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Hal 9000

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14-Oct-2003
Last activity
11-Jul-2025
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Post
#1296526
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

I’ve decided to go with Order B, and to have the ‘alternate ending’ version be just that: the same edit up to a point with a different ending. If I shift the nightmare to where it features in ROTS, it’s no longer LOE, and one may as well go for L8wrtr’s, Don’s, or other edits of the movie.

I’ve applied some color correction to Bail’s apartment, to place it in the late afternoon. The only issue with this is it makes that one senator who clearly missed something that was “posted this morning” seem slack.

I also added an easter egg that I doubt anybody will ever find. The only hint I will give us that it had something to do with text.

Post
#1296298
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

I’m leaning toward order B right now. Especially with adding the “soon I will have a new apprentice” scene right beforehand, the balcony scene feels out of place without the nightmare following it.

Since I’m putting out an alternate ending version, perhaps I could remove the title ‘Labyrinth of Evil’ altogether and adjust the scene order to go ahead and have the nightmare take place that first night as in ROTS.

The two core ideas behind LOE have been having Padmé go to live on Alderaan and to shift the nightmare to after the other factors for Anakin’s turn have been laid in. An alternate version that forsakes these isn’t LOE anymore, but might be worth doing and publishing for those who would want it. It would have my other sensibilities about the rest of the movie, just not driven by those two ideas.

Post
#1296221
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

Yeah, in this scheme of things the balcony scene would represent the ‘calm before’ the following day of political allegiance and personal ambition being stressed and beginning to fracture, including between Anakin and Padme. Not quite the same gut-punch as the nightmare.

Also, I totally forgot until after I made my previous post that the scene in Bail’s apartment must come after the Jedi Council scene because it begins with, “Now that he has taken control of the Jedi Council…” So, that’s why it has always been placed where it is. I might just play with some gentle color correction for it.

It seems like there are (at least) two options for scene order. I welcome thoughts on this.

Order A (including the balcony scene) :
• Anakin is told Padme is pregnant, ending with their ‘happy moment’
• Grievous lands on Utapau and speaks with Sidious, ending with ‘a new apprentice…’
• Nighttime balcony scene between Anakin and Padme
• Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan discuss their misgivings about Palpatine
• Anakin is late for the briefing
• Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Council
• Council chambers, Anakin is sidelined
• Bail’s apartment scene, first of the seeds of rebellion
• Anakin gripes to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan asks him to be a spy
• Traffic scene
• Sunset conversation between Anakin and Padme, ending with ‘hold me…’
• Fade into nightmare sequence
• Anakin meets with Palpatine at the opera

Order B (excluding balcony scene) :
• Anakin is told Padme is pregnant, ending with their ‘happy moment’
• Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan discuss their misgivings about Palpatine
• Anakin is late for the briefing
• Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Council
• Council chambers, Anakin is sidelined
• Bail’s apartment scene, first of the seeds of rebellion
• Anakin gripes to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan asks him to be a spy
• Traffic scene
• Sunset conversation between Anakin and Padme, ending with ‘hold me…’
• Grievous lands on Utapau and speaks with Sidious, ending with ‘a new apprentice…’
• Fade into nightmare sequence
• Anakin meets with Palpatine at the opera

Order B is very close to previous versions of LOE. It would be nice to have something to imply that the scenes following the pregnancy reveal take place another day, if not quite a while, later. The balcony scene accomplishes that, setting up a ‘happy evening’ and a ‘tense evening,’ with the nightmare taking place after the kindling of all the political stuff has been laid.
I do like Order A, but the transition between the balcony scene and the following seems anti-dramatic, at least having been familiarized with what follows it in ROTS.

Post
#1296191
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

It’s amazing how things can take different shape after a substantial break.

I noticed for what seems like the first time that the deleted scene at Bail’s apartment is clearly set in the morningtime. So, how does this sound for an order of scenes after the end of the opening escapade?

  • Anakin is told Padme is pregnant, ending with their ‘happy moment’
  • Grievous lands on Utapau and speaks with Sidious, ending with ‘a new apprentice…’
  • Nighttime balcony scene between Anakin and Padme
  • Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan discuss their misgivings about Palpatine
  • Bail’s apartment, first of the seeds of rebellion scenes
  • Anakin is late for the briefing
  • Palpatine appoints Anakin to the Council
  • Council chambers, Anakin is sidelined
  • Anakin gripes to Obi-Wan, Obi-Wan asks him to be a spy
  • Traffic scene
  • Sunset conversation between Anakin and Padme, ending with ‘hold me…’
  • Fade into nightmare sequence
  • Anakin meets with Palpatine at the opera

And continuing on with LOE as it has been after that point. This version retains a few scene transitions original to ROTS and includes the balcony scene more effectively. It seems like the least effective transition of this order will be going from the nighttime balcony scene to the deleted scene with Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan.

Post
#1296135
Topic
The ending reveal in The Last Jedi was very easy to predict.
Time

I, too, won’t forget my first viewing of the sequence and how riveting it was for a lifelong Luke aficionado, like Rey was. I was so overcome when he and Leia shared their scene, partly because of the bitterness of the reality that it would be the last time that would truly be possible due to real life. When Luke was revealed not to have been cut in half, I thought to myself, “He’s already dead! He’s been dead the whole time, maybe for years!”
(Then again, during TFA I so thought the lightsaber was going to fly into Luke’s hand.)
After the duel, the movie kept jerking me around. ‘Nope, he’s not dying,’ then ‘he collapsed and might be dead,’ to ‘nope, he’s getting up,’ to ‘uhh’ and then to ‘oh no, he is dying, but why is he dying though?’

Post
#1296130
Topic
The Kenobi <s>Movie</s> Show (Spoilers)
Time

I’d rather he befriend another Wookiee than Chewbacca.
Shooting from the hip, I would also hope that we wouldn’t even hear the name Obi-Wan at all, except if we get some Qui-Gon ghostly content. There shouldn’t be anyone interacting with him that the name should even come up. Rebels notwithstanding, he should be genuinely settled into the identity of Ben, such that the mention of his old name in ANH sincerely stirs something up within him. I think that was a real fuckup on their part with that one. But not any worse than a great deal of the PT’s wanton disregard for the organic implications the OT had about the past.

“Obi-Wan Kenobi… Obi-Wan. Now, that’s a name I’ve technically not heard for a long time. Not even last Summer when I had heatstroke and dueled with Satan in the desert.”

“I haven’t gone by the name of Obi-Wan since, oh, I guess the time I thought I killed your father just a few hours before you were born. I mean, I don’t think anyone used my first name the rest of the day before I left to come here, but that’s asking for some very specific recall at this point. I don’t even think Satan called me anything but ‘Kenobi’ last Summer when we fought on my front yard.”

My point is that maintaining the technical disuse of his first name does not satisfy his portrayal in ANH, and that I hope this series does the right thing in isolation even though Rebels (and even ROTS) blew that door off its hinges.

Post
#1295878
Topic
Star Wars A New Hope: DSG Special Edition (BACK TO WIP)
Time

Sounds like a great cultist. I’m especially interested in your ideas for Mos Eisley.
Just a tip: if you want to use the original Death Star explosion, you may want to do a little effects work on the first few frames of the shot. They redid the model with the same CGI used for the Death Star a couple shots prior, so replacing it manually with the SE model and blending the transition into the original explosion would help it fit in seamlessly.

Post
#1295687
Topic
Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker - Discussion * <strong><em>SPOILER THREAD</em></strong> *
Time

I love the milking scene, too. Excellent stuff.

I really like that TLJ had something to say, where I felt TFA didn’t.

I think TFA nailed the ‘feeling’ and language of a SW movie but lacked mythic substance. I felt TLJ inverted this somewhat.

All that is to lead up to this: I’d hope TROS maintains the moviemaking sensibilities of TFA (but with a willingness to slow the fuck down some of the time) and the mythic substance of TLJ.