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25-Apr-2005
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Post
#107804
Topic
Episode 3: Fan Editing Ideas Discussion
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107804/action/topic#107804
Time
I was thinking this too, Ric. And perhaps a change of music would be in order too. Something more foreboding, or horror-movie style music. Like we just witnessed the most horrible thing that ever happened in the galaxy, which we had.

Though I like the end music's rehash of ANH, I think Lucas and Williams were mainly trying to manipulate the audience's emotions and playing on the nostalgia factor, trying to give the movie a more uplifting, hopeful feel. But, if you watch it as a complete 12-hour movie, I think it could be changed to a more horrific end.
Post
#107799
Topic
Episode 3: Fan Editing Ideas Discussion
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107799/action/topic#107799
Time
I disagree. I don't think there has to be any jump in time at all.

Consider, we've never seen the Republic's naval officers or their uniforms, only the blue one's Anthony Daniels and Ahmed Best wore in the nightclub scene in AOTC. Chances are, once the Clone Wars broke out the Republic switched to something more militaristic.

Furthermore, it is implied that Dooku delivers the Death Star plans to Palpatine on Coruscant at the end of AOTC. I think Palpatine probably started ultrasecret work on it right away as a means to "combat the Seperatist threat", putting the ambitious Tarkin in charge, which would have given them three years to construct what we saw at the end of ROTS. I think it's completely plausible.

On the other hand, I agree with you totally, Greencapt, that TARKIN should have filled the place of either Mas Amedda or atleast Sly Moore's character. Because, ultimately, what did they add to the story, and why is Darth Vader taking orders from Tarkin in ANH? All of it could have been answered by showing Tarkin as Palpatine's most trusted aide and advisor all along. This is one of the major things that excited me about the possibility of Prequels back in the 80's. But, sadly, Tarkin's story never came to fruition. It's enough to make one weep, or wish for digital effects powerful and convincing enough to paint in Peter Cushing's likeness over the others'.

Just as a sidenote: Mas Amedda never made sense to me. It's quite clear in the OT that Palpatine's regime DID NOT include aliens or women. EVERYONE was Human. Why then, does he always have this alien by his side in the Prequels? And whatever happened to Mas Amedda in the OT, and Sly Moore (a female alien) for that matter?
Post
#107807
Topic
The character of Obi Wan
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107807/action/topic#107807
Time
I agree with you totally about Alec Guiness' performance it almost TOO perfect, it's spooky.

Being a strong believer in the will of the Force, I'm sure he thought it was much more than a coincidence to be reunited with Anakin's former droids, who are carrying a message from Anakin's daughter and pratically arrived on his doorstep with their new master - Anakin's son! If that's not a sign of divine intervention, then what is?

Furthermore, I wonder if Obi-Wan was out looking for Luke (when he saved him from the Tuskens) because he either a) sensed Luke was in danger, or b) felt the presence of Anakin currently in orbit around Tatooine in his Star Destroyer and wanted to make sure Luke was not involved.

After seeing ROTS - I also wonder if, after Luke's decision to come with him to Alderraan and the obvious need for safe transport from a trusted friend, I wonder if Obi-Wan contacted Yoda, who contacted his wookie pal Chewbacca and set up a meeting at the Mos Eisley cantina. Or was that a coincidence too?
Post
#107220
Topic
Episode 3: Fan Editing Ideas Discussion
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107220/action/topic#107220
Time
My suggestions, because I REALLY would like to see a good fan-edit of this one:

-Neimodian voices were severly botched - no consistency with the other two prequels.

-Palpatine's "Yeah!" at the beginning when Obi-Wan takes out the Super Battle Droids. Not in character for him.

-The "Padme dying of a broken heart" thing needs to go. Make her die because of Anakin's Force choke.

-Instead of rehashing old Han Solo lines, (see: "This is where the fun begins") why didn't Anakin do some of Vader's one-liners like "All too easy" or "There will be no one to stop us this time" or even something as simple as "As you wish." There was none of this.

-And what's with the Obi-Wan "flying's for droids" line? He seems to hate flying, yet he's always flying. I don't get why Lucas keeps emphasizing this.

-I thought Alec Guiness said he hadn't gone by the name of Obi-Wan since before Luke was born. Leia also mentions he served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars. Oh yeah? When?

-Reinsert Mon Mothma/birth of Alliance scenes and the Dagobah landing. Qui-Gon should definitely be in there. And if additional scenes exist, some more of Kashyyk would be nice.

-Speaking of Wookiees, cut out the stupid Tarzan yell.

-I didn't like Palp's line about "My apprentice will be more powerful than either of us, Yoda." Because, truthfully, he won't.

-Samuel L. Jackson gives the most stale line readings of all time in this one - rivaling even the Phantom Menace for worst acting. His performance needs major work.

-And some work definitely needs to be done on the Vader scene. Waaay too Frankenstein, to the point of laughter. Cut out the stumbling forward, and maybe the "Noooo!" could be replaced with the Vader yell from the ESB duel when Luke hits Vader's shoulder. That sounded pretty angry. Also, Palps needs to blame OBI-WAN for Padme's death, or the Jedi, not Anakin! I have no idea what the hell Lucass was thinking!

-The music in this movie was completely hacked up by the editors, it could use some smoothing out. And where was "Luke and Leia's Theme" from ROTJ during the birth scene? I think it would've made more sense to use that than Luke and Leia's seperate themes. Use their seperate themes when they are split up. And where was the Emperor's theme (hello?) and I would've really liked to hear that male choral bit from the Father vs. Son duel in ROTJ at some point in the film, during Mace's death even.

-One last thing. I really missed Anakin's murder of Shaak Ti in the Jedi Temple. That certainly needs to be reinserted.

That's all I can think of for now. PLEASE someone start working on this! And then let me know where to get it.

Post
#107221
Topic
ROTS: The Jedi Now Seen In A Different Light...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107221/action/topic#107221
Time
The Jedi never were the most trustworthy heroes, when you consider Obi-Wan and Yoda did nothing but lie their way through the entire Original Trilogy... "From a certain point of view", of course, and all but used Luke, and to some extent Leia, to enact their final revenge on Anakin and Sidious.

Bottom line is: Yes they are flawed. They are people who do heroic acts, but their flaws are what make them real people, instead of cardboard cut-out "super-heroes".
Post
#107123
Topic
Ep. III: Focus on tracked music
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107123/action/topic#107123
Time
I noticed the tracked music as well. Particularly when they're trying to land Greivous' ship with that rehashed "Anakin blowing up the droid control ship" music from TPM and the teaser trailer. I agree that the "happy march" when Obi-Wan linked up with Bail Organa's cruiser was inappropriately upbeat when juxtaposed with the events in the previous scene. Like you, I noticed it.

I was also annoyed that 50% of the music in the film was NOT included on the CD soundtrack. Which means, they need to release an Ultimate Edition (they didn't for AOTC) real soon.

But, this is just nitpicky stuff. Overall, I was very satisfied with the film and enjoyed it immensely.
Post
#103224
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/103224/action/topic#103224
Time
Just watched Balance of the Force and Clone War.

Loved, loved, loved Balance! THIS has made Phantom Menace not only WATCHABLE for me, but also improved the story and characters 100%. It's amazing what a little trimming can do to bolster otherwise tedious and flat performances by Anakin, Shmi and even Padme in places. No more cringe-worthy moments. When Anakin leaves his mother, it's much more powerful now with all the superfluous dialouge excised. Podrace is VASTLY improved by the addition of music borrowed from Shadows of the Empire and A New Hope. The inclusion of deleted scenes like Greedo, Morning of the Race and the waterfall scene - all of them were fantastic. The deleted underwater sequence was warranted. Little things, like Watto humming the Cantina song, Jar-Jar and Boss Nass' new dialogue, the Imperial March for Darth Maul were all great touches.

Drawbacks: The only major drawback is the picture quality, if this were DVD quality, my copy of TPM would be traded-in immediately. Other stuff is just nitpicky - There were a few transitions that could be smoothed out a little, but it could have just been the slightly jumpy transfer. The shot of Jar-Jar swimming (waterfall sequence) could have been cut out. And his dive into the water (Ootah Gunga), for that matter. I wasn't a big fan of shadowing Sidious' face. I thought his performance was one of the few to be treasured from this film, and fading out his facial features was unnecessary I thought. But, just my opinion. I did think the new languages were as annoying as a lot of others had said. There were two or three places where the Neimoidian dialogue was distracting, but overall I found to be very inventive and effective. Besides, I'll take these few minor shortcomings over George Lucas' sweeping and grating oversights any day.

Clone War was a different story. I thought magnoliafan let much more slip under the radar than he did with Phantom. The performances of the actors in the first few scenes are downright horrible. Much of it begged to be cut. I didn't like the Dooku as "father of the Rebellion" suggestion. I like the idea of Dooku being a Sith and the Seperatist movement as just another one of Palpatine's manipulations to sweep himself into power. But, that's just my personal preference. The inclusion of the deleted scenes felt out of place to me in this version - with the exception of the Mace/Obi-Wan scene, which I felt was worlds better than the "Floating Yoda" film cut, and conveyed more of Obi-Wan's reservations about Anakin.

Overall though, Clone War needed more (or less). Something about it was just lacking. Even down to Dooku's yellow saber, this one just did not work for me. But all in all, it was satisfying to see another take on it.

Thanks again, Bwlag! And big thanks to MagnoliaFan for having the balls to do it and put it out there for us! Mucho respect to you. I do hope someone talks about remastering Balance in a higher quality, higher-def version.
Post
#103199
Topic
New rumor - Hayden to dub over James Earl Jones for future SW DVDS!
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/103199/action/topic#103199
Time
I'd be open to hearing a mix of Hayden's voice mixed wth JEJ's. I know what you mean about the trailer. I noticed it too. Particularly the way he said "Master".

For those of us who loved the OT and want to keep it sacred, but would also like to see a version of the Star Wars saga that is completely integrated with all six episodes, I think that a process like that would be ideal to keep you connected with the character of Anakin.

Maybe it'll be easier to visualize after seeing Episode III, but right now the thing that makes it hardest for me to reconcile Anakin/Hayden as Vader is the English accent or whatever JEJ was going for. It was of course great for the originals, but when watching them all as one movie, I'd really like to have that connection, even a very subtle connection to the image of Anakin in my mind when watching Darth Vader. Just a slight hint of the man he used to be.

Then again, I also wouldn't be opposed (if done well) to putting Hayden in prosthetics and reshooting the Vader unmasked scene at the end of ROTJ, eliminating Shaw completely. Again, Shaw's English accent, barely noticable, but still. I think it would make the "saga edition" more complete. The originals are fine on their own.

By the way, HS vs. IJ, where did you hear this? Last I heard Lucas was reported as saying everything is the "way he wants it now", and no changes would be made to future DVD releases, which I don't believe, but as far as I know, it's the "official" stance they're taking right now.
Post
#103051
Topic
STAR WARS: Symphony for a Saga
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/103051/action/topic#103051
Time
I have that CD, ricarliete. It's called "Sketches On Star Wars" by the Trotter Trio.

It's mildly interesting. Nothing I listen to all the time.

I'd upload it for you, but as you can see from my above posts, I can barely open a zip file.

These computers are getting quite out of hand. Even I can't understand their logic at times.

Oh, and I just listened to the entire saga together, tlbauerle! Great, great work on the editing. My favorite transition: Escape from the Asteroid Field. Great stuff.
Post
#103025
Topic
Lucas responsible for new trend in movie making
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/103025/action/topic#103025
Time
I think it could become the new standard, but someone has to make a good movie with it first. The only other film that has done bluescreen work to the extent Lucas has done (that I know of) was "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow". Which basically consisted of actors on set. Everything else was computerized. And it failed. Miserably. And I'm sure someone will say "Hey! I liked Sky Captain, you stupid InfoDroid!"

But the fact remains - it was a horrible, miserable failure. It's the only film in my life that I actually walked out on. And if I didn't love Star Wars so much, I'd probably say the same thing about TPM.

It's been proven that (up to this point) bluescreen effects are best when used sparingly, as a last resort, when no other option is possible (i.e.- Jurassic Park, Titanic, Lord of the Rings).

And what "movement", Darth Simon? Maybe a bowel movement.

But... The waters are being tested (which is cool) and time will tell. And although I have enjoyed parts of the Prequels and am totally amped up for ROTS, I'm just sorry he had to use Star Wars as his guinea pig.
Post
#103023
Topic
The Star Wars Saga DVD Box Set
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/103023/action/topic#103023
Time
This is very disappointing news.

Looks like another cash-grab by Lucasfilm, instead of the Ultra-Completed Saga Edition we were all hoping for. It just doesn't make any sense that the movies are "the way he wants them now". There is proof that ILM has redone the TPM Yoda with a digital version, and wasn't there some talk a couple years ago by John Williams saying how Lucas had him record a few additions and subtractions to the score, namely the Imperial March to be integrated into A New Hope and few other things?

A new "death of Obi-Wan" scene had also been mentioned, and it makes sense, since we see this gigantic lightsaber battle in ROTS, only to see it's conclusion acted out by the very limited "duel" offered in ANH. With a death star hallway set, a guy in a Vader costume, and the digital stunt double thing they used for Christopher Lee, it should be a reasonably easy thing to do.

I'd like a copy of the original release of the OT for the archives, but I'd also like to see him take all the films as a whole and integrate them all into one satisfying 12-hour movie. As it stands, I don't think the films in their current form reflect that. And releasing all the current DVDs as a box set and throwing a few deleted scenes on a bonus disc just doesn't work for me.