Star Wars Episode I 3-D: underwhelming in yet another dimension

Rating: ***/*****, or 6/10

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.