Alex Reviews

Star Wars: Blu-Ray Edition

Episode I - The Phantom Menace

Spoiler alert up above, by the way.

So, there has been a lot of talk about the Blu-Ray edition of the Star Wars saga hitting shelves this September. Star Wars fans were outraged by George Lucas' additions to both the original and prequel trilogies, yet the sales broke records to show that, changes or not, you can't match the power of the Force. So, being one of those millions of people who pre-ordered the saga to play on my trusty PS3, I'm going to review each film as I watch it, which may take a while because, to be honest, I've seen them many, many times before.

Phantom Menace came out when I was a wee lad, and because I'd only seen the original trilogy a few years prior in their re-release in cinema,  my expectations weren't as high-strung as they might have been had I been around in the seventies to see the original release. So I didn't care that Jar Jar Binks was annoying as hell, I liked the podracing, I didn't think Anakin was at all annoying, and the final fight scene was the most bad-ass thing I'd ever seen. Now, in my twenties, it isn't as magical as it was, but I don't harbour the same hate for it as many older Star Wars fans.

So what is different? The major thing to talk about is Yoda no longer being portrayed by a puppet. In Episode II: Attack of the Clones, we were introduced to a Yoda capable of duelling in what was either a hilarious, disappointing or amazing fashion. To do this, Yoda had to be CGI, and it looks like Lucas wanted some sort of continuity in the prequel trilogy, so he opted to make Yoda CGI in Phantom Menace as well. I take this as a positive; the puppet Yoda that originally sat on the Jedi Council didn't look as good as the Yoda from Empire Strikes Back, which is weird considering they were made a substantial time after the original films. He just didn't seem as lifelike, so the CGI version at least makes up for this by giving Yoda more movement and expression.

Anything else? Not really - it just looks a hell of a lot better. There are a lot of films released for Blu-ray that don't really need to be - there's no reason to see Bridget Jones in Blu-ray edition unless you wanted to see just how wavy Hugh Grant's locks really are, whereas films like Avatar or Inception, you'd want to see such epic films with an image that gives them justice. The Star Wars saga has the films that you want to see in the best picture possible, and Phantom Menace sure looks good; even if most of the focus is on the podracing and Gungan city.


I'm more interested in seeing how Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith pan out, as Phantom Menace was probably the least exciting entry in the prequel trilogy, despite having the legend that is Liam Neeson on cast.

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"But what I do have are a very particular set of skills..."