Jar-Jar in 3-D?

I've been a big fan of Star Wars since I was about eight years old. I had about 40-50 of the Kenner action figures, a Hoth playset, and a couple of hand-me-down toys, a Rebel laser gun that made the sound of a dentist's drill when you pressed the button on the handle (provided you had batteries in the toy), and an Imperial TIE fighter. I read the Marvel comics stories of Luke, Leia, Han, C-3PO and the rest of the cast of characters religiously too.

Although I'm not a huge fan of the recent prequel movies, there are a few parts that are important in the overall story's evolution. When I heard that Episode I: The Phantom Menace was being re-released in 3-D, I was skeptical, given the announced changes George Lucas had already made to some of his movies for the Blu-ray release (which I've mentioned in an earlier blog post), but being the Star Wars geek that I am, I decided to give it a try last weekend.

The last 3-D movie I saw in a theater was James Cameron's epic Avatar, which was filmed for 3-D. I thought it would be interesting to see how this Star Wars film was retrofitted for 3-D a decade after its original release. To my surprise, it was better than I expected it to be. Not every aspect was set in 3-D, so it's not too rough on those who have a hard time watching 3-D films. There are certain characters or items onscreen that are set in 3-D, and others that are not. A few times some of the 3-D items in the foreground or items in the background seemed a little blurry, but thankfully that didn't last long. All of the subtitles and the traditional opening crawl are in 3-D, which I expected.

The movie itself is probably my least favorite of the six Star Wars films, given the propensity of the silly Gungans, especially Jar-Jar Binks, who is reviled by a lot of Star Wars "purists." The Jedi fight scenes with Darth Maul are rather sharp in this release, and the digital Yoda, which was corrected for the Blu-ray movie versions that I have yet to watch, is an improvement over the out of place puppet that Frank Oz used in the original release of this film.

When I got to the theater, I noticed a lot of families and kids in attendance, so I'd say it's a good family film for a weekend if you don't mind spending the extra cash on the 3-D glasses and the usual theater fare. I don't know if I'll see the rest of the prequel films in 3-D (I might at least wait until I've seen the Blu-ray versions first), but I might come back to see how Boba Fett, Lando Calrissian, the creatures in Jabba's Palace, and some of the Rebel/Empire battles are fitted for 3-D decades after they first wowed fans.

Until next time, have a great day & hoping all is well!