While a thrilling experience on its initial multiplex release, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace is one of those movies which fails the `second viewing' test. No matter how good the pod race sequence is, and no matter how tightly choreographed the three-way light saber battle of the climax, it's not enough to balance out the stilted acting, plodding narrative and the ever-irritating Jar Jar.

DVD Extras:

Commentary with director George Lucas, producer Rick McCallum and various SFX bods, deleted scenes, Making Of documentary, multi-angle storyboard-to-animatic-to-film segment, 12-part web documentary series, five featurettes, photo gallery, music video, trailers, Star Wars: Starfighter documentary, DVD-ROM weblink. It's obvious that plenty of care has gone into assembling this package, and while the six hours' worth of material contains a lot of overlap, no aspect of the production has been overlooked. The main, hour-long doc is an excellent behind-the-scenes nose-around, avoiding the cheesy-voiceover and talking-head approach, while the web documentaries (originally shown on starwars.com) cover everything from Lucas' writing methods to the daily trials of an Assistant Director. Plus, the commentary's well sustained - although Lucas is never as animated as most of the stuff he's talking over - and the deleted scenes (all tidied up and completed since the film's release) are interesting. Question is: is it impressive enough to warrant buying the movie? Answer: just about.