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Ozkeeper

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Join date
10-Sep-2004
Last activity
14-Nov-2007
Posts
91

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Post
#221173
Topic
George ruined the drama in his own stories.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/221173/action/topic#221173
Time
Yep. It's really hard to try to work out just what they/he were thinking when they made the PT. Watching some of the extras on the dvd's, you see people talking about how excited they are to be working on the films, and saying stuff like " What I'm really hoping to feel from the audience is that it takes them back to their love of Star Wars". I almost feel sorry for them. They must have been a little taken back by how the films were recieved by critics and fans.

I don't think for an instant they intended to make something that sucked so badly. I think something just got lost in the process. What we ended up with was 6 hours of a promotional advertisment for ILM's effects shop and Georges' digital equipment and software, and nothing in the way of adding meaning or depth to the first three Star Wars films to be made...in fact, quite the opposite.


Post
#221166
Topic
Why the PT fans love the PT so much, not as diehard as we think
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/221166/action/topic#221166
Time
The PT makes me cringe it's so bad. Not in a good way like Plan 9 does either. More like a " the world must surely be doomed if this is the state of play" kind of way.

Deaths shrugged off, clumsy dialogue, confusing politics, unexplained attraction of Padme ( an adult) to Anakin (petulant late teen), horendous dialog, stilted acting, weird looking effects shots with light and shade not matching backgrounds, jedi that seem to be some cross between police/church and boy scouts, and dialogue that just sounds like crap...and thats just in the first ten minutes of AOTC.

I saw PM in the cinema and groaned my way thru it, and so didn't buy the dvd. I waited for AOTC to be released on dvd to watch it, and after watching it just twice, I now struggle to sit through it again. I'm now up to the part where Anakin just chopped up the Tusken raiders, after calling my wife in to laugh at the love sceen dialogue with Padme in front of the fire. So much of the story just baffles me. Why on earth would she be attracted to him? Why has he waited untill now to go find his mother? What kind of slime are the Jedi that they just get Anakin out of slavery, but never question if he would perhaps like to try to get his mother out of slavery as well? If he loves Padme so much, why doesn't he just quit as a Jedi to be with her?

Can someone explain in really, really simple terms of who the 'good guys' and the 'bad guys' are within the political factions of the stories in the PT? And who the Jedi answer too, or who funds their cause? Because it seems to me that the Jedi are working for the ' bad guys' throughout the PT.

Anyway, I got to go do the dishes.


Post
#219573
Topic
I actaully PREFER seeing the black bars, even on my widescreen TV.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219573/action/topic#219573
Time
I don't even care if the bars are larger than the picture, or how large the bars are, it just makes me feel better knowing I am for sure watching the movie the way I am supposed to, in widescreen.


You.Are.Insane.


I'm not "Joe-six-pack"..but I do like seeing the picture as large and as clear as I can, while still seeing objects in the dimensions as intended (round objects being round, not egg shaped). That means I don't 'stretch' a 4x3 picture to fill the screen, or zoom it to fill the horizontal at the expense of the vertical.
Play with the settings on your screen and your dvd player..maybe even the cable box. I know the settings on my player in combination with the widescreen telly produce different results than just using the settings on either alone. I live in a pal reg 4 area, but get many disks from NTSC reg 1. While my player and telly will play the NTCS disks automatically, if I turn the dvd player off and move the switch at the back to NTSC instead of PAL , I get a picture with no jumping or twitching...but it changes the image size slightly. Cycling thru the TV options of 4:3, 16:9, Cinema, Subtitle, Zoom, or Auto usually fixes it

Really, if you love your image being boxed by black bars..then get some black perspex and make a nice frame and glue it to the front of your TV.
Post
#218670
Topic
Shatner sings to Lucas
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218670/action/topic#218670
Time
Here is a link to the only vid I think online of Shatner singing Elton John's "Rocketman". This is from a 1978 Sci-Fi/Fantasy Film awards show or something. I remember people talking about it for a long time before I ever saw it (I worked in a comic/sci-fi/fantasy shop for 7 years), and some considered it further proof that he was full of himself, while others insisted he had a sense of humor. Maybe it's a mix of the two, but it is entertaining....even if its a little like watching a train wreck in slow motion.

http://www.devilducky.com/media/21099/

(if anyone has a better quality transfer of that clip, I'd love to see it)


A link to a comparison of the Shatner version and the Stewie version:
http://www.milkandcookies.com/article/2773/


Thanks Z6PO for the "Has Been" mention. I didn't know of that album, but after having listened to various mp3 of parts of it now, I look foward to getting it. He makes me smile, but I understand the album is not a laugh fest. I can't resist the idea of Shatner and Henry Rollins doing a number together.


Post
#215783
Topic
The Most Boring Commentator Ever
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/215783/action/topic#215783
Time
Just checked my Back to the Future boxset. It's an early release region 4, that didnt get the extra commentary track on the later released Region 1. Also has some framing errors.

From Michael D's Region 4 DVD Info Page:
Yes, to repeast that the Region 4 release has NO commentaries. What it does have is an interview/Q&A session with a live audience that doesn't even run the length of the feature.
The Region 1 get's an interview for ALL 3 films, plus commentaries for all 3 films. The 3rd "commentary" you refer to is no doubt, the awesome trivia track.
Yeah, the Region 4 version sucks big time, but we got it first. And I like Black more than blue for my case.


So, it's gonna have to go for a new Region 1 version if it has a commentary track as good as you say.


Yes, agree with you on the Spinal Tap track ThatArtGuy. That just kept the joke going.
Post
#215566
Topic
The Most Boring Commentator Ever
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/215566/action/topic#215566
Time
they could have spiced up the SW commentaries by having Mr. Krabs from Spongebob pop up everytime Lucas speaks and just say " I like money!"

I couldn't get thruugh the Pirates of the Caribbean commentary track. Was just way too ..umm..fruity.
Actors doing a commentary track as their or another char gets old fast too. I'm thinking of Bruce as Elvis in Bubba Ho-Tep and Jim Carey as Lemony Snicket.
The looped commentary for Dodgeball after they got bored wasn't much of a joke either.
Back to the Future commentary was just an overdubbed discussion from some Uni. Sheesh, how lazy was that.
Detroit Rock City had each of the 4 members from Kiss talking for about 15-20 mins each seperatly. I don't have disk anymore, but one of them sounded like his was recorded over the phone.
Young Frankenstein shows Mel Brooks to have the same selective memory problems as Lucas suffers from. His comments there contradict some of the other features on the disk.



Ones I like for various reasons...? 8) Any Kevin Smith, Boogie Nights, 12 Monkeys, Brazil collection, Stewie Griffin, Fight Club, American Movie, the LotR series, Hoodwinked, Futurama, The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Dude Where's My Car?

One of my favorites are the Robert Rodriguez commentaries on El Mariachi and Desperado. The El Mariachi one should be required viewing for anyone that wants to make a film. His cost cutting went so far as to not wanting to paint one side of a guitar case flat black because the vinyl was torn of it, so he shot it so it wouldnt be shown. Now that's the kind of stuff I want to hear from a commentary.
Post
#214138
Topic
We have to buy this set atleast to preserve it for the next generation of fans
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/214138/action/topic#214138
Time
How bad would it have to be for you too finally just shrug your shoulders and say " This isn't worth keeping. I'm being played for a fool. This is crap. I'm not buying it" ?

Personally, I'll wait to see what is actually released, then I'll make the call. It's not like you have to pre-order it or you'll never be able to buy a copy.

If I think it's crap, I won't be buying it. The idea that buying a piece of shit today means that one day I'll then have the chance to buy what I actually wanted in the first place is just idiotic. I don't have a bottomless pit of money to throw away on crap.


Post
#65428
Topic
Cleveland Plain Dealer News Article- 9/19/04
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/65428/action/topic#65428
Time
amen


GL is a stupid old bastard, that now makes crappy films. When he's not making crappy films, he putting his 'magic' to work on stuff that should have been left alone in it's own little space in time. The guy is a dickhead who has lost his touch, and he's had the spot filled with extra-ego.
Ya know, he could do what he wanted to the first two PT parts, and maybe 100 people would give a damn. "Hey look! This crappy scene used to go for 2 minutes, now it goes for 4 ! Man, all those extra Gunguns screaming "Midiclorians" really flesh the story out". I think for most of us, he could reshoot them with screenplays and script written by a dumber team of monkey's than wrote the screenplays and scripts used, and they couldn't get much worse. They have added nothing to the story (apart from stormtrooper origin) besides a lot of idiotic questions, and now they are having their dumb crap rubbed into the OT. I thought they (PM & ATOC) sucked before, now they just plain reek. Would/could anyone ever sit through the Phantom Menace, and say " Wow! That was great. I could really sit through another 5 of those. " I worked in a sci-fi/comic retail outlet at the time, and sales of Star Wars related goods (previously great sellers for the previous 6 years I'd been there) went thru the floor when PM hit the screens, and it never recovered. People that had collected virtually everything for years just stopped dead.


Just gimme the option to buy the Original Trilogy, as I watched it, faults and all. Its all part of the charm. You can ( and please, do) mess with the Prequel Trilogy all you like, and no-ones gonna say boo, because noone cares. No studio to blame, no budget to blame, no lack of special effects to blame. The buck stops with you George, and you blew it. Now get over it, and stop making the fans you love to hate pay for it.

or do a Spock, and bring out a couple of books...One now called George Lucas :" I am not a dickhead"...then one in a few years , with the benefit of hindsight, George Lucas :" Yeah, OK. I was being a dickhead"


Post
#63441
Topic
Star Wars TV Series Confirmed & Hamill Talks 7, 8 and 9
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/63441/action/topic#63441
Time
oops

I'd be guessing they could just pick any part of the SW Universe to stick it in. Knowing GL's mode of operation by now, it would be somewhere that features maybe one or two characters that have appeared in minor roles in the movies so far, or perhaps the EU. Certainly nothing that would actually advance the story or myth. It would probably be made in NZ or Australia to cut costs, featuring mostly local actors, with a couple of imports in the central roles ( think 'Xena' ). I could see CG being used untill it makes your eyes bleed.
Something like.....a series set in the Cantina , featuring a motley crew that meet each week at the bar, with the occassional guest star passing through for the regulars to bounce insults off.

They could call it " Jeers".
Post
#63292
Topic
Irvin Kershner on Special Editions
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/63292/action/topic#63292
Time
long time browser, first time poster...

First time I saw Star Wars was back when it was just called Star Wars, on its initial release. Doubt you'd have to think very hard to guess which version I'd like to have the chance to share with my kid.

Two things I find telling from that link that is posted above by Jimbo

One: That it's not just people that post on this forum that care if the Original versions get released.

Quote
First off, we got a three-person panel consisting of Rick Dean (the THX technical director), John Lowry (the head film restoration expert), and Van Ling (the DVD producer and menu designer). Jim Ward also contributed some insights. The hottest issue of the day revolved around the ever-controversial "special edition vs. original edition" topic, as the first question to come from the audience had to do with how Lucas could justify releasing an altered version of Star Wars when he'd publicly excoriated the colorization of the original black-and-white Three Stooges films. Jim Ward took up the reply here, pointing out that Lucas felt very strongly in the artist's right to choose the presentation of his own material, and that while the Stooges weren't around to give the OK to colorization, Lucas himself, as the artist, had every right to decide which version of the Star Wars films to release. After several other pointed questions from the audience on the topic of the special editions (clearly everyone in the audience would have preferred the originals), Ward simply stressed that George Lucas had made it very clear that the special editions of the films represent most closely what he really wanted to do with the films, and wasn't able to do on the first pass due to budgetary and technical limitations.



and Two: For all the time we waited for these films to be released on dvd, George felt that one day for each 4 minutes was all it was worth for the clean up process.

Quote
It was amusingly clear that Lowry is a total perfectionist, as he mentioned that his team had only 30 days to spend on each film, and he would have wanted to spend even more time restoring them. He dryly commented that "We don't usually have to deal with a living director," and added that doing so was "a pain in the ass."



I bet when they rework these films again for the next medium, that once again they will be shocked at the condition the masters are in, and will again have to 'repair' them. I cant help but be reminded of 'restorations' in the past , particularly on paintings, buildings and ancient objects ( Eqyptian treasures for instance), and how the attempts to preserve, no matter how well meaning, sometimes caused more damage than good. With George's way of thinking that each new version is the version to be built upon the next time a format changes, it seems each time a little bit more of what I watched and enjoyed ( yep, boxes around the spaceships and all ) when it was released , will be gone.