Star Wars - Episode I: Phantom Menace

Rating:
Summary: Pick up the novel instead...
Review: First, let me say that I am not a comic book expert. I haven't read that many recently, so I don't have a wealth of knowledge to compare this graphic novel against

That being said, I still feel able to judge the Graphic Novel for Star Wars: Episode One against my general Star Wars knowledge. Jar Jar haters will be pleased that his role was reduced a little, and that he doesn't come off as goofy as he does in the movie.

This is graphic novel is fairly true to the spirit of the movie. In places, the dialogue has been shortened, or a scene shortened, but for the most part, the book covers the movie.

However, there are places that if you did not know the story from the movie, you might get a little lost. For instance, the battle between the Gungans and the Droid Army. All of a sudden, the droid infantry just shows up with no real explanation that they were deployed from the troop carriers.

In other places, the novel fails to capture the drama, adventure, or feel of the movie. This is most apparent during the Pod Race. None of the speed, danger, or implications of the race are apparent. If this weren't a novelization of a movie, one would have to wonder why it was even included.

Overall, it is still a fun read, and a nice visual reference to the movie. Some additional narrative comments between panels to direct the action would have made up for some of the deficiencies, and the art could have been more inspiring. It'll stay in my collection as a reference, but it probably won't be reread much.

Rating:
Summary: Pick up the novel instead...
Review: First, let me say that I am not a comic book expert. I haven't read that many recently, so I don't have a wealth of knowledge to compare this graphic novel against

That being said, I still feel able to judge the Graphic Novel for Star Wars: Episode One against my general Star Wars knowledge. Jar Jar haters will be pleased that his role was reduced a little, and that he doesn't come off as goofy as he does in the movie.

This is graphic novel is fairly true to the spirit of the movie. In places, the dialogue has been shortened, or a scene shortened, but for the most part, the book covers the movie.

However, there are places that if you did not know the story from the movie, you might get a little lost. For instance, the battle between the Gungans and the Droid Army. All of a sudden, the droid infantry just shows up with no real explanation that they were deployed from the troop carriers.

In other places, the novel fails to capture the drama, adventure, or feel of the movie. This is most apparent during the Pod Race. None of the speed, danger, or implications of the race are apparent. If this weren't a novelization of a movie, one would have to wonder why it was even included.

Overall, it is still a fun read, and a nice visual reference to the movie. Some additional narrative comments between panels to direct the action would have made up for some of the deficiencies, and the art could have been more inspiring. It'll stay in my collection as a reference, but it probably won't be reread much.

Rating:
Summary: EPISODE 1 COULDN'T LOOK MORE BORING.........................
Review: Let me start off by saying that I love this movie and thought it was really awsome, but this comic book adaption of the movie couldn't look more boring if it tried! Every scene looks as though the artists tried to trace the actual film cells instead of taking time to create his own vision and style. If I want to see exact scenes from the movie, I will get out my widevision card sets. The inking is not well done either. Several scenes feature interesting details such as characters eyes looking in opposite directions at one time, hilariously distorted facial expressions (check out Senator Palpatine's portrait when the heroes first arrive on Coruscant), and a really irritating use of shading (either to much or none at all). At times Queen Amidala appears to have no nose! The only way that I can recognize the differances between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn is by their hair styles because they certainly don't look like their real life counter-parts! And the final lightsaber battle has absolutely no life in it whatsoever. Also, don't forget to check out the very last page which features one of the most pitiful celebration scenes in comic book history. At least the backgrounds and the starships were done adequetly. This is a real shame because I have enjoyed Al Williamson's work in the past years, but apparently his heart was not in this project. Fortunately this is not the only adaption available to movie and comic book fans. The EPISODE 1 Manga version has just been released and it is truly fantastic! Two issues at ten dollars a piece is a little steep, but at least you will own a true masterpiece!

Rating:
Summary: Not too bad, but nothing much really
Review: Now don't get me wrong here. It's a great movie, well a good movie. But this isn't the movie, it's the comic book.

The problem is, it IS the movie! There is nothing here that stands out on it's own from the movie and all the other hype. It's a good movie, but it's not a good comic book in it's own right.

Or to simplify further, it'd be better if there wasn't a movie, because this is just the movie on paper (well, a movie on paper is a script, but you get the metaphor). If you've seen the movie, don't bother. If not, go ahead.

Rating:
Summary: Artful Jedi Knights
Review: Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace translates quite well, from feature film, to comic book. Despite the fact that, the movie had its share of problems, from a story standpoint. Not to mention, very static direction by George Lucas, the Dark Horse Graphic Novel still manages to come out on top.

THE STORY: Writer Henry Gilroy (who would also go on to adapt Attack Of The Clones) makes good use of a limited amount of space. He successfully takes the film's script, gives readers an edited version of it, without making it seem edited. It never seems rushed and none of the scope of the film is lost in the process. Adapting a film for the comics is never easy, but in Gilroy's hands it would seem that way.

THE ART: The team of Rodolfo Damaggio, and Star Wars Comics' veteran Al Williamsom are great together. Their work creates a visual feast, and is at times, stunning. It's very detailed, for the most part, with very few exceptions. The charcters and situations mirror their cinema counterparts to a tee. The artwork is a major reason to own this in first place--it's that good. My favorite artwork in the book is the depiction of the climactic lightsaber duel between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan, and Sith Darth Maul

As a bonus the 112 page book includes a cover gallery of the artwork of cover illustrator of Hugh Flemming, who worked on all four single issue covers, for the newstand version of the story. The graphic novel trade paperback is recommended

Rating:
Summary: An excellant comic book- graphic novel fans should enjoy it
Review: The graphic novelization of Episode I is very well done- the storyline is good, and the artwork is great. My only complaint is the change of artwork styles at the end. The lightsabers are writen very true-to-life during most of the comic book. During the final battle, however, the blades suddenly become rods of pure color. The white center to the lightsaber blade is gone. This gives the most exciting part of the movie a cheap look. Other than that, it's a good read.

Rating:
Summary: Too literal
Review: The Star Wars film-to-comic adaptations have been notoriously bad, and this one is no exception. Oh, the art isn't as drab as the previous adaptations, and it's not as hard to follow, but it's judt boring. It follows the film much too literally, and even though from some of the pictures it's clear the artists didn't have the complete movie to work from, even the poses and facial expressions like copied from the film.

This would have been a much better comic if it had been combined with the Episode I Adventures story into one big, comprehensive graphic novel, but as it is, it's just boring.

Also, the art, which as I said isn't dull, still isn't great. I feel that there was a lot of unexploited potential in this comic, and I don't understand why such a visually-oriented film should be so hard to convert to the comic medium.

Stay away from this one.

Rating:
Summary: Too literal
Review: The Star Wars film-to-comic adaptations have been notoriously bad, and this one is no exception. Oh, the art isn't as drab as the previous adaptations, and it's not as hard to follow, but it's judt boring. It follows the film much too literally, and even though from some of the pictures it's clear the artists didn't have the complete movie to work from, even the poses and facial expressions like copied from the film.

This would have been a much better comic if it had been combined with the Episode I Adventures story into one big, comprehensive graphic novel, but as it is, it's just boring.

Also, the art, which as I said isn't dull, still isn't great. I feel that there was a lot of unexploited potential in this comic, and I don't understand why such a visually-oriented film should be so hard to convert to the comic medium.

Stay away from this one.

Rating:
Summary: AWESOME!
Review: This book is AWESOME! It`s has great illustrations. I rate this 5 Stars! I really recommend this book for anyone who loves STARWARS.

Rating:
Summary: Awesome Graphic Novel!
Review: This book is the graphic novel (comic book) of The Phantom Menace. It's a great book and I've read it thousands of times. The illustrations are great and and no characters are out of place. I think that the authors did a great job with Qui-Gon Jinn especially. And all of the other characters were great. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves Star Wars. This is definently a Star Wars book to add to your collection.