DVD One: Star Wars on disc

Rating: Null/10 (16 December 2001)

Of course, of all the Star Wars films to put on DVD, I'd least like to see "The Phantom Menace." I'm personally dying to see "Empire Strikes Back" in all its digital glory, but from what I've heard, we've got to wait 4 more years for that. As for the "Episode One" DVD I have to say the packaging is impressive. And the visual and sound effects are simply state of the art. Unfortunately, the movie still stinks. It is a horrible, horrible film. The dialogue is atrocious, the acting stiff and lifeless and the editing annoyingly overkill.
The DVD has been hyped for having tons of extras but don't be fooled. Basically, the 2 disc set contains the movie, a few documentatries, an audio commentray and several delted scenes. After you get done watching them you might feel as cold and empty as you did after first seeing "Episode One" in theaters. The one hour documentary "The Beginning" is interesting, but I couldn't imagine watching it more than one time. As for the rest, the cut scenes included amount to more bad fotage from a bad movie. The exception is the waterfall sequence which actually packs some of the excitement of old Star Wars films. The rest of the scenes are excuses for ILM to show off more computer effects.
"The Phantom Menace" is not only a lousy film its also a dangerous one. Because it hurts the Star Wars legacy, which was firmly in place thanks to the original trilogy. In Episode One, Lucas changes many of the mythical aspects of the saga, turning the force into midichlorians and making Anakin a "virgin birth." And rumors have it that Lucas will add new scenes into the DVD versions of the classic trilogy to tie it into the prequel films. I'd personally rather that George stop making Star Wars films than dare to alter the classic trilogy.