DVD A conflict is brewing between the powerful Trade Federation and the peaceful planet of Naboo and two Jedi's have been dispatched to mediate between the two sides.
Details
With the conflict brewing between the powerful Trade Federation and the peaceful planet of Naboo, the Federation blockades the planet. Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, travel to Naboo in an attempt to confront the Federation and prevent war from breaking out. However, the negotiations don't go to plan and they head for the planet to warn the Queen of the impending invasion and the more sinister reasons behind it.
The Jedi manage to evacuate the Queen and her court, but their spacecraft suffers damage during the escape and they must find somewhere to land and make repairs. They travel to the desert planet of Tatooine, where they meet a young slave boy called Anakin Skywalker. Qui-Gon senses that there is something special about this boy and is sure that fate has led him to him.
Without the necessary funds to repair the ship, they are forced to enter a pod race, with the young Anakin racing for them. Anakin is a smart child and has built his own pod to enter the race. It is a race he needs to win, as Qui-Gon has bet the Naboo spacecraft with a local junkyard dealer who has the spare part he needs to repair it.
With the Naboo rescued from the planet, the Trade Federation is unable to force her to sign an agreement making the invasion legal. The sinister leader behind the blockade and invasion plot decides to send one of his Jedi warriors, Darth Maul, to hunt down the ship and force the Queen to sign the agreement.
Picture & Sound
The picture is unbelievably sharp, with some fantastic colour tones and detail, no doubt down to the fact that the film was shot and stored digitally. There is not a single blemish or hint of pixelation in sight. However, although it is good, it is still not perfect. The very fact that it looks so good has caused a number of problems. With the heavy dependency on computer animation, it can be all too easy to spot the computer's work. Although the space battles and city scenes are flawless, it is the droid invasion and subsequent invasion of Naboo that disappoint. At times you could almost be watching a cut scene from a computer game, it is that obvious.
There can also be some hideous amounts of outlining around the characters. Again, this becomes more apparent when there is some sort of computer-generated animation in the background, and it is most likely caused by the actors being shot against a blue screen.
If the picture is somewhat disappointing, then the sound makes up for it in a big way. Whereas the 25th Anniversary LaserDisc reissues were rather disappointing in the sound department, this THX soundtrack is breathtaking and truly demonstration material. Naturally, it is the pod race and space battles where the soundtrack truly comes into its own, with a plentiful supply of surround effects and deep rumblings from the subwoofer. Even people listening on a humble stereo hi-fi or television will be hard pushed not to be impressed.
There was one strange thing that I noticed with the subtitling, and I'm not sure whether it was just down to my DVD player. Whenever someone spoke in an alien tongue, there were no subtitles on the screen and I didn't have a clue what they were saying. I was certain that subtitles had been present at the cinema, so I checked the available options and eventually found another English subtitle track with the alien translations included. A deliberate ploy? I'm not sure.
Menu & Extras
The menus are pleasantly animated and scored, although for some strange reason I was expecting something different. There are plenty of cut scenes in the background of each menu, which makes a change from only having the main menu animated, and I was most impressed with the animated scene selection menu where the Federation Council meeting is recreated.
There are so many extras that they come on their own disc. There's an hour-long documentary made up from over 600 hours of footage, along with the complete set of web documentaries that graced the Star Wars website during the film's production. The film is also accompanied by an audio commentary from Lucas and other members of the crew, but I soon found myself getting bored with it all, although the visual effects information was rather fascinating.
The most interesting of the impressive set of extras are the seven completed Deleted Scenes in Dolby Digital and widescreen. These can either be viewed with an introduction from George Lucas or as a complete set. Some of the footage has been restored into the film, although it would be hard to spot if you weren't looking, and you can see why Lucas decided to drop most of it for timing purposes.
However, the fact that these scenes were completed and not added to the film, even as a seamless branching version, I find extremely annoying. Why not let the viewer decide whether it was a good idea to remove them from the final print? I have my suspicions that a director's cut of the Star Wars film, with these scenes added, can't be too far off. After all, they've managed to reissue the videos every year with some new design or material — why not a special edition DVD?
Overall
It was both a pity and a credit to the public that Lucas relented and released the film onto DVD. He was not planning on releasing it until the other episodes had been issued and no doubt it would have appeared in an expensive box set. The internet was awash with petitions and sites criticising Lucas, but the cynics amongst you may suspect that he was finally pressurised into releasing the film in order to boost the coffers at Fox and pay the way for the subsequent episodes.
Let's not dwell on the fact that this film has no plot whatsoever and leaves you wondering just what the hell was going on for the past two hours — it all ends so quickly. It is almost as if there was so much information Lucas wanted to fit into the film that he hurriedly and excitedly created it without much thought for the humble viewer.
And let's face it, the pod race was created purely for the computer console market, and we can argue until the end of time about Jar Jar Binks. Nevertheless, the film is visually stunning and sounds fantastic. Its success was purely based on hype and expectations alone. Let's just hope that the next episode is better than this one, as the viewing public may be a little more suspicious next time around. Still, a disc sure to grace DVD collections the world over.
Special features
Disc One
- Commentary by George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires
Disc Two
- Seven Deleted Scenes Completed for DVD
- Deleted Scenes Documentary
- All-new Hour Long Documentary Created from Over 600 Hours of Footage
- Multi-angle Storyboard-to-Animatic-to-Film Segments
- Five Featurettes Explore The Phantom Menace Storyline, Design, Costumes, Visual Effects and Fight Scenes
- Award Winning Twelve Part Web Documentary Series that Chronicles the Production of Episode I
- "Duel of the Fates" Music Video Featuring John Williams
- Never-before-seen Production Photo Gallery with Special Caption Feature
- Theatrical Posters and Print Campaigns from Around the World
- Theatrical Teaser and Launch Trailers, plus Seven TV Spots
- "Star Wars: Starfighter - The Making of a Game" Featurette from Lucas Arts
- DVD-ROM Weblink to Exclusive Star Wars Contents
