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Someone please explain why there is a 50's diner in the Star Wars universe...

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Of all the insanely bad ideas found in the prequel trilogy, the 50's diner makes me the most angry. 'Cup of joe'??!?!?!?!!? Jersey accent?!?!?!?!? Why the hell is there a damned 50's diner on Coruscant?!?!?!?

I quote:

'A long time ago, in a galaxy far far away'
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Originally posted by: 20th Century Mark
It is supposed to pay homage to American Graffiti.


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You're 100% right, but it has no place in the SW universe. It is just another reason what went wrong with the prequels. That scene is out of place in AOTC, along with the cook Dex who knows all these secrets? Everytime I watch that scene I think I am watching the original Back to the Future and waiting to see Marty McFly walk in with Kenobi, and say, "You built a time machine out of midiclorians?"

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Originally posted by: CO
*snip*
Everytime I watch that scene I think I am watching the original Back to the Future and waiting to see Marty McFly walk in with Kenobi, and say, "You built a time machine out of midiclorians?"


Every time you watch it? I find it funny that nearly everyone who claims to hate these movies so much spends so much time watching/rewatching them and constantly making them the focus of their free time on the internet.

I'm not trying to make this a personal attack at all, I'm just curious as to why.
For as much as some people claim to hate what Star Wars has become, they sure seem incapable of shutting up about it.
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I've honestly only seen episode 1 once and episode 2 twice in their sanctioned versions. I've watched the edits by Magnoliafan once each as well. I don't rewatch them again and again, and as a result, most of my criticism is of small things I remember from the first two and mostly from the third film, which I have watched at least 5 times (I actually enjoy 99% of it).

I honestly cringed a lot more when I watched magnoliafan's edit of Phantom Menace a lot more than when I saw it originally. I actually didn't hate it the first time I saw it, and sort of left it at that by never seeing it again (then again, a GREAT film would've had me coming back for more time and time again).
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Originally posted by: Rebel Rouser
Originally posted by: CO
*snip*
Everytime I watch that scene I think I am watching the original Back to the Future and waiting to see Marty McFly walk in with Kenobi, and say, "You built a time machine out of midiclorians?"


Every time you watch it? I find it funny that nearly everyone who claims to hate these movies so much spends so much time watching/rewatching them and constantly making them the focus of their free time on the internet.

I'm not trying to make this a personal attack at all, I'm just curious as to why.


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I guess I should have said, Everytime I watched it, using past tense. When each prequel came out, I gave them more than a few shots cause I wanted to love these movies, but as I watched them more and more, the more I realized I was naive that they weren't great movies.

I admit it took me awhile cause I was a prequel defender up til ROTS, cause I thought that would be the next ESB. I never thought TPM & AOTC were great, but I kept saying, wait til ROTS, everything will make sense. And then when Lucas botched that movie, especially the turn scene, I started reevaluating the whole PT, and realized if Lucas can't make one damn good movie, whats the point? I will not lie and say I haven't watched the PT movies more than once in the past, but they are becoming a distant memory cause Lucas couldn't link the two trilogies, cause we keep asking questions like, "How does Leia remember her mom?" I just watch 4-6 now, and that bad writing crap doesn't exist to me anymore. That as honest as I could be about the prequels.

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LOL

This has got to be the funniest thread I've read in a long time... a long time...
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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Guys... WTF?

Next you'll be telling me they speak English in Star Wars!

What? They do! No way! What's wrong with Lucas?!? Why would there be English in a galaxy far, far away?!? See, that's what makes the Star Wars films so stupid. Everyone knows that there can't be English in the GFFA!

That is one of the most insanely bad ideas Lucas has come up with! I now officially hate Star Wars because they speak English in it!



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Your analogy is poorly drawn at best.

Yes, you have a point that there are basic tenets of the Star Wars films that assume connections with 'reality': objects are called similar things in that universe as they are in ours; characters with names like Luke whose origins are biblical; human beings existing as one of the primary 'races', so on and so forth. But there is a huge difference between representing a common language among multiple cultures in a film universe (contrasted, of course, with a healthy helping of other languages) with the one of the assumed audience and placing anachronistic and otherwise completely ridiculous references to very specific aspects of reality into the film. What does that accomplish? It takes you completely out of being immersed in the film's universe. It is the stuff of sci-fi parodies See: Space Balls truck stop scene, almost anything in the Space Quest adventure series (particularly Monolith burgers), etc...

I realize that Lucas is not known for his attention to 'suspension of disbelief', so why not throw in a scene with Anakin and Palpatine discussing Darth Plagueus at the nearest McCoruscant burger joint? Or perhaps Obi Wan having an iced latte at Mustafarbucks to 'cool down' after that climactic final battle? Seriously, are you joking?
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Well, as someone above said: it was an homage to American Graffiti. Myself, when I saw it, I loved the idea of a 50s diner like that on Coruscant. It works fine for me, I don't see what the big deal is.
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Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
Guys... WTF?

Next you'll be telling me they speak English in Star Wars!



To elaborate on that idea let me explain something. Think of it like this - how would you tell a story about Star Wars WITHOUT the movie? That's right, with words. Either through english text (such as a book) or orally (such as a camp fire story, or the radio dramas). Star Wars is told in the language it was conceived in. Namely English, because we in America speak it.

If Star Wars were based on true events, I highly doubt that English was the primary language of the galaxy. But you can't tell the story of Star Wars in a foreign language that nobody understands.

People in the Star Wars universe ARE NOT (or DID not if you are thinking in "long, long ago" terms) speak English. They never did. But the movie was filmed in English. It's just a format for telling a story.

So when you see something like "Tractor Beam Power Level" on the readout that Obi-Wan is shutting down in ANH, it wouldn't really say "Tractor Beam Power Level," but we as an audiance don't know what "##~~~~+++" means in the Star Wars universe language. For all we know it could say "Darth Vader was here." (which is why I object to the DVD change. How are non-star wars fans supposed to know what the power readout says? Nobody speaks that Star Wars language whatever it is supposed to be, nor can anyone read it.)

The movie has to be presented in a format that we understand. That is why the movie is translated into other languages around the world. No, Yoda doesn't really speak French, no Vader really isn't German, but it's just a way of getting the story across.

So when you hear something like what Wedge says in ESB - "Good luck Luke! See you at the rendezvous!" you don't freak out because you question why someone in the Star Wars universe just used a French word. Well, Wedge says "rendezvous" because there is no English word that means "predetermined meeting place." We have to use foreign words. English has always been like that.
It's just a story being told orally, (plus a whole lot of totally bitchin' graphics.) The Star Wars universe doesn't speak in English, but we do.
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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Originally posted by: gethedgicalSee: Space Balls truck stop scene, almost anything in the Space Quest adventure series (particularly Monolith burgers), etc...


Woooh! Space Quest! I LOVE those games!

Maybe the 50's type diner was just like what we have. We're almost in '06, but yet we still have throwback restaurants. It doesn't really matter to me, though, if this scene was or wasn't there ... the movie would still stink.

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dude serious just come off, that has to bee one of the stupidest complaints about the PT in the history of all complaints. if you going to start coming up with shit like that, it would be the same thing as me saying, OMG why the hell does han have a mullet in the OT mullets shouldnt be part of GFFA, or omg why are they playing 70s music in the cantena in ANH.
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Originally posted by: Rebel Rouser
Originally posted by: CO
*snip*
Everytime I watch that scene I think I am watching the original Back to the Future and waiting to see Marty McFly walk in with Kenobi, and say, "You built a time machine out of midiclorians?"


Every time you watch it? I find it funny that nearly everyone who claims to hate these movies so much spends so much time watching/rewatching them and constantly making them the focus of their free time on the internet.

I'm not trying to make this a personal attack at all, I'm just curious as to why.
the better qustion is why are you on these boards? this is pretty much an anti prequels site so we can be free to bash these films as much as we want to, freedom!

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Originally posted by: battlewars
Originally posted by: Rebel Rouser
Originally posted by: CO
*snip*
Everytime I watch that scene I think I am watching the original Back to the Future and waiting to see Marty McFly walk in with Kenobi, and say, "You built a time machine out of midiclorians?"


Every time you watch it? I find it funny that nearly everyone who claims to hate these movies so much spends so much time watching/rewatching them and constantly making them the focus of their free time on the internet.

I'm not trying to make this a personal attack at all, I'm just curious as to why.
the better qustion is why are you on these boards? this is pretty much an anti prequels site so we can be free to bash these films as much as we want to, freedom!


NO sry i am afriad your wrong.

this is not an anti-PT site, if it was it would be called the anti-PT site. this is a site thats dedicated to getting to OT on DVD. it is possible and actually very common to find a person that LIKES the PT that also wants the OT on DVD, so sit down and shut up unless you can think of something construct, in which case post away.
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i think that diner scene brought down the prequels with lucas' lame homage to himself, what balls!
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think what ever you want, all you do by saying that is show me how subborn you can be, and it give me a idea of what kind of person you are and how good your taste is.
oh and it looks like the part of being constructive was lost on you, but thats ok .
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I'm with Shim on this one. I personally enjoy the prequals. Hell, for that matter I don't mind sitting down and watching the Special Edition(s) of the OT either... I just think that we should be given the option to choose. (And if it were a strict "either/or" matter, then I choose the original OT.)

And for that matter, I'm also with Jay on this one since he has pointed out many times that this is NOT an anti-PT site.

Seriously, I don't really give a rats ass what you prefer. If you don't like the PT or the SEs then that's fine. If you wanna bring up questions for the purpose of constructive debate then that's super. (and I commend the majority of the contributors in this thread for doing just that... and am happy that they were able to tell that my question was in no way an attack, but rather just looking for some clarification) I just don't understand the lack of anything better to do which leads some people to spend their free time bitching constantly about something they claim to hate so much.

I quote Holden:

This is a site populated by militant movie buffs. Sad, pathetic little bastards living in their parents basement, downloading scripts and what they think is inside information about movies and actors they claim to dispise, yet can't stop discussing.
For as much as some people claim to hate what Star Wars has become, they sure seem incapable of shutting up about it.
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Well, given that the GFFA has at least a million populated worlds, and that these worlds have been growing ever-closer for the past 25,000 years, odds are pretty good that at least one world in all that time developed the concept of the fifties diner. I mean, we did, and it only took 10,000 years (from the beginning of human civilization) and 2.5 billion people (world population in 1950). It was still pretty stupid and did nothing to invest the film with awe or wonder, but it's possible.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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I didnt/dont really have a problem with the concept of the 50s diner in a Star Wars movie or the scenes in the film, I just feel using the Jedi Analysis Droids to explain what the dart was, would have been better though...
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I didn't have a problem with it persay. The concept (the look) of a 50's diner was fine. Just like the cantina scene from ANH. There is nothing wrong with it. It is recognisable and we can related to it.

The problem I had was the over the top nature that they gave it. Like, we wouldn't recognise it as a small town diner, because as an audiance (according to Lucas) we are idiots and have to be spoon fed everything.
The whole "Someone to see you hon'! You wanna cup a Jawa juice?" Who the hell talks like that, ssspecially in a Star Wars universe? I mean, they actually programmed the droid to sound and act like that? That is a very distinct accent. On a human I can understand, but a droid. Oh no, I don't buy it.

Dex was fine. He looked and acted like he was a truck stop short order cook. Even the whole "itching his butt with his available hand" was okay. I smerked to myself in the theater. And as a side note, Obi-Wan did have the droids look at the dart but as Dex said, "even a Jedi should know the difference between knowledge and wisedom."

I just hate that damn droid. She is what makes it a slap in the face from George Lucas.
"I am altering the movies. Pray I don't alter them any further." -Darth Lucas
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I personally never took any offense at the diner scene. Sure, you could take it as some anachronistic horror, but like Scruffy (I think) said, there's definitely a chance that a '50s type diner could be conceived. And notice I said "type", because it's not exactly a '50s diner as we would have it. It has a Star Wars twist to it. That said, I don't love it, and I feel slightly embarrassed sticking up for it so much, but I don't see anything wrong with it.

To branch this thread out a little, though, the only problem I had with the plot that that scene involves is how it ends up being resolved: "Gravity's silhouette remains, but the star and all the planets are gone! I wonder what could mean that is?" Well, duh! I love the fact that the innocent mind of the child figures out the mystery, but it could have at least been a mystery. Instead, we have two Jedi scratching their heads when, duh, it's been erased from the archive, but just not very well!

There is no lingerie in space…

C3PX said: Gaffer is like that hot girl in high school that you think you have a chance with even though she is way out of your league because she is sweet and not a stuck up bitch who pretends you don’t exist… then one day you spot her making out with some skinny twerp, only on second glance you realize it is the goth girl who always sits in the back of class; at that moment it dawns on you why she is never seen hanging off the arm of any of the jocks… and you realize, damn, she really is unobtainable after all. Not that that is going to stop you from dreaming… Only in this case, Gaffer is actually a guy.

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Theres a simple explanation: Its one of those nostalgia places, but not done very well.
"I don't mind if you don't like my manners. I don't like them myself. They're pretty bad. I grieve over them during the long winter evenings."
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umm... i dont exactly think its easy for someone to delete something from the archives, infact its possible that all the jedi thought i was impossible, and so that is why he had it. think of what yoda said after, ir waht he implied the simpliest answer is usually the right one.