Diego

twooffour said:

Them having a senator... well, from all I can gather from the films, with all those "systems" joining the Separatists, and the cartoons presented as "separatist leaders" in II, apparently the senate has representatives of both good ol' "nations" as well as companies and corporations (like, uh, the "techno union" or whatever). So I have no problem with that bit.

 

But they refer to him as the Senator from the Trade Federation, not the Senator from Neimouda (??? is that the planet? I don't know). That's what is confusing. Why does a corporation have direct representation?

Episode I has a lot of concepts like that that are confusing. Another example is the Queen. While you could argue that in Naboo they simply call their elected leader a "Queen" and not a President or whatever, most would associate a Queen with a monarchy, add that the elected Queen is 14 (who would vote for a 14 year old?), which would make sense if she was a heir but not an elected official. But at least that one is not important to the plot.

Anyway, Qui-Gon says the Federation are cowards and the negotiations would be short. So what was Qui-Gon's plan? "Pay your taxes or I'll cut you in half with my lightsaber". 

Uhh, maybe some kind of pressure, yea. Or... or, you know, like the Troi thing. Since the Jedi are apparently part of the government in the prequels (or even according to the OT), them knowing about law isn't far-fetched, and being engaged in diplomatic missions among others (again, due to their empathy skills, apparent self-control or lack of bias or shit) doesn't seem nonsensical.

Even if it somehow makes sense to send Jedi to settle a trade dispute (though I don't agree). My point is that by saying they're cowards, Qui-Gon has already made his mind that: 1) He's going to threat them is some form, and them, being cowards, are going to back down, which implies that, 2) Qui-Gon has also made his mind that Naboo is right and the Federation is wrong, even if the Federation technically still hasn't done anything wrong (the blockade is said to be legal, whatever that means). So much for lack of bias and so much for negotiations.

The whole thing is somewhat ridiculous, so whether it is implicit or it needs more explanation makes little difference.

We're introduced to a Trade Federation that for some reason has a huge army, apparently bigger than anything the Republic has, at least until they get the clones. They also have a senator for whatever reason. That makes no sense.

They blockade a planet to stop trade, even though their business is trade and they're going to lose money. But ok, they're making a point, give us a tax cut or there's no trade, I could see that.

The Republic then sends Jedi to negotiate, because not only are they the guardians of peace and justice, it seems they're also tax collectors. What makes them experts on trade? Do they teach Intergalactic Trade at the Jedi temple? I don't remember Yoda teaching that to Luke. Maybe that's why he wanted Luke not to leave Dagobah: "Luke you must complete the training, you haven't even taken Intergalactic Trade 101 yet!

Anyway, Qui-Gon says the Federation are cowards and the negotiations would be short. So what was Qui-Gon's plan? "Pay your taxes or I'll cut you in half with my lightsaber". 

The whole situation is strange, the basics are iffy and it's a very boring way to start the saga. 

The comparison with the "Long nose guy" however is not very good. He's merely a spy or whatever that has 2 seconds of screen time. We're told that Mos Eisley is filled with scum and villany, so we can expect characters like him. The problem with the Trade Federation is that they are a mayor part of the film and they're presented as a very well organized group (as I mentioned, they even have a senator) so the risk of invading a planet is huge. It's hard to imagine what could Sidious have promised to them that was worth taking such a risk. Perhaps Sidious had a sex tape of Nute Gunray and he was going to make it public.

But again the whole Trade Federation plot is lame, even if it had been explained it would still suck

I'd love a PM to check these out.

Thanks in advance.

I like the one that throws Han into the Bespin Cell and almost loses his helmet doing so.

They actually look pretty good, though maybe the background image on the chapter page shouldn't change constantly and just change with each page. I look forward to the DVD.

Which as Mr. Plinkett observed is completely stupid, seeing as how Obi-Wan jumped out of the window at the first sight of the flying droid. 

Surely Waggo also had some past encounter with Han Solo, right?

It could have been done, had Episode I not being completely wasted. Episode II should have been Episode I (well, a good Episode II, not that crap that was made).

We didn't need to meet Anakin as a kid, since by Episode II he's almost a new character. Lucas wanted it to be a child to make the separation from his mother more traumatic. That in itself is an unnecessary sub-plot, not to mention that I hated the "monk" aspect of the prequel Jedi and there's no reason why he should never see his mother again, but that's another discussion.

The whole "Anakin was a slave when he was a kid" is irrelevant later on, and it's really kinda stupid. Anakin doesn't seem to have it so bad while being a slave, in fact he looks very middle-class. Sure he has to work for Watto, and yes, children shouldn't work, but what else is there to do on Tatooine. Did they have an excellent school that Anakin wasn't attending?? I don't think so. Watto even let him go early that one time we did see him working, and he yelled Yipee!! (like Watto's a cool boss). His house doesn't look that different from Luke's. The whole slave was pointless.

Then Obi-Wan and Anakin have like two lines of dialogue together in Episode I. What a waste. We should have seen the training and the formation of their friendship in Episode I.

I wouldn't say Plinkett's reviews are nitpicking. Just the opposite really, I remember when I first read about it on some blog I thought "great, someone made a 70 minute video of how much Jar Jar sucks" but I was pleasantly surprised when I actually watched them.

He hardly mentions Jar Jar, doesn't even mention the Pod Race Announcer, which has to be one of the most annoying characters ever put to film. Instead he talks about the big things, a boring plot that makes no sense, lack of interesting and well developed characters, lack of urgency, enemies that offer no threat, etc. Besides being funny I found them to be very inteligent for the most part.

Trained as a Jedi?? Are we talking prequel Jedi?? No thank you, those guys are dull (and kinda stupid). And you can't have sex. And if you happen to have sex they throw you into burning lava.

Well, one could argue that pretty much anyone other than George could have done a better job directing the prequels. There are many scenes that really look like they were shot in only one take. George was too eager to shoot fast and go play with his computers I think.

Reading the "Making of ESB" book, and in particular the part about the carbon freezing chamber scene you can see just how much thought Keshner put into the movie. I doubt good old George put one tenth as much thought on any scene for the prequels, other than to make it look cool to sell toys.

On the other hand, Kershner was working with sets, props and actors. The rebel base, Dagobah, the carbon freezing chamber all were real. Could he have adapted to the "nothing but blue screen" sets?? I'm talking about stuff like Geonosis, the scene with Mace Windu leaving a Gunship for example. Nothing was there, and I doubt Kershner would have made much difference there.

The man really doesn't know when to quit. Didn't he talk about leaving SW alone and doing small artsy weird movies??

Between the TV shows and movies, it seems SW is all he thinks about.

A couple of things do come to mind:

While the prequels sucked, they were profitable, however with god knows how many seasons of the Clone Wars and 50 hours of the live action TV show (plus the misterious comedy show that's also coming), SW is in danger of being overexposed. With the declining quality of each movie since Empire (and sadly there's no reason to believe this trend will stop), can a new trilogy really be profitable??

Also, we're talking something like 2018 (24 months after the ROTJ re-release). So the trilogy would be over by 2024. Some key people will no longer be with us probably. I mean Star Wars without John Williams, really??

Baronlando said:

Well, George is a big fan of old Rock 'n' Roll isn't he?? By 2040 maybe he'll have Obi-Wan sing Tutti Frutti to scare the Sandpeople. It would make almost as much sense as this "scream" thing.

Well, there goes any hope of the BD release being half decent.

It seems like it has come to the point where it's just changing and screwing with the movies to see how many fans still buy them.

Incredibly pointless and unsurprisingly badly done as most of his changes are.

I'm of the very small minority that considers Episode I the best of the prequels, so I have a soft spot for it.

Some of the designs are very nice and cool. Darth Maul's design was awesome, it's a shame he wasn't developed as a character, but he looks cool enough to have been the main villain in all three prequels. The Naboo starfighter is another design I really like even if it's impossible for R2 to fit in.

The Duel in Episode I is nicely choreographed, even if it's completely emotionless, it was with II and III that the lightsaber fights became too fast and non-sensical.

Williams's score for Episode I is terrific and the closest he got to the OT sound.

As for AOTC and ROTS, well, there's not a lot I can say that I like. Natalie Portman certainly is easy on the eyes.

TV's Frink said:

Diego said:

Especially the way they did the Kirk-Spork relationship...

lol

Yeah well, guess I don't even really know the names of the characters, that's how big my ST ignorance is, still, fun movie.

I really enjoyed Star Trek, though I have to say my knowledge of Star Trek was zero, I have never seen any of the TV shows or movies, so I had no expectations, other than my prejudice that ST is supposed to be boring.

In fact, leaving the theater, one of my first thoughts was "why couldn't the prequels be more like this?".

Especially the way they did the Kirk-Spork relationship, getting to know them and seeing them slowly become friends or on the way to friendship anyway, it felt real. I really wish the Anakin/Obi relationship had been developed more like that. Also it's a fun movie, which to me is the worst problem with the prequels (and Indy 4), they're just boring. It would be harder to see all the plot holes and ridiculous stuff in the prequels if you could be entertained by them.

The only change I like is the restored music in Empire, when Slave I takes off. All other changes are crap.

Probably Star Tours, even if they shot in May 2009, there may be some re-shoots, or perhaps they only shot the "main game" and now they did some videos for the line or instructions.

I'm not saying ROTJ doesn't have its flaws, and I know I'm biased cause I loved it as a child.

However, putting it together with the prequels is too harsh. ROTJ has heart. ROTJ has some emotions, something the prequels completely lack. The duel, when Vader is taunting Luke that maybe Leia might join the dark side and Luke loses it, is one of the most powerful moments in the trilogy, no scene in the prequels can even come close.

I would have wanted him to stop after 1989, as I love all three original SW movies and all three original Indy movies.

I know ROTJ was a worse movie than SW or Empire, but it was the first movie I ever saw, and I can tell you that the excuse Lucas sometimes gives us, that the "movies are made for kids" really works on ROTJ. As a child some of my favorite bits were the Ewok stealing the speeder bike, Wicket hitting himself, the Ewok with the stormtrooper blaster, Jabba knocking 3PO, etc, basically all the stuff adults hate about ROTJ. It's a wonderful children's movie really and some of the more "adult" stuff, like the Emperor scenes are also really well done.

After reading the blu-ray article, playing the devil's advocate a bit (I think that's the phrase, english is not my first language). Is it possible that what Luca$ refers to as the "classic version" is a version without the slightest change?? What I'm talking about is stuff like the Battle of Hoth, the Rancor scene, the Speeder Bike chase, all the stuff that had elements re-composited, and maybe that's why he says it would be expensive?? 

Because what zombie is talking about is just cleaning up the discarded stuff like the original Mos Eisley, but in reality there were a lot more changes.

Darth Maul's brother... really?? Geez, you might as well just bring back Maul from the dead if you're going the soap-opera way.

Anyway, some of it looks cool, too big I think, it's hard to believe all this happened between the movies. Still I try not to be too hard on the show, it's being made to sell toys, but there's nothing wrong with that, I used to love He-Man when I was a child afterall.

Consistency is its biggest problem (well continuity too), some episodes have been good, others have been really lame.

zombie84 said:

Yeah, I am re-editing it right now actually. I was thinking of photoshopping out the circle, but I didn't want to be seen as "tampering" with the image. Maybe it would be a good idea though.

Any suggestions on where to cut down on stuff?

I think it would be good to remove all sarcasm, I think it's fine and actually not very heavy in sarcasm, but since a lot of people use whatever they can against this case, "they're just fanboys whining" and the sort , it might be best to be as clear and direct as possible, without any trace that could be considered an insult.

Well, as much as I like Jedi, is hard to argue that it was the beginning of the end, sort of. It probably was cheaper to piece it together, you know, the post-ESB Lucas way.

And thanks for the welcome, SilverWook