xhonzi

Don't take this the wrong way, but this thread is about picking movies apart.  That, and monkey nuts.  I've appreciated having someone to talk to, even if we never agreed.  But if you don't want to pick movies apart, I'm afraid you have the wrong thread.

Flying MilFalcon
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=293;product_id=1321274

Space Slug Oven Mitt
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=293;product_id=1320562

Sabre Chop Sticks
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=293;product_id=1320642

R2-D2 Peppermill
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=293;product_id=1318602

Vader Apron
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=293;product_id=1321554

Slave Girl Apron
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=293;product_id=1321546

Garden Jawa
http://shop.starwars.com/catalog/product.xml?topcatID=1300264;product_id=1317578;category_id=1300760

Interesting.

Nope, I guess he wasn't joking.  Frinktard.

Thanks, I'll check it out.

I'm not a lego collector, but my friend the lego collector bought me some Halo Megabloks and now I'm sort of stuck collecting them.  I had almost all of them (not the $40 Scorpion, for which I've been trying to score a deal on ebay) and then they went and released a bunch new sets.

And I hate to say it, but they are awesome.  And I must have them.

You can check them out here:

http://www.amazon.com/Halo-Wars-Gausshog-Covenant-Locust/dp/B002YTMBZC/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I3CU5ZEW6YHIPF&colid=331BUTX54JY8Z

http://www.amazon.com/Megabloks-96824-Halo-Pelican-Dropship/dp/B0038BBHI2/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I2LE3Z11ONEOC1&colid=331BUTX54JY8Z

http://www.amazon.com/Megabloks-96832-Covenant-Wraith/dp/B0038B47BG/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1O1LI3FYUU7W1&colid=331BUTX54JY8Z

http://www.amazon.com/Megabloks-96835-UNSC-Shortsword/dp/B0038B2DQC/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1FDPSNSIJ1TM0&colid=331BUTX54JY8Z

I was in the toy aisle at Target yesterday and saw some cool new toys:

Galactic Heroes - AT-AT
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Galactic-Hero-Playset/dp/B00244K13Q/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1B5YEUD3L0GI9&colid=331BUTX54JY8Z

My oldest son is growing out of this line of figures and my youngest son has yet to grow into it… but dang if this thing isn’t cute.

There’s a new 3.5" scale AT-AT too, but at $100 I’m not even going to dream about that one.  Plus, I have a vintage AT-AT, so I think I will be able to sleep at night.

FX Boba Fett helmet
http://www.amazon.com/Star-Wars-Boba-Electronic-Helmet/dp/B0039X06RM/ref=wl_it_dp_o?ie=UTF8&coliid=I1TU7IF76RRI2N&colid=331BUTX54JY8Z

This is pretty cool.  I’ll have to keep an eye on the bargain section to see if it comes down.

Gaffer Tape said:

I actually think cutnshut is right in saying that Vader has no character development in ESB.  He stays exactly the same throughout.  One might argue that he had character development occur offscreen in between Star Wars and ESB when he finds out that his son is alive and working for the Rebels.  But at the beginning of ESB, he has a singular mission in mind.  He works towards that singular goal for the entire film.  He confronts that goal in the end.  He fails to achieve that goal, and we're left assuming that he will continue in some capacity to achieve that goal.  But no deviation ever occurs, no second thoughts of any kind.

I guess it depends on how you define character development?  I think Vader's rage subtly increases during the runtime, opposite of the length of his patience.  You're right, the biggest changes occur in the untold gap between the end of ANH and the start of ESB, but I don't think you can say that he's the same throughout ESB.  Especially considering the end of the movie.  Not the reveal as much, although I think that counts for something... but how he acts after the reveal.  Vader during the rest of the movie is working like a man possessed of a single goal, and grows more and more impatient with incompetance the longer it takes to make it happen.  However, after finally making contact with his son, he's a changed man.  The burden of finding his son... the ball is no longer in his court.  He's done what he set out to do.  It's comparable to the change between Han & Leia after they stop fighting and pretending to not be a couple, and admit that they are a couple.

You wouldn't say Han or Leia is unchanging in the movie, just because they are rebels at the beginning and rebels at the end, right?  There's more to "character arc" than what colour your hat is, right?

cutnshut said:

We started off this subject trying to break ESB down into 3 acts - which we did, but Xhonzi and yourself are thinking of it in terms of the entire saga - where i was breaking it down as if it was the first sequel to Star wars,

I don't have a quote to back me up on this, but they knew they were doing at least 2 more when they did ESB.  It's true, they didn't have RotJ exactly figured out, but that doesn't mean that they didn't put some long lead items in ESB on purpose.  I think the Structure (which we were discussing) makes it self-evident that this was planned to be a 2nd Act in a 3 Act kind of thing.  One of the things that makes ESB so great, in my less than humble opinion, is that it didn't feel the need to 'redo or outdo' the first movie, neither did it feel the need to cap off everything left open by the first movie.  Like a 2nd Act, it was free to expand on the problem... but not solve it.  Perhaps the audience was going in, expecting Star Wars 2, and that informed their assumption that the Rebels would get a happy ending... again... and that's why it might come as a shock when they lose bigtime there at the end.

which is the way it was written. Like you said - it seems clear now that George Lucas had no overall plan untill he made return of the jedi - I think this lack of focus for the overall story is evident in ESB - 

 

many people were totally confused by vaders revelation to Luke, why were so many people confused after seeing it?

Were people confused?  Or was it just the topic of nerd debates the world over?

Nowadays there are way too many sequels and the magic of the first 2 get kinda lost becuase of the way Lucas decided to continue the story - this alters your perspective when you watch these movies again.

Fair enough.  I don't have memories of ESB without RotJ, so I can't comment there directly.  But, as Gaffer did a better job explaining, I don't think I've made any comments that are of an "altered perspective" due to RotJ or the prequels, MTBIH.

It's been 2 months and I've made some progress on my pile.  Nobody asked, but here it is.

Recently Finished:
Force Unleashed DLC Missions - 100% DONE
Uncharted 2 - Single Player 100% DONE
Assassin's Creed II - 100% DONE
Batman Arkham Asylum - Campaign 100%, Might go back to Challenges
Castlevania: SotN - 200.6% DONE
BioShock 2 - Single Player 100%, 50% through MP Rank... might be done
Prototype - 1% and DONE
Left 4 Dead Co-op - 99% Lots of replay available, but will I get back to it?

Playing Now:
Banjo Kazooie: Nuts and Bolts - 33%
Mass Effect - 70%
Mercs2 Co-op: 55%
Lego Batman Co-op: 25%
Left 4 Dead 2 Co-op: 20%
Wario Land Shake It! - 10%
Gears2 Co-op 85%
LBP Co-op 90%
Burnout Paradise - 10%
Metroid Prime 3 - 50%
Resistance - 15%
Lotr: Conquest - 20%
Indy & Fate of Atlantis (again!)- 10%
Guitar Hero 5 - 10%
Terminator Redemption (for the old xbox! - 50%)

Own, but need to start:
Darksiders
Red Faction Guerilla
New Super Mario Bros. Wii
Conduit
Myst 4,5 + URU
Tex Murphy Overseer (again!)
Zelda Windwaker
Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2

Want to pick up for cheap
Prince of Persia Forgotten Sands, Cheap DJ Hero (~$20), Modern Warfare2, Mass Effect 2, Fallout 3: GotY,  Borderlands, Monkey Island 2 SE, Zelda TP, and maybe Wolfenstein.

Most Looking forward to
Castlevania Lord of Shadows
Assassin's Creed Brotherhood
Force Unleashed II

I've also been contemplating a replay of BioShock (1) and Deus Ex (1).  Just not enough hours in the day.  :(

The new Halo Reach Campaign Trailer is out on XBLA and it made me a little more excited for the game.  I wasn't looking forward to it much before the trailer... I'm not sure I'll get it on day 1 like I've done the other Halos... but maybe they'll convince me in the next month or two.

Full price games bought on day 1 for me this generation:
Halo 3
Halo ODST (ended up being $30 on Amazon after all of the discounts and credits, or else I would have waited
Rock Band 1 Full Band Kit
Rock Band 2 Disc Only (Shipped with $20 in MS Points)
Beatles RB (Was $40 at Micro Center for the first week)

And I think that's it.  So, it'll be interesting if I drop on RB3 or Halo Reach, since those seem to be the only games I've gone for in the past.  The Halos because they don't tend to depreciate very fast, and the RB because I thought they were a good value.  Seeing how fast the prices drop on music games, however, I might wait for RB3.

Ha ha.

Fixed.

Nobody, eh?  Well, I probably can get it done.  Do you want to send the tape to me?

TV's Frink said:

The Naked Palpatine Clones* should have tried that.

Last edited on July 13, 2010 at 5:03 PM by TV's Frink (Reason: *tm xhonzi)

^Invisible Fist Pump.

L4D2 it is!  Unless C3PX is too popular to hang out with the likes of us.

So, I'm calling it right now:

Friday night, at 8:30E,7:30C,6:30M.  L4D2.  Unless you all wanted to do the 4 Player Legendary Ghost achievement for Halo 3, which we should do sometime.

I just heard Peter Jackson talking about this, and it sounded pretty cool.  He said the trolley would be on the motion platform and it would be surround by something like 16 screens, all at (I want to say 8K resolution, but that's pretty hard to imagine) with wind and "spit" generators, etc. and the V-Rex's biting the trolley and so forth.

Was it all that, or was Jackson talking about what he wanted to do and not what actually got made?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KyXNu-RcA9g

I had never seen this, but it's pretty cool.  Too bad half of it is Prequels.

cutnshut said:

you're saying the cause of the problem is Darth Vader - yes, i agree with you.

No, that's not what I'm saying.  Saying, "The Villain is the cause of the problem" is not very interesting, because that's almost always true.

In Empire Strikes Back, "the problem" is Vaders to solve.  Vader is trying to capture Luke Skywalker.  This is what is introduced in Act 1, what gets complicated in Act 2, and is resolved in Act 3.

Normally the hero owns the problem- it is his to solve.  But in this movie, the villain owns the problem- it is his to solve.

You dig?

Ric Olie said:

 This is either 'S', or it's the kind on "No" that women use when they mean "Yes."

Or, it's the mathmatical equivalent of "..." in Japanese cartoons and RPGs.

That can't be it.  It has to be a conspiracy.  ;)  (<- wink)

He said, "Obi-wan was your father!"

But Hamill was told on the set to react to "I am your Father."

Ric Olie said:

xhonzi said:

Bit said:

XHONZI (still confused)
Is that you can say?

XHONZI
only yes and no...
            (it dawns)
You're a bit!

Which scenes, by that reasoning, can't be taken out without destroying the movie?

Taking that scene out would destroy the movie for me... so I'm just wondering what standard of measure you're using.