1990osu

I agree that 500 lines of resolution could not POSSIBLY duplicate a release print, even if the prints were very hasty and wound up coming out blurry. 

Obviously the optical copying process gives the 35mm a kind of "fuzzy" look, but I've got to think there is way, way more resolution and picture information there, even though it is not going to be razor sharp like the negative.

From what you read, too, a Star Wars print in 70mm is an amazing experience. 

In any case, the quality and dynamic range of the audio would have been awesome and also the dynamic range of the colors would have been far greater than any commercial DVD.

*sigh*

Hoth-Nudist said:

3PO during the arena cartoon battle:  Im completely beside myself......this is such a drag. 

In fairness, I remember going to see Episode 2 with my mother back in '02 and she's not a Star Wars fan.  She LIKED those lines; she thought they were funny and talked about them after the movie.

She also liked the part where Anakin is whining (He's overly critical, he never listens, he doesn't understand!  that part)]

Basically she liked all of the traditionally least liked parts.

LOL...read this abridged script:

http://www.the-editing-room.com/revengeofthesith.html

Brooks said:

Makes sense, the prequels were comedies... wait, what?  They weren't?!?

From the chefelf site:

The Meeting
"Annie? My goodness you've grown." "And you've grown. More beautiful." This sets it in motion. The groans filled the cinema as this scene just refused to die.

"You're going to be the death of me."
A part of me almost enjoyed this. I can't explain why but I kinda thought that this was the only good joke of the movie. All evidence points to it being embarrassing so I'm going to at least pretend to take that stance instead. Yet another "Because of what's going to happen..." joke that need not be included in the movie. I kinda liked it... I can't explain why.

The Kiss
In this scene the audience is left stunned as Anakin begins saying to Padme that, "I don't like sand. It's coarse and irritating and it gets everywhere. Everything here is soft and smooth." You can sense they're going to kiss but you think that you must be wrong because everything up until this point has showed Anakin to be a total numbskull and that she must be creeped out. When they begin kissing you can't help but wonder why it's happening. The music gets loud and grand but then she snaps away and the music cuts quickly leaving a decaying reverb in the theatre and it's just plain comical. You can't help but laugh out loud.

"This party's over." So Mace Windu, everyone's favorite Jedi for some reason, shows up and saves the day. He puts his lightsaber in front of Jango Fett and actually says, "This party's over." It leaves one wondering if Arnold Schwarzenegger is going to be playing a Jedi in the next film.

M'Lady
I can't believe I missed this the first time around. What is it with everyone saying "M'Lady" all the time? They didn't say this in Episodes IV, V or VI. They didn't even talk like this in Episode I. So why do people all of a sudden talk like it's the nineteenth century? Should we expect powdered wigs in Episode III?

I remember hearing something too about the part Anakain goes, If you are suffering as much as I am please tell me.  And some guy in the audience yells, You have no idea!  or something like that.  And everybody burst out laughing.

Episode 3:

Droid I.Q.
The Phantom Menace introduced us to the battle droid, the Trade Federation's primary mode of killing its opponents. Attack of the Clones brought us the super battle droid, basically a battle droid with no neck and blasters built into its wrists. Revenge of the Sith brings us a closer look at the super battle droid, particularly the stupidity thereof. While two super battle droids are examining the crashed Jedi starfighters nearby, R2-D2 tries to hide. One of the droids overhears Artoo's cell phone and the two droids have the following exchange:

SUPER BATTLE DROID 1: What that?
SUPER BATTLE DROID 2: Get to back to work. That nothin'.

Giving droids personalities is something George Lucas is quite fond of. However, it is unusual that he would choose to give droids called "Super Battle Droids" the personalities of complete morons. Aside from the ridiculousness of their voices, they aren't even speaking properly. I am already skeptical of the reasoning behind programming audible language capabilities into battle droids. Purposely programming them so that they don't speak properly seems like an unnecessary frill when you are concerned with winning a war. Maybe adding extra guns would be more beneficial than having them act like thugs from the 1920s.

General Grievous

Nearly any possible potential fear of Grievous is eliminated as soon as he doubles over to begin hacking and wheezing. It is already relatively difficult to be scared of a robot with emphysema, but any remaining potential for fear is removed when he begins talking and it becomes clear that his voice is simply Triumph the Insult Comic Dog doing an impression of Watto from The Phantom Menace.

Count Dooku

Here is a brief snippet of those snappy lines exchanged between the Jedi and Sith:

OBI-WAN: You won't get away this time, Dooku.
COUNT DOOKU: I've been looking forward to this.
ANAKIN: My powers have doubled since the last time we met, Count.
COUNT DOOKU: Good. Twice the pride, double the fall.

Apparently 100% of the cutting remarks used in the lightsaber battle were taken directly from the back cover of The Beginner's Dictionary of Cliché Cutting Remarks For Sword Fighters, First Printing.

"I shouldn't have done that..."
When Anakin kills Count Dooku by slicing his head off with two lightsabers, he stands there for a moment and looks troubled. He then says "I shouldn't have done that." It's interesting because that is the same thing I say when I have one too many slices of chocolate cake and get a tummy ache: "I shouldn't have done that."

Romance
The scene on the balcony degenerates into a lovey-dovey kissy-wissy wittle wuvvy woo sequence rather quickly. In the middle of discussing the different outfits Padme wants to buy at the Coruscant Baby Gap, Anakin interrupts her to say "You... are so... beautiful." Perhaps he's just trying to get her to stop talking about baby things. In that case, men everywhere should consider themselves Padawans to Anakin. Unfortunately, this scene gets much, much worse.

The Jedi Code
Anakin brings up again that the Jedi Council is asking him to do something that is "against the Jedi Code." This is not, I believe, the first time that the Jedi Code is brought up in this movie and it is far from the last time it will be mentioned. Rumblings about the Jedi Code are scattered throughout this movie by Anakin, Obi-Wan and even Palpatine (as I recall). But what is the Jedi Code? Funny you should ask. It is simply this:

There is no emotion, there is peace
There is no ignorance, there is knowledge
There is no passion, there is serenity
There is no death, there is the Force

Funny. That's a pretty simple code. Obviously, it's open to a lot of interpretation. There are points in this movie when I began wondering if I was thinking of the wrong code. Perhaps what I was thinking of was merely the Jedi slogan or the Jedi credo, but no, I was thinking of the right thing.

The way the Jedi Code is handled in this movie would have you believe that it is a 400 page manual. There are constant references to doing things "against the code. " They only stop short of stating specific passages. "Jedi Directive 44387 clearly states that any Jedi engaged in communications with a Jawa after sunset shall forfeit his Jedi membership card and lightsaber for three days and be docked a week's pay."

"From my point of view the Jedi are Evil"
While Anakin and Obi-Wan are surfing along the lava pools, Obi-Wan tells Anakin that he has failed him. Anakin responds by saying that he should have known that the Jedi were going to take over. Obi-Wan shouts to Anakin, "Palpatine is evil!" to which Anakin replies, "From my point of view, the Jedi are evil!"

Do evil people say things like that? Do good people say things like that? In an irrational combat where each is trying to kill the other, do people really talk about their points of view? Suddenly, this has become a well-mediated debate rather than a fight to the death. "Please try to see things my way, Obi-Wan! Walk a mile in my shoes! Please! Or I will have to kill you!"

And there are lots lots more...

Sorry..meant to post in random SW thoughts;)

Disney rep:

"Lucasfilm has recently come forward and made the announcement that due to our modest budget and the short notice with which we have had to prepare for the next episode in the continuing adventures of the sprawling Star Wars saga, the new sequel trilogy will be in the comedy genre.  This represents an exciting new take on the Star Wars saga and a new, fresh direction for the franchise as a whole."

Looks pretty cool.  Best of luck!

LOL

Tyrphanax said:

I love the old man myself.

I just wish he'd have done right by everyone. That's my only gripe with him.

No, I agree.  Many disappointments.  But why do we care so much? 

The flip side of anger is love;)

Yeah but in that thread it is like people are struggling to find nice things to say.  The premise is that he is mostly bad. I disagree.  I think he just has one of those nerdy personalities and he is often misunderstood.  But I think he's a good guy.  I think if most of us who bash him actually met him, we would come away with a different POV.

I've just realized something about George Lucas...I love that dude. 

He is a total nerd and can be very stubborn, but he created something that basically defined my childhood along with countless others. 

I know..the prequels and the special editions.  I don't even care.  I can't help but feel affection for George.  I actually feel bad for him for all the internet viatrol after he released the prequels and seemed to be genuinely trying to make cool movies. 

There, I said it.  George feels like my uncle.  Rarely seen and the source of much frustration, but much beloved nonetheless.  I will actually be really, really sad when he dies. 

I remember guys in my high school agreeing that ROTJ was the best, in-person.  This would have been around 2003. 

To me, Star Wars brings out the kid in all of us if we let it, even the first two.  The ewoks don't bother me.  I like the part with the 3PO bedtime story when the ewoks show that the grumpy Han Solo is actually soft at heart:)

I think the part with Han about to get cooked and eaten is hilarious. 

I also think that people who don't like the ewoks may not realize that this is a tribute/sendup of classic b&w adventure movies with cannibals.

Now there are two of them!

I think what it really comes down to is whether you are looking for the good or the bad when you're watching these movies.  With the prequels, the lameness tends to override the good parts when you are trying to enjoy them, but watching ROTJ, there is so much good here if you are looking for it and not ways to tear it down. More than tolerable IMO.  It has jaw-dropping moments.  That is why so many people have said it was their favorite for so many years.  I  agree that it has become trendy to bash ROTJ, but I think it has a lot to offer and a very cool ending to the trilogy. And in terms of moral lesson it is the very best of the OT, hands down.

True.  You know what, Phantom Menace wasn't so bad looking back....

(don't kill me!)

Why ROTJ is a Classic

CatBus said:

captainsolo said:

From 2005-2008 I gave up Star Wars entirely. For someone who as a child had been an incessant fan, (My childhood was comprised entirely of Film, Literature, James Bond, Star Wars and Batman) this was really hard to do but I just found I didn't care anymore.

It occurred to me that since I went through this stage too, our whole collective experience may fit the Kübler-Ross "stages of grief" model.  So here we go:

Denial: "No way will Lucasfilm pass up a chance to cash in on re-releasing the unaltered trilogy.  They'd never let that goldmine go to waste!"  Uh-huh, sure.

Anger: We may not all say George Lucas did something nasty with our childhood, but everyone has a little generalfrevious buried deep down somewhere.

Bargaining: *cough* Petition *cough*

Depression: The phase described by captainsolo above.

Acceptance: "Don't want to preserve Star Wars, Mr. Lucas?  Fine, I accept that.  Now we'll just have to save the damn thing ourselves!"  A little more defiant in tone than you'd expect from something called "Acceptance", but I think it works.

Lol but it's so true.

edit: Actually these might be older interview clips.  I don't know the date on these.

This is the best interview I've seen from him in years:

George Lucas (favorites)

Teach Your Parents Well

Seeing What Isn't There

Inspiration through Experience

Advice for Teens

Now that the troll is gone I think it only fitting that we examine a great troll   from the past, perhaps the greatest troll- the original troll that invented the art of trolling:

Andy Kaufman

twister111 said:

 

Now now he doesn't need to be a girl to have some kind of loving lust towards Hayden Christensen. Just like it's alright for a girl to have loving lust towards another girl.

 

???

Anyway, glad he is gone:)  Although Father Skywalker did liven this place up a bit;)

He just loved his it's hayden christiensen!!!!1trolololol

I still don't think that you can imitate, using digital, the effect of a certain type of light exposing a certain type of film.  You can work really hard to imitate it, but I don't think you can truly get there; I think film reacts differently to certain lights than does digital.  And even if you went through 200 steps to get there, are you going to do that for every shot? Are you going to pretend to use a certain speed for one shot, and another speed for another shot?  Again that is like a pastiche of a great film, rather than a great film.

But agree to disagree I guess. 

*sigh*