theprequelsrule

Okay, okay, I'll play nice.

Highlander 2

Sean Connery gave a good performance (IIRC - it has been a while since I saw it).

MJPollard said:

Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace (you knew it was coming sooner or later)

Say what you will about the flaws in this movie (and there are many), but it's hard to find fault with Liam Neeson. He always gives his all in whatever film he's in, and his characterization of Qui-Gon Jinn is no exception. His Qui-Gon is the Jedi we all want to see: quiet, dignified, wise in many ways, yet not afraid to "mix it up" when he has to (and he has the skills to back it up).

Qui-Gon was lifeless and boring, which I guess made him seem dignified when put on the screen next to the silly antics of Jar Jar and Anakin.

Obi-wan as played by Alec Guiness - that was dignified.

Bingowings said:

I don't have a problem with a story that isn't necessary in an OT context.

If anything the PT would have been stronger if it had avoided ticking too many OT boxes (like having Anakin the main focus).

The problem was the dearth of story altogether and the frequent absence of logic in the little story that is there.

Even the most insubstantial cipher of a character can function well in a well defined story which makes narrative sense.

The PT is as abstract as cinema can get, it's all shapes and colours without people or a flow of events but unlike something like a Lynch film it's all by accident not by design.

I know what you mean. I was just struck recently about how well each scene in Star Wars 77 leads to the next one. The script is very logical and, really, really, tight. Each scene is just as long as it needs to be. Compare the long, drawn out space battle of ROTS to see what not to do.

ChainsawAsh said:

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

The whole graveyard scene is awesome.

Noooooooooooooooooo!!!

xhonzi said:

Tone.

Can you elaborate?

Starship Troopers

Casper Van Dien was haaawt! *swoons*

I'll go with RLM's view that they did not have a sympathetic protagonist. If we could have liked and identified with Anakin, maybe the prequels would have been mediocre instead of putrid.

Oct. 12th, 2011 EDIT: The movies also lacked a strong antagonist. Darth Maul is killed off at the end of TPM. Dooku is only introduced at the end of Clones - then killed off at the beginning of Sith! Grevious is introduced in the last film...and just sucked.

TV's Frink said:

I remember the 97 SE fondly, but it had more to do with the experience of seeing it in the theater after all those years.

I agree with ^. It was a great experience at the time, but really the SEs suck.

For me the 1999-2002 time frame killed Star Wars - terrible films and terrible EU at the same time. A partial resurrection followed with the two KOTOR games, but ROTS came along and essentially nuked the franchise from orbit.

These blu-rays are essentially Lucas desecrating Star War's corpse.

Ladies and gentlemen, it has come to this for me: at this point I would not get the OOT even if it was given a proper release. I'll stick with the GOUT, for better or worse. Lucas does not deserve any further support. None.

So, yeah, this shit has finally made me crazy

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Here's the review I posted on Amazon:

In 1978, Star Wars was nominated for 10 academy awards (including best picture, best screenplay, best supporting actor, etc.) ultimately winning 7 including awards for editing, sound mixing, and special effects. The AFI lists "Star Wars" as #15 on its list of all time greatest films. Make no mistake, this isn't just a fun romp, it is a very significant and important film.

Understand that the version in this box set is NOT that version, but a version that has been largely painted over with 21st century computer graphics, does NOT include the academy-award-winning sound mix, and with many different and more recent editing decisions. On this version, the effects and edits you see may be from 1977, or they might be from 1997, or maybe 2004, or maybe 2011... they might be the original academy-award-winning animatronics of Stears Dykstra, Edlund, and McCune that have never been equaled, or they might have been replaced by dated-looking 1990s computer-graphics, or they might be new things that were thrown in a couple of months ago. The choice of scenes and editing of those scenes might be the academy-awarding winning ones made by Paul Hirsch and Marcia Lucas, or they might be newer ones made by people who are preparing the movie for future 3D-a-rama. The glorious academy-award-winning sound mix by MacDougall, West, Minkler and Ballhas remains unavailable and has been replaced here by a completely different, over-compressed one that is unlikely to have won an academy award in 1978, let alone today, and wherein the young remixer even inserted his own voice.

In short, this release not only fails utterly to preserve a major artifact of our cinematic heritage, it goes further in that its producer has made it clear that he will never allow that seminal work to be accurately preserved. This is not simply a bad product, it is a serious blow to art history and to our popular cultural heritage.

Right on Brother Puggo. Right on.

Adium said:

theprequelsrule said:Buying the blu-ray used to make your own versions is acceptable, so I implore guys like Adawyn, Harmy, and others to go this route.

Yeah, this is so true. I'm not gonna tell them what to do with their money, but there no rush... I'm sure the fan edit community will forgive you guys if you wait a week and pick up the blu rays used =P

Thanks man. Some of these other guys don't seem to get it. This is not 2004 or 2006. George has escalated the conflict and we must reply in kind or else appear weak to the Russians!

xhonzi said:

theprequelsrule said:

xhonzi said:

theprequelsrule said:

darth_ender said:

Thanks :)  See, we can all get along.

Love people individually, hate them collectively. It is a recipe for a happy life.

Especially if they're of another race.

Wait, wut?

Hate all races equally. Even your own. Especially your own. Once people get together and form a "group identity" it is all over.

Radical individualism is the way to go. Not my idea. That is the message I get from the words of Jesus.

How can I hate people of my own race but not still be identifying people by race?

You just hate everybody. Then if you meet them - and they are okay - you can like them. Jeez, how hard is this to grasp xhoni?!

xhonzi said:

theprequelsrule said:

darth_ender said:

Thanks :)  See, we can all get along.

Love people individually, hate them collectively. It is a recipe for a happy life.

Especially if they're of another race.

Wait, wut?

Hate all races equally. Even your own. Especially your own. Once people get together and form a "group identity" it is all over.

Radical individualism is the way to go. Not my idea. That is the message I get from the words of Jesus.

darth_ender said:

Thanks :)  See, we can all get along.

Love people individually, hate them collectively. It is a recipe for a happy life.

darth_ender said:

Know what I hate?  I hate racism.  But you know what else I hate?  I hate the fact that folks look for every opportunity to accuse conservatives of racism that they can.  Nevermind that Lincoln was a Republican.  Nevermind that the KKK was started by Democrats.  Nevermind that conservatives teach that all people are created equal.  Nevermind that Michael Steele and was elected to be chair of the RNC.  Nevermind that two other prominent black men have recently run for Republican presidential tickets (Alan Keyes and Herman Cain).  Nevermind that so many conservatives actually go out of their way to avoid any hint of being perceived as racist, while liberals are not shy at all about their racism (not only blaming everything on whites, but even speaking negatively about black conservatives, such as Herman Cain and Alveda King.

I understand that racism is an ongoing problem.  But its use as ammunition to discredit anything said by a conservative is actually perpetuating what divides the races rather than unifying.  People who spend time together learn to get along, even if they originally had misgivings.  But when one side is victimized, they feel animosity towards the other.  Then the other side feels it is victimized by being stereotyped as such, and they feel angst towards the first group.  It's a perpetuating cycle, and it's brought on by the overused race card.  When we stop caring so much about what literally is little more than a minor genetic difference, then racism will finally begin to diminish.

I agree. Good post. And I'm a liberal (I think).

SpenceEdit said:

So I'm the problem because I'm a Star Wars fan and am looking forward to purchasing the blu-ray set?

I get why this site exists, and I agree that George should release the Original Trilogy in good quality. He really should. But me buying Star Wars stuff is not part of the problem. The petitions won't work, boycotting the release won't work, and not buying a Commander Rex ultimate silver plated action figure will not work. Lucas has to decide to release the movies as they were, and he doesn't want to. That's the "fucking problem" as it was so eloquently put.

Can I just enjoy my Star Wars stuff in peace? Can't we all just get along?

In answer to your questions:

1. Yes
2. Yes
3. No

But to clarify my position - George will not release the OOT. He hates it. I will not - in any way, shape, or form - support him or his empire financially any longer. No comics,  no action figures, no soundtracks, no video games, no fastfood chain tie ins. Nothing.

Buying the blu-ray used to make your own versions is acceptable, so I implore guys like Adawyn, Harmy, and others to go this route.

Keep feeding the machine people, keep feeding the machine...

To all those who support, or semi-support this release: YOU ARE PART OF THE FUCKING PROBLEM. The only way we have a chance of getting a proper release of the OOT is to refuse to purchase these films if they do not include it. If nobody bought these blu-rays, Lucasfilm would be shitting themselves and would release an...

You know what, fuck it. George probably wouldn't release the OOT just out of spite. Apparently the last time he viewed them publicly he was wincing and cringing when watching it. He fucking hates them because he has no fucking taste in good fucking movies anymore. TPM, AOTC, ROTS, Indy 4: they all point to this asshole's complete fucking idiocy, lack of restraint, and love for shitty and fucking unconvincing CGI.

So yes, go ahead and buy these for your oh-so-precious deleted scenes.

skyjedi2005 said:

I thought Matt and Trey were a bit extreme in that indiana jones south park episode, but now i see they were right on the money.

Me too. How did it come to this?

xhonzi said:

theprequelsrule said:

I think that perhaps the best EU product is the video game KOTOR 2 ( despite the final 10% of the game being a rushed, unfinished mess). It has probably the best writing you will find in any Star Wars product, including the original films.

 

Hmm... maybe I'll have to give it another go.  I was a little underwhelmed by KotOR but still decided to give KotOR2 a shot.  I was even more underwhelmed, so I gave up about 2-3 hours in.

Admittedly the game's combat system isn't great, but the themes that are explored in the game and the dialogue make up for it. IMHO of course. It does take quite a while to take off - maybe 10 hours or so.

Remember Xhonzi, I am endorsing this in my capacity as a stalwart prequel-hater and OOT lover!

EDIT: get the version for computer and then download the restoration mod that inserts relevant cut content.

FURTHER EDIT: The game comes together more and more upon replays. It was more satisfying on my third or fourth play-through because I noticed dialogue that I had missed/not paid attention to the first time around that helps to connect some dots, bring out some ideas etc.

FURTHER-FURTHER EDIT: If it means anything to you the script for the game was written by Chris Avellone. The guy who wrote the game Planescape Torment.

Put Captain Solo in the Cargo Hold said:

We shouldn't let the disappointment of Star Wars's situation mare the enjoyment of great films being finally given great releases.

We shouldn't, but it's hard, you know?

Then I'm a geeza. Easily.

TheBoost said:

theprequelsrule said:

Sluggo said:

I don't know about you, but I've been looking forward to seeing the deleted scenes since 1977 when I read the novelization and the Star Wars Storybook.  I don't know how old you are, but there are some geeza's out there who having some serious conflict about buying/not buying because of the bonus discs.

I've seen them on youtube and Deleted Magic. That was good enough. And at what age is one considered a "geeza" in Star Wars fandom? Over 30? Over 40?

 19.

For real?

Sluggo said:

theprequelsrule said:

I've been thinking about the deleted scenes. They are interesting I guess, but if I never see them it won't kill me. The whole "Wow, deleted scenes!" was cool at the beginning of the DVD era, but I've come to realize that most were  deleted for good reason and are little more than curiosities.

I don't know about you, but I've been looking forward to seeing the deleted scenes since 1977 when I read the novelization and the Star Wars Storybook.  I don't know how old you are, but there are some geeza's out there who having some serious conflict about buying/not buying because of the bonus discs.

I've seen them on youtube and Deleted Magic. That was good enough. And at what age is one considered a "geeza" in Star Wars fandom? Over 30? Over 40?

Baronlando said:

Wonder how fast will LFL be able to take down the deleted scenes from youtube once they start showing up. I really don't want to buy this fucking thing just for them.

I've been thinking about the deleted scenes. They are interesting I guess, but if I never see them it won't kill me. The whole "Wow, deleted scenes!" was cool at the beginning of the DVD era, but I've come to realize that most were  deleted for good reason and are little more than curiosities.

The main reason for buying DVD, blu-ray, digital copies etc. for me is that they don't wear out as fast as tape. All the extra stuff is really "meh". Even most director's commentaries suck. At best I listen once and that is it.

Having said that, if the Star Wars blues (pun intended) had new commentary tracks - say with Harrison, Carrie, and Mark together all in the same commentary (not spliced together) - then it would be a real shame that I had to pass on it due to George's continued idiocy.