New Dimensions in a galaxy far, far away...

The first thing I've been meaning to blog about during my interregnum was a trip to the cinema during the last school half term with my youngest son to see Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace in 3D.

Three subjects I want to cover from that trip.

Firstly, The film.
Secondly, It was my first experience of the current vogue for 3D in cinema
and finally, the cinema itself.

"Every generation has a legend, every journey a first step...."

This isn't going to be yet another blog slagging off The Phantom Menace. Quite the reverse, in fact. I'll hold my hand up quite happily and say "I like The Phantom Menace." Many, many Star Wars fans (some famous, some not so famous) have gone on record over the (14) years since it's release saying how much they hate it. How it doesn't stand up to the glorious original trilogy. How George Lucas has destroyed their childhood memories. In his autobiography, Simon Pegg described it as "...a boring, turgid, confused mess of pretensions and ill-thought-out science-fiction conceits, masquerading as children's entertainment and told with all the dexterity of a four-year-old recounting his summer holiday with a paintbrush." And that was one of his more polite pronouncements on the subject publicly and through his work.
To Simon (You're a hero of mine and I love you, but...) and everyone else who feels the need to continually complain about The Phantom Menace let me begin by saying "GET OVER IT!"
The original Star Wars is held up as this work of genius due, in part, to it's invention of the modern blockbuster, which in itself was merely a reinvention / re-imagining of the Saturday morning serials from days of yore. It's not a work of genius though. It's a very entertaining adventure movie made by someone who knew the films that had entertained him and was able to bring them up to date for his modern audience.
We watched it and we loved it as kids and have applied many more adult reasons for continue to love it as the years go on and we grow older. A 6, 8, 10 year old isn't going to care about the links to Kurosawa's "The Hidden Fortress" or the post Second World War themes running through it. It's got good guys and bad guys and spaceships and laser swords.
I maintain that if The Phantom Menace had been made in 1977 it would have had the same effect on us as it does on my (nearly) 6 year old. It took me a while to get Auton Scouser Jnr. to watch any of the Star Wars films and it was the prequel trilogy that got him hooked eventually, not our original films. He loves them all and taking the chance to see them on a big screen had to be done. I've seen five out of the six on the big screen thanks to the Special Editions being re-released back in the nineties. Sadly I missed out on Return of the Jedi, but I guess I'll finally nail that one in 2017. I gained a new appreciation for The Phantom Menace on that viewing as I sat there in the dark with Jnr. bouncing in his seat in excitement and virtually straining to join in with the light sabre battles and dogfights. It excites and entertains the audience its aimed at. What else does it need to do?

Into the Third Dimension...

For me, this was the 'new' thing I was getting out of the trip. I'm really not that bothered about 3D cinema. I'm happy with the media as it is. As long as the screen is big and the sound system is loud then that's as immersive as it needs to be. The greatest cinema experience I ever had was sitting alone in a large cinema watching a 70mm print of Apocalypse Now. No gimmicks. Just The Doors playing as a jungle is napalmed into extinction and the helicopters "whup whup whupping" from one side of the image to the other.
However, its all 'in-vogue' and it was about time I had a look.
Basically the illusion of depth has been added to The Phantom Menace by separating some (not all) of the scenes into multiple flat sections allowing some sections to appear closer than others.
It doesn't particularly add anything to my enjoyment of the film, but it didn't detract either thanks to the use of polarised glasses as opposed to the older generation of Red/Blue 3D glasses.
To be honest, I'm well aware this is probably not the best way to experience a 3D film as its, obviously, had the 3D aspect added later rather than, say, Avatar which was made with 3D cameras.
So, for now, I'm not overly excited by 3D, but I'm sure I will give a properly made 3D film a go at some point.

Seeing The Light...

Now, it's rare that the actual cinema that I visit rates a mention in any kind of review or discussion, but on this occasion I have to make an exception to write about our new local cinema in New Brighton on the Wirral.
The Light is a new multi-screen all-digital cinema opened as part of the Marine Point development and is only the third cinema opened by the chain (the others are in Hungary and Germany) with a fourth screen opening in Cambridgeshire next year.
Until the advent of The Light we were limited to two main chains (Vue and Odeon) and the 'art house' Picturehouse at FACT in Liverpool within easy reach. Suffice to say, cinema-going can be an expensive business when you have a family of two adults and two children (one teen and one under-10). In fact, it's very much of a muchness regardless of what cinema you go to these days as regards your experience. Expensive food, sticky carpets, not especially comfy seats, prices that gouge you for the 3D experience or if you're just a couple of years too old or too young.
The Light is a lovely looking cinema that's designed to be a social hub as well as a cinema. A bright and airy foyer that includes a licenced bar (Yes, that conversation from Pulp Fiction has finally happened) leading to the 8 screens (Two downstairs, the rest upstairs). I can see the size of the foyer struggling on a particularly busy day, but for my visits so far it's all been very relaxed. Customer service is spot on and the staff all appear to be well trained and inclined to doing the best for the customer rather than for the business.
For The Phantom Menace we were in one of the smaller screens which houses (to my quick count) about 100. Impressively clean and fresh and the seats are remarkably comfortable (and not of the fold-down variety) with plenty of leg room for those of us of the six-foot persuasion. Also happy to say this also means you don't have to squeeze yourself into a ball to let people get past you in the aisle. A few days later we also tried a bigger screen for The Muppets and had the same experience. Seating approx 250 in that one.
Ticket pricing is generally in line with industry except that there are no annoying 'Teen' prices. Adult OR Child. No in-between. This also means that we can book a family ticket for the four of us which saves us about a fiver over what we would pay at other local screens. There is no additional surcharge for a 3D film (Although you will still pay extra for your glasses if you need them. They are reusable so make sure you keep them.) and there is no booking fee through their website so you can book in advance and pick your specific seats knowing that you will definitely get to sit where you want.
The digital projection screens are truly beautiful showing bright crystal clear images without any kind of discernible artefacting. (Mrs AutonScouser is now such a digital-snob that she complains at how bad the 'traditional' film looks if we go to a different cinema.)
With the advent of cinemas like The Light I hope cinema managers get the opportunity to be a little more creative with their programming allowing some classics to re-appear on the big-screen regardless of a large-scale re-release as with The Phantom Menace 3D and the forthcoming Titanic 3D.
I commend film fans from all over Merseyside to give The Light a go as it's close to New Brighton railway station and therefore is an inexpensive destination wherever you are. My family definitely feel like we have a new home for cinema.