Another missed opportunity for 3D.
This weekend’s release of the so-called first chapter of “Star Wars: The Phantom Menace,” followed in a few weeks by the 3D version of “Titanic,” could have continued the momentum of “The Lion King” and “Beauty and the Beast” and been a huge boon to improving the public perception of 3D.
Instead, it is now all up to James Cameron to once again overcome another 3D movie that under-delivers because there is almost no perceptible 3D in “Phantom Menace” except the opening credits and the RealD logo prior to the movie. Cameron not only promises to push the 3D off the screen with “Titanic’ and even more-so with “Avatar 2” than in the original “Avatar,” he will also be releasing “Titanic” with the added impact of an optional IMAX presentation, the latter of which would have also been a valuable new option for “Phantom Menace.” (First reviews of “Titanic” will come next week during Valentine’s Day public previews, but 3D trailers of the movie weren’t particularly dynamic either.)
It could be argued that watching the whole 3D “Phantom” without glasses might be a better experience since the 3D is so minimal that there is almost no blurring at any point, and without the glasses the movie is noticeably brighter.
Even the “Ice Age” 3D short that precedes the movie, “Scrat’s Continental Crack-Up Part 2” offers far more dynamic 3D, although that 2 1/2-minute short is also a disappointment to anyone who already saw it a couple months ago with other films during the holidays.
It would be easy and unfair to blame the low/no-impact 3D in “Phantom” on conversion company Prime Focus, which also got the blame for the rush job they say they were forced to do on “Clash of the Titans” (ironically, “Phantom” is preceded by a trailer for “Wrath of the Titans” — really, they’re doing a sequel to that movie?), and which also did the similarly subtle 3D on the final “Harry Potter” movie.
But the blame here has to fall on George Lucas, since this is obviously a creative choice he made to keep the 3D minimized, just as he did with the 3D in the revamped Star Tours attraction at Disneyland and Disney World, though even the 3D in the pod race there is a little more impactful than it is in this movie.
That’s a shame. Even Lucas’ contemporary Martin Scorsese has demonstrated with “Hugo” that he knows how to maximize the use of 3D, and to a lesser extent than “Hugo” but certainly a greater extent than “Phantom,” Spielberg also demonstrated an awareness of how to leverage the technology to good effect in “The Adventures of Tintin.”
Here’s hoping that subsequent installments of the superior chapters of “Star Wars” show significant improvement in the 3D, and perhaps even this movie can still be salvaged for the inevitable Blu-ray 3D version at some point.
— By Scott Hettrick