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Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) Features:
Anamorphic
Closed-captioned
Color
Dolby
Dubbed
Subtitled
THX
Widescreen
NTSC Rating:
PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
DVD Description:
"I have a bad feeling about this," says the young Obi-Wan Kenobi (played by Ewan McGregor) in Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace as he steps off a spaceship and into the most anticipated cinematic event... well, ever. He might as well be speaking for the legions of fans of the original episodes in the Star Wars saga who can't help but secretly ask themselves: Sure, this is Star Wars, but is it my Star Wars? The original elevated moviegoers' expectations so high that it would have been impossible for any subsequent film to meet them. And as with all the Star Wars movies, The Phantom Menace features inexplicable plot twists, a fistful of loose threads, and some cheek-chewing dialogue. Han Solo's swagger is sorely missed, as is the pervading menace of heavy-breather Darth Vader. There is still way too much quasi-mystical mumbo jumbo, and some of what was fresh about Star Wars 22 years earlier feels formulaic. Yet there's much to admire. The special effects are stupendous; three worlds are populated with a mélange of creatures, flora, and horizons rendered in absolute detail. The action and battle scenes are breathtaking in their complexity. And one particular sequence of the film--the adrenaline-infused pod race through the Tatooine desert--makes the chariot race in Ben-Hur look like a Sunday stroll through the park.
Among the host of new characters, there are a few familiar walk-ons. We witness the first meeting between R2-D2 and C-3PO, Jabba the Hutt looks younger and slimmer (but not young and slim), and Yoda is as crabby as ever. Natalie Portman's stately Queen Amidala sports hairdos that make Princess Leia look dowdy and wields a mean laser. We never bond with Jedi Knight Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson), and Obi-Wan's day is yet to come. Jar Jar Binks, a cross between a Muppet, a frog, and a hippie, provides many of the movie's lighter moments, while Sith Lord Darth Maul is a formidable force. Baby-faced Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) looks too young and innocent to command the powers of the Force or wield a lightsaber (much less transmute into the future Darth Vader), but his boyish exuberance wins over skeptics.
Near the end of the movie, Palpatine, the new leader of the Republic, may be speaking for fans eagerly awaiting Episode II when he pats young Anakin on the head and says, "We will watch your career with great interest." Indeed! --Tod Nelson
Average Customer Rating:
I was very pleased!
I would order this again, i really enjoyed star wars.
A Great Childhood Experience - Not a Quality Film
*WARNING: SPOILERS*
Ah, Star Wars - the cinema of my childhood. I was practically raised on the original trilogy - I must have been two years old when I first watched it. Despite the fact that I obviously could not fully comprehend what I was seeing, I loved every minute of it right away. I have never stopped adoring the original trilogy - they remain some of my most beloved films to this day.
I was ten years old when The Phantom Menace came out back in 1999. I was still drooling over the grand experience of the seeing the Special Edition trilogy two years prior, and I had all but worn out every copy of the trilogy I could get my hands on. I was more than ready for my next Star Wars theater experience. The timing couldn't have been more perfect.
I'll never forget sitting in the theater - my stomach a black hole of anticipation - waiting for the film to begin. The 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm logos appeared - I grinned one of the biggest grins of my life. "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..." My fists were clenched. A sudden burst of John Williams' iconic score accompanied by the yellow Star Wars logo...at that point, it was safe to say it was the greatest moment of my life. For the next 2+ hours, I watched in awe, lapping up every second of Lucas' gigantic sci-fi spectacle. I was one happy kid. I left the theater in a state of bliss. My parents weren't crazy about the movie, but I managed to coax my grandpa into taking me again the next day. I sat in the back of the theater whispering every nerdy detail of the plot into his ear, still grinning with glee the whole time. Even then I was able to recognize that it was nowhere near as good as the original trilogy, but that didn't stop me from loving every second of it. The Phantom Menace was one of the defining moments of my childhood.
Unfortunately, age and repeat viewings have not been too kind to Episode I. My last viewing before writing this review was the first time I had seen the film in about two years. I finally saw the flaws everyone else had been seeing.
The film is far from a total failure, but it certainly is one hell of a mess. I think it would be easiest to review using pros and cons.
Pros:
+Liam Neeson makes for a damn good Jedi. He feels genuinely fatherly and wise.
+Ray Park and Ian McDiarmid are terrific villains.
+John Williams' score is as magnificent as ever. This is one I can still listen to independently. It's big, epic, and beautiful.
+Lucas still does a very good job creating huge, lush worlds that truly immerse the viewer.
+The lightsaber choreography is better than ever.
+The pod-race scene is oh-so-much fun.
+The final inter-cut action sequence of the Naboo Palace battle, the Gungans vs. the droids ground battle, the space battle above Naboo, and the Qui-Gon/Obi-Wan/Darth Maul lightsaber fight is simply drool-worthy. A fantastic scene comparable to the similarly inter-cut climactic battle sequence in Return of the Jedi.
Cons:
-The special effects, while great for 1999, have, like any CG effects would, dated severely over the years and many of the CG characters now look like they are straight out of Shrek.
-The direction is utterly terrible. I don't know what happened to Lucas between the `70s and 1999; he proved he could direct more than competently with THX 1138 (which is a brilliant and highly underrated film), American Graffiti, and Star Wars: Episode IV: A New Hope. For some reason, he is even worse than amateur here. Every shot feels distractingly staged, and the acting is wooden all around (and it's certainly not the fault of the fine cast).
-I do not think I need to comment on the character of Jar-Jar Binks or Jake Lloyd's even-horrible-for-a-child-actor performance.
-There are many attempts at childish comic relief that just feel out of place and unnecessary. Lucas even resorts to a fart joke on one occasion.
-The Yoda puppet looks terrible. I cannot fathom how they were able to make him look so real in 1980, yet so fake in 1999.
-Lucas seems to make a real attempt at political intrigue in this film. It's a great idea and could have been fascinating, but it is ruined by a lot of juvenile dialogue and scenarios.
-There seem to be a lot of subtle(ish) racial stereotypes. I'm not sure if they were intentional or not, but they're there nonetheless.
-They kill off Darth Maul, who was easily the most interesting character in the film. He had so much potential.
This film is just a mangling. It was a great big screen experience, but unlike the original trilogy, it really doesn't translate well to home viewing (this isn't helped by the fact that the DVD has an awful, outdated transfer), and it certainly doesn't hold up to critical scrutiny. I'm sure I'll still watch and enjoy it from time to time, but overall this film is, for me, better looked at as a great cinematic memory and not as quality filmmaking.
'Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace' Disappoints
I was deeply dissappointed in Episode I because it does not even come close to the high quality of the legendary originals. There are many reasons for this, and one of the main reasons is the dumbing down of the Star Wars saga with childish elements such as the Barney-like Jar-Jar Binks which was an obvious attempt to draw in the younger crowd, thus increase gross revenue through mass-marketed merchandise, etc.
Another reason why Episode I is a far cry from its predecessors is the extreme over-use of computer animation, which is supposed to compliment the movie and not replace the plot and character development that made the first 3 movies unforgettable. To me the puppets and costumes in the original felt far more real than any of the computer animation seen in the new movies. The puppets made the story feel way more believable than computer animated aliens and robots. Don't get me wrong, I think digital effects can be great if used properly, but it shouldn't be the main ingredient in the recipe of movie making.
Episode I lacked continuity and character development, which are major flaws that can't be ignored. It's a shame that Episode I was geared towards the younger generation and ignored the mature generation that the originals appealed to.
One of the biggest problems with the movie is that it debunks the mythos surrounding the force by explaining it as some type of biological entities in the bloodstream by the name of midichlorians. In one line delivered by Liam Neeson's character Qui-Gon Jinn, George Lucas who wrote the script single handedly destroyed the mystique that is the force, ironically a concept that he came up with originally nearly 3 decades ago. Apparently Lucas forgot that part of what makes the original trilogy so special is that the force is an unknown, mysterious power that can be used for good or evil. The fact that it is clouded in mystery and only a select few can tap into it is what made the concept so appealing, fostering imagination and dreams. Lucas must have forgotten that this is Star Wars, not Star Trek, where the former is all about flights of fancy and mythology while the latter is more science oriented.
Continuity was a major problem in Episode I, with sporadic jumps from scene to scene thereby breaking up any kind of depth to any of the characters, let alone allowing the story itself to develop. Darth Maul in particular was perhaps the biggest disappointment since he had so much potential to be the next Darth Vader, or at least a villain close to Vader's status. No such luck, he was as two-dimensional as they come, with no presence, no dialogue and barely any screen presence except the very end, and he dies before we have any idea of what his story was, or what kind of a character he was besides being "evil". Even Qui-Gon Jinn was a let down, despite the fact that he was a very interesting character. It's a paradox because the audience is given just a tiny bit of information about him, enough for people to like him, but no exposition to further his characteristics, it was minimal at best, so we are left with another intriguing character with a great deal of potential who was killed before we got a chance to really know him.
Some scenes seemed to be superfluous such as the underwater part where Qui-Gon Jinn, Obi-Wan, and Jar-Jar Binks are inside a submarine vehicle, and they end up getting chased by a huge fish, which is swallowed by a bigger fish, and that fish is swallowed by an even bigger fish. At that point I was convinced that Lucas had run out of good ideas for this film.
The dialogue was wooden at best, with hardly any chemistry between any of the characters, except for Qui-Gonn and Obi-Wan. Lucas seriously should have left the script writing up to far more talented screen writers.
The excessive use of CGI has become Lucas' crutch, mistakenly believing that it can replace a solid story, deep characters and real sets. It would have been so much better had Lucas used less computer animation and more props, costumes, puppets and animatronics, all of which have evolved a great deal in the past 3 decades and could have been put to much better use. Less CGI please and more story, Lucas.
Despite its flaws, the movie is interesting because it explains Anakin's origins, and some of the space battles as well as the Jedi lightsaber duels are truly impressive which redeem this film from being below average.
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I was very pleased! 
A Great Childhood Experience - Not a Quality Film 
