Star Wars: The Phantom Menace (1999)

Media Players: the Best in Entertainment

You have been entertained with media player software for years, so it may be that you have not even noticed it. How could you, it looks so real. Everyone has a favorite or several favorite movies that they have to watch repeatedly; movies that they just cannot get enough of. Let us peek into how media player software has improved the experience of watching a movie today, and a little history on how we got here.

Going way back in time, media player history started around the 1700s when magicians in Europe entertained the royalty with a little smoking mirror. The magicians actually used lanterns to produced smoke. However, it seemed to entertain the court. Later on in the early 1800s, the ability to project images from far away onto a screen was invented. With man’s insatiable appetite to entertain, technology continued to develop. Silent films came into vogue and eventually fade, stop actions, CGI and Virtual Reality landed square on our square movie screens.

It is hard to believe that media player software is connected with magicians’ lanterns and silent films, but that is the path. Sometimes reality is stranger than fiction. There is no way to cover totally the entire film history that lead up to CGI today, but hitting the highlights is both interesting and entertaining.

Media players and digital software have taken off because of several films and has continued to grow in the movie industry. Of course, everyone should remember the first Star Wars movie, but it was not until the Star Wars, Episode I – The Phantom Menace in 1999 that CGI played a major role in the movie. Interestingly over 92 percent of the movie was nothing but CGI effects on the movie screen.

Other films led up to the popular media player inspired Phantom Menace movie. A full 10 years before was released a movie called The Abyss used media player software for the water scene of faces. In The Abyss, 3 – D special effects were used for the first time. Audiences were captivated by it. Virtual Reality was brought to screen in the Lawnmower Man movie in 1992. After that, the Walt Disney Company made their first film in 3 – D with the hit Toy Story in 1995.

It only got better as media player software guided the next movie, Titanic in 1997, into the outer stratosphere of technology. No one can forget the scenes of the ship crashing into the iceberg or the fateful breaking in half of the ship! In the new millennium, CGI got into the full swing of influencing children’s movies such as Shrek. The software and special effects were toned down before its release to the public. Why were they toned down? Because the characters in Shrek were so real, Disney felt it had no cartoon affect, and children might be turned off by the movie.

It is hoped that in this short review of movie history, anyone can see and understand the importance that media player technology has had on the entertainment industry. In the future, we might have to be warned that all characters in a movie are CGI and Virtual Reality created. What a concept to think about, and who knows when it will happen.

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STAR WARS- The Phantom Menace (1999) Alternate Ending 6

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack $5.06 Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, film score Composed by John Williams Performed by London Symphony Orchestra Conducted by John Williams...

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - The Ultimate Edition $12.33 Obscured by the familiar grandeur of John Williams's score for Star Wars: Episode I, The Phantom Menace was the sheer volume of the composer's prodigious musical efforts. Not only did Williams expand on the original Star Wars trilogy's musical language with a whole new range of modern classical inspirations, but his efforts also produced more than two hours of seamless symphonic foundation for the...

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace - Original Motion Picture Soundtrack [Blisterpack] $13.98 The Star Wars cycle, George Lucas's stellar pop parable cum merchandising blitzkrieg, has long since made history as an unparalleled cinematic-cultural-marketing phenomena; somewhere Billy Jack should be in one envious, ass-kickin' mood. Phantom Menace, easily the most eagerly anticipated film of the '90s, returns to the saga's roots and allows Lucas to flesh out the history of some of the fable's...

Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace [VHS] $2.74 VHS...

Star Wars - Episode I, The Phantom Menace (Widescreen Edition Boxed Set) [VHS] $2.94 1999 - 20th Century Fox - Lucasfilm Ltd - Star Wars I : The Phantom Menace - Widescreen Video Collector's Edition - Digitally THX Mastered - Collector Box - Includes: Widescreen VHS Movie / 35mm Film Strip 5 Frames from actual theatrical print , mounted on collectible card / A 48 Page Collector's Book - Rare - Out of Production - Very Collectible...

Star Wars Lego: the Padawan Menace $10.04 Star Wars Lego: the Padawan Menace

Phantom $21.73 Alfred Abel plays a store clerk who is nearly driven to insanity when he sees an apparition of a girl driving a team of white horses. He is sentenced to 20 years in jail when he is convicted of stealing to raise money for a prostitute who looks life the ghost girl. Lil Dagover, Aud Egede Nissen, and Lya de Putti star in this feature directed by legendary filmmaker F.W. Murnau. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The Blind Menace $14.11 Blind court masseur Suginoichi (Zatoichi star Shintaro Katsu) uses his skills as a con artist to gain untold power and wealth, remaining coldly indifferent to the tragic consequences his actions have on all those who surround him. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Menace-G.L.C. $24.44 Menace-G.L.C.

Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy [Blu-ray] $49.07 Share the excitement - uncover every secret...experience the epic story of Star Wars as never before...on Blu-ray in spectacular high definition with the purest digital sound in the galaxy! The greatest space saga ever told begins with Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Star Wars: Episode II - Attack Of The Clones and Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith and follows young Anakin Skywalker's descent to the dark side as he transforms from child slave to Jedi apprentice to the evil Darth Vader.

The Phantom of the Opera $5.64 Lon Chaney stars as Erik, the Phantom, in what is probably his most famous and certainly his most horrifying role. Produced by Universal, the film shot in 1923 and shelved for nearly two years, and was subjected to intensive studio tinkering. While many expected a disaster, the film turned out to be a rousing success. It was both the stepping off point for Chaney's run as a superstar at MGM and the prototype for the horror film cycle at Universal in the 1930s. The story concerns Erik, a much-feared fiend who haunts the Paris Opera House. Lurking around the damp, dank passages deep in the cellars of the theater, he secretly coaches understudy Christine Daae (Mary Philbin) to be an opera star. Through a startling sequence of terrors, including sending a giant chandelier crashing down on the opera patrons, the Phantom forces the lead soprano to withdraw from the opera, permitting Christine to step in. Luring Christine into his subterranean lair below the opera house, the Phantom confesses his love. But Christine is in love with Raoul de Chagny (Norman Kerry). The Phantom demands that Christine break off her relationship with Raoul before he'll allow her to return to the opera house stage. She agrees, but immediately upon her release from the Phantom's lair, she runs into the arms of Raoul and they plan to flee to England after her performance that night. The Phantom overhears their conversation and, during her performance, the Phantom kidnaps Christine, taking her to the depths of his dungeon. It is left to Raoul and Simon Buquet (Gibson Gowland), a secret service agent, to track down the Phantom and rescue Christine. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Phantom Rancher $5.63 Cowboy star Ken Maynard goes the "Lone Ranger" route in Phantom Rancher. Upon inheriting his uncle's ranch, Ken Mitchell (Maynard) finds himself in the middle of a range war. Crooked real estate agent Collins (Ted Adams) is not averse to using strongarm methods to "persuade" the local ranchers to vacate the premises. When all else fails, hero Mitchell dons a domino mask and the new identity of "The Phantom Rancher", working outside the Law to protect the rights of his fellow ranchers and to bring Collins to justice. With Phantom Rancher, Ken Maynard brought his brief series for low-budget Colony Pictures to a close; it would be nearly two years before he'd return to moviemaking. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Phantom Ranger $5.53 Phantom Ranger was the last of a quartet of Tim McCoy westerns produced by Maurice Conn for Monogram release. The star is cast as federal agent Tim Hayes, assigned to round up a counterfeiting gang. The audience knows way ahead of time that McCoy will pose as an outlaw to gain the villain's confidence; funny that the villains never seemed to figure this out until the last reel. This time around, our hero must face down an unusually formidable line-up of thugs and pluguglies, including Charles King, John Merton and frog-faced Rychard Cramer. Happily, he also gets to romance the lovely Suzanne Kaaren. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Phantom Punch $10.33 Cinematic heavyweight Ving Rhames steps into the boxing ring as controversial pugilist Sonny Liston in this sports biopic that begins as Liston realizes his talent for boxing as an inmate at a Missouri State Penitentiary, and follows his career to the moment it was effectively ended due to a devastating blow by powerful opponent Cassius Clay. Born into poverty, Liston was imprisoned as a teen for taking part in a gas station robbery, his skill for boxing uncovered by a Roman Catholic priest and helping the emerging athlete to secure an early release. Recurring bouts with racism, the mob, and the law ensured that Liston was never able to rest easy during his rise to become World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, with the notorious "phantom punch" delivered by Clay offering a painful capper to a turbulent career. Nicholas Turtutto, Bridgette Wilson-Sampras, and David Proval co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi

Border Menace/Circle of Death $6.2 Border Menace/Circle of Death