That's very reassuring.
Lets face it, this film could be a complete TURKEY and it'll still be the biggest grossing film of all time. Its inevitable. However, I hope that now they've had the benefit of seeing exactly how NOT to do it, that they have used that knowledge to give us something...
This.
The franchise urgently needed a reboot after they made such an almighty horlicks of the prequels. The dialogue was toe-curlingly bad, the acting appallingly stilted, the characters completely cardboard (or just annoying), the Trade Federation and Senate gobblygook truly stupefying, and...
Well, almost any major action scene could be justified as just being included as a catalyst for a spin-off game. I guess it was either that, or a special extended scene in the Senate with Amidala further debating the Trade Federations illegal blockade of shipping routes to Nab.....
.....zzzzzz
I liked the podrace scene as well. I'd just bought a new 5.1 surround sound system when I first bought Ep 1 on DVD, and cranking that up sounded absolutely IMMENSE.
My first inkling that the newer films might not be quite as good as the originals was when the famous writing started rolling up the screen on Episode 1. The opening line being:
"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to outlying star systems is in dispute"...