The Prequel Radical Redux Ideas Thread — Page 265

to begin with, Lucas should have never directed any of the PTs ...

and with any better director even Hayden would have given a better performance (see other movies), same with Natalie, she shines in other movies, because the person/s behind the camera know/s how to guide the actors ;-)

Which is kind of funny, as actors like McDermid and McGregor do their thing and it works even with the few help from Lucas ...

well, and the fact, that the story and plot of Episode 1-3 isn't as solid as it could have been.

Earlier in this thread (I think) I suggested that somehow Palpatine could use Padme’s life energy to heal Vader and that this could explain why she dies young (just not that young).
I saw a youtube video recently where someone else made a similar suggestion as a way to make Palpatine more proactive in Anakin’s journey to become Vader rather than just giving an already loose cannon a gentle tap.
I don’t know how this could be explained editorially (perhaps a line or two could be given to a masked or CGI character).
We have in the Original films evidence of the Empire using Tuskens as cover for their own activities so Palpatine could have done the same trick to Anakin. Making him a stronger Jedi than he would have been by draining energy from his mother into her son (which manifests as prophetic dreams).
Similarly this could add another element to Palpatine pitting father against son counting on the winner getting a power boost from the compassionate link with the loser.
Heck! It could even explain the Jedi no nookie policy as it stops the temptation to use spouses as turbo chargers.

Another idea for a change that might sound odd to start with but bear with me.
It would take a lot of work and the effect may seem superficial but I noticed that monochrome edits of the prequels work better for me. I was trying think this out and I remembered how in ROTJ:SE they changed Seb Shaw’s eye colour and removed his eyebrows to make him seem more like Hayden.
What I’m proposing is the opposite.
What if Hayden (Jake too) and Nat swapped their hair and eye colours.
That way Luke would look more like Vader’s wife and he would be able to more clearly make that match between her in pain and his son in pain (this might be compounded if he only used Force Lightning once on Padme, instead of choking her which only really made sense to me as an expression of Vader’s inability to breath unaided after the following battle).
Anakin under Vader’s mask would look more like Anakin in the PT without having to change the OT as much.
We would subconsciously see Leia as being more at risk of succumbing to the Dark Side because she was dark haired like her father, rather than being the same sort of diplomat that her mother was.
In the current films we’re are meant to make that connection between Luke and Anakin but the defining moment of Luke’s journey is snapping at his father and almost becoming him but pulling back.
That is sold to us by Leia being in jeopardy from her own parent so making her parent more like her than Luke is the sort of visual storytelling that the OT did well but the PT did terribly.
Still a lot of work for something probably only I can see but I’d be interested in hearing what other people think of this.
It might not even be something that can be done convincingly.

While theoretically this could be done, it would take a tremendous amount of work and no shortage of skill to make convincing. To me, the visual poetry (“you know, it rhymes”) that this would emphasize would go over most people’s heads and even though it’s a fun idea, I don’t think the amount of work involved is worth it, personally. I think it’s more important to draw parallels emotionally through what the characters do, more than how they look.

Redoing each and every laser bolt in any Star Wars movie is proof of potential effort. It isn’t however proof of value.

It would be along the lines of effort of changing all the Fremen eyes in an extended cut of Dune (what with Anakin and Padme not being in every shot together) and that has been done a couple of times I think.

Just encase it isn’t already in here :

DuracellEnergizer said:

Bingowings said:

Padme’s world defended by gleaming chrome plated Y-wings would have sold the transition better.

You should bring this idea up in “The Prequel Radical Redux Ideas Thread” (if you haven’t already).

So in light of the impending release of episode VII - has anyone thought of ideas which might tie the PT to the ST? Lucas allegedly once said pre-PT that the threat within an ST would be revealed during the PT.

Maybe the idea of balance to the Force could carry over into the ST.
In TPM there are thousands of Jedi and two Sith.
By the start of ANH there are two Jedi and two Sith, Masters and Apprentices.
Ben takes Luke as his apprentice upsetting the balance and is killed by Vader resetting the balance.
Then Yoda dies upsetting the balance leading to Palpatine’s death at the hand of Anakin and his own eventual death.
This leaves two, a potential Master and Apprentice where one is a Jedi and the other choked Jabba and choked Lando by proxy 😄

ben_danger said:

So in light of the impending release of episode VII - has anyone thought of ideas which might tie the PT to the ST? Lucas allegedly once said pre-PT that the threat within an ST would be revealed during the PT.

Well we kind of have to see EpVII before we can even think of ways to connect the trilogies.

Darth Lucas said:

ben_danger said:

So in light of the impending release of episode VII - has anyone thought of ideas which might tie the PT to the ST? Lucas allegedly once said pre-PT that the threat within an ST would be revealed during the PT.

Well we kind of have to see EpVII before we can even think of ways to connect the trilogies.

Yes - this is true obviously - but there is no harm throwing ideas right? And especially in light of the extended Star Wars Lore that is growing in light of the new films.

An agenda on this forum when editting the PT is how it should always be made to fit with the OT. So sometimes this is visually, musically, or adjusting details in the story etc. Sometimes there are certain features such as the overwhelming use of exotic aliens, landscapes and spaceships which would have been impossible in the 70s/80s which make it not fit. Much of this bias might shift in light of the ST, which seems to synthesise both from what the trailers are suggesting.

Two ideas that were batted around ages ago that seemed a bit ‘un-star warsy’ at the time, might have more legitimacy now for instance -

A masked villain in TPM, who is unmasked in AOTC - revealed to be Count Dooku. Ep7 reveals additional factions of dark jedi which have started up since the end of ep6 - could something similar be used at the start of the saga? An additionally filmed actor with a mask would bring a welcome consistent villain for the PT.

I suggested ages ago that GEONOSIS could be a sort of ‘travelling planet’ - so a plot point would be the republic trying to track it down as it is being used as a sort of mobile base. A bit absurd - and no idea how it would work - but in light of what may be suggested in certain film posters, planet wide enemy base isn’t too unfeasible?

I’ve never thought of mirroring the ‘golden age’ of the republic in TPM to what was the ‘golden age’ of the empire in ANH.

Imagine presenting the republic as a sort of super-alderaan, so there are NO weapons anywhere - because there haven’t been any wars for generations. The Jedi’s use of lightsabers might even be representative of a sort of regression of sorts that swords are enough to keep order where needed.

Battle droids with tanks and guns might be a tad more intimidating in that setting - but I’m not sure how much of a lead up that would need to make it impactful. You couldn’t have the first portion of the film just pouring over peaceful environments!

Totally agree about Anakin! Leave him behind - he should just be a background character in that story. I often wonder if it would work to open TPM with Tatooine and Qui-Gon - whilst simultaneously introducing the Naboo fugitives.

Or if you’re going to take Anakin to Naboo, have him join the space battle on purpose. Have him fly to try and help the pilots take out the ship above.

But yes, a radical change would be to just leave him at the temple to be trained or in the custody of the Jedi council because he’s supposedly this chosen one.

Taking the chosen one into the path of the Sith doesn’t sound like such a brilliant idea.

Someone once did a clip where Mace Windu was the pilot who destroyed the droid control ship in TPM and the clip worked brilliantly and solved the issue of Anakin being in the battle at all. This would be my preferred idea too as it uses footage of Samuel Jackson from a documentary so would also help to mix things up and have a theme which was never touched upon in the original movie.

It would be cool if the Naboo pilots held out for a long time slowly being worn down by the sheer number of the droids and then just as it looks like they are all going to die, the Jedi turn up in fighters and the droid control ship is destroyed by Obi-Wan from inside after killing Maul on the ship instead of on the planet.
The Jedi come across as heroes for once at least.
It would explain why the whole council are on the planet at the end of the movie.

Bingowings said:

It would be cool if the Naboo pilots held out for a long time slowly being worn down by the sheer number of the droids and then just as it looks like they are all going to die, the Jedi turn up in fighters and the droid control ship is destroyed by Obi-Wan from inside after killing Maul on the ship instead of on the planet.
The Jedi come across as heroes for once at least.
It would explain why the whole council are on the planet at the end of the movie.

This is do-able, but only if one manages to pull off the jedis on the control ship and the rest on the planet. I’ve personally played around with this and found it extremely difficult if not impossible to pull off, but I’m still trying things. What makes it so difficult is that, while you could cut the jedi out of shots certain shots and replace the background, it’s a much harder thing to remove them from the many many shots where they appear alongside the naboo-ians as they storm Theed palace. The most challenging shots being where darth maul is revealed: it involves removing the jedi and changing the background to resemble the ship, removing maul and changing the background, and possibly also trying to fill in the empty space left from where the jedi were if you want to salvage that shot for use with Amidala and the naboo-ians.

(p.s. What the hell are we supposed to call people from Naboo? Qui-Gon refers to them as ‘The Naboo’ but idfk if that’s accurate or not)

Darth Lucas said:

Bingowings said:

It would be cool if the Naboo pilots held out for a long time slowly being worn down by the sheer number of the droids and then just as it looks like they are all going to die, the Jedi turn up in fighters and the droid control ship is destroyed by Obi-Wan from inside after killing Maul on the ship instead of on the planet.
The Jedi come across as heroes for once at least.
It would explain why the whole council are on the planet at the end of the movie.

This is do-able, but only if one manages to pull off the jedis on the control ship and the rest on the planet. I’ve personally played around with this and found it extremely difficult if not impossible to pull off, but I’m still trying things. What makes it so difficult is that, while you could cut the jedi out of certain shots and replace the background, it’s a much harder thing to remove them from the many many shots where they appear alongside the naboo-ians as they storm Theed palace. The most challenging shots being where darth maul is revealed: it involves removing the jedi and changing the background to resemble the ship, removing maul and changing the background, and possibly also trying to fill in the empty space left from where the jedi were if you want to salvage that shot for use with Amidala and the naboo-ians.

(p.s. What the hell are we supposed to call people from Naboo? Qui-Gon refers to them as ‘The Naboo’ but idfk if that’s accurate or not)