canofhumdingers

Darth Id said:

canofhumdingers said:

1997 versions. At least I have fun memories of seeing those in the theater.

Really? I only remember being utterly aghast, appalled and mortified.
If anything, those versions have the most negative emotions attached for me.
Which I guess makes sense since I never watched any other versions. Or even the '97 RotJ…

Yeah, I have fond memories of it. I was only 14. It was the first (and only) time I ever saw the OT in a movie theater. And as a middle schooler, I actually thought a lot of the changes and additions were neat at the time. Like many people, I never expected them to completely replace the originals the way they did.

I’ve never watched anything more than short clips from the 2004 and later versions. If I were going to watch the SE in any form, I’d strongly prefer to watch the 1997 versions. At least I have fun memories of seeing those in the theater.

CatBus said:

canofhumdingers said:

LuckyGungan2001 said:

Nah. I have a list of the top ten movies I consider the best, and Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are on the lower half of that list. The original trilogy are some of my favourite movies, but none are number one.

This brings up an interesting point.

For me, there is a clear distinction between “best” movies and “favorite” movies. As an example, I consider Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia some of the best movies, and I really like both of them a lot. But at the same time, I still personally like my favorite Godzilla movies more and would rank them higher on a list of “favorite films” even though I can easily recognize they are obviously not superior to the aforementioned “best” movies in any kind of reasonable or objective critique.

IMO that’s just guilt needlessly pruning your perfectly acceptable “best” list. The world would be a boring place if we all agreed on what’s best. I can say I love Buckaroo Banzai and the critics may sneer at me, but I get a good reception around here. I can say I love Cabin Boy and make no friends at all. But they’re not shuffled off to some second-tier list due to lack of overlap with the BFI 100 list. Let that freak flag fly!

I don’t see it that way at all. I feel no guilt over liking Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster more than Seven Samurai. But I can readily recognize and agree that Seven Samurai is clearly a better film. I mean, just looking objectively, Ghidrah easily has more faults. As an example, look at the editing. Ghidrah (at last the original Japanese cut) jumps back and forth between day and night almost nonsensically. A direct result of the super rushed production (it was one of three big SFX films from Toho all made in one year by the same crew in 1964). Objectively, its actually a rather sloppily made film. It certainly doesn’t hold a candle to the technical prowess, superb writing, or phenomenal acting in Seven Samurai.

But even so, while I definately love both films, I personally enjoy Ghidrah more and certainly watch it FAR more often than Seven Samurai.

So one is obviously “better” but that doesn’t mean I can’t personally like the other more.

LuckyGungan2001 said:

Nah. I have a list of the top ten movies I consider the best, and Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back are on the lower half of that list. The original trilogy are some of my favourite movies, but none are number one.

This brings up an interesting point.

For me, there is a clear distinction between “best” movies and “favorite” movies. As an example, I consider Seven Samurai and Lawrence of Arabia some of the best movies, and I really like both of them a lot. But at the same time, I still personally like my favorite Godzilla movies more and would rank them higher on a list of “favorite films” even though I can easily recognize they are obviously not superior to the aforementioned “best” movies in any kind of reasonable or objective critique.

For a long time ESB was my favorite movie, but I’d be hard pressed to say one specific movie these days that is my favorite.

That being said, I can certainly say Star Wars movies and Godzilla movies are easily my favorite movies. And within those two groups Star Wars and ESB are my favorite Star Wars movies. And Ghidrah the Three Headed Monster and Godzilla (1984) are two of my favorite Godzilla movies.

And I could easily make a nice list of some of my favorite films or film series. But I’d have great difficulty if you asked me to rank them.

But to sit down and definitively say ______ is my all time favorite film? Nah, couldn’t do it. There are just too many awesome films that I really really like.

Just discovered this today. Amazing. Haven’t read the thread yet so forgive me if it’s been said, but I really hope ESB and ROTJ are planned to get similar treatment too! There’s been so many outright amazing projects on the original film in recent years sometimes it feels like the sequels are almost forgotten.

Nevertheless, GREAT JOB!!! Can’t wait to see the finished project. I really need a raise so I can start upgrading my equipment to both get and watch all this new stuff! I still have to trek over to a friends house just to burn a single layer BD…

@CHEWBAKA
Louisiana, but good luck finding another. She’s one of a kind. 😃

@Tobar
Yes it is! It’s an eFX PCR Vader helmet. While it’s not an EXACT (according to the super duper duper obsessive Vader fans at places like theRPF or thepropden) copy, it is sourced from the Rick Baker mold that was cast from the original screen used ANH helmet before it disappeared. It doesn’t have all the nitty gritty fine surface details, but it absolutely has the correct shape and “look”, and still has MOST of the wonky handcrafted-ness intact. It’s very probably the closest I’ll ever get to having the ANH helmet in my collection, and I LOVE it!

My birthday is coming soon, but I’ll be traveling for work, so my wife threw me a little party today. There was a subtle theme to the celebration 😉

The balloons

The cake (baked with a vintage 70’s cake pan no less)

The gift

What frink said… I had no idea…

My whole world has become topsy-turvy…!

I finally got around to reading this a couple of days ago. I actually thought it was quite good. I agree that the final film we got (in 1980, not since…) was superior, but this was still very good, especially for an early draft.

I dunno if it’s just me, but something about the way it’s written made it feel more like some other lower budget 80’s scifi/fantasy films (Krull in particular kept coming to mind… As in I imagine the “look” and production value of this version of ESB to be very similar to what we got with Krull). Like, the sequence where Vader throws a fistful of stars at Luke and they rain down on him in a shower of sparks during the “force vision” part of their duel… I just see that looking SOOOO early-80’s-fantasy-movie. All dreamy and "gauze-over-the-lense"y…

I was also surprised, given some of the comments I had heard about how little of Brackett’s original stuff made it into the final draft, at just how much of the final film IS in this script. Seriously, almost ALL of the basic ideas and plot elements are already here. They cut out some things and certainly refined a whole lot of ideas, but they made very very few real additions to the actual story. Hairy hen nailed it, they added “i am your father” and a broken hyperdrive, but otherwise the entire story from ESB is already here in this early draft.

I’ve got more I want to say, but I’ll get back to it soon.

Really glad I got a copy of this though!

MalàStrana said:

canofhumdingers said:

WAAAAAAAAY better than ROTS! Thank goodness!

I don’t quite see the difference with ROTS for the suit. The helmet I get it, but the suit ?

Well, for one his body looks way to small for the armor. The chest box is attached to the leather suit with no straps (and once again has different button/light colors). The belt has some minor differences. The shoulder &a chest armor is an all new one-piece design that doesn’t look as cool and doesn’t allow him to actually raise his arms. It’s also much wider than Hayden’s actual shoulders in an attempt to give Vader the proper shape/size.

Over all the the ROTS suit is just a weird thing that doesn’t get the “feel” of the classic Vader suits thanks to a lot of the updates and modernizations. And it also has a weirdness from trying to make a person who’s clearly too small fill out a larger person’s armor.

The lighting in that shot of Krennic or whatever his name is looks SO seventies… I love it!

well it’s official, a kind of ANH/ESB hybrid. And yeah, the stuff sideshow had at SDCC was definately the RO Vader.

While I’d prefer a really accurate recreation of the ANH suit, I think this is probably he next best thing, and it looks pretty great. WAAAAAAAAY better than ROTS! Thank goodness!

SilverWook said:

I do know the ESB Vader stunt helmet has little windows cut into the face mask for that reason.

Yeah, it had see through cheeks and they usually kept the metal screens out of the mouth holes. Supposedly that’s also why the chin vent was made so much bigger in ESB - every time you see Vader cock his head back while talking to someone, it’s because Prowse is tilting the mask up so he can see the other actor through the chin vent.

ZkinandBonez said:

Well, at it seems people will soon be able to buy an action figure of an “Imperial Ground Crew”, which I personally find really funny.

I mean this guy is basically just the Star Wars equivalent of this guy;

And what kid wouldn’t want an action figure of the guy who waves two lights at landing TIE-fighters?

I dunno, did this guy ever get an action figure?

Source

Actually… Yes he did…

Though, sadly, he didn’t come with the wands.

I wasn’t making a case for how well he could see. I’m sure real life visibility out of any of these prop helmets is restricted at best. Just pointing out how innacurate a picture that graphic painted.

Lord Haseo said:

And that brings up a totally separate problem…why are the eye lenses for the Storm Trooper helmet designed to be so restricted? Luke said he couldn’t see a thing in it and this picture here:

shows as to why that is. It seems weird that The Empire would have such faulty equipment.

in real life a typical human head is much smaller in comparison to the helmet. If someone had a head that large they wouldn’t actually be able to fit into the helmet.

JEDIT

Case in point

Personally I’m quite happy to see new alien species that manage to fit in with the OT aesthetic. The prequels relying so heavily on previously seen aliens as background fodder was just another example of universe shrinking IMO.

These new rogue one aliens look awesome. I’m not opposed to seeing a familiar alien face here or there throughout the films, but when you start seeing the same familiar aliens more frequently than new aliens it starts to feel lazy and less believable.

Very cool. I may wait for the final version, but I am very excited about this project!

Tobar said:

TV’s Frink said:

Non-spoiler threads become less and less useful as the release date gets closer and closer. No one was using this thread until Ben bumped it.

The TFA non-spoiler thread was open to discussion of trailers while the spoiler thread was filled with all the juicy supposed leaks. I don’t know why trailers are suddenly anathema for this film. Again, if someone is so paranoid about not finding out ANYTHING about a film they have no business in a thread like this.

This. What’s the point of having a thread to discuss the film if ALL info about the film is taboo? Typically, non-spoiler threads allow for discussion of official news, announcements, trailers and other official advertisements while the spoiler threads are reserved for every piece of unofficial “leaked” info, specific plot spoilers (substantiated or not), etc.

And regarding threepio’s arm, he has a line (to bb-8 I think) about needing to get his normal arm reattached. Then later we see he has done just that. I agree it’s a little awkward and not very clear, but the pertinent info IS in the film.

Ah! So happy someone is doing this! I’m a huge Godzilla fan (use this same screen name at the monster zero and Toho kingdom boards, though I very seldom visit TK).

G84/85 is one of my favorites and has been since I was a kid. I’ve had a lousy copy of a copy of the SD monsters HD rip for a few years now. I’ve also had the original Japanese laserdiscs and bluray for a long time. But being able to watch a decent copy of the US cut on a modern home theater will be a dream come true.

I’m still reading the thread (at work so I’ve only skimmed it) so apologies if this is answered somewhere. But is there a reason you went with a 720p tv broadcast copy of the Japanese version instead of a straight rip of the Japanese bluray? The bluray is already 1080p and it doesn’t have any burned in logos and such. I cant check for a couple of days, but it’s even possible the subtitles you had to erase were video generated and not burned in too, which could’ve saved a lot of trouble. The bluray is easy to find and has come way down in price (when I got it it was about $70 but now can be found pretty easily for around $40).

Wow, this is so neat! Will hopefully grab this soon. Can’t wait to watch it! I should really check this section of the forum more often. I had no idea this or the THX1138 film scan project even existed until recently…

On my phone so no pics, but I just noticed the dark trooper or whatever they’re being called has a cod piece very reminiscent of Vader’s, just plastic instead of leather. And their belt buckle is the same as Vader’s minus the circle piece.

Uh… Nope. Those lenses definately have the classic bubble shape.

And I feel like I should reiterate we don’t know that this is actually the RO Vader. That purely speculation/educated guessing. All we know for sure is that sideshow has two statues in different scales on display that look pretty much identical and they are both a mash-up of ANH and ESB designs.

Dat_SW_Guy said:

The Vader suit helmet looks like an ESB helmet, cant really see the asymmetry there.

The ESB helmet is just as asymmetrical as the ANH. They use the same facemask (with a larger chin vent cut for ESB). ESB just had a shinier paint job and a slightly modified dome (no widows peak, thinner walls).

JEDIT
Looking at the lifesize statue at the sideshow booth, it’s facemask has the same lopsidedness as the original. I’m sure it’s probably more cleaned up and sanitized if you get up close to see every detail. But the mouth area droops to one side and the left cheek (our right) curves up at the top outer corner while the right cheek (our left) curves down. All of these things match the original.