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The first chapter of the greatest film saga ever conceived! :-) I have read the reviews on line here at Amazon.com about "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace," some I agree with, others I don't. I remember when this movie was in the theaters, in fact at the theater I was at, I was the very first person in line to purchase my tickets and I purchased two tickets each for the first three showings of this movie for myself and my date. Both she and I agree that this was worthy of the title of "Star Wars" and we also both agree had Mr. Lucas stayed as writer & executive producer that the movie would have been even better. George Lucas is a great storyteller, creating great characters and a great adventure to watch those characters grow within the film, but he is no director. As I have viewed many of the movies Lucas has directed, from "THX 1138," "American Graffiti," "Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope," and "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones," and it became apparent to me that Lucas is no director as his camera angles are trivial and not very imaginative - much different from the collaboration between he and Steven Spielberg in the "Indiana Jones" movies. That collaboration really works and I bet had Lucas asked Spielberg to direct his saga he would have agreed - after all Spielberg is directing "Indiana Jones 4" as he did all the pervious "Indiana Jones" movies. Still this was a magnificent movie. I would not have used Jake Lloyd, but with Lucas' knowledge of the character Lloyd does manage to pull it off - barely. I was sorry to see Qui-Gon die, however I do see it as being necessary for Obi-Wan to move from Padawan to Jedi Knight, and I was disappointed that Darth Maul was killed off as well though that also was necessary since the focal point of evil is not Darth Maul, but he who becomes the Emperor. I am disturbed however that there is no mention of Yoda being "the Jedi Master who instructed me!" as Obi-Wan said in "Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back." Maybe Lucas will make mention of the in "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith" as it was slightly eluded to in "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones." I purchased both the VHS and the DVD versions and in the VHS there really is nothing very special that is different, from the theatrical release. The DVD release however not only has deleted scenes, but also has incorporated some extra scenes and extended scenes into the DVD release, however Mr. Lucas if you are reading, a release with certain deleted scenes would be nice to be incorporated into the movie itself, or like the "X-Men" DVD did, allow people to make the decision to add the deleted scenes by electing to select that option. Scenes that I would like to see included are "The Waterfall Sequence," "Dawn Before the Race," "Anakin's Scuffle with Greedo," and "Farewell to Jira." Anyway I have heard the complaints about this movie, however remember this is a prequel and as such it is bound to be less suspenseful as we do know what happens in the end. However what I like most about this movie is that we finally get to see more than just a single Jedi. I also loved the two edged lightsaber and would love to see that show up again in "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith." Jar Jar Binks may be a bit annoying at times, but his character is necessary to this and future chapters of the saga plus he adds a morality message as the Gungans are forced to accept the other race on the planet Naboo in order to work together to defeat a common enemy. I have heard complaints about the virgin birth of Anakin with Christian groups protesting since only Messiah Himself should be from a virgin birth, but what these Christians fail to realize is that Anakin & Shmi Skywalker come from "a galaxy far, far away" and are not human by our standards but rather are humanoid - a human like species, plus that even here on Earth we have creatures that on a regular basis are born through "virgin" births, which the scientific community has dubbed asexual reproduction, so why can't an alien from another planet. We see the exterior appearance of this species, not their anatomy. One need only refer to many aliens from other shows that appear human to us to see that what one can conceive can be created in a fictional character. In "Doctor Who," one of the oldest sci-fi shows we learn that Gallifreyans, which look completely human, have two hearts, live for hundreds of years and when they die their cells reform to bring them back from the dead. In "Star Trek" the characters of Guinan and Deanna Troi clearly look human and clearly are not and on "Babylon 5" the Centauri clearly look human with very bad hair styles (does that mean Padmé Amidala and her daughter Leia Organa are Centauri?), but they also have two hearts - a primary heart & a secondary heart. There is precedent through many different sci-fi shows that aliens can look human but not be human. Most of the backgrounds were digitally, not physically, made and really made their locations very exotic and the digitized characters were very, very cool. Most of the vehicles though did not have that rustic feel and they did in the original trilogy, these vehicles looked too new for a "Star Wars" movie. The Trade Federation is a good analogy of how corporations can get out of control, just as the Senate of the Republic does for government. Seeing the Jedi council was cool and how they test for users of the Force and the final battle seen was reminiscent of "Star Wars: Episode VI - Return of the Jedi" final battle with the three prong effect of a lightsaber dual, a massive ground war of low tech versus high tech and the space battle against other starships and a powerfully shielded space vessel. And I loved seeing the subtle influence of the Dark Side of the Force in Anakin & Palpatine, and the developing bond between the two. All in all this was a great movie, though I must also admit that all the other "Star Wars" movies with Anakin/Vader were better than this one (that means that the "Ewok" movies and cartoon show, the "Droids" cartoon show and "The Star Wars Holiday Special" were not as good as this movie.