Almost 13 years ago, George Lucas brought out the first of his hugely anticipated Star Wars prequel trilogy, and it turned out to be the biggest, dampest squib of modern times. It was a pop-culture calamity, a soulless, passionless film whose only real effect was to smudge the happy memories of the three originals. Now Phantom Menace is back, in 3D, and a new generation can feel their hearts sink at that baffling and boring opening, all about the trade blockade and taxation quarrel. Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor play the Jedi Knights Qui-Gon Jinn and young Ben Kenobi, who rescue the Queen Of Naboo (Natalie Portman) from sinister forces and encounter the tousle-haired youngster Anakin Skywalker, in whose future there is much darkness. The film's three-dimensional reboot seems a pretty pointless way of hauling out the merchandise yet again — and once more we can only ponder the fact that at 67 years old, George Lucas is still in his prime and surely capable of giving us a new film which has nothing to do with Star Wars. Watched again now, Phantom Menace seems flat rather than actually objectionable: there is something almost exotic in its intricate dullness, and characters like Jar-Jar are now too boring to be offensive. There is a strange frisson in spotting young Keira Knightley as the Queen's handmaiden Sabé and Warwick Davis, from Ricky Gervais's Life's Too Short, as a Pod Race spectator.