acquaintance with Shakespeare's works. I'm sure I missed a ton of references to his plays, but I still enjoyed this immensely. 
 Still... I see I gave The Jedi Doth Return only 4 stars, but that was because I liked the other 2 from the original trilogy better. I don't think I could live with myself giving this 5 stars and TJDR a lower rating, so I better go fix that. 
 There, I feel better now. I can't wait for William Shakespeare's The Clone Army Attacketh and William Shakespeare's Tragedy of the Sith's Revenge to come out this summer. Pressure's on, Ian. 
 "...with interest 
 We shall watch o'er the progress of thy days."