Quickies from a Galaxy Far Far Away

In celebration of the release of AotC, here are a bunch of random SW stories that have fluttered through our bin: Tim Drage has made a Lego Star Wars movie, POds sent us a fan film Fan Film (quicktime. Bah). Here is a comic to share and enjoy. iamchaos noted that the next Matrix Trailer will be showing with Clones. nellardo sent in a fine tribute to darth maul. Anyone want a Star Wars Axe? Zack sent us a great collection of SW Characters you won't see as much as you might want to. wiredog sent us some spoilers, the Skywalker family tree and how Anakin becomes Vader. peter_gzowski sent in an essay by Ebert where he gives it 2 of 4 stars, and discusses the digital filming. Finally ant sent us a bizarre tale of some guys who got the brilliant idea to build a life-size Millenium Falcon. So there it is folks. I have tickets for a 12:01 showing in Ann Arbor and I'll be getting in line in just a few short hours.

Fan Film

[Wyatt Earp]

It's a 122.8 MB Quicktime Movie.

Just a warning.

Re:skywalker family tree link is broken

[sjwt]

hears a coupple from a quick search..

will i hit the jackpot and get a right one?

http://thepensieve.net/skywalker_family_tree.htm
http://easyweb.easynet.co.uk/~lightsabre/familyt re e.htm
http://www.theforce.net/timetales/Sheet001. htm

Roger Ebert

[Black Aardvark House]

What I dislike about Lucas' approach is that he wants to change the entire world of film to suit his convenience.

I just do not understand Ebert's disdain for digital film, CGI, etc. If characters seem somewhat unrealistic using Lucasfilm methods, he forgets one thing: Star Wars is a fantasy. It's OK to stretch reality a little.

This reminds me of a similar debate of listening to music on CD's vs. vinyl records, where CD music sounds cold, lacking the richness of vinyl.

But then again, what's been the mosat popular music media until perhaps very lately? The CD.

Roger Ebert, please quit about the media and just give us the scoop on the content.

Skywalker Family Tree

[dmomo]

Typo in the story. Here is the actual URL:

http://www.wired.com/news/digiwood/0,1412,52408, 00 . tml

Some reviews

[Anonymous Coward]

The reviews for the feel good hit of the summer continue to roll in!

"There is not one line in this movie that you can quote with any pleasure. It is the most banal script I have ever read," raves Roger Ebert of Ebert and Roeper.

David Ansen of Newseek enthuses,"Lucas's enterprise has long since passed out of the arena of mere entertainment and into the realm of pure faith. You're either a true believer or an agnostic. To the former, its value is beyond debate, and all criticism a form of heresy. Which leaves guys like me doing the Devil's work. Let the hate mail commence... ...Anakin comes off as a whiny, brattish American teenager. He's vapid, not Vader... Lucas, frankly, is a feeble director of actors..."

Says John Anderson of Newsday, "...only those audiences already up to their necks in "Star Wars" ephemera could possibly care about the actual plot points on which the latest installment rests... ...[Christensen's Anakin] is the kind of whiny, irritating performance that would get most actors thrown out of 'Dawson's Creek,' much less a billion-dollar enterprise like 'Star Wars.' And yet, there he is, as pretty as Portman and easily as useless."

Intones Mark Caro of the Chicago Tribune, "Now Anakin is a headstrong, moody 19-year-old played with doleful looks and a curling lip by Hayden Christensen, and he's still barely a person. He speaks in topic sentences, and what they say is this: 'I like to take risks. I love Padme (Natalie Portman). I'm ready to be a Jedi knight. I resent that Obi-Wan Kenobi (Ewan McGregor) still bosses me around. I love Padme. I'm frustrated that I'm so strong, yet I can't protect my mom.' For such a visually oriented filmmaker, Lucas commits an unpardonable sin: He tells instead of shows... Lucas' tin ear for dialogue doesn't help. Padme to Anakin: 'I've been dying a little bit each day since you came back into my life.' Oh, ick.!!!!!!!"

Raves Steven Rea in the Philadelphia Inquirer, "This thing will have your mind glazed over faster than a glob of dough in a Krispy Kreme plant... 'Clones' makes the Frodo-speak of 'Lord of the Rings' sound like Noel Coward."

And, last but not least, Michael Atkinson of the Village Voice says, "Jango serves as the template for a covert army of obedient, disposable, Asian- featured clones. The backlash against the last film's racist stereotypes apparently never reached Skywalker Ranch... Labeling a villain 'Sidious' is one thing, but calling a minor character 'Elan Sleazebaggano' is another achievement entirely... There is an odd cognitive dissonance at work between the obvious ingenuity dedicated to the film's visual details -- alien anatomies, industrial machinery, technological minutiae -- and the retarded intelligence quotient evident in its content... Lucas has in fact come closer than anyone could desire to the cheap, graceless, hackneyed sci-fi serials of the '30s and '40s. Predictably, the screenplay would make Buster Crabbe call for a rewrite... This is hardly an epic (a word that implies moral, human, and social weight). It's a marathon of irrelevant preadolescent dreaming... As the nationwide sidewalk camp-outs come to their climax, the maniacal wwwooooooos siren through the theater (even at the Lucasfilm Ltd. logo), and virtually every adult I know admits to a publicity-hammered submission, it's easy to feel like 1984's Winston Smith struggling with 2 + 2 = 5. Why should this invasion of self-ratifying, trans-marketed mythopoeia -- so electrifying and meaningful to so many -- be so inarguably empty and inconsequential? Attack of the Clones is a golden calf, worshiped not out of primitive fear but populist groupthink."

Re:Roger Ebert

[amstrad]

I just do not understand Ebert's disdain for digital film, CGI, etc

He doesn't have a problem with digital media. He has a problem with the transfer of a digitally shot movie onto film for projection. The point he was trying to make was that if you shoot in digital you should project in digital. The problem is that only a very few number of theaters in the US has the capability to project in digital. That is what Ebert means when he said "What I dislike about Lucas' approach is that he wants to change the entire world of film to suit his convenience."

Earlier in article Ebert says, "Lucas is so eager to promote his vision of the digital future that he is willing to penalize his audience."

Re:ahem

[Mr.Phil]

ummm I'm pretty sure most of Michigan is in the Eastern Time zone, all except a small portion of the UP (Upper Peninsula). I can say this as I've lived in Michigan for 20 years, having moved there from Chicago, which is in the Central Time zone.

Since Ann Arbor is in the large portion of Michigan which is in the Easter Time Zone, Taco's going to be watching it at the same time as you are...

Washington Post Pans It

[wiredog]

A few choice quotes from the review [washingtonpost.com].

It's too long, it's too dull, it's too lame.

But the mythic source he seems to have based this episode on is . . . "The McLaughlin Group"

It's like reading the latest dispatch on the Mongolian parliament, as reported by Elizabeth Drew in a really cranky mood.

the master Obi-Wan (Ewan McGregor) and his young mentee, Anakin Skywalker (played by 'N Sync star Justin Timberlake - no, no, played by Hayden Christensen, who looks like an 'N Sync kid but doesn't have as much talent).

I'll tell you one thing: no star system central, as in, say, MGM, would have built a movie around the dim Americans who haunt this one. In fact, the movie is kind of a laboratory on American vs. British technique. Score: Brits 10, Yanks 0.

even an actual great actor, Samuel L. Jackson, seems ridiculous. He never looks comfortable as the Jedi Mace Windu, in robes and boots, and there's nothing he can do at all with a line like "The Genosians aren't warriors. One Jedi has to be worth a hundred Genosians!"

The 'N Sync kid is even worse. He seems to have wandered in from a Pepsi commercial. No, that would have been Justin Timberlake. Who knows where this dreary boy has been?

Re:Roger Ebert

[phong3d]

Actually, there is a huge advance in movie projection technology that's not digital. Ebert's choice of the best next-generation projection medium is Maxivision 48 [maxivision48.com], which is a fine-grain 48 frames-per-second method of projection that presents extremely high-quality pictures with no motion blur on pans and lateral dolly shots.

DVD certainly does offer a clearer picture, but that can't be extrapolated to digital projection just yet. It's very bright and the contrast and color are excellent, but I've seen them both, and I think Maxivision is considerably better at this time. However, since it's not "digital" it must be antiquated and not worth the trouble. Besides, wide adoption of digital is economically attractive to studios eventually, since movies will be downloadable instead of deliverable. That, and you won't have to worry about film splicing anymore.

Lucas speaks in London on Phantom Menace

[maccallr]

I just saw this:
The Guardian newspaper has a short piece about Lucas defending Phantom Menace [guardian.co.uk] [also annoying popup].

Quick plug:
Why not compare all the Star Wars episodes [compare-stuff.com] in one swell foop! (You can also try terms like: lame, merchandise, thrilling, classic etc...)

Attack of the Clones Script and other Downloads

[totallygeek]

Here [missingleftsocks.com] is the script and the downloads are here [missingleftsocks.com] (click on downloads).

Atom films

[Fjord]

Since it doesn't seem to be posted yet, Atom Films [shockwave.com] recently picked the winners and runners up in their Star Wars short films contest. Some good works.

Re:2 out of 4??

[rustycage]

Did anyone see the pithy review [washingtonpost.com] in the Washington Post [washingtonpost.com]? It almost seems like something that comedian Dennis Miller would write.