On the bright side, “Fanboys” is better than “Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace.”

On the dark side, so are most YouTube videos.

“Fanboys” is an unoriginal road-trip comedy with a unique subject.

Set in 1998, the film is about a group of “Star Wars” fanatics eagerly anticipating the release of “The Phantom Menace.”

One of them, aspiring

comic-book artist Eric (Sam Huntington), has drifted apart from his geek friends and is working as a car salesman at his father’s dealership.

Apparently, to get the job, Eric had to abandon all of his friends (who live in the same city), including his best friend since first grade, Linus (Chris Marquette).

Linus is going to die of cancer, but Eric is such an awful friend that Linus doesn’t even want him around during his final few months.

To atone for three years of avoiding his terminally ill best friend, Eric hatches a plan to go to George Lucas’ home and headquarters, Skywalker Ranch, to steal a rough cut of the newest “Star Wars” film.

Kristen Bell, Jay Baruchel and Dan Fogler round out the cast of geeks in the road-trip comedy.

Part of the charm of the film is the barrage of pop-culture references. Unlike in “Date Movie” and “Superhero Movie,” the references make sense in the context of the film.

Many of them, however, are so obscure that they will fly right by normal people. The movie features nerd-news Web site owner Harry Knowles, who helps the heroes get inside the ranch.

It turns out that Knowles is a real person with a real nerd-news Web site. How many people would know that and recognize him? Most people will recognize the other cameos, because they are celebrities, not bloggers who need haircuts.

Another character, Judge Reinhold, is based on a real person as well. In the movie, a cop warns the group not to laugh at Judge Reinhold’s name. I didn’t, because I had no idea what was funny about it.

Some real-life fanboys were apparently upset at the Weinstein Co. for reshooting the film to take out the cancer subplot, leading to a protest the Weinstein Co. released film “Superhero Movie” (which should have been protested anyway, just for existing).

Fanboys sometimes make mountains out of grains of sand, but this time they got their way and the cancer subplot was left in. The movie is slightly better for it, if just to fill it up.

Unfortunately the film often resorts to teen-comedy humor. “Fanboys” has the standard tough-guy at a gaybar scene, a surprise-she’s-an-escort scene and an awkward online girlfriend face-to-face. It feels like a tired routine, and nobody who is in college should laugh at these jokes anymore.

The best scenes are the celebrations of fanboy culture: the obscure knowledge, pointless debates and the social incompetence.

It isn’t the first movie to have a gay-bar scene. But it might be the first movie to question the innocence of Luke’s relationship with Leia.

On that note, they’re siblings, goddamnit. That’s wrong.

Reach the reporter at cogino@asu.edu.