JadedSkywalker

probably somewhere between a 7 and 10. But it depends on the movie and the quality of the elements. Some need managed grain removal that is carefully done and not just hitting a button on the entire movie.

I’d prefer none. But you get cases where the grain level is unacceptable. Like if you don’t have the original negative and you end up with duplication grain. Some films with lots of age, speckles, splices and dirt need some repairs.

But you also have films where they had access to the original first generation elements and just DVNR for the hell of it like the new edition of Star Trek the motion picture, that actually kind of pissed me off. Why go back to the 65mm neg and vistavision masters just to do that. Its ridiculous.

I disagree on one hand Threepio being built by Anakin stretches canon to its breaking point. On the other its funny that Anakin become Vader more machine than man and Threepio is very human like, a robot he built. Just like even though it breaks canon Vader being born at the same time Padme dies is a very powerful visual. Its like Lucas was being too clever.

But i don’t buy the poetry it rhymes stuff. Or whatever some fan created online to describe the movies. There is visual symmetry and continuity, almost accidentally at times due to Lucas recycling ideas. But the most interesting aspect to me would have been Luke and Anakin having similar journey’s that ended up in a different place. Lucas failed in executing that. Anakin’s turn and his friendship with Obi-Wan are completely bungled, rushed or skipped over. The Opera scene was interesting, that is a seduction to power and evil. But the whole join the dark side to save Padme doesn’t work. Not sure what other answer to Anakin’s turn Lucas could have done. But it should have been like what was described in the OT, and the Return of the Jedi novelization.

Yeah i have that on vinyl. Corey Burton is Luke. He played a different member of the Rogue’s in Empire Strikes Back. Hobbie. He also played Luke in 1979 on a read along record i think for children.

I also have Dark Empire where Luke is voiced by John Cygan who also played Canderous in Kotor. Mandalore in Kotor II.

I like the first two. Mark Hamill is great in both. The third one is a letdown. Though Joshua Fardon did a good job. Doesn’t expand ROTJ much.

The only thing i didn’t like was Jabba becoming Heater in the Star Wars radio play. Should have been Jabba.

i saw The Batman for free on HBO saving myself 30 dollars. It was a mixed bag. I didn’t love it and i didn’t hate it. Its still down near the very bottom of Batman films i’ve seen. No its not as bad as Batman and Robin. But the obsession with realism and uber darkness didn’t make it very fun either. Its not something i’m likely to watch again.

I liked Catwoman, but she was barely in it. Also the theme or lack thereof, worst Batman theme ever. Dun, Dun, Dun isn’t a theme.

Sifo was supposed to original be Sidious. Just like Palpatine originally was going to be Anakin’s father who created him with Midi-Chlorians. Sometimes it is better to either drop one of these ideas or to imply it.

Seeing how Disney basically did what George originally envisioned for Anakin with Rey, its not like these ideas go away forever.

I have more fond memories of listening to the John Williams score of Phantom Menace, reading the Terry Brooks novelization, and watching and listening to the Saga begins by Weird Al, and the official Star Wars music video for Duel of the Fates, as well as playing the Playstation game than i do the film itself.

I went to see the janky uneven quality movie with my little brother and that memory means more to me than the movie does.

There should be a thread for great films that make no sense. Because i don’t hate them but find them confusing. Like No Country for Old Men. I watched it again, and it is fantastic in editing, acting, directing and execution, but i don’t get it thematically i’m lost.

I only have the 1979 Boba Fett. Its kind of cool i guess. Very loose joints, missing the box. Was interested in Luke from Last Jedi. But i haven’t bought it yet.

Could have been a tracker like on the Millennium Falcon. But that would mean there was an Imperial Spy on the Tantive IV.

I mean the radio play was canon once and the Devastator followed Leia’s ship through Hyperspace. And that was decades before Last Jedi.

All George needed to do was release the originals. But he is a stubborn man and he didn’t want to release them, the more fans complained the more intractable he became and he doubled down. He made ridiculous statements about oxymoron and pipelines. When even Vanilla Ice in Cool as Ice is available in HD. There is no reason why all of the Lucas films aren’t available in a modern HD format.

I think at least half the vitriol is fans having the original erased, history rewritten and being gaslighted.

But i can’t defend the fans that attacked Ahmed Best or Jake Lloyd, or the people who harassed Katie Lucas online. Anymore than i can defend people who went after the actors in the Disney films for disliking a movie. But i don’t think being critical of the prequels suddenly lumps commenters on this site with those bad actors.

I’d like to discuss the movies and not people’s motives for not liking them, as a personal judgement on that person as a human being.

There are things i like visually about the prequels. I think the story needed to be reworked. Other than places where the cgi didn’t work, was done in a rushed manner or to keep costs down, i don’t think the movies are all that different than the type of movies that came out around the same times in terms of computer graphics. I do think Lucas became the technologist and more enamored with the technology than the story and the people in those stories.

As for George now, i respect he walked away to be a father to his daughter. Giving it all up must have been difficult. He spent like 40 years of his life on Star Wars. Being a writer, or director or creative, its like breathing for them. But he is free to do other things than to be Mr Star Wars. It is sad in a way that it robbed the world of other films he could have made. That aren’t Star Wars or Indiana Jones. I think Francis Coppola is correct in his assessment of George being uniquely talented. Though i’m not sure i’d trade Star Wars for Lucas version of Apocalypse Now, as much as i’d like to see it.

I’d like a Kotor remaster more than a remake. Something like Mass Effect Legendary edition

Edit:

I’m not here to be critical of Mr Lucas, but i don’t like that Charley Lippincott, Marcia Lucas and Gary Kurtz contributions to Star Wars were all diminished, if not outright erased. Or how David Prowse was horribly treated.

Maybe not unpopular opinions here but that is my ten cents.

Tales of the Jedi is being reprinted in June by Marvel i’m looking to that more than the Disney book with Luke and Lando that bookends Rise of Skywalker.

I’d defend Lucas the artist, the brilliant editor, creator and producer who brought us THX 1138, American Graffiti and Star Wars, not a new hope. But those movies he won’t even give us the originals of. Graffiti is the least tampered with of them at least, other than grain removal and a cgi sunset its the same film. THX is ruined, the cgi is horrible. The Star Wars Special Edition is neat as an alternative cut, but not in replacing the original, or rewriting history so Greedo always shot first, Hayden was always in ROTJ etc. He has destroyed his own movies and won’t let fans of Lucas the artist enjoy his films the way they were originally released. As brilliant and unperfect as they were. The one’s that proved he was a great editor and visualist. The prequels took the shine off his reputation so people say he was never a genius to begin with. I resent that honestly, but he had obviously changed and his changes in tastes and opinions was not to the audience liking and out of step with his previous works.

Killing Obi Wan was the right decision though. For the first time i read the version where he lives and he does nothing of worth after the death star. His death on the death star is critical to give the film emotional weight. Luke loses Ben, and he grows up and joins the rebellion.

The story of the original script after the death star drags. It was absolutely essential to do what they did. The same way cutting all the stuff with Luke and his friends on Tatooine and going straight to the droids was the right choice cinematically as well.

Lucas was like the Indiana Jones line i’m making it up as i go. There was no original vision. He wrote each film individually and kept revising. There was no Saga of Darth Vader 1-6 all planned out. Vader wasn’t even that interesting to Lucas in the beginning. He was a henchmen for Tarkin in the original film.
There was no Skywalker family as such. Luke’s father was a ghost, his sister was hidden from the Emperor somewhere else in the galaxy. Vader was one of two of Kenobi’s students and the one who betrayed and murdered him.

In Empire he made Vader Luke’s father.
In Jedi he made Leia Luke’s sister and Nellith ceased to exist.

Even back then with the first two it was the story of Luke Skywalker and George thought Luke would end up with Leia, it wasn’t this mythic Saga with incest overtones.

He only reframed it as the SAGA of Darth Vader. It turned Star Wars main character Luke into an afterthought, that in itself is insulting. I reject it as well. The OT is Luke’s trilogy, and the prequel Anakin’s. The prequels were made later and they don’t work in a 1-6 sequence of viewing, not even in the 2020 Special Edition 4.0 Maclunkey edit.

I don’t revile the prequels as i once did, but the idea they were always meant to be what they now are is a joke. Anybody who grew up in the 70s and 80s knows Lucas is full of it. I will give him credit for being creative and keeping at it, its kind of funny though how the retcons in the OT were accepted and the prequel wasn’t. And he isn’t the only person to revise a work. Tolkien did it and the new edit became the new version of the Hobbit to bring it in line with Lord of the Rings.

I liked Wicket, one of the things i did like about Disney Star Wars was seeing him again with his son on Endor.

They aren’t the worst aspect of ROTJ to me. Its a fairy tale as Kershner would say.

The worst aspect was Harrison basically having nothing to do and going through the motions. Han was the weakest part. Mark Hamill was fantastic as Luke and really delivered. Carrie was sort of just there like Harrison, just to finish the thing. Out of obligation but Leia was also a much weaker character in that film.

I liked the aspect of the force being more democratic and mysterious and its choosing a neophyte no one to restore the balance. I liked that Last Jedi basically made the whole mutant inherited bloodline thing, irrelevant. Only for Rise to make Rey a Palpatine and undo the idea of Star Wars going back to the style of the original where Luke was a no one, who had the courage to leave Tatooine and confront the Empire. Originally Luke was a brave kid who went on an adventure he wasn’t the son of a super-villain/mutant with the most mitochondrial DNA or midichlorians whatsits in existence to some prophecy. Its undermines the force and free will. Its junk.

I think they are trying to fix them with Expanded stuff outside the films after the fact making the same mistake as the prequels. Filling in the blanks, rewriting things in context, retconning where necessary. Should have been done during the screenplay stage don’tcha think. There is that Lando and Luke book coming out that is meant to Fix Rise of Skywalker.

The Kylo comic with hippie Snoke was weird though. I don’t consider that even canon to the Disney movies. The only thing i liked about that was showing Luke as a teacher and him searching for old jedi temples and artifacts. But it just doesn’t fit with the movie they made.

Its also ironic the guy fixing the mistakes is the same guy as last time Filoni. With the tv shows.

No Vader shouldn’t be brought back. It was a bad idea when Veitch wanted to do it in Dark Empire, and Lucas said to resurrect Palpatine instead.

I thought that Kylo was going to put on the mask and suit and become Vader, i thought JJ would do that. I’m glad he didn’t do that. I also think it was bad they basically did a worse version of the Darth Caedus story from the EU and just gave him Revan’s mask. They also had not Jaina Solo, Rey Skywalker to oppose him sort of.

Nothing they did was original.

I liked the aspect of Rey as a scavenger on Jakku, i liked her being like the original female version of Luke in how she was designed as a character like Ralph McQuarrie’s drawings and paintings. I liked the aspect of force awakens that reminded me of Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind. But on a whole i dislike nearly everything else JJ did. Except for Poe and Finn. I really resented Artoo being stuck in a corner for most of the movie and replaced by JJ’s robot Beach Ball 8. I didn’t get why Threepio had a red arm. There was no exposition on the new republic and no story for how Ben turned to the dark side and pursued the path of Vader. Poorly plotted, couldn’t be bothered to have Luke in it either.

Kylo’s Vader worship also makes no sense. His family would have told him about his grandfather returning to the light, or Anakin’s force ghost could have told him. The whole way its framed and he kills his father who loves him for no reason is so hamfistedly written and poorly done, makes me almost forgive the poor reasoning behind Anakin’s turn in episode III.

I sort of wanted a Lightsaber duel for Mark Hamill a fight scene. But i respect Rian for doing the opposite of expected. At least he did away with the mystery box nonsense and Luke being a worthless maguffin. JJ doesn’t get Luke or Star Wars. He did well with Star Trek, but he messed up Star Wars. Episode 9 is the worst film in the Saga. Am i as disappointed in it as Episode II, no. The OT heroes had to pass the torch, i’m not sure they all had to die except Lando. Is a heroic death better than going to the Star Wars equivalent of being put out to pasture or the old folks home, i’m not sure.

Basically these films never tried to assert their own identity and that upsets me more than killing off the trio.

Corporate film making. Not art.

This is Lucas legacy sadly, and he was a great film maker. Disney is a mega corporation selling junk food.

I’m no prequel fan or apologist, but beyond all the unnecessary retcons to the OT lore they are middle of the road in quality for movies. Episode II has some really rushed and janky cgi. I think Hayden is better than he is given credit for, but he isn’t movie star great either. There are several things that could have been developed more or written better. But i actually agree with Lucas on Anakin being a young kid in Phantom Menace and his motivation for doing so, and i also think there are a lot of things to like in that film isolated away from the bad and uneven elements.

Phantom Menace is easily the 4th in quality behind Return. In the trilogy The prophecy thing take it or leave it and the midichlorians but basically showing that Anakin was like Luke, until he turned evil and mirroring his journey isn’t bad.

Just wish Lucas had really leaned into the movie serial aspect and went full swashbuckling action with Obi and Anakin. The movies are so damn boring in comparison with the originals, too much politics.

It used to incense me the lie that it was always the Saga of Darth Vader. It was Luke’s story, Star Wars from the adventures of Luke Skywalker. But now i think Star Wars has to evolve beyond Luke, and his story. Being stuck in the past is stuck in the past. That doesn’t mean i think Disney treated the characters with reverence from the original trilogy. And now they are running on nostalgia and have gotten the wrong message. Instead of evolving Star Wars they’ve regressed it. Its the biggest problem with episode 9, they needed to be bold and do something that didn’t waste Rian’s reset of the Star Wars universe. And i’m not sure what Lucas plans were, midichlorians and mortis leave me cold. They and Darth Maul don’t excite me in the least.

Basically Disney Star Wars is a waste of time, unless they somehow fix things with episode 10 and Rey returning. i’m glad my nieces and nephews enjoy it, but they aren’t big Star Wars fans its just another thing like Disney Marvel to them.

I don’t really have a Star Wars, the EU and the unaltered originals were my Star Wars. and a potential Lucas sequel that respected the originals and didn’t make the same prequel bs would have been great.

I’m only upset they so poorly used Mark Hamill and the character of Luke. They had him lose fifty pounds for what, to milk a sea cow?

At best the sequels we have are a what if? alternate timeline kind of thing. They can’t be canon because they don’t respect Lucas characters or his universe. Last Jedi is the most interesting of the lot and at the same time the most insulting.