logo Sign In

Tiptup

User Group
Members
Join date
4-May-2006
Last activity
26-Apr-2012
Posts
1,696

Post History

Post
#219528
Topic
Today, I thanked George Lucas...
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219528/action/topic#219528
Time
Children have a way of enjoying things that is very special. They learn about the world and imagine things in a way where everythign is fresh and new to them. I wouldn't claim that the Star Wars prequels lack the ability to capture the mind in such a way. I was even able to enjoy the movies on that level.

But, still, you can have a movie be fun for kids and still have it be enjoyable for adults (like Star Wars, ESB, and Jedi to a lesser extent). I think that's the main point of criticism for George Lucas. Otherwise, I won't detract from the obviously redeemable elements he has created.
Post
#219518
Topic
Remember when everyone hated Return of the Jedi?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219518/action/topic#219518
Time
At one time producers usually had the biggest single role when it came to making a given film. Then that power began to shift to directors. Producers can still be very important today, depending upon how much they are involved with a production. At the very least they can function like quality control. I suppose you have to analyze the influence of certain producers over certain films on a case by case basis.
Post
#219297
Topic
Remember when everyone hated Return of the Jedi?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219297/action/topic#219297
Time
Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
I know what a nomad is, Tiptup. I was a bit confused as to what dessert nomads do. Do they wander around parfaits?


Heh. I didn't see the typo in your post. I remembered catching it when I first typed up my post and I thought I had fixed it but aparently I didn't. I thought it was odd that you would ask what a nomad was.
Post
#219093
Topic
Remember when everyone hated Return of the Jedi?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/219093/action/topic#219093
Time
Originally posted by: Marvolo
Tiptup, regarding number 3 on your list, lightsabers and how they work was explained in the OT Visual Dictionary. They use 2 crystals to control plasma and force it into a controled rod state. All they are is controlled plasma. The Visual Dictionary also said that when building a lightsaber if the crystals are not properly placed inside the handle the plasma energy will become unstable upon activation, and blow up and disintegrate the jedi who was building it. You have to be force sensitive to build one, because the force guides them and tells them where to place the crystals. It does not matter who uses it.

Well, I'm sure certain skilled nerds have devised a technical description that works well enough for a sci-fi drama. Needing the force to construct a lightsaber would limit the technological aplications in the Star Wars universe. So, works for me. My only remaining question would be what kind of plasma is used to provide such devastating effects.

Oh, and I love how crystals solve so many problems in science fiction.


Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
I thought most of your points were funny, but I do have to address a few of them.

1: What are dessert nomads?
2: How can there be no cameras on the Death Star if you claim that shooting out the cameras is not enough to prevent the Empire from knowing they're rescuing the princess.
3: I love that point about Leia taking the Empire back to her hideout. There was actually a flash movie posted here a while ago that made fun of that, if the person who posted it is reading and knows where it is... Then, instead of orbiting the planet, the Death Star just blows it up and mows right on through. Fun stuff.


1. That would be people that don't have a fixed home, but instead carry their home around with them. Of course, I don't know for sure if the Jawas in Sandcrawler used it as a home or just a work vehicle.
2. You're right there. I was coming up with those points fast and didn't think through them all in detail. I thought of going back to the earlier point when I reached the detetion-area scene in my mind, but that scene still didn't explain why no other sections in the Death Star used security cameras so I left it.
3. I'd love to see that actually.

Oh, and I thought of another point from Star Wars that makes no sense to me:

In Mos Eisley, when the violent, tyranical, and supposedly discourteous Imperial Stormtroopers are searching door to door, why did they decide to skip any door that was locked?! Oh, yeah, because nobody would think to hide something secret behind a locked door!
Post
#218826
Topic
Judging by ESB & ROTJ original box office gross, here is why Lucas started to change
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218826/action/topic#218826
Time
Originally posted by: nohandluke
I'm glad this topic came up - I have compiled an exhaustive analysis of the creative conflicts throughout ESB through interviews with Kershner and Kurtz and Lucas at this website: www.geocities.com/mfbespinluke

There are photos and the text is color coded to differentiate between quotes and analysis. Hope you enjoy it because these quotes are from the mouths of the horses, so to speak.


Wow, great website you've made there. A very interesting read.
Post
#218824
Topic
Remember when everyone hated Return of the Jedi?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218824/action/topic#218824
Time
Originally posted by: Neil S. Bulk
I'm currently listening to the Star Wars radio drama. I just finished chapter 11 (out of 13). It's absolutely remarkable how the story to Star Wars holds up to the scrutiny of a 6 hour magnifying glass. It's all logical and it all makes sense.

Neil


Well, radio dramas aside, there are many far-fetched moments in the original Star Wars. Just off the top of my head:

1. Why were the Imperials so worried about wasting one measely laserblast to destroy an escape pod?
2. How can a civilization of dessert-nomad midgets make a living in a desolate desert scavenging old android parts?
3. How the hell does a light saber work? If it needs the force, then how did Luke use one right away before he's had any training? If it's technological, then why aren't there any better applications for such a devastating technology? Does a light saber ever run out of juice? Did Obiwan charge it up for Luke?
4. If the imperial troops are such deadly marksmen, then how come they can't hit anything they shoot at?
5. How did the heroes escape Mos Eisley after making such a ruckus and mess right under the empire's nose?
6. Why is such a huge space station needed to destroy a planet? They don't have the technology to construct a smaller weapon capable of the same effect?
7. Simple "smuggling compartments" would hide the heroes from every scanner in the Death Star?
8. We're to believe that no Imperial troops were left on board the falcon to ensure that it remained secure? Two measly soldiers outside the main hatch were enough to guard a ship that potentially carried stolen data very sensitive to the Empire?
9. An advanced technological culture can't put up security cameras in their Death Star? What about simple guard patrols? Wouldn't they have a better scanners for properly detecting blaster fire?
10. Are we to believe that every damn soldier on the death star was completely incompetent? They drop like flies. And doesn't the Empire have a way to monitor the status and location of individual soldiers to determine if they are wounded or dead?
11. The prison assault is ridiculous for two men and a "wookie" to have performed. And simply shooting cameras will hide what they are doing?
12. Again, the Empire is so totally incompetent that they don't know where a shaft in their station leads? They should have arrived at the garbage compacter and killed our whole lot of heroes.
13. Seriously, why can't the damn storm troopers hit anything?
14. A few Tie Fighters from a station the size of a small moon were meant to seem like a plausible attempt to stop the Millennium Falcon?
15. If Princess Lea knew it was a trap, why did she lead the Empire to straight to the heart of the rebellion?
16. The Empire would put so much work into building a giant space station but not have any turrets capable of shooting down inexpensive fighter craft?
17. Again, we have a super expensive space station, but we have it specifically designed to have a curiously volatile exhaust port? One little explosion can blow up the entire station via a chain reaction? Who freakin' overlooked a flaw like that? Even without considering attacks from enemies, simple accidents would be fatal with that thing. Its like sitting on a powder keg in a war zone.
18. Why exactly was the exhaust port so volatile? What possible technology would require such a design? It’s almost like you'd have to design it to be that way on purpose.
19. How did the rebels find this one fatal flaw in only a few hours while the Empire never even had the slightest clue as to the clear danger their exhaust port clearly was?
20. They blow up the Death Star and then in their no-longer-secret base and they have time to set up an elaborate award ceremony and stand around grinning while star cruisers might be heading straight for them?
Post
#218569
Topic
Remember when everyone hated Return of the Jedi?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218569/action/topic#218569
Time
Originally posted by: Neil S. Bulk
The Emperor is a cackling buffoon. The galaxies biggest threat is....a Saturday morning cartoon character. Darth Vader is a subordinate to this clown? Somehow that doesn't add up based on the earlier two movies.


This is the only point I will concede to you from your post. The emperor was a bit silly. He looked really cool and twisted, but the acting job sucked. I liked the creepier emperor we saw in that brief snippet from ESB. Still, the performance works as an antagonist for the film and displays the "overconfidence" factor well.

Your other points can be valid from a certain point of view, but don't be so nonsensical as to think that Star Wars or ESB don't have any silly moments of their own. A critical, logical mind can rip those movies to shreds. That's not what's important about them.
Post
#218568
Topic
Does George even read his own stuff?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218568/action/topic#218568
Time
Originally posted by: JediFlyer06
You want an OT contradiction that can make your head hurt if you think too much about it? Return of the Jedi, as with ESB, Vader's entire motivation is to get Luke to turn to the dark side. He has selfish reasons for this, as he reveals in Empire.

The climax of Jedi is the Emperor working his magic to win Luke over the dark side with Vader cheering from the sidelines. When Luke finally gives into his anger and hate, takes up his saber and tries to kill the Emperor, something Vader tried talking him into in ESB...Vader stops him from doing so! That would have been it. Vader's two wishes would have been granted...Luke turns to the dark side AND kills the Emperor. Bonus!

But since Lucas couldn't come up with a better plot device and is a hack writer, he couldn't be bothered thinking something else up. Instead, we have this duel (and it is all about the action) where Vader keeps goading Luke, and tempting him to the dark side. He was just there! He gave into the dark side! He acted out of rage and hate against the Emperor, who Vader had no reason to protect as he had already invited Luke to join him and destroy the Emperor. Nothing about the throne room scenes makes any logical sense up until Palpy begins killing Luke.


Quite incorrect. Darth Vader fully intended to bring Luke before the emperor in ESB. He was using that line primarily as a way to provoke Luke's selfish ambition and perhaps persuade him to surrender. Even ignoring that clear element though, maybe Darth Vader would have liked to overthrow the emperor in some way, but that would have had to have been on his own terms, and by the time Luke finally surrendered in Jedi, it was fully on the emperor's terms. I see no contradiction.
Post
#218564
Topic
Judging by ESB & ROTJ original box office gross, here is why Lucas started to change
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218564/action/topic#218564
Time
I've always had mixed feelings about whether ESB or RotJ were better. Empire was always better to me as a well rounded dramatic experience. But, Return of the Jedi had the most dramatic moment in the entire series with its climax. The end of everything was the repentence of Darth Vader and the valuing of self sacrifice and I've always foudn that to be a beautiful message. Aside from the neat Death Star tunnel sequence, I have never considered the destruction of the second Death Star as being important in the film in any way, so I don't get the fixation with that plot element by the haters of the film. Still, ESB is a masterpiece at every moment, and the original Star Wars has to be number one based upon how many times I've seen it.
Post
#218562
Topic
Prequel demographic breakdown
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218562/action/topic#218562
Time
Originally posted by: Gaffer Tape
I remember there were a lot of young kids and parents when I went to see Revenge of the Sith. And a mother glared at me when my girlfriend and I started laughing at Obi-Wan lamenting the deaths of the "younglings." I'm sorry, but that word just makes me laugh. I never could take that scene seriously, which is why I hated it. Younglings. Such a dumb word.


There was definitely someone who needed to lighten up. Better yet, what's she bringing her children to a movie that advocates the irrational killing of young children via its starring role?
Post
#218327
Topic
The Chronology of How My love for Lucas has fallen
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/218327/action/topic#218327
Time
Originally posted by: CO
He talks backwards a few times in ESB, but not nearly as much as the other 4 movies after.


And that was exactly the point. Yoda was supposed to talk backwards occasionally because we were to assume that his original language worked like that. He was supposed to come at speach like someone from another country who tries to speak english correctly, but sometimes reverts back to what is most natural for him or her. George Lucas then turned him into a caricature worthy of ridicule. Depressing. Yoda was so cool before the PT.
Post
#217908
Topic
Moving in from the Basher's Sanctuary (TF.n)
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/217908/action/topic#217908
Time
Originally posted by: CO
TPM just feels like an EU novel. You follow QuiGon, Jar Jar, and an undercover Padme for most of the movie, thus leaving ObiWan as a side character, and Anakin as a little boy with not much to do after the pod race. TPM's sole purpose should have been to establish the 4 relationships of the key players in the PT: Anakin, ObiWan, Padme, and Palpatine, within the two hour plot of establishing the whole republic beginning to crumble as the sith plot their revenge. Whenever I watch TPM, I get zero establishment of those four characters, and it does nothing to set up Episode II, as Lucas is not forced to resetup everything in AOTC.

Hmm, I basically agree with you about all of those flaws. TPM definitely fails to work as a Star Wars movie. Revenge of the Sith on the other hand is much closer to what you and I, and every other traditional Star Wars fan expected from a prequel Star Wars "saga." Unfortunately, it was an absolutely horrible film from just about every other point of view in my mind. The ways it drags with such torturous boredom . . . I'm mostly a fan of entertaining drama before I'm a fan of Star Wars I suppose I could say. The Phantom Menace was at least a fast movie that was fun to watch.


Originally posted by: CO
I answer every response of 'you guys are getting what you deserve' like this, "Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi are my three favorite movies of all-time. Most directors would kill for one of their movies to be in someones top 10 of favorites. Lucas has three of his movies in my top 3." If this is what I deserve for my three favorite movies being created by George Lucas, then you tell me who's being petty now?


Amen.

I hate the assholes who twist everything to make it sound like we have the problem. So absurd. We're not doing any physical or mental harm to George Lucas' rights as the true owner of Star Wars. We're simply and correctly pointing out that he's lost his marbles.

Plus, any other, sane director would also kill to have a record breaking version of their film given a quality release on DVD. Whatever happened to releasing multiple versions? He could have stopped any complainers from the start if he had chosen to. Instead, he created this problem.
Post
#217907
Topic
The Other side of the 30th Anniversary
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/217907/action/topic#217907
Time
Originally posted by: Windexed
I agree 100% with Tiptup. When watching the new "Kingdom of Heaven" DVD (which is excellent) Ridley Scott, to this day, believes that if there is anyway possible to create a scene NOT using CGI, then it should be done that way. Yet good old George feels the need to CGI a floor. A fucking floor for crying out loud.


Well, mverta was arguing for the limiting of cgi more than I was, but I did agree wholeheartedly with him and you that unless cgi is needed, it shouldn't be used. Same goes for effect shots in general. Too many movies use them to death lately. My point was that I attribute that tendency more to crappy directors over any inherent element preventing special effects from being seen as a unique artform on their own.