Star Wars: The Phantom Menace: The Ultimate Edition

by

John Williams

Edit

After expanded releases of all the other three Star Wars movies, it was expected that someone would release an expanded edition of The Phantom Menace soundrack. Well, it finally happened, and of course it is worth the price tag. John Williams' 120+ minutes of masterly music is wonderful. The quality is great and the packaging is phenomenal.

On the down side, there are a few things that make this only a four-star buy. Unlike its predecessors, this two-disc set is not made from the original master tapes. It is simply taken directly from the film, an isolated music track if you will. Although it is nice since it is in true chronological order, many of the tracks run into each other, and they are cut up to fit the film. For instance, in the end of the film the music changes as the viewpoint goes from the space battle to the ground battle. This carries directly to the soundtrack, so most of the end songs are cut up between numerous tracks without any fade ins or fade outs.

This aside, the sheer wealth of new music and fine packaging are reasons to buy this soundtrack. Notable in the new music is the song where Anakin leaves his mother (track 1 on disc 2). Also notable are some annoying and unecessary "extra" tracks (skip them).

Along with the two-cds it comes with a long booklet that has many pictures from the film (it does not have any music commentary like the previous ones unfourtunatly). Although it would have been nicer if this release was more like the previous expanded releases, the new music makes it worth the buy. To get the true experience, I would recommend buying both this and the original Phantom Menace soundtrack release though.

A good, decent score by John Williams. Some of his recent work isn't quite as great as his older stuff; classics like Star Wars, Jaws, and Raiders of the Lost Ark. But, this is still a great soundtrack, nonetheless. The Duel of the Fates is worth it alone. What I like most is that every single piece of music from the film is here. I feel that I'm often annoyed with other soundtracks that omit random tracks for whatever reason. Not the case here. It's all there.

Buyer beware, however, as this product is flawed. It took me two purchases and a little research to discover that every unit of this product has a gliche where discs skip. So, know that it's not just your particular item or the CD player. I'm not really sure why they would put a defected product on store shelves, and for a high price. So, if you're not too picky about having the soundtrack in its entirety, you might be better off getting the original edition instead.