*** Official "STAR WARS & EPISODE II" Discussion Thread (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

Why must you seperate the two? Wouldn't it be nice to have both

The unfortunate fact is that far too many people are perfectly content to be without one, and indeed barely care about it at all, as long as they have PLENTY of the other to be dazzled by. The idea that a movie should have a story seems rather quaint to them.
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[Jason Seaver]

quote:
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Fantasies should be fantastic, in the imaginative as well as superlative sense of the world. If I just wanted a story, I'd read a book; movies should excite the senses.
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Why must you seperate the two? Wouldn't it be nice to have both?
And for some people, reading does excite the senses. It just requires a little something called imagination.

You wrong me... I adore reading and my shelf-o-books rivals my shelf-o-DVDs. And I'm one of the loudest complainters on the forum if a movie's story doesn't hold up. I mean, that's why I said "if I just wanted a story, I'd read a book" - it's important, nay vital, in most mediums.
That said, I think a fully-realized fantasy world like Lucas has created in The Phantom Menace and (if the preview is an indication) Attack Of The Clones is a pretty nifty achievement in its own right, one which people are often too quick to dismiss.

 

[Norm]

Jim_C, What happened to SPOILER alerts on this forum!
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Link Removed
Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation
[Edited last by Norm on November 04, 2001 at 09:34 AM]

 

[Jim_C]

Norm,
I went back and put it in spoiler form.
To be fair though this information is not exactly new and has been discussed recently here at HTF. And my post was in reaction to Seth's which was not in spoiler form either. By the time anyone got to mine they would have already seen that version of the script.
No attack intended, I'm just pointing out my thinking on this.
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[Michael St. Clair]

Looking forward to seeing this trailer (and the movie). Unfortunately, family events are taking priority this weekend; no movies for us.
Did it seem at all soft? The source footage for AOTC is only shot at 1440x800, about 25% less resolution than Episode One was posted at. Episode One is already soft IMO.

 

[Phil Florian]

Howdy, Richard!

Whatever happened to the "the filmmaker has no right to change his films after they've been released" arguement that purists always go on about?

I guess that depends on the type of purist. Some purists, it seems, don't want anything touched in the original films and say leave them as they are. Others are more into what the original intent of the characters are but are fine with cosmetic changes. I for one, though not either, liked some of the cosmetic changes in Empire (the Cloud City scene) but thought that actually changing a character to make him seem less a scoundrel was silly and damaging to the story and his development as a character. I was more upset with the silly yell that Luke had after jumping away from Darth in Cloud City. That was just silly. Maybe you would have been happier if I didn't mention "purists" at all?
As for the Fett scene, for some people Fett was this badass character and for his demise to be simply bumped into a pit by a blind Han...well, that's silly. Especially, if watching the series in the future from 1-6, what a sad way to go. I guess if George can go back and make Han wimpier, he can make Fett tougher.
Phil
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.

 

[Coressel]

"...if watching the series in the future from 1-6, what a sad way to go..."
Maybe that's the idea. He gets wacked in an ironic and hilarious way. I love how Fett bites it in ROTJ.
About the AOTC teaser... I saw it yesterday and loved it. I wasn't expecting much, and was really very intrigued by it.

 

[RichieS]

I loved the trailer but must say that you could edit 10 stills from the Phantom Menace with the Darth Vader breathing and fool everyone into thinking it was a dark film. (e.g. Darth Maul's face, Emperor, battle droids...etc
Don't want to make a downer but that trailer was just too damn good....I'm sure the film won't be as dark.............................................. .......................I hope it is!

 

[Paul Richardson]

The trailer was pretty impressive, but I was a little put off by the shot of a whole room of kids. We saw in Episode I how Lucas got Jake Lloyd to play "Aren't I cute?" factor to the hilt. I'm worried now that we'll see that multiplied by a thousand. "Okay, kids, all in unison: 'Yippeeee!'".
I also don't think it's a coincidence that this trailer played in front of a children's film. After all, TPM made a mint pandering to the kiddie crowd, so why mess with a good thing? I think apologists for the first film insisting that the "darker stuff" was coming may be eating crow.

 

[Coressel]

The little kids sitting at desks or in front of computers or whatever reminded me of THX-1138 (still Lucas's best film, imo).
[Edited last by Coressel on November 04, 2001 at 07:39 PM]

 

[Seth Paxton]

I didn't spoiler mine because I have no reason to know that's accurate in the least, or just conjecture.
Spoiler:Although it appears to be very accurate thanks to HTF friends
Jason, I'm 90% a narrative film type person, although I also really appreciate abstract film as well.
What I don't like is cold, commercial "technical show-off" film. Even after watching Vertov's famous "Man with a Movie Camera" I was a little put-off by what more often seemed to be shots whose purpose was to show off what can be done. PT Anderson is a little guilty of this as a more recent example.
In book terms it would be a writer who writes overly flowerily or uses "big" words in awkward ways as if to let the reader see just how clever he is. It's lame and requires much less skill than being able to tell your story or communicate your abstract thoughts with poetic visuals that fit your message.
And I'm not knocking having fantasy worlds, but so often lately we have CGI visuals that could easily be replaced by other visual methods that might bring the story/concept across much better but wouldn't be as "flashy".
Case in point, did we need anything more than good make-up work to get us on the farthest planet in the galaxy in a bar full of dangerous pirate aliens in Star Wars? Not all CGI represents the "best" from the visual medium, but instead often appears lazier and perhaps less attractive.
And finally, Lucas is NOT making an abstract film. He is making a narrative. Visual, aural medium or not, there are still plenty of narrative techniques and devices at work. When something is stuck in that seems to not be a part of this effort but only to say "look at me" then in a narrative sense, it is not serving the story. Film visuals have many forms, one of which is narrative. Narrative visuals are a subset of all film visuals, not somehow exclusive of the other.

 

[RobertR]

The trailer was pretty impressive, but I was a little put off by the shot of a whole room of kids. We saw in Episode I how Lucas got Jake Lloyd to play "Aren't I cute?" factor to the hilt. I'm worried now that we'll see that multiplied by a thousand. "Okay, kids, all in unison: 'Yippeeee!'".
I also don't think it's a coincidence that this trailer played in front of a children's film. After all, TPM made a mint pandering to the kiddie crowd, so why mess with a good thing? I think apologists for the first film insisting that the "darker stuff" was coming may be eating crow.

I think that goes to show that anyone who says something like "the movie will be awesome (or some other adjective) because the trailer was awesome" doesn't have a sound basis for saying so.
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[Ron Reda]

Two words...
BOBA FETT

 

[Edwin Pereyra]

I found the teaser to be quite impressive. It did what it was supposed to do - create interest and anticipation for a major blockbuster film. Based on what I saw, it looked like the film will be more adult oriented. At least, thats what I'm hoping for.
This might be just the film to save the entire franchise after that last fiasco. I remain hopeful at this point.
~Edwin
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http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/005780.html#8 http://www.hometheaterforum.com/uub/Forum9/HTML/006466.html

 

[Phil Florian]

Actually, that Yippeee thing might happen! I assume that those kids were the "clones" being created and probably are taught in a regimented sort of method. Like Phonics. A spooky "yippeee" in monotone would be dark, no?
I saw nothing that would make the new movie any darker than "Yousa say people gonna die?" made Episode One darker. That said, I still can't wait!
Phil
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.

 

[Phil Florian]

Though I agree that I hope the movie is better than Episode One, it surely isn't a franchise in need of saving (in terms of money, anyway...which is what franchise implies to me). The Star Trek franchise, that needs saving on all levels...fiscal, creative, etc.
Phil
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Quis custodiet ipsos custodes.

 

[James_Kiang]

I did not get the chance to see Monsters Inc this weekend and I have heard that the trailer is going to be played on a number of tv shows Monday. Can anyone confirm which ones? Thanks in advance...
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"Wait a minute. Was she a great big fat person?"
My DVD Collection

 

[Jim_C]

>>I also don't think it's a coincidence that this trailer played in front of a children's film. After all, TPM made a mint pandering to the kiddie crowd, so why mess with a good thing? I think apologists for the first film insisting that the "darker stuff" was coming may be eating crow.

 

[DarrenA]

Two words...
BOBA FETT

Four words...
BOBA FETT
JANGO FETT
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DarrenA
The Academy Home Theater

 

[Pete-D]

I thought the teaser was very cool and much more subdued than the Episode I trailers were there was so much happening at once.
Say what you want about Episode I being a dissapointment (I didn't enjoy that one myself), but I definitely felt the audience stir when the Darth Vader breathing kicked in and the "average joes" realized it was the new Star Wars trailer (of course a few of the hardcore fans cheered at the Lucasfilm logo). No other movie ever gets that from the average movie-going audience.
I liked everything pretty much. The CG Yoda looks really well done and not as "cartoony" as some of the Episode I characters thankfully. I had no problems with Watoo. The new planets look great. The only shot I had a big problem with was the shot of the Kamino (I hope that's right) water planet -- the waves look really poorly done, like a high-end video game CG.
Everything else was top notch. The digital film issue...it looks pretty close to film to me, honestly. The shot of 3PO in the desert doesn't look much different from 3PO in Tatooine in the other movies. The color scheme for Episode II is definitely more of a cooler blue-black opposed to the color red/yellow mix that seemed to ooze out of the Episode I.
I think the tone of the three movies will follow Anakin:
Episode I- He's a kid, so it was really light-hearted
Episode II- He's 19, so it's getting more mature, but not all the way. Expect this one to be a more action-oriented, sleeker, sexier film.
Episode III- This one will be really dark, probably the darkest of all the Star Wars.
My only concerns are this:
- Will there be a coherent, involving storyline here? Empire, which many regard as the best, doesn't exactly follow a traditional character arc, and seems to be a series of events. But it pulled it off perfectly. AOTC probably won't be able to do it quite so well, but the hereos MUST be in danger this time, the audience must have some clue as to the broader scope of the story, and things just need to be clearer.
Everything that didn't need to be was too complicated in TPM
(Qui-Gon's bet with Watoo...I mean c'mon) and the things that were generally interesting were glossed over.
- I hope the romance element of the film works at least decently. If its a total wash, that's gonna hurt the film. Natalie Portman looks absolutely radiant, so that helps a lot, and I'm sure John Williams will come up the appropriate score for the film...and we know Lucas is reshooting some of these scenes apparently, which is *good* because he's actually trying to work on the non-effects/gimmick driven side of the storyline on this one.
Overall it'll be a better film than Episode I I think, and it probably will please the general public moreso than Episode I, but the hardcore Star Wars nuts who have put Empire on a bit of an unreachable pedestal may still fault it. I'm expecting something along the lines of Return of the Jedi without the Ewoks.