xhonzi

Warbler said:

I've decided to remove everyone from my ignore list. 

Carp, now I'm back to not being ignored by anyone.  :(

Where's bkev when I need him?

ImperialFighter said:

TV's Frink said:

xhonzi said:

dark_jedi said:

more screens,

 

Hey look!  It's xhonzi!

Oh hai, xhonzi!

Ha!  I had the same thought, but didn't want to get banned. ;-)

You and xhonzi are perfectly safe TV's Frink...

Well, xhonzi is safe!  He's hiding in the heavy equipment.  I think Frink is standing right below the alien!  He's about to bite it!  (Or, get bitten by it).

TV's Frink said:

xhonzi said:

dark_jedi said:

more screens,

 

Hey look!  It's xhonzi!

Oh hai, xhonzi!

Ha!  I had the same thought, but didn't want to get banned. ;-)

Hey now, are you trying to get me banned?

A-Man,

From http://www.wordiq.com/definition/Laserdisc

Technical information

Video was stored on LD as an analog signal, while audio could be stored in either analog or digital format and in a variety of surround sound formats. Like on a CD, the surface of the disc is an aluminium foil covered by pits and lands, but whereas on a audio CD (or DVD) the pits and lands will signify binary codes, on an LD the pits are created using frequency modulation of an analog signal.

NTSC discs could carry two analog audio tracks, plus two uncompressed PCM digital audio tracks, which were generally CD quality. PAL discs could carry one pair, either analog or digital. Dolby Digital (also called AC-3) and DTS, which are now common on DVD titles, first became available on Laserdisc. Star Wars: Episode I (1999) was released on Laserdisc in Japan, and holds the distinguishing record of being both the first home video release to include 6.1 channel Dolby Digital EX Surround, and the only Laserdisc to ever use the EX codec. Many later discs have no analog audio track, instead offering the choice of a CD-quality PCM audio track (carried directly via the player's optical output) or Dolby Digital. Players could generally convert PCM tracks to analog using an internal digital to analog converter. DTS equipped discs would still be equipped with an analog channel, as DTS uses the space the PCM tracks would normally occupy.

Ah, I see.  You are suggesting a new war, but with the old players- just not necessarily aligned the way they were previously.  Is that right?

I guess I get a little tired of, "The War is Dead!  Long live the War!"  And when it's the same people involved over and over again, you have to think: Man!  You are the worst peacekeepers... EVER!

Well... JT34 is still not ignoring me.  But now Warbler is.

Wahoo!

dark_jedi said:

more screens,

  

Hey look!  It's xhonzi!

Oh hai, xhonzi!

Star Wars
The Mulligan Prequel Trilogy
Episode 1 - A New Threat

Crawl:
It is a period of Galactic War.  In the 7 years since the uneasy peace established at the violent end of the GREAT CLONE WAR, its end has slowly disnintegrated.  Now a new enemy is taking advantage of the ravaged galaxy, and a battle fatigued Galactic Republic. 

Mercenaries under the leadership of MANDALORIAN War Lords are conducting hit and fade assaults on critical industrial and agricultural centers, crippling the Republic's ability to sustain its people.  Warships from all over the Republic are converging over TRAXIS in order to stop an attack on the planet's power generation facilities.

Peaceful classical music plays as the camera pans down and tracks a large battle cruiser coming out of hyperspace.  The cruiser passes by the camera and the large battle surrounding Traxis is revealed.  We cut to a shot inside the hanger of this ship. 

The hanger doors slide open and three assault transports lift off and slide out of the hanger.  The sound is muted, and the action seems to be in slow motion.  As the three shuttles leave the hanger, we see several medium sized fighters come to flank the transports as they head to the surface.  Popping lights, explosions, and lasers shake the space around the shuttles.  Enemy fire from offscreen focuses on the leftmost shuttle- scoring many hits.  Turrets on the fighters and the shuttles swivel in that direction and return fire.  Other turrets and guns fire at other offscreen targets.  The targeted shuttle silently and peacefully swells and then bursts as the beautiful explosion it was containing emerges through the seams.  The turrets track the enemy fighters as they fly above the frame.  Presumably the enemy craft are destroyed as the turrets cease firing in that direction and take on other random targets.  In the de-focused background, you can see other quick flashes and movement of the space battle. 

The group of hero space craft reach the atmosphere where the remaining fighter escort peels off and rejoins the space battle above.  The two troop transports sink through the upper atmosphere and then rattle through the planetary shields.  We're treated to an isometric view of the battlefield below.  Massive tanks and siege engines (a few smoking husks) surround a smoldering city which features a gigantic tower at its centre.  Flak canons track the incoming transports and open fire.  The forward shuttle on the left somewhat shields the transport on the right.  They rapidly descend while doing their best to avoid the blasts.  They dance lightly back and forth on the air.  Finally, the forward transport takes a direct hit, cracks open and explodes- silently and sweetly.  The final transport is gently lifted and pushed to the right a little by the force of the explosion. 

The transport shuttle comes in hot and engages powerful landing jets to instantly abort its descent- preventing it from cratering into the makeshift landing zone.  A courtyard surrounded by ruined shops and burnt landscaping provides minimal cover for the landing craft, and the troops on the ground are using it as a temporary basecamp.  Some of these troops creep toward the wake of the landing jets in anticipation of the landing troops.  An overhead bombing run cuts the anticipation short as the muted sounds of war come into full range and the final transport burts into a violent flame, scattering debris and shrapnel over the camp.

Lowering a gloved hand, and squinting up at the space in the sky where the shuttle recently occupied, Captain Obi-Wan Kenobi lets an oath escape his bearded lips- "Blast!"  His arm communicator beeps and he raises it to his face.  A coordinator in his command ship above, across a weak signal, gives him an update.  They're losing this battle.  Strategically, they can no longer spare the men to defend the shield generator that Kenobi's men has been protecting.  They are to fall back and reinfoce the next closest tower.  He lowers his arm and calls over his troops.  He gives them the bad news.  In five minutes, they are to be mobile enough to run under air cover to the next closest tower. 

As they run, their air support gets picked apart and so do some of the soldiers on the ground.  As they get close to the other tower, a canon blast takes it out.  The troops take cover as Captain Kenobi finds a quiet place to radio control and get new orders.  The planetary shield has fallen and the enemy is starting an aerial bombardment of all remaining ground troops.  There is no chance of extraction.  They have lost this planet- they'll try to hold them off at the next one.  Captain Kenobi and his men are going to die.  "But we'll make them pay before we do!" says Kenobi.  He orders his men to take better cover in the rubble so they can make their last stand.

Just then, a different kind of shuttle, with different colouration and markings flies haphazardly overhead.  Cpl. West fires his rocket launcher to take it out, and the shuttle quickly responds with a tight barrel roll and avoids the rocket.  Obi-Wan senses something and orders him to cease fire.  The shuttle puts down behind the crumbling tower and Captain Kenobi orders his men to follow him over to it.  The ramp is lowering and a flight helmetted figure steps down it- partially shrouded by the dust kicked up by the landing jets.  "Come on, come on!" shouts the pilot.  Kenobi orders his men to stand still.  "What are you doing here?!" asks Kenobi.  The pilot, anxious to get out of there, quickly removes his helmet.  "I'm Anakin Skywalker.  I'm here to rescue you!"  An enemy fighter flies overhead and takes some shots at the shuttle.  The fighter makes a long turn.  Kenobi orders, "Let's be out of here before he gets back!" and they all board the shuttle and head off planet.

(To be continued)

I'm pretty much broke.  By that, I mean I have no fun money currently.  I did pre-order Rock Band 3 + Keyboard some time ago (time to dust off Porkins and The Came From Behinds) so I'll get that any day now.

That means I don't have Red Dead, or Fallout NV (or even Fallout 3 yet!) or Force Unleashed 2, but I did just snag Mass Effect 2 for $10 at Blockbuster.  I haven't been totally in love with the first one, and I need to probably just finish it at this point... so maybe I shouldn't have plunkered $10 on ME2... but I'm hoping it proves to be a wise move.

On a lighter side, my 15 month old helped me decide what to spend 2400 pts on this month by buying "Sonic 4: Episode 1" for 1200 pts ($15).  He did it without turning the TV on, but turning an xbox controller (and therefore the xbox) on and pushing A seven times to confirm the purchase.  Yay!  Too bad the game is really not to my liking, or I might not care so much.

Ah well... the price of raising kids.

TheoOdo said:

<snip>

 Good post.  I agree with most (if not all) of what you wrote.

Palpatine's appeal to Anakin/Vader has to be something that Vader can dedicate his life to.  He chooses to be Vader every morning when he gets out of bed.  If it was based on a fleeting emotion, he would have lived a very different life.  The attorcities of the Clone Wars leading the galaxy at large, and Anakin personally down a path of accepting the Empire as a neccessary evil seems to be a very important part of a PT story working.  Too bad a war fought by robots and clones would never generate the kind of response for that to work.  *shrug*

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

xhonzi said:

Can you name some, Puggo?

There are many different ways that someone can go bad.  It can be due to addiction, seduction, power, insanity, chemicals, or other reasons.

Just for arguments sake, would you agree that most of those are external factors, and somewhat are not the choice of the character in question... therefore making him a tragic victim rather than a powerful villain?

Just off the top of my head, some movies/stories that use a variety of these themes would be The Hobbit, The Godfather, Animal Farm, The Invisible Man, The Fly, Re-animator, Requiem for a Dream, All the King's Men...

None of those (which I have seen/read) really present a fallen hero, right?  Maybe some normal people gone bad...  which is also a good thing, but still in something of a different class than what we'd expect from Star Wars.  Or am I wrong?

By contrast, I still don't know why Anakin went bad.

The shcript told him to?  ;)

During a rebellion, I think, the audience doesn't need to know a whole lot of the political motivations:

1. These guys are throwing a rebellion to overthrow those guys
2. We're with these guys
and maybe
3. Here are some of our gripes with those guys in the first place

FIGHT!

Whereas, if you were to tell the story of the reconstruction after the successful rebellion... I think you'd have to get more into the policies- especially in areas where the Rebellion was based on a platform of, say, No More War and the former leaders of the Rebellion, now that they're duly elected officials, now come to understand that they can't simply wish away the war.  And similarly, they are unable to execute many of their platform's planks.  In the end, the new boss ends up being A LOT like the old boss.  Not because the people doing the job are the same.  But because the job is mostly the same, regardless of who's doing it.

The HBO Paul Giamatti version of John Adams comes to mind.

Cool.  What was her reaction to the *SPOILER*?

I've heard (from a friend) that Leia is even hotter if you listen to her.

From time to time.

Don't get me wrong- I LOVE the idea.  It just would be very different tonally.

Just like that sequel to The Truman Show I always wanted them to make.

Erm... what?

I wanted to follow-up with this question:

Has anyone that's seen ESB for the first time in the past, oh... 20 years been caught off-guard by the *Spoiler* *End Spoiler* scene?

Or anyone's kids?  I would assume that is some trick to pull off, given pop culture and all.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Good people turning to evil is an age-old theme that has been done successfully in thousands of movies.  There were so many ways it could have been done.  George managed to find just about the only way to screw it up.

 Can you name some, Puggo?  This is not to challenge what you said, but I have stuggled to put a good list together.  The last time I tried (3 years ago: http://originaltrilogy.com/forum/topic.cfm/Fall-to-the-Dark-Side/topic/8843/ ) I decided that storytellers often tell convincing stories of redemption, and that people are apt to believe them... but it's really hard to tell stories of "the fall" without some kind of trick.  They were poisoned, a dark presence made them evil, they weren't in full control of their mind or actions, etc...

If you can list some well told "good person turns to evil" stories, I'd love to hear them.  King David is one of the only ones I can really think of.

He's saying they've stopped being referred to as "Special" editions of our favourite films, and now they are referred to as "the" editions of our favourite films.

ChainsawAsh:

Yeah, it's basically because it's cheaper.  That and spherical lenses are much easier to shoot with than anamorphic lenses - they're nowhere near as long or as heavy, and they don't require as much light.  A lot of cinematographers dislike anamorphic lenses, but like the 2.39:1 frame, so for them Super 35 is the way to go.

I would add, too, that some directors really like the extra cropping options that Super35 gives them.  Not only for eventual P&S conversions, but even for the scope crop.  The BTS feature on Se7en comes to mind with the editor adjusting headroom in each shot.  Though I'm not sure Se7en actually was Super35, the concept is the same.

I dont think you get the awkward anamorphic "shift" when you rack focus with Super35 either.  But I've always been mostly fond of that effect.  What's that called, again?

Frink,

Did you ever watch/listen to my youtube link?

I have to say I'll be quite disappointed if you did not.

 (Galactic) Empire State of Mind:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fvWgJz6ees

 

TV's Frink said:

A legacy is more about how others relate to the thing you like rather than how you relate to it, and why would you care if less people like what you like because the legacy is diminished?

Do you actually enjoy watching the OT less because of the PT?  Should you need the PT to recognize the flaws in ROTJ?

 Absolutely.  I can't help but see the Star Wars franchise as some sort of whole.  I chose not to, but still to some degree I do.  So yes, the average quality of the whole affects how I feel about the whole.  The PT bring down the average quality of what is "Star Wars", therefore affecting how I feel about the OT.

I'm not happy about it, but it's true.

I'm waiting to see what happens if/when they make a 3rd Craig Bond movie.  QoS was good enough for a bridge between 2 awesome Craig movies, but if the 3rd one fumbles the Quantum storyline... then I'll probably never care about QoS.  Although I think I'll always really enjoy Casino Royale (with cheese).

The third Pirates film, in my opinion, was terrible.  I love(d) the first two.  I'm not actually sure how I feel about the first two ever since I saw three.  It's definitely damaged it though.

Lost Season 6 was a complete disappointment to me.  I can't say I feel the same about Lost since.

I think that there's a good chance that many here proclaiming their disinterest in the 3D OT would be a lot more happy about it if there had never been SE's or the PT.  If this was the first time the OT was being changed at all, I think there would be a lot more positive energy.

Boost:

I immediatly imagine we're all in black t-shirts, smoking, saying how our favorite bands old stuff was better, and sneering at anyone who likes popular music.

Except for Paralyzer.  ;)

The Bingo:

If the PT was about the erosion of liberty (George might have screwed it up a bit but that's the essential theme) and the OT was about the fight to restore it and new trilogy could be about what happens to freedom fighters after they win.

History is replete with heroic freedom fighters who struggle to keep what they have won from falling apart and even become just as bad as what they replace.

This idea really came to the forefront of my mind while the wife and I were reading the Thrawn Trilogy last year.  The biggest problem is that Reconstruction doesn't have the same tone as the Revolution.  That's actually pretty interesting in and of itself- history has shown that the best revolutionaries often make the worst governors.  The new Gov't is a completely different thing than the revolution that birthed it, it has different needs and different challenges.  But from a film perspective (an adventure fueled fantasy film, especially) there's no "war" anymore, there are more grey areas as pertaining to "good guys" and "bad guys", heroes become dried up wells of potential, bureaucrats take power, etc...  I personally find all of that pretty interesting, but I can't imagine that in an actual Star Wars movie.

In other words: if you thought trade route disputes were boring...

Welcome to OT.com, gpforhire.  Always nice to see another PT unbeliever around here.  I mean, er... What prequels?!?!  ;)  (<-wink)

I have kids around the age of yours, and we all did SW costumes last year for Halloween.

7.5B - Vader
5.5G - Leia
4.0G - R2
1.5B - Yoda

(Mom and Dad were Hanna Solo and Dagobah Luke (with baby yoda))

So my kids are all relatively SW savvy.  I gave my oldest the Droids cartoon and these oversized C-3PO and R2-D2 toys on his 2nd or 3rd Christmas.  But he didn't really watch the movies until a little later.  We watched Adywan's SW:Revisited as a family about 18 months ago (right before or right after the our youngest was born, I guess) and I felt like that was the first time my oldest was really paying attention.  My kids generally like to turn a movie on and then turn their backs on it and play with toys... so I'm never sure how well they're following any given movie... I'm not sure how well any of the younger kids were paying attention, so maybe they'll get another kind of "first real time" later.

The decision comes down to: putting it right into their DNA from birth VS allowing them to discover it in one genuine "first" time.  I leaned towards the former, and I only slightly regret that my kids will never get to truly experience:

SPOILER:

No, Luke. I am your father!

END SPOILER.

But the chances of that remaining unspoiled (in no small part thanks to yours truly) by the time they are 9 or 10 are pretty slim.

P.S. Let me know if you need to borrow my dremel to remove Galactic Heroes Yoda's lightsabre.

I'm mostly upset over how much liquard swartz I've wasted on it.