Rating: 
Summary: Extras show the movie could have been worse!
Review: I'm not giving this five stars because it was a good movie...it wasn't. I'm sure everyone has thought or hear about how annoying Jar-Jar is (though not as bad the second time I watched it); the pod-racing was way too long and the announcers were too "modern" (sounds like Mel Allen doing the play-by-play); the actors playing Anakin and his mother are wretched (I don't know what was worse, their acting or their dialogue); shameful use of things such as fart and feces jokes; and Darth Maul is *seriously* underdeveloped as a character. The odd thing is that the five minutes of the final showdown between the Jedi is great filmmaking, the rest is Lucas playing with his "toys". What made the original trilogy great is that it was your classic Arthur legend, set in space, and done so in a manner that it worked on several levels. Kids loved the battles and special effects, adults could enjoy the plot-twists and the progress of the characters. None of this happens in the Phantom Menance, it's "dumbed down" to the lowest commmon denominator and if it had been truly the first movie in 1977, the series would have died. The DVD however is what DVD is all about. One disc has the movie with special features such as commentary and such, the other has mini-documentaries, photo and video galleries, etc. Nicely done. What scares me is watching the deleted scenes...because the movie could have been worse. The pod races could have been even longer than they were, the Jedi and Jar-Jar could have been threatened by falling over a waterfall for no reason when they arrive at the Naboo capital, etc. Bottom line, DVD: Five Stars; Movie: Two Stars at best.
Rating: 
Summary: The good is very good, the bad is horrible.
Review: George Lucas is hard to figure. Examples of George's senility: the Gungan leader, Anakin's flying hook-nosed slave lord, Yoda, the Trade Federation baddies, and of course Jar Jar (who's so far out ahead in first place that he almost makes everything else moot). Examples of George's brilliance: the visual effects on the whole (the feeling of expanse, whether in space, on Coruscant, out in the open, underwater...it's all breathtaking), the fight scenes and choreography (absolutely spectacular), the action scenes (pod race, space battle, etc.). And unfortunately, this trend isn't entirely new to this movie...if you watch the originals again, you'll see that senility gradually creeping up, starting with the Mos Eisly aliens in IV and culminating with the Ewoks in VI. I wish Mr. Lucas would just recognize what works...he has 4 of these babies under his belt already. But no, even in the face of as large an outcry as could exist against Jar Jar, he's still insistent on including the character in the next film. I hope it's for good reason considering what a detrimental effect the character had on this film...if Jar Jar isn't a pivotal part of the upcoming plot, then his inclusion will be practically the equivalent of George flipping off his fans. Anyway, lose the attempts at cutest aliens, and give the visual effects team and choreographers a raise, and we're three-quarters there. Have I mentioned how jaw-dropping the saber fight scenes are? (I hope Ray Park can be given more Star Wars work...his athletic talents add immeasurably to those scenes!) On the subject of the DVD, it does have some of the highest quality on the market...both the presentation and the sheer value of the extras is incredible, especially for such an amazingly reasonable price. I'm not much one for extras in general, but the ones on this disc (like the deleted scenes...incredible!) make a very strong argument. A sincere bow to the Lucasfilm for the value it offers fans with this DVD. Here's to hoping Episode 2 (my potential favorite of them all, synopsis-wise) finally meet's this franchise's incredibly high potential.
Rating: 
Summary: Just Shy Of Perfect
Review: The only complaint I have is that you cannot watch the movie with the complete deleted scenes in the movie, other than that I think its great can't wait till the rest are on dvd!
Rating:
Summary: Bad Gungan, good DVD!
Review: Whether you love or hate Jar, Jar, this DVD is worth his antics. The 2nd disc of this set is chock full of extras. As if the deleted scenes are enough, there are documentaries dealing with the fighting scenes, costume design and even Lucas's thought process when it comes to writing. (3 movies every 20 years, not to shabby.) This DVD set gives great insight into a fantastic world and the man who created it. Hopefully he will do justice to the original trilogy on DVD at some point...
Rating:
Summary: The Force is with this one
Review: It's unfortunate that the reviews for the DVD of TPM are included with the reviews of the movie itself. So much new material has been included on the DVD, it's practically a different product from the VHS version. The television ads aren't lying when they say this baby is the "new standard in DVDs". I've reviewed a lot of DVDs specifically on their extra content and never have I seen one where every feature was so compelling. Lucas is a master at slightly retooling his works every few years to drain every bit of money he can out of his loyal fans, but this time he gives his audience a full meal which augers well for the DVD release of the other films in the series. Most obviously, there's the filmmakers' commentary. Like the movie itself, there's almost too much information happening at once to catch it all on the first viewing. If you have any interest at all in the filmmaking process, you'll find yourself rewinding over scenes to hear everything that's said. In some ways, it could be argued that the commentaries of all the participants should've been separated out into more than one track. The most obvious choice would've been to have a director's/editor's/producer's track distinct from the producer's track, but that's a very small quibble indeed. There are very few who won't think the track given is compelling and, in some cases, actually plot-amplifying. But it's really disc two that provides the most content. You'll spend a good five or six hours mining for treasure, here. Some of the material is familiar to those who followed the development of the film for years on starwars.com. There, a series of web documentaries were created at various stages of the film's progress to keep people interested. Now, they comprise a nifty historical record. Tackling the film from every angle, they give you in-depth understanding of the various challenges posed by lightsaber battles, costuming, visual design and casting. For those of us who followed the development of the movie regularly on starwars.com, there's not a great deal which is new here. But even if you logged on to starwars.com every day, you'll be glad to have this collection offline. Likewise, the trailers and tone poems are things fans will have seen many times over, but they're rendered here in more splendid quality than is available on the web. Particularly significant in this section is the music video for "Duel of Fates". While this has long been permanently available on starwars.com, it received little bandwidth priority there. Oddly, this was only available in a very small size with unimpressive audio. Here, it's preserved better than I remember it on MTV. Instead of just being an exercise in directorial creativity, it neatly edits together scenes from the creation of the movie and the film itself,. It's worth pointing out that the collection of television spots is by no means exhaustive. But the most significant ones are here, especially the emotionally effective tone poems. Still, the one thing that fans and non-fans will want the most from disc two is the hour-long documentary. Without narration, it provides raw video from various phases in the production. You see many relatively unguarded moments which range from those that help you understand the enormity of the filmmaking task, to those which give you a new appreciation for the bits of the film that annoyed many viewers. You will definitely start to see this film as a beginning of a larger tale, not as merely a film unto itself, and this will doubtless increase your appreciation for it. Indeed, what this excellent documentary does best is to capture the struggle of making this film, which, despite having the famous first trilogy as a point of reference, was every bit as revolutionary as, say, SNOW WHITE AND THE SEVEN DWARVES. More than that, though, you'll see the very human side of the filmmakers as they go through moments of daunting frustration yet miraculously never seem to lose their innate enthusiasm for their craft. It is reason enough to buy this DVD. What most hard-core fans will buy this DVD for, though, is first access to the trailer for Episode II. Through online links, DVD owners are given first crack at the upcoming feature on a special site that will, apparently, be constantly updated until the release of ATTACK OF THE CLONES. If you care about getting the very latest official information from LucasFilm, you're going to need this DVD. Unfortunately, this opportunity is not available to Macintosh users. Indeed, it painfully points out the only failing of this DVD. The special features are not Macintosh-friendly. No Mac user can get to the special DVD web site. And many are reporting problems even mounting disc two. This DVD, too, contains a large number of "Easter Eggs" (hidden, coded features), almost none of which are accessible on a Mac. If you can only watch this DVD on a Mac, I suggest you go to macfixit.com for full reports on steps you may have to take to get the most out of this purchase. It's ironic that there are such problems for Macs, since Macs were used extensively in the production of the film itself. That aside, there's not much to complain about with this DVD. LucasFilm has done right by its fans and its critics, giving even casual viewers plenty of cause to revisit that galaxy far, far away.
Rating:
Summary: Great DVD that improves the movie experience
Review: I may not have thought this was my favorite Star Wars movie, but it definitely has a lot worth enjoying. This DVD actually helped me like the movie better and is overall an outstanding DVD that lets you escape to the Star Wars universe for a while. DISC 1
First of all, the movie is presented in beautiful anamorphic widescreen and is crystal clear. It's a great demo piece for your Home Theater system both in terms of visuals and sound. The menu system is something different than ever seen before because it features 3 completely different menu themes based on the locations of the movie. You can actually choose which menu you want by pressing 1, 2, or 3 during the first warning screen of the DVD. The commentary track during the movie has great insights and, I felt, was one of the more interesting commentary tracks I've heard. DISC 2
This disc contains the bulk of the many special features. The deleted scenes were great to see, but even better was the fact that so much work and money was actually put in to complete the effects for them. As if that's not enough, there's a short documentary explaining what went into the deleted scenes and how the creators felt about leaving them out. By far my favorite part of the disc is a professionally made, outstanding documentary entitled "The Beginning". It makes you feel as if you were a fly on the wall during some of the most interesting parts of the process to make this movie. For example, you get to see the scene when Ewan McGregor got to pick his lightsaber for the movie and hear how excited he was about it. This documentary has humor and characters you care about watching. It is one of the true gems of this disc set for sure. Disc 2 also contains 5 specially made featurettes, and all 12 of the great web documentaries on the making of the film. It also has the famous trailers and TV spots, as well as a making of the video game Starfighter. There are also additional Easter Eggs (hidden treasures) found throughout the disc that haven't even all been discovered yet. One, for example, shows some hidden outtakes from the movie. To get to it, go to the Options menu on Disc 1, and enter on your remote "11", then "3", then "8". Depending on your system you may have to press enter after each number. This only begins to get into what's great about this DVD. Overall, this is one DVD I am glad to own and I give it my highest recommendation.
Rating: 
Summary: Why... Why'd he have to do it...
Review: Damn you George Lucas, damn you for ruining the Star Wars movies. Some day I will meet you and tell you this.
Rating:
Summary: Great content, terrible execution
Review: Deffinitelly worth a buy, due to the content. Pros:
* Deleted scenes documentary, which also tells you why scenes get deleted, and how they are chosen.
* "The making of..." documentary offers rare insights into the financing of the movie.
* Two scenes added into the movie. Cons:
* It forces you to install a terrible DVD player, which tends to crash, does not install properly and drastically decreases the movie quality on under-1GHz computers.
Rating: 
Summary: Spectacular Snooze
Review: The DVD is the first time I've seen this movie. Honestly, I fell asleep. This is not the sign of a good film. I keep hearing about how great the extras on the 2nd disk are but, who cares when the movie was this dull? Why would I want to see them? I think part of the problem was Lucas and team tried too hard to keep everyone happy and, in doing so, made no one happy. I would willingly pass on special effects and odd-looking aliens if I could get a bit of story.
Rating:
Summary: I wanted to like it ... What Happned!!
Review: I love the StarWars movies. I can watch them again and again and never tire of them. But Phantom Menance is a film I don't plan on watching any time soon. The only parts of Phantom I liked were when Annakin Skywalker's mom reveals that Annakin had no father, and the last battle scene with Darth Maul--the rest of the movie left me bored and restless. I wanted the movie to take me on an emotional journey where I cared about the characters I watched and felt their feelings as they displayed them, but watching Phantom Menance I felt nothing. I felt like an outsider watching a film without meaning, watching battles that I didn't even care who wins. I hope Lucas stops production on Star Wars II. I have a feeling that it's going to be a bad film because he'll focus on visual effects rather than human emotions, and it will tell a story through artifical beings who lack substance rather than multi-layered characters (see Hans Solo) who create emotions at will.
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