What single (Non-SW) movie from the last 30 odd years has come closest to the spirit of Star Wars?... and why? — Page 2

Well exactly, you just proved my point ;-)

The second shot you linked to ^ (I'm guessing to show I was wrong and that the grading is good in skyfall?)... this one:

^ the car window on the right is an unnaturally bright blue, bond's suit is also electric blue despite actually being Grey as in this next shot:

Also I suspect that the almost supernatural levels of grey fog have been digitally enhanced. But I agree the grading is more natural here than the shots I selected above. It's an outdoor scene in natural daylight so they couldn't mess with it too much. Unlike night scenes in the same environment like this where they can go crazy with the colour:

I'm not saying there isn't beauty in there, in the same way that a Disney film looks absolutely beautiful.

Certain looks don't date. Your TV Kirk avatar has not dated, movie Kirk has:

30's

60's

90's

now

If a sci-fi director is wise he/she picks a timeless look 1982's Blade Runner:

and not like 1982's Wrath of Khan:

Of course it has no effect on the quality of the movies or my enjoyment of them. The haircuts in ST:TMP are less dated than ST:WOK but I'd rather watch ST2 100 times before watching ST1 again lol

Anyway, getting a bit off topic here. Back to the "Spirit of SW" discussion...

I think the George Lucas Produced 'Red Tails' from last year actually had more of Star Wars about it than his PT ever did.

It's got heroic but fallible, wisecracking and likeable characters that you care about in the life-or-death struggles they face. The dogfights are some of the most thrilling movie battles since Red-Leader first shouted "S-Foils in attack position". There's a whole bunch of fun to be had with the added bonus that there is some serious weight in there too.

Hell, if the Red Tails were all flying X-Wings it would be Star Wars.

(Forgive the Jar-Jar use... couldn't find a better spoof)

       ^ Luke Skywalker.

                  ^ Han Solo

              ^ Princess Leia

(Darth Vader^)            ^ Obi-Wan

                  ^ Grand Moff Tarkin

                  ^ Darth Vader

            ^ General Dodonna

When I get to editing the 'Battle of Yavin' part of my 'Lost Workprint' FanEdit. The 'Red Tails' are gonna be flying for the Rebellion!

^Thanks SilverWook. THIS is why I started this thread, to hear about things I've missed that might have a wee SW buzz about them.

I never got round to 'Titan A.E.', all I knew was that it bombed in spectacular fashion, but just watched the HD trailer on YouTube. It looks great and is crying out for a BR as you say. I'm almost unsure if I should watch it in SD lol (Edit: It's been on TV in HD, I wonder if I can find it...).

On a similar note, I watched another animated box-office-bomb, Disney's 'Treasure Planet' on Netflix HD for the first time the other week. That is a stunning Steam-Punk/SF world full of SW thrills with a central kid who has no father tripping off on an adventure across the galaxy.

I'm a big B5 fan. 'In The Beginning' was a great feature length TV movie from that show. Great characters and big ass space battles deciding the fate of earth, pure SW fun. Shame half the cast have since died from the B5 curse :(

Just remembered the EXACT reason I never watched 'Titan A.E.'. It was because this was a terrible, terrible poster...

...yuk! Back in those days you couldn't so easily just click on YouTube and watch a trailer. Poster art mattered!

Baronlando said:

I would go with something like GHOSTBUSTERS and BEVERLY HILLS COP, only because of 2 things: the similarly broad appeal (lots and lots of people from all the demos turned out for it and loved it) and that mix of playing it straight and goofy that is really difficult to pull off now for some reason. Maybe because people are way more anal about everything striking a consistent tone and blah blah blah, but who knows. When you see NEW HOPE with a crowd it's always surprising how much people laugh, even Empire and Jedi never really managed that.

Ghostbusters has that witty-sharp-tongued-dialogue/zaney-characters/blockbuster-action thing that alot of 80s movies have. Movies since have one or two of those things but usually not all three.

I would see SW at the Cinema every week if it was playing! Seeing a movie in a Cinema is so different from home because of the audience (Unless they're talking and playing with their phones!!!).

There's a cinema in London that does a double bill of Marx brothers every year (ADATR & ANATO). I go each year and it's attended by middle aged guys n gals like me, pensioners, families and their little kids. We all laugh at different bits, me I'm laughing at Groucho and kiddies are giggling at Harpo. Watching my DVDs of the brothers at home is great but it's not the same.

           ^ C3PO             ^ Chewie         ^ Han Solo               ^ Luke

Any of the Harry Potter movies might've been contenders if WB hadn't been determined to turn the entire franchise into mere revenue-generating shlock.

As it stands, I'd suggest the first Matrix film.

thecolorsblend said:

Any of the Harry Potter movies might've been contenders if WB hadn't been determined to turn the entire franchise into mere revenue-generating shlock.

My younger brother was/is a huge HP fan (I like it too) so I used to love winding him up by telling him my theory that Jk Rowling had just shamelessly copied it all from Star Wars. e.g.

- Harry = Luke
- Voldemort = Vader
- Dumbledoor = Obi-Wan
- Harry lives with his Uncle/Aunt
- Magic = The Force
- Wizards = Jedi
- Deatheaters = Sith
- Wands = Lightsabers
etc

At first I was just making it up for fun, then I thought, actually this IS a ripoff of SW! I kept telling him that the series was gonna end with Voldemort saying to Harry

"Dumbledore never told you what happened to your father..."

thecolorsblend said:

I'd suggest the first Matrix film.

The Matrix had that fantasy fulfilling force-power element for sure. That movie could definitely be seen as a SW contender. Young guy (Neo/Luke) is snatched from his humdrum existence by a wise mentor (Morpheus/Obi-Wan) who teaches him to unlock the powers he never knew he had and fight the evil machines (Empire).

re Harry Potter,

One of my ALL TIME favourite films growing up was 1985's 'Young Sherlock Holmes', I watched it at least once every week. It's interesting to note that it is an exact blueprint for the Harry Potter movies. It was even written by Chris Columbus would go on to be the Director of the first two HP movies! In turn, YSH could be seen as an Indiana Jones knockoff.

Which means that Harry Potter is a ripoff of Star Wars AND Indiana Jones!

  ^ Leia              ^ Han                         ^ Luke

  ^ Hermione     ^ Ron                          ^ Harry

  ^ Willie            ^ Indy                         ^ Short-Round

Seriously if you've never seen this forgotten classic, check it out. It's a blast and as a kid it scared the living daylights out of me (In that great hiding-behind-the-sofa way!).

                                          ^ Malfoy

                         ^ Temple of Doom

                                                      ^ Diagon Alley

                                ^ Hogwarts

SilverWook said:

Titan A.E. got pretty close to what made Star Wars fun, IMHO...

If Fox would get off it's butt and release it on Blu Ray, I'd rush out and buy it. :)

Found a pretty decent HD TV version, gonna watch it some time this week.

                     ^  "Kid, I've flown from one side of this galaxy to the other..."

Burdokva said:

Second Titan A.E. Fantastic movie, too bad it was considered a failure when it was released (poor sales?)...

Now, about "Red Tails", I find it horrible due to numerous issues. The CGI sure looks a lot more like "space battles" than actual WWI footage, the aircraft physics are horrendous, and for a movie that supposedly tells the story of how stereotypes and prejudices are wrong, boy, the Luftwaffe pilots sure aren't caricatures...

There's actually an older, early 90s movies about the 332nd AG that used real P-51s and it's a far better movie as far as the actual flying is concerned, even on a tight budget. I've watched in only once, many years ago but I still remember it fondly.

"Red Tails" is garbage.

Co-writer Aaron McGruder commented on the film's tone at the time of release:

"Some people are going to like this tonal choice and some people are going to say, 'Oh it should've been heavier and it should've been more dramatic.' But there's a version of this that doesn't have to be Saving Private Ryan. We can be Star Wars, as crazy as it is."

The Laurence Fishburne TV movie (Pictured below... Cuba is in both films. Kudos) is also great, I watched that a bunch of times when it came out. It's a more serious, sombre film, for sure. But 'Red Tails' isn't trying to be that film. It's trying to give us a SW style adventure with larger than life heros. Yes the evil German pilot is a little too evil for my tastes (But Vader, Tarkin or Palpatine were hardly nuanced villians). But he's more of a totemistic baddie as the real villians of this story are the institutionaly rascist US Airforce top brass.

To say that the flying-physics in 'Red Tails' isn't realistic is also missing the point. The most eye popping shot has our hero back flipping his Mustang inches from the camera. Is it in anyway realistic? No. Does it look frickin' awesome? Hell yes. This poster has nothing to do with realism:

To quote chapter 3 of Hunter S. Thompson's 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas':

(Red Tails is) "A classic affirmation of everything right and true and decent in the national character. It was a gross, physical salute to the fantastic possibilities of life in this country-but only for those with true grit. And we were chock full of that!"

The real Red Tails were pioneering heros, GL's Red Tails' were the same. It's not a documentary about those pilots... it's a celeration of them!

The late Joe Kubert made this vintage-comic inspired tribute poster for comic-con which kinda captured the intended 'Boys own adventure' spirit of the movie:

btw I conceed it has a few minor flaws and I'll be starting work on a 'Red Tails' FanEdit soon to remove them.

Burdokva said:

I find it disgusting how actual war subjects can be re-made to "celebrate" or "glorify" anything.

You want a lighthearted, fun, heroic movie about aviators ? Cool, pick a fictional subject or even use a fictional war for your setting.

Using an actual war, especially WWII, the deadliest and most brutal air conflict that took the lives of over 60 million people (possibly over 200 000 in the air alone!) is just ridiculous.

I'm gonna assume you have the same problem with "lighthearted, fun, heroic" and celebratory ground or naval based WW2 movies too (That seems like a logical conclusion). In which case movie producers had no right to make these ten WW2 classics such as:

- A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
- The life and death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
- The Dam Busters (1954)
- Ice Cold in Alex (1958)
- The Guns of Navarone (1961)
- The Great Escape (1963)
- 633 Squadron (1964)
- The Dirty Dozen (1967)
- Where Eagles Dare (1968)
- Memphis Belle (1990)

I also appreciate the darker and more serious WW2 films like this ten (In fact, if forced to choose, I prefer them):

- The Cruel Sea (1953)
- The Longest Day (1962)
- Cross of Iron (1977)
- A Bridge Too Far (1977)
- The Big Red One (1980)
- Das Boot (1981)
- Schindler's List (1993)
- The Thin Red Line (1998)
- Downfall (2004)
- Letters From Iwo Jima (2006)

But I think we can have both without throwing out half of Cinemas history. I need films like this in my life...

...surely one of the most ridiculous but magnificent WW2 films ever shot.

Oh and let's not forget that Indiana Jones 1 & 3 are also Submarine exploding, Nazi face melting, Hitler book signing, Tank riding WW2 films too. So let's get rid of those two aswell.

vacuum said:

i also liked redtails, but back to the topic. i thought space raiders (1983) had some of the same fun that star wars had, anyone seen it? its on you tube.

I loved that Roger Corman documentary but I haven't seen any of his Sci-Fi stuff like 'Battle Beyond the Stars' or 'Space Raiders'.

Must add them to the watch list.

At school, I did eat the crisps though...

Ulysses was a saturday morning kids cartoon Star Wars knockoff par excellence back in the day...

"No, no Mr Lucas as I told your legal team it's not a Light-Saber, it's a Light-Blaste... erm, ah, I mean a Light-Pistol, yes a Light-Pistol"

Bingowings said:

I auditioned for the role of Watson in Young Sherlock Holmes and the Pyramid of Fear.

I was sent away because I wasn't fat enough but the guy who got the job was the same size as me.

He was practically identical to me at the time (before I the beard happened).

No way!

Great anecdote Bingowings. I reckon his dad Brian Cox must have put the fix in with the casting Director lol

                                                                                        ^   **DEAL WITH IT**

The Matrix really struck me as the true heir to the original Star Wars.  It has the same kind of character arc, it was wonderfully innovative with its special effects, and it sketched out a richly realized world without bogging the film down with expository dialogue.  If the sequels hadn't screwed the pooch so badly, that film series could have been the new OT.