Anchorhead

Saberstorm said:

I understand that their is a great deal of trepidation regarding the EU, primarily because of it's incessant need to connect everyone to everyone.

That depends on which authors you read.  The EU is so vast that some of the story lines are completely separate.  As a non-prequel follower, I stick to stories that don't interact with anything prequel. 

I had that same trepidation myself.  I thought the EU was so contaminated that it was unnavigable.  With some in-depth research and the input of this community, I found which novels to read and which ones to ignore.  I'll tolerate a very brief prequel mention, but only if it's a name-check, a date reference, or location.  Beyond that, the novel goes in the trash can.

TheBoost said:

It's....ridiculous.

Stop right there.  That's all you need to remember.

With God as my witness, I never give one iota of thought to what other people think of me or my life.  When someone needs to compare their devotion of something to mine - to win at liking something - it speaks volumes  about where they are with regards to their weak self image.

By good old days,I mean the simple release of a film in 1977 as compared to the current style of marketing; a year-long viral campaign, three web sites, six trailers, eight pre-release one-sheets, fans emulating characters they haven't even seen yet, and cell phone apps.

Man, that is the good old days in a nutshell.  Back when the film was a stand-alone entity taking the world by storm.  No uber-connectivity, real-time, over saturation.  Just a film.  You had little to attach to other than newspaper ads and articles.  Great times.

Finished my yearly reading of Splinter Of The Mind's Eye.  Still dig it.  Always love to go back to the simpler days.  Thinking I was through with Zahn EU, I decided to go on to some Star Trek while I wait for Solo's 11.

Looking through my books, I noticed I'd somehow skipped over Survivor's Quest. For the life of me, I can not fathom a reason why I would have done that.  ??  What the Hell, man?  I completely forgot about it.  Anyway, I went right to it. 

No Spoilers.

I'd mentioned in my last two reviews how much I really dug the Hand Of Judgment characters, as well as how uninteresting Mara Jade is as a 20-year-old.  Zahn does a great job with her as a young woman, if you dig a Pixeleen sort of girl.  I do not. At all.

She's way too perfect and awesome.  As a 20-year-old, with no flaws and no sense of danger, she comes across as very shallow.  I gave her a pass because the rest of the story from Allegiance and Choices Of One was so well done.

Survivor's Quest, however, takes place several years after the Thrawn novels and deals solely with Luke and Mara after they've been married a while.  Mara as a 40-year-old is infinitely more interesting than Mara as a 20-year-old.  Honestly, I'm shocked at just how different Zahn writes her, considering it's the same person - a person he invented, no less.

Anyway, I'm several chapters in and really liking it. It's a Luke and Mara story, with the rest of the original Star Wars characters getting little more than a brief mention.  That's very refreshing to me because Zahn really has room to stretch his Luke & Mara muscles.

They're both done really well and I'm very glad to be able to get back to deep and interesting adult Mara. Full review in a week or so.

corellian77 said:

I would completely buy into the Prometheus' tech if it were comparable to that of the Nostromo's -- ... but 3D holographic projections?  Not even the same universe as Alien as far as I'm concerned.

I agree fully. 

For me personally, that sort of difference is a deal-breaker.  I don't make myself struggle with inconsistencies like that.  In light of these new trailers and seeing the film's visuals more clearly now, this is most likely a movie I won't bother with. 

Alien has been one of my Top Five for 33 years.  The derelict ship and the space jockey have been a mystery since the beginning.  I can go the distance without ever giving it another thought. Particularly since I've never given it any thought in the past.   Probably better anyway.  Nothing to unsee or try to reconcile. 

corellian77 said:

While he's at it, he can add a lens flare to every shot, have Ash fart periodically for comedic effect, and have a CGI xenomorph pass in front of the camera during Kane's chest bursting scene.

Now you're getting nasty.

SilverWook said:

If I were a betting man, I'd say that was Photoshoped.  They're casting some awfully big shadows for being out in the desert sun.  Plus, that picture of Lucas seems very familiar, but not with that character in it.

Bingowings said:

The story as far as we know has evidence of an alien that instructs humanity in basic technology, urns containing all forms of nastiness and the human responsible is a woman.

I haven't been reading anything nearly that in-depth about the plot.  I just figured the tie was an alien giving us technology (akin to stealing the fire from Zeus).  I wasn't aware of a Pandora link as well. 

I can see the human responsible is a woman angle though, now that you mention it.  There is a scene in the trailer where a woman appears to be struggling with some sort of inner turmoil (I think she's looking in a mirror or something). 

So far, it's the single most intriguing scene in the trailer to me, by far.  I'm much more of a cerebral story guy, as opposed to an action story guy.  Hence the fact that Alien is in my permanent Top 5 of all time.

Hey - I thought you were staying spoiler-free?  ;-)

see you auntie said:

It's my belief that there are multiple 'derelict' ships, as seen in Alien, around the universe and this movie focuses one one (or more) of the other ones. Maybe they go around the universe 'giving fire' to humans

Speaking of;  That's something I wanted to ask you guys earlier.  Do we know yet what the correlation is between Prometheus and the film title?  Is there even going to be any similarity?  Just curious. 

georgec said:

I'm suspect of that Snowjabba.  It has the Humdinger Glitch.

SilverWook said:

Kenner Give-A-Show projector version of Star Wars.

http://youtu.be/VHRTiXEaW2w

I inexplicably never had these as a kid, so it's great to finally see these projector strips! Still sifting around the other videos to see if they have done Star Wars. I'm pretty sure Kenner didn't make a Jedi one, although there may have been an Ewoks set.

EDIT: Found Star Wars!

http://youtu.be/hLzmOBvnx_I

And the Ewoks...

http://youtu.be/-Dlldfictio

Fantastic!  I'm not much of a collector these days (lunch box and one-sheet only), but those slides are something I wouldn't hesitate to get if I came across them at a garage sale.  A really great time slice of the innocence of the franchise back in the 70s.

They'd be worth having just for this slide alone;

Probots.  Love it!

Bingowings said:

It kicked into gear towards the end but for the first time I'm a tad worried about this film.

I had the very same reaction after watching the new trailer.  Not sure why (because I never saw it), but it made me think of Avatar.  It has a sort of fantasy-meets-sci-fi vibe. 

DavidBrennan said:

It's funny...

...how your criticisms of TFN slowly morphed into criticisms of this board.  They also became unfair generalizations about everyone over here. 

Star Wars fans...as a group

You people are gonna...

You'll just keep...

When your feigned outrage went unsupported here, you assumed we were the same as they are.  That would be an incorrect assumption to make, as evidenced by the fact that we let this go on a while longer than some boards might have.

I'd also like to address this statement of yours;

their refusal to punish people who called me names.

You've done the very same thing here.  Because I don't want us to be accused of that same behavior, consider this warning a step in that direction.

To me, this is just entertainment

To me, it's not.  If you still feel inclined to seek understanding and sympathy, take your discussion over to Off Topic. 

Be aware - we may not push back as quickly as TFN, but we will eventually push back.  A little self-regulation might be a good idea, even in Off Topic.

bkev said:

Oh dear, just let it die guys.

The smartest thing to come out of the last three pages.

zombie84 said:

Glad you're finding EU that suits you Anchorhead. I haven't read some of the titles you've reviewed, but I'll try to find them since they have your endorsement. You've probably read more EU than me at this point!

Man, I can't even imagine.  Truthfully, you were one of the big pushers of the EU for me (knowing what I do and don't follow).  If my reviews end up helping, it's just me returning the favor.

Choices Of One,  Timothy Zahn.

Mild spoilers, which I'll mark.

This takes place not too long after Allegiance, so it's basically the same cast of characters - our heroes, Mara Jade, and The Hand Of Judgment. It feels almost sequel-ish.  That's fine with me where The Hand Of Judgment is concerned, as they've become one of my very favorite (if not the favorite) parts of the Zahn universe.

Great story where they are concerned.  I can't say enough about how much I like the depth of their characters and story.  As I've said many times before, they read like a film.

Our heroes are well-written, as usual, and are separated for much of the story. Again, very Empire-like in the multiple stories.  It's Luke\Han\Leia|Hand Of Judgment\Mara focused, with Vader and Thrawn playing minor roles.  I thought that helped the novel.  They've had plenty of the spotlight over the years.  Our heroes should be primary in this, as it's their formative years.  3PO and R2 are nearly non-existent, which I prefer.  Wasn't a big fan in 1977, not a fan now.

Spoiler;

My one complaint (again) is the perfection of Mara Jade as a character.  I had a hard time connecting with a character who can do no wrong and has every answer to every situation.  With no sense of danger, tension, or weaknesses, she's not terribly interesting.   I love her in the five Thrawn novels and feel she's one of the deepest and most interesting characters ever associated with Star Wars. 

In those novels, she's fallible, realistic, and complex - and because of that - very interesting.  These two more recent novels lack her groundedness and her weaknesses, both as-written and as a character.

She is somewhat more grounded in this story compared to Allegiance, but not much.  That comes later in her life - as it should.

I again very much like that our heroes are in the vein of 1977.  They were interesting in their naivete' and unfamiliarity with each other, and themselves, both in the original 1977 film, as well as these two novels.

For me, this book is a great Hand Of Judgment story, so it ranks high in my Star Wars universe. For the coming months, I'm first taking a break fron Zahn and going to my yearly March read of Splinter Of The Mind's Eye.  It coincides with Spring Training every year, so it's time.  It's huge in my world and feels like an old friend.  In fact, I started it last night.  It's Star Wars uncontaminated by Lucas, so it's a nice way to refocus.

If Zahn doesn't have his Solo's 11 novel completed for a while, I'll probably  be taking a Star Wars break for the rest of the year. If I go back to any at all, it will probably be Heir To The Empire.

Summer is also Indiana Jones time, so I have a couple of those to read first.

buddy-x-wing said:

By introducing Anakin so young they wasted a whole movie

I would argue that it was exactly the opposite.  By introducing him as a child, Lucas endeared a new, and very young, generation of revenue stream to the franchise.  They all felt like the main character - exactly the way I felt like the main character in 1977. 

For me and Star Wars, it was teenage boy day-dreaming about adventure - connecting with a teenage boy day-dreaming about adventure.

For children and Phantom, it was a child living in a video game - connecting to an audience of children familiar with video games.  They and their new hero were outsiders in an adult world, much the same way teenage Luke and I were stuck in mundane worlds while we dreamed of adventure.

Story isn't important to Lucas anymore because it's no longer necessary for success.  In 1977, he had to put much more thought into the story, so he and his support team did just that.  For Phantom, none of that mattered anymore. Entirely different films for entirely different purposes.

In light of the new information showing that the tabloid lied about that being an actual quote, I've removed my criticism of Mr. Lloyd.

Bingowings said:

As for Star Trek in a wider sense, people are more likely these days to be able to identify members of long gone boy bands of the same era than any of the characters from DS9, Voyager or Enterprise.

Yeah, but those are the crappy ones.  ;-)

Bingo,

I'll concede a lot of those points and you're right that Star Wars is more recognized than Star Trek (these days), but I'm not sure it's all positive. I also think it's fading a bit. 

Which, by the way, is what I've long believed to be Lucas' main goal in constantly altering the originals - regardless of the fan's thoughts.  It keeps Star Wars relevant. People (blogs, newspapers, etc) aren't usually praising the latest poorly-done CGI addition, or the sound changes, or the altered story, or the ever-changing Original Vision -  but - they're talking about it.  They're keeping it in the public conscience when it would have long since settled down.

Regarding recognition;  I'd say the Enterprise is as recognizable as a Star Destroyer and that Beam Me Up, Scotty is as repeated a phrase as any one line in the Star Wars franchise.

I guess my point is that there is pop-culture recognition and there is appreciative recognition. Star Wars is pop-culturally recognized because Lucas has whored the thing out to obscene levels.  Trek, on the other hand has always been a much more serious venture. NASA would never name one of their ships the Millennium Falcon.

I think Trek will stand the test of time.  Star Wars has become far too contaminated.

walking_carpet said:

...star wars is rapidly evolving into a bigger cult than star trek ever was

I strongly disagree with that view.  Star Wars may be more in the news currently, and very recognized pop-culturally, but to the global populace, Star Trek is much more engrained into our psyche. Trek is reality-based and science-based.  It's also the idealistic goal of millions.  Star Wars is just a space serial, largely directed at children.  Particularly so, post-1980.

asterisk8 said:

I don't think I've ever heard of someone ripping the audio of a movie to listen to it on its own. ...What inspired you to start doing this, Anchorhead? I'm fascinated!

Oh man, I started back in the early 70s when I was a kid.  I used to record my favorite comedians when they were on The Tonight Show.  I used a portable tape recorder, which I placed in front of the 12" B&W television in my bedroom.  It was my window to the world.  I would listen to those recordings over and over.  I can still remember some of them, verbatim, even though I haven't heard them in nearly 40 years.

By the late 70s I was recording movies the same way.  There was no way to own my favorite films, so that was my solution. Those cassette tapes, coupled with the film's soundtrack would hold me for years.  By the early 80s, I'd moved to my Pioneer Laserdisc\Marantz\Teac set up.  At that point I was just digging the texture of the audio, since I already owned the films.

Fast forward to about eight years ago and the folks on this very board put me onto the software I still use to rip full-film audio into a single MP3. If I had to guess at numbers, I'd say my audio library consists of about thirty films, ten episodes of M*A*S*H, several episodes of Columbo, a few episodes of King Of Queens, and a few Genesis documentaries\interviews.  I've also ripped several official concert DVDs of Genesis.  A great way to get high quality live "albums", if you will, that were never released on vinyl or CD.

The richness and the subtleties of films-as-audio are huge in my world. 

Actually, I have made the jump to Blu-ray.  I just don't buy too many of them because I can't make full-film audio rips from them.  Not yet anyway.  I know it sounds restrictive to base my purchases on whether or not I can rip the audio track, but it really is a big deal to me. 

Sometimes I buy two copies - one DVD, one Blu-ray - so I can have both a great picture and an MP3 of the film.  True Grit and Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes both came packaged as a Blu-ray\DVD\Digital, which was really nice.I haven't watched either of the digital versions, so I can't speak to the quality.  I may be able to pull my rips from those digital versions.  I haven't looked into it.

I don't have anything against the Blu-rays of Blade Runner and Alien, they just aren't a priority because I'm happy with the DVDs.  I'll eventually get there.