NeverarGreat

On one hand, it would be a breath of fresh air to dispense with the EU. On the other hand, it would be admitting to the fans that a vast swath of the Star Wars universe simply doesn't exist anymore. I find that to be a less than creative solution. In my opinion, the most important, most sacred duty of writers is to their created universes. If the creators and stewards of a fictional universe treat it with contempt, why should anyone else do otherwise?

Has everyone forgotten that Yoda clearly stated in ROTJ that Luke was the last of the Jedi? I figured that if he was able to sense Luke on Tatooine and watch him, he would easily have been able to locate any other Jedi who managed to survive the purge. If another Jedi did survive, that makes two Jedi who lied to Luke's face.

I got tickets for Gravity in 2D. The woman says: "It's in 2D. Is that Okay?"

YES! THAT'S ABSOLUTELY OK! SOME PEOPLE WANT TO SEE THE MOVIE IN 2D, AND WILL DRIVE TO A THEATER THAT IS FURTHER AWAY SO THAT THEY CAN SEE IT IN THAT FORMAT RATHER THAN PAY MORE FOR A BLURRY DARKENED IMAGE AND ANNOYING GLASSES!

"yep."

In a somewhat non-random tangent, I think that the Prequels would have been really cool if they had made Anakin more like one of the Mercury 7. Recruited from the best terrestrial pilots to test the smaller, faster "stunt fighters" of the Republic. He would have already been a celebrity by this time, and Obi-wan recruits him after the public loses interest in his piloting skills.

You know what's really weird? I began watching The Right Stuff for the first time last week, but then only got around to finishing it this Friday. Then I learned that Scott Carpenter had died on Thursday. So in essence, one of the seven men that I was watching a documentary about died in the time between starting and ending the movie.

These things don't just happen.

Or they do, I don't know.

Tobar said:

NeverarGreat said:

Star Wars: The Tournament of Death would be an awesome stand-alone movie.

Captured by Shark Men, not so much.

What's wrong with Shark Men?

I love how the history of the Karkarodons ends with this:

Later, another Unidentified Karkarodon was shown at the Republic Judiciary Central Detention Center who provoked Rako Hardeen (Obi-Wan Kenobi in disguise) and got his hand stabbed with a fork.

Lolwut.

SilverWook said:

People keep forgetting the chapter titles of the very thing that inspired Lucas in the first place.

http://flashgordon.wikia.com/wiki/Category:Serials_Chapters

Star Wars: The Tournament of Death would be an awesome stand-alone movie.

Captured by Shark Men, not so much.

Episode VII: The New Republic

Not a particularly catchy title, but at least it lets us know what is in the movie, unlike "A New Dawn", and also incorporates the word "new" into the title as a reference to A New Hope.

JEDIT: Hoth-Nudist already got this one on page 5, so I believe this increases the likelihood that it will be a real title.

http://latino-review.com/2013/10/exclusive-working-titles-star-wars-episode-vii/

The short:

Rise of the Jedi and Return of the Sith were titles given by Lucas to Disney for consideration.

So IF Latino Review's story is truthful (big IF), then this is potentially very spoilerish of the ideas that George has "downloaded" to JJ Abrams, and does not give me much faith in where this series is headed. If Lucas really has so little inkling of the possibilities of this franchise that he can only think that bringing back the Sith after they were finally destroyed is a good idea, then JJ might as well give up right now. Either that or ignore Lucas's suggestions and do his own thing.

Moth3r said:

NeverarGreat said:

What really happened to those four imperials on the Falcon? ... It's questions like these that keep me up at night, people!

Well, you could worry about the fact that there two dead technicians and two dead, naked stormtroopers somewhere on the Millenium Falcon for half the movie.

Or you could just forget it and enjoy the movie.

I was kiiiddddinggggg!!!

It's just a 70s movie. Like Zardoz.

Sheesh.

Tyrphanax said:

This album is amazing.

If you like the kind of remixes/mashups that Pogo does, you will love this.

Definitely worth the listen.

Artoo! is the best in my opinion.

I've never seen Star Wars on the big screen, but after seeing Gravity in the theater I realize why Lucas said that Star Wars was meant to be seen on the big screen. The online trailer for Gravity communicates so little of what was captivating about the theatrical experience, so I envy those who saw Star Wars in 77 and were hooked from the opening shot. Hopefully JJ captures this visceral sense of spectacle for Episode 7.

Heilemann said:

I think the 'Jedi are male' idea, even if it was never spoken, is probably true for the OT. After all, they were modeled on samurai, a strictly male profession.

This is what I was getting at. Obviously women could fight in feudal Japan, it's just that they would never get the designation of Samurai regardless of how skillful they were. In the book, Lucas says that anyone could be strong in the Force if they worked at it, it's just that the Jedi have some peculiar rules.

valinkrai said:

I'm watching too many movies to effectively give reviews, but lately I've seen:

Kill Bill Volumes 1 & 2 (Love the soundtrack for them)

Sunset Blvd. (The narration was well used. Haven't seen any narration that was so effective yet on IMDB quest.)

12 Angry Men (My new favorite movie)

The Rescuers

City of God

Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

Rear Window

My Neighbors Totorro

Well that's a strange coincidence, in the last year I think I've seen 6 of those movies for the first time. 12 Angry Men should be required viewing in school.

Something that bothered me in Jedi was when Obi-wan knew that Leia was Luke's sister, while apparently forgetting this fact in Empire. The book discusses the "other" on page 70. Kasdan suggests that Ben doesn't know about Luke's sister, but Lucas says that he does indeed, it's just that "He discounts women because he is a male chauvinist pig." I'm guessing that he is kind of joking, and he further explains this inconsistency by saying that Ben wasn't thinking. I explained this inconsistency by considering that the Jedi was a very patriarchal order, and the Jedi didn't consider that women could be Jedi (kind of like some other religious orders today). But looking at the prequels, and the fact that there are women who are Jedi, it seems completely absurd that Ben didn't set up any plan to train Leia, and didn't try to train Luke until he was nineteen.

Lucas's idea of the Jedi in ROTJ was much different than in the prequels, and I think much more interesting. I get the feeling that there was a warrior class and a priest or guru class, and only the warriors were called Jedi. These were doctrinally male, and to become Jedi they were trained by the gurus or priests in the ways of the Force, inheriting lightsabers from their fathers. The knowledge to construct lightsabers was lost long ago, so there's an ever dwindling number of them, and they are rare and highly prized possessions. I really wish Lucas had stuck with this idea through the prequels.

Not sure how to feel about Nellith's Obi-wan reference. Could be good, if Obi-wan picked it up from her.

The gunship is still attached to theirs, right?

This does raise some questions: What really happened to those four imperials on the Falcon? Did they just get dropped off on Yavin 4, or did Han forget that the bodies were stashed in the secret compartments, or did the imperials who placed the homing beacon on the ship take the bodies back? And also, how did a Wookie and an old man in a robe manage to sneak out of the Falcon while it was supposedly being watched by dozens of troops and cameras? It's questions like these that keep me up at night, people!

First three wishes are serious.

1. People would no longer forget their important decisions and experiences, ever.

2. Demand that people make increasing their awareness a lifelong habit. No more being content in ignorance.

3. I'd wish for everyone to become aware of the opportunities to become the best that they could be.

Second three wishes are partly serious.

4. I'd wish for everyone to gain a wonderful sense of humor.

5. I'd wish for aliens to appear on Earth in the form of Norse deities as a giant prank.

6. I'd wish for all of the governments in existence to be guarded a series of trials testing the character and intelligence of anyone applying for higher office in order to continually attract the most ethical and intelligent people to positions of power. I guess this is serious as well.

Gravity.

My favorite movie of all time is Sunshine, so hearing all of the hype for this one made me think that perhaps Gravity would steal that honor.

It almost did.

Gravity and Sunshine are very different movies. Sunshine takes its time and allows for long moments of introspection. Gravity has pauses, but for the most part it is an intense race for survival. As such, it never allowed me to sink into the movie the way Sunshine did, so Sunshine for me is still the best. But Gravity has the most realistic CGI that I have ever seen, and I still don't know how they did some of the floating effects. It also usurps Revenge of the Sith as making the most dramatic use of a certain spaceship situation which I will not state here as it may be construed as spoilers. Gravity also genuinely surprised me in several places, something that gets harder and harder to do.

I saw Gravity in 2D. It looks like one of the few movies that would be better in 3D, but 2D was absolutely wonderful for me.

I would not change a thing about this movie. Perfect ten out of ten.

Bingowings said:

But Leia as the bad guy...it has to happen...right?

Oh Bingo, that's like saying "Anakin as a truly heroic character in the prequels...it has to happen...right?"

Yeah, I think that I missed something. Was there an invitation, or was it just a few people already in the know that were able to attend?

Mrebo said:

Bingowings said:

The video essay is too simplistic.

Agreed with much in your post. I do think the extensive CGI is the issue being complained about when people talk about too much cleanliness. It's more an abundance of fake stuff that looked fake. And Padme's ship was silly! Didn't have the iconic status they must have intended.

Yeah, the queen's starship from TPM actually looked cool. In fact, all of the totally chrome ships looked nice, I just don't know why they didn't stick with just the one. It was even said that only the queen was allowed a fully chromed starship. Would have been special. I don't mind clean lines and good design when it's supposed to look that way, instead of being due to CGI laziness.

Scott Pilgrim vs the World Trade Center

Too soon?

FanFiltration said:

Why not get another hard drive and install two operating systems (duel boot)?

 

Or, you can install Windows 7 (Professional, Ultimate or Enterprise) and use the Windows XP Mode add-on.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows7/products/features/windows-xp-mode

I have three hard drives already hooked up, and I'm thinking everything draws too much power right now as it is. But I may do XP Mode. Thanks!

I've been thinking of upgrading my XP machine to Windows 7 or 8 to run newer software like Vegas 10 and DaVinci Resolve, but there's a lot of old software and games that may not work on the newer systems. Part of me wants to keep XP and get a Windows 7 or 8 machine as well. But both machines would have to be at least midrange to run the video editing software. What to do?