Star Wars Episode I : The Phantom Menace 3D (2012)

   Man oh man oh man. Star Wars. What have they done to you my boy? Three amazing films followed by redone versions of those movies, followed by three lesser sci-fi action movies... and now followed by those movies all  in one blu-ray bow (Which i bought day one) and as of today they have begun the re-re-releases in theaters in 3D. 

   Now I'll get to my actual opinion  of the movie in a second but first lets get this out of the way: The prequel Star Wars movies are NOT as bad as most people on the internet will tell you. Now they're not great movies, they have pretty lame acting, sub par special effects, and more than a few bad instances of them telling us things not showing them (For example how they never show us or even explain the prophecy that's supposed to balance the force). However they aren't terrible and don't deserve all the shit they get, they have some great cinematography, a lot of the planets and structures are beautiful from a creative/artistic perspective, and to the credit of the series as a whole Star Wars has always been a very original story with cool characters with well choreographed action scenes and  it has one of the biggest expanded universes of all time. With hundreds of books, tons of games, and more  than one cartoon show, the current one is actually really good just so we're clear), the Star Wars Universe is huge. 

   So obviously by the law of the universe it has to have bitchy fanboys that complain about everything and in recent years have made it their life goal to ruin the reputation of Lucas Films. Which is terrible, if your one of those people stop it. End it now. Your a jackass. I would know, i used to be a jackass too. 

   While the Phantom Menace isn't the best Star Wars movie it's definitely not thee worst (Attack of the Clones is) and it's two biggest problems were kind of forced upon it; the terrible little kid actor and all his terrible scenes. The Gungans and Jar Jar are bad too. As are the effects. And parts of the screen play. And a lot of the great actors in this movie give awful performances. But it's pretty and geeky and there are cool battles, so if your into that sorta thing and you haven't seen Star Wars before go for it. For what it's worth the 3D doesn't add or subtract from the movie, it adds a new depth to a lot of the shots making some of the cheaper looking conversations a little more pleasing to the eye but that's all the 3D really does here, it adds a few sprinklings of depth which is welcome in some places but ultimately makes no real changes. You could argue that the 3D makes some of the effects worse but this movie has always had pretty bad effects. 

   I would probably be a lot harder on this movie if something else had come out this weekend  (The Vow looks like a gigantic piece of garbage don't go see it) but since it came out on kind an off weekend, and it is a Star Wars movie with some cool space battles and Jedi it's worth a look if your bored. Not great but not terrible and honestly adds nothing to Star Wars except more money for Lucas. I'm sure he wouldn't want it any other way.

   Let's go with a ... C.

   OH it's also worth mentioning that if you haven't seen the recently released blu-ray versions of these movies, they have all the new edits that were made for that box set which in this movie is replacing the puppet Yoda with the CGI one from the other two prequels and it looks  pretty good, there's some dodgy lighting but it's hardly noticeable unless your looking for it.