NeverarGreat

SilverWook said:

How does the novel compare to the movie? Is Jar Jar tolerable?

I don't remember much, having not read it since I was fifteen, but I do remember it introduced Anakin right out of the gate in a podrace with Sebulba. There was a bit more explanation of character motivation as well. The best part was that while reading it, I wasn't aware of any bad acting or cringe-worthy accents, so for that alone it's better than the film.

TV's Frink said:

darklordoftech said:

TV's Frink said:

Why is this thread still going?

because this website was created in order to get the OOT released, and this thread is about the OOT getting released.

 It's about a rumor that it's getting released. 

Don't you sometimes feel like posting in a thread even if you have nothing to say? ;)

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

I enjoy watching the prequels as eye-candy, but they aren't really movies.  They're more like sappy video games.  Perhaps they could have been made into movies with:

• different story
• different script
• different director
• different cast
• different effects

I almost added "more CPY", but that goes without saying.  The music I might actually keep.

Seriously, the one thing about the PT that made me really sad, was the Yoda lightsaber fight.  That pretty much destroyed his character.  After ESB, I pictured Yoda fighting with the force as his ally, with great efficiency and grace.  A slight move or gesture here and there, bending the force to tie the opponent in knots.  What a missed opportunity.  Instead they stick his tail in a light socket and have him leaping around like a maniac, totally out of character and with virtually no hint of the force.  It was painful to watch.

Or better yet, George should have stuck to his original idea wherein Yoda was a spiritual guru and would never use the Force for combat.

SilverWook said:

Would anyone at ILM have saved the original CGI files from 1997?

Doubtful. Though I do remember them saying that they were able to use the same Boss Nass model from TPM in ROTS. But it's a difference of using seven year old modeling files vs eighteen year old files in this case.

Bingowings said:

Octorox said:

If the prequel films didn't show the transformation from Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader I would have no interest in watching them. To me, the idea of preserving the twist is crazy, people watched the prequels in the first place because they wanted to see how this happened.

Some people may have.

Other people may have watched them to see more three new Star Wars films, with interesting characters and plot driven exciting action scenes set during the fall of the Old Republic.

To be honest for me the mistake of the PT was concentrating too much on Obi-Wan and Anakin. We know their story already. They should have invented new characters for us to care about as the main characters and have Ben and Anakin in the background.

It's hard to care about Mace Windu when he spends most of the time sitting on a loo shaped chair frowning.

Thank you! That's the problem with prequels; there is no reason to show events which have already been told. I would add that the way to make a story work in a world where the future is known is to redirect the emphasis away from changing the galaxy. The thrust of history in the galaxy will not change, yet how an individual reacts to this inevitable history is what is really interesting. This is another area where the prequels went wrong, but people don't bring it up much. The Clone Wars are totally pointless to the audience because no matter what happens, the Old Republic is still doomed.

Walking around campus today, heard "Hooked on a Feeling" emanating from a passing car. Oh yeah...

Bingowings said:

I'm taking Ben at his word which naturally generates problems with his track record. His. "the guardians of peace and justice" blurb carries over to TPM's crawl so clearly Lucas didn't intend them to be a couple of hundred people.

He could be puffing up the order. "Morgan Cartewell is the guardian of oral hygiene in the universe" (that sort of thing) but unlike Luke's family relationships Ben hasn't got a reason to exaggerate or fib and his claims seem to backed up by what the Rebel and Imperial leaders say so yeah...that implies a large body of people doing stuff in a very open way...to me.

I find this discussion fascinating because it brings out the imagined universes people create around these films. I agree that there are more Jedi Knights than just a couple hundred, but then again, it would be very difficult to exterminate an entire religious order if it was immersed within the galactic population and consisted of millions of individuals. Keep in mind that even though we assume that the Star Wars galaxy is much like our own, the Milky Way is very large for a galaxy. In fact, a galaxy can have as few as a thousand stars:

http://www.mnn.com/earth-matters/space/stories/just-how-big-is-the-smallest-galaxy-in-the-universe

If only one in five of these stars could have a habitable planet (as recent estimates claim), then this galaxy wouldn't need more than a few thousand Jedi to intensely police these two hundred worlds. Of course, the Star Wars galaxy has always been depicted as having spiral arms and a "bright center", implying that it is larger than this diminutive galaxy, but I don't think that it's a stretch to assume that the number of inhabited worlds is no more than a few thousand. Otherwise, the Empire's search of planets using "thousands of probe droids" would be absurd, and this sets a realistic upper limit on the number of stars in the galaxy. It certainly wouldn't make sense for the Empire to be searching the Milky Ways' 100 billion stars with a few thousand probe droids, especially if a ship can easily traipse across such a galaxy in a short amount of time.

Tyrphanax said:

Tobar said:

New Trailer:

Automata

This looks really cool, actually. And I don't really like movies!

 And yet you frequently post on a movie fansite.

Very good work!

Faces Star Wars VHS (I distinctly remember Ben's original hut, and the washed out color of the Tatooine sequences)

Faces Empire VHS (Could not watch the Dagobah cave fight, as it was too scary for this five or six year old)

Faces Jedi VHS (My favorite of the Star Wars movies at the time, as it had the coolest battle at the end)

Fullscreen TPM VHS (I can't actually remember whether I saw this or AOTC in the theater, so I'm going to go with a tentative no. I did buy the hardcover novelization however, and the Lego Naboo fighter, and I remember the glut of action figures. It all felt very cool at the time)

Fullscreen AOTC VHS (Again, not sure about whether I saw this in the theater, but I remember that I did not think much of this movie when it came out. I bought the VHS, but only watched it twice or so before ignoring it completely)

ROTS in theater. (This is the first I remember seeing in the theater, and I went with some friends who were still ardent PT fans. I liked the idea that Palpatine played on Anakin's feelings that the Jedi were corrupt bastards, but Anakin's fall still made no sense)

I'd just as soon see them recast Han, Luke, and Leia than see them recast Indiana Jones. I'm fine with different interpretations of a character such as Robin Hood for example, because it is a character who was first created in a non-film media. All film interpretations of such a character are just that: interpretations.

One does not simply re-write the Lord of the Rings or 1984. Abridge them, sure. Translate them, adapt them for television or film, of course. But a reimagining of a property within the same media will not place it on the same level as the original.

When somebody points out that it was done successfully with Star Trek and James Bond, I wonder whether it is done for any reason other than brand recognition. There is no reason why the position of 007 cannot be filled by someone other than James Bond, or having the Enterprise commanded by someone other than James T Kirk. I guess people just like the name 'James' too much to let it go.

I think Bingowings that you are ascribing the Jedi the requirement of being galactic law enforcement, which as you say is just one way to look at it. The members of the Supreme Court can also be said to be the "guardians of justice", and that's just nine people for an entire country. The Supreme Court can also be "revered and despised", even though it is just a few people, because it represents the highest form of justice in the United States. Of course, the Jedi Knights would be more active on account of their military activity (Obi-wan being a general), but the point is that they would be the elites, commanding and influencing many normal people, people who have only a vague idea of the mystical Force that their commanders care so much about.

Stating outright the number of Jedi Knights in existence is always going to be a bad idea, because everyone has a different idea of them and their purpose in the galaxy. I imagine that the Jedi are a religious sect which isolates itself from society at large, much like Tibetan monks. They would have their own culture and family structure, and most would preach a philosophy of peace and would not have obvious mystical powers. It is only a very few who decide to serve the Republic and become knights, and these may not be the most powerful, only the most eager to serve the government. Since the Jedi are isolated from galactic society and their homeworlds are often peaceful (like Alderaan), it would be a simple task to hunt them down and destroy them. Since they are so isolated, regular people would probably only know of them, and not know or believe in their philosophy or powers of the Force. The Rebel Alliance would be the spiritual successor to the Jedi, which is why its leaders invoke the power of the Force.

Neither. I would keep the Lucas Prequel Trilogy as is and weave a new tale in and out of it, just to make things interesting.

I would focus on another character entirely, probably female, who becomes associated with Anakin during one of his Clone Wars missions. Anakin at this time has placed himself in hibernation in order to survive otherwise lethal wounds, and so he must communicate telepathically with this female protagonist in order to survive. He mentally guides her through piloting the ship, but as she is part of a gang of scrap merchants illegally scavenging the Clone Wars battlefields, she must avoid the Republic, and so they part ways at the end of Episode 1. Neither she, nor the audience, has even seen Anakin's face or heard his spoken voice, letting their imagination fill in the details of this legendary character.

Episode 2 focuses on our protagonist's growing aggression and the first hints of Force sensitivity (attributed to a subconscious mental link to Anakin), and her insistence that she should join the Republic and fight with Anakin. She secretly joins a squadron under the command of another Jedi, but Order 66 comes down the line and she only barely manages to save her Jedi commander. She almost dies herself, blacking out and thinking that Anakin has been killed.

Episode 3 shows that our protagonist is now seemingly without any power in the Force, attempting to serve her Jedi commander. It is also concerned with the children of the Jedi, including the child of Anakin, and with our protagonist confronting Vader in a final aerial combat. The Clone Wars are over, but the final battle of the Clone Wars has begun...

More publicity:

http://www.slashfilm.com/star-wars-despecialized-edition-documentary/

Spaced Ranger said:

NeverarGreat said:

there's a really nice couple of frames from the window shot of ESB ... My best shot at pulling color out ...

That's comparatively pretty good ..

.. especially considering that the auction frame has allot of the RED blown-out. What procedure did you use and how long did that procedure take?

I've never attempted to correct an almost completely red-shifted frame before, so the procedure was to throw everything I could at it in Photoshop. Curves, Channel Mixer, Hue/Saturation, and especially Color Balance adjusting the Red/Cyan. I also remember having to convert it to black and white and layer that on top since much of the highlight detail is entirely chromatic.

Harmy said:

Luckily for us, there are no animated sequences in SW ;-)

 What about the original Fox logo?

;)

Anyway, I agree that wrong colors would be much better than DVNR or crushed blacks/whites, such as plagues the Blu-rays.

I'm trying to think about what may reasonably need to be fixed even if the original negatives are used for a new release. At the very least, the lightsaber effects would need to be scanned from an IP, as the RMW lightsabers are heavily degraded. But since the degraded original elements were placed into the final cleanup, I don't think that Disney will notice this or the many other problems of degradation. If this is true, the 2011 Blu-ray will necessarily be superior than any 4K scan for certain elements, simply because the film has aged and deteriorated for seven years in the interim. If Disney is going to use any shot from the negatives no matter how damaged, I can see this being riddled with issues.

Tobar said:

DuracellEnergizer said:

And to do that they have to create a DayGlo Mandalorian graffiti artist?

I'm trying to remain cautiously optimistic towards this show, but this is looking more-and-more like a good example of the cure being worse than the disease.  

 On the surface of it, I'm not all that happy with the character either. But we'll have to wait and see how the character develops over time in the show before passing final judgement.

 *Adopts Hayden voice* "No, I'm passing judgement NOW!"

This should probably be moved to the Scriptwriting section...

But I also have a problem with the multiple apprentices idea, and I've proposed several ways in the scriptwriting forum to preserve the mystery of Vader while keeping it to a single apprentice. My biggest problem with two students is that it is inelegant and doesn't follow the Occam's Razor of storytelling: that the most simple solution is almost always the best.

ratpack1961 said:

SilverWook said:

Another interesting bit of ILM film up for auction. The original ESB emperor, with a bit of camera slate apparently showing the tv monitor the footage was rephotographed off of to get the hologram look.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Empire-Strikes-Back-EMPEROR-FILM-ELEMENTS-Lucas-Director-Slate-1980-Film-Clips-/171395850849?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item27e7fd2261

 I bought one of the vista vision film frames he had up for auction and I'm a watching a few more.  I think there are a few buyers who are sniping (buying at the last second) his stuff so if theres something you want you'll have to spend some money on a high early bid. You could go broke on all his stuff though its so tempting.

 there's a really nice couple of frames from the window shot of ESB, but it's so faded that it's just two-toned:

My best shot at pulling color out:

I don't buy any plot involving flashbacks, as it is incongruous with the Star Wars style of storytelling.

It would be interesting to see soldiers in old stormtrooper uniforms, then show them defending against an Imperial attack, illustrating that the Rebellion is now forced to use outdated Imperial tech against more formidable (and more accurate) foes.

Speaking of movies/shows that cannot be found, I have memories of something I watched probably no earlier than 1992 and perhaps later than that. Several scenes stuck with me because they were so strange.

One scene involved what looked like a boy-scout troop leader sinking in quicksand while his troop reached out in an attempt to rescue him. Another scene involved a group of pirate-ish people using hooks to climb a massive rope at the center of an old stone tower. As one of them leaps onto the rope, it pulls a bell and alerts a king or sultan at the top of the tower, who is immersed in a noisy party.

It's a strange memory, and it's annoying that I cannot find this show/movie. It seemed to have pretty good effects as well, and felt kind of like an 80's movie.

Anyway, the last movie I watched was Guardians of the Galaxy. Everyone talks about how fun it is, which is true, but the first scene can be pretty tough emotionally, especially as many people have personally been affected by cancer. That whole first scene, while necessary, is very jarring.

Ryan McAvoy said:

NeverarGreat said:

Wow, I have an entirely different ranking than anyone so far:

Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

Temple of Doom

 Melud, I move to have this ^ testimony stricken from the record. I present in evidence every frame of KOTCS. I rest my case.

Your honor, I have a closing statement. The aforementioned rankings were only my initial impression after leaving the theater where KOTCS was playing. The jury will recall that it was only upon subsequent viewing that TOD became unbearable, and so if I were to rewatch KOTCS today, it may very well become even more unbearable than that unfortunate film.

Incidentally, I think that the quality of Indiana Jones movies is skewed in favor of plots revolving around Judeo-Christian artifacts. I believe that this occurs in part because the creators of the films as well as many western viewers subscribe to some extent to such religions, and as such can more easily suspend their disbelief with regards to this material. This in turn makes it easier for everyone watching to suspend their disbelief. That is not to say that every successful Indy movie needs a Christian artifact at its core, but more work is needed for a non-Christian artifact to have such an effect on the audience. The audience would need to believe that a supernatural realm exists which transcends all individual religions and that has understandable inner workings, even if the mystery surrounding those inner workings is persistent.

In short, TOD and KOTKS largely fail for me because of a lack of reverence towards the artifacts in question, which sabotages the plots of each film and makes them seem like they take place in alternate realities, each with different rules regarding the supernatural.

I for one like to hear what ATMachine has to say, and actually watched Alexander Nevsky based on a previous post.