lordjedi

Blackjack said:

Where are we now with the EU?  about 50 years after RotJ?

 

how long will it be before we have han luke and leia sitting in the nursing home sniping at each other?

 

 

Actually, if I'm not mistaken, the Legacy series takes place 100 years after ROTJ.  From JediNet.com:

The future of Star Wars is here in an all-new series set more than a century after Return of the Jedi and the New Jedi Order!

The Jedi Temple is attacked, an Emperor is betrayed, and the Sith are born anew! A lot can happen in a hundred years, but all of the above happens just in this first issue! Not since Luke Skywalker first stepped aboard the Millennium Falcon has the galaxy seemed like such a vast, exciting, dangerous place!

See, they had to take the series that far out in order for people to accept that they wouldn't see Luke, Han, or Leia.

Janskeet said:

This is the forth shitty DVD release in 4 years! How many times can he re-release the same thing?

As many times as he wants as long as the retailers keep buying them up and selling them.

My theory why these are not in blu-ray is because GL knows that with blu-ray he'll have plenty of more space on a disk to work with. He'll have plenty of room to store more than one version of a movie on one disk and he knows that he is obligated to give us what we want even more with that format since there is so much more space. So he's keeping it on DVD as long as he can so he doesn't have as much of an onbligation to put more stuff on the disk like the OOT, deleted scenes, vintage documentaries, and behind the scenes footage. He doesn't want you to know too much about what went on behind the scenes. It'll blow his cover that he didn't have as much control or skill as a filmmaker making the movies, and had a lot less knowledge of where to take the films than what he wants us to think.

His cover has already been blown ;)

Seriously, he's not "obligated" to do a damn thing.  He could release the shitty GOUT or even the 04 set on Blu-ray and the worse he'd get is more backlash and lower sales.  I don't think he's that stupid.  This has almost nothing to do with having more space on a Blu-ray disc.  He simply doesn't want to release it yet.

I think, if he ever does release it on Blu-ray it'll be next year or maybe even 2010.  So far, he's given no indication that he even has any plans to release it on Blu-ray.  We'll probably even get the Clone Wars movie and TV show on standard DVD.

All that talk about wanting people to see it with the best picture and sound quality is now nothing more than bullshit.  He simply didn't want to give us the stuff and I don't think he wants to give it to us now either.

negative1 said:

well, thanks to the flop that was wall-e,

they're cranking out the dvd extra early so they

can hopefully get some money off it:

http://www.thedigitalbits.com/#mytwocents

Hey kids... so the big news today is that Disney and Pixar are dropping Wall-E on DVD and Blu-ray Disc on 11/18.

later

-1

Dude, you're to funny.  Wall-E was released on June 27th.  It's hitting DVD on November 18th.  That doesn't exactly sound rushed to me.  Indy IV was released in May and is getting an October DVD.  Those are both in line with pretty much industry norms for releases.  Movie comes out then 5-7 months later the DVD is released.  That's the way its been for about the last 10 years.

We get that you didn't like it, but having the DVD out in time for the holiday season isn't early or a rush.  It's called smart marketing.

BTW, digitalbits almost always uses the term "the big news today is..." since just about every release is big news.  It would be shocking if it had come out on DVD in July or even August and that would have really been "big news".

I couldn't have said it any better.

Please, give us some stories about some other people or groups.  It does not have to continually revolve around Luke, Han, and Leia.  The galaxy is HUGE.  Give us an adventure around Baron Fel or anyone else.  Sure, if you haven't kept up, you won't be able to jump right in, but I don't think anyone can do that at this point anyway with all the crossovers and everything else.

skyjedi2005 said:

Robert Downey Jr's a downer when it comes to the dark knight

"I feel like I’m dumb because I feel like I don’t get how many things that are so smart. It’s like a Ferrari engine of storytelling and script writing and I’m like, ‘That’s not my idea of what I want to see in a movie…Didn’t get it, still can’t tell you what happened in the movie, what happened to the character and in the end they need him to be a bad guy. I’m like, ‘I get it. This is so high brow and so fucking smart, I clearly need a college education to understand this movie.’ You know what? Fuck DC comics. That’s all I have to say and that’s where I’m really coming from."

And since when does any Hollywood elite's opinion matter to the comic book fans that really love the comics and want to see that in the movies?  Seriously, if he can't tell us what happened in the movie, maybe he needs a high school education.

I like Robert Downey Jr. a lot.  I loved him as Iron Man (I think he played it perfectly).  But he's just way far off on this one.

C3PX said:

Wow, I have never heard of either of those shows.

You're not missing anything.  I've seen some of both of those shows.  Ugh!

But I'm a child of the 80s.  I miss the greats like Tom and Jerry and the School House Rocks saturday morning cartoons.  Yes, I know they're on DVD, I just don't have them yet.

Why do they need to continually have a Sith rise up to control the galaxy every 50-100 years?  According to the PT, no Sith had been in power "for a millenia", so why the hell does it need to happen so often now?  Are the Jedi even dumber than they were before to continually let these Knights cross to the Dark Side and then take over the galaxy?

Why not try something new?  Instead of "the Sith of the week" or "the super weapon of the week", they could just present a conflict on a planet that someone needs to resolve.  Or they could write a book about one character, maybe something like I, Jedi.  Why continually rehash the same thing, over and over and over again.  It gets tiresome.  "Oh look, it's been 100 years since a Sith was in power and now there's one there again.  How did that happen?  Oh yeah, he got a bunch of bad guys together and slaughtered all the stupid Jedi who were to damn blind to see the shit happening...AGAIN!"

The Star Wars galaxy has been in a state of perpetual conflict since the PT.  You would think a group of people charged with "keeping the peace" would have learned something about seeing it coming by now.

Kaboom: No, Greedo did
Kaboom: Han Solo is just so incredibly l33t, that he was able to bend time and space around him to make it look like HE did

 

That's awesome!

EDIT: And why am I getting black text as well?  As far as I know, there's no formatting on that text.

We've been enjoying the new season of Eureka on Sci-Fi.

Other than that, we're really looking forward to Heroes.  "They're called heroes because they're the good guys".  From the previews so far, it looks really excellent!

vote_for_palpatine said:

Anyone else with me?

No.

The reason for most of those other series reboots is because the series themselves became absolutely horrible under multiple directors.  Just look at Batman for a prime example.  The first one was pretty good.  The second one wasn't quite as good, but it was still bearable.  Then enter Joel Schumacher.  The series became completely horrid.  Val Kilmer and George Clooney were horrible as Batman.  The suit became a total joke (anyone remember all the nipple jokes?).  They gave him two tries and the second one was even worse then the first.  The only way to resurrect it at that point was to fire him and then hire people who loved the comics and wanted to bring that feel back to the movies.  Enter Christopher Nolan.

Star Trek has become pretty similar, but not nearly as bad.  Again, they just needed some fresh blood and some people who are huge fans of the originals.

Star Wars doesn't need a reboot of the originals.  It needs a reboot of the prequels.  But that will only happen with a different director and it would end up being a Fan Film at that point anyway.

CO said:

If these are the same disks but repackaged, this is going one confusing aisle when the buyer reaches the Star Wars Section:

Consumer:  "OK, what I should I get my kids........They said they like Episode IV, V, and VI.  Ok, I see there is a boxset from 2004 with Darth Vader on it.... no wait there is a boxset from 2005 with the Original Characters on it..... no wait they are sold individually from 2006..... no wait there is a boxset that came out this November.   Excuse me sir, what is the difference between all of these sets?

Best Buy Guy:  OK, you have the 2004 set, they are fully remastered, yet they couldn't get the lightsabers right, but they are the Special Editions, then you have the 2005 set, they are the same set without the bonus disk, then you have the 2006 set, which are the original versions along with the same set from 2004/2005, the problem is these original versions look like shit cause they are not remastered, then you have the 2008 set which are combo of the 2004/2005/2006 Special Editions which are fully remastered, but the lightsabers are wrong, and they are the special editions, along with the original versions that look like shit.  Got it?

Consumer:  Umm......maybe I'll take a pass on any SW stuff for my kid, where are the Pirates of the Caribbean DVD's?

You're giving the Best Buy guy waaaay to much credit.  From my experience, the exchange would be more like this:

Consumer: What's the difference between all these sets?

BB Guy:  This 2004 set is the full remastered special editions.  The 2005 set is the same without the bonus disc.  The 2006 set is the same as the 2004 set but it comes with the original versions as well.  The 2008 set is the same as the 2006 set, but with a different package.

Consumer:  Sounds like either the 2006 or 2008 set is the best one to get since it comes with the bonus disc and the only difference is the art.  Thanks!

I'm not even sure if the BB guy would mention that they're special editions.  More than likely, he wouldn't until stating the part about the originals, at which point, the consumer would probably ask "What do you mean originals?  Aren't these other ones the originals?"  Then they'd both notice the "Special Edition" on the package.  I highly doubt a BB drone would mention anything about shotty lightsaber colors or a shitty looking DVD.  In fact, I know of only one BB in my area, about 15 miles away, where the employees would know about that.  I doubt they'd mention it though since it would be a guaranteed lost sale.

Other than that, you're probably right about them buying something else.  The other thing a consumer might ask is "Do you have these in Blu-ray?".  If not, it may still be a lost sale.

My old boss refers to her dogs as "bitches" all the time.  They are in fact female.  If you're not use to hearing it though, it can be a bit weird.

Crygor64 said:

And to the profit bean counters, Clone Wars is part of a TV series that has already been bought and paid for.  The only costs on the movie are promotion and making the prints. Anything above that is pure profit. I'm sure Lucas is happy.  This movie is really a commercial for the TV show anyway.

...

On a side note, Clone Wars is head over heels above current kids TV shows like Ben 10, Transformers Animated, etc...  I'm glad the kids have something fun to watch.  I know I will be sure to set my Tivo.

Something tells me Cartoon Network didn't buy all 5 seasons in one shot, like Lucas wanted.  I'm sure they bought the movie and one season and are going to see how it does before signing on for more.  We'll see how well the actual TV series does.  Promotional costs are high no matter how you look at it.  If you can't make back your promotional costs from box office grosses, you're looking at a loss.

Clone Wars may be better than that crap, but that doesn't mean that stuff isn't crap too.  There's plenty of good shows for kids of all ages to watch.  We have no trouble finding something for our kid to watch and it doesn't include those shows.  Of course, he's barely two, so he's mostly just watching really little kid shows.

prydie said:

Janskeet said:

Johnboy3434 said:

skyjedi2005 said:

They guy is a self labeled Machiavellian dictator over his films. He admits he's a stubborn ass and wants things his own way, but says he won't apologize.

 

Why should he?

 

Because we put him on the map, without our money he'd be nothing. Also, he's treating us like 2nd class citizens.

Amen. It's time to vote with our wallets and stop giving this tyrant the funds to stroke his massive ego. I say we we rip everything he does from the internet and give it away for free on street corners. Don't buy that $200 Millennium Falcon from Hasbro, no matter how cool it looks - break it in the shop so no one can buy it!

Explain to your kids why you now hate George Lucas and by extension Star Wars so much. My little brothers like the PT until I challenged their perception. Kids aren't that stupid. All they need is guidance. Now my brothers see the trumped-up, firework display of a toy advertisement those movies are. They too are disgusted that Greedo now shoots first. Lets educate this new generation instead of creating new little cash drones for Lucas to feed on. Lets take back the history books and fill in some truth.

 

I wouldn't go so far as to break store merchandise.  Simply don't buy it.  If it sits on the shelves and doesn't move, eventually it gets put on clearance.  The longer it sits, the more likely the store is to not buy it (or as much) next time.  Eventually you end up with a very small section of toys for Star Wars (remember how it use to take up the whole aisle in most stores, now it's just a small area of that aisle).

And you don't have to explain why you hate Lucas.  Just show them the originals and explain all the things that were changed and the supposed "reasons" for the changes.  That's usually enough to get people to say "Well, that's dumb".

As more and more people (who aren't hardcore fans) start seeing and hearing about what Lucas has done, more and more of them will just stop buying the merchandise.  At some point, Lucas will be forced to move on and do those "little films" that "no one wants to see" because no one will want to see or buy anything Star Wars anyway.

GhostAlpha26 said:

What I was pointing out is, Responsible today, reckless tomorrow. Its just that easy at times with drugs. But now its clear since you can be responsible you have anecdotal evidence to back up your air tight defense.

It's usually the other way around.  It's usually reckless today (read: young and stupid), responsible tomorrow (read: older and wiser).  Yeah, sure, I know a few high school people that can drink responsibly, but those are rare.  But I know a fair share of adults that can drink with no problem (cousins, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters, friends, coworkers, etc, etc, etc).

I'd even go so far as to say that most people don't start out drinking responsibly.  But as they get older, they become much more responsible.  I can honestly say that I'm one of the few people I know that didn't drink through high school, yet I still got hammered on the weekends after I turned 21.  I got wasted off my ass, but I was still smart enough to not go driving anywhere or be on 2nd story balconies.  And as I got older, and had more responsibilities, I became a more responsible drinker.

I dare say that there are far more responsible drinkers (and pot smokers) then there are irresponsible ones.  But you never hear about the responsible ones because they aren't getting in trouble.  Of the top 10 causes of death in the US, motor vehicle accidents comes in as part of number 5 (accidental deaths) and only 37% of those are "alcohol related" (15,829 according to http://www.alcoholalert.com/drunk-driving-statistics.html).

This isn't about "anecdotal evidence".  It never was.  It's about your claims that drinking and smoking pot cannot be done responsibly.  If it couldn't be done responsibly, then I would think that every person that ever takes a drink of alcohol or smokes a joint would just fall down dead.

SilverWook said:

Note how a movie like Star Trek 6 gets away with oodles of Klingon blood in a PG film by making it look like pepto bismol. ;)

Making bloody scenes black and white, as Tarantino discovered, will also get you around ratings like an NC-17 :)

Clone Wars was revised downward again.  By about another million.  So if it had a $10 mil budget, it's just barely a success.  Pretty sad that a Star Wars movie premieres in number 3 and makes less than $15 mil opening weekend.

http://www.boxofficemojo.com/weekend/chart/?yr=2008&wknd=33&p=.htm

Got any pics of those toys Mielr?  Those actually sound pretty cool.  I'll buy pretty much anything OT related these days.  I just avoid all the PT stuff.  I think that sends a strong enough message.

EDIT: Nevermind.  I found a photo on TFN :P  They look...um...funny...in a strange way.

Mielr said:

Massawyrm at AICN makes some really good points about the whole "kid's film" debate: http://www.aintitcool.com/node/37951

.............But lets step back for a moment. Tell me something. In what universe do you live that the charred, smoldering remains of a character’s aunt and uncle constitute the makings of a kids movie?"

 

Well, I'll tell you what universe.  It's the universe where a 10 year old can be glued to the television, watching a movie his parents taped off TV for him, every morning for 3 months straight during summer vacation.  Honestly, I guess I just didn't think about the fact that they were "smoldering remains".  All I thought was "Luke's Aunt and Uncle are dead now".  To take it a step further, how is destroying a planet something you'd see in a kids movie?  Again, it's probably not something you expect.  And that leads me to...

Gaffer Tape said:

Hehe, I love that.  I was all taken in by the poignancy of the second paragraph only to bust a gut at the end.  And, of course, that reminds me of George's flip-flopping stance about his own movies, where he constantly asserts that Star Wars is for kids yet was forced to defend himself for the violent imagery in Revenge of the Sith.

The violent imagery in ROTS was far worse than seeing two charred skeletons in the remains of the homestead.  Even today, when I saw ROTS, I was physically grossed out.  But when I watch ANH, I do not get that same feeling.  On the contrary, when seeing Beru and Owen's charred remains, my only thoughts were that Luke was now free to move on and begin his training as a Jedi.

Don't forget that ROTS is the only Star Wars movie to receive a PG-13 rating.

The skull probably isn't that big.  I imagine it's no bigger than the statues that came with the LOTR sets.

Out of all the ones listed on Amazon, the single disc DVD is the only one listed without a discount.  Considering most single disc DVDs sell for under $20 at retail stores these days, I would hope it isn't $24.99.  That's almost 2 disc package price territory.

MrBrown said:

Well the German Indiana Jones 4 Double Disc is about $59

http://www.amazon.de/Indiana-K%C3%B6nigreich-Kristallsch%C3%A4dels-Limitierte-Kristallsch%C3%A4del/dp/B001CBVJ56/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1218970609&sr=8-1

 

..okay its with a nic goodie :)

That's a hell of a goodie.  That's worth the price right there.

I think it's interesting that they can estimate Sunday's take based on Friday and Saturday, but I guess they figure most people would have gone either Friday night or Saturday.  So I suppose there's still a possibility that the numbers can be further revised downward.

That's really sad imo.  I agree with CO.  It's pretty sad that a Star Wars movie, cartoon or not, premiered at #3.  Knowing Lucas, he'll just blame it on the fans.  That's fine by me actually.  Blame it on us all you want.  The reality is that we no longer want to see what you're turning out.

EDIT: And TDK just overtook the original Star Wars on the all time list (non adjusted of course).  It still has $130 mil to catch up to Titanic, so I don't think that one's going down.

But that's my point.  Why is pandering to children suddenly accepted for this movie?  I'm certainly not comparing Wall-E (or any Pixar movie) to Clone Wars.  I'm genuinely curious why it's acceptable for this movie to be considered good "for a kids movie" when it's just pandering to them.  If it's "here today, gone tomorrow" then why even bother with it?  It has no lasting impact, unlike the OT which is still being referenced in TV shows and other movies 30 years after it was released.

Sorry, I guess I just don't get it.

bigbaddaddyvader said:

Well as I said I enjoyed taking my son and I didnt really have that big a problem with the movie-mostly because my son enjoyed it.If I didnt have kids I wouldn't have gone as I am in my mid-thirties so why would I go on my own at this age to something like this?

Because it's part of the Star Wars mythos?  Seriously, animated or not, if this was actually good and not targeted strictly at kids, why wouldn't someone want to see this?  I've wanted to see everything that Pixar has put out, whether I had kids or not.  Why?  Because they aren't made strictly for kids.  Sure, they're good kids movies in their own right, but adults can enjoy them as well.

Why do we expect less from Star Wars?

skyjedi2005 said:

Yeah and Lucas claimed months ago he was not going to go blu.  That he was supporting online downloads Like Bill Gates.

 

Now suddenly Indy IV on Blu Ray, methinks lucas saw the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$

When did that happen?  Last I heard was from McCallum saying they were waiting for the format war to be over.  Well, it's over, so where's the announcment about Star Wars on Blu-ray?  Oh, that's right, there isn't one and probably won't be one for a while.

If it doesn't do well, then whether LFL wants to release one every year or not won't matter.  Warner Bros. is distributing this and even if it breaks even, they may decide that that isn't enough to warrant a new one every year.  At that point, the rest will be straight to TV or LFL will have to start distributing it themselves.

Let's wait and see how it turns out.  My gut says that even with a $20 mil opening weekend it's seen as a failure, even if it does make a profit at that amount.  You can't seriously just be expecting only the people that love the PT to come see this.  Star Wars is a franchise that covers the OT and PT and if you don't have the OT fans, you won't have a lasting audience.

One final note is that kids don't actually have their own money to spend to go see this.  So if their parents, who are fans of the OT and maybe can't stand the PT, don't take them, then they won't be seeing this anyway.  So again, you can't just draw in kids without drawing in the parents.  I'm sure there are some that don't care about the quality of the movie and just see it as a 1.5 hr "keep em busy" piece of entertainment, but those surely won't last past opening weekend and they won't keep going back to see it again and again.