JamesEightBitStar

User Group: Members
Join date: 5-Mar-2004
Last activity: 30-Sep-2008
Posts: 187

Post History

Post: #73133
Topic: Name Games
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/73133/action/topic#73133
Time: 23-Oct-2004 12:48 AM

You know, there is something I'm starting to hate about what Star Wars has become.

One of my friends recently told me a story about how he tried to join a Star Wars MUD, but they wouldn't accept the character he submitted "didn't have a Star Wars-y name."

He, of course, didn't like this, but neither do I--in the EU or practically any other Star Wars spinoff, or even in the Prequels, Star Wars seems to have become over-populated by people with silly names, such as Qui-Gon Jinn or Aayla Secura or Jar Jar Binks.

But lets look at the original movies. The main character was named, of all things, Luke Skywalker--a perfectly ordinary Earth name (save for maybe the Skywalker part, but those kind of surnames are a fantasy convention). He knows an old man named Obi-Wan Kenobi (a name, obviously, meant to sound oriental in origin), meets a smuggler named Han Solo (Han is a real name) and a princess named Leia Organa (Leia being, of course, a variation of "Lee-Ann" and Organa being Morgana without the M). His enemy is named Darth Vader (Dark Invader, obviously). These names, obviously, reflected some sort of meaning or detail and showed us Lucas' inspiration. Names like "Qui-Gon Jinn" are made up at random and their whole purpose is to sound weird and sci-fi-ish.

Where the hell did the Star Wars universe come to be about people with whacky, generic Sci-Fi names?

Post: #71795
Topic: Just rented the DVDs...
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71795/action/topic#71795
Time: 17-Oct-2004 12:22 AM

Key, I just checked, your right--there IS music there. My mistake.

Also, I had to turn my rentals back in before getting to watch Return of the Jedi. Just as well though--I would be embarrassed to have to sit through that stupid song again.

Post: #71763
Topic: Just rented the DVDs...
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71763/action/topic#71763
Time: 16-Oct-2004 8:15 PM

Music WAS added to Luke and Vader's fight in Empire Strikes Back. Originally there was NO MUSIC (I've watched my original trilogy tapes too many times to have not noticed this). In these DVDs there is a somewhat dramatic music added that pervades the scene.

Unless you're implying that this music was already there in the 1997 SEs, which may be true (I only watched those once and don't remember the specifics).

Post: #71285
Topic: Just rented the DVDs...
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71285/action/topic#71285
Time: 14-Oct-2004 11:26 PM

Just watched Empire.

1. Replacing the emperor, surprisingly, didn't bother me, though his extra lines DID. Did someone REALLY have to repeat the "Search your heart, you know it to be true" line?

2. Again the boxes around tie fighters were still present, but nowhere near as blaringly obvious as on A New Hope.

3. Again there was flashing during the lightsaber duel, but this time it was more contained and thus a lot less noticeable, unlike in A New Hope where it was outright blinding and distracting.

4. (This might've been a problem in the original as well, but I don't remember) What color IS Bespin's sky? One minute it's blue, another it's an orange-ish hue, and one time it was even purple! Consistency, please! And BTW, SUN GLARES SUCK!

Otherwise, nowhere near as bad as the New Hope disc.

So far, the changes that bother me the most are the audio ones, not the visuals. Adding music to Luke and Vader's lightsaber duel, for instance, just totally took the emotion out of that battle and made it less suspenseful.

Post: #71257
Topic: Thoughts of Han and R2D2
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71257/action/topic#71257
Time: 14-Oct-2004 6:25 PM

The Yoda fight sucked. And so do CGI effects. I hate them, they never look realistic (unless you've never left your house). They look so fake that you can tell just by looking when a character or scene is CGI rendered.

One person once said "I'm glad Jaws was made in the 1970s, because if it was made today, the shark would've been CGI and looked like a cartoon character, rather than being a convincing model of a real shark."

Post: #71101
Topic: Got the DVDs Today
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71101/action/topic#71101
Time: 14-Oct-2004 9:22 AM

Not at all. Nor do I want to change the ending so that somehow Luke is victorious.

Post: #71100
Topic: Thoughts of Han and R2D2
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71100/action/topic#71100
Time: 14-Oct-2004 9:19 AM

What do you mean about R2 giving him problems?

Post: #71063
Topic: Thoughts of Han and R2D2
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71063/action/topic#71063
Time: 14-Oct-2004 4:10 AM

1) Han Solo

I had a thought about the whole "Han-Shoots-First" thing. I gotta wonder if George Lucas "identifies" with Han in any way, because that would certainly explain why he doesn't let Han kill people except in self-defense, yet isn't so keen on the other heroes following this role.

Think about it--Han is a rogue, doing his own thing, working outside established systems. George Lucas, at first, was something of a maverick too. As time went on, both stabilized and joined a specific order.

Of course, then George Lucas watches the OT, sees Han shooting Greedo, and is disturbed at the implications...

2) R2D2

Another thought I had just now.. is it just me, or is R2D2 a Mary Sue?

I mean, think about it--R2 is always right. Not "mostly" right, ALWAYS. That droid ALWAYS has the right answer, ALWAYS knows just what to do. Highlighting this is that he's joined by a bumbling companion who never (or rarely ever) agrees with him, and out of all five Star Wars movies, he's only ever made one mistake--walking into Jawa territory and getting stunned in A New Hope.

And, of course, it gets worse in the prequels, where R2D2 not only saves the day but gets formally thanked for it (not to mention he suddenly has jets).

Who wants to bet that R2 could've beaten Darth Vader in a lightsaber duel? (Hey, if the Energizer Bunny can do it...)

Post: #71059
Topic: Got the DVDs Today
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71059/action/topic#71059
Time: 14-Oct-2004 3:30 AM

When I heard about the concept of Star Wars Infinities, I rolled my eyes and prudently went to look at something else. Seriously, what IS the recent obsession with villains winning?

Post: #71050
Topic: Just rented the DVDs...
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/71050/action/topic#71050
Time: 14-Oct-2004 1:49 AM

Here are my thoughts on "A New Hope" (I'll watch Empire and Jedi later).

George Lucas... Yea, he can spend the time to put new scenes in, but he couldn't remaster the audio or the video. Some things of note (and I'm probably not the first to mention these):

1. The audio was inconsistent. At times it sounded muffled, other times it was clear as crystal.

2. During Obi-Wan and Darth Vader's lightsaber duel, for some reason there's a lot of green flashes. At furst I thought this was just the swords clashing, but A) why would a red sword and a blue sword create a bright green flash? Red and blue makes purple. B) sometimes it flashed when they were *just standing there and talking,* and furthermore sometimes it covered the characters--even when the backs of the characters obscured the lightsabers.

3. Now, George Lucas once mentioned that the Tie Fighters always have these "boxes" surrounding them. In fact those boxes were something which was supposed to have been cleaned up. But they're not only present on these DVDs, but they're EVEN CLEARER AND MORE VISIBLE than ever before--I never even knew they were there on my VHS tapes until Lucas mentioned them, here they look like force fields!

I'm no longer convinced this is about his "artistic vision" at all. If it was, Lucas would've bothered to correct these errors.

Already I know I won't be buying these DVDs. Maybe it's in his right to add new scenes to the films or alter existing ones, but there is no way I'm buying an obviously faulty product.

Post: #70674
Topic: Good revelations; Bad revelations
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/70674/action/topic#70674
Time: 11-Oct-2004 12:31 AM

Yea. That's another thing--why would the Empire build a forcefield generator on a moon full of Wookiees, who they know could kick their shiny white asses? I know I'd prefer to build it on a moon populated by small, insignifigant cutesy-poo teddy bears who, to the naked eye, pose no threat.

Post: #70673
Topic: A response to the "They're His Movies" arguement
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/70673/action/topic#70673
Time: 11-Oct-2004 12:27 AM

http://www.angelfire.com/comics/nes_star/CQuests/Articles/HisMovies.html

------------------------
"They're His Movies And he can do what he wants with them!"

I'm sure anyone who is into Star Wars and dislikes the various altered "Special Editions" of the movies will have heard this arguement probably thousands of times. The general premise behind this arguement is that we're not allowed to complain about the Star Wars Special Editions, because George Lucas created Star Wars and thus can do what he wants with it.
But I wonder if any of the people who actually use that arguement ever once stop to think about how fundamentally stupid it is?

Think about it: George Lucas created Star Wars so we're not allowed to complain about what he does with it. By that logic, you can't criticize any work of fiction ever made.

"God, Wheel of Time's prose is so over-descriptive!"
"Well, it's Robert Jordan's book. He can write whatever he wants!"

"God, 2001: A Space Oddysey is so drawn-out!"
"Well, it's Kubrick and Clarke's movie, they can make it however they want!"

"God, the iron age Superman comics make Superman so out-of-character!"
"Well, it's DC Comics' character, they can write Superman however they want!"

"God, there's too much sin!"
"Well, it's Satan's sin! He can make however much of it he wants!"

I hope I made my point clear enough by now. If anyone ever uses the "They're his movies" defense again, please show them this article. Hopefully it will kick some sense into them.
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Post: #70367
Topic: Good revelations; Bad revelations
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/70367/action/topic#70367
Time: 8-Oct-2004 8:21 AM

Am I the only person here who actually *liked* the Ewoks? I mean, for once I agree with Lucas' decision about something and his justification for it--a planet full of wookiees might've impressed the He-Man generation, but we've *seen* a Wookiee before. At least with the Ewoks, he introduces something new that we haven't seen in Star Wars before.

Post: #68782
Topic: Fans/Devotees, lets plan a serious strategy for next release
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68782/action/topic#68782
Time: 30-Sep-2004 9:52 AM

One thing I learned growing up is "You're not beaten unless you stop trying--or die."

Unless George Lucas gets a machine gun and threatens to systematically hunt us down, I'm going to continue hoping and trying for ways to get the O-OT on DVD.

Post: #68768
Topic: A Modest Suggestion
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68768/action/topic#68768
Time: 30-Sep-2004 9:43 AM

Personally, I *will* be satisfied with just a DVD.

Post: #68754
Topic: An idea for Lucasfilm / petitioners
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/68754/action/topic#68754
Time: 30-Sep-2004 9:22 AM

Personally I'm all for this. As an extension, if the Limited Release sells well enough, they might decide to make a second run of prints.

Post: #48968
Topic: Star Wars...The TV series!!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48968/action/topic#48968
Time: 8-May-2004 6:08 AM

Quote
Originally posted by: ricarleite
Yes DragonBall was a manga/anime, altough not a very good one, a huge success during the late 80s early 90s.

Akira Toryama actually had decided to end Dragon Ball at the end of the Freeza saga, killing Goku. His publisher did not like it at all, as DB was a huge success, and demanded him to continue the series - which got very silly after that, with robots, time travel, and magic powers and body fusions. After the ending of DBZ, they tried to continue the anime series (not the manga) with Dragon Ball GT (stands from "Grand Tour"), with 56 episodes.

64 episodes, actually, plus one special.

Quote

It's horrible, and almost didn't envolve Toryama at all, who was "busy" with other projects.

Dragon Ball was not a good manga/anime, altough Toryama can be funny and creatived when he wants to. I'd recomend it to 10-15 year old kids.

Personally, I liked GT much more than I liked Z... at least at first, and then only the Japanese subtitled versions (FUNimation, who does the English version, for some reason really likes to screw the show up when they play it in English... in GTs case, they even skipped the first fifteen episodes).

The original Dragon Ball was also a fun, lighthearted adventure. It's DBZ where the problems are... it has a ton of characters who basically sit around and stare in shock while two people go head to head, the fights last way too long... and the last two villains (Cell and Buu) were practically the same, concept-wise (That is, they were both villains who become stronger by absorbing their enemies).

I do agree, however, that there are better manga out there that unfortunately are mostly overlooked by the American public because they associate it with crap like DBZ.

Post: #48866
Topic: What is wrong with Return of the Jedi?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48866/action/topic#48866
Time: 7-May-2004 12:33 PM

Quote
Originally posted by: jimbo
Reasons Return of the Jedi is the worst Star Wars movie

1. The Empire couldn't think of anything better then building another death star after how easily the last was destroyed.

Yet the last one very nearly worked, too. There's no reason not to try again when it nearly worked the first time.

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2. Boba went out with a burp instead of a bang

Yes, the death of a bit character who just happened to become a fan favorite is SUCH a major contributing factor.

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3. While Return of the Jedis Vader vs Luke battle wasn't bad the one in The Empire Strikes Back was far superior

True... so?

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4. The word "destiny" is used way to many times

5. A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Attack of the Clones show clones as very efficient warriors but here they couldn't kill more then a few ewoks.

I will never believe the stormtroopers are clones. That was not the original intent, obviously.

Other than that... I dunno, the Stormtroopers are supposed to be these highly-trained death-dealers, but Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, etc. seem to survive ARMIES of them at a time.

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6. Ending is way too happy. They should have killed off more characters.

This is Star Wars, not Todd McFarlane's Spawn.

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7. The ewoks were annoying as hell. They looked like a bunch teddy bears. I dislike them more then Jar Jar.

Insecure about your maturity are we? I personally liked seeing an alien species in Star Wars that didn't look like it came off a KISS album.

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8. Why did the Empire surrender after the death star was destroyed. They still had more then enough fire power to wipe out the last of the rebals

Because THEY HAD NO LEADER, thus no direction, no purpose, nothing left to fight for. To continue fighting would be nothing more than refusal to admit defeat, and totally pointless in the long run.

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9. Return of the Jedi had alot more responsiblity ending the series then The Phantom Menace did beginning it.

Umm... so?

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10. Two logs coming together would not destroy a modern tank much less a futuristic walker.

11. Did I mention the ewoks? Thought so

Whatever.

Post: #48863
Topic: Star Wars...The TV series!!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48863/action/topic#48863
Time: 7-May-2004 12:23 PM

Quote
Originally posted by: ricarleite
DBZ was not an extention of franchise. Dragon Ball GT was.

Umm, yes it was. Akira Toriyama was originally going to end the story after Goku and ChiChi got married, but because it was so popular he decided to extend the series. And THEN it was going to end with the Freeza Saga, but again, it was popular so he decided to cash in. I'd call that an extension.

Post: #48633
Topic: Star Wars...The TV series!!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48633/action/topic#48633
Time: 6-May-2004 4:55 PM

Quote
Originally posted by: Jedi Master DJR
This is just getting silly. To see this whole idea shot down without a chance, anger inducing for this Jedi. Still, I will say this. Who cares if it messes up? It just might, but it's not like Star Wars will not suddenly suck. Get over yourselves people. There are still fans out there who want Star Wars to continue and a move to TV to use a Trek word is very logical. Otherwise, SW will die out without even an attempt to keep it alive. And I would prefer it at least tried to continue. And since many of you think GL has fu@@ed up Star Wars with the prequals already, what the hell do you we have to lose?

Screw "keeping it alive." You know what happens when you try to extend a franchise to "keep it alive?"

You get the Star Wars Prequels
You get Star Trek: Deep Space Nine/Voyager/Enterprise
You get Dragon Ball Z
You get Yu-Gi-Oh
You get Extreme Ghostbusters
You get Transformers Armada
You get serieses like The Wheel of Time books.
You get Dune Messiah and the subsequent books in that series.

On the other hand, quality works usually choose to end at one point or another. There's a reason Tolkien decided to end Lord of the Rings in only three books, instead of trying to keep it running basically forever.

Post: #48626
Topic: Star Wars...The TV series!!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48626/action/topic#48626
Time: 6-May-2004 4:37 PM

Quote
Originally posted by: HotRod
I take some of what i said Back...

Yes I enjoyed St:TNG when it was on...watch it now and it's pretty lame...
Yes I enjoyed Quantem Leap when it was on...It's Ok now!

Quantum Leap (which I first caught in reruns on the Sci-Fi channel) is, to me, the epitome of character-driven storytelling. And to me good storytelling never fades.

Star Trek: the Next Generation on the other hand... after having watched several episodes of the original Star Trek, TNG, which I used to love, now seems second-rate (but it's still better than crap like Voyager). The original Star Trek was surprisingly well-written--even the seemingly goofy plot developments had a purpose and reason that became clear later in the episode. It's good storytelling that shines through despite the fake special effects. The Next Generation, on the other hand, while fun, is juvenile, seeming like it was aimed at teenagers and, furthermore, instead of being well-written, the writers just seemed to come up with random plotlines (after all, whenever the Enterprise doesn't run into a REAL threat, the Holodeck can create one). It had a few good episodes, but it was nowhere near the quality of the original series insofar as storytelling, and it ESPECIALLY doesn't match up to the first or sixth Star Trek movies.

Post: #48623
Topic: Star Wars...The TV series!!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/48623/action/topic#48623
Time: 6-May-2004 4:24 PM

Quote
Originally posted by: Samatar
PS can anyone here think of a decent TV series based on a movie? Please don't say stargate...

The Real Ghostbusters.
Kolchak: The Night Stalker.

Post: #39756
Topic: Changes in 2004 DVDs
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/39756/action/topic#39756
Time: 24-Mar-2004 12:00 AM

Quote
Originally posted by: Master Sifo-Dyas
Even George Lucas doesn't like colorized films, and he's all about modern technology in film making. But yah, I remember that I really didn't like black and white movies when I was very young, but stuff like Laurel & Hardy and other classics that were suited for a younger audience kinda convinced me slowly but surely.

Or... I'm surprised no one's mentioned the epitome of black and white: ZORRO!

Post: #39571
Topic: the SE films are all that are left!!!!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/39571/action/topic#39571
Time: 23-Mar-2004 10:47 AM

Quote
Originally posted by: jimbo
The originals do excist. They are in the film archive.

They're also available used on VHS and LD practically anywhere Lucas could care to look that stocks used movies. I have a collection on VHS (Full Screen, unfortunately... I wish they were widescreen). There's no basis for the arguement that the originals "no longer exist."

Post: #39412
Topic: Movies that have never been released in original form on DVD
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/39412/action/topic#39412
Time: 23-Mar-2004 3:27 AM

Quote
Originally posted by: Warbler

So tell me somthing should they use CGI to redo the classic parting of the red sea in the Ten Commandments? Should they use CGI to redo the Ape in the classic King Kong? They would make the SFX in those movies better too would'nt it? And the SFX in the Classic OT were not crappy!

CGI sucks. How the hell is some cartoony graphics that stick out like a sore thumb any better than, say, actual props and sets that don't?

Someone on a newsgroup I went to once commented: "It was a good thing Jaws was made before CGI was invented. If it was made today, they would've CGI'ed it and the shark would've looked like a cartoon character."