Review of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace (2 Discs)

Introduction

Poor George! He really had a mountain to climb when creating Episode I. The weight of expectation and anticipation drummed up by his own marketing team and a million nerdy twentysomethings meant that Episode I had to be really special in order to compete with the classic that was Episode IV… does he have the Midas touch once more?

Well, yes and no! Lets deal with the `no`s` first. The film starts with a rather heavy political situation about a trade dispute, and after getting rid of a few incompetent droid guards, the Jedi`s discover a plot to place an army on Naboo. We track down to the planet and meet Jar Jar - one of the most annoying creatures to grace the silver screen and then to more shots of Jedi`s giving droids a kicking, and the whole thing generally meanders around, wanting something more to do.

This doesn`t have the cleverness of story that, say the Toy Story`s have, or, harking back to George`s previous venture, the constant cattiness, bitching and in-fighting surrounding Luke, Leia, Solo, R2 and 3PO. This was one of the charms of the first film - the hero`s could never agree on anything whilst trying to fight the most menacing and battle-hardened soldiers in the galaxy.

Still, this doesn`t mean TPM doesn`t have its moments - two in fact! The pod race and the lightsabre duel. And this is where George shows us who`s the real Jedi and gives us the kind of fast paced, breathy cinema we all crave. These are visceral scenes of pure energy giving the viewer a huge rush of adrenaline leaving you light-headed and high after watching them. Whilst we get 14 uninterrupted minutes of the pod race, George cruelly chopped the outstanding and stupendous Jedi fight between 3 other strands… the capture of the Viceroy, the war on Naboo and the space battle. This follows the format of the others (Episode IV had one battle, Episode V had two and VI had three… is he going to make 5 and 6 battles for Episodes II and III?) but it really hacks into this classic confrontation and detracts from the other battles (which are classics in their own right) because you are simply waiting for the next instalment of this duel. Aside from that though, these two scenes are probably the reason that you will purchase the DVD, watch the films over and over again and line his pockets with "more power than you can possibly imagine".

A point worth noting here is that you are getting the "Director`s Cut" so to speak. The pod race scene has been extended in a couple of places, also a taxi ride to show Coruscant has been added. Neither scene subtracts anything from the presentation, so are welcome for their inclusion.

Finally George has got the technology to make his vision of the Star Wars galaxy come truly alive. And we are honoured that he shares this very vivid and richly detailed world with us. Not the best of stories maybe, and previous Star Wars have had better main characters, but hell you`re going to buy it anyway (read on to see why)… so who`s the more foolish, the fool or the fool who buys all his merchandise?

Video

You won`t be disappointed here, in a word excellent! Lucas` very busy world is shown to the best of DVD`s ability with the 2.35:1 anamorphic print. There is a rich and varied palette of colours on display here from the blackness of space through to the bluey-white of Obi-Wan`s lightsabre.

Black is represented as true black - there is little or nothing to discern where space stops and the black lines of my TV start, the only clue is given in the dots of stars which seem to end before they get to the very top of the television. The wonderful deep reds and oranges give Naboo a very rich and lustrous look with its breathtaking Italian architecture and regal costumes. The sandy colours and sun-baked yellows of arid planet Tatooine are displayed with wonderful clarity. Skin tones are wonderfully captured in each of the actors, and, believe it or not, on the CGI characters (witness the slightly moist nature of Jar Jar`s skin after Qui Gon Ginn saves his life on Naboo).

Shadow detail is nothing short of superb. The tunnel sequence of the pod race still captures all the essence of the speed that they are travelling. Lord Sidius - only known by his nose and mouth at the moment, for reasons I`m sure will become apparent in later episodes - comes off as a grey and sickly creature, however the details of the parts of his face you can see, along with his chorded hood have a very clear definition.

The one minor detraction is the amount of edge enhancement on the characters but this isn`t a fault of the DVD. 85% of this film is CGI work, so there`s bound to be edge enhancement and this was in plain view on prints at the cinema. The DVD is simply replicating the original print, which is what it`s supposed to do.

My general opinion when reviewing this disk was that we now have a picture to match Toy Story 2 on DVD, but with the added complication of live action to boot. I then recalled that this was the first film to be shot entirely digitally for E-Cinema, and the DVD clearly likes the direct digital transfer. Minute details can be picked out, from the designs on ships, to the thick leather of Sebulba`s driving goggles, and each frame is filled with the sort of Star Wars life Lucas would have liked to have portrayed in the originals. Each of these is captured and displayed with a depth and clarity that I had previously never witnessed on a DVD.

From now on, this THX disk will be the benchmark that other DVD`s now must attain. This is the very best that DVD has to offer.

Audio

Well this just made me quiver! We start the disk with a brand new THX trailer, which for all intents and purposes has been ripped from the recent one done for the T2 Special Edition, and its over a little too quickly for my liking.

What follows this is a rather disappointingly flat rendition of the 20th Century Fox logo, but after the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away…" comes the main Star Wars logo accompanied by John Williams` memorable score - the full majesty of which is captured here. The fanfare of trumpets is backed up by a wonderful orchestral bass, which comes through very cleanly in all 5.1 speakers.

And you don`t have to wait long for aural treats either, the first ship after the opening credits can be heard coming from the left hand side, and as it appears main left and rear left speakers are engaged. Moving into the centre of the screen (and centre speaker) the volume increases and shares equal billing in the rear left, right and sub speakers. Finally it disappears off to the right as we then focus on the main ship surrounding Naboo.

The sound is as detailed as the picture, and you are constantly surrounded with sound. Speech (apart from Jar Jar`s) is very clear and never gets lost in the mix, however fraught. There is a wonderful texture here, a galaxy bristling with layer upon layer of life. It doesn`t matter where you are; there is always something to listen to. On Tattooine we hear the bustling town going about its business, and when we move into Watto`s shop the sounds are still there but a little more distant, as the noise of the shop and his flapping wings come into focus. There are hundreds upon thousands of layers of sound mixed here, along with your normal Star Wars` trademark laser blasts and lightsabre swooshes. A brief mention here for your sub which will be exercised well throughout the film, most notably in the pod race and lightsabre duels, but there are other effective uses of your low-end speaker - for example when one of the Jedi "push" droids over with the force, and your sub pushes air at you - a very nice touch!

Now onto the pod race. As sound designer Ben Burtt explains in the feature commentary, the sounds that you hear are recorded from natural sources and then processed into the Star Wars world. Here you will hear Indi 500 mixed with Formula 1, truck races, helicopters… the works. The sound has a fast pace and all 5.1 speakers are active to some degree throughout the whole scene. Pods will come at you from all angles, each locked perfectly to the action happening on, or disappearing off screen. The harsh shrill of the cars utilising the Doppler effect perfectly (cars approaching sound louder, and disappearing sounding smaller) with a wonderfully metronomic thump-thumping of the larger pods as they approach (and engulf) smaller vehicles. The roar of the jets gives your sub something to play with and this gives the pods excellent size, scale and menace.

Finally, I couldn`t do this sound review without bowing to the God of lightsabre duel sound mixing, Gary Rydstrom has once more come up with a masterpiece. The war on Naboo or the space battle would be enough for most other sound mixers to drool over, but the lightsabre duel would make them wet their pants! This is simply the best piece of sound mixing I have ever come across. It conveys the tension, excitement, adrenaline and gusto of the scene perfectly. The double doors open and Darth Maul looks up. The choir`s voices rise up like a thousand dead souls building the tension up and foretelling the dreadful events to happen. The lightsabres open with mid, low and (lightly touching) sub bass subtly revealing the potential power of these weapons.

And then it all cracks off. Each speaker gets a good blast of lightsabre as these "sticks of Force" are twirled in, through and around your head. They are always placed perfectly and you are always slap-bang in the middle of the fight - each clash of sabres making your woofers (and sub) sing with the menace (no pun intended) of the battle.

You`ll be skipping back to hear that bit again I promise you!

As the inventor of THX, Lucas shows you what can be done and just how bloody jaw-droppingly good Dolby Digital EX can be in the proper hands. DTS really doesn`t have anything on this. Sure it can sound more expansive, but it is always recorded at a higher volume than DD, and, for the DTS disks I own, I tend to find the sub can sound very thick and flabbier than its DD cousin. DTS can sound like a loud and brash American, compared to DD - its older, more refined and a bit less flashy British counterpart.

But that`s another debate, back onto Star Wars - the speech is clear and the orchestra wide and dynamic. Sounds pan effortlessly from one speaker to the other and the actual mix is spot on with a dense multitude of sound layers and effects perfectly placed and always in keeping with what is happening on or off screen. The picture pushes the boundaries of DVD quality and exceeds them - and you`ve never heard a DVD sound so good either! Once again, benchmark stuff!

Features

Oh Lordy, where do I start? Well, the menus would be the most logical place, however I am going to give a brief outline of the contents first. Disk 1 contains the film plus the audio commentary, with the rest of the extras (deleted scenes, documentary, trailers et al) residing on the second disk.

OK, onto the menus. I was initially disappointed as these are only in stereo but this is well recorded and perfectly serviceable. There is a hidden treat here though… there are multiple menu designs, which are randomly selected when you play the disk. I have identified three separate ones, each taking place on a different world in the film. At the start of one menu, the space ship will take you to Coruscant, another to Tattooine and the last one to Naboo. Each menu has a different wipe to the chapters, options and starwars.com sub-menus; also each sub-menu is different. This is an excellent and novel use of DVD menu technology.

The commentary is also one of the best, if not the best commentary I have heard to date. It features George Lucas, Rick McCallum, Ben Burtt, Rob Coleman, John Knoll, Dennis Muren and Scott Squires. As each person speaks, subtitles appear at the top of the film notifying you as to who is speaking. All of the commentary is screen linked, and happily the main speaker is George. It offers more insight into how George sees this world - the robots are supposed to be crap shooters that the Jedi`s chop down… apparently they will improve for the following episodes - he gives you this and other glimpses of where the story will go in Episode 2. Ben Burtt gives a very interesting talk on the sound design and the sounds he used to create certain effects. There is too much to go into here, but this is a worthwhile and entertaining listen from start to finish giving a very comprehensive insight into the production, story, sound design, model and CGI work that went into the making of this film.

Finally you have StarWars.com, this is a special website for owners of the DVD, and separate from the main Star Wars website. I have not been able to get onto this at the moment, and maybe it hasn`t been released yet. We will have to wait and see what this is like on 15th October.

So, onto disk 2. As soon as the disk goes in you will complain. The copyright symbol displays for about 10 seconds… however it repeats this in six (count `em) different languages taking the final copyright time count to over a minute. Tedious or what? This is a promotion copy disk, so perhaps the final version won`t have this stretched out time wasting exercise of copyright wrist-slapping in every conceivable European language.

Thankfully it gets better when you view the disk and its contents. We`re limited to one menu here, but again this is a fully animated menu with some nice little touches splashed around. For example the Animatics and Stills Gallery menu is held in Watto`s shop. If, after a while, you haven`t chosen an item, Watto flies on and expresses his impatience!

The main menu is split into four, Trailers and TV Spots; Deleted Scenes and Documentaries; Featurettes, Web Documentaries and StarWars.com; and finally Animatics and Stills Galleries.

So, onto Trailers and TV Spots. Whilst these are displayed anamorphically, they are unfortunately recorded in stereo. I find this to be a big disappointment as the genuine Dolby Digital EX soundtrack should have been included here. This leaves the trailers flatter than they should be, and without the depth, clarity or excitement of a Dolby Digital EX mix.

There is the teaser trailer (the best one), the main trailer (shows too much of the film, like all main trailers) and the "Duel of the Fates" video, which mixes the orchestra and choir recording at London`s Abbey Studios with footage of the film.

I tend to find TV Spots rather dull, however this certainly isn`t the case here. There were five "tone poems" produced, each giving a distinct flavour of the film (one love, one dream, one destiny, one will and one truth) and each voiced by one of the main characters giving an alternative insight into the themes of the film. The adventure section has two titles, The Saga Begins and All Over Again. These are the more normal promo features you will find on the TV when the film is playing in the cinemas, and they seem to give a little too much away also.

This collection is more interesting than most trailers and TV spots, but let down on the cinema trailers by a stereo soundtrack… a pity.

Next we go onto the Deleted Scenes and Documentaries section. Both documentaries are 16:9 anamorphic ratio with stereo sound, the deleted scenes are 2.35:1 anamorphic with the full Dolby Digital EX mix. The deleted scenes documentary explains the intention to finish and complete these scenes and then include them on the DVD. There are seven scenes in total and each is introduced with an explanation as to why it was cut out of the theatrical version of the film.

You can view the deleted scenes from the documentary, or on their own. The menu for these is very snazzy and features the red force fields the Jedi`s came up against during their climactic fight. Well worth checking out.

Finally we get onto the making-of Star Wars documentary included in this disk, and this is just great! No 15-minute promo piece here, or actors spouting out love for the director from every pore. This is an hour-length naked-video of the whole production process, from story-boards to the midnight opening in May 1999 in a cinema in San-Francisco. This is a true fly-on-the-wall documentary starting with pre-production, going through casting and picking Jake Lloyd to play Anakin Skywalker. We take in the productions in Italy, the UK and Tunisia - along with a devastating storm in Tunisia which wiped out the set - similar to events which happened in 1976 when they were filming the original Star Wars. We see Ewan McGregor and Ray Park practising and eventually duelling with the lightsabres, and then we move onto post production. Here we witness the enormous amount of work undertaken by ILM and the tight 18-month deadline they have to finish the project. John Williams takes us into Abbey Road Studios in London to show the orchestra and choir recording, and we move onto SkyWalker Sound to hear the decisions George and the boys take on the sound design. Finally to the theatre and the fans itching to see the new Star Wars on premier night. The hype is tremendous, and the cheer as their favourite film comes to life again is humorous and also quite touching to watch.

All documentaries should be made like this.

Next we move onto Web Documentaries and Featurettes. The Web Documentaries were created to satisfy a Star Wars-hungry fan base giving them a fly-on-the-wall look at the making of the film. This is given a 16:9 anamorphic presentation, and the quality is that of an expensive home-video camera. It`s not so much the quality here, but what is being said, and again, this gives extra insights into how it was all created, and what went into the production of this film.

There are five Featurettes in total and these look at different aspects of making the film. Again, anamorphic 16:9, and of a higher video quality than the web documentaries. If you watch the main documentary first, you will notice some scenes repeated here, however the majority of the featurettes is new material and gives you further information and insights into the film itself and its production.

I have to say, this really is beyond the call of duty in extra features value, and I haven`t even finished yet!

So… final bit for extra features. The last menu is Animatics and Stills Galleries.

Animatics are crude computer simulations drawn up in the pre-production process. They are one step forward from storyboards and allow the director to pace a scene and place the cameras. Two are included here, the first lap of the pod race, and the submarine sequence. These are presented using the angle feature so you can skip between storyboards, animatics, the final version, or a split screen of all three.

We then get some Exclusive Production Photos that can be viewed with or without subtitles attached. The subtitles make the pictures more interesting, however the full screen version is really what you want to see, so you are given the provision to toggle between the two.

The Print Campaign is a series of single actor picture shots that were used in a unique campaign crafted round the idea of "one". By pressing the right arrow key on your remote you can move from one character to the other. By pressing the down arrow key you toggle between the different campaigns for that character. These are interesting and novel.

Next we have the poster campaign. I remember the first time I saw the Teaser trailer - a young Anakin with the shadow of Darth Vader, what a wonderfully subtle and clever concept. This moves on to the main movie poster and demonstrates the slight alterations in its look as it moves from country to country.

Last, but not least you are given " Star Wars Starfighter: The Making of the Game". This is mainly a promo piece for the Starfighter game which was released on PS2, but it also digs a little into the production of the game.

That`s it! Phew!

Conclusion

Well, I have to say I think that`s worth £16 of anyone`s hard earned! This film, like his others, has been critiqued to death, and to be honest you either like it enough or you don`t. Yes Jar Jar IS annoying. No, we couldn`t give a monkeys about some outer-ring planet`s involvement in a trade dispute. Yes, give me more pod race moments AND DON`T YOU DARE cut away from Jedi`s fighting with lightsabres EVER AGAIN!!!

Overall though, I enjoyed the film tremendously, and George has really packed both DVDs with some of the best material around. Firstly the picture is taking DVD quality to the limits, and your speakers are going to be thoroughly exercised by the time the end credits roll. The huge amount of visual and aural detail he packs into this world means this DVD will be watched (and shown off) again and again. Not only that, but he endows the film with one of the best, most factual and comprehensive commentaries ever to grace a DVD.

And this is just for disk 1. Disk 2 is a document on the production of a film to beat all documents. Stuffed to the gills with trailers, featurettes, documentaries, deleted scenes, ad campaigns etc. No stone has been left unturned for the true Star Wars freak combined with the fact it is all really interesting for us slightly less nerdy types!

As a DVD this is about as good as you can get… I`m extremely tempted for the second time in my reviewing career to give the film perfect 10s all round - and even though Jar Jar is TOO annoying, the entertainment value you will receive from watching this disk surpasses any others in your collection. I also nearly knocked a point off for trailers being in Stereo only, but the rest of the 2nd disk is just too damn good.

Lucasfilm have produced something that is at once entertaining, and extremely informative. They have pushed the boundaries of film and sound production, and put THX back on the top of the map as the quality standard all films should attain to. Well done George!