SNEAK PREVIEW REVIEWS HIT NET.

Byline: David Bloom Daily News Staff Writer

The ``Star Wars'' hype has turned into buzz, at least on the Internet, where a lucky few audience members at advance screenings are generating an electric racket worthy of a light-saber duel between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Maul.

Seemingly minutes after the end of the first, quasi-secret screenings of ``Star Wars: Episode 1 - The Phantom Menace'' around the country Tuesday night, fans who managed to wangle a scarce ticket inside rushed back to their computers to post excruciatingly detailed descriptions of what they'd just seen after months - even years - of anticipation.

The verdict: pretty good for some; others thought it great, though probably not the greatest film of all time, despite a tsunamic wave of hyperbole that has threatened to swamp the rest of this summer's movies.

The action sequences get high marks, the special effects are great, the characters are well-sketched, many Internet scribes said.

On the down side, some fans complain it's too child-friendly for adults, features that danged computer-generated Jar Jar character (though he's not as obnoxious as they feared he would be) and won't quite slake the passions of dedicated ``Star Wars'' fans who've waited nearly two decades for another installment in the series.

Bottom line, though, ``The Phantom Menace'' remains the film of the summer.

``Wow, what a film,'' wrote one writer going by the nom de Net of Better Jedi at The Force, a ``Star Wars'' fan site at www.theforce.net. ``I'm going to have to see it about 10 or 15 times to take it all in.''

One industry insider at Tuesday night's Westwood screening who spoke on condition of anonymity said the film was tremendously entertaining and should do very well.

``It's visually stunning,'' the insider said. ``It's incredible. (Director George Lucas') perceptions are just insane. The people at least in my screening were quite impressed.''

While it's not a film adults will go to repeatedly, unless they're taking their children, the insider said it was surprisingly engaging, and heavy with a plot that deals with near-biblical themes of the Virgin and good vs. evil.

But that dense plotting will draw teen-agers back repeatedly as they try to memorize dialogue and details, while younger children will want to relive the fantasy ride over and over again.

``I sat next to two young girls and it was as much or more fun watching them watch the movie because they were so caught up in it,'' he said.

That's exactly what Tom Sherak wants to hear. He heads 20th Century Fox's Domestic Film Group, which will hold about 35 advance screenings for exhibitors whose theaters will run the film, and an additional 70 for the press before the movie officially debuts May 19. Some ``real people'' are getting into some of the screenings as well, which explains the array of newly minted movie critics.

``Everybody has an opinion,'' Sherak said of the Internet buzz. ``We've been pretty pleased for the most part.''

Even the criticism hasn't been too rough, Sherak said.

He pointed to one 16-year-old who mercilessly deconstructed the film's finest details in a posting, then concluded his message by saying, ``Nonetheless, I can't wait to see the movie again.''

At another Web site called Ain't It Cool News (at www.aint-it-cool-news.com), the assessments were harsher than at The Force.

Cyberspace critics complained that it was too ``young-themed'' and ``kid-friendly'' to appeal to adults, and had ``no chance'' of knocking down ``Titanic'' as the all-time box office champ.

Another writer going by the moniker Pruneface said he'd read several early reactions and ``most SW fans should LOWER THEIR EXPECTATIONS'' because despite ample action, great special effects and excellent characters, ``most hard-core fans will feel disappointed,'' in part because the new film is ``more kiddie than `Jedi.' ''

One worried writer asked, ``Do we have another `Godzilla' on our hands?'' referring to the massively hyped monster film of a year ago, which did decent business at the box office but fell far short of its own hype-driven expectations both artistically and financially.

And negative comments on Ain't It Cool News led to a somewhat predictable backlash from the film's fans elsewhere: ``Anything you read on AICN shouldn't be taken too seriously. They're notoriously untrustworthy,'' wrote another contributor.

Sherak was sanguine about the film's insta-buzz on the Net, even the complaints, despite his company's efforts to shepherd the film to the screen with a minimum of public disclosure before opening day.

``The way I look at it is, welcome to the 21st century,'' Sherak said. ``We can't do anything about it, so we're learning to live with it.''

(color) Some say the computer-generated Jar Jar Binks isn't as bad a character as feared after an early peek at the film.

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(Color) Some say the computer-generated Jar Jar Binks isn't as bad a character as feared after an early peek at the film.