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Master Sifo-Dyas

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Join date
17-Mar-2003
Last activity
6-Nov-2018
Posts
564

Post History

Post
#167546
Topic
Someone please explain why there is a 50's diner in the Star Wars universe...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/167546/action/topic#167546
Time
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
So is it the general consensus around here that the Clone Wars animated series is "on the level" of the OT?
First of all I don't view my personal opinion as 'general consensus'. When it comes down to the "Clone Wars" cartoons, I was merely saying that they were much better done from a storytelling point-of-view (not necessarily the story itself), than the prequels themselves. Neither the cartoons nor the prequels can reach the OOT by far, in my personal opinion.
Post
#167464
Topic
Can someone please explain WHY the audio on the 2004 ANH DVD is so messed up?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/167464/action/topic#167464
Time
Well I'd say sound-wise only ANH really is bad:

The fauley track being mixed correctly in 5.1 but solely the musical score has it's audio flipped on the two rear speakers, something that especially bothers enthusiasts of classical music, because they kind of developed an ear for such things. A classical music orchestra has it's instruments arranged in a certain manner, destroying this arrangement means destroying the deeper harmony and beauty of the music.

The second flaw is, that Ben Burtt obviously did not have the time or the resources to reconstruct the audio for ANH entirely, as a lot of small things are amiss (certain sound effects are either different or completely gone, thus reducing the depth of the soundscape - it's basically damaging "the film off the screen" as Ben Burtt called it once himself).

Another thing is the mix itself. The loudness of the fauley track in relation to the loudness of dialogue and musical score is weighted totally different than in the original mix, which surely could be interpreted in some places as kind of a 'creative decision', but in many places it just sounds like a bad misweighing of the different audio streams' loudness.

In my opinion Ben Burtt was not given the time and resources to complete his work - let us just hope he'll return for the job for the 2007 DVD set to complete his work.

The irony is that George Lucas is the one making the biggest fuss about being unhappy releasing inferior or unfinished films to the wider public (namely the original trilogy), yet allows a release of such an inferior and most certainly unfinished work in the 2004 DVD set. My opinion is: If he had no problem releasing that 2004 version, he should have even less problems with releasing the original cuts.
Post
#165730
Topic
Holograms...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165730/action/topic#165730
Time
Originally posted by: gethedgical
Wouldn't the additional scene in A New Hope with Jabba/Han been better had Lucas used a hologram of Jabba instead of trying to have a 'moving' version of Jabba in the scene? I'm watching the DVD as I type this to see what they actually say in that scene (in my imagination it seems totally redundant to simply repeat what Greedo reveals)... holograms, use 'em.
Yes, that's a much better idea than the glorius "tail stepping humor" thing. And yah, that scene (or the greedo scene) is redundant in the special editions.

Post
#165723
Topic
Green screen, CGI and the 'Minute' documentary from ROTS
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165723/action/topic#165723
Time
Originally posted by: twister111So mabye the reason he uses all this green screen stuff and, tries to make the actors go "faster and, more intense". Is because he's shy and, wants to not have to direct the actors for long periods of time.
Yes, there is a good amount of truth to this as far as Lucas' statements from interviews and making-of documentaries are concerned. His dream is to have some sort of "magic wand" that just lets him turn his story ideas into a film he can frankenstein on until he deems it finished - without the need of money, actors and all the other things usually required to make a film these days (i.e. getting rid of all the parts of the filmmaking process that gave him a headache during the production of the classic trilogy).

Post
#165721
Topic
Green screen, CGI and the 'Minute' documentary from ROTS
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165721/action/topic#165721
Time
Originally posted by: Adamwankenobi
Eh, a small amount of moments like those are usually needed, and ROTS, IMHO, had just the right amount.
Seems we have fundamental disagreement on that one. The first 10 to 15 minutes of the film were one big joke in my eyes. Droid soldiers acting like they were reprogrammed by "No 5" (in this film they call him General Grievous) to act like the three stooges, lame "homage" to The Matrix with a "funny" version of the squiddies and every fighter of the droid army making dumb baby noises - sorry, just not my idea of "just the right amount".

I liked the old school style StarWars bickering between Obi-Wan and Anakin, but in the context of uncreative R2 jokes it just didn't catch on anymore (would they just have stuck with the R2 and the elevator joke and Obi-Wan and Anakin bickering a bit, that might have been more like my idea of "just right").

Oh well, probably they'll add fart jokes to ANH's Battle of Yavin in the 2007 editions to "lighten it up a bit".
Post
#165703
Topic
Green screen, CGI and the 'Minute' documentary from ROTS
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165703/action/topic#165703
Time
I would compare acting in a green room with something everyone can relate to: Imagine playing with your StarWars toys - without having them (i.e. you have to pretend you play with your StarWars toys).

That would have sucked for me big time as a kid. We constructed a lot of stuff that didn't exist as a toy out of styrofoam or cardboard and most of the time it didn't look as good as the toys - but we had an environment that would inspire our imaginations (we built the emperor's throne room for example). So I don't really envy the actors at all and I can imagine the difficulties.

Yet, in my opinion there's another thing that gets in the way of creative acting: The respect for something as big as StarWars. Back in ANH, no one knew or cared about what kind of weird nerd movie they were making, and thus dared to improvise a lot and all in all took the whole thing more lightly - the very thing that gave Lucas so much headaches.

I highly doubt any prequel actor dared to say "You may be able to write this stuff, George - but you sure as hell can't act on it.", like Harrison Ford did. Back then Lucas was forced to respect the actors' creativity and talent for improvisation.

Oh and gethedical, the best example of the hours and hours wasted in highly detailed cgi environments, is the "Order 66" scene. You see quite a few planets - and from the webdocumentaries I knew about the incredible amount of work and time that went into them - alas, you only see them for a few split seconds.

There wasn't enough time in ROTS to dwell long enough on important things and a lot of time was even wasted for stupid slapstick scenes - a thing no one did expect in "the darkest chapter of the saga".
Post
#165564
Topic
A More Elegant Weapon, a More Civilized Age
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165564/action/topic#165564
Time
Originally posted by: battlewars
cmon guys it was all done for flash no substance like all the PT
I mostly agree with you on that, but within that kind of strategy we've seen a huge drop in quality when comparing it to TPM and AOTC. A lot of conceptual things were abandoned in ROTS, the space and planetary battles have no understandable plot - it's just toys being pushed together. The swordfight isn't about swordfighting but about two guys just bluntly bashing at each other at incredible speed in front of an impressive battle arena. I was pretty disappointed about that aspect of ROTS.

Post
#165522
Topic
A More Elegant Weapon, a More Civilized Age
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165522/action/topic#165522
Time
Originally posted by: Knolly
The fact that they both stopped at the same point in the fan just reemphasized this.
Ah, that's a good point there putting the emphasis on the time they stop doing the twirly thing. Makes more sense to me now.

Alas, I'm still pretty unimpressed by the choreography of the fight. I am impressed by the actors' performance of the choreography, though - I think they did an awesome job (it's a pity George Lucas and Nick Gillard didn't in this case).

To me the best lightsaber fight in the whole hexology remains the Qui-Gon & Obi-Wan vs. Maul fight. The Obi-Wan vs. Anakin fight is exciting because of the events around it (the station melting away and thus putting the combatants in danger). I expected way more dialogue (good dialogue, I might add) during their battle. I prefer any lightsaber fighting scene from the classic trilogy over the RoTS duel.
Post
#165365
Topic
Which did you prefer, the SE or the 2004 DVD edition?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165365/action/topic#165365
Time
I'm not grateful for paying full price for a sloppy rush job. I also wasn't complaining about things that are not fixable out of technological reasons, but intentionally leaving things incomplete (like missing noises and musical scores, and the blatant volume discrepancies between musical score and fauley track during the Battle of Yavin).

If they'd be honest about it, and apologized for their mistakes I may not have been so angry about it. But the fact they're trying to sell bugs as features doesn't remind me of the philosophy Lucasfilm once stood for.

The 2004 Set remains a huge disappointment - no matter how much slack you want to cut those guys, they could have done a lot better by just giving it more time to actually release a product that lives up to the quality standards they established themselves.
Post
#165356
Topic
A More Elegant Weapon, a More Civilized Age
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165356/action/topic#165356
Time
I think you're right. It is a very lengthy blade twirly show-fight which is fought at a constant frantically high speed. The one thing that doesn't make it boring is the awesome stage were the fighting is set (I was really in awe how beautifully they managed to bring the planet of Mustafaar to life). Actually the part were they just whirl around the blades made me laugh - because it reminded me more of a scene you'd expect in a film like spaceballs.

I missed Vader using his telekinetic abilities. I missed Vader utilizing his force choke. And above all - like you said - I miss the logical next development step in the fighting style of both combatants (I thought we kinda witnessed such a milestone with the Anakin vs. Dooku fight in AOTC). Alas, that was thrown overboard (as was the 'narrowing down' of the number of designs in vehicles and uniforms to take a strong step towards the minimalism of the classic movies).

P.S.: When you compare this swordfight to the Obi-Wan & Qui-Gon vs. Maul fight, you really begin to doubt Nick Gillard really had the same amount of creative freedom in ROTS that he must have had in TPM.
Post
#165313
Topic
ANH Space Battle aka The Battle of Yavin
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165313/action/topic#165313
Time
Count Dooku doing a flip over the rails rather than showing some dignity and using the stairs - THAT is what made me groan. I could live with Yoda and Luke flipping around, but just digitally inserting an occasional flip into everyone's combat style seems like they viewed that more as some sort of dumb "coolness injection".

A fight without a flip - ain't hip.
Post
#165167
Topic
Which did you prefer, the SE or the 2004 DVD edition?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165167/action/topic#165167
Time
Well, although I truly love the new adjusted Vader voice in the 2004 ANH and salute the effort of compromise in the han/greedo scene and the removal of Luke's "Emperor Death Scream (tm)" in ESB, I really hate the 2004 editions in every other aspect. Especially when it comes to mere quality of presentation. These DVDs put a shame to the high quality standards Lucasfilm, ILM and THX have established themselves (and rigorously tried to force on movie theater owners, I might add).

What makes it even more shameful that these horrible mistakes (inconsistent color timings, unremoved garbage mattes, broken lightsabers as a result of the cleaning process and the fucked up musical score and inconsequent reassembly of the entire fauley track in ANH) are being sold to the public as "deliberate artistic decisions" applied to the films.

I'm somehow astonished so many people think that this DVD set is great. I mean, even if I was a fan of every change and added special effect, I would still be terribly pissed by the poor quality of presentation - especially since there was no true reason to rush the release of this thing - in my opinion a december release would have not only resulted in even better sales-figures but also in a far better product. It's sad to see Van Ling's talent wasted on DVD menus for such a poor quality set.

Needless to say that my vote goes to the Special Editions of 1997.
Post
#165149
Topic
Noooo! "Westworld" remake initiated by Schwarzenegger in 2003?!
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165149/action/topic#165149
Time
This may be old news to you guys, but frankly I was taken by surprise. I was merely surfing around the web for nostalgic stuff when I stumbled across this.

Why doesn't Hollywood merely re-release the old films again? That'd be more honest in my opinion - and cheaper (And I'd get to see it in a theater).

Link 1
Link 2
Link 3
Post
#165134
Topic
Can we send an O-OT representative to a SW convention?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165134/action/topic#165134
Time
In my personal opinion the reason for not releasing the original cuts lies in the differences he had during the creative process of the old films. Somehow he feels there's not enough of his "personal handwriting" in the films. That seems to be the case especially with the first film of the classic trilogy, whose production seemed to have cost him the most nerves. If there'd be a low-cost way to have the "sadly misled fans" get their "old and 'incomplete' movie trilogy", yet preventing that any new and 'unspoiled' fan gets his hands on them, he'd probably do it.

In a way he's already doing that by not interfering with community efforts to restore the classic trilogy in it's original form. I would not be surprised if he'd call them "fan edits" at some point in time.
Post
#165087
Topic
The Sad State Of Star Wars
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/165087/action/topic#165087
Time
Originally posted by: battlewars
maybe lucas shouldnt have made the prequels if he didnt want to be defined by it. it seems to me he ended up doing the prequels just for the money despite what he has said to the contrary.
I don't think this was primarily about money. In my view today it must have been George Lucas wanting to experiment with his ideas of an entirely digital filmproduction and moving further towards the goal to create a method of filmmaking that enables "the average guy with cool ideas" to just realise his ideas - without being dependant on high budgets, quirky actors and rebellious directors. The only economically viable way to do this and get enough attention drawn on his methods of filmmaking again was utilizing the StarWars franchise.

All he wanted was toying with new technology and pushing the envelope on that as much as possible - to me proof of this can be found in any "making of" on the prequel DVDs. His focus always seems to have been on to be able to be virtually barrier free in the terms of were you want the action to take place, to remove the complexity of the film-making process.

Eventually he also wanted to proove that he can create a StarWars trilogy with him at the helms of every relevant aspect of it's creaton and still be successful. And if it was meant as a "finger" it isn't directed at the fans, but moreso at the people who - from his point of view - caused him grief during the production of the original trilogy. He told the parts of the story he wanted to add and filled up the rest with "roller coaster material" he felt people would enjoy.