Neko

stolendatatapes:

Episode I: The Phantom Menace by George Lucas (1999, 2012 [3D Conversion], Lucasfilm)

I’ve just gotten back from my local midnight screening of The Phantom Menace in 3D. Obviously, I don’t really intend this as a review of the movie. If you read this blog, it’s pretty much a guarantee that you first saw this film a long time ago, you’ve seen it at least a few times since, and you’ve heard its merits and demerits discussed ad nauseum over the past thirteen years. I’d talk about the hideous poster above, but that, too has been analysed as much as possible since its unveiling.

Primarily, I’d like to discuss the 3D conversion of this movie. As a rule, I don’t have much interest in 3D. It tends to be very gimmicky, gives a lot of folks headaches, and worst of all, darkens the picture. I did, however, enjoy James Cameron’s Avatar and absolutely adore Martin Scorsese’s Hugo. The latter of these films is enough to convince me that 3D has artistic potential, but I don’t think I’ll ever see the need for the conversion of movies shot for standard 2D to 3D. In such cases, I think the 3D really can be nothing more than a gimmick. 

The question, of course, becomes: “Was it an effective gimmick?” Unfortunately, the answer is no. The opening crawl, the Podrace, a few shots on Coruscant, and Darth Maul falling to his death are the only places where I really appreciated the 3D effect. Throughout the rest of the movie, the 3D is unobtrusive and doesn’t detract anything from the film, but doesn’t add anything, either.

The exciting thing about this re-release is the chance to see these movies in the theater again. The 3D is fairly pointless window dressing, and if your local theater has 2D screenings as well, I’d recommend not spending the extra money for what amounts to pretty much the same experience.

But, hey, it was fun to watch the movie on a big screen again, and at least I got these Darth Maul 3D glasses.

Check back later today and I’ll have my review of Michael Stackpole’s I, Jedi up. For now, though, sleep beckons.