Hal 9000

From TFA:R thread:

Hal 9000 said:

And no, none of my edits will ever surpass 1080p BluRay spec for a host of reasons.

If anyone would ever like to attempt it, feel free to lay my lossless audio output and a proxy rip of the video streams into an editor and recreate the video in 4K or whatever. But I cannot, due to technical limitations and much of the source material being sourced from 1080p and 480p. The entire saga is being mastered at 1080p with 5.1 DTS and that’s as far as I can take things.

I won’t be able to add Kylo watching the sun get sucked up because, as has been said, the order of scenes precludes it. NeverAr was able to because he restructures the order of scenes in ways this edit doesn’t call for. Oh, well.

I used Ridley’s audio which adds a subtle bit of the Emperor’s theme as we see the Vader mask. Not too much but would have been something we’d have picked up on if it were there in 2015.

I added foley from the trailer for the X-wing destroying a TIE over Takodana which was oddly silent in the movie. It’s not a dramatic change, but eh.

I added a line from Palpatine over Rey’s vision. I worked it in during gaps in other random lines from the films. As Rey stands up in the rain we hear “It is unavoidable” and as Kylo turns to face her we hear “It is your destiny.” I think this would have been perfectly thematically consistent with TFA on its own, since Rey refuses the call shortly afterward.

I also added some porg sounds to Ach-To, very subtly. Almost splitting the difference between adding some and not.

Finn waking up after the TIE crash on Jakku more or less looks like NeverAr’s version, visually suggesting daybreak.

That’s all I’ve gotten to so far. How do we all feel about the idea of removing Han tossing a guy to the rathtar? (I’m so-so on it.) Same with the no-look shot.

I’ll grant that you don’t think such a thing is important if you let me maintain that it’s incongruous with what came before. It’s up to you whether it bothers you.

Movie breaks lore. EU releases antibodies. Scar tissue forms.

With this movie I think the patient had his head severed. It’s especially sad since he was two days away from retirement.

I know Star Wars has always been about the emotion, the themes, the archetypes, and world building has been secondary. However, this new story seems aggressively stupid when it comes to setting itself up.

Bad guy re-emerges via mysterious means. Already mysteriously has even bigger evil forces. Seemingly could
have done so before the time of Episode I.

This is supposed to be the final chapter. If it were episode 57 out of what would eventually be known to be 628, having bad guy show up out of nowhere in order to prompt an interesting character thing might work. Doctor Who does it well. But to pull this kind of thing in what is supposed to be episode 9/9 when everything about Palpatine save for his legacy already felt totally final, and not to give any sort of story credence to him or his infinite fleet while implying the First Order (which were comically overpowered in the previous movie) he set up by proxy was a pointless preamble he didn’t need is insulting to whatever sense of integrity the overall story had in terms of content.

Hey, maybe the content never mattered. But one thing the OT offered was a sense of sincerity about archetypes playing themselves out in stylized and weird ways. It invited you to take it earnestly. Here in TROS in particular, it is impossible to do so.

The best answer is what I’ve heard a clear consensus of: don’t think about these absolute basic problems (which only arise when reckoning based on prior Star Wars, aside from any outside sense of logic or expectation), just shove popcorn in your face and enjoy the jokes and flashing lights. It doesn’t need to make sense, and it’s good they didn’t try to do anything. Just pretend you’re at Disneyland riding Star Tours. And, hey, you were foolish to get excited by what was promised: a conclusion to the 9-part Skywalker story. All you should have wanted was animated window dressing that made you feel amused during the movie’s runtime.

I only object when stories like these are inconsistent with their own rules. I don’t care whether anything within is ‘realistic’ to our world.

I had a problem with SKB’s firing being visible the way it was since it flies in the face of a basic understanding of light within SW. The discrepancy is evident when one looks at the hilarious official explanation.

Here, jumping in and out of light speed would be expected to look like skipping a stone on a pond. It might be in a straight line, or perhaps alternating a number of directions, but this scene implies they are more or less teleporting. This is baffling when placed alongside any and everything else we’ve ever gotten about hyperspace.

By all means, and please understand me, I welcome space slugs, mysterious gravity sources, sucking up the sun gradually until it fades to night while surviving on the planet, blowing up from the Star you sucked up and turning into a planet-sized Star that looks the same, etc. However this fictional realm works, cool. But I don’t like when it breaks its own rules.

Snoke was CGI.

Add star destroyer destruction montage from end of TROS.

Since TFA and TLJ orbit one another so closely yet say different things, maybe giving them a deferent title might help. As if they were a two-part comic or novel duology.
No ‘Episode VII(I),’ just a unifying name.

Maybe ‘Shadows of the Empire’ or whatever parts I and II.

That works surprisingly well, and has some great work. I’m still not sure the idea is a slam dunk but you’ve pulled it off beautifully.

Of course, run with it.

You got it.

It just doesn’t make any sense.

I haven’t heard this come up, but if the Sith could muster “the largest fleet the galaxy has ever known” with full compliment seemingly from the resources of their own little planet, then why didn’t they do that pre-TPM? Why did the Sith need to carefully infiltrate the existing government and pull strings to secure an army? Couldn’t they have just taken over the galaxy by military force as TLJ implies the First Order was in the process of doing before Palpatine appeared and declared the First Order basically pointless?

I wonder what NeverAr’s bleached sand aesthetic would look like applied to Pasaana.

Exactly. For bonus points we can remove the TIEs tracking then, because in TLJ it required a huge device onboard a capital ship to track them. But if we do see them jump, we can infer light speed skipping to just be… something that actually makes sense rather than teleporting randomly throughout the galaxy near exciting things. Maybe just jumping in a straight path quickly, like the term sounds like.

It’s hard for me to size up that idea at this point, so I probably won’t be able to comment until it hits BluRay. And when we see what deleted scenes we have to work with.

You got it.

It’s not worlds themselves, sir, it’s their… people.

I think just saying “countless [disparate] worlds” implies organized political actions rather than what the ‘civilian army’ we see at the end.

Star Wars crawls are fun when the grammar is treacherous. I like writing formally and with an archaic flourish when at all appropriate.

At this point in my ROTJ project I’m starting to lean toward going with the Yub Nub ending. It makes that film seem less final, and TROS apes its galactic montage.

If so, it seems like we could add one or more planets to this film’s little montage. Just get a plate and mask in Star destroyer blowing up. As it stands we see destroyers (presumably regular First Order destroyers since the Sith fleet never left Exogol) falling over Bespin, Endor, and Jakku.

If this should feel like putting a bow on the saga, probably best to go with at least one planet that appears in each trilogy. It doesn’t seem like Jakku would have people local to risk lives fighting the FO. I have a similar complaint as I do about Tatooine celebrating the defeat of the Empire with such fervor.

What about just replacing Jakku with Naboo? Just find a background plate from somewhere and add the destroyed destroyer in the sky. Come to think of it, maybe the establishing shot that follows the Vader “nooooo” moment in ROTS.

DominicCobb said:

Here’s the problem with the crawl, you have to start out with the threat. You can’t have two paragraphs of “good guys are winning,” that’s not terribly exciting or urgent enough.

I wonder, though, if this particular movie might do well with exactly that. Imply that people seem pretty hopeful and all that, then your opening sequence establishes that “the First Order was just the beginning” and “witness the power of my forty-seven THOUSAND star destroyers!”

In my crawl draft, I thought about adding the word ‘disparate’ regarding the worlds of people who have risen up. There are more of them than each may realize and they haven’t coalesced. The FO has them believing they’re alone. But when I read it back it sounded weird.

“The populace of countless [disparate] worlds have risen in defiance of the diabolical First Order.”

While the use of ‘have’ is grammatically correct, it might appear not to be, and the use of ‘disparate’ may help make it clear the subject is plural. (Populace can be singular or plural. If such a word existed, the sentence would use ‘populaces.’)

I wish we’d gotten a film for which ‘Balance of the Force’ would be a suitable title.

It is kinda funny how fitting the Thrawn trilogy titles would be.

I agree, aesthetic things and cinematography aside; the story of TLJ interacts with the nuances of TFA.

A well-thought out take on things. I do hope they will be generous with the deleted scenes presented, as it sure sounds like there were a lot of them close to being ready to go.

StarkillerAG said:

Here’s my idea for the opening crawl:

Episode IX
BALANCE OF THE FORCE

Luke Skywalker is dead.
But his sacrifice has inspired
people across the galaxy to
rise up against the evil FIRST
ORDER.

As Rey, the last Jedi, trains
for battle, she receives the
guidance of Luke’s sister Leia
and the wisdom of ancient texts.

Supreme Leader Kylo Ren searches
relentlessly for an ancient SITH
WAYFINDER, which could allow him
to unlock the secrets of his old
master…

Nice one! Here’s my current best draft.

Episode IX
THE RISE OF SKYWALKER

Luke Skywalker has ignited a resurgence of hope in the galaxy. The populace of countless worlds have risen in defiance of the diabolical First Order.

As Rey, sole heir to the Jedi, trains for battle, she receives guidance from General Leia Organa and the wisdom of sacred texts.

Meanwhile, Supreme Leader Kylo Ren searches relentlessly for an ancient SITH WAYFINDER which could allow him to unlock the secrets of his former master’s power…

buzzclub said:

What About the Title? I dont Like “Rise of Skywalker”. I think “The Last Jedi strikes Back” or “Revenge of the Last Jedi” sounds better.

I think the title is appropriate but if one were to remove the ending with her name change and/or Palpatinian lineage, a title change may be in order.

Could go with several options. ‘The Phantom Menace,’ ‘Revenge of the Sith,’ ‘The Phantom Sith,’ ‘Revenge of the Phantom Sith,’ ‘Return of the Sith,’ ‘The Final Order (sort of like The Last Command), ‘Heir to the Jedi,’ ‘Legacy of the Jedi/Force,’ ‘Skywalker Sound,’ etc.

Given how apparently overly concerned they have been with fan reactions in producing this movie, I would hope that would carryover and getting something like an extended our directors cut.

It probably won’t, but that would at least leverage that to positive effect for us.