Watched this at the cinema today and thought I'd share some of my thoughts. Not going to bother talking about the story or acting. You either tolerate it or hate it. Just talking from an entirely visual point of view.
Not surprisingly there isn't that many jump out, in your face moments during the film. A couple of the blue Gungan bombs flying towards the camera and Obi Wan's jumping and slashing at the camera are the main in your face moments but apart from that the 3D conversion is pretty subtle.
It does add depth to many shots throughout the film, the following is a list of what stood out to me:
- The stars in the opening crawl stood out to me a bit more and the exterior space shots all had added depth to them, especially the shots with planetary bodies in them.
- Surprisingly, the battle droids looked a bit more "realistic" and better defined spatially. The added depth helps them look less like they where added to the scene.
- The fish outside the Gungan city are more noticeable thanks to them being in the foreground with added depth.
- The trip through Naboo's core looks better and the fish that chase them all stand out a lot more. One swims towards the camera but stops short of being a showy in your face shot.
- Several of the background characters in Mos Espa stand out more, mainly the CG ones. I thought some had been added for the 3D release but after checking the blu-rays they're the same just more noticeable.
- The pod race looks good in 3D. The pods stand out more and look a bit more realistic with the added depth. Nothing jumps out at you but the whole sequence has a bit more "umph" to it.
As far as I can tell, the film is the same as the blu-ray release with digital Yoda and the new shot of the Neimoidian viewscreen. Unlike one of the reviews Adywan posted, I didn't notice anything added to the pod race that wasn't in the blu-ray. No extra debris and the Clone Wars bounty hunter is Aurra Sing who has been in every version of TPM since 1999.
However I did notice a couple of potentially overlooked alterations. The first I'm not certain of and will need confirmation from someone else.
- The Fox logo is a non rotating version of the new Avatar onwards logo, updated from the late 90's version seen on all other versions of the film.
- The end credits have been altered slightly. Most noticeably the cast list. Now instead of being listed one after the other on different lines like this:
Qui-Gon Jinn .... Liam Neeson
Obi-Wan Kenobi .... Ewan McGregor
Queen Amidala/Padmé .... Natalie Portman
Anakin Skywalker .... Jake Lloyd
They are listed 2 per line line this:
Qui-Gon Jinn .... Liam Neeson Obi-Wan Kenobi .... Ewan McGregor
Queen Amidala/Padmé .... Natalie Portman Anakin Skywalker .... Jake Lloyd
George Lucas has also added a scene after the end credits where Samuel L. Jackson shows up to assemble a team of avengers.
Anyway, those are just some of my observations after watching it earlier today, The majority of them are true but one of them is completely made up.
