Rating: 
Summary: A veritable art-gallery by master conceptual artists
Review: I would never have thought that I would stoop so low in nerd-dom and buy a book like this, but there is more to being a nerd than simply obsessing over your favorite fantasies.I love Star Wars, hate the Phantom Menace. And yet way back when the VHS release was going on, I too crowded into a Media Play at 12 in the morning with my buddy and his wife to get my advanced Widescreen Collector's copy. DVD has since come and taken away any significance to that item, but what did come along with it was a little booklet featuring excerpts from "The Art of Star Wars; Episode I." For a long time this little booklet and I rarely parted, and I thought I was so priviledged to have this particular booklet and that it would one day be a rarity. Imagine my surprise when I discovered THIS book, the actual Art of Star Wars. Not only does it have everything in my booklet, but it presents conceptual art from all corners of the movie. There's so much to look at, and so much that is fascinating to look at, you can't help spend hours just looking. The book is hard-bound, with pages made from such high-quality paper, it will make you turn them with tweezers, they feel so expensive. The art is presented in chronological order with the film, so that reading it cover-to-cover is almost like watching the film. For most of the artwork, a little background information is provided in the corner next to a numerical key denoting which works belong to which artists. As for the quality of reproduction; I am rarely satisfied when something I've drawn is scanned onto a color-copier, which often is the best option for reproducing them. I still lose something in the translation from pad to paper, a little bit of hue here, some shading here, depth of line there. However, in this book there is nothing lost. (Nothing is lost, or the originals must be stunning to look at!) The artwork shows you just why the movie relies so much on visuals (and not on strength of character or plot). Artists Doug Chiang, Ian McCaig, and Terry Whitlatch to name a few, are so skilled at vividness, their works immediately juice your imagination into action. Looking at concepts for space-ships, you can almost hear them fly. The emphasis is on Doug Chiang and Ian McCaig, one a brilliant architectural and mechanical artist, the other a genius at characters and costumes. Whitlatch seems to handle most of the aliens, while gorgeous matte-paintings by Doug Chiang depict, in color, some of the more finalised concepts. If you are a fan of Star Wars, this book is a must for any in-depth knowledge of how things developed behing the scenes. For film scholars, I would also recommend this book, for the glimpse it provides into the realm of pre-production, especially for you film scholars who have never set foot onto a film studio, or a design office. For fellow artists, I can only say that these works inspire to improve my technique and work even harder at my art. It's always the test of an artist when he runs into someone who is superior; does the work make you want to quit art, or make you want to improve? This stuff will make you choose the latter.
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: If you are looking for the best Star Wars art book ever published, you just hit it! You will find inside, sketches, drawings and never before seen depictions of the Star Wars Episode One creatures and spaceships! The book is beautifully crafted and wonderfully arranged... and its a pleasure to stroll trough those pages. Special attention to the creative development of worlds must be given for sure! Feel the power of the force when you see the scary drawings of gargantuan Coruscant...and the weird Darth Maul....and surely, enjoy Naboo: the City of Theed chapter, where you will find how it evolved from inks to a Space Renaissance paradise!
Rating:
Summary: A masterpiece
Review: If you are looking for the best Star Wars art book ever published, you just hit it! You will find inside, sketches, drawings and never before seen depictions of the Star Wars Episode One creatures and spaceships! The book is beautifully crafted and wonderfully arranged... and its a pleasure to stroll trough those pages. Special attention to the creative development of worlds must be given for sure! Feel the power of the force when you see the scary drawings of gargantuan Coruscant...and the weird Darth Maul....and surely, enjoy Naboo: the City of Theed chapter, where you will find how it evolved from inks to a Space Renaissance paradise!
Rating:
Summary: The best "art of" book of all time
Review: If you're a professional illustrator, film student or even a casual Star Wars fan, this is a fantastic book. As a trainee production illustrator and animator, I found this book to be the best possible resource for movie production artwork. Weather you're a sci-fi devotee or take a casual interest in film making, you will do no better than to buy this book. It is stunningly presented, printed and bound. Get the hardcover while you still can- the softcover release (God forbid if there ever is one) will not be as good as this.
Rating: 
Summary: The Future Through the Past
Review: It is hard to think of Star Wars as just a film without wanting to look deeper into what goes on behind the camera, and in this case what is behind the camera is so much larger than a standard movie. Star Wars spawned industries and new technologies through Lucas' obsession with getting his vision on to the big screen, but Lucas' visions would be nothing were it not for the legion of talented concept artists who rendered his thoughts on to paper, then a model or costume, and now, the computer. Indeed, the art department of Industrial Light and Magic-Lucas' preeminent special effects house, has some of the brightest, most imaginative artists working within the industry today. For the Phantom Menace Lucas turned to Doug Chiang to provide much of the design work used within the film, most notably the ships and vehicles of the Trade Federation and those of the Naboo. The Art of the Phantom Menace takes us through the evolution of these designs from concepts to the screen, and in many cases abandoned ideas were often better than what eventually made it to the screen. Plus, it is easy to understand why Lucas wanted the Trade Federation army to be comprised mainly of robots instead of people-it is much more pleasant to have Jedi hacking the arms, legs and heads off of non-thinking robots than it would be if they were Stormtroopers or other living soldiers. While these designs are nice, I found them to be conservative and far less evocative than the previous host of vehicles in the first three films. A Naboo N-1 Starfighter resembles a speed boat with port and starboard engines, garishly painted yellow with chrome accents; it also completely lacks the impact of an X-Wing with its variable geometry wings and more utilitarian design. The Queen's cruiser is little more than a silvery US Air Force SR-71 spy plane. In fact, much of the designs fell flat, whether it was the Trade Federation battleship-a toroid with a sphere mounted in the center just isn't as impressive as the fearsome wedge-shaped Star Destroyer. I however liked the AAT and MTT used by the Federation, the Armored Attack Tank had a decidedly insectile and alien appearance while the locomotive inspired Multi-Troop Transport seemed imposing and powerful. The pod racers had a beautiful look-like much of the Star Wars designs, looked functional and well used, unlike the pristine pixie dust and polish that accompanies the vehicles and sets of Star Trek. I enjoyed the pod designs immensely and chuckled when I recognized that Sebulba's pod car was in fact the front end of an A-10 Fairchild with engines attached on either side of the cockpit. The book takes us through the evolution of not only vehicles, but also costumes and sets. The big advantage Lucas in the Phantom Menace was that many of the sets were all done with CGI, meaning they were nothing more than blue walls behind the actors which were then rendered in during post production. Whether they were full-scale physical sets or CGI, it didn't matter, the background buildings of Naboo, Coruscant, and Tatooine add so much flavor to the film, because they are so varied and work well add distinctiveness to each of the locations through out the film. It also gives us a look at the creatures seen through out the film, the stages of gungan development from amphibians to Jar Jar Binks, beasts of burden and the myriad of creatures seen in the senate chambers, swamps, and deserts. This book is for those who like to look beyond the film, to know how a vehicle or creature or building began as a rough piece of concept art to the finished product. Though as I said, I wasn't all that thrilled with the vehicle designs, I felt that the book itself was a worthy addition to my Star Wars library of art and special effects books. And while there isn't a lot of text to read (always a downside), the art more than makes up for it.
Rating:
Summary: This book rocks
Review: Its like a whole museum in one book, if you are an artist or a beginning one, this is the book to get your juices flowing. I get so inspired and full of ideas just by looking at the cover when its laying on my table. The art in the book is simply outstanding. It has doesens of pictures of buildings, starships, machinery, chracters all of wich are simply state of the art. It shows you how each item has been develped over the period of time. Darth Maul was originally a woman! A scary one too. Lucas definetly had the best artists in the world working on that movie. I'd recommend it to everyone who draws, writes stories or just needs some inspiration and drive.
Rating:
Summary: Impressive and fascinating! A STAR WARS must buy for sure!
Review: Jonathan Bresman has done a great job preparing this book, which is a genuine masterpiece not only for collectors and moviegoers but also to every single fan of the STAR WARS saga. I am a proud member of the generation that grew up watching STAR WARS, so the worldwide release of THE PHANTOM MENACE came right on time to satiate our thirst of new emotions reviewing all those planets, galaxies and characters again and again. I am very happy to add this book to my private "movie museum". Never before in my entire lifetime I've seen such a perfection and wealth of details. A must buy for sure. Five stars.
Rating: 
Summary: Not good as the hype
Review: No one comes close to the artwork of Ralpf McQuarrie. The art in this book was good overall, but not worth all the hype it is recieving.
Rating:
Summary: Close to a Must Have
Review: The book is fabulous for anyone who likes to see the way ideas come together in the pre-production process of a movie or who adores the Star Wars Saga. Fabulous drawings and paintings bring The Phantom Menace to life in this book. However, saying that, there is one qualm I have about this book. That is the very little amount of background descriptions regarding the images; though that now seems to be because of their relationship to Episode II. Apparently, George Lucas has gone back to some of the discarded designs of The Phantom Menace and reused them in Episode II. Most notable are the "Solar Ship" which has become Count Dooku's Interstellar Sail Ship, the original concept art for the Neimoidians which have now become the Battle Droid creators known as the Geonesians, and some of the Queen's Starship which have become the Senatorial Starship. I highly recommend this book, even with the lack of descriptions.
Rating:
Summary: A lovable Jar Jar?
Review: The pictures in this book are really cool. There are some of Jar Jar Binks that almost make you want to love him. (Almost!) Still, this book is full of production scetches. Missing are a lot of actual stills from the movie, like in the three other "Art of" series, however it is still a good book to get while it is still available in hard back.
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