Product Details

• Actors: Ewan McGregor, Liam Neeson, Natalie Portman, Jake Lloyd, Ian McDiarmid
• Directors: George Lucas
• Writers: George Lucas
• Producers: George Lucas, Rick McCallum
• Format: Surround Sound, Color, THX, NTSC
• Language: English
• Rated: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: 20th Century Fox
• VHS Release Date: April 4, 2000
• Run Time: 136 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2,708 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 630575067X
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #30,458 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

"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-breathing 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

Product Description

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

99 of 122 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Suffers from lack of developed characters and plot, May 26, 2005

By 

M. Chambers - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

I saw this film on theatrical release in and was very disappointed. Of course, alot of the disappointment initially had to do with the incredible hype build-up that accompanied the new trilogy. Nothing could have lived up to the public's expectations.

That having been said, The Phantom Menace is disappointing not so much because it stinks, but because, I felt, with some additional tweaking, it could have been much much better. Its almost as if Lucas got the plot ideas and character concepts developed to a schematic level and then sort of lost interest in them and did not develop them any further.

Specific gripes:

1. We never really bond with or understand Qui-Gon's character or his relationship with young Anakin. He states that he thinks Anakin may be the chosen one, but that is not really sufficient. We need to see an emotional bond or some kind of identification between the two, but it just isn't there.

2. Not to pick on Jake Lloyd (he's probably a great kid), but Lucas or whoever just did not get a good performance out of him. Plus, there is no hint in young Anakin at this point of character traits or flaws that might later foreshadow his fall. Yoda says he sees anger and fear in Anakin and the Jedi Council make vague predications that he may eventually be dangerous, but we as audience members just don't see it. We are supposed to infer that Anakin is somehow damaged by his life as as slave and subsequent separation from his mother, but again, we don't see any of this. His life as a slave doesn't seem to indicate any hardship; his big scene saying goodbye to his mom is not particularly moving (mainly due to wooden acting by Lloyd; Pernilla August as his mom does a good job thought). Also, if he's a slave, how does he have time/resources to build robots and pod racers? Just not very true to life.

Perhaps if we had seen Anakin and/or his mom subjected to some sort of abuse or exploitation we would have a better indication both of the fear and anger in Anakin and also a potential emotional reason for why Qui-Gon wants to rescue Anakin. When I reflected on it, I thought it would almost be better if Anakin were like the feral boy in Road Warrior II: an unkempt, unclean, and agressive character that had to be somewhat tamed and civilized by his Jedi rescuers. We don't see any character flaws, any little hints of selfishness, anger, fear or frustration. As is, young Anakin is just an average cute kid; we don't see any depth to why he wants to escape his life as a slave or run off to join the Jedi so we don't really care.

3. Source of humor: The original series had a mix of humor based upon the droids 3PO and R2D2 and also with the human characters (primarily interactions between Solo, Leia, and Luke). In TPM, the primary source of humor is generated from droids and Jar Jar Binks with little or no humorous banter or interaction between human characters. This has two effects: 1)relying on computer-generated characters for humor means the primary form of humor becomes physical slapstick, which is one of the main complaints about the Jar Jar charcter; and 2)the interactions between the human main characters, when deprived of humor, makes their relationships seem dry and mechanical, another source of the shallow characterizations.

The one humorous moment that stands out is when, after being ambushed by the Trade Feds at the beginning, Obi-Won says to Qui-Gon with a wry smile: "Well, you were right about one thing Master....the negotiations were short!" This one moment stands out because it is one of the few jokes between human characters and it works and expresses some of Obi-Won's personality. It also effectively echoes some of the banter and attitude that made Solo's character so liekable and crucial to the original films, an attitude and sensibility that is lacking in TPM. As is, we are stuck with Jar Jar's pratfalls for yuks, and it just doesn't work unless you are 5 years old.

4. The shallowness of Darth Maul: Similar to other problems with character depth, we don't know enough about Maul. He says early in the film that at last he will have revenge on the Jedi. Revenge for what? We never know beyond vague notions that the Sith and Jedi are ancient enemies. That is not enough. We either need to be shown more back story on this or have some reason for Maul's motivation. His fight scenes with the Jedi at the end are dynamite and clearly the actor is very skilled in martial arts and projects a menacing attitude with only minimal dialog or screen time, but we never really know anything about him other than "he is a bad guy" and that is not enough.

5. Plot goofiness. As others have pointed out, all the midi-chlorian business is a red herring of mumbo-jumbo that takes the mystical mystery out of the Force and reduces it to a medical condition. The Jedi are supposed to be wise, powerful seers, but them seem oblivious to the presence and intentions of the bad guys over and over again. Having young Anakin build C3PO is silly and seems like a forced "circle closer". Further, having Anakin start out on Tatooine doesn't seem right and seems like another circle closer that is forced. Wouldn't he remember all this years later as Darth Vader in Episode 4? Wouldn't there be some result of this coincidence? As noted above, having a slave that doesn't seem to be deprived or suffering and has the time/resources to build robots and pod racers as a hobby seems goofy too.

Again, it seemed to me like Lucas got the plot and characters to a certain point and then quit on them. With only a little extra effort or different emphasis on certain elements, the movie could have been much improved and the audience would have had more insight into the characters and identified with them more. As is, the lack of character development combined with wooden acting makes it hard for the audience to care. The special effects set pieces are spectacular, and the computer generated elements are pioneering and well executed, but without a reason to care about or like the characters, its hard to get too excited.

Again, not a horrid movie, but frustrating because with just a few changes or extra effort, it could have been so much better.

POSTSCRIPT (2011)to my original year 2005 review:

This movie does not get better with time or repeated viewings. Further, the contention of some fans who like this movie and claim it should be viewed in the context of the other films (now complete) is not only a misguided apologist stance, but outright doesn't hold water. Why? Because if you compare TPM to any of the 5 other SW films, it is clearly the idiot bastard son of the bunch, wheezing and drooling in the corner.

In review, I give credence to a theory that a lot of other reviewers have given: in essence, Lucas was boiling everything down in this film to aim at the 5-year-old to 8-year-old demographic (probably to sell toys and mechandise, the real unexpected treasure that the original trilogy coughed up back in the 70's and 80's) and, as a result, bored everyone else to tears and/or made older fans hopping mad. However, huge stretches of this movie are so slow-moving that I bet a lot of the the target audience squirmed around in their seats anyway.

The second theory that other viewers have posed that seems to ring true with me as well is that Lucas is in a position now where he's THE MAN and, as a result, has no one around him that is willing to bring up constructive criticism to him or challenge weaknesses in the plot, script, or characters. Back in the day, while the original SW was certainly his vision, that film had to rely on a far more collaborative process to get made and address the many challenges its making entailed. With TPM, Lucas had total personal control and it seems like no one around Lucas had the guts to say: "George, we need a good kid actor to play a central character like Anakin, not some cutesy wooden mop-topped kid from TV commericals" or "Damn, George, that Jar Jar is irritating as hell!" or "George, did you realize all the aliens seem to be stand-ins for offensive real-life planet Earth racial / cultural stereotypes?" or "All the scenes with Kabuki-Natalie are boring boring boring" or "This movie is all-CGI and no plot and no character depth!" or "This movie is full of jumbled-up crap that makes no sense!". Further, modern movie technology further consolidated control with Lucas in that the 1970's technology required many people's input to solve technical problems and was far less malleable; modern CGI allows Lucas to personally review, tweak, and endlessly revise every aspect of the film just the way he wants it.

In a nutshell, there is a reason that the Irvin Kerschner (R.I.P.)- directed "Empire" is widely viewed as the best of the 6 films. How Lucas could see dailies of some of the performances he got out of his actors in TPM and not realize things stank or, at the very least, weren't working is beyond me, unless he was constantly surrounded by lackeys and toadies saying "That's great, Mr. Lucas! Not explaining anything about Darth Maul makes him sooooo mysterious! Having Jar Jar be a moron who speaks like Stepin Fetchit is really cool! He needs more screen time! You're a genius!". In retrospect, I wish that Lucas had handed over all the remaining films from "Return" all the way thru the newer Pre-Quel trilogy to others with Lucas only having an overall story arc / consulting role.

I know that Lucas is irritated by fans who act as if he "owes them" to handle all these movies a certain way (its HIS vision, as I'm sure he'd point out), and maybe it is unfair to whine about how Lucas could have / should have directed the story a different way. But the fact is that TPM is not a very good movie, and regardless of quibbles about overall direction of the... Read more ›

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Many many problems, very little to even them out, October 29, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Most people have a very simple problem with this film...Jar Jar. To be honest I wish I could wrap up all of my problems in such a neat little package but to be perfectly honest Jar Jar was not enough to stand out among the other sheer problems with this film.

Let's start with technical issues I had. The script was horrible. Parts of it were rushed, parts of it were strung out way too long making the pacing of this film a lot like stop and go traffic...kinda surprised I didn't get whiplash. Other than that however the movie, technically was awesome. Cinematography was great, the special effects were really cool (Though I must admit I was expecting something better from ILM.) and while the design did not in any way fit with classic Star Wars I can forgive that given just how damn cool everything looked. (Well except maybe for the Naboo city which was so obviously ripped off from Dinotopia.)
The acting was horrible, but then again it was in the old Star Wars as well. Which is something I attribute to poor direction rather than the actors. Liam Neeson is a good actor and so are many of the others but in this film it was a sad sight.
I suppose I could complain about the fact that each alien race sounded like a stereotype of a modern Earth like race. Like the trade federation guys sounding like Chinese or Japanese people trying to speak english and were preoccupied with money. Or the Gungans sounding Jamaican. But let's be honest, it's not a huge deal. At least to most of us it isn't.
Let's get to the real two issues I had with this film. Number one is the insanely stupid way the heroes win the day at the end through sheer luck. I hear some people out there saying "Not luck, it's the force." Well it didn't look like the Force to me. It didn't have the mystical feel of intentional Will like Luke Skywalker firing the torpedo into the Death STar did. It felt like SLapstick luck. Hell the Three Stooges could have won the day the same way. Lets detail what I mean. Anakin Skywalker accidentally starts the ship and takes off for the battle in space because of autopilot. There was no intention there other than to hide and off he goes, where is the Mystical force in that? Then he accidentally flies into the main ship trying to avoid getting shot down and manages to land right in front of the main generator. Then he accidentally fires the main guns into the generator and manages to fly out of the ship without being harmed. It all felt like he was stumbling in the dark. Rather than the heroic against all odds force of Will that Luke seemed to use in the first film. And then look at the lightsaber duel with the two Jedi and the Sith. The Sith can handle both Jedi easily and kills the more talented and trained Jedi easily but when faced by a weakened young Jedi he gets suddenly easily distracted and stupid and dies. Come on, Obi Wan did not kill Darth Maul because he was better or because of the force, he killed Darth Maul because he got lucky that the nasty evil dude didn't cut him in half as he lazily drifted over his head in that slow as hell flip.
Now lets get to the real issue. All of the above can be forgiven, but there is one thing that can never be forgiven. Throughout every movie, every book, every comic and every story the Force is treated as a mystical energy Unquantifiable and unknown. It permeates everything and flows around everything providing this mystical flow to the universe. That was awesome, it was the Force, it was Life. But all of the sudden they reduce the Force to a known, measurable, controllable lifeform known as Midechloreans that infest living beings and grant them the power of the force. Nevermind the fact that the whole idea is ripped off straight from Madeline L'engle books Wind in the Door, Wrinkle in Time and a Swiftly Tilting Planet but even more recent Parasite Eve. That really doesn't matter compared to the fact that the whole concept completely destroys the mysticism and wonder of the Force. Suddenly it can be measured and detected? How is that mystical or epic or wonderous at all, Just makes me wonder if I have to pay the Power Company extra for it.

However this film does boast the single greatest fight scene in cinematic history (Well ok, American Cinematic history.). The Lightsaber Duel at the end is epic and awesome and the DVD may be worth buying just to watch that scene over and over again. But given the name of the next film (Attack of the Clones) and the many problems with this film I would rather never see this scene again than give any of my hard earned money to an egotist like Lucas.

But we are each allowed our own opinion. I am allowed mine and you are all allowed yours whatever they may be.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The Force is strong in this one. Episode 1 on DVD 10/16/2001, June 19, 2001

By 

Daniel C. Storm (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition) (DVD)

Well Star Wars fans, the wait is finally over. George Lucas has crumbled under fan pressure and is finally going to release Episode 1 on dvd. As a fan, I can only hope that this is just the beginning!! Fans desperately want Episodes 4-6 on DVD, but we'll settle for this for now. Hey George, how about getting together with Steven Spielberg and finally put out the Indy Jones Trilogy as well??

Anyways folks, here is what you will be getting. I'm sure more stuff will be announced but this is it for now. Enjoy!

At about 480 minutes in length, it features over six hours of additional bonus material, including brand new visual effects sequences executed just for the DVD release.

* The Phantom Menace, mastered by THX for superior sound and picture quality, presented in Anamorphic Widescreen and Dolby 5.1 Surround EX (English), Dolby 2.0 Surround (English and Spanish), and Dolby 2.0 Surround (French, for Canadian release)

* Audio commentary by Writer-Director George Lucas; Producer Rick McCallum; Co-Editor and Sound Designer Ben Burtt; Visual Effects Supervisors Scott Squires, John Knoll and Dennis Muren; and Animation Supervisor Rob Coleman, offering personal insights into the making of the film

* Seven never-before-seen deleted scenes with full visual effects completed just for the DVD release

* "The Beginning" -- an all-new hour-long documentary culled from over 600 hours of footage offering unprecedented access inside Lucasfilm and ILM during the making of Episode I

* Multi-angle storyboard to animatic to finished film feature, that lets you flip through the various phases of development of key action sequences

* Five behind-the-scenes featurettes exploring The Phantom Menace's storyline, designs, costumes, visual effects and fight scenes

* The popular "Duel of the Fates" music video that debuted in 1999

* All 12 parts of the Lynne's Diaries, the web documentaries that first appeared at starwars.com

* Galleries of theatrical posters, print campaign, and never-before-scene production photos

* Original theatrical teaser and launch trailers

* Seven TV spots including the "tone poems"

That's it for now. Purchase this dvd and the force will be with you, always.