George Lucas has announced that he’s re-releasing all six “Star Wars” films in 3D. Financially, it is an excellent idea to take advantage of the 3D craze. Artistically, it’s a wash in my opinion.
To be completely honest, I’m not a Lucas fanboy, I much prefer “Star Trek.” That being said, I love really any movie set in space that has heavily-armed ships duking it out.
When I heard the news, the first thing I could think of was this list of scenes that would be completely Made of Win in 3D.
5) Sail Barge Assault on Tattooine
Between Lando (Billy Dee Williams) proving he’s not a traitor, and Luke (Mark Hamill) proving that he actually has taken a level in being hard, how can you not see this scene in 3D? Boba Fett jetting around the place, giant sand monsters and things blowing up are all par for the course. Carrie Fisher in the gold bikini’s just a plus
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4) Hoth
This ice planet may be of little strategic worth, and is also little more than a snowball, but this is where the ubiquitous AT-AT walkers put the fear of God (and the Empire) into the hearts of anyone watching. It’s also where we see how a bunch of scrappy underdog Snowspeeders do work and make the walkers look like senior citizens who have fallen and can’t get up.
3) Lightsaber Duels
Come on … we all know that lightsaber duels would look boss in 3D, the hardest part would be choosing which ones would be the best. I say, why bother choosing? I will make special mention of three that would be absolute winners: Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi vs. Darth Maul (my personal favorite), the classic Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker, and Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywaker vs. Count Dooku, featuring Yoda being COMPLETELY B.A. You know it’s about to hit the fan when Yoda goes for his piece with The Force!
2) Dogfights in Space
For the same reasons as No. 3 above, way too many excellent examples of ships, fighters, etc. firing lasers and missiles at one another to be visually exploited in 3D, the hardest part is choosing. My top three for this is much easier, however. Naboo Starfighters A Go-Go, Han’s Asteroid Evasion in “Empire” and, of course, at No. 1, the gigantic Battle of Endor beam spam fest. The ONLY reason the “Attack of the Clones” battle sequence didn’t make this list is because Lucas abused the heck out of what I call the BSG (Battlestar Galactica) zoom, aka the Ron D. Moore zoom shot, and more appropriately, the Lucas zoom, since he was the first to overplay it.
1) The Death Star
Any “Star Wars” fan would be out of his or her mind if they thought either Death Star sequence would not be No. 1 on this list, and I’m a Trek fan (NOT a Trekkie). Whether it’s a trench run to a 2- meter-wide ray shielded thermal exhaust point, or a double concussion missile strike at the core reactor while being chased by TIE Fighters, the sense of motion alone, not to mention the explosions themselves, should be more than enough to propel these scenes to the top of the list.
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Follow Chris Hyatt on Twitter at http://twitter.com/hyattch.
Nice list.