HUGE NERD NEWS – The Star Wars films are going to be re-released in 3D!

Now, I know the 3D craze has its fans and its detractors, but here’s the thing you gotta keep in mind here – ILM is going to be doing the conversions for the movies.  ILM, or Industrial Light and Magic for the uninitiated, is the company that basically invented all of modern movie special effects.  These guys know what they’re doing, so The Saga is in good hands.

Obviously, it is a given that I will see all six movies in the theater in 3D.  I may be getting a tad too old for midnight shows, but I’d say these would certainly be “opening weekend” type-events.

The question is, how do I handle these movies with Eli?

Now this is something I’ve written about before, but this news definitely impacts things, as seeing the movies on the big screen – an in 3 dimensions no less – will certainly have more of an impact than popping in a disc at home.

The movies will be released in Episode order – so starting with The Phantom Menace and ending with Return of the Jedi, with one film coming out a year beginning in 2012.  So let’s break it down:

By the time TPM comes out, Eli will be 2 years old, which should give him the cognitive capacity to understand that lightsabers are cool, Darth Maul is mean, and Jar Jar Binks is silly.  He’ll love it, even if he doesn’t understand the politics/midichlorian stuff.

When he’s 3, he’ll see AOTC, and he may be bored by the love scenes and all that kissing, but there’s enough action to keep him interested.

At 4, Eli may be too young for the dark parts of ROTS.  But he will definitely be old enough to get into and enjoy The Clone Wars series, so maybe that can tide him over for a few years.

At 5, Eli will be perfectly ready for ANH.  I, at the age of 35, will feel like a 5 year old seeing this movie in 3D for the first time.

ESB is a little dark, sure, but nothing a 6 year old can’t handle.  Plus without having seen Ep. III, Eli may still be surprised that Vader is Luke’s father.  (Or maybe not – Eli is already a pretty smart kid, so he may put the pieces together for himself.)  Assuming Eli handles ESB without a hitch, he can then watch ROTS.

And then, when the little guy is 7, Eli will finally get to meet the Ewoks in ROTJ, and the saga – and our yearly tradition – will come to an end.

PS It should probably feel strange for me to be planning trips to the movies in 2017 when I’m not totally sure what I’m doing this weekend, but this feels totally normal to me.