Extras: Deleted scenes, Documentary: The Beginning, Multi-angle storyboards,
Featurettes, Web documentary, Music video, Photo gallery, Posters, Trailers,
TV Spots, Game featurette, Weblink, Audio Commentary
Director:
George Lucas
(American Graffiti, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, THX 1138)
Producer:
Rick McCallum
Screenplay:
George Lucas
Music :
John Williams
Cast :
Qui-Gon Jinn: Liam Neeson
Obi-Wan Kenobi: Ewan McGregor
Queen Amidala/Padme: Natalie Portman
Anakin Skywalker: Jake Lloyd
Senator Palpatine/Darth Sidious: Ian McDiarmid
Shmi Skywalker: Pernila August
Jar Jar Binks: Ahmed Best
C-3PO: Anthony Daniels
R2-D2: Kenny Baker
Yoda: Frank Oz
Chancellor Valorum: Terence Stamp
Boss Nass: Brian Blessed
Watto: Andrew Secombe
Darth Maul: Ray Park
Sebulba: Lewis Macleod
Fighter Pilot Bravo 5: Celia Imrie
Mace Windu: Samuel L Jackson
Sache: Sofia Coppola
Republic Cruiser Captain: Bronagh Gallagher
Darth Maul (voice): Peter Serafinowicz
TC-14: John Fensom
TC-14 (voice): Lindsay Duncan
Finally, we have some of the saga on DVD in the form ofStar Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace.
"Turmoil has engulfed the Galactic Republic. The taxation of trade routes to
outlying star systems is in dispute.
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedy
Trade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.
While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain of
events, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, the
guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict...."
The story is unnecessarily complex, it's not that that's particularly
important to enjoy the show. However, because of a lack of substance overall
it doesn't quite come off in the way it should and the introduction of Jar Jar
Binks (voiced by Ahmed Best who got the gig instead of Wacko Jacko),
a bizarre-looking creature from the underwater Gunga City,
was a bad idea that has annoyed many, although when I saw it in the cinema he
was a hit with the children and I guess you could find equally annoying
characters in the other films in the saga if "Phantom Menace" was your first
foray into watching it. I'd still like to switch off the computer generating
Jar Jar though, as he could easily be dispensed with.
The focus is placed on young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who must
be trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to learn the ways of the
force. Kenobi's master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) believes Anakin will
bring balance to the force, but we know that Anakin turns into Darth Vader
by the time Star Wars: A New Hope comes along, so that's a big mistake
for sure.
They meet up with Anakin because after sustaining some damage in their starship,
given to them by those housing Jar Jar in return for saving him from certain
death earlier on, the pair can't afford to repair it so bet the farm on Anakin
to win the Pod Race, this film's equivalent of the chariot race scene in
Ben Hur.
It's one of those films that's entertaining to watch, but just lacks the
necessary to make it the great experience you expect, especially after parts
four to six in the series, which we've already seen. There's the expected
climactic battle, some iffy acting from Anakin's mum, played by Pernila
August, robots and puppets being introduced in the form of C-3PO, R2-D2
and Yoda, all voiced by the same people as before and the chief bad guy here
is Darth Maul (Ray Park, who, after this film, charged people £15
for his signature!)
Leon's Natalie Portman plays both Naboo ruler Queen Amidala and
menial worker Padme, which brings about a necessary decoy strategy later on
and there's cameo back-ups from Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Celia Imrie,
Samuel L Jackson, Sofia Coppola, Bronagh Gallagher and a voice from
Lindsay Duncan.
However, I still can't accept the voice of Fozzie Bear, I mean, Yoda, by
Frank Oz. The films he directs are piss-poor and he just makes Yoda
sound ridiculous.
The original poster.
Of course, you'd expect nothing less than an anamorphic widescreen transfer
in the original 2.35:1 ratio, but sadly for this high-profile release there
are a few print drop-outs on occasion and a slightly hazy look in some dark
scenes, mainly early on in the film. Couldn't these be avoided?
It's also the first film to be released in the cinema with a Dolby Digital 6.1
Surround EX soundtrack. What this means, is that in addition to the usual
Dolby Digital 5.1 affair with have an extra centre speaker at the rear, but
instead of being a discrete, separate audio channel, it's an amalgamation of the
other two rear channels, so not the great extra big deal we expected from
having an extra speaker being placed in the cinema, but when big sound is
called for in a big room, it's certainly not unwelcome.
However, on this DVD the box claims only to have given us the 5.1 equivalent
and not having a 6.1-compatible speaker system and amplifier myself, I cannot
check, but since the Region 1 DVD does apparently have the 6.1 original, I
expect this one does too. Still, the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 sound rocks big time in all manner of
scenes from John Williams's classic opener, through the rest of the
score and all of the sound FX inbetween. The whole thing's a triumph and
never lets you down.
The extras disc is divided into four sections:
The first contains a Teaser Trailer (anamorphic 2.35:1, 2 minutes),
shown in the cinemas early on, Theatrical Trailer (anamorphic 2.35:1, 2½ minutes)
and the Music Video for the theme tune, "Duel of the Fates", in
non-anamorphic 16:9. There are seven TV Spots, one being 60 seconds long
and the rest 30 seconds apiece, all in non-anamorphic 16:9.
The second menu offers up Seven Deleted Scenes, each with a choice
of director's commentary, opening up first with a 7-minute documentary (in anamorphic 16:9) that
explains why they are there. The scenes range from extended pod race
sequences to a waterfall and air-taxi sequence. They're not all essential
to the plot, but serve as fantastic audio-visual moments which would make a
respectable director's cut. These are all in anamorphic 2.35:1 and Dolby Digital
5.1 sound.
Also here is the 66-minute documentary, The Beginning (anamorphic 16:9), which was culled
from over 600 hours of footage during the film's production. That amount of
tape is to be expected when it's taken 2-3 years to film and is something to which
you've devoted your life. It certainly makes for fascinating viewing and I
loved the moment where the final fight scene is practiced between the two Jedis
and Darth Maul. Ewan McGregor is thrown off the set onto a crash-mat and quips
to the crew '"Do you wanna do Star Wars?", they said. I said, "Too right."'
The next menu contains Five Featurettes, highlighting separately on
the film's visual effects, costumes, sumptuous design, fight scenes and the
story, while the Twelve Web Documentaries are a series of behind-the-scenes
video documentaries, so-called because they were published on Starwars.com
during production to give fans a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the making of
the film. Those with a PC can also link to the site itself either from this
DVD or at the bottom of this review.
The final extras menu, "Animatics and Still Galleries", concentrates on the
first three parts in the form of mini-featurettes showing an introduction
to what goes into them and then Multi-angle storyboards for both the
Pod Race Lap One and the submarine sequence. The multi-angle sections come
in four varieties: the storyboard, a pre-production look at what was filmed
or drawn up on the computer initially, the finished result and a combination
of all three. The submarine sequence features different actors including
Marc Warren, a definite dead-ringer for a young Malcolm McDowell
and has had acting parts in Grange Hill and Band of Brothers.
The Exclusive Production Photos section provide more behind-the-scenes
glimpses into movie history, with the option to view them either with
informative text captions or as full-frame pictures without any text. The
Print Campaign, centred around the idea of "One", shows the same
individual posters in a number of permutations depending on the place where
they were to be posted up such as billboards and bus banners.
The Teaser and Release Posters section show the main poster in various
foreign guises and the Anakin teaser one, with the option to view in greater
detail. The last part of this menu brings us a four-minute featurette about the Playstation 2 game
Star Wars: Starfighter, which has just been re-released at the same
time as this DVD in a 'director's cut' form.
Finally comes an Audio Commentary from George Lucas, Rick McCallum,
Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knott, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires.
One thing missing that I'd like to have seen is the inclusion of the DTS
soundtrack which was apparently created but has been overshadowed by the
new Dolby Digital 6.1 Surround EX one.
The film contains a massive 50 chapters, the menus are brilliantly animated and scored,
with more than one choice available and the subtitles come
in 5 languages: English (for the hard of hearing), Danish, Finnish,
Norwegian and Swedish.
NB.: The film is rated U, but some of the extras on DVD have warranted
a PG-certificate.
As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B
37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
