Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace

Starring: Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor, Natalie Portman
Directors: George Lucas
Features: Color, Closed-captioned, THX, NTSC

Average Customer Rating: 3.51/5.00
Amazon Sales Rank: 17,022
Theatrical Release Date: 19990519
VHS Tape Release Date: 04 April, 2000
Manufacturer: Twentieth Century Fox Home Video
MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)

View on Amazon (ASIN: 630575070X)

Number of VHS Tapes: 1
Availability: Usually ships within 2 to 3 days
List Price: $12.98, Amazon Price: $11.03

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Amazon Customer Reviews of this item: (Average Rating is 3.51/5.00)

Rating: 5 [ 5 stars for DVD quality, 3 stars for the movie ]

I'm reviewing only the DVD, and not the movie itself, which was a bit of a stinker, in my opinion. Well produced, beautifully filmed, but very poorly written.
Anyway - this is an awesome and incredibly well done DVD. Lots and lots of extras. Great commentary by Lucas, the producer, the sound man, etc. Interview with the composer. Lots and lots and LOTS of background materials on the making of the film, and the entire process of putting it together from initial writing to final production, and the making of the DVD itself.
The image of the movie is *very* crisp and clean. The deleted scenes are a nice addition to the movie. I am very impressed (and surprised, to be cynical about it) that Lucas has given us the full-featured DVD the first time out, and not offered us one scaled down DVD version, only to offer us a better version in a year, and then the full-scale one a year after that, like he's constantly done with the VHS versions of his movies. Thank you, Lucas, for taking care of your fans this time, and not trying to pad your pockets a few times before giving the fans what they *really* want.
Quality-wise, this is absolutely one of the most loaded, best-featured DVDs I have in my collection.
(as a p.s. - after hearing Lucas' commentary, and talking about some things coming up in the next movies, I have realized that a few things I criticized about this movie actually make sense oin terms of the upcoming story-line. However, I still think that, overall, the writing for this movie was only a cut above old b-movies)

Rating: 4 [ OK Movie, Great DVD ]

The Phantom Menace was probably the most heavily anticipated movie in history. It was the prequel to the original Star Wars series and George Lucas was taking the helm as director for the first time since Star Wars in 1977. The film was hyped incessantly and, of course, the final product failed to live up to the expectations. The Phantom Menace is not a bad film. It actually is absolutely amazing to look at and the special effects are incredible. The problem with the film is the plot. It seems disjointed as it bounces around from scene to scene. It seems that Mr. Lucas was to preoccupied with getting the film to look right than the actual story (which is what made the first Star Wars so great). Many people weren't happy with the casting of several roles, especially Ewan MacGregor as Obi Won Kenobi, but he does a decent job in an undeveloped role. Liam Neeson is commanding as Qui Gon Jin and Natalie Portman is quite good as Queen Amadala. The biggest complaint that most people had with the film was with the character of Jar Jar Binks and I won't disagree with most of what's been said about the annoying character. Mr. Lucas has previously shunned the DVD arena (American Graffiti is the only one of his films to appear in the format), but he goes about this release with a vengeance. The extras, including seven deleted scenes, are worth buying this DVD alone. Mr. Lucas spent an additional four million dollars on them and the money is well spent.

Rating: 4 [ The movie within the movie ]

May 19th 1999, you saw it on Theaters. January 2000, you enjoyed it on VHS with a production featurette. But this is the most complete Star Wars video release ever, thanks to the power of DVD technology. George Lucas has embedded so much material in the two discs, that even die-hard Star Wars fans will be delighted for hours and hours. In fact, no other DVD I own has blown me away like this. Where to start?
Disc One obviously contains the feature; subtitles, anamorphic widescreen and commentary by George Lucas and company included -the standard stuff, if you may. Non-standard, however, is the fact that you can link to hidden StarWars.com material by having the DVD on your computer's DVD-ROM tray, namely access to large-screen versions of a couple of already-released trailers of Episode II, and exclusive (until the time of this writing) access to yet another trailer for the upcoming continuation of the saga.
Disc 2, though, is where most of the really cool material in the DVD is to be found, for those who like and those who dislike the movie, as well. To begin with, a full documentary containing all deleted scenes (some of them will actually make you hate the movie's editor!) along with interviews with Francis Ford-Coppola and a couple more great Directors/Editors, to hear the opinions about the whole process of editing a movie once it's been filmed in its entirety.
The best part of Disc 2, however, is an all-new hour-long documentary shot during the production of the movie, that will captivate everyone. Complementing it are a 12-part award-winning Web documentary and five featurettes that go over more details about the pre-production/production of the movie. Some of its parts also made it to the full-length documentary, but essentially they're different pieces. Among the interesting things you get to see are what the crew had to go through when a desert storm blew away all their stuff, what Lucas called "bad droid karma" (all the history of technical complications around R2-D2) and how the brilliant final duel between Darth Maul and the Jedis was staged.
Altogether George Lucas has opened up like never before, offering the movie within the movie, and showing why he is, in Liam Neeson's words "one of the world's greatest storytellers." Get a copy of this DVD: it has to be part of your movie collection, if not for the movie itself (which most people tend to agree as not being the best SW movie), for all the hours of pre-production and production material you can enjoy on it.

Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace (VHS Tape)