When George Lucas made the announcement a little over a year ago that he was going to release the films in 3-D, I saw a few reactions from fans that were very bitter about the change and felt it would be lame. I opted to withhold judgment until I had seen for myself just what this meant. Well, the recent Mustafar heat wave that hit California gave me a chance to do so as it knocked out our power for all of last weekend. Given the triple digit temperatures and no power at home, I decided to retreat to the movie theater to escape the nigh unbearable heat last Saturday night.

I decided to watch Superman Returns in IMAX 3-D. I had already seen the film and thoroughly enjoyed it, but this time I wanted to see how the IMAX 3-D would work, especially given the announcement that someday the Star Wars films would be released in this format. After seeing Superman Returns in IMAX, I get excited thinking about seeing the Star Wars films in this format.

For those who may not know how IMAX 3-D works, only portions of the film are shown in 3-D(at least in the case of Superman Returns). A 3-D glasses icon flashes green at the bottom of the screen to let you know it's coming. When it does, it's spectacular to behold. In the case of Superman, you literally see the Man of Steel flying in front of you. You can almost reach out to touch the characters. Some of the kryptonite scenes were remarkable in their realism in 3-D. When the scene is done, the icon flashes red to let you know you can take the glasses off.

Now, as this relates to Star Wars, I can just imagine what it might be like to see Obi-Wan Kenobi battle Darth Vader right in front of me. I can only wonder about how cool it will be to see the Millenium Falcon weave through the asteroid field with the asteroids floating right in front of you. How about seeing the lasers dart out of the X-wings and TIE fighters? Or maybe the force lightning coming out of Palpatine's fingertips as he tries to teach Luke the true power of the dark side? The possibilities are endless and I think that seeing the films in 3-D would be an entertaining new way to experience the films again.

Now just what the future holds for Star Wars in 3-D remains to be seen, but after seeing how Superman Returns looks in IMAX 3-D, I think Star Wars has the potential to be even more spectacular as the saga appears to come to life right in front of our very eyes.