Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace [Blu-ray] [SteelBook] [1999]

As long as your expectations aren't ridiculously high, and you go into The Phantom Menace without any pre-conceived thoughts, its a great film from beginning to end. Jar-Jar is okay, a bit funny occassionly, but overall a pathetic character, and the way the Force is explained does quell the mystery behind Anakin's birth later in Episode III, but it takes a bit away from the spirtual and magical element of the Force. Fans will also love the great features included here, like the commentaries, an hour long documentary depicting the creation of The Phantom Menace, featurettes, trailers, and more. The video quality and audio are also suberb, great for showing off any home theater. Closing thoughts: I understand so many hate on The Phantom Menace, but for reasons so abmysal and small in my eyes. Maybe I like it more because I'm younger, and never got into the rdiculous hype, and watched it with a fresh perspective. Regardless, even if you don't like the movie itself, the special features and visual/audio quality should be enough to make it worthy of any DVD collection. If you're a newcomer, just go into the movie and take it for what it is, not a load of hype. ***** (five stars)

The first prequel, and in my opinion, the best. Set thirty years before the original film, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Episode I introduces young Anakin Skywalker (Jake Lloyd) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor), the wise old Jedi from the original series, who is a young apprentice himself. It is a time before the Empire when democracy reigned over the Galaxy in the Galactic Republic and when the Jedi knights were the guardians of peace and justice. However, when the greedy Trade Federation invades the planet of Naboo, two Jedi knights, Qui-Gon Jinn (Liam Neeson) and Obi-Wan Kenobi, are sent to settle the conflict. They join up with the queen of Naboo, Amidala (Natalie Portman), and Anakin Skywalker to take back the planet and fight a deadly menace lurking in the shadows - an evil Sith known as Darth Maul. An exciting and emotional action-packed adventure with great special effects, great characters, great performances, and a lot of suspenseful and well-staged action sequences. A great entry in the Star Wars saga, and a great first episode in the prequel trilogy! Highly recommended!

Now let's be honest, if you're reading this, you have more than likely watched this film. You're aware of the scrutiny of this film as well, I'm assuming, but really think about it, it was actually fairly good. Yes, Jar Jar was beyond terrible but when you think about it, could there really have been an incredible sequel or prequel in this case, that would live up to the hype or potential of a movie almost 20 years later? No! As a movie, this was definitely good and introduces one my favorites with Darth Maul. If you haven't seen it, it is a good film but will agree with not the best in the Star Wars series. Must own film and series for the Sci Fi nerd, like myself and Steelbook makes it a must grab on the first day too!

I chose to go with the individual steelbooks for my Star Wars video collection instead of the boxsets. They look much better on my shelf as individual episodes, but that's my personal taste. While this particular steelbook is beautiful with Darth Maul on the front and the Episode 1 poster on the back, i must warn you that this is a stripped down blu ray set. There are no special features on this disc. While the picture looks fantstic in 1080p, it lacks all of the fun behind the scenes stuff that i personally enjoy. It's a huge disappointment in that regard. There's only one disc and it's the main feature (the movie). I'd say go with this if you are willing to sacrifice the fun extras like i did. I kind of regret it, but then again, i don't because the steelbooks look so amazing.

Its Star Wars, need i say more? I bought the first release of Star Wars on Blu Ray a few years back. Although the packaging is nice, i dont like how you have to remove and put back disks into the sleeves. I also didnt care for the artwork. My brother has requested all 6 movies on blu ray so i bought the re-released 6 disk collection only to return it a week later when i heard they were releasing them individually in steel book. Yes you loose the 3 disks of bonus content, but the steel books look so much nicer. Almost want to pick up a set for myself. The bonus content on these is extremely limited, just commentary, which is kind of disappointing, but i rarely watch bonus content anyways...

Wow these are AWESOME I already own all 6 films on blu ray and dvd and vhs but when I was in bestbuy several weeks ago and saw these I had to get these as well each one has a different character on the front cover as well as theoriginal movie poster on the back cover they look great and are made really well obvisoly this one episode one has Darth Maul on the front cover which I think is totally awesome I would definitely recommend this as a gift for someone or as a gift for yourself to add to your own collection ech one is also a limited edition so I would get them while I can I kno the bestbuy that's close to where I live at was sold out of some of them already when I was in there again a couple days ago.

Being one of those that grew up on the classic trilogy, the prequels were definite step down. They were still fun, and brought at least some of the nostalgic feeling back, despite taking forever to release the full prequel trilogy. With regard to this steelbook, regardless of the quality of the film, relative to the original Star Wars films; This is a great release. The packaging is beautiful, the features aren't missing anything that you really need unless you are a Jedi Master of nerdiness :D Overall, for those who would like to own the film, this is an excellent way to do it, if you want to have a cool, collectible set. It even matches my Episode VII steelbook.

No point in discussing the movie. Most people dislike it, but hey, it's STAR WARS! The SW franchise is a cornerstone of American film making. FOX did a pretty superb job with the first 6 Star Wars movies in Steelbook. Each Steelbook is a glossy finish with debossed titles, 1-Disc, has commentaries as the only special feature, inside artwork, and the back cover shows the theatrical poster of the respective Star Wars movie. I already owned the "Complete Saga" box set, but these were too beautiful to pass up. I had to own them all. They also look real nice next to the new Episode VII: The Force Awakens! Get these while you can! :D