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Slumberland

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18-Aug-2004
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29-Jul-2007
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Post
#228239
Topic
Episode II: The Gathering Storm
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/228239/action/topic#228239
Time
I thought about whether I needed to change that line for a while... after all, even in the original version, it's not realy clear that he's even saying "her" as the line gets sort of swallowed. I watched the speeder chase to see if Anakin ever got a good look at Zam, and I don't think he does. Since they don't have the conversation about "I think he's a she" in this version, Obi-Wan just makes the male-centric assumption.
Post
#227047
Topic
Episode II: The Gathering Storm
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/227047/action/topic#227047
Time
Originally posted by: Trooperman
It's pretty much wordless. It's also been color corrected to approximate day-for-night.

Not fair! My idea!


You can imagine my surprise when I read your thread!

I'm looking forward to your project... I tried to approach things as if I were an editor in the room with Lucas, whereas you seem to be assuming the role of Lucas himself. That balcony scene is a b*tch to correct. It's difficult to get the backgrounds dark enough and still have some highlights in the faces, unless you use some serious masks and compositing.
Post
#226510
Topic
Episode II: The Gathering Storm
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/226510/action/topic#226510
Time
Star Wars, Episode II: The Gathering Storm

(The Slumberland Edit)

I know, I know... another fan edit. It seemed like a good excuse to teach myself Final Cut, and while I've heartily enjoyed many of the prequel edits I've seen, there would often be something either left in or in some cases added which would leave me scratching my head. I did my edit of Episode II in something of a vacuum, but was amazed to discover I had made some of the exact same choices as others did (i.e. Magfan, The Phantom Editor and even Trooperman). For example, my elevator conversation between Anakin and Obi-Wan is almost exactly like The Phantom Editor's, though I only recent checked out his version, looking for things to steal, as it were. And in re-shaping the romance of Ep. II, I came to a similar conclusion as Trooperman and went from the telekinetic fruit scene straight into the kiss. My version of the aborted kiss is somewhat like The Phantom Editor's, but at the risk of sounding smug, I think my musical transitions are better coming out of that scene.

Anyway, my primary philosophy going forward with this edit was that if you make everyone talk about half as much, you lose no crucial information and gain lots of needed momentum. So while many of the larger changes will be evident upon watching, there are also many instances where conversations and actions have been subtly trimmed.

I always liked the Obi-Wan story in Ep. II, and even have a soft spot in my heart for Dex and his over-accessorized diner (I can hear you navigating away now... just roll with me). My primary beef with this chapter, like so many others, was with the love story between Anakin and Padme. I attempted to make it as simple as possible, so here's the crux: Anakin loves Padme, and Padme would love Anakin, but she still thinks of him as a kid. That's it. That's the whole arc. It's Padme realizing that the little boy from Tatooine has become an exceptional adult, and their bond is sealed as she watches him suffer through the death of his mother (which is a more internal process for Anakin in my cut, as you'll see). Of course, that's tricky, as there was very little of that "exceptional adult" to be seen in the theatrical cut of AOTC, but I think in making him less talkative and focusing on his acts of bravery, you can sort of get there.

Here's a general, but in no way complete, list of changes. This version is about 25 minutes shorter than the theatrical/DVD release:

-The coruscant arrival and assassination attempt are trimmed up. Some shots have been removed, and the handmaiden doesn't say "I've failed you, Senator", much like most AOTC edits. I did leave in the "I'm sorry", if only because having her head go limp too quickly doesn't feel right to me. I don't know what she's apologizing for, perhaps not sussing out the assassination plan, perhaps 'cause her super-duper reflective ship blew up, who knows. There are certain things I'll let go for the sake of rhythm.

I also left in Typho's "I guess there was no danger after all." I'm aware of The Phantom Editor's 'Friday the 13th' analogy, but just because it's a stock device doesn't mean it doesn't work. When I watched his version, the shot of Typho ambling up breathing heavy without some sort of statement just didn't feel right to me. Personal choice. I also took out that weird intermediate CU of Padme when Typho tries to get here to leave. It was so obviously shot on a different day.

-Palpatine's office begins right with Palpy talking about systems threatening to secede, into "do you really think it will come to war?" This scene is a lot shorter, with several common changes such as removing Yoda's excellent but poorly placed line about warm feelings in his heart. Yoda's rection shot which used to accompany Palp's finishing of Padme's sentence not goes over his initial suggestion that Obi-Wan guard her life. He never finishes her sentence here... that always felt off to me. Padme generally puts up less of a fight in this version but voices her complaints later to Obi-Wan. An example of something that's not really THAT interesting (Padme's willfullness) that they still felt the need to hammer home four or five times. One and a half does it for me.

-No gundarks for Obi-Wan and Ani. This scene is trimmed up quite a bit, with "we will not go through this again" moved up earlier to match the lip movements of and replace Obi's "we will not exceed our mandate"... stuff like that. The scene wipes away before Anakin can whine to Jar-Jar.

-The second attempt on Padme's life is edited a bit differently. The scene of Zam putting the worms into the probe is cut, though she still receives them from Jango. The muffled dialogue does not carry over to the shots of Padme sleeping, and a bit of the Anakin-Kenobi conversation is placed after the worms arrive, in an attempt to stretch the time and build suspense.

-Speeder Chase... no funny aliens yelling at Kenobi, no power couplings, Anakin's dialogue is trimmed considerably, and Obi-Wan's chiding of Anakin when they "lose" Zam is a lot shorter.

-In the Cantina, the "death sticks" scene is cut. Ahmed and Lucas girl are out. They walk in, look around, then Obi-Wan says "go and find him". The 'him' was taken from a later scene with Obi, Mace and Yoda, then pitch shifted down a touch to match the inflection. They don't know it's a she. No shape shifter stuff either. When Zam get the dart in the neck, I had someone do a little ADR for a death croak. I'm tired of huttese curses.

-Jedi Council scene is a bit shorter, but no real information lost.

-Anakin/Palp's scene ends after the word "invincible". I was also tired of people telling other people what kind of Jedi they foresaw they would become, a la Qui-Gon/Kenobi in the swamp in TPM. Show me, don't tell me.

-Padme's apartment ends after she tell's Anakin "you've grown up."

-Anakin/Padme begins later, with Obi-Wan promising Padme he'd get to the bottom of it. I kept "at least we have R2 with us". A harmless little moment of levity between Anakin and Padme. I like it. So sue me.

-Yep, I kept Dex's diner, but it begins with Obi-Wan getting up from the booth to meet Dex, so you lose the lame kiss-my-grits waitress robot, as well as the reference to whatever juice it was that Obi-Wan was so eager to drink. Sounded like Jamba Juice to me. Obi-Wan says "hello Dex" when his back is to the camera and he's hugging the foul creature. Their ensuing talk is a bit shorter too.

-There's no scene of Mace, Obi and Yoda talking. No deleted Mace/Obi scene either. If there's one image from the prequels I got tired of fast, it's two people in robes walking side by side and talking solemnly.

-Yoda and the Younglings remains, but I tightened it up as best I could. Is it just me, or does Liam take forever to answer? Not anymore. I also kept this scene to help set up the slaughter in Ep. III.

-The scene where Ani and Padme discuss forbidden love over cafeteria food is gone. One problem I ran into with my choices overall is that the idea of Anakin potentially being expelled for his relationship with Padme is emphasized to a far lesser degree. There's Obi-Wan's line before the speeder chase about Anakin's thoughts betraying him... "you've made a commitment to the Jedi Order... a commitment not easily broken" and whatnot. Truth is, the whole "keep it on the down low" plotline bored me to death. I'm depending a lot on that line from Obi-Wan to carry things through to their obviously secret marriage in episode III, and that may be stretching it, but worse comes to worst I feel like I can re-iterate things like that in a revised crawl for Ep. III if need be.

-Anakin meeting the family is back, baby. I like that scene in the kitchen. The packing scene is not included.

-The order of scenes and intercutting between Kamino and Naboo is changed around a bit. Obi-Wan's business with the Kaminoans is largely unchanged.

Back on Naboo, Anakin and Padme have the picnic. The scene ends after Padme accuses Anakin of making fun of her and he laughs. "I'd be much too frightened to tease a senator" is gone. What a weird line.

-Jango and Obi-Wan's first meeting is altered just a bit to speed up the pace.

-As mentioned earlier, the fruit eating scene leads right into the kiss scene on the balcony. The line about Obi-Wan getting grumpy is gone. The near kiss by the water starts as they get to the railing. It's pretty much wordless. It's also been color corrected to approximate day-for-night. It looks okay, especially if you convince yourself it's about 8pm and not 11pm. It certainly holds up well to the day-for-night stuff in a movie like Jaws. Ah, simpler days. They don't kiss as long here as they do in the original cut.

-There is no fireplace scene. The day-for-night balcony scene functionally replaces it.

-Jango and Obi-Wan fight is pretty much unchanged. Never had beef with that.

-Anakin's nightmare is gone. I'm not interested in any of that superimposition dream sequence type stuff. She mentions it, that's enough for me. The scene the next morning is trimmed up as well. So many long pauses... I couldn't get all of them.

-I kept the asteroid chase, but removed some of the dialogue that bugged me, i.e. "this is why I hate flying" and Boba's snickering. You know, the usual stuff.

-Tatooine. Lots of changes here. No "okey-dokey" robot. Watto doesn't drop the spanner with that 'boing' noise. Most importantly, there's no interruption in Anakin's search for his mother. It wipes right from him talking to the Jawa to him on the cliff. Shmi's death is also quicker.

After Anakin freaks out, it doesn't iris wipe to Yoda lamenting about how Skywalker is in pain. We know that, we just saw it. And I always found it strange, the conceit that Yoda knew about Skywalker's anguish and yet they never reach out to him and continue to keep him at arms length. Was there ever a conversation about that "terrible pain" when Yoda and Anakin found themselves in the same room? In Lucas's world, I bet there wasn't. I'd rather assume Yoda doesn't know what happened.

Here, Anakin's slaughter instead iris wipes to Obi-Wan ascending the steps on Geonosis and discovering Dooku and his confederates. The first part where he sees them walking through a hall is cut... he simply finds them all at the conference table.

-Anakin brings his mother back. Obi-Wan sends Anakin a message to re-transmit. There's a much shorter funeral (Anakin never drops to his knees and grabs the dirt... he just "misses her so much"), interrupted by R2 with the transmission.

I took out the "I slaughtered them" confession to Padme entirely. The frustration with Obi-Wan seemed too forced... I think there's plenty of REAL reason for Anakin/Kenobi conflict when Ep. III comes around. His confession also made him way too unappealing in my eyes for Padme to then fall for him. Obviously, you lose the "I will be able to stop people from dying" statement, but I always found that WAY too expository. By the time Ep III rolls around, we still get it. He lost his mother. He doesn't want to lose Padme. I think it was overdone in the original cut and done awkwardly to boot.

The added benefit of removing this scene, is that when Palpatine mentions Anakin's mother and the sandpeople at the beginning of Ep. III, it says something that he was able to share that with his mentor but not with his wife.

-Anakin and Padme in the little ship leaving for Geonosis... I cut out a bit of Anakin's whining. Unfortunately, that's really all he does in this scene. Still, it's better.

-Things are generally untouched for a while here... Jar Jar sells out the republic, Dooku tempts Obi-Wan (a scene I always liked if only for Lee's performance), etc.

-Anakin and Padme arrive on Geonosis. C-3PO never leaves the ship... a common edit at this point. Sections of the factory scene are gone, i.e. the weird shot where Anakin does a downward thrust with the heel of his saber but is only hitting thin air. R2 jets remain. Anakin's line "Obi-Wan is gonna kill me" does not.

-Arena love pledge goes as such:

Anakin: Don't be afraid.

Padme: I'm not afraid to die.

(Anakin looks at her, questioningly)

Padme: I love you.

Anakin: (disbelieving, she's already rejected his advances) What are you talking about?

Padme: I truly, deeply love you... and before we die I want you to know...

Not perfect, but it passes much quicker. And you lose the terrible "I've been dying a little bit each day" line, not mention Anakin's "but I thought we had decided not to fall in love" and so on. Have you ever seen a love story where the word "love" is used more than in AOTC? They're constantly saying it. I tried to take it out until her pledge.

-The Arena battle isn't that different. I always liked the monsters and the funny little Harryhausen homages with Obi-Wan hopping around. The sight of Portman's bare midriff doesn't displease me, even if the means by which it's shown is a little suspect. And you know what? I like Mace's "this party's over" line. A little colloquial and modern, perhaps, but even Han's "then I'll see you in hell!" felt wrong ever since I was 10 and could ponder the existence of hell in the Star Wars universe. Plus, when you step back, Dooku is overseeing a dumb little, Batman-villain-style execution party out there on that backwater planet, and Mace's line seems like a funny way of acknowledging that.

Some of the Jedi in the battle annoyed me. There have been a few cuts. Jango's pistol twirl is gone, if only because the footage of Dooku turning back to the battle looks like it was reversed digitally.

-Leaving the arena and moving out to the open battlefield... the two instances of Dooku in the Geonisian war room have been combined into one. Dooku walks in, the Neimodians say how the Jedi have assembled a huge army, they must get the ships back into space (this line has been pitch shifted back up a tad... they were clearly trying to mask the fact that they didn't have the original voice actor for this line, but it still sounds better with less of an effect on it), then Dooku talks about his master and the republic's treachery, and the alien dude hands him the plans. I cut around the death star hologram a bit so it's less obvious until Dooku fires up his palm pilot.

-For a while I tried to leave out Padme's "getting up" moment, and just had her show up after the duel, assuming you could use your imagination, but I ended up putting it back in. It trims the beginning moans off the scene, one of her 'no's, and her silly run, so it happens VERY quickly. If all else fails, get through it quickly... you should see my edit of Otoh Gunga.

-The duel between Anakin and Dooku is trimmed up a bit. About half as much of the colored light fight in the dark, some shots were reversed to increase visual logic, and the shot before Anakin gets his arm sliced is slightly different, as the move Dooku made to get himself in position to get Anakin's arm made NO sense in the theatrical cut... it just came out of nowhere.

-Dooku throws one fewer piece of debris at Yoda. We get it. Yoda doesn't hop all over the walls to no effect.

-From there on out, it's pretty much intact. I trimmed up the Dooku/Sidious talk ever so slightly just to speed it up. Old people.

The running time is 110 minutes, down from 142 in the original cut.


Post
#224205
Topic
Episode I: PaulisDead2221's Edit (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/224205/action/topic#224205
Time
Hmm... that clip doesn't work for me for a number of reasons. Like the others have stated, cutting from the ambassadors' ship right to the escaping Jedi is very confusing, and I'm not sure how you get around that if you can't somehow generate a new shot from the opening pan down. It also doesn't feel right to me that the queen is getting out of dodge before the sh*t even goes down... but maybe I'm just conditioned to expect the old dynamic of her wanting to stick it out and resist. The neimoidians say they don't dare go against the jedi, but the jedi aren't even there any more. They just split. Then we see the ambassadors' ship again, and apparently it's taken ten minutes for them to travel about 50 feet. Cutting from the shot of the ambassadors' ship docking to the shot of it sitting there when the guns turn on it isn't a good transition. You'd need more of an angle change to justify it. Right now it looks like a weird jump cut.

I'm still curious to see where you take this.
Post
#223256
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/223256/action/topic#223256
Time
"2. Obi-Wan says he's going to the bar for a drink. We don't need to see him get there and order it.

Well, stuff like that happens in Star Wars all the time...not to mention other movies.
People say stuff, then they do it. What's wrong with that?"

Don't misunderstand me. I just mean that if you wanted to chop out that scene for reasons of personal taste, you're not losing any critical information.

And for the record, I don't watch Trek either, but I do have a fondness for the fourth film with the whales, and I remember those blue aliens from the end when Kirk faces the tribunal. They bothered me when I was a kid, too.
Post
#223166
Topic
Episode II: Shroud of the Dark Side (the TM edit) (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/223166/action/topic#223166
Time
Terrible scene, and useless, regardless of the character name.

1. That's one budget alien getup. Sketchy even by Star Trek standards. In fact, paint him blue, and I believe he is a Star Trek alien. You know, the white haired ones. And his voice sucks too.
2. Obi-Wan says he's going to the bar for a drink. We don't need to see him get there and order it.
3. I know the Jedi uniform isn't standardized, but most Coruscanti should know what one generally looks like. It's like trying to sell crack to uniformed police officer. Doesn't happen.
Post
#222456
Topic
Episode I: PaulisDead2221's Edit (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/222456/action/topic#222456
Time
I agree... the Neimoidian voices aren't that big a deal in the end, if you cut out about half their dialogue. For example, you don't need "are you brain dead?". "I'm not going in there with two Jedi" gets all the information you need across. That's pretty much the rule with these movies though: make everyone talk about half as much and a whole host of ills are cured.

Paulisdead... that revised opening sounds interesting, but Jar Jar is all up in that scene when the Jedi jump down and rescue the queen. I just don't see how it would feel right to have him hanging around with no real introduction. I know there's the scene where Padme cleans R2, but that's still a weird intro for JJ, and it happens to be one of the most useless, poorly ended scenes in TPM. But that's all personal opinion, of course.

I had ideas about enlisting a colleague to change the pan down after the crawl so it panned directly to the droid control ship in that shot that begins the invasion... then basically you'd have the queen waiting for their arrival and the Jedi arriving at the last minute to intervene. I couldn't quite make it work, however. The structure, that is. I think we could have pulled off the new pan.
Post
#222438
Topic
Episode I: PaulisDead2221's Edit (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/222438/action/topic#222438
Time
Wookieewok, I'd love to say that I made it subtle (in the crawl, the line is "Dark Forces threaten to cast the galaxy into turmoil"), but I titled my episode 1 edit "Return of the Sith"... so, not that subtle, I'm afraid. I just took a look at the whole movie, and aside from Anakin's emergence, that seemed to be the most succinct summation of what occurs in episode 1. The sith come back after an extended absence. I appreciate the idea of letting the audience figure out the source of the emerging darkness, but I went for the obvious, pulpy title, a la ESB.

I don't want to hijack Paulisdead's thread, as I'll probably start by own in the next month once I have burned copies to share (if anyone cares), but my titles are as such:

1. Return of the Sith
2. The Gathering Storm
3. Fall of the Republic
4. A New Hope
5. The Empire Strikes Back
6. Revenge of the Jedi

I liked that using 'return' for episode 1 freed me up for 'revenge' in episode 6. I know it's established that revenge is un-Jedi-like, but at least we've witnessed everything for which the Jedi would be avenging. I'm sure the Sith's revenge was justified, but it's all murky off-camera history as far as I'm concerned. Not that I don't have love for murky, off-camera history. Fall of the Republic seemed like a nice nod to one of the grandaddies of SW fan efforts. And 'Gathering Storm' is very close to what Hal9000 came up with... which I think is great. Amazing how different minds will arrive at similar conclusions.

Now back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Paulisdead, do you hear Liam Neeson's voice in the ship in your opening? If so, does that complicate things?
Post
#222424
Topic
Episode I: PaulisDead2221's Edit (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/222424/action/topic#222424
Time
I'm curious as to how the Jedi are introduced in your version... and how the big JJ's presence is explained.

I think the order of the opening is clever, but wonder about the problems it introduces right after.

I totally agree about the 'taxation of trade routes' complaint. In my revised crawl, it first establishes that it's currently a time of peace, but that things are going to get hairy. Lucas seemed to want to start off on a note of anxiety ('The galaxy is in turmoil!'), but what's really potentially cool about this episode is that things are ostensibly business as usual in the galaxy, but will soon go to sh*t. I make a quick note in the crawl about the Trade Federation laying claim to Naboo's abundant natural resources, as I thought that was a little more tangible, but it's a throwaway... the pretense for the invasion is a farce anyhow, put into motion by Sidious. Then the Jedi arrival is understandably ho-hum... they're dealing with stuff like this all the time. Their arrival was always ho-hum, at least in the attitude they intially present, but that didn't really match up with the 'drama' Lucas tried to establish in the crawl. I don't know if that makes any sense.
Post
#222382
Topic
Episode I: PaulisDead2221's Edit (* unfinished project *)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/222382/action/topic#222382
Time
I'm just about done with my own edits of episodes 1 & 2, which I did in a bit of a vacuum, but then came here to see if there were any more ideas I could steal. Paulisdead, we came to a lot of the same conclusions on some very specific things... very funny to see. Anyway, my version of TPM ends with the funeral scene, which I re-scored with 'Funeral Pyre for a Jedi' from ROTJ. I highly recommend ending on that Palpatine shot. If you can make the music work, I find it to be ideal.
Post
#107714
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/107714/action/topic#107714
Time
Just curious whether anyone knows if Magnoliafan has any intention of making further changes to the alien dialogue in BOTF and TCW. With all of the good ideas packed into his re-edits, it's a shame that the current scrambled foreign language tracks are so distracting.

I look forward to the Magnolia version of the six-film cycle, though I must profess a certain admiration for the Lucas version as well.
Post
#77293
Topic
ROTJ is worse than I remember.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/77293/action/topic#77293
Time
I've always thought that Han should have been leading the attack on the second Death Star. It kills me that you have an entire movie where you never see Han at the controls of the Falcon, one of the signature images of the OT. They even tease you during the escape from Tatooine, where they show the Falcon and you hear Han's voice from the helm, but heck. I suppose there's something to be said for mixing it up, and having the Falcon flown by her old owner, but I figure if you had Lando mounting the ground attack with Leia, possible even putting the moves on her, all while Han's fate was up in the air, it would have been a lot more dramatic. But by that point all the main characters just loved eachother, hugging eachother, ribbing eachother (I hate that Lando smirk after Han says "you're the respectable one, remember?" Yeah, we remember. Sheesh.) and whatnot. Doesn't make for great drama. And then you might have been able to illustrate Han's piloting skills during the final assault. Aside from the radar dish getting clipped and the race against the fire, Lando really doesn't have that much to overcome. They upped the ante visually from the trench run in ANH (though that's arguable), they should have tried to up the tension as well.
Post
#66487
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/66487/action/topic#66487
Time
I recently watched Balance of the Force (thanks Rikter), and while I have a bunch of notes I'd provide that would improve it in my eyes, I have to say that FUNDAMENTALLY, I find the re-writes Magnoliafan made to the script (mostly via alien dialogue) are brilliant. It's amazing how those few script changes re-frame the entire story and give it some actual gravity. The relationship between the Gungans and humans in particular benefits from the changes.

That said, listening to the actual audio that's replaced the alien speech is pretty grating after a while. At times the reversed foreign language tracks are pretty apparent for what they are, and it takes you out of the experience when you're hearing snippets of spanish. Also, the reversed lines clip off at the end in a way that just doesn't happen with ANY sort of speech. I assume it's just because some sentences start with hard consonants, and so when they're reversed they just end abruptly. If it were one alien race that had this problem, that'd be one thing, but after hearing it for an hour from both gungans and neimoidians, it's pretty annoying.

Also, because of the sheer amount of alien dialogue that your re-write requires, suddenly everyone in the movie seems like an expert in alien languages, answering races they've never met as if they were speaking English. Part of what was cool about Han speaking wookie was that you knew it was rare for a human to do... sort of similar with Anakin speaking Huttese. This isn't a huge deal though.

What I'd suggest is scrapping the sounds you currently have in place for the gungans and neimoidians entirely. Either find some new audio source (a la Burtt creating the Wookie language) or, and this will sound crazy, I know, get some actorly types and actually re-record the dialogue in a less annoying fashion than Lucas's version provided. You could either create an alien dialect this way, or just have it done in english with new character interpretations. I must admit a long-standing desire for the neimoidians to speak with British accents. I figured it would bridge them to the bumbling, second-tier imperials from the original trilogy, and it made sense to me that these creatures that longed to be in the good graces of Sidious's coming empire would learn to affect the coming Imperial tongue. Maybe that's a crazy idea, but hey.

I was eager to see what you were going to do with the two-headed announcer, and was sort of let down to hear the German track used for the Greg Proops part. Granted, I hate the Proops performance, but it's so obviously just the German track laid in there.

That said, your version of the pod race is f-ing PHENOMENAL! I was shocked and amazed at how thrilling it became once it was edited down and accentuated the clips from the dvd that focus on Anakin's intelligence rather than dull, pretty shots of racing in a desert. My favorite part.

Again, the script changes are really smart. With some more work, I think this can be hewn into something great. And if you ever need any help, I offer my services in any capacity you would need.
Post
#65541
Topic
I have been taken by the dark side
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/65541/action/topic#65541
Time
The Han dodge is truly weird. In a way, it looks better than the '97 SE, because at least he's reacting, but his face gets all shiny when the head moves in a very telling, "CG" way.

That, and I still don't get the stepping on Jabba's tail thing. It looks a hell of a lot better now, but it just doesn't make any sense. Would it kill Jabba to swing his tail out of the way when Han's walking around?
Post
#61269
Topic
The Language of Lucas
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/61269/action/topic#61269
Time
I've noticed this over the years too... it's pretty funny. The one that really got me was his pronunciation of Hoth with a long "O". Not one character in ESB ever calls it that. Why does he?

On a similar note, why does Lando say "Han" with that nasal "A" when everyone else says "Hahn"? I sort of like that, though. I just wonder if it was coached to imply a diversity in dialects, or Billy Dee just had a different idea than everyone else and ran with it.
Post
#60521
Topic
MagnoliaFan Edits: Ep I "Balance Of The Force", and Ep II "The Clone War" (Released)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/60521/action/topic#60521
Time
Originally posted by: Obi-wonton

A.I.'s naysayers sometimes admitted an almost androidal sangfroid, to the point of saying they just couldn't feel for David (Haley Joel Osment) because he's a robot, albeit an advanced model designed to love parents who've lost children in a near-future plague. Alas, the critical resistance is real. But they are not. Could they get away with that sort of dull literal-mindedness writing about any other art-form but movies? For starters, seeing David as merely mechanical and finally unworthy of emotional investment denies the basis of representational art and metaphor. This dumbfounding objection offends the essence of storytelling. Should a child detach from Pinocchio's fate because he is, after all, just wood? Isn't E.T. at best a believable fantasy, at worst a teardrop-proof rubber puppet? A modest proposal: David's most obvious meaning is Man. He's an avatar of human experience, yearning, and will to perfect himself before his Creator. With A.I. Spielberg tells the oldest newest story: Man's search for meaning.


I used to be in this camp, and attributed my utter detachment from A.I. to the idea that it's hard to empathize with programmed or hard-wired emotions. But in essence, isn't a child's devotion to his or her parents hard-wired, in a sense? I totally agree with the first point made above, but I now realize that for me, everything rides on my inability to empathize with Osment's performance, specifically. Regardless of the details behind his character, I find him endlessly creepy and false as an actor. The difficulty in comparing David with Pinocchio or E.T. is that, despite the unreality of the latter two characters, their performances are infinitely more expressive and authentically 'human' than Osment's. If another child had played David, one who didn't strive so hard to be 'robotic', I would probably have been on board. Perhaps that's all Osment can do... has anyone seen Secondhand Lions? It's as if he's still playing David, only older, more awkward, and inexplicably stuck in the 1950's midwest.