There is no doubt that Star Wars: A New Hope is an iconic film in the movie firmament. It changed the way people saw science fiction, as well as having a massive influence on the industry in general - from special effects to marketing and merchandising through to fandom. It, and its two sequels, came from a slightly more innocent time, with a firm grounding in mythological storytelling that was famously influenced by Joseph Campbell. Even its pseudo religio-mystic overtones struck a chord with many people - myself included - possibly more so than the galactic space opera and its battles.

Unfortunately, Lucas started tinkering with his cash cow, genetically (digitally) enhancing it to get even more milk out of it, and the fans kept suckling at that teat, demanding yet more. This seems to have driven Lucas to studying his back story notes to create the now (in)famous sequels. If anyone ever needed proof that money kills, or at least stifles, creativity then Phantom Menace is an excellent example.

I’m pretty sure I’ve not seen this since its original DVD release, and after watching it again on the big screen in its 3D “enhanced” (and I used the term advisedly) I know why. This is all the same badly delivered, stilted dialogue of before but with eye-straining, nausea-inducing post-production 3D. Cynical as it may seem, this is nothing more than an exercise in squeezing a few more drops out of that massive cash cow. As we have seen in so many cases, post-production 3D does not work as there are too many variables that need to be considered for 3D to work effectively, and that begins with the shooting and finishes with the editing.

More recently, some filmmakers have realised this and have made the appropriate allowances even though they have decided to shoot the original in 2D and post process. Things such as depth-of-field, camera movements and speed of editing cuts all have to be carefully considered to avoid scrambling the brains of the audience, and what worked in an action-packed 2D 12 years ago, does not translate into 3D, except maybe the opening title crawl. One of the best sequences in the film is the pod race, and that should have been equally exciting, if not more so, in 3D, but it just didn’t work because of the reasons previous stated. In fact, there were lots of scenes shot with a shallow depth of field that didn’t work, and a lot of the CGI came across as badly interpolated, which is not a good look.

Speaking of CGI, and this will no doubt not be a popular opinion, but the CGI characters were by far the best, and far more animated and believable than the those portrayed by the cast of award-winning actors. In fact, I will even go so far as to say that the reviled Jar Jar Binks was one of the best things in the film, along with Watto and the battle droids.

If you loved this film the first time round (you are in a minority), or are under ten and didn’t see it on the big screen then the chances are you will enjoy this, but otherwise probably best to give it a miss, so as not to encourage Lucas's further desecration of our childhoods.

Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace is in cinemas and BFI IMAX now.