Star Wars Episode One: The Phantom Menace (1999). Cert U. Director - George Lucas. Writer - George Lucas. Starring - Ewan MacGregor, Jake Lloyd, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman & Frank Oz.

Premise - The prequel to the phenomenally successful Star Wars trilogy is the first part of the Skywalker family story. Wow, it's taken me a good day and a half to get through all the additional material on this DVD. Quite simply this is the most comprehensive DVD ever put together. All of the features on the DVD are of interest and very little of the information contained in the various features are repeated. There are literally hours of material to enjoy. First up is the commentary track, which is on disc one. Lucas and his production team go through every nuance of the film, detailing what was practical and what was a CG shot. Lucas also talks a lot about how events in Episode One will be built upon in the upcoming two movies. So something that night not make much sense taken as a part of the first movie, will make sense when watching all six films back to back. The commentary whilst informative is by no means the best I have heard. It is a little too preoccupied with the technical aspects of the film and doesn't delve deep enough into on set happenings, etc. This is the kind of thing I like to hear on a commentary. Perhaps two different tracks one with the production crew and one with the actors would have been a better idea. On disc two is the hour long documentary entitled 'The Beginning'. This is excellent stuff. A film crew followed the whole 4-year production and took over 600 hours of footage, which was condensed down, into this hour-long film. Highlights include Ewan Macgregor choosing his lightsaber and a foul-mouthed producer Rick McCallum ensuring that the DVD package gets a PG rating even though the film is rated U! Elsewhere is every trailer for the film. Teaser, trailer and all seven TV spots are included. The internet documentaries are the award wining shorts that were released on the starwars.com website leading up to the movies release. The music video for John William 'Duel of the Fates' is also on there. All the posters are included as well as several stills from the production of the movie. A multi angle section allows you to see how key FX sections were brought to life from storyboard to screen. Perhaps the best thing on the second disc however is the inclusion of seven deleted scenes. Each was approved by Lucas and had FX finished by ILM. In-fact several of these shots have been re-cut into the film on disc one, making the DVD a special edition of sorts. Enough about the extra's, on to the film itself. The Phantom Menace came out to a lot of hype and disappointment. It's interesting to watch it now, two years after the release, when it can be judged outside of the media circus that surrounded it back then. Unfortunately it hasn't got much better. TPM follows two Jedi, Obi Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn as they are sent to conduct trade negotiations on the planet of Naboo. They arrive at the planet to find it is under siege by the Trade Federation. Escaping the planet with its queen they bump into one Anakin Skywalker and the saga begins. It's hard not to be impressed by the TPM; it is without a doubt a great technical achievement. The film almost seamlessly melds digital and real elements to impress the viewer. TPM also boasts the first completely CG main character in movie history. As annoying as Jar-Jar Binks is he is a landmark and will be etched into movie folklore forever. For all it's technical achievements though TPM has a lot of problems. The acting is off a fairly poor standard, only Liam Neeson and Ewan MacGregor put in half decent performance. Jake Lloyd is just embarrassingly wooden and Natalie Portman, whom I think is a capable actress just seems stiffiled behind that ridiculous accent. Acting aside the film also feels very disjointed. Especially in the last 20 minutes where we are expected to follow four different climactic battle scenes. Jar-Jar Binks is annoying. His comedy antics feel out of place in this movie and are sometimes placed next to scenes of high drama and tension. Lucas perhaps thought it would bring comic relief to these moments, but they just feel wrong. TPM does have good points though. The pod race is amongst the best action scenes ever committed to film and Darth Maul is on of the coolest bad guys in cinema history. The final three way lightsaber duel takes the breath away with it's speed and ferocity. Even though TPM has it's faults I can't help liking it because I am a Star Wars nut. I hope that Lucas is right when he says TPM will be fully appreciated when watching all six films back to back. Only 4 years to wait then! A lot of time and effort has obviously been put into the production of this DVD. It's a real pity that the film itself wasn't better, but we can only hope that similar efforts go into the DVD's for the original trilogy.