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Dom Robinson reviews
The Phantom Menace
- Cert:
- Cat.no: 22733 DVD
- Running time: 131 minutes
- Year: 1999
- Pressing: 2001
- Region(s): 2, PAL
- Chapters: 50 plus extras
- Sound: Dolby Digital 6.1 Surround EX
- Languages: English
- Subtitles: 5 languages available
- Widescreen: 2.35:1 (Arriscope)
- 16:9-Enhanced: Yes
- Macrovision: Yes
- Disc Format: 2 * DVD 9
- Price: £24.99
- 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)
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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 tooutlying star systems is in dispute.
Hoping to resolve the matter with a blockade of deadly battleships, the greedyTrade Federation has stopped all shipping to the small planet of Naboo.
While the Congress of the Republic endlessly debates this alarming chain ofevents, the Supreme Chancellor has secretly dispatched two Jedi Knights, theguardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, to settle the conflict….”
The story is unnecessarily complex, it’s not that that’s particularlyimportant to enjoy the show. However, because of a lack of substance overallit doesn’t quite come off in the way it should and the introduction of Jar JarBinks (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 hewas a hit with the children and I guess you could find equally annoyingcharacters in the other films in the saga if “Phantom Menace” was your firstforay into watching it. I’d still like to switch off the computer generatingJar Jar though, as he could easily be dispensed with.
The focus is placed on young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd), who mustbe trained by Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) to learn the ways of theforce. Kenobi’s master Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) believes Anakin willbring balance to the force, but we know that Anakin turns into Darth Vaderby the time Star Wars: A New Hope comes along, so that’s a big mistakefor 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 certaindeath earlier on, the pair can’t afford to repair it so bet the farm on Anakinto win the Pod Race, this film’s equivalent of the chariot race scene inBen Hur.
It’s one of those films that’s entertaining to watch, but just lacks thenecessary to make it the great experience you expect, especially after partsfour to six in the series, which we’ve already seen. There’s the expectedclimactic battle, some iffy acting from Anakin’s mum, played by PernilaAugust, robots and puppets being introduced in the form of C-3PO, R2-D2and Yoda, all voiced by the same people as before and the chief bad guy hereis Darth Maul (Ray Park, who, after this film, charged people £15for his signature!)
Leon‘s Natalie Portman plays both Naboo ruler Queen Amidala andmenial worker Padme, which brings about a necessary decoy strategy later onand there’s cameo back-ups from Terence Stamp, Brian Blessed, Celia Imrie,Samuel L Jackson, Sofia Coppola, Bronagh Gallagher and a voice fromLindsay Duncan.
However, I still can’t accept the voice of Fozzie Bear, I mean, Yoda, byFrank Oz. The films he directs are piss-poor and he just makes Yodasound ridiculous.
The original poster.
Of course, you’d expect nothing less than an anamorphic widescreen transferin the original 2.35:1 ratio, but sadly for this high-profile release thereare a few print drop-outs on occasion and a slightly hazy look in some darkscenes, 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 6.1Surround EX soundtrack. What this means, is that in addition to the usualDolby Digital 5.1 affair with have an extra centre speaker at the rear, butinstead of being a discrete, separate audio channel, it’s an amalgamation of theother two rear channels, so not the great extra big deal we expected fromhaving an extra speaker being placed in the cinema, but when big sound iscalled 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 equivalentand not having a 6.1-compatible speaker system and amplifier myself, I cannotcheck, but since the Region 1 DVD does apparently have the 6.1 original, Iexpect this one does too. Still, the usual Dolby Digital 5.1 sound rocks big time in all manner ofscenes from John Williams‘s classic opener, through the rest of thescore and all of the sound FX inbetween. The whole thing’s a triumph andnever 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”, innon-anamorphic 16:9. There are seven TV Spots, one being 60 seconds longand the rest 30 seconds apiece, all in non-anamorphic 16:9.
The second menu offers up Seven Deleted Scenes, each with a choiceof director’s commentary, opening up first with a 7-minute documentary (in anamorphic 16:9) thatexplains why they are there. The scenes range from extended pod racesequences to a waterfall and air-taxi sequence. They’re not all essentialto the plot, but serve as fantastic audio-visual moments which would make arespectable director’s cut. These are all in anamorphic 2.35:1 and Dolby Digital5.1 sound.
Also here is the 66-minute documentary, The Beginning (anamorphic 16:9), which was culledfrom over 600 hours of footage during the film’s production. That amount oftape is to be expected when it’s taken 2-3 years to film and is something to whichyou’ve devoted your life. It certainly makes for fascinating viewing and Iloved the moment where the final fight scene is practiced between the two Jedisand Darth Maul. Ewan McGregor is thrown off the set onto a crash-mat and quipsto the crew ‘“Do you wanna do Star Wars?”, they said. I said, “Too right.”‘
The next menu contains Five Featurettes, highlighting separately onthe film’s visual effects, costumes, sumptuous design, fight scenes and thestory, while the Twelve Web Documentaries are a series of behind-the-scenesvideo documentaries, so-called because they were published on Starwars.comduring production to give fans a fly-on-the-wall perspective into the making ofthe film. Those with a PC can also link to the site itself either from thisDVD or at the bottom of this review.
The final extras menu, “Animatics and Still Galleries”, concentrates on thefirst three parts in the form of mini-featurettes showing an introductionto what goes into them and then Multi-angle storyboards for both thePod Race Lap One and the submarine sequence. The multi-angle sections comein four varieties: the storyboard, a pre-production look at what was filmedor drawn up on the computer initially, the finished result and a combinationof all three. The submarine sequence features different actors includingMarc Warren, a definite dead-ringer for a young Malcolm McDowelland has had acting parts in Grange Hill and Band of Brothers.
The Exclusive Production Photos section provide more behind-the-scenesglimpses into movie history, with the option to view them either withinformative text captions or as full-frame pictures without any text. ThePrint Campaign, centred around the idea of “One”, shows the sameindividual posters in a number of permutations depending on the place wherethey were to be posted up such as billboards and bus banners.
The Teaser and Release Posters section show the main poster in variousforeign guises and the Anakin teaser one, with the option to view in greaterdetail. The last part of this menu brings us a four-minute featurette about the Playstation 2 gameStar Wars: Starfighter, which has just been re-released at the sametime 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 DTSsoundtrack which was apparently created but has been overshadowed by thenew 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 comein 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 warranteda PG-certificate.
PICTURE QUALITY
SOUND QUALITY
EXTRAS
OVERALLVisit the official site:StarWars.com
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.