JediFlyer06

User Group: Members
Join date: 24-May-2006
Last activity: 8-Jun-2007
Posts: 89

Post History

Post: #219570
Topic: Say the SE release in theaters bombed in 1997?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219570/action/topic#219570
Time: 17-Jun-2006 10:31 PM

People didn't care about the fact that it was the "special edition", though. They just wanted to see Star Wars on the big screen again. We suffered through the bullshit SE additions in order to be able to do that. The "special edition" label wasn't what got people to go to the theaters...it was the words, "Star Wars". It was those original films, the ones Lucas hates, and the memory of seeing them on the big screen that drove people to theaters. It wasn't until the "Toontown" entry to Mos Eisley, and Greedo shooting first that people began to mumble..."what the hell is this?"

The way I see it, the SE didn't "succeed" in 1997. It simply road the wave of success from the original releases. People wanted to experience "Star Wars" again. They couldn't care less about whether it was a "Special Edition", or not.

Post: #219021
Topic: Lucasfilm to sell Physical Effects Unit
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219021/action/topic#219021
Time: 16-Jun-2006 1:15 AM

For me, ILM ceased to exist once they went digital. The practical effects that they pulled off made ILM the effects giant that it became. ILM today is kind of like the prequels, really...nowhere near what the original movies and original ILMers were.

Post: #219005
Topic: Does George even read his own stuff?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219005/action/topic#219005
Time: 16-Jun-2006 12:05 AM

Originally posted by: THX
JediFlyer06's point is a good one. However, I think it's reasonable to explain Vader's words to Luke as a ploy - after all, we'd already seen him agreeing with the Emperor's hologram to recruit Luke.

Yeah, but whose idea was it to turn Luker? Vaders! The Emperor agrees with Vader, though mostly to placate him. The Emperor wanted him dead..."the son of Skywalker must not become a Jedi". Vader knows who Luke is and knows that his power, together with that of his son, can destroy the emperor and give him what he thinks he wants, power. He's a sith, that's all they care about. Ignore the friggin' prequels, the story of the OT was written long before, and has so little to do with the PT that it makes one sick. Vader wants power. Period. Luke is his secret weapon against the emperor, which is why he puts the idea of turning Luke on the table. They're Sith. They know the rule of two. From that moment on, each wants Luke for his own purposes. Vader wants him to help him destroy the Emperor. The Emperor wants him to destroy Vader and become a true, and complete (physically) Sith with power greater than even Vader.

Post: #218423
Topic: Does George even read his own stuff?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218423/action/topic#218423
Time: 14-Jun-2006 12:48 AM

You want an OT contradiction that can make your head hurt if you think too much about it? Return of the Jedi, as with ESB, Vader's entire motivation is to get Luke to turn to the dark side. He has selfish reasons for this, as he reveals in Empire.

The climax of Jedi is the Emperor working his magic to win Luke over the dark side with Vader cheering from the sidelines. When Luke finally gives into his anger and hate, takes up his saber and tries to kill the Emperor, something Vader tried talking him into in ESB...Vader stops him from doing so! That would have been it. Vader's two wishes would have been granted...Luke turns to the dark side AND kills the Emperor. Bonus!

But since Lucas couldn't come up with a better plot device and is a hack writer, he couldn't be bothered thinking something else up. Instead, we have this duel (and it is all about the action) where Vader keeps goading Luke, and tempting him to the dark side. He was just there! He gave into the dark side! He acted out of rage and hate against the Emperor, who Vader had no reason to protect as he had already invited Luke to join him and destroy the Emperor. Nothing about the throne room scenes makes any logical sense up until Palpy begins killing Luke.

Post: #218418
Topic: Remember when everyone hated Return of the Jedi?
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218418/action/topic#218418
Time: 14-Jun-2006 12:34 AM

Jedi is a good movie. If you take out the stuff on Endor, it becomes a great movie. Still, it was my least favorite of the originals, though I still enjoyed it.

I'll the give the prequels credit for one thing and one thing alone...they are SO BAD that they actually make Return of the Jedi a VASTLY superior film in comparison. Jedi was not, and is not perfect. But, the one thing it isn't is the shameful, shit stinkin' mess that the PT turned out to be.

Fifty or one hundred years from now, when people talk about Star Wars, they'll be talking about the ORIGINAL Star Wars films. Hell, it's like that now. Except as a punchline, when do you even hear the prequels mentioned? Nobody cares, and LOTS fewer people saw them than saw the original trilogy. Think about that. It made whatever dollars it made, but movie tickets are what...about three or four times the price that they were in 1977. That adds up to millions less people who even bothered with the prequels.

Post: #216512
Topic: Darth vader
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/216512/action/topic#216512
Time: 6-Jun-2006 12:03 AM

Here's a link to a still from the movie of the entire helmet (neck brace not included) being lowered onto his head.

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Post: #216219
Topic: Dont give up being a fan
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/216219/action/topic#216219
Time: 5-Jun-2006 1:40 AM

To be fair, as much as all of the prequels have sucked, I really can't point the finger at the actors. All of them have proven themselves in a number of other films, Hayden included. I think this is all the fault of Lucas, and for three primary reasons.

Firstly, he's not a good director, not very communicative...at least not in a way that actor's seem to respond to. Just listen to the way he directs the effects guys in the behind the scenes docs, and when they show it, the actors. He doesn't seem to give them much to go with. He directs pretty much the same way that he delivers a commentary on the dvd. He had a stellar cast for these films, yet his directorial skills were such that he could not coax convincing performances out of them because he's not good at conveying what a scene should encapsulate from an emotional perspective. Plus, look at the diaolugue he was giving them to work with. Ewan was probably the most ethusiastic of everyone involved to be a part of this. By the time it was all over he was probably ready to fire his agent for getting him into this. And, well...then there's Liam Neeson. Another guy who was excited to be a part of the films and lived to regret it. The dude flat out refused to do the voice over for the big explanation sequence at the end of ROTS that forced Lucas to mention it only as a cheap tag-on that almost seems like an after thought at the end of the movie.

Secondly, as Lucas has proudly stated, he doesn't shoot the movie, he shoots "around the movie". He shoots the movie almost as if he were cutting pictures out of a magazine to make a collage. He winds up with miles of "clips" that he then tries to assemble into a movie. Since he essentially makes the movie in editorial, scenes often become disembodied from where they should have been in the movie. Things get moved all around not just within a scene, but throughout the entire movie, and you wind up with awkward cuts and beats that don't seem to flow together because they were never really meant to fit together. There's no emotional core or rythm to it. It's like trying to build a song out of a single note. His famous line is, "we'll take care of that later", meaning in post-production. That's his answer for the whole movie. Sometimes doing things differently is called genius. More often than not, though, it's called stupid.

Lastly, I know they're tech films, but way too much green and blue screen shooting. You have to give these poor folks something to work with that allows them to believe that they're a part of this world. You can't just show them a sketch and say, "this is what it'll look like". All day in a green or blue room is one thing, monotonously boring, no matter how good the actors. Once they lose interest in what they're doing, or can't "feel it", that can't be fixed in post. You can't CG performances George. You have to get those the first time around. And if you don't know how to get them, then you hire someone who does.

Post: #216174
Topic: Upcoming release German covers!
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/216174/action/topic#216174
Time: 4-Jun-2006 11:24 PM

Those covers are still awful, and the photoshop job on Luke on the ROTJ cover is kind of creepy. They cut and pasted his head from another ROTJ still onto his body from yet another still. The head is out of proportion to his hands, and just doesn't look quite right on the body. The body is angled one way, while the head was obviously a full frontal still. The angles don't mesh. Any one of us could have put better covers together. LFL really makes no effort with these discs at all, do they? Hell, all the dvd releases have had appaling "artwork".

Post: #216011
Topic: Dont give up being a fan
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/216011/action/topic#216011
Time: 4-Jun-2006 3:14 AM

Originally posted by: ThatArtGuy
Could be worse, you could be a OUT Star Wars fan, and a Classic Van Halen fan like me. I get screwed both ways. At least David Lee Roth is still cool.

Oh God! ANOTHER Van Halen/ Star Wars fan?! I thought I was the only one.

Post: #215964
Topic: Darth vader
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/215964/action/topic#215964
Time: 4-Jun-2006 12:10 AM

I agree that Anakin, in theory, should have been almost unrecognizable. The burns he suffered would have left his face a melted, scarred, horriffic mess to behold. But, I'm pretty sure they pulled back on his appearance in ROTJ because they wanted you to seeAnakin. There had to be some payoff. You wanted to get some sense of who he was and what he looked like. They needed to reveal a human being that the audience could relate to. Had he just looked like some melted ball of wax, it would simply have been yet another mask that gave no real indication of who Anakin was, so they pulled back the make-up so as to show us Anakin's face, while the surrounding scares implied that something horrible had happened to him.

On a related note, one other thing I hate about ROTS is how Anakin's trademark scars about his head and face just suddenly materialize with no apparent reason. Those aren't burn marks, they're deep cuts, and impact wounds. For all the thought that went into the make-up, the wounds should have made more sense.

Post: #215632
Topic: Dont give up being a fan
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/215632/action/topic#215632
Time: 2-Jun-2006 12:59 PM

I'll always be a Star Wars fan. Nothing that Lucas does will change that. But when I say that I'm a Star Wars fan, I mean that I am a fan of the original trilogy. As far as I'm concerned, those are the only Star Wars films that were ever made. I don't know what the prequels are, but I know what they aren't. They aren't Star Wars. They have none of the heart, soul, wit, or creative genius about them that the OT did. Basically, EVERYTHING and anything that made the originals great is completely absent in the prequels. We can thank all of the creative minds behind the OT besides Lucas for that....directors, writers, producers, special effects, make-up, design etc. Of those people and those films, I will always be a grateful and lifelong fan.

Star Wars has always been, and will always be, a trilogy.

Post: #215574
Topic: The Most Boring Commentator Ever
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/215574/action/topic#215574
Time: 2-Jun-2006 1:47 AM

I'm so glad someone else picked up on Ben's disdain on the special features. You also see it in the doc, "The Beginning", after they've watched the whole movie cut together for the first time and Ben is talking about cutting between so many story lines in the span of 30 seconds, and having it be overload for the audience. The look on his face and his body language say it all.

Another great moment is in the documentary about casting young Anakin. They show a bunch of little kids doing a scene with Natalie in Watto's shop as a screen test. One kid is a clear stand out, the best shown in the doc. I remember Natalie tells him he's just a little boy, and he replies (as Anakin) with an incredible amount of weight and depth...menace, foreshadowing, longing, etc..." I won't always be". The way he delivers that one line gave me chills, and in the doc, you can hear someone go. "woah" when he delivers the line. Lucas of course then pics Jake for the part because he's more "natural" and "unstudied", all the code words for "bad"...nothing against Jake at all. And all the minions start wringing their hands in agreement and chanting "yes, master".

Post: #215335
Topic: Darth vader
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/215335/action/topic#215335
Time: 1-Jun-2006 12:41 PM

The chamber is primarily a hyperbaric chamber of sorts that allows him to free himself from his helmet. I have a few ESB production pictures on my HD that show Vader sitting in the chamber sans helmet, but there is a an apparatus into which he breathes. It is a face mask of sorts that protrudes from the mechanism that lowers his helmet onto his head. Clearly these shots of him with this "oxygen mask" attached to his face never made it to the final cut. However, the fact that he was breathing into this thing, which actually kind of looks like an in-air refueling basket for military planes, means that the front of his head would have had no mask and that what we see descend from above is his entire helmet, not just the dome.

Post: #212903
Topic: We start the war from right here
Link: https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/212903/action/topic#212903
Time: 24-May-2006 4:10 AM

Eloquently put. I registered just to throw my hand up and say, "me too". I've been following this disgrace since it began. I've emailed, faxed, and snail mailed. To what avail if any...well, I think we've seen LFL's true colors and what they think not only of their fans, but of the films that made the company possible.

If you want to fight Lucasfilm, the only thing that means anything to them is money. As of right now, swear not spend a solitary dime on anything LFL related. Take the war to their bank account. That's all they care about. They should be on their knees thanking us for the patronage that has made thei company possible, and Lucas wealthier than he could have ever thought possible. Stop supporting the company right now. Make them earn your patronage, your respect, and your money. This whole dynamic needs to be reversed.