What do you get when you combine a washed out DVNR ridden transfer of a film with a 3D post conversion, horrible theater service, and the most annoying gaggle of fan-boys to ever assemble in one place? You get what pretty much amounts to my worst experience at the movies in ages, my trip to the midnight showing of The Phantom Menace.
First of all, the movie looks like shit. Imagine taking the GOUT and slapping a 3D conversion on top of it. That's seriously what this looked like. A complete blurry mess. Colors were washed out, detail was gone, some of the battle droids streaked almost as bad as Han's Tauntan entering Echo base. The only thing I can really say that was all that impressive about this viewing was the awesome 3D epic-ness that was Liam Neeson's nose during close ups coming right at me. Not even the Pod-race was up to par.
Almost as bad as the transfer were the fans in attendance. I'm not sure who was more annoying, the group of hecklers in front of us who spent the whole film running their mouths and cracking jokes and before the movie started, got up in front of the theaters and asked people if they actually liked this movie they were about to see then started asking questions straight out of the RedLetterMedia reviews. I'm sorry, but whether you like the Prequels or hate them, showing up and paying your money just to heckle the films and the fans is a douche thing to do. Or the guy who was shouting, clapping, and cheering over enthusiastically at everything from Jar Jar, to "yippee!", to "are you and angel?" (that kids a pimp he said) and basically every shot Darth Maul was in. Seriously, the guy started shouting "fuck yeah" and "fuck him up" during the final duel while there were CHILDREN present.
The presentation of the film was bad, but I've never been more embarrassed by the fan base than I was tonight. The fans are freaking insane and I seriously just want it all to stop. Finish up Clone Wars, forget the freaking live action series, and wrap up the EU with some kind of logical closure for Han, Luke, and Leia. When something gets this overly commercialized, it just starts to suck and the fan rage on both sides of the Lucas love/hate wagon are just adding fuel to the fire.
This would all be so much simpler if I were just a Big Lebowski fan.