Mark Hamill looks fantastic at age 70. He really should get his own Luke show, not deepfake. video game Luke leaves me cold but Mark in the behind the scenes makes me a fan again.
Added Tenchi Universe Region A Japanese Blu-Ray. 1 disc SD no English dub or subtitle.
Added Wizard of OZ Criterion Collection Laserdisc 50th Anniversary.
Added Tenchi Muyo Ryo-Ohki Japanese OVA part 2 with English dub.
Added King Kong Criterion Laserdisc CAV reissue.
Added Project A-Ko 2 DVD from Discotek.
Added Blade Runner CAV Criterion Laserdisc.
Added Jason and the Argonauts CLV+CAV Criterion Laserdisc. Super disappointed in this one arrived moldy with scratches. Seller got pissed with me for not even leaving a negative just saying i disagreed with their scale of grading. I wouldn’t have given them seven dollars for a disk that smelled like mold, never mind twenty.
Added Goldfinger CLV Criterion Laserdisc. Arrived finally, cover and sleeve have a split, but other than that it looks new and unused.
Added Analog CX mono sound Dirty Pair the movie. Japanese Laserdisc no subtitles or dub.
The celibate monk thing goes back to the 1974 screenplay but was dropped in the actual movies and the EU. Only to be recanonized contexualized in the prequel. Like midi clorians being too similar to the Kaiburr Crystal as a way to describe the force. its something that should have not been revisited.
My opinion.
Hasn’t been made yet, and probably won’t since Kathy Kennedy thinks trilogies and the Skywalker Saga are over. But i’d like to see Rey rebuild the Jedi Order, with Finn as her Padawan. Not sure what role Poe would have leading Rogue Squadron would be a step down from being General. I have no idea who should be Chancellor of the new new republic, with Leia gone.
Their wouldn’t be a new Sith or more new Empire or first orders, unless like in Zahn there was some mopping up to be done. The galaxy would be at peace. With the Empire and the New Republic in a truce of sorts. Each with their own sovereign borders.
Anakin had two father figures. The problem is the bad father Palpatine won out, not Obi-Wan. Because Palpy told him what he wanted to hear and encouraged all the things the Jedi denied him, all the things that make us human. Instead of controlling his anger they taught him to be afraid of it and to never get angry, instead of teaching him love is positive they taught him to suppress his feelings. So he turned his anger inward. Vader makes sense in that regard, but you cannot make excuses for his murdering the Sand People, Dooku or the younglings.
Attachment is so forbidden they cut Anakin off from his mother and left her a slave. Because they steal children because they don’t have children get married and have families, because you know attachment.
Its kind of hilarious to document a film which doesn’t really exist anymore. The 2020 Special Edition isn’t the movie those effects pioneers made. I doubt that will change either i expect the Anniversary of Return of the Jedi to come and go and to not actually get the original film on its 40th Anniversary. But it might still be of interest to see what Larry uncovers on the behind the scenes stuff, if it isn’t fluff or what we all know already.
The artists, model builders etc, more of them die every year. Its atrocious the film is still being suppressed.
ILM itself is quite an institution though. Still are. Many amazing visual effects through the years.
I watched Belle. It was incredibly disappointing. Probably Hosoda’s worst film. A loose remake of Beauty and the Beast. The secondary world of U is completely undeveloped. The ending is confusing and rushed. I guess the music was decent and in places the animation was good. The dub was workmanlike not excellent. 2 and a half stars.
It is poorly executed. But the idea is the Jedi lost by fighting the war in the first place it corrupted them. And Anakin sees them breaking their oaths and codes just like Palpatine warned him they would. Was he wrong that the Jedi feared to lose power, not in the way the Jedi are portrayed in those films. Everything they do is because they are manipulated by fear, pawns on the chessboard of Sidious.
Anakin is manipulated by the fear of loss. Because he lost his mother. Because he didn’t want to lose Padme. And the Jedi tell him to let go of his fear and let her die. Or at least that is the gist of what Yoda said. Its greedy to love someone so possessively says Lucas. That is Anakin’s fault. Its all so humdrum and laughably inarticulate.
Its a fairy tale. Its supposed to be set a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Once again the prequels explained something that didn’t need explaining. There is a Princess because that is what exists in a standard tale of this kind. You also have a Pirate, and you have a Wizard and you have this young man who is very much the Dorothy Gale, or the Jack Hawkins.
Watched the Long Halloween. It was a much better Batman film to cleanse the palate. The animation was kind of cheap looking, and some of the comic book silliness was in part 2. But overall it was a good Batman story and compelling. It definitely felt like Batman, not like trying to be a David Fincher movie, or a Scorcese movie. 4 out of 5 stars.
Catwoman Hunted was a huge miss. Only Catwoman design was good and her voice over. The plot was ridiculous and i quickly lost interest even for an anime where you aren’t supposed to take things too seriously it wasn’t all that much fun beyond the costume party at the beginning. 1 star out of 5.
Hush a godawful adaptation. Cheap animation looks nothing like Jim Lee’s work on the book. And they changed the villain and ending ruining it, crap, pure crap. I’d like to give it negative stars but i liked Catwoman in it. 1 Star out of 5.
I watched the 2nd trailer again and it isn’t half bad. Wish it had a more lived in universe look though and everything wasn’t so flat and shiny. Miss the film grain of the original 77 film. The thing i really do hate though is the lightsaber style its prequely, Flashy. and the way they throw them around one handed like they are glowsticks when these things can cut everything but Beskar. Its ridiculous. Wish they go back to the OT lightsaber style of holding it like a broadsword with two hands.
I love Lucas films. I’m a Lucas diehard. I also think the prequels aren’t all that good. And it has tarnished his reputation as a filmmaker. The original Star Wars, American Graffiti and THX 1138 are great films. I wish Lucas loved his films as much as i do. He would release the originals for all of them and they’d have catalog releases like every other Hollywood production in a modern HD format.
I also can’t believe the lies he has told since the 90’s about it always being the story of Darth Vader, or that it always was a family saga with a father, son and a daughter. It wasn’t, none of them were related in the beginning. And it was Luke’s story.
The information is there in Splinter of the Mind’s Eye, the first two films where Leia wasn’t a Skywalker, the original film where Obi Wan didn’t lie and Vader wasn’t Luke’s father. The Leigh Brackett Star Wars II script etc.
He did have great collaborators, Walter Murch on THX and Graffiti, Haskel Wexler on Graffiti. Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck. On Star Wars, Graffiti, And Temple of Doom. Gary Kurtz should be given credit, as well as Marcia Lucas, And Charley Lippincott. David Prowse should have been treated better. We now know how much credit is due to Howard Kazanjian and his efforts. You could write volumes of books just on the effects artists and concept artists and how they made those Star Wars movies. An auteur no doubt, but surrounded by genius talent like John Dykstra, Ralph Mcquarrie, Joe Johnston.
Lucas didn’t do it on his own. He was the general, but the rest of the people did all the things to make his vision come to life.
They almost never use a laserdisc for a DVD or Blu-Ray except in rare cases. They are usually component or composite masters. Star Wars was D1 component for Gout. I have no idea if Fantasia is D2 composite or the former.
Added
Gall Force collection CAV Laserdisc set, mint no OBI and with vinyl record.
Urusei Yatsura movie box films 1-5 all in CAV format no OBI.
Tenchi Muyo TV box 2 with OBI. CAV format.
Space Battleship Yamato II perfect collection no OBI. CLV.
I’m hoping that Strange New Worlds is good, as well as the 4th Kelvin film. I haven’t given up on Disco yet but its had 4 seasons to become Star Trek and it hasn’t i’m also hoping season 3 of Picard is finally respectful of the legacy.
Maybe someday they’ll publish Lucas Star Wars sequel ideas in a book, novelize them or make a graphic novel about them. I’d really dig them doing something like The Star Wars graphic novel not just for the Lucas sequels. But for Duel of the Fates and for Leigh Brackett’s Star Wars II.
I saw it again myself. Worse on a second viewing, unlike Nolan’s films its completely uncinematic. Very little happens. Batman has no agency whatsoever. Stuff just happens to him like he is a victim. Maybe it could be improved on in a sequel since this was like a prequel before he became The Batman we know, but i’m not sure i would be on board. As in someone who would purchase a ticket.
Animation then. Still i will stick by what i posted. Hate the inquisitors, the helicopter blades. Hate Disney Thrawn. Liked Kanan though. Liked Hera.
I vastly prefer the books. As the Silmarillion and Lord of the Rings is one story. It was intended to be by the author.
Was he trolling when he had Vader yell NOOOOOOOOO! in Return of the Jedi, because Lucas knew fans hated it in Revenge of the Sith? Like when he said Empire Strikes Back was the worst film because he knew fans would read that and flip.
Replacing Shaw with Hayden his whole explanation for it didn’t make sense but i don’t think at the time he did that to anger OT fans. But the 2011 Blu Ray change might be trolling. Still not gaslighting like the things he says about the Greedo scene or having this one big script thing in 74 when there was barely one movie. Or the Oxymoron thing about not being able to give us the originals.
I think he made why he sold Lucasfilm pretty plain actually, he wanted to raise his daughter, retire. Enjoy his retirement, time with his wife. Wanted to open a museum. His age was the thing he kept talking about. He wasn’t going to spend his last ten years on Star Wars. He didn’t need the money. It did appeal to his vanity for all of five minutes that he might come back and do it all again and direct episode 7, but ultimately he decided against it.
Fans wanted sequels to episodes IV, VI and VI, and for him to relent on the originals. Lucas gave neither. He gave them prequel movies they didn’t want. Maybe Lucas figured they won’t like my sequels either, because he wanted to make sequels to the prequels instead of sequels.
Mara and Anakin weren’t resurrected though. Jacen didn’t even become a force ghost, he was lost forever.
But i do remember people saying if Denning was allowed to do it he would have had Luke cutting star destroyers in half with his lightsaber,lol.
Resurrection is a Sith power. They don’t respect life. Jedi respect the balance and that includes letting people pass on to join the force. At least that was well done in the prequels, one of the few things Lucas did well. The contrast between Yoda’s philosophy and Palpatine’s.
Its also one of the things i think Veitch got wrong for Dark Empire. Luke thought he could use the dark side to save his friends and remake the galaxy the way he wanted it to be. That is totally Anakin Skywalker, but not Luke. He would have ended up losing his friends, if not having to kill them and he would have ended up another Palpatine.
At least at the end of that story Leia pulls him out of this delusion.
Lucasfilm could have done a Darth Vader series, but they are interested in bringing cartoons to live action with all the inherent sillyness of helicopter lightsabers, and inquisitors. They would probably mess it up. Never wanted the cartoons to merge with the live action any more than the EU to be directly adapted. Different mediums.
Derann never did Empire. Only a New Hope and Return of the Jedi.
Best bet is to ask on the 8mm forum.
the Derann full feature of Star Wars is a much in demand title.
The caveat is Its the A New Hope version.
I watched about 20 minutes of Uncharted. I don’t know if i’ll ever finish it. The Spider-Man kid is miscast as Nathan Drake and the deviation from the source material is so inept and incongruent, its suspect.
I wonder how they will have Obi Wan try and bring Luke the lightsaber, and Owen won’t allow it. And Ben is like a crazy old Uncle to Luke. I guess that would happen later in the series?