Easterhay

Spare a thought for my boy. Since watching ROTJ the other day and questioning why Anakin's spirit was wearing clothes he never wore in life, last night he saw a picture from the original ROTJ with Sebastian Shaw as the ghost.

Questions such as "Why has he got hair? Where are his scars? Why has he got both arms? Why has he got both legs?" What could I do but shrug and say - once again - "They messed up."

Basically reading posts from people like you.

Such Luddite thinking. The CGI in the prequels was staggeringly good, raising the benchmark for the industry. Consider: Jar Jar Binks was the first completely CGI main character in a movie (who cares if he was loved or loathed, the technical achievement of that character is something to celebrate and paved the way for Gollum in LOTR); the land battle between battle droids and Gungans was unprecedented and again pushed the envelope; AOTC was the first movie to be made digitally so again that broke new ground, as divisive as that move was; the CGI in ROTS built on the advancements made by the previous two films and raised the bar even higher.

I forgot about them! All three of them are excellent and I agree, they're a must-see for any fan of the OT.

I wish I did! My hair started to recede about ten years ago so I've adopted the "shaven" look now. I feel it gives me an ageless quality (although the kids derive endless amusement from telling me to "keep your hair on" whenever I lose my rag).

Sounds like you watched ROTS in the presence of some very immature people, zombie. As for the "I'm not crazy, the rest of you are crazy" I understand what you mean but when the only carping I see about the prequels is either on internet forums or from people who tend to be around my age, then I tend not to put much value in said criticism.

As for awards for direction, I don't think any of the OT films got awards for direction either, did they? How about acting? I don't remember seeing Mark Hammill punching the air when he received an Oscar for delivering such deathless dialogue as "But I was going into Tosche station to pick up some power converters".

thecoloursblend. Sounds like you go to the same cinemas as zombie. I saw each of the prequels twice each - no laughter at any of those serious moments we've been talking about. Sounds like you went to lots of screenings in lots of different places, though. Maybe the audiences with whom I saw the films are not so easily amused. (I have absolutely no idea what "Palpatine's Gollum moment" is.)

As for Titanic, I thought it was a dreadful picture and still do. By the way, one of my favourite ever films is It's A Wonderful Life. Guess how many Oscars that received?

Well, zombie, I saw you on that YouTube clip recently and all I can say is there must be a painting of you in your attic that would put Dorian Gray's portrait to shame!

I don't put the fact that my parents weren't into Star Wars as being anything to do with my having time on my hands. They didn't watch it when they were children, simple as that. I'm sure they might have had a soft spot for Muffin The Mule or Andy Pandy because they were their reference points growing up in the thirties. And while I can't speak for other peoples' kids, I really don't know that they have that much time to watch endless tv and films. They're in school for a good part of the day five days a week then they come home, have their tea. At weekends they go swimming and play other sports. If they do watch a film then invariably it's either me or the missus (or both) who watches it with them. So, no, I'm not buying that "kids have all the time in the world" point I'm afraid.

I wouldn't undermine the taste of children so glibly.

I don't recall any adults when I was a kid watching Star Wars every time it came on the tv but certainly kids my age never missed a showing; the reason so many adults now like the films is simply because they would have seen those movies at an age when such things would have affected them profoundly - ie when they were kids. Same as having stories like Hansel And Gretel read to you as a child, it lives with you forever simply because it's such a good story. Would you think to pick up a book of fairy tales as an adult, though, if you hadn't been exposed to them when you were younger? I dare say not.

Anyway, I'm forty and I have yet to grow old of fart gags.

How many did flash on the fart gag when they saw the eopie in ROTS? I didn't. In fact it never even occured to me before you said it, Silverwook. (It'll occur to me when I watch it next, though! Cheers for that :)).

I actually think the latter instalments of Harry Potter are the very films you wouldn't show to kids, to be honest. My two have yet to see the final one, for example.

I've heard a lot of people found the end of ROTK moving (that line "You bow to no-one" gets a lot of plaudits), I just remember feeling "When is this going to end?". A whole cinema laughing at one line in ROTS, though? Well, that's a new one on me, I must say. Maybe the acoustics made it sound like it was more people than it truly was. I saw the movie twice at the cinema and not a titter did I hear at that scene. Just goes to show you, eh?

I wouldn't attach too much importance to the Oscars, you know, zombie. A lot of that voting is purely political. I'm not saying LOTR didn't deserve its awards - it probably did - but I think to ignore the technical achievements of the SW prequels was petty and undeserved. These are the same people who showered Titanic with awards, remember.

What a silly remark to say this is one person versus another. Grow up.

I maintain that TPM has a target audience and it's not me - I have no idea how old you are, zombie, but I think I'm safe in saying you weren't six when the film came out, so that puts you out of the target audience, too. And for that reason - as I've said elsewhere - yes, those political scenes do fail. They fail completely, just as similar dialogue in A New Hope fails (but that line from Tarkin about the dissolution of The Senate is quickly forgotten about because it doesn't take up twenty minutes of the bloomin' film). And apart from the final 45 minutes of AOTC, there's not much for the kids there at all - indeed, when my son first started watching that movie, he would always start at the Conveyor Belt scene.

And all the Oscar nominations are made by adults, whatever the film so I'm not sure where you're going with that reasoning.

Well...I could argue it! Midichlorians sets up nicely for the reveal in ROTS and that famously "Faustian" scene at the opera. Poo and farting either make you laugh or they don't. Lucas didn't invent them; people have been laughing at scatalogical humour since time immemoriam. What's so pathetic is that there was such a backlash from certain people (I won't even grace their number by calling them a demographic) about such things. I mean, really, how much time can one person have on their hands?

I always thought that line in A New Hope was there simply to illustrate the ignorance of the person saying it, nothing more.

Yes, thanks. Any particular reason you're asking?

I think that it's to TPM's credit, though, that there's no darkness in it. Lucas absolutely didn't want Anakin to be anything other than an innocent kid, the point being that anyone can go bad in life, it doesn't have to be there from the start - and with him, the capacity to do so much wrong in later life only came from an admirable quality in youth: attachment to the ones he loves. So the only darkness is really in the character of Palpatine, who's manipulative tactics are only appreciated in retrospect once we've seen episodes two and three.

I don't believe it's any more childish than ROTJ. I think there's a certain kind of fan who will say that any OT film is better than the prequels simply by dint of the fact that others still had a say in the OT whilst the prequels exhibited total control by Lucas - and we all know how highly regarded he is by a lot of internet forum posters.

I don't believe Peter Jackson makes films for kids, though. From a child's point of view (if I may dare to be so bold) he makes films that are long and boring with quite a few frightening moments. King Kong? Dull as ditchwater until they land on the island. Then it's scary scenes with the natives (not at all child-friendly) and sub-par CGI dinosaurs. Lord Of The Rings? Again, for any kid (and even some adults) it has incredibly long sections where not much of interest really happens (a lot of talking and walking) and then scenes with Orcs that, as with the natives in King Kong, are terrifying for kids.

Pixar are amazing, though. I think we all have our favourites where they're concerned but mine would be Up.

I'm not entirely sure what you're basing that on - I mean, regarded by whom? The general populace? Star Wars fans as a whole? Fans of the original trilogy? Fans of the original trilogy on the internet? Fans of the original trilogy on this site?

As the group diminishes so does the capacity for anything approaching a broad-minded view, you see.

Any opinions on Star Wars to which I give any credence are those from the target age group. Given that kids of my son's generation are of the Clone Wars generation, I don't know what they think of the prequels, much less the original films, so I don't really have any basis on which I can make sweeping statements about the prequels I'm afraid.

Fair enough. As you say, he is the boss after all.

I know about the Jar Jar suit and what ILM said. What I was talking about, though, was McCallum's comments about saving money - I believe they're in the same documentary from which you took your other references.

I prefer to go with my own opinion, which is that ROTS was the best of the prequels and I remember the review from Empire (do you know that magazine?) which said something to the effect of "oh, for the confident, self-assured Lucas who directed ROTS to go back and tackle TPM and AOTC again" such was their opinion of how good that film is.

How can people know these things, though, without them being made public knowledge? I am suitably wary and suspicious of anyone who claims "insider information".

No, you simply can't predict how lousy some people will behave.

I think the bad criticism for TPM didn't come from whether it's a bad film or not. Sixteen years of hype guarantees that no film can ever live up to expectations. Thankfully, the film's target audience hadn't had sixteen years' anticipation (because they weren't that old!) and loved the movie.

Anyone expecting something dark from TPM really needs their head checking (I'm sure they were very pleased with The Matrix, though).

I have an attitude but it isn't a bad one. If you think differently to this, don't be afraid t say so (it's much better to talk straight than hide behind snide remarks, I always find).

But the audience did get a sequel to TESB. The tone was different, yes, but no more or less than the change in tone from ANH to TESB.

I look forward to watching that Cloud City scene again now, knowing what we know. The Rolling Stones? Too cool.