The Movie: This convoluted intrigue- and actionfest has a lot more going for it than many put-upon critics could glean, but it's also got almost as much going against it as its bedeviled predecessor The Phantom Menace. This DVD is a bit of a tech breakthrough-a digital transfer of a shot-on-digital live-action movie, its incredibly pristine picture quality amplifies the good (special effects, set design, action sequences, Yoda and Christopher Lee) as much as it does the bad (George Lucas's dialogue-writing skills, Hayden Christensen's acting, Natalie Portman's acting, Hayden Christensen's acting, etc.). Interesting, and frustrating.

The Disc: This double-disc set is as putatively extras-packed as Menace. You'll see producer Rick McCullum and others doing their level best to convince us that one can disagree with Lucas and live to tell the tale (in the intros to the deleted scenes). You'll learn that Padmé's best childhood buddies were a pair of starved Teletubbies (in the deleted scenes themselves). And you'll get state-of-the-technology updates on digital effects. The supplements overall aren't as inadvertently revealing (or should I say damning?) as the docs on the previous package were. Interesting, and frustrating.

—Glenn Kenny