Review - 3D Star Wars
Mar. 4th, 2012 11:24 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rich_jackoDon't go to see 3D Star Wars for the 3D. It's pretty good for a film converted afterwards, but it's nowhere near the quality of a film shot that way. The 3D is most effective in the space scenes. It's amazing the difference that simply putting the star field a long way behind the action makes. In other scenes it's mostly okay, although there's a few jarringly bad bits where 3D-ing the foreground but not the background just makes the background look flat and fake.
No, the reason you should see 3D Star Wars is that it's a chance to see The Phantom Menace on the big screen again. Aside from being big and loud and spectacular, it helps you to properly appreciate all the amazing design work that went into the worlds, creatures, costumes and machinery in this film. I'm once again boggled at how it failed to win any awards for this.
From a nerdy spot-the-difference perspective, Yoda has taken time out from selling mobile phones to re-shoot his scenes in CGI. This is an improvement, as the previous puppet just didn't look like the Yoda from Empire and Jedi. This is also the DVD cut rather than the original theatrical cut of the film, which means slightly more podrace and a slightly extended arrival on Coruscant.
Aside from that, it's The Phantom Menace as you know and love / loathe it. What was great before is still great - Qui-Gon Jinn (the archetypal Jedi), the lightsaber battles, Palpatine's machinations, Watto (still my favourite SW minor character), the podrace, BRIAN BLESSED. Its faults are still faults - some of the dialogue remains cringe-worthy ("Are you an angel?"), several main characters could do with being less serious and wisecracking a bit more, and the final battle set-up is over-complicated and disjointed. It is, and always has been, a work of flawed genius.
I was pleased to see that, much as people like to knock this film, it still managed to pull in almost a full audience mid-week, despite being nearly 13 years old and a fortnight into its re-release. I think most people like it really, whether or not they like to admit it ;o)
On a related, sadder note, Ralph McQuarrie has died. He was responsible for so much of the original look of Star Wars and lots of other sci-fi favourites, and will be missed.
No, the reason you should see 3D Star Wars is that it's a chance to see The Phantom Menace on the big screen again. Aside from being big and loud and spectacular, it helps you to properly appreciate all the amazing design work that went into the worlds, creatures, costumes and machinery in this film. I'm once again boggled at how it failed to win any awards for this.
From a nerdy spot-the-difference perspective, Yoda has taken time out from selling mobile phones to re-shoot his scenes in CGI. This is an improvement, as the previous puppet just didn't look like the Yoda from Empire and Jedi. This is also the DVD cut rather than the original theatrical cut of the film, which means slightly more podrace and a slightly extended arrival on Coruscant.
Aside from that, it's The Phantom Menace as you know and love / loathe it. What was great before is still great - Qui-Gon Jinn (the archetypal Jedi), the lightsaber battles, Palpatine's machinations, Watto (still my favourite SW minor character), the podrace, BRIAN BLESSED. Its faults are still faults - some of the dialogue remains cringe-worthy ("Are you an angel?"), several main characters could do with being less serious and wisecracking a bit more, and the final battle set-up is over-complicated and disjointed. It is, and always has been, a work of flawed genius.
I was pleased to see that, much as people like to knock this film, it still managed to pull in almost a full audience mid-week, despite being nearly 13 years old and a fortnight into its re-release. I think most people like it really, whether or not they like to admit it ;o)
On a related, sadder note, Ralph McQuarrie has died. He was responsible for so much of the original look of Star Wars and lots of other sci-fi favourites, and will be missed.
