STAR WARS: EP. I--The Phantom Menace in 3D: 2/10/12

[highlander1]

big fan of both trilogy's but sound's like a let down for 3d ,which was hoping will kick ass for original trilogy's ..even tho everyone says not good might have to see how bad actualy is..realy want to see anyways...still its star wars on big screen and if sucks ,we got a year of superhero films later to make up for the bad ones ..spidey,bats,ghostrider,avengers,lotr-hobbit a awesome year of films soon enough....

 

[The Mike]

13 years ago my wife and I went to see this movie, she fell asleep. Today we went to see it and she fell asleep again.

I in all honesty could not tell what the hell was 3D or supposed to be 3D. Nothing appeared 3D, I even took off my glasses off for a couple of scenes and didn't really notice like I could for other films even in post conversions.

For the film, I hadn't seen it in at least 6 years really, never bought the DVDs and was pleasantly surprised by things like the CGI Yoda but man some of the dialogue, cheesy scenes and characters were really cringeworthy and even brought some cringing today. I loved seeing Duel of the Fates again on the big screen. Loved Qui-Gon. Hated Anakin. The Podracing was meh, I remember liking it more back then. The Gungans were awful. I laughed aloud at the Viceroy speaking.

The thing is I had fun. I really did. I laughed and joked with my brother even if it wasn't intentional and even walked out repeating some of the lines.

The theater was packed. Every seat taken and there were even kids and teens dressed in Star Wars shirts, one had a Vader mask and a few had the Hasbro extendable Lightsabers that they had a small duel after the film. Star Wars fandom was there and that felt like 1999 (before the film) it was a sight to see, I wish I had gotten some pics of it but it was too dark in there.

 

[Batty]

I just got back from seeing it with my dad. To me the 3D was almost non-existant. There were instances where it did stand out, but it happened rarely. I will say, Yoda looked amazing.

The biggest surprise to me was how muddy and out of focus some scenes looked, while others looked incredibly clear. Did anyone else experience this?

 

[The Mike]

I definitely did for example when Palaptine is talking to Padme, the scenes where it was just him looked strangely grainy. A couple of the Mace Windu scenes looked off notably as well.

 

[kajobaldisimo]

I was surprisingly entertained by the pod race. That really, really bored me before.

Also, seeing Anakin in action driving the pod now convinced me that this boy can actually pilot an N-1 starfighter.

Really loved that lightsaber duel. Watching it again cemented it's status of best saber duel in all six movies for me.

 

[Batty]

I definitely did for example when Palaptine is talking to Padme, the scenes where it was just him looked strangely grainy. A couple of the Mace Windu scenes looked off notably as well.

There seemed to be a lot of instances to me. It was weird. My dad even mentioned afterwards how he thought his eyes might've been tired since he experienced the same thing. He was glad when I said it wasn't just him.

I was surprisingly entertained by the pod race. That really, really bored me before.

Also, seeing Anakin in action driving the pod now convinced me that this boy can actually pilot an N-1 starfighter.

Really loved that lightsaber duel. Watching it again cemented it's status of best saber duel in all six movies for me.

Duel of the Fates is one of the best things from the entire PT. It definitely has me looking forward to Episode 1 Obi-Wan.

 

[darthviper107]

Just saw it as well

The 3D is terrible--the effect is so insignificant it's hardly there. And people a right in that at times (and I actually did this) you can take off the glasses and it doesn't look like there's two images on the screen. From what I can tell, they separated out almost everything into cutouts rather than making 3D, and most of the time there would only be 2 or 3 levels of stuff in 3D. There's no effect in the background, and it looks like they didn't even use the original visual FX data so that the CGI would at least be true 3D, instead it looks like they converted those by hand as well.

For one exception though, it looked like Yoda was rendered in true 3D and looked great, but that's probably because they were working on adding him at the same time as doing the 3D conversion so it wouldn't have been a problem. But really--the rest of the 3D is just disappointingly terrible.


And the image quality was pretty bad as well--blurry and noisy. This might be the worst looking Star Wars film in that area, even compared to the originals.

 

[The Josh]

It was hard to tell where the 3D stated and stopped. I like Mike took my glasses off a couple times to see if it was or wasn't during that time of the movie. Again, like Mike's theater the one I went to was packed with all ages but lots of kids which was fun to see their reactions to seeing SW on the big screen. I'll be curious to see in 15-20 years what this age group thinks of the PT vs OT debate. Having taught some of them I think I've got a pretty good idea. As for me I had fun seeing a SW movie on the big screen.

 

[jye4ever]

Wife and I enjoyed it.

It is what it is, nothing more, nothing less.

I am a 3D fanatic junky nut.

If it's in 3D, I ownz it.

92" 3D will do that to a person.

This 3D conversion, while not the worst, was still pretty flat.

Crap, I gave GL my money again!

 

[Wor-Gar]

Just got back. Fun to see this one again after 13 years. Some of it improved with age, some didn't.

For my part, the 3D looked pretty good. I was at an arclight. Took my glasses off several times and could see where they blurred the images, so in my theater it was not watchable without the glaases. The movies are always so much brighter without the glasses. The 3D is definitely a gimmick and not very impressive or necessary. But it did add something now and then.

I also really liked the pod race this time; grew tired of it back in the day.

Nute Gunray rocks with his cliche evil-asian accent.

Palps is always great on screen.

I was shocked just how little Darth Maul is in this movie. Seems I remember more to his scenes. He really does absolutely nothing until the big fight.

The kid sucked. Big time. Jar Jar sucked big time. And poor Natalie looked beautiful but sucked big time too.

Still, it follows the patterns of the OT more than two and three do. And the scope and beauty of the new worlds is impressive, something that also gets lost in two and three.

 

[jye4ever]

Gunguns still fall to the ground very stiff.

Time for a reboot.

 

[Khev]

Saw this earlier today with my five year old daugher. The first official SW movie I've gotten to take one of my own children to see on the big screen.

She likes the characters of SW but really struggled through this.

It was very surreal. Partly nostalgic of my youth, partly nostalgic of 1999, exciting, boring, crazy, and overall a hell of a lot of fun.

A part of me just sat there waiting almost two hours for the hangar doors to open in front of Maul but I really did enjoy it all the way through. I wondered if people would actually boo Jar Jar but it was a crowded auditorium of mostly parents and kids and everyone just took it in and seemed to have a good time.

Phantom Menace seems so far removed from the other five films that it really was surreal seeing it have a moment in the spotlight again.

 

[jye4ever]

My hate has diverted to Boss Nass.

Ughhhh...Boss Nass.

 

[Wor-Gar]

Yousa must be pune-ished!

 

[jye4ever]

Yousa must be pune-ished!

it hurts to even read it

 

[jedijim3002]

Not true. Clash of the Titans looked good and it was done in post.

No it was not. Clash of the titans sucked in 3D just like TPM. I kept taking my glasses off to see if it looked any better without them on both films. Clash was barely in 3D. TPM had some parts that were ok in 3D but for the most part I should have stayed home, watched on blu ray, and saved my money.

 

[Coheteboy]

My hate has diverted to Boss Nass.

Ughhhh...Boss Nass.

They shoulda made it in 4D. Have water blasters soak audience when he does that blabbering thing.

Maybe wesa... bein' friends.



And I agree with Wor-Gar. Phantom Menace has its faults but overall falls in line with the original three the closest. I think because George thought longest and hardest about it. And the fact that they weren't filming it entirely on bluescreen really did help. The cinematography in Ep1 outshines that of ep2 and ep3.

And I never disliked the podrace but after they extended it, I really liked it a lot more. It made more sense to have it extended. It shows more of Anakin's piloting skills so that when he goes in space and randomly fires at stuff... it's not as bad. It's still bad! Just... not as.

 

[noisetrigger]

I went for a special charity screening of TPM 3D yesterday (they were raising money for an orphanage) and it was great fun because everyone there is a SW fan. Kids and adults with lightsabers, people in Sith and Jedi costumes. We even have the Asia chapter of 501st making an appearance.

I was there as part of a local lightsaber dueling group and did a pre show lightsaber fight to get everyone hype up.

Yes, the 3D effect is indeed very bad but the sound is very very good. The lightsabers never sounded better!!!

Despite the disappointment with the 3D effect you know it's a fun night when the cinema look like this

 

[Rorywan]

I went for a special charity screening of TPM 3D yesterday (they were raising money for an orphanage) and it was great fun because everyone there is a SW fan. Kids and adults with lightsabers, people in Sith and Jedi costumes. We even have the Asia chapter of 501st making an appearance.

I was there as part of a local lightsaber dueling group and did a pre show lightsaber fight to get everyone hype up.

Yes, the 3D effect is indeed very bad but the sound is very very good. The lightsabers never sounded better!!!

Despite the disappointment with the 3D effect you know it's a fun night when the cinema look like this

Thats awesome, and the reason I still love Star Ears, all of it, the good, the bad and the very silly..

 

[Darth Mitchell]

Thats awesome, and the reason I still love Star Ears, all of it, the good, the bad and the very silly..

Well I don't like Star Ears that much, like them regular