unamochilla2

Alderaan said:

danny_boy said:

So the trick is to take a some-one (young or old) who does not have a clue about anything star wars and expose them in episode chronology- just to see how shocking(or not) this conversion from good to bad is.

I don't think it takes a new viewer to see the flaws in the films. Lucas seems to have lost himself in the EU, falling back on telling his audience a few superficial facts about a thousand different creations, rather than showing archetypal stories of a few individuals via dramatic conflict.

In Anakin's case, no dramatic transformation takes place on screen. In TPM, he's a sweet innocent boy. By the next film, he's a spoiled brat, a completely different character, without explanation. Scenes that demonstrate transition like that are what make movies good. But they are completely lacking in the prequels. Since Anakin already starts out as a bad apple, him "turning" to the dark side is not a meaningful story. One is left to wonder what's the big deal?

The obvious solution would have been to make Anakin a strong and noble character who experienced a series of carefully constructed events that caused him to fall from grace. Apparently that kind of extremely difficult writing is far beyond Lucas's abilities and he did not want to delegate the script to a more capable scribe.

Interestingly, Anakin was at his most noble when we saw him as child.  Shortly after we saw him older, he was hitting on Padme using a terrible pickup line and it just went downhill from there.  It's no surprise he had a creepy look on his face as a force ghost. I would have liked to have seen him as a "great warrior" as a teenager and adult.  Would have made his fall tragic instead of "so what?".

I wouldn't mind seeing more of the underground world of Star Wars but it doesn't necessarily need to go a "dark" place.

SilverWook said:

unamochilla2 said:

SilverWook said:

They certainly weren't once the action figure was out. ;)

I'd forgotten about that! Interestingly, they made some older Anakin figures for the POTF line, including a force ghost.  Have they made a Hayden ghost action figure?

 Yes, but it's not very good. I don't recall him being this sparkly. ;)

It's hilarious the card photo looks better than the movie.

They even gave him a light saber. At least the facial expression is accurate. ;-)

SilverWook said:

They certainly weren't once the action figure was out. ;)

I'd forgotten about that! Interestingly, they made some older Anakin figures for the POTF line, including a force ghost.  Have they made a Hayden ghost action figure?

Interestingly, there's a lot of people who thinks young Anakin makes sense. However, was anyone really confused who that old guy was at the end?  Has Lucas ever made a statement regarding the matter?

I would find it strange that they would use a CGI Falcon when it's physically on the set.  Then again, stranger things have happened when it comes to publicity related images.  I can understand them photoshopping Iger into the picture, though.

generalfrevious said:

Now I might have said I liked TPM for three years before I realized it sucked; now that I think about it, what I really meant to say was that it took me three years to realize that Padme was Queen Amidala all along. 

Otherwise I believe I was in denial about the badness of Episode I for a while; even when I first saw it I found Anakin to be annoying, Jar Jar Binks to be out of place, and the whole film did not feel like Star Wars. What really disappointed me about the PT was that once Qui-Gon died he was almost never mentioned again. I was hoping he would be the Obi-Wan of the new trilogy and that he would come back as a force ghost in Episodes II & III. The good news is that it took me a lot less time to shake off the next two movies.

I'm surprised Lucas didn't do that considering he was trying to "rhyme" certain PT aspects with OT.

CO said:

Koryo Songhay said:

Especially her doing her diplomat thing without Han and Luke. That aspect always fascinated me.

 From all of the Episode 7 spoilers (whether they are true or false), there hasn't been anything on Princess Leia.  No pictures, not even one tidbit as I am starting to wonder if she has the smallest role of the big 3.

I know she was on Craig Ferguson last week, and was funny as she usually is.  She said it was suprisingly easy to get back into character after 30 years.  And then she said they misused her character in Episode 7, paused, and then said she was joking after the crowd seemed displeased.  But I wonder if she really was joking?  And she just has a bit part?

There were some rumors about her appearing in the teaser either on Coruscant or with some guards addressing a higher authority.  Of course, none of the rumors about the teaser were true, not even the rumors about the music. There was also a rumor about the Hutt's putting out a hit on her for some reason.

I saw her on Ferguson, too, but I think she was joking the whole time because I believe she went on to talk about having a romance with a wookiee.  She's probably not allowed to talk specifically about her character and role in the film.  She's been pretty good about being hush hush on the specifics of subject even before she was officially announced as part of the cast.

Not really.  Especially after seeing Padme to do it in the PT.

I actually got my copy from eBay in the late 90s.  At the age of 12, I didn't realize it was an illegal copy since it came in a hard VHS case with some professional looking artwork.  The price was good and the listing said it was very rare, so I jumped on it. :-)

You think so? ;)

There are a lot of people who support the change and Hayden, which is fine.  But to cheer for for a guy with a creepy stare in an otherwise happy moment... I'd probably accept the change more if Hayden had a warm smile on his face.

I thought I remember hearing or reading (I think from Lucas' own mouth) that they deliberately made him smaller so his moving on his own would be more believable before he became the fat slug he is in ROTJ.

I highly doubt Lucas hasn't seen at least some aspects of the teaser, unless if he's living in a hole.  Kennedy, a close friend and business partner, didn't offer to show him the teaser? I think he's saying he hasn't seen it to avoid talking about it.  Also, I thought Lucas was acting a consultant and was in contact with Abrams from time to time... at least, according to his son...

The cards of Finn, Rey and Poe almost look they could have been from the late 70s/early 80s.... particulary Finn and Rey.

Interesting how they gave Poe a last name, but not Finn or Rey.  I'm wondering if revealing their last names would be.... well, too revealing at this point. Or maybe Poe Dameron is his first name?

The one thing I didn't know was the salt waterfall in TPM.  I would have assumed they CGI'd the falls.

RU.08 said:

Harmy said:

And that's only from a print, I imagine an IP or the composite used in the original negative (if still usable) could yield far better results!

That's how the shot is meant to look, it was optically composited multiple times so by the time it reached a 35mm print it was something like a 6th generation copy. They could easily scan the camera negative for that shot (if it exists) and create an artificially grain-free version with all the original detail intact (including the wheels on the speeder!)

 Has that shot ever been seen or released with the wheels visible before?

Supposedly, the color timing was changed completely for "Alice in Wonderland" (someone posted comparison screenshots from another thread) and the coloring seems to have been changed for the "Beauty and the Beast" DVD and Blu-ray.  Most recently, "The Little Mermaid" had a few changes, including moving "Walt Disney Presents" to different shot, removing a cross fade, transposing two shots (which Disney corrected and offered a replacement disc) and "cleaned up" some rough animation.  Arguably minor changes, but many of them didn't go unnoticed to die hard fans.  I'm sure there more examples of Disney altering films from how they were released theatrically.  However, their restorations are mostly faithful. I can't comment on any of their live action films.

Would someone kindly send a PM with information as to where to find this?  Thanks!

Ryan McAvoy said:

AntcuFaalb said:

Harmy said:

Revisionism is becoming a complete norm - I've just been watching the Hobbit TDoS EE BD extras and they said that in the DVD and BD release of the first Hobbit, they re-did some shots of Smaug in the prologue to match the TDoS version of him.

I agree that revisionism is unfortunately becoming commonplace, but FWIW I usually don't mind when the creator(s) of a work revise it in some minor way only a short time post-release. (Yes, this means I don't mind the '81 crawl.)

I also don't mind such changes/fixes when it's to correct unintended errors a year after release (And when we'd barely notice the change).

They tried to show as little of Smaug as possible in the prologue but they hadn't finished designing him by that point. They eventually went for no front legs in DOS but the AUJ Smaug has front legs. So why not remove them in the EE. Better than keeping the error, or going with a consistent design for Smaug that they didn't like.

Now going back 10, 20, 30 years later and changing things that didn't need changing is another kettle of fish (However, I actually would welcome FOTR Gollum being redone by Andy Serkis, so call me a massive hypocrite if you like LOL).

In a similar way, I wouldn't mind a stunning new transfer of the OT that corrected a few flaws Adywan style but stayed true to the original print in spirit. Having the original untouched version as well would of course be preferrable.

I wouldn't be surprised if Disney did that considering they have tweaked and altered some of their own films (particularly the animated films), though usually minor and unnoticeable.

RU.08 said:

While he was complicit in 1997, a month before his death he told a different story about the DVD version:

Is it satisfying that Empire has been changed the least of the original trilogy with the 1997 Special Editions and DVD release?

When the film was released in 1997 and later put into DVD, I was very gratified that it was almost unchanged, except the sound was much improved, whereas Star Wars and Jedi had big changes.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2010/10/irvin-kershner

Doesn't ESB actually have the most changes, but just the least noticeable when compared to SW and ROTJ?  I find the additions to the Cloud City escape just as bad as some of the "big" changes in the other films as they completely ruin the pace and flow of the scene.

http://www.starwars.com/video/the-lost-missions-q-and-a-force-ghosts

Anakin appearing young as a force ghost is "explained."  I guess this guy doesn't realize that Anakin didn't die as a "wicked old man" considering he just saved his son from death.

Do you think they'll put "Episode VII" or "VII" on the official posters?

Next trailer to be released with Avengers: Age of Ultron.  The article speculates about possible teasers before then, specifically during the Superbowl.

Did anyone go to see the teaser on the big screen?  I would have if they didn't release it online since it was playing at a nearby theater.