NeverarGreat

Children of the Jedi

...

Put down your flamethrowers and let me clarify:

Mara Jade is uninteresting to me, and uninteresting as Luke's romantic interest. Callista makes a far better fit in my opinion, as she represents the old order of the Jedi; a Jedi from a more civilized age. Luke and Callista are both anachronisms, so of course they would be attracted to each other.

The ideas concerning mechanical beings and the Force, and in particular the character of Nichos are interesting to me. What makes a person, a person?

Triv Pothman is a cool character. I always wanted to see what the Stormtroopers would do when told that the Empire was no more. He takes it well.

The fact that Luke is relatable and human is nice to see. It has been suggested that this novel be called "Luke Passes Out", yet I think it's realistic that a hero like Luke would constantly be trying to live up to his own legend and failing. He failed throughout ESB after all.

I like that the Eye of Palpatine is not taken very seriously as a threat. Luke even realizes that destroying it would be the easy part, the difficult part being getting all of its innocent passengers to safety.

Speaking of that, I like the very Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy way in which different species are brought on board the Eye and brainwashed. It's farcical, but Star Wars should have its goofy bits.

I like the idea of Luke finding toys that the Jedi children used to play with. It's a nice touch and reminds me that the Jedi weren't always the creepy cult that Lucas made them in the Prequels. They had families and lived happy peaceful lives for the most part, like a life-affirming spiritual tradition should encourage.

I'm not such a big fan of much of the Belsavis storyline, as much of it feels like filler in order to involve the rest of our heroes in pointless busywork. But not every story needs to involve everyone.

So is the novel perfect? Absolutely not. But some parts really feel like Star Wars, and it exists along with many other Star Wars novels in the wonderful cocoon of the Pre-Preqels EU.

SilverWook said:

I think the visual disconnect results from trying to make him younger. It makes little sense for someone several centuries old to look significantly different over a mere thirty years. That, and they used silicone skin versus the latex skin of the original.

Or else they applied the same goofy rationale later used to justify "fixing" the "flaws" of the original Vader helmet design for ROTS.

I think there's just as much disconnect because they put Yoda in the cosmopolitan environment of Coruscant where he is clearly not at home. The CG Yoda makes this work a bit better actually, but Yoda should never have been an active part of the Clone Wars in the first place.

SilverWook said:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/Life-Size-3-Ft-Yoda-Figure-Pepsi-Blockbuster-Contest-Prize-NIB-/191092882950?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2c7e05fe06

This doesn't look as bad as creepy puppet Yoda, yet it's an Episode One item.

Speak for yourself...

They probably just put the dog on a different colored floor and pulled the camera past it.

From an architectural standpoint, the barrel vault of the original exterior more closely matches the interior, at least for one of the vaults. However the second vault is unaccounted for, perhaps walled off in the interior.

The domed roof of the new house in no way approximates the ceiling of the interior.

http://youtu.be/gI8aSJBC9u0?t=4m24s

This is Dexter's real backstory for me.

The Wind Rises

I've seen most of Miyazaki's movies (though none in the theater), and this one doesn't take many chances. One of his most realistic and restrained efforts, The Wind Rises is nevertheless beautifully detailed and animated. If this is truly his last film, he will be ending his career on a high note.

8/10

I never looked that closely at it, and just thought that the rocks were in the foreground, with the house sitting on a sandy rise just beyond them. Now that I see that the house is sitting on the edge of a canyon, it makes less sense.

DuracellEnergizer said:

I would have preferred one colour for both the Jedi and the Sith or one colour for the Jedi and Sith each over the unbalanced mess utilized by the PT. Sith get only red while Jedi get blue, green, and the occasional purple? Give me a break!

From a philosophical standpoint, it would seem like a Jedi wouldn't care in the slightest what color their lightsaber was. Their first, second, and third priorities would be to have a functional weapon, and their teaching would make them reluctant to use the lightsaber except in great need. As the Jedi are all a part of an ancient order, they may have standardized the blades to a blue color as well. The Sith/agents of evil would make their weapons into a more personal statement, so it doesn't make sense that they would all have the same color lightsaber.

It would be neat to see a unified force of Jedi with identical blades as opposed to numerous self-styled Force users, all with lightsabers which differ based on their personalities.

The second picture has movement and energy, unlike the first. My vote is for the second one, though the first looks more realistic.

There's something about the desert environment itself that lends itself to the mythological, at least for me. Not magical, but the desolate nature of the desert allows the imagination to work, whereas in other places such as Hoth, where I never imagined anything more to the location. Dagobah also has this quality, but there it is more magical, the enchanted forest kind of feel.

Nice.

When alien archaeologists discover the ruins of Earth, they will use Project Threepio as the Rosetta Stone to decipher Earth's languages ;)

vacuum said:

i thought the SE shots blended a lot better in the '04 version, what with the color correction and all.

By that logic, converting the entire film to grayscale would do a lot more to blend the shots together.

Hal 9000 said:

There's a pretty good one called "Star Wars Minute" in which two guys and a guest go through Star Wars one minute at a time. 

That's pretty cool, they're on minute 35 of Empire, the one where I always think that Vader walks through an airport metal detector when he enters the base. Someone needs to add the metal detector sounds at that point.

darklordoftech said:

NeverarGreat said: The EU means Expanded Universe, not Different Universe. This is why Lucas specifically forbid writers from delving into the Clone Wars period and tried to make the prequels fit with the EU instead of disregarding it completely.

This is why Lucas should be ignored. Lucas called it EU, but Disney should call it DU (different universe).

I'm torn on this. Disregarding the EU throws away some good stories, while keeping it saddles the movies with a lot of implicit bad story baggage. It comes down to the kind of movie they're intending to make. If it is truly intended to be a spiritual continuation of the Original Trilogy, I'd say abandon the EU. But if they're going to explicitly acknowledge the Prequel Trilogy, it wouldn't make sense for them to ignore the EU, as the prequels themselves are basically EU, and many (such as myself) would like to think that they never happened at all.

Alright alright, It's fine now.

As for the change, yes the SE version is prettier. And normally I would say that the prettier shot would be better, but this is Tatooine, and it's not supposed to be nice or magical in most shots. The sky isn't supposed to be bright blue, it's supposed to be rather washed out. Tatooine is intentionally below everyone's standards, including and especially Luke's.

imperialscum said:

msycamore said:

imperialscum said:

While I appreciate the original versions and I support the struggle to get them released in HD, I just prefer 1997. I am very sensitive to visual aspects and quite frankly most of the original Tatooine scenes in ANH are unsatisfactory and below my standards.

That's some pretty high standards you got there.

Well a shot like this just doesn't inspire any of the magical feeling I got from 1997 SE counterpart.

 Totally agree. "dvdactive" just doesn't convey the same emotions at all.

;)

^harsh.

The biggest issue is definitely the continuity between shots, especially Han's clothes. Having him wear a parka immediately after landing doesn't make much sense. Perhaps if you cut away to the Imperial fleet after the Falcon makes its approach to Hoth, then cut back to Han in the control room with Leia.

darklordoftech said:

NeverarGreat said:

There are some good scans by Team -1...

Where can I find these scans?

 http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/team-negative1-star-wars-1977-35mm-theatrical-version-release-details-and-updates/topic/14590/page/26/

From here to page 34, they're scattered around a bit.

Oh, where is Warbler when you need him? Sir, I believe your post warrants a

*sigh*

There are some good scans by Team -1...

RIP CPY: 1999-2011

Ideas like this come from a (somewhat unreasonable) desire to make stories work by changing as little as possible. Most people simply judge a story based on its content, when the reality is that much of a story is told through its framing, or rather its...point of view.

;)

Just to clarify, we are talking about Creepy Puppet Yoda right?