The Last Crusade is the best Indiana Jones movie and y’all are just wrong.
On topic, Sunset Boulevard. We saw this at the Alamo Drafthouse and it was pretty great on the big screen.
I was thinking the other day about the final scene of ANH, particularly how it might be treated in an Andor-style show set just after ANH.
I’ve always assumed that the medal ceremony was a great way to end a film but a terrible decision from an in-universe tactical viewpoint, but actually it could serve a critical propaganda role. If that ceremony were broadcast out into the universe, it would send the message that not only did the Rebel Alliance destroy the Death Star, but it was destroyed by just a single lowly pilot with the aid of his friends. Furthermore, the Alliance feels so confident in their victory that they are willing to remain at their base even as the Empire moves to regroup and strike back.
I can imagine a Nemik-style manifesto inspired by this:
“And so in a single brilliant flash worlds across the despairing galaxy saw something impossible; not the quarreling factions of the so-called Alliance, but a vision of unity. A farmhand, a smuggler, a Wookiee, even two lowly droids, standing shoulder-to-shoulder with the leaders of the Rebel Alliance and a Senator of the assassinated Old Republic. This was the real coup that turned Imperial blood to ice. The loss of their superweapon was a blow to the Empire’s materiel and money…but this vision of unity in the face of annihilation obliterated their thesis of order, the crucible of their unassailable power.”
I think Luke’s death would have worked if it felt in any way inevitable. I remember watching it for the first time and thinking ‘Oh that’s neat, Luke made an illusion so that he could live’, and then he goes and dies immediately afterwards. Sure, it’s established that Rey would die if she projected herself across the galaxy, but Snoke can do it without breaking a sweat so it just makes Luke canonically no more powerful than Rey and weaker than Snoke, a guy who dies in one of the most embarrassing ways imaginable.
That’s a slick attempt! I agree that the music at the end of the scene should continue to cover the intro to Palpatine’s office, or the music should be deleted in that transition completely.
Also, this isn’t a critique with your work but with the scene itself, but the sparring scene feels weird and has since the beginning. The biggest problem for me is the strange cut near the end when Obi-wan leaps into action again. It feels like there’s a missing shot, and I assume this was a cut point in the original scene but there’s definitely a loss of continuity here. The lines ‘Your weapon’s gone…it’s over.’ followed by ‘Your need for victory, Anakin, it blinds you’ feel superfluous to the flow before and after. Obi-wan’s next line ‘You’re a great warrior, Anakin…’ feels like the proper end to the action, and it may be best to just delete the second false ending altogether. I’d suggest cutting from Obi-wan being disarmed straight to the wideshot of Obi-wan spinning out of his crouch to put an end to the fight.
As to my thoughts on overall placement of the scene, I’m still unconvinced that it wouldn’t work better after Palpatine’s office. That just seems like the most natural place in terms of the exposition and flow of Star Wars movies, and I’m not too bothered by the differences in character appearance. Any AOTC edit which uses upscaled deleted scenes is going to be at least a little suboptimal, visually speaking.
My ideal placement is still Senate - Palpatine’s Office - Sparring - Padme’s Apartment (sans elevator).
Yeah, sites like this and fanediting in general exist despite the forces of capitalism. There will always be a group of passionate (or deviant) weirdos who do things regardless of profit motive, but I imagine that a vast amount of troubling, manipulative, or exploitative content online only exists because there’s money to be made doing it.
Mango, I think I speak for everyone when I say you don’t need to apologize to anyone here. Personal life comes first, especially in a place like this. I’ve learned over the years that one should take care of oneself and only work on projects if they give enjoyment in return.
Prepunishment: the feeling of hearing a convoluted setup to what you are sure will be a tortured and unsatisfying pun.
I think the added clarity is nice, though it does bring to the forefront the inherent issues in the voice. It sounds like ‘I love you’ is too close to the camera for a line delivered from a medium distance away from the camera. For instances like this I find that adding just a touch of reverb can help ‘place’ the sound into the environment, though you don’t want to overdo the effect.
Another issue may be that the line is too centralized in the mix. If the sound is coming from the central channel it gives the effect that the camera is placed directly in front of an actor, so putting some of the voice in the left and right speakers, and even maybe some reflected sound in the rear speakers, may help for a surround mix.
Finally, the line is definitely lower in energy than you’d expect for Finn’s usual shouted delivery, so perhaps instead of increasing the volume of the line, you could try decreasing the volume of the surrounding effects.
All in all, I think your first attempt sounds more natural in terms of timing and volume, but these suggestions may give that version the clarity you’re after without highlighting the limitations of the line.
Sounds pretty great to me!
^That’s rad! I bet the new bad guys have a ton of new ships and weapons if they have a new leader.
I want to hear about the New Republic. Does Thrawn make an appearance? And does Mara Jade pop up, or do they go crazy and have Luke married?
Let’s not forget the classic scene where he sees the Jedi temple in flames and the sound of lightsabers and blaster fire, and decides that this is a good moment to act like an uptight neighbor breaking up a house party.
Another take on this ‘border territory’ idea:
EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS
It is a time of darkness.
Luke Skywalker, striving
to restore the legendary
Jedi Order, has vanished.
With the shadow of evil
rising across the worlds
of the New Republic, a
few desperate Senators
have secretly called upon
a daring RESISTANCE to
search for the last Jedi
within the domain of the
vengeful fallen Empire.
Answering this call, the
ace pilot Poe Dameron
has discovered a clue to
Luke’s location on the
desolate world of Jakku,
unaware that the sinister
FIRST ORDER now rules
these darkening stars…
This feels pretty natural, except for the final lines where it implies that nobody knows about the First Order at all, which isn’t true.
Alternately:
EPISODE VII
THE FORCE AWAKENS
It is a time of darkness.
Luke Skywalker, striving
to restore the legendary
Jedi Order, has vanished.
With the New Republic
overwhelmed by turmoil,
a few desperate Senators
have secretly called upon
a brave RESISTANCE to
search for the last Jedi
within the domain of the
evil FIRST ORDER, heir
to the fallen Empire.
Answering this call, the
ace pilot Poe Dameron
has discovered a clue to
Luke’s location on the
desolate world of Jakku,
unaware of the shadow
now rising to extinguish
the darkening stars…
This one puts a lot of information in the second paragraph, but the upshot is that the First Order is established before the final lines and those can be put to use in hinting at Starkiller Base as well as setting up the first shot.
The bigger issue with this whole plot is that as Pan says, it makes no sense.
1: Why do the Separatists want Amidala dead if she is the one opposing a military response to the Separatists, and as such is the closest thing to an ally that they have?
2: Why did Dooku hire Jango for the job of being a template for the clone army and then act completely surprised at such an army’s existence?
3: Why is Mace Windu, who has intimate knowledge of the plot, not immediately suspicious that the template for the Clone Army seems to be in the employ of Separatists, and why does he kill Jango when he wanted him alive?
4: Why does the Republic not know about the army that they ostensibly ordered? Did the cloners not bother to get any confirmation or send any updates?
I suppose that for the first question, perhaps the Separatists want to push the Republic into a war since they believe that they can win with their secret droid army, not knowing that the Republic will soon have an army of its own. But for this to really make sense, we would already have to know about the secret power of the Separatists and their plan before the assassination attempt, otherwise it seems to be an attack by a Republic hardliner.
For the second question, it seems absurd that Jango would have never discussed with Dooku that the job Dooku hired him for was to build a secret army for the Republic. Are we meant to infer that Dooku knows about and expects the arrival of the clones and is just playacting the fool for the other Separatists in service to Palpatine’s plot? If that is the case, why does he attempt to convince Obi-wan that there’s an evil Sith in control of the Republic, potentially threatening his entire plan? Dooku is painted first as a peaceful idealist, then the strong leader of the Separatists, then a fanatical destructive nihilist, then an easily duped fool, then a duplicitous schemer in league with his avowed enemy. It’s enough to make a person’s head spin, and for this to work we again would need some idea of what this character actually believes so that we aren’t left feeling lost and confused when he does things entirely contrary to his previous characterization.
The third question is genuinely perplexing. If Jango had died in some accident before being apprehended by the Jedi, or even if he was killed by another Jedi before Mace could get to him, it would make sense. But Mace specifically wants Jango alive and then kills him. Furthermore, Mace doesn’t seem to care that he is in the employ of the Separatists. There would need to be an explanation that Jango was playing both sides in this conflict independently of anyone else for this to begin to evade suspicion, but there’s no evidence of that.
Finally, why is there no communication between the cloners and the Senate? Perhaps the cloners are in contact with Palpatine, who is assuring them that everything is good and to keep this under wraps for now, but again, there would need to be some scene where the Kaminoan leadership is in contact with Palpatine, and there’s no indication that this is happening. It genuinely seems like the cloners have been doing this alone for ten years since they don’t even know that Syfo Dias was killed.
I think a lot of the issues here stem from the plot being too confusing and relying on information which is not immediately obvious to the viewer. So perhaps to simplify things, there should be many sides to the conflict, disentangled from Palpatine. If Dooku were a genuine idealist who acts on his own and uses the Dark Side as a means to enact political change, it would give the Separatists an actual identity. Remove the scene at the end of the film where he meets Palpatine. Next, make Jango Fett an independent actor who uses his infamy to contract with both sides of the conflict. This is where the Jedi’s admonition for Obi-wan to avoid assumptions pays off. Have a communication between Nute Gunray and Jango where he is ordered to kill Amidala and make it look like militarists in the Republic were behind it, and use his own discretion in creating this appearance. Jango decides to lead the Jedi to the cloning facility to achieve this end, then goes to his real master to report on the situation. He does not plan on being tracked, however. For the killing of Jango Fett, it would make sense that he is killed by something other than Mace. Perhaps he is killed by the giant beast in the pit, thwarting the Jedi’s interrogation.
So for the new scene, I propose Nute Gunray communicating with Zam Wessel after the assassination attempt on the landing platform and the introduction of the Jedi.
Nute: “Is she dead yet?”
Zam: “No. They used a decoy, and now the Jedi are involved.”
Nute: “The Republic cannot know of our involvement here. My master is sending a bounty hunter to deal with these Jedi…and to help complete your mission.”
Zam: “Is that a threat?”
Nute: “Think of it as motivation.”
This scene lets us know early on that the Separatists are behind the plot to kill Padme. We already know that Nute is in league with Palpatine, and so we assume that either Dooku or Palpatine provided Nute with Jango Fett. That this scene comes after the insistence of Palpatine for security primes the audience to expect Palpatine to be playing both sides. The inclusion of Jango as a later addition to the assassination plot makes sense of the two assassins angle, and Jango being the go-to man for both Nute and Palpatine gives the audience that conceptual bridge that would otherwise short-circuit the two secret armies plots. The fact that Jango hangs around Dooku is a red herring for those believing Padme’s assertion that Dooku is behind the assassination attempts. With the removal of the scene of Dooku and Palpatine at the end of the film, this implies that only Nute is directly under the control of Palpatine and this makes Palpatine’s plan more tricky since he cannot fully control Dooku, the leader of the Separatists.
Thanks Paja, but my suggestion was more of a joke.
But it actually might work.
“Do you think these cloners are involved in the plot to assassinate Senator Amidala?”
“Yes Master, there appears to be a motive.” (The ‘a’ can be a pause covered by static if necessary)
“Don’t assume anything, Obi-wan. Clear, your mind must be, if you are to uncover the real villains behind this plot.”
This way Obi-wan is perhaps jumping to conclusions while Yoda senses a deeper evil.
I just learned about it a few minutes ago while watching a review. It’s pretty neato.
Loved season one.
“Do you think these cloners are involved in the plot to assassinate Senator Amidala?”
“No Master, there appears to be no motive.”
thereifixedit
That’s a promising idea!
Each Trilogy happens within its own self-contained universe.
In light of this, the Emperor in the OT has no Force sensitivity but has merely cultivated an illusion of its power by the use of simple tricks and nonsense in order to win and keep Vader under his command.
-All of his ‘predictions’ in ESB and ROTJ are simple extrapolations where they are not him simply claiming that things Vader had just told him had been foreseen.
-His unlocking of Luke’s cuffs could be done by remote.
-His lightning is identical in look and function to a simple ion beam such as the one used by the Jawas on R2, and such a weapon could be easily hidden in his robes. The beam seems to work only weakly on the biological Luke but almost instantly fries the electronics of Vader’s suit, just like a droid-disabling weapon. Nobody else in the OT uses Force Lightning, not even the powerful Vader, which could be further evidence that it is merely a trick.
-When he is thrown down the reactor shaft, the resulting explosion could be from his power source exploding or from striking some sort of reactor on the way down.
I don’t celebrate Life Day. It goes against my Zensunni beliefs.
And yet you use a thinking machine in heretical disregard for the Ways of the Fathers.
There are actually quite a few clouds on Tatooine throughout all three prequels:
https://youtu.be/e3NRzGrt5z0?t=11
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiLVNGl8rew
https://youtu.be/6C--Zttls8I?t=128
Those devices seen around the Lars homestead are moisture 'vaporators, presumably used to pull moisture from the atmosphere, so there’s clearly something up there.
So to answer the original question, I think the presence of clouds on Tatooine in the original film is perfectly fine, even if the ones in the first scene are unusually fluffy.
Weird: The Al Yankovic Story (2022)
A fairly funny romp with some fun cameos. The highlight for me was actually the end credits song, made by the man himself.
BTW, riventing avatar PKV 😉
Yeah but that doesn’t roll off the tongue.