Since filmmaker George Lucas introduced audiences to the ways of the Jedi with Star Wars (now titled A New Hope) in 1977, the chronicles of that galaxy far, far away have grown to 11 movies, nine animated shows, five TV series, and a slew of non-canon shows, miniseries, video games, books, and other media. Even if you just stick to the canon stuff, it can be overwhelming, especially if you're trying to figure out how to watch Star Wars in order. But before we dive in, we'll emphasize that there really isn't a "correct" viewing order. There are several ways to enjoy the Star Wars universe as you proceed along your Jedi journey, and you may even be able to create your own method. The prequel trilogy dropped in the late 1990s and early 2000s, and the sequel trilogy hit theaters in the 2010s. Various standalone films were released intermittently throughout this timeline, offering fans opportunities to explore specific characters and events more deeply.

More than anything, Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace is a fascinating cultural object. It's been 25 years since I saw the film in theaters, and over a decade since I last rewatched it (in a vain attempt to help my Trekkie wife catch up to the prequels). I've had enough time to process the initial disappointment and embarrassment of introducing my wife to Jar Jar Binks. So when Disney announced it was bringing the prequel trilogy back to theaters, I was practically giddy about revisiting them to see how George Lucas's final films compared to the onslaught of Star Wars media we've experienced over the past decade. Was The Phantom Menace as bad as I'd remembered?

A simple young farmboy gets a magic sword from an old wizard so he can defeat an evil knight, rescue a princess, and save the world. Granted, they don't always do it with knights. Sometimes the farmboy is a farmgirl. Sometimes the wizard is a scientist and sometimes the evil knight is a dragon or a cyborg. But Lucas knew all that. He was a Northern California kid who grew up watching movies and racing cars, a tyro moviemaker at a moment when American film had become very serious. The movies of the 1970s had genre goofs like The Exorcist and Rocky, but the gold-standard stories of were adult things about violence, sexuality, and the treachery of dreams. Heroes in these movies lost--like, all the time. Sometimes the whole movie got you to like bad guys, and sometimes they died anyway!

For the purposes of this list, only the first category is interesting, because these are true AI agents. Agents in this category have sensing and reasoning abilities that can be quite different than humans and have to be based on some sort of artificial knowledge structure and reasoning process. What I find most interesting is to examine how this mechanism is defined and what its capabilities are. The sensing and reasoning mechanisms are effectively identical to humans. This allows the film to treat the behavior as if it were identical to humans (or nearly so, e.g.