Review - 3D Star Wars

[rich_jacko]

Don'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.

Comments

[dave-chimaera.livejournal.com]

There was a definitely lack of 'scoundrel' in the prequel trilogy as well - everyone is very broadly painted as good or evil - Even with Palpatine there was a strong division between the Senator that appeared to be working for everyone's interests and Darth Sidious moving pieces on a galactic chessboard - at least until Revenge of the Sith came along anyway. The prequels really needed some characters with more shades of grey like Han and Chewbacca getting caught up in events

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

Anakin stamps all over that dividing line, of course. And there are conflicts between the various good guys - The Jedi often disagree between themselves and with the Senate. Some of the bad guys aren't out-and-out moustache-twirling villains - Watto and Jango Fett are both a bit more nuanced than that.

I don't think the need for a 'scoundrel' is about needing shades of grey so much as needing the humour - hence my comment about characters needing to lighten up and add in a few more wisecracks. It doesn't need to be at Joss Whedon levels. The banter between Obi-Wan and Anakin in the first reel of Episode III was good. More of that would have been nice.

[rich-jacko.livejournal.com]

D'oh, and how could I forget Dooku? Although he turns out to be an out-and-out baddie, for most of Episode II he's a very ambiguous character who seems to be doing all the wrong things for all the right reasons.

[grok-mctanys.livejournal.com]

OK, which character from Episodes I-III would you (or anyone over the age of, say, 10) want to be?

In IV-VI, I wanted to be Han Solo, because he's cool. Even without the dark edge of killing Greedo, he's his own person beholden to no-one, fighting The Man by running a nice little smuggling operation. Without Han, I wouldn't mind too much being Luke. Yes, he's a bit whiny at the start of IV, but he grows up quickly, gets a training montage and cool powers, and saves the day.

So, from I-III, would you want to be any of the characters? Anakin is too young in ep I, and annoying emo jerkwad from hell in II and III. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon have awesome powers, but they've got this boring monastic lifestyle and have to be the party-pooper all the time. Palpatine and Dooku are too old to be people you would want to see yourself as. Jango Fett and Mace Windu are about the only interesting or cool characters in the whole thing, but they're not really in it that much. They're like the Boba Fett or Lando of IV-VI.