A very interesting article... thanks for sharing. On the one hand, I'm happy to hear that an original hi-def version of Star Wars is possible. On the other hand, I'm frustrated that LFL hasn't done one yet given their resources.
I like the little "TM" after Panakacakes :)
Excellent work on the clip Ady! The colour is fantastic (especially on the landing platform, where you turned the blue to brown once again), and the little extra FX are great (added traffic, added blast on trooper Chewie hits).
Just wondering though... the stormtrooper that gets hit just before the scene where 3PO bumps his head on the Falcon, it looks like there's a black mark on his chest before he gets hit. Had you noticed it? If so, was it not possible to eliminate? Or am I not seeing things correctly?
Awww... poor Han Solo. I hope Anjella doesn't lead him on too much.
I'm loving this. I can't wait to see what happens next... will Ric Olie be able to get satisfactory dental work at a decent price? Will Her'Mek succeed in attracting sentient customers in the long run, or will ronto dentistry be his doom? Oh, the excitement!
P.S. Utini!
A key member (Laserman) disappeared.
Savage said:
Happy Birthday Ady! I'll celebrate for you tonight with a Guinness or three! :)
Sorry... someone had to do it. Happy birthday Ady.
Farlander said:And I've mentioned it somewhere, that light and dark is not good and evil (and power and destructivity) at their base, but selflessness and selfishness at their base
Some good points there Farlander. I agree with you re: the nature of the two sides of the force (I think I more or less said something similar in the posted link on the other thread).
you can't really say that Vader is on the Dark Side at all in RotJ
I disagree. In ESB, Vader is "evil" (i.e., acting selfishly) in that he wants to get rid of the Emperor with Luke's help and control the galaxy. Later, in ROTJ, I don't see Vader's bringing Luke to the Emperor as a sign of having given up on this goal... Vader is hoping the Emperor's plan works (since he failed to turn Luke on his own in ESB). If Luke does turn, Vader'll have a shot at once again recruiting him to overthrow the Emperor (again, acting selfishly and therefore dark side).
An EVIL person who is conscious that he is EVIL and does BAD things is not EVIL.
I'm kind of split on this one. On one hand, someone who is regarded as "evil" by the majority usually does not see him/herself that way. Ricardo Montalban said as much about his character, Khan, in Star Trek II. To paraphrase: "a villain does not know he is a villain. He may do villainous things, but he thinks he is justified in doing them." Applying this concept to Star Wars would mean that Vader shouldn't have acknowledged his own "evilness" (I'm thinking specifically of the line "It's too late for me, son" in response to Luke saying there's still good in Vader). On the other hand, I suppose the above example also means a person could be conscious of the fact that they're evil, but feel justified in their actions in a kind of "the ends justify the means" sort of way.
I'm kinda rushing this response, so I hope I've made at least some sense.
D'oh! And here I went making a new thread to further explore this very topic. Oh well.
Pursuant to a discussion which arose from a post Farlander made in "When did you realize the prequels sucked?" thread (http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/When-did-you-realize-the-Prequels-sucked/post/414001/#TopicPost414001), the question is: which trilogy handled the idea of turning to the dark side better: the PT or the OT? Is Anakin's turn in the PT more plausible because there is a believable motivation to switch? Conversely, is the idea of Luke switching sides in the OT unlikely to occur given Luke's character development, history, and lack of motivation? What say you?
I like those rules RoccondilRinon -- they remind me of Asimov's Laws of Robotics :)
While I don't expect people to actually read every post in a 705 page thread, it is rather easy to simply skim every page for Adywan's posts. That alone would likely answer most people's questions.
@ Farlander
Regarding the PT handling the turn to the dark side better than the OT, I'm not sure I understand where you're coming from. First of all, in the OT, I always thought that the difference between the light and dark side of the force was pretty clear: the light side uses the force to achieve a sense of connectedness, understanding, patience, and faith, while the dark side uses the force for physical domination and self-aggrandizement.
As for Vader and Palpatine turning Luke, I don't think there's anything unbelievable about what they're doing. As Yoda cautioned, the dark side is alluring: it promises seemingly more power than the light side, and does so more quickly. As an analogy, think of some D&D type game: a spell that allows you to cast a fireball may look more powerful than, say, a spell that allows you to heal, but ultimately the latter spell might prove more beneficial than the former (wow, a fantasy RPG example to explain Star Wars... doubly geeky). Anywho, taking that into consideration, it's not hard to see why Luke (or anyone for that matter) may be tempted to venture down the dark path. As for how believable it would be for someone to side with someone who has hurt them?... ever heard of Stockholm syndrome, or read 1984?
I'm kind of do / kind of don't agree with you CO. On the one hand, I agree that SW is, above all else, simply a fun story, not unlike Raiders of the Lost Ark. In fact, my all-time favourite quote regarding SW is in one of the DVD extras: some movie critic ends his whole analysis of the films by simply saying, "And it's fun... it's fun watching Star Wars." I love that quotation because, to me, it really summarizes what Star Wars is all about.
On the other hand, the movies have always had a lot of ties to mythology (especially Greek myths), and have always dealt with "heavy" issues: tyranny, freedom, death, loss of innocence, etc. I don't think the OT and the PT are different in that respect, except for the fact that the PT perhaps treats these issues with a bit more seriousness which, I agree, is often misplaced.
Wow... so much that I disagree with there Farlander. I'd respond, but 1) I'm too lazy and 2) it would be off topic anyway. Maybe you should transfer that post to a thread of its own; it would generate a lot of discussion I'm sure.
Back to the topic at hand... I actually thought TPM started off pretty good. We had a classic opening crawl, mysterious-looking Jedi in the cloaks, lightsabers cutting through blast doors... and then Obi-Wan and Qui Gon decided to run away at 80 kph. 'Huh, that's weird' I thought. But I let it slide. It wasn't until a few minutes later, when Jar Jar opened his mouth and spoke his first words, that I first began to sense that something was really "off". I thought, wow, that's just.... wrong. Really, really wrong. Why is a character talking like this in a Star Wars movie?
From there, the whole film snowballed into something that felt like it was 30% Star Wars goodness and 70% pig shit. On the one hand were things like R2, the pod race, Jedi council, and the lightsaber battle (all of which I liked), and on the other were such things as Jar Jar, "Yippee!", Boss Nass doing his impression of a motor boat (what IS that about anyway?!), the Three Stooges in space, a crappy-looking Yoda, and a lacklustre space/ground battle.
Yet despite all its shortcomings, I remember leaving my first viewing of TPM (I ultimately saw it five times in theatres) thinking "Wow, that was fun!" I kept replaying Duel of the Fates in my head, and vowed to go out and buy myself a lightsaber as soon as possible. Looking back, I think the few likeable parts of the movie, combined with the novelty of having a new Star Wars movie, temporarily masked the film's suckiness for me.
As for AOTC, I initially liked it more than TPM because I felt it had a more (and I use the term loosely here) "adult" feel to it... thanks, in large part, to being 99% Jar Jar free. Like TPM, it also had its good and bad: Jango Fett, the Slave 1, a rusty-looking 3PO, a bearded Obi-Wan, and Sand People being slaughtered were cool; a poorly-executed love story, 3PO's one-liners, Yoda fighting (a.k.a. "the green blender"), and robo-waitress were bad. Upon leaving the theatre, I knew right away that it wasn't great, but it was only recently that, looking back, I now see it as being worse in some ways than TPM in terms of pacing, story, and acting.
As for ROTS, I thought (and still think) that it's the best of the PT, and in some ways is even on par with ROTJ. But it, too, has its many failings: a cackling emperor, people dying from having no "will to live", newborns with a remarkable memory, robot slapstick, and wheezy cyborgs come to mind.
Ultimately, the PT, like all Star Wars, is fun to watch (to varying degrees), but unlike the OT there is no lasting appeal... I think RedLetterMedia does a pretty good job of explaining why this is. I think Lucas should admit he cocked up, hand over the reigns to someone who's still capable of making a film, and reboot the entire PT franchise.
In an ecosystem far, far away, anything's possible :)
adywan said:and here is a sneak peek at the Wampa :)
Bitchin' :)
Those props/gloves for the Rebel Soldiers are looking good. You're a man of many talents, Ady.
^ You're right, that is off topic. Try here: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/forum.cfm/General-Star-Wars-Discussion/forum/2/
Jokke_r said:Only major problem i have with ESB is when Han suddenly decides to walk out to (as far as he know) a cave inside an asteroid in OUTER SPACE, in a vaccuum, with nothing but a breathing mask, oh and gravity on the asteroid is perfect as well. At least inside the ship they have the excuse of artificial gravity. But then again there's not much one can do to that scene.
One could argue that the asteroid is large enough to exert some gravitational pull, and therefore hold an atmosphere of sorts, albeit a thin one (hence why our heroes need to wear breathing masks). If this were the case, then I'm sure Han could have verified this on the Falcon's instruments before venturing outside.
EyeShotFirst said:I don't see how that can bother you, when you can hear explosions in space, see flames, have an ape man doggy who makes vocalizations that sound exactly the same, and people can understand him.
All that, and you are worried about the gravity inside a space slug. At this point you just have to bite your lip and think "It's just a movie."
At the risk of going off on a rant, this kind of argument drives me nuts. I think there's a big difference between physical impossibilities that exist for dramatic effect and those that are simply bad science. Of course there is no sound in space, but how exciting would the movies be without it? By that same logic, there should be no soundtrack to Star Wars either.
Someone once said that in creating any sort of science fiction or fantasy story, the audience can be expected to suspend belief in one thing; beyond that, the story loses credibility. In Star Wars, the suspension of belief occurs with the force, not with universal physical laws.
Simply amazing.
TheBoost said:
I college I also dated a girl who had never ever seen any "Star Wars" movies.
Watching them with her was like seeing it for the first time. When she asked "Who does Leia end up with, Han or Luke?" I almost cried with joy.
Looking back, that's the only worthwhile thing I got out of that relationship...
That made me laugh out loud :)
My wife has virtually no interest in Star Wars aside from ROTJ (because of the "cute teddy bears") and AOTC (because of Hayden Christensen and "the love story"). Truth be told, she gets a far bigger kick out of watching me obsess over Star Wars than from watching the films themselves. She'll do things like quiz me on random Star Wars trivia, or listen to me quote the movies in time with the actors (bonus points if one of the movies is airing on TV, and I turn off the set in one room, and know exactly what line will be spoken when I turn on the set in another room).
In the end, even though she herself doesn't care much for the films, I think she kind of regards my level of Star Wars geekiness with a certain sense of pride. I think her proudest moment came at a Christmas party a couple years ago when I beat another self-professed Star Wars geek guy at Star Wars trivial pursuit in two turns.
That being said, she still doesn't understand why anyone needs to own six different versions of a film, or how buying a stormtrooper outfit can be considered a good clothing purchase :)
adywan said:
EDIT: Corellian77 beat me to it :)
Now there's a quotation worth putting in my sig :) At least we have a variety of shots now.
I swear you've watched all of ESB frame by frame, haven't you ImpFighter? ;)
Re: Luke's ripped shoulder, I think the rip is evident in all the shots you posted. In the shots just before his hand gets chopped off (where he's lying on his back), you can see a lot of material bunched up. I think the rip's still there, but the material's all scrunched up because of the way he's lying.
Similarly, in the shots of Luke hanging on to the end of the vane, you can still see a split in the material. Although not clear in the shot where Luke's kneeling (because of the post being in front of him), in the subsequent shots you can clearly see a rip between the shoulder and sleeve of his jacket. I think the reason it's not more evident is because his arm is raised (hence allowing the material to drop back into place).
Edit: updated post with clearer screencaps.
Ripplin said:
How's that unfortunate business with the workstation coming along?
My guess is "slowly".
Yes, yes... we're long overdue for a comparison pic!
I'm with 005 on this one. The idea's very cool as an intro to a bonus disc, but for me, that classic 20th Century Fox fanfare and logo, followed by the Lucasfilm logo, is the start of Star Wars. Tinkering with it, therefore, seems like a bad idea to me.
I'm sure I'm not alone in saying that, to this day, whenever I'm watching a movie from 20th Century Fox and that logo and music start up, for a fraction of a second I get excited because my brain thinks it's about to see Star Wars (see... Pavlov was right!). Why mess with something that ingrained our our collective heads?
Thanks for the update Ady -- always nice to hear what's going on at your end. Looking forward to that clip!