Here's the 'Star Wars' movie everyone should watch first according to Natalie Portman

It's a question that has befuddled parents since George Lucas made the "Star Wars" prequels.

Do you introduce your kids to "Star Wars" with "Episode I: The Phantom Menace," technically the beginning of the story? Or do you start the way the franchise began in 1977, with "Episode IV: A New Hope?"

We put the question to Natalie Portman, who along with starring in the prequels as Queen Padmé Amidala (aka Luke and Leia's mom) also has a five-year-old son.

She admits she has not shown her son any "Star Wars" movies yet, but she knows how she'll introduce the saga to him.

"I talked about this with a friend of mine," she told Business Insider recently while doing press for her new movie "A Tale of Love and Darkness." "I feel you have to start with 'IV' because then all of the revelations - like Darth Vader's the father - are surprises."

It's a very good point. If you start with "Episode I," by the time you get to that pivotal scene in "Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back" when Vader tells Luke he's his father, it's going to be less of a shock.

"Episode I" is tamer, however.

"The thing is 'I' is very much for kids," Portman said. "But I think for the story you have to start with 'IV.'"

There you have it. The queen has spoken.