Star Wars Franchise Discussion

[2GOLD]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

When Cameron was asked if any tweaks were made to 'Titanic,' a la George Lucas, Cameron responded, "George helps me with that. I see the example of what I don't want to do. I don't consider that a slam, I think he considers his movies a perpetual work in progress. For me, the problem is once you pull that thread, it all unravels. Where do you stop?"

when it's a pile of burning yarn James, when it's a pile of burning yarn.

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I don't have any desire to re-watch any of the prequels ever. Maybe episode 3 but that's it. The prequels coupled with the shift in the expanded universe books to the Yuhzon Vong as the baddies pretty much killed my enthusiasm.

 

[Mattdotcom]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

[spoller]It turns out it wasn't really Darth Maul that got chopped in half in Episode I. It was a paramedic Darth Maul had swapped places with. He crushed his larynx with The Force so no one could catch on.[/spoiler]

 

[Just Burny]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

[spoller]It turns out Darth Maul's race has part lizard DNA, he lay at the bottom of that pit for a few months while his legs grew back; keeping himself sane seeing how many pebbles he could move with The Force and trying to outdo that number the next day.[/spoiler]

 

[Mattdotcom]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I'm man enough to admit when I've been outdone, and you, sir, have outdone me.

 

[Mattdotcom]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

 

[BorneAgain]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

That's nice, that most of the characters we give shit about are all shoved in the corner.

 

[Conspiracy_Victim]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I don't see Wedge.

WHERE THE HELL IS WEDGE?

 

[Sabre]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

And why is palpatine giving a thumbs up.

 

[2GOLD]

Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts


Why does Leia look like she wants to swallow my soul?

 

[Sabre]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I bit the bullet and got the blu ray set. Holy shitty transfer for Episode 1. Ive never seen a blu ray before where the picture is so "blurry" they really softened it alot, not to mention the "glow" that appears on the actors when they are on a digi background.

 

[Mattdotcom]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

What is the black bun made of? And what's on top of the Jedi burger?

 

[Mattdotcom]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

Good questions!

 

[Edwin]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

Finally, a worthy heir to the black taco. 2012 is a success. Time to go hang(o fett) myself

 

[Incandenza]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I think those are cheese curds on that Jedi burger!

 

[Mattdotcom]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I think it's apple chunks.

 

[The Metal Maniac]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I bit the bullet and got the blu ray set. Holy shitty transfer for Episode 1. Ive never seen a blu ray before where the picture is so "blurry" they really softened it alot, not to mention the "glow" that appears on the actors when they are on a digi background.

I find it quite bizarre that the effects in the prequels already look way shittier (to me, anyway) then the effects in the original trilogy. RotS drives me right up the wall when I watch it, because the whole damned movie is CGI backgrounds; Mind you, I only have the regular DVD of that one, but watching it on a blu-ray player on a TV that's good for blu-rays? Ugh.

I think the constantly improving quality of CGI plays a big part in this (like, I remember when I would have sworn that those were real dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, but compared to what's been seen since, they're just pretty good effects) but it wouldn't be such a hindrance if they hadn't so consistently relied on CGI to do everything, even basic things like baby Luke and Leia. Is it that hard to find babies?

 

[Damaramu]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

Oh absolutely. Secret History of Star Wars goes into more detail, but Empire was a complete mess for him because it went over budget and over schedule as Irvin Kershner wanting kept doing slower, more thoughtful takes and producer Gary Kurtz did nothing to reign him in. With his marriage falling apart and completely stressed, Lucas just wanted to finish the series for now (keep in mind the plan was to prequels and sequels every three years until there were nine films) so he could take some time off.

Problem was that he introduced the concept of the "Other" in ESB. This was done to more or less put doubt in the audiences mind that maybe Luke wouldn't be the person to bring Vader and the Emperor and thus he could reasonable be killed off or incapacitated. If on the off chance this "Other" was going to be an actual character, it'd be some person on the other side of the galaxy who would probably be mentored by Luke in the sequels. But since Lucas probably figured he wouldn't do those he had to have this character show up in Jedi. Thinking the audience wouldn't be to keen on some big new character being shoved into the last film, Lucas said fuck it and made the "other" Leia, and made her Luke's sister to explain how she might have hidden abilities in the force.

That she never had a romance developed with Luke to the degree she did Han and that little scene of Luke communicating to her via the Force on Cloud City suggesting some deeper connection is just pure luck on Lucas' part.

So he did plan the prequels all along, just not how it turned out? Then why did he start with Episode IV if he was planning on releasing 9 movies?

 

[DrVenkman PhD]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

"Episode IV" is a myth. The film was Star Wars - nothing but Star Wars - with Mark Hamill.

 

[The Amazing Rando]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

It wasn't referred to as Episode IV until after ESB came out, I think. And then when the re-releases happened they changed the blue scroll at the beginning to reflect the Episode title and name.

 

[muzzington]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

You have to choke on the Vader burger to get the whole experience.

 

[BorneAgain]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

Oh absolutely. Secret History of Star Wars goes into more detail, but Empire was a complete mess for him because it went over budget and over schedule as Irvin Kershner wanting kept doing slower, more thoughtful takes and producer Gary Kurtz did nothing to reign him in. With his marriage falling apart and completely stressed, Lucas just wanted to finish the series for now (keep in mind the plan was to prequels and sequels every three years until there were nine films) so he could take some time off.

Problem was that he introduced the concept of the "Other" in ESB. This was done to more or less put doubt in the audiences mind that maybe Luke wouldn't be the person to bring Vader and the Emperor and thus he could reasonable be killed off or incapacitated. If on the off chance this "Other" was going to be an actual character, it'd be some person on the other side of the galaxy who would probably be mentored by Luke in the sequels. But since Lucas probably figured he wouldn't do those he had to have this character show up in Jedi. Thinking the audience wouldn't be to keen on some big new character being shoved into the last film, Lucas said fuck it and made the "other" Leia, and made her Luke's sister to explain how she might have hidden abilities in the force.

That she never had a romance developed with Luke to the degree she did Han and that little scene of Luke communicating to her via the Force on Cloud City suggesting some deeper connection is just pure luck on Lucas' part.

So he did plan the prequels all along, just not how it turned out? Then why did he start with Episode IV if he was planning on releasing 9 movies?

The number of films fluctuated. You can find interviews in 77 of Lucas saying it could be like the Bond franchise with different directors doing different movies set in the same universe, with a movie about Obi-Wan, about Wookies, and so on. Then it narrows to 12 for a bit, then a definitive 9 (prequels, originals, sequels) being a trilogy of trilogies, then after ROTJ, just prequels.

But at the time Lucas was making the original film, he was just hoping it make its money back and he could possibly do Splinter of the Mind's Eye as a low budget sequel, (hence why that story's on one planet, no Han Solo, and overall a smaller scope) till the insane success of Star Wars had him thinking big. Every single prequel/sequel/side film talked about other than SOTME wasn't even conceived until after May 1977.

 

[Rendclaw]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

It wasn't referred to as Episode IV until after ESB came out, I think. And then when the re-releases happened they changed the blue scroll at the beginning to reflect the Episode title and name.

No, actually when Star Wars came back to theaters for the summer of 1978, they were referred to as Episode IV - A New Hope.

I know because I was there. Being old has its advantages sometimes.

 

[Sabre]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I was always under the impression Lucas always invisioned doing Anakins Story but knew that the story he had in his mind (which was ep2 and 3 combined) wouldnt have been possible effects wise until well into the 90s.

Either way I have a major dislike for the films now after venturing into the blu ray set. All the CGI looks cartoony, un natural and off putting. Seriously was it too hard to build sets for the fucking movies. I know they had basic setups and everything else was CGI, the blu ray for Ep1 is horrid, the actors visably stand out from the backdrop. Horrible.

I have yet to watch the HD original trilogy yet as i know the effects where horrid on the dvds, so i expect when they worked on the special editions they used very shitty resolution for the texture mapping as they where done for video essentially.

 

[Mattdotcom]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I was always under the impression Lucas always invisioned doing Anakins Story but knew that the story he had in his mind (which was ep2 and 3 combined) wouldnt have been possible effects wise until well into the 90s.

Everything you've ever heard about sequels/prequels is just a bunch of half-truths. Lucas may have had ideas, sure, but if you watch the documentary on the Episode I DVD, you see that he doesn't actually write anything until 1994.

 

[Damaramu]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

So he basically took references and such from the originals (like the clone wars) and said "How can I work this into the prequels?" in 1994?

 

[Mattdotcom]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

You could say that. It's weird. He authorized a lot of stories for novels, comics, video games, and what have you, but the Clone Wars were always off limits. Notice that there's still some things that don't exactly match up, like Obi-Wan saying that when he met Anakin he was a great pilot.

 

[The Metal Maniac]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

As far as I can tell, the only thing that he knew for a fact had to be in the prequels was Vader being beaten by Obi-Wan, disfigured, and left to die. I recall reading in some old Star Wars book (this was years ago, when I was still a child) about the battle between Vader and Obi-Wan, and it said how Obi-Wan fought him and ended the battle by sending Vader into the lava.

That said, just watching the original trilogy makes it pretty obvious that Obi-Wan was the one who did that to Vader, so that's certainly not a lot of planning - just basic character background.

And I think the pod racing was supposed to be showing Anakin as a "great pilot" - he was the only human who could actually pilot a pod racer, because his reaction times were so fast, because he was using the Force without really realizing it. Which I thought was silly, why not just have him first show up, 16 years old and an actual pilot? (I can't be the only person who hears "pilot" in a movie where characters travel space and assume it means space pilot) It's like he only half-tried to line things up.

 

[BorneAgain]

Re: Star Wars Thread II: A Lack of the Posts

I was always under the impression Lucas always invisioned doing Anakins Story but knew that the story he had in his mind (which was ep2 and 3 combined) wouldnt have been possible effects wise until well into the 90s.

Sort of. Anakin being Vader didn't come into being until he was writing ESB, as he felt the existence of the Father Skywalker character as a former heroic Jedi wasn't that interesting, especially given that he had effectively been replaced as a mentor by Obi-Wan and Yoda. Making him Darth upped the intrigue, removed redundancy, and gave the ending a much bigger punch then Luke just refusing to join Vader. There's actually earlier drafts of Empire with his father actually showing up as a ghost on Dagobah to talk to Luke.

As for the prequels, part of it was waiting for special effects to catch up with his vision, but he also was just tired of making Star Wars films, wanted to raise his daughter, and had to rebuild his fortune after half of it was lost due to divorce.