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Hal 9000

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Join date
14-Oct-2003
Last activity
20-Sep-2025
Posts
11,348

Post History

Post
#890390
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

The changes made to V4 can be found throughout the thread, and don’t really amount to a great deal from a bird’s eye view.
However, LOE differ’s from L8wrtr’s edit quite a bit. As I understand it, his edit restructures Anakin’s fall to have Palpatine seemingly predict the Jedi asking Anakin to spy on him, making him fall victim to confirmation bias. My edit shows Anakin have a single nightmare later in the film that originally, and does not tell anyone else about it, save Palpatine (and even then, it’s kept mostly in subtext).

Post
#889596
Topic
The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS **
Time

MrToad883 said:

Not sure if this has been mentioned, but was the lightsaber ignition sound for anakin/lukes saber accurate to the OT? it sounded different to me

This annoyed me too. The first time Finn ignites it, it sounds like Vader’s saber to me. I was on alert for this after having replaced two saber sound effects for my Ep3 edit that were wrong. Then again, the DVD remaster has the ROTJ saber ignition used in ESB, so I’m not sure what they’re smoking.

Post
#888822
Topic
Rate 'The Last Jedi' (NO SPOILERS) (was: Rate TFA (NO SPOILERS))
Time

ANH: 10/10 - Wonderful standalone film
ESB: 9.5/10 - Only slightly lower because it leans on the prior film as setup; not a bad thing at all, and this one is still my personal favorite; cinematic alchemy
ROTJ: 8/10 - Somewhat hamfisted conclusion with some ANH retreading but gripping character interactions
TPM: 5.5/10 - Mixed bag of world building and flat direction; could have easily been much better than it is; less than what was expected but a fair film in its own right
AOTC: 4/10 - Given the film’s heritage, a very awkward film whose characters fail to resonate and plot to click into place, with overused CGI that prevents any engagement; lowers the bar for the franchise for the foreseeable future
ROTS: 5/10 - The film’s poor execution can’t rob it of its intrigue, though it’s still got the same problems as its predecessor
TFA: 7.5/10 - Wonderful characters and filmmaking works well to establish a new scene against the backdrop of an ANH retread that ‘might have gone too far in a few places.’ If I’m being fair, it’s just under ROTJ.

Post
#888329
Topic
The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS **
Time

I agree about the soundtrack. Aside from Rey’s theme, it felt modern and low key. I wonder if someone directed John Williams to deviate from the grande style of prior films so we can transition into mediocrity (oops, meant modernity).
Though, I wonder if the slight hint at the Imperial March as we come upon Luke at the end means anything.

Post
#887914
Topic
The Force Awakens : Fan Edit Ideas
Time

Nah, I really don’t think anything about TFA made me rethink anything I’d done for my prequel edits at all. If anything, it would reinforce the goal of making the PT conform to the OT somewhat. However, Max Von Sydow made a vague allusion to balance of the force, so I wonder if that doesn’t get brought up again.
And once I saw Snoke onscreen, I thought, “Wow, that really could be Plagueis after all.” I still highly doubt it, but who knows.
I wonder if JJ wanted us to think the planet that got destroyed was Coruscant, or maybe just made it look like Coruscant so that we would take his meaning that he’s ‘destroying’ the prequels.

Post
#887139
Topic
The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS **
Time

I think it’s less a remake of ANH than TPM was, but it was striking. I really think the film would have been better off without the doomsday weapon, and if they had just landed to rescue Rey. We already would have had some X-wing action anyway by that point.
I feel like the film hinted at major story points that should have been more fleshed out, like Kylo Ren’s backstory, and even the political situation of the GFFA when we drop in on the action. (I know, I know. We aren’t supposed to want political stuff, but some context would have been nice.) As I was watching it, I felt like I’d have a lot of “summer reading” to do afterward to help make sense of the story I’m seeing. I suspect that newcomers not already invested in Star Wars may not have the patience to put up with it. The prior films were much more… linear, I suppose.

An uncritical comment: When the crawl started scrolling, it didn’t feel real. I guess I’ve seen so many fan projects that make their own crawls, that it was hard to believe it was really happening. I was also surprised by the sheer silence (save for applause) during the opening logos. As tiny a part as it is, I was mildly disappointed they didn’t have John Williams compose something to replace the 20th Century Fox theme.

EDIT: Really, I suspect I probably would have enjoyed the first viewing more if I had read the novelization first. Knowing myself, I fully expected that I’d enjoy the second viewing more than the first.

Post
#886996
Topic
The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS **
Time

It’s still very early, and I may eat my words, but I feel like the Emperor has no clothes. The story was very light, and a lot of important character stuff is told and not shown. It’s markedly less self-contained than any other installment save for Empire.
For us sweaty nerds, we’ll be happy to hash out the meat and implications and piece together what we saw. But I’m afraid this film will not stick with someone who wasn’t already invested in what came before.

Post
#886954
Topic
The Force Awakens: Official Review Thread - ** SPOILERS **
Time

jedimasterobiwan said:

han is killled by his son ben aka kylo ren and luke is in at the end

I’m not sure what to make of you.

Anyway, I found TFA overwhelming on first viewing and need to see it again before I can really render any sort of assessment. It was full of surprises, to be sure, and raised an awful lot of questions. The ending was an enormous tease! I really could have done without the whole doomsday device component, because it felt tacked on.
Like I said, I’m gonna need to see this again to really process it.

Post
#886699
Topic
Star Wars Episode III: Labyrinth Of Evil (Released)
Time

Awesome, thanks! It’s always great to hear that you all enjoy what I’ve put together.
But no, I’m sticking with the purple Kool-Aid saber for a few reasons, including not needlessly contradicting past and future material and the FX work not being available. However, there’s still a chance that Hundsdorfex might implement my idea to sort of offset the weirdness of the saber by recoloring Ki Adi Mundi’s saber to purple and Plo Koon’s to yellow. It’d be a nod to the pre-AOTC EU, and not just have the actor Samuel L. Jackson be the special exception.