Yeaaaaah got the whole shebang on blu for my birthday today. The Complete Saga box is beautifully done, and feels compact yet sturdy. I celebrated by popping in The Phantom Menace and watching it for the first time uncut without interruptions since....probably I saw it in theaters in 1999.
The big takeaway really wasn't the story, acting, or editing, it was the surprise of realizing that despite a reputation as a visual director, Lucas was so aggressively uninterested in the amazing design he was throwing on screen. Amidala's geisha makeup, the fantastic colors looking at the Gungan underwater city from outside, the Naboo capital, the way the Jedi robes swirled in the Tatooine wind- he was smart enough to design all that, but the whole direction was so damn prosaic and skipping any attempt at a sense of place. I think that's a bit of rust from the long layover, because by ROTS I know he loosened up.