This week the
first of the Star Wars films (if you count them numerically
instead of in order of release) was re-released in 3-D. Episode I:
The Phantom Menace has been much maligned ever since it first hit
theatres and, unfortunately, with good reasons. George Lucas being
George Lucas, he couldn't pass down yet another opportunity to
re-release his space opera serial in a slightly enhanced format, the
last version (on Blu-Ray, remember?) having been released almost six
full months ago! However, a 3-D conversion has been something a
lot of people have been clamouring for for a long time now, so we
can't blame Lucas for just going with the 3-D hype like (almost)
everyone else.
Sadly, the result
is not as mind-boggingly spectacular as we had hoped for. In fact,
it's all rather bland. Of course with conversions being done in
post-production, or even years after like in this case, the results
will never be as good as they would have been if they were actually
shot in 3-D. But, Lucas and his various FX companies being pioneers
of special and visual effects, something more sensational would have
been expected. This is Star Wars after all! Alas, there's only
very few moments of noteworthy 3-D effects, and the rest of the while
the audience just sits there, most likely forgetting the movie is in
3-D at all. Not noticing the special effects in an effects heavy film
has of course always been the aim of special effects in the first
place, but not in the case of 3-D. Viewers expect some deliciously
gratuitous 'in-your-face' 3-D shots with stuff coming right at them
and the like. 3-D, unlike other effects, is much more the event
shaping the sensation of the film instead of feeling like a simple
added layer (which of course it is in post-conversion flicks). The
audience seeks out the effects, wanting to be surprised by the extra
dimension: it wants to feel the effects, undergo them,
instead of just see them. It's true very few 3-D movies
actually achieve this level of immersion and even fewer
post-conversion movies are among them. Episode I also falls
under the category of films released in 3-D where the third dimension
didn't add much to the overall experience.
The official
Episode I 3-D poster already hinted at what audiences wanted to see
the most in 3-D: podracing and lightsaber duels (preferably involving
Darth Maul, despite his very limited screen time). The best 3-D
effects, unsurprisingly, are found in the podrace and the climactic
lightsaber battle between Maul, Obi-Wan and Qui-Gonn. In most of
these scenes the 3-D finally becomes more tangible and noticeably
present. However, the downside is a lot of shots in these scenes pass
so quickly you don't get enough time to really take in the 3-D
effects. But at least you can see they're there. Also worth
mentioning are the Galactic Senate and Naboo Core scenes, which also
showcase some of the more successful 3-D shots in the film, though
here the darkness level of the scene setting forms an extra barrier
for the 3-D, which is notorious for being far less effective in
movies or scenes involving poorly lit environments (recent cases in
point, Thor and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part
II).
Apart from the 3-D
addition, has Lucas changed anything else this time around? Digital
Yoda, also pictured on the poster, isn't new by now, since he was
already added for the Blu-Ray release. For the better actually,
considering the puppet originally constructed for Episode I
was never really convincing or appealing, and making Yoda digital
increases the level of consistency in the new trilogy, since we also
saw him pixelized for Episodes II and III. The only other difference
I noticed was the line-up of the end credits. New credits had to be
provided for all the people working on the 3-D conversion, and
instead of lengthening the credits and thus also the accompanying
score, Lucas opted for actually making the credits shorter by having
two columns of names next to each other instead of the usual single
column. John Williams' awesome score got a little abbreviated, but
most people probably won't notice.
So, Episode I
in 3-D, worth our while or wasting our time? Despite the
disappointing 3-D conversion and the fact I was watching what's
easily the worst of the Star Wars movies, I found I enjoyed
myself quite a lot. Again. Sure, the story isn't exactly Shakespeare,
the dialogue and acting are subpar for the most part and there's this
obnoxious amphibian moron ruining it for everybody, it's still...
Star Wars. I.e., epic space battles, grand lightsaber fights,
a plethora of bizarre and intriguing creatures, an abundance of
fascinating strange worlds and some of the finest musical scores ever
on film. On the big screen. That alone made it worth it. Plus the
knowledge I knew exactly what I was in for, and I didn't have high
hopes for the 3-D process to begin with.
All things
considering, Lucas could have saved himself a lot of trouble by just
re-releasing the damn thing sans any expensive 3-D conversion, and it
would still do as well. There's just some things in life that come
around every decade or so and remain enjoyable each time, and Star
Wars on the silver screen is one of them. Of course, the original
trilogy would be much more enjoyable. But hopefully Lucas and his
minions will spend the next few years finetuning the 3-D conversion
process, so the upcoming movies will look continuously better in 3-D,
and we'll have yet another dimension of enjoying Star Wars.
For real, this time.
P.S. A pleasant
surprise reared its head just before the movie itself began. Instead
of seeing the usual predictable line-up of trailers, the audience was
treated to a 6-minute preview of the upcoming space opera John
Carter, consisting of a single scene plus an expanded trailer
containing a lot of shots I hadn't seen before. Though the scene
picked for this preview (wherein John finds himself confronted with
Martian life forms for the very first time) wasn't the most exciting
showcase in terms of both storytelling or (3-D) FX, as a whole the
preview made me anxiously anticipate this movie even more than I
already did. The expanded trailer was simply amazing, and used
several 3-D shots more stunningly delivered than any to follow in the
next 140 minutes. Hopefully the movie itself will be an equally
jaw-dropping, awe-inspiring roller coaster of a Sci-Fi epic,
reminiscent of the early days of Star Wars when
such a wide vista of strange new worlds and creepy alien creatures
was still new and impressive to audiences. It would be cool to have
another big cycle of space opera movies coming, since as far as I'm
concerned, they can't (and don't) make enough of those.
