Let’s be honest about something: none of us WANTS to watch The Phantom Menace.
Episode One is undoubtedly the least favorite installment of the Star Wars Saga. And with good reason: after waiting over fifteen years for George Lucas to release another installment of the beloved sci-fi fantasy, we got an over-produced kids movie with barely enough lightsaber fights and space battles to hold our attention for even a couple hours. Even if that had been enough, let’s not forget…Jar-Jar Binks. Enough said.
Mr. Lucas has certainly taken his hits over the past decade. Sure, there was some uproar over his decision to re-release the original trilogy as “Special Editions” in the mid-90′s. Most of it surrounded Lucas’ decision to show Greedo shoot first in the infamous Mos Eisley cantina scene (a decision he most recently confessed as having been his intent all along). Controversial though it may have been at the time, it meant that teens such as myself got our first chances to see these films in an actual movie theater, and that alone justified the price of admission.
Then came The Phantom Menace. And Attack of the Clones. And Revenge of the Sith. From what I can remember of the reviews I read, they boiled down to two simple words: “eye candy.” That was it. No deep dissection of Anakin’s fall from grace. No insight into how Palpatine was able to manipulate an entire governmental system. Just the usual complaints about how George Lucas was continuing to ruin the Star Wars universe.
Last year, LucasFilm released the entire saga as a Blu-Ray collection with even more “adjustments” to the beloved series. If there had ever been any doubt of the fanboys’ unbridled wrath against their creator, one had to look no further than the forums discussing the changed scenes.
And so in the last thirteen years since the release of The Phantom Menace, many feel George Lucas has done more to himself in changing the opinion of his legacy through his fans than anyone working against him could have done.
With all that controversy, why am I advocating that you should spend even more money to see yet another altered version of a Star Wars film — and not a very good one, at that?
I know that a lot of things have been compared to pizza for the simple reason that even when pizza isn’t as good as it could be, it’s still mostly enjoyable. I’d like to apply that comparison to Star Wars, too — specifically to the 3D release of Episode One. Yes, you have to suffer through watching Jar-Jar klutz around the screen. You have to endure the poorly-executed direction of true talent like Liam Neeson, Samuel L. Jackson, and Natalie Portman. And you get to listen to a whiny little brat brag about how he’s the best pod racer in the universe.
But what I loved about watching this film — besides the fun of seeing anything Star Wars on a big screen again — was that it was a 3D movie that wasn’t filmed to be a 3D movie. While this is often a bad thing (since the process of converting a film to 3D is often done poorly, leaving the movie a grainy, blurry, drably-colored mess), LucasFilm seems to have taken extra care with this one and done it right. At that point, since it wasn’t originally made to be 3D, we don’t have to put up with gimmicky shots of things purposefully flying straight at you. (While there are some of those elements in the movie, it’s not campy or pointless.) You get to enjoy it as a Star Wars film with the added benefit of getting to see a pod race, lightsaber fight, and space battle in 3D.
So, yes. It is worth it. Trust me.
Finally, aside from reasons of enjoyment, there’s one other die-hard, concrete, indisputable reason why you must go spend your hard-earned money to go watch this Star Wars movie in 3D. So far, George Lucas has not yet revealed the release dates of the rest of the saga. Apparently, it takes an entire year to transfer a 2D film into 3D. One can assume the possibility that with a weak showing of The Phantom Menace in theaters, the ridicule of George Lucas’ “creative liberties,” or even the national economic recession that he could very well either scrap the entire project or just wait another five to ten years before releasing yet another home video collection.
In other words, if you want to see the really good Star Wars movies in 3D, you should probably go see the not-so-good ones just to let ol’ Lucas know you’re interested.
So, go do your duty, fellow geeks. Take a couple of hours out of your weekend, take along a kid who’s never experienced a Star Wars film on the silver screen, and spend the money to see The Phantom Menace. Because as hard as it might be to sit through certain scenes in Episode One, imagine the heartache of missing out on seeing the Battles of Yavin, Hoth or Endor again on the big screen. In 3D.
The choice is yours.
