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2-May-2019
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27-Mar-2024
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Post
#1479324
Topic
STAR WARS: EP V &quot;REVISITED EDITION&quot;<strong>ADYWAN</strong> - <strong>12GB 1080p MP4 VERSION AVAILABLE NOW</strong>
Time

Here: https://screenshotcomparison.com/comparison/8778/

It looks better in many places because the upscale smoothed some of the hard edges in the Blu-ray, a result of crazy edge enhancement and artificial sharpening applied back in the early 2000s, very common stuff in the DVD era.

Post
#1479291
Topic
What do you think of the <strong>Sequel Trilogy</strong>? - a general discussion thread
Time

It’s easy to just bring in the Death of the Author into it all and claim people bastardized George’s vision, but let’s not forget it was George who decided to pass on the torch. He claimed he had already said everything he wanted to say in the universe and had left some guidelines, but that it’s up to the next generation now. The kids, now adults, that he inspired. I think that’s as beautiful an attitude as telling your whole story, if not more.

In the end it seems like George was the one that, following his buddhist - and Jedi - ways, was able to let go, while some were not. Perhaps there’s still things to be learned from him.

Post
#1478759
Topic
STAR WARS: EP IV 2004 <strong>REVISITED</strong> ADYWAN *<em>1080p HD VERSION NOW IN PRODUCTION</em>
Time

Guys, Adywan just means there won’t be like ~40 seconds of extra footage. He’ll still improve what we see, certainly add ships in the background, new FX stuff, Yavin in the background too… Lots of the little fixes, just none of the extra, dialogue-less dogfights. But he’ll still be working on the Battle. It’ll be more akin to how he did the Battle of Hoth - not changing a whole lot content-wise, just adding on and improving what is already there.

Post
#1477920
Topic
Things you DISLIKE about the Original Trilogy ( but not the Ewoks, Leia and Luke being siblings, Death Star 2 etc.)
Time

I love everything in the original Star Wars.

The one thing I probably dislike about Empire is how it makes the dark side and the good side more binary than it had to be. Makes sense in the end but Vader himself calling his side the “dark” one is so taken for granted nowadays but it didn’t have to be that way. He could still think he was in the right. In fact, stuff like ROTS would be far more believable. “I do not fear the dark side as you do.” My guy it’s called the dark side, you should be skeptical of it to a degree, no? Though it also makes sense in that one as Anakin arguably sees it being called the “dark” side as part of the Jedi’s brainwashing and it’s not that different from their light. But anyway, this all traces back to Empire. “How do I know the good side from the bad?” That actually implies there’s a lot more nuance to it, which we don’t really see all that often. Again, thematically it all still works wonders but could be made more interesting if not for this.

There’s all the things to dislike about Jedi so I’ll save it. They’d mostly be down to stuff like “another Death Star?!” which the title asks not to put here, so whatever hahah.

Post
#1477310
Topic
Did Lucas forget that Obi Wan served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars ?
Time

Dude, lots of people see the parallels that are intended, the story beats, character beats, all that. People aren’t as dumb as you think. It’s just that for a lot of people those parallels fail on many levels, or even if said people like the parallels they’re not enough to salvage their low opinion on other aspects of the film that end up dragging it down. I’ve talked to people about AOTC talking about how it’s an interesting mystery story with inspiration from 40s noir and romance pictures, the classical love story, all that jazz, and how I love that.

These people turned to me and said “Yeah, I know. Still awfully written dialogue, poorly directed scenes and the acting is atrocious. The movie looks like a tech demo also. So I think it sucks.” Which is valid. People see the parallels, Palpatine in the throne in ROTS and ROTJ, they see what George was trying to say, they just either think he’s saying something stupid or that he’s saying something nice, but in a very poor way.

Get off your high horse, man. You’re not the only one that gets these movies. And, again, I say this as a major fan of them.

Post
#1477063
Topic
Did Lucas forget that Obi Wan served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars ?
Time

Stardust1138 said:

StarkillerAG said:

Stardust1138 said:

BedeHistory731 said:

I’m in the Bionicle fandom, so I’ve learned to be reticent to demand all the answers from the creators about things they probably never even considered too deeply. Too many people pestered Greg Farshtey (Bionicle’s head writer) for answers about characters’ appearances during the canon contests.

Creators don’t owe you all the answers to minutia.

Exactly. They don’t owe you anything in general. This is where we are alike in slightly differing ways.

George said it best:

“I make my movies for myself. People will say, “When you release it, it belongs to the public.” No, it’s mine. I’m leasing it to you. $10 at a time. It still belongs to me.”

Sorry if this sounds a bit too interrogative, Stardust, but I’ve been wondering: What are your opinions on the original theatrical versions? Because with both your love of George Lucas, and with your recent talk about creators not owing audiences anything, it sounds like you’d be fine with the Special Editions being the only versions available. It’s fine if you are, I’m not trying to shame you, but it feels a bit weird on a site devoted to releasing the original versions. Maybe I’m completely wrong, though.

I’ve really avoided giving my opinion on this for a long, long time but I’ll take the bait.

My opinion is simply that if George approves then I’d be more than happy to have them like when he gives his blessing towards the Academy to show A New Hope at their museum’s cinema. I’d love seeing the Original Trilogy unaltered again as I grew up with it that way too as they were the versions that my dad’s friend burnt me copies of on tape if I recall correctly. I genuinely appreciate the dedication of everyone who works to capture the feeling of what they feel Star Wars was when they first saw it with their various versions but at the end of the day I think only George himself can decide what it truly means.

It’s not ours to tamper with and it’s the artist who gets to choose what they wish us to view. They have a reason for alterations. I think trying to understand why is a more interesting question than asking what were they thinking. I also don’t see the level of distain towards George to be all that productive or fair. I mean other artists have changed their work but I rarely see the level of vicious hate George gets thrown at them. I mean he made changes and a trilogy you may not enjoy as much as the original unaltered or otherwise three films but maybe it’s better to understand him and his intentions if you’re still going to devote time to Star Wars.

However I suppose that’s not neccessary anymore since Disney owns it now and it has run off into a different direction than what it means to him but it may help with viewing his films as Episodes I-VI. Star Wars was always very personal to him. He was what he wrote and he was very concerned about being responsible with what he said in his films. It’s why he made certain changes like cutting back frames with the Imperial Bridge Officers getting shot or having Greedo shoot first or even limiting blood shown in the later films. It may not be something fans as they’re older think about in this way as we really or hopefully know the difference between right and wrong but he was thinking about the current generation children viewing them but also the children that will be here after we’re gone. He’s a futurist and forward thinker. These films are for children but can be enjoyed by all ages.

[…]

Ulimately trying to alter it to how we wish to see it might be personal to us but we should also try thinking about it from the other side too. It’s not always about us the fans as much as I think we’d like it to be. I’ll never discourage anyone from watching the films how they intend or desire to but truly remember at the same time I think that George Lucas Is Star Wars.

[…]

I’m sorry Stardust, but this is all crazy to me. I’m a huge fan of George’s the biggest amongst my group of friends by far. I love all of his movies to varying degrees and in particular his writing. But as his fan - and I know you are one, too - you have to respect George more. Not current age George, but 1977 George. And 1980 George. And 1983 George too. They were just as amazing, if not more, than 1997, 2004 or 2011 George.

He called all the shots in the original movie and he did everything he could at the time, but he saw it as completely fit for release and proudly put it out. The movie was always meant to be for children, and none of them got upset at seeing 10 extra frames of imperial officers getting hit or Han shooting Greedo. That scene was straight out of old westerns Lucas saw as a child and you and I will both agree he turned out alright, even seeing that. Which is why he made something similar for the children of that time and it’s still just as effective.

I don’t think the SE is a travesty of any sorts at all. The absurdity is the fact that current age George does not respect his past self, a guy who made one of the best trilogies ever made. And honestly that’s very normal. Most Lennon interviews from the 1970s have him trashing on his Beatles work, or dismissing all or most of it as shit, even songs he was proud of like Strawberry Fields. It’s how artists are. But where most of them respect where their minds were at when they made the movie/album or whatever, George doesn’t.

When you dive into his psyche a little more with stuff like Skywalking or even more surface-level stuff like Rinzler’s books, you get a good sense of why he’s more like that than others. But it’s no excuse to supress his past self’s work and obviously many others as well. The SE should always, on every occasion, be presented as an extra next to the movies that 70s and 80s George made. Those are the hit movies, those are the acclaimed movies.

Post
#1476875
Topic
Did Lucas forget that Obi Wan served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars ?
Time

My opinion of the Plinkett videos is that they’ve been very harmful in the long run. Obviously done as comedy sketches with the intent of tongue-in-cheek criticism on top, they were mostly taken at face value as de facto deconstructions of the PT movies and essential viewings to understanding “why they suck”, plaguing the internet’s idea of criticism and of the Prequels in the process. There was a spike in aggressivenes overall at the time those were coming out and discussing the PT and/or the videos was very unpleasant in general. The live-action bits with Plinkett are also of extremely poor taste, way worse than anything Lucas has ever dreamed of doing.

But I’m not really a fan of RLM at all. Stoklasa has been on record saying George is the luckiest person in show-biz, second only to Ringo Starr, and that’s easily among the dumbest things I’ve ever heard, so I usually just ignore those kinds of guys. But it is a fact that his Plinkett reviews helped keep the fire of the original Fandom Menace burning, you know, the one that made both Ahmed Best and Jake Lloyd depressed.

But characters like this Rick Worley, defenders of sexual abusers and the likes, are somehow even worse. Harassing actresses like Daisy Ridley and Kelly Marie Tran off of social media and engaging in extremely toxic behavior towards anyone who disagrees with them… perhaps getting back at the toxic and hateful fans à la Plinkett, but in the end just employing the same disgusting tactics.

Two sides of the same, very ugly coin, that is the Star Wars fan base.

Back to the topic at hand, I think Lucas didn’t forget this at all. This was just of way too small importance when it came to the PT. He probably didn’t want to sacrifice whatever story he was telling just to fit in slightly better with a line from a character from a previous movie. This happens all the time whenever talking about unplanned non-linear storytelling, it’s nothing new and it’s no big deal. Always baffles me how everyone gets upset at small stuff like this.

Also, you know, he was in the military, serving the Senate, so technically he did serve Senator Organa 😄

Post
#1475822
Topic
What do you think of The Prequel Trilogy? A general discussion.
Time

BedeHistory731 said:

What is there to be said that hasn’t already been said? They’re good movie (TPM) and two crimes against cinema (AOTC and ROTS). This trilogy needed TCW to save it and explain things it couldn’t.

Don’t think that’s really the consensus anymore, if it ever was. Maybe around these parts there will be more people who think that way, but anecdotally most of the people I know either IRL (20 - 30 age range) or that I have seen online and in other boards (TheForce.net, for instance) tend to consider ROTS to be the best in the trilogy by a mile and to rival the best of the other two. Curiously, most people I know rank TPM at the very bottom, ST notwithstanding.

To answer the title of the thread - they’re great stories, even if told somewhat unevenly. Ultimately what I’m looking for in movies and especially Star Wars is a great story so for the most part I’m left very satisfied. The PT found its footing and focus as it went on, and got better and better with each entry. I have a good time.

Post
#1474808
Topic
The Force Awakens: Starlight (V1.1 Released!)
Time

A brief, semi-tangent suggestion re: the crawl - why don’t you, instead of capitalizing ‘Resistance’, have it be all lowercase? I’m more against capitalizing factions in SW crawls than most (out of Lucas’ 6, only ROTJ did it and for no good reason), but it’s more so that they’re not explicitly called the “Resistance” and it’s just what the galaxy calls the people that decided to take action agasinst the neonazis.

I know this sounds confusing but in the same vein that the Alliance is the rebels, and that rebels isn’t capitalized in the original crawl. I think it works nicely since you don’t get a sense that the good guys’ organization is still “officially” called the “Resistance” after presumably they’re the ruling power, and it becomes more of a guerilla unofficial thing. Also because by TLJ they’re being referred to as the Rebels.

Post
#1474264
Topic
Did Lucas forget that Obi Wan served Bail Organa in the Clone Wars ?
Time

The droids didn’t randomly land in the planet Obi-Wan was in, and didn’t randomly land close to his home either. That’s all text for the original film. They knew Obi-Wan lived somewhere around there, R2 I think even knew exactly where. “Secret mission, what are you talking about?!” (as R2 heads in a particular direction). He also escapes at night and has a specific place he wants to get to, which curiously (obviously!) is closer to Obi-Wan’s home since he shows up.

Hopefully it becomes obvious that R2 programmed the pod to land there, near Obi-Wan. And Obi-Wan lived next to Luke on purpose. I really, really fail to see a coincidence. And I’ve tried.

Post
#1474220
Topic
Small details that took you <em><strong>FOREVER</strong></em> to notice in the <em>Star Wars</em> films
Time

For some reason it’s possible to hear someone coughing in the transition from Queen Amidala telling Palpatine she’s leaving for Naboo and that the “Republic no longer functions” over to the Jedi Council chambers in TPM. Don’t know how I’d never noticed this before, lol.

Post
#1473933
Topic
What 'a Star Wars Story' / anthology / spinoff film would you like to see?
Time

Anakin Starkiller said:

Stardust1138 said:

Now we’ll never get the canon story of how Luke ended up after ROTJ.

Its like Bond just getting his license to kill and then we never get to see anymore movies.

That’s just patently false. We’ve had two different continuities exploring what happens after, and just because it wasn’t written by the original author doesn’t mean it’s not canon. Besides, Lucas never even wrote TESB or RotJ.

Lucas wrote all six movies he was involved in.

Post
#1473196
Topic
Community Focus Threads - Index and Overview
Time

EddieDean, one thing I will say is you should set your expectations accordingly. TROS was a brand new movie and to many the one weak link in an otherwise solid trilogy, so of course there was a lot of interest in doing something with it. I was surprised to see that the spark for TPM was still there, with your thread and the many contributions, but the fire didn’t last for very long, and I think that’s also easy to understand. But I thought it was an interesting experiment, perhaps it might work for ROTS or ROTJ, since those are two that I feel still have plenty of potential for future edits - certainly more than TPM or AOTC. Cheers.

Post
#1471514
Topic
<strong>The Book Of Boba Fett</strong> (live action series) - a general discussion thread - * <strong>SPOILERS</strong> *
Time

Now I’m thinking Mando S3 is gonna take place before BOBF Chapter 5. It could begin immediately after the S2 finale, with Din sorting the stuff out with Bo-Katan and the other Mandalorians, and his quest to find his clan again, and how he got to that guy that gave him the job we see in Chapter 5. I think that’s what’s gonna happen. It’s possible this was an interlude to Mando S3 as well, as opposed to a straight up sequel or being set entirely before as I’m suggesting. Really, it’s the only way to salvage this.

But in general, man, I think Rodriguez has earned his spot as the worst Star Wars director, and BOBF is, to me, the worst piece of SW media there is. TROS is awful, yeah, but I think on a technical level it has more going for it than this show has. Just really odd and bad, with a great and a half-assed Mando episode thrown in the mix because why not.

Post
#1471028
Topic
Community Focus Thread 1: The Phantom Menace
Time

Very interesting thread and idea, EddieDean. Inevitably this is something I caught myself wondering - what if we had the tech and community we have now back when the PT was coming out? What amazing things could we have done? But I guess the enthusiasm has died down, now, 20 years and hundreds of fan edits later. But I guess not!

One thing I’ve not seen mentioned here and that as I toyed around with TPM in Premiere a few months ago I realized might be feasible is:

  • If you, like me, wish to remove both the moment that the fake Queen orders Padmé to go clean R2 and the scene where she actually is cleaning him and meets Jar Jar, you only miss two things:
  1. The first part of a small subplot where Panaka gets impatient/distrustful with the Jedi
  2. Padmé’s name.

The first one doesn’t matter very much, is arguably even good since there’s no payoff anyway, but the second one can be a big problem. We’d only learn her name when Anakin seeks her out in Coruscant before he’s rejected by the Jedi, which is a bit too late for us to gain a degree of intimacy we should already have with her character.

With that in mind, a possible thing would be to attempt to add her saying “I’m Padmé!” after she apologizes for calling Anakin a slave.

ANAKIN: (angry) I’m a person, and my name is Anakin.
PADME: I’m sorry. (looking around) I don’t fully understand. This is a strange place to me. *(small pause) I’m Padmé.*

She says that line twice in the movies, once in the scene with Jar Jar, and then in AOTC when she introduces herself to the Owen and Beru.

Dunno if there will be any interest, but might as well throw it out there.