Posts Tagged ‘2012’

The Phantom Menace in 3D

Recently, It was revealed by the folks at Lucasfilms and Fox that the Star Wars films will be re-released in 3D, starting with Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.

ILM, the special effects company Lucas started for the original trilogy, is quite experienced in this area having worked on the special effects for films such as Avatar. The producers claim the conversion to 3D will be done with complete respect for the artistic work that is the Star Wars saga, so hopefully there will fewer complaints from fans as there have been after other re-releases (Han shot first anyone?).

It may seem difficult to comprehend how a film only in 2D can have another dimension added to it. It certainly was surprising for us at SWTOR Republic. However, this technology has been around for some time now; feature films such as Clash of The Titans have employed similar technology, allowing them to be screened in 3D even though they were filmed with traditional methods. Whilst this did pose some problems with quality, much research and development has happened since Titans so the Star Wars releases of next year should be almost seamless.

These 3d releases will be shown in cinemas just months after the whole saga is officially released in Blu-Ray quality later this year. Many fans have waited since the invention of the Blu-Ray technology many years ago for this, although some had given up hope and elected to use less legal methods to secure  the1080p editions of the series floating around the internet.

While Lucas has received a lot of backlash over later releases of the Star Wars films over the years he has generated substantial profits pushing out the same material again and again in different forms, with the 3D releases being the latest in this long line of different editions.

Whether it makes good business sense to release the newer trilogy before the classics is another matter, however fans can take comfort in knowing there will not be another 15 year wait.

The Phantom Menace, to be released in glorious 3D HD next year.

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