Star Wars in 3D

[Chris D]

... aaaaaand it's here. Been talked about for a while. Just saw an ad. February 10th, we get Episode I: TPM on the big screen, in 3D. I'll go to see it, of course. Might even be one of the dorks that dresses up and camps out for it, although up here in an Alaskan winter, it'll take quite a bit of dedication to camp out in -20 degree F weather.

Honestly, I'm not expecting anything of an ADDED spectacular experience. But, it should be fun. Will I re-buy SW when it comes out on BD in 3D? Uh, I guess so, eventually. I'm still not a believer in mainstream 3D, and haven't bothered to spend the money to upgrade my own system to it. I likely won't even have the equipment by the time it's released. But, as a "someday" sort of thing... okay.

At the very least, let's hope that the 3D doesn't make it any worse. If I go back to Lucas's original premise for the series, which is a "space opera", campy with classic elements like the dogfighting, I can see that 3D actually fits this particular series.

[madmac]

Anything that was not filmed in 3D for 3D viewing is merely a 'fabrication' and an alteration of the original. I still say that 3D is a regurgitated fad that appeared a long time ago and has re-surfaced once again to make money. Kids seem to like it though but we'll see how long that lasts. I still don't like the glasses and never will. And as I have said before, you need a theater size screen to get any kind of major wow effect from 3D. Even a 60-70" monitor will not cut it for good 3D.

[George Bellefontaine]

3D ? BAH HUMBUG ! :x

[Kevin P]

I only have one thing to say about this:

Jar-Jar in 3D.

Yeah. I'll be camping out a week in advance. Sure. Yeah, maybe I'll go camp out there right now! I have nothing better to do...

[madmac]

I only have one thing to say about this:

Jar-Jar in 3D.

Yeah. I'll be camping out a week in advance. Sure. Yeah, maybe I'll go camp out there right now! I have nothing better to do...

You GO KEVIN !!! :T 8O :roll:

Hehehe!!!

[impala454]

Is it worth $14 for a one night something to do? sure.

[Chris D]

I just have always had fun at SW showings in theaters, whether it was first screenings, or re-releases. Yeah, I'll try each of the movies in the theater again.

[M.Roberts8]

I just have always had fun at SW showings in theaters, whether it was first screenings, or re-releases. Yeah, I'll try each of the movies in the theater again.

Agreed!
Don't get me wrong I am a star wars fan but I do think someone should smack Lucas upside the head, I'm looking at you Steven Spielberg. Is it really that hard to put the original theatrical cuts on the blu-ray for us OG star wars fans?
Anyway here is how this shakes out for me. My brother and I saw the poster for this 3D version a few weeks ago and he turns to me and says. " Your not going to go see it just cause its in 3D, are you?" I paused a moment and replied "My daughter has never seen any of the Star Wars movies in a theater, if she shows interest I will take her".
My brother and I have seen all of them in the theater and even the "special editions". I look at this as more of a chance to share the stars wars experience with my daughter (11 y.o.) and see what she thinks.

[Chris D]

Agreed.

Apparently, Lucas is done making new movies. Says that "Red Tails" is his last big movie. From what I hear, that one's a real stinker, too. 36% on the Tomatometer too.

[impala454]

My friend went and saw it and said it was a great movie. Not sure I care enough to go to the theater for it though.

[Ovation]

I read an extensive article about it in the NY Times recently and Lucas says he deliberately made it in an "old fashioned, John Wayne" kind of way. I suspect much of the critical disdain for the film lies in that approach.

[Chris D]

A friend of mine saw it. His opinion was that, (perhaps once again for Lucas) the special effects and technical focus far overwhelmed the acting and writing. He thought the flying scenes were oustanding, but the acting and dialogue was terrible.

Of course, that's only second-hand. I'll rent this someday and form my own opinion.

[Dmantis]

Is it worth $14 for a one night something to do? sure.

Agreed.

[M.Roberts8]

Its official I'm seeing Episode 1 in 3D 7:20 this Friday night. My daughter and nephew are going with. I'm hoping the pod racing scene will be pretty cool in 3D.

[M.Roberts8]

Pretty underwhelming in 3D

So I was hoping for some really good 3D in particular the pod racing scenes but I was disappointed. I was hoping that with all the CGI shots they would have been able to do a better job with the conversion. Some scenes did have some greater depth to them mostly static scenes like looking out the cockpit of a space ship. There was two really good shots during the pod race but they were like 2-4 sec. then it cut to another vantage point. Oddly the two headed commentator shots had better depth than most of the race.

[Chris D]

Took my 8 year-old to see it today. I had shown it to her before, and wasn't sure whether to take her to this one for a few reasons. But what finally made me decide to do it was a new interview with George Lucas, where he reminds us that Star Wars was made to be seen on the big-screen theater. We all got to see Star Wars in theaters as children, and enjoy the wonderment of SW as a theater experience. I clearly remember walking out from Ep V, being blown away, and lamenting with fellow movie-goers that we would have to wait another 3 years for Return of the Jedi.

Well, then the next generation got to see it again on the big-screen with the re-releases and the next trilogy Ep I - III. Now this youngest generation gets to see it as well. I decided to give my daughter that experience.

I have to agree with M. Roberts, that I was "underwhelmed". Yes, I thought that the 3D added to the overall experience of SW, that is deliberately made to be "campy", like a 1950's sci-fi evening show. But I didn't think it added all that much. I did appreciate Lucas' approach that it is meant to only enhance, not be "gimmicky" with things popping out of the screen into the audience's lap. He kept everything behind the proscenium. But I mostly felt like I was looking into a diorama, where things where at discrete depths, instead of a true 3D environment of continual, progressive depths. An object may have appeared at a particular depth, but didn't necessarily have 3D dimensionality to it itself. And the 3D was far from excellently done. Items in the background and foreground were not just out of focus because the objective was the particular subject in the middle, they were often blurry or double-imaged, starting with the stars in opening scene as the opening word crawl appeared in front. (the crawl was done very well)

But yes, I will give consideration that this movie was not filmed in 3D, it was just reproduced as such at a later time. But the 3D is still underwhelming. If I were Lucas, I would have waited another 5 years for the 40th Anniversary of SW, and THEN re-released it in 3D, when technology will have presumably made it even better. The fact that SW Ep I, with Lucas having ILM at his fingertips, couldn't be remade into a stunning 3D production makes me fearful of what the original trilogy is going to look like in the 3D transfer when we get to it.

I was hoping to be enthralled with Ep I in 3D. But sadly, I'm forced to return to my conclusion even more that 3D will remain a "nifty" and often "gimmicky" capability, not worth really investing in, at least until quality holographic 3D becomes possible without glasses.

I also didn't detect any new material or more Lucas revisions. So I felt like I was watching Ep I in my home theater, but with worse sound (because of the public movie theater) and not as enjoyable overall. So it was worth getting some quality time with my daughter and having her watch it in a theater, but not amazing. I likely won't be buying the 3D versions when they come out on BD. Oh, and the theater was mostly empty. Sad. It was good, but FAR from great.

[M.Roberts8]

Chris,
I too was hoping with ILM and Lucas that the 3D conversion would be worth while. I am also almost dreading the other ones being released in this format but like you said it was time well spent with my daughter. My theater also had less than great sound which isn't usually a problem at the theater I go to but the previews were louder than the film. I suppose I will take my daughter to the rest if she wants to go just so she can see it in a commercial theater.

[Chris D]

Twitter news release that Episodes II and III are coming to theaters in 3D, back-to-back, Sep/October 2013.

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/movies/blogs/paralleluniverse-blog.aspx?feat=e0c3704c-eb92-45c4-9c9a-80bab10a6dec&_nwpt=1

[George Bellefontaine]

Twitter news release that Episodes II and III are coming to theaters in 3D, back-to-back, Sep/October 2013.

http://social.entertainment.msn.com/...0a6dec&_nwpt=1

Heh, heh. Well isn't that precious. :P

[madmac]

My dad took me to see it when I was young and being a die hard Star Trek fan, I was very underwhelmed and somewhat bored. I just didn't buy into the pow pow save the princess thingy. Some of the story writing and ideas in Star Trek were far better.

Getting to the acting however, both were equally bad and dated of course.