Star Wars Episode 2 Starts Shooting 402
Star Wars Episode II has started shooting in Australia. Comments on it being filmed fully digitally. Mentions that Jar Jar will be back (along with McGregor, Jackson and Portman). Millions of fans hold their breath and hope this one is good (it'd be tough to go downhill, that's for sure).
Re:Woo-Hoo! (Score:1)
I didn't care for the force becoming some weird interaction between midi-chlorians, but what bothered me even more?
HE'S NOT JESUS!
JFC(that's Jesus Fucking Christ, for those of you who aren't in the know) A virgin birth? Conceived by midi-chlorians? Come on! We already liked the guy, anyone who can go on to become one of the baddest badasses in history can start from humble beginnings. Lucas seriously lost a lot of my respect when he gave Anakin an Immaculate Conception.
Steven
Oh NO! (Score:1)
Although there are preliminary reports that Skywalker is dispondent over the accident, some people thought they heard a maniacal laugh comming from his quarters.
In an apparantly unrelated event, some people have been reporting a figure in a dark cloak, loitering near the Skywalker compound where the accident took place.
Skywalker's wife, Princess Amadala Skywalker of Naboo, is reportedly in Hyperspace with their two young twins, Luke and Leia, returning to the Skywalker compound to be with her husband during this tragic time.
The funeral for Binks will be a small affair with only friends and family attending.
Republic Investigations Unit TXH-1138 released a statement saying that although this appears to be a training accident, the case will be thoroughly reviewed.
We need better reasons not to like the first movie (Score:2)
(it'd be tough to go downhill, that's for sure)
Come on! All that's ever on Slashdot about any movie is negative. Episode I was beautifully done. It had everything that made the original movies good:
1. A great story line, good vs. evil sort of thing
2. Action
3. Comic Relief (Jar Jar)
4. A bit of romance (Amadala and Anakin)
It has exactly what it needs to be a good movie and to infom us of how we eventually will get to the Empire and the Rebellion. There's much more to Star Wars besides Darth Vader.
What everyone seems to be forgeting is that Episode I is supposed to tell us how it all got started. The only purpose of the movie is to show how we get to Episode II! Everyone seems to hate it because there's no grand revealing things that happen-- there isn't supposed to be! If there was then Episode II and III would absolutely suck because there wouldn't be anything else to tell.
The second thing people need to figure out is that puppets aren't real either. There's all kinds of complaining about how Lucas should have used puppets instead of CGI animation. Why? Are puppets more real than computer generated characters? Lucas couldn't have done what he did without the help of the computers! (Jar Jar aside)
Finally when all the movies are out no one is going to complain about Episode I because it will all make sense and everyone will see that its needed to tell us how the whole thing began. When Episode V (Empire Strikes Back) there was all kinds of complaining about it being too dark and too evil and most of us would now say its needed to have Return of the Jedi. I expect that Episode 2 will be much the same way.
Anyway I loved the movie. There's my rant for the day!
Never knock on Death's door:
I thought the breakfast of Jedi was Pancakes... (Score:1)
Nevermind.
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Which racist group will get pissed this time? (Score:1)
So now I'm wondering, which group will be pissed off this time? Which bunch of racists will find an "attack" against their race's pride and dignity? This will be interesting though, my bet is that this go around it will be some of the good ole boys (not just from the south mind you) who'll get pissed cuz the storm troopers are all white guy clones and act like NAZI's.
Re:URL (Score:2)
Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:1)
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:2)
...with a nice garlic sauce.
Two words . . . (Score:1)
(it'd be tough to go downhill, that's for sure)
No it wouldn't.
Two words: Battlefield Earth.
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Re: (Score:2)
Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:3)
Why can't a movie be for entertainment any longer? Star Wars was ALWAYS a monetary scheme: all movies are; movie directors/producers/actors all expect to get some sort of compensation for their time. If they're good enough, they get more than those involved in bad projects (*cough*Battlefield Earth*cough*). But it isn't THEIR fault if their audience goes into a movie, expecting more than a couple hours of entertainment, something Lucas has almost always delivered (I'm not as sure about THX-1138 as the rest of the films...). So, in summary, if you expect MORE from a movie than a prettily-packaged product, you're in the wrong spot.
Now, as for the "dubious moralising, dumb looking aliens and slushy character relationships", in order: all fiction is political, and contains value judgements based upon the society it was created for. The originals had quite a bit of moralising. Say it with me: "Anger. Fear. Agression. The Dark Side are they." As to dumb looking aliens, I refer you to Star Trek - you must have gotten confused as to which SF saga you were critiquing. And slushy character relationships: society is replete with 'em. EVERY modern (fiction) show cannot help but handle "slushy" relationships. Episode I is tame by comparison.
Finally, your remarks comparing Vader and Manson: you're obviously trolling here, looking for "insightful" or some such. Real quick: Vader==fiction. Manson!=fiction. eof.
Re:Awards... (Score:1)
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Re:Woo-Hoo! (Score:1)
Instead he probably just shoots up with force germs from time to time. It's still kind of stupid though.
Re:Old vs. New Tech (Score:1)
The special effects that were physically done were GREAT. You could tell when you were seeing them.
The animations, though.. they looked like cartoons. I woulda loved it if they had gotten some Jim Henson stand ins or spent more time on the animation, but they just left it. Sometimes, you could even flat out tell that the animation was placed in, because it almost seemed raised off the screen.
I vaguely recall seeing somewhere that Lucas had recieved this criticism and was listening, and was going to try to balance the special effects (models,etc. vs. digital imaging) more. It will be interesting to see if he does balance. This film has promise, but if he messes this one up, I know a lot of Star Wars fans who have ciggarette lighters and propane torches prepared for their memorabilia...
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:2)
it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:5)
-russ
All digital (Score:2)
Death to Jar Jar
MTV Movie Awards (Score:2)
Re: (Score:2)
Sticks and Rocks (Score:4)
Not totally preposterous. The battle scenes looked like the Empire's army had been dealing only with energy and particle-beam weapons for so long that their "armor" designers had sacrificed strength for weight and/or other factors, leaving them wide open to a kinetic energy attack.
A silly mistake, of course. But battlefields are littered with the remains of armies whose leaders and weapon designers made silly mistakes.
Of course the armor wasn't very effective against energy and/or particle beam weapons, either. And lots of the civilians they were called on to oppress were unarmed, and could be expected to improvise with clubs and the like. So why WERE they wearing that armor, anyhow?
Perhaps it was to be intimidating, ala the Nazi's crisp uniforms or the Klan's hoods. Perhaps it was as a weapons-system platform or remote-sensing countermeasures.
(Next question: Why didn't they have any thermal imaging, thus letting overgrown teddybears ambush them?)
Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:2)
I don't know about you but personally I found young Annakin (sp?) to be almost as annoying as Jar-Jar, and was hoping against hope that he would crash and die in the stupid pod race scene. On top of that, I always found Vader to be a deep and fairly complex villian, and someone who would be a very shrewd and fierce opponent no matter what side he fought on. Annakin's role was written/acted so poorly in EP1 that I just can't visualize the transformation. Sure the story had some not so subtle foreshadowing about his eventual fall, but nothing about the character himself suggested anything more than an innocent, clever, and happy go lucky kid. I also think that Lucas made a big mistake in the way he explained the Force as being the result of some mystical space parasites that we all have, the notion of the Force as a mystical natural energy that flowed through all living things without explaining itself made for a much better story, the space parasites thing ruins it for me. It also opens up some holes in the story, notice how in the original SW flicks Obi Wan and Yoda always explian the force as well a mysterious force, but practically the first thing Qui Gon (sp?) tells young Vader is the space parasites line? It's obvious that the parasite idea was added just for EP1. Hmm I seem to have gone off on a tangent. Oh well.
Re:Sticks and Rocks (Score:2)
One of the funniest lines to me in the first movie is when ObiWan says "These blast marks are too accurate for jawas, this must be the work of imperial stormtroopers!"
I don't think the guys hit anything for the rest of the series.
Re:Hello? (Score:2)
Plus, and this can't be understated, Star Wars didn't have Keanu Reeves. Big edge there :)
It's possible to have a movie that balances special effects against a good story. Forrest Gump, for example -- I didn't like it all that much, but it's the sort of thing I'm talking about. City of Lost Children [imdb.com] is a great example though -- one of the "characters" is a flea assassin, shown in closeup several times. You need special effects to get a flea-eyed view of a flea. You don't need them to show Keanu beating up the guy from The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert [imdb.com].
Frankly, I'm sick & tired of movies like that, and I can't fathom why they're so popular. It wouldn't be so incomprehensible if they weren't so universally homogenous and boring, but they are and I just don't get it.
Personally, I have high hopes for the next Star Wars movie, even if the last one did royally suck [slab.org]. A friend of mine and I were... um, that is, some people that I was reading about but have never met before and certainly wouldn't want anything to do with... were suggesting holding Lucas' children hostage for the duration of the next two movies -- if the next one is good, he can have one back; if the next one sucks the kid dies and he better try real hard if he ever wants to see the other again. But of course this would be terribly mean and overreactive and treating a movie way outside of reality and I'm certainly not condoning any harm come down on the dear Lucas children. Not at all. I just think ol' Georgie better do it right this time, that's all ;)
Re:Old vs. New Tech (Score:2)
"Sweet creeping zombie Jesus!"
Re:Digital Filming (Score:2)
The projection is using TI's newer Digital Cinema technology. It features blacker blacks, better handling of over-bright scenes (knee level), gamma that matches film, and colormetry that matches film. It was designed with the cooperation of many film-makers.
The resolution is 1080 x 1920 progressive. While film make have a higher resolution if you shoot a single frame of a Kodak resolution chart, by the time that resolution passes through multiple internegative, interpositive, printing negative and final print stages, and projected via the crappy projector at your local megaplex with it's dreadful weave problems...
Trust me. The end result will look better than using traditional film. Lucas would not have chosen to go digital otherwise.
Star Wars Whiners (Score:5)
I'm already seeing a ton of posts basically saying the same thing. They basically say this, "George Lucas sucks and he's only in the franchise to make money. The story is going to be written for 10 year olds and all the aliens will be stupid and plastic. The origin trilogy will be soo much better than these."
I would like all of these people to sit back and watch the original trilogy again. Now watch it again. Pay attention this time and ignore any nostalgia you had from when you saw this when you were ten.
Back yet? Good now did you notice anything? Right you probably noticed that the original trilogy has most of the flaws your criticizing Episode One for.
The acting in all of them was dubious at best. Ford was wooden. Hamill was just plain bad ("You're not my father! Its not true!"). Carrie Fisher was high through most of the second and third. Lots of dialogue sucked. Quite often the best actors were the Brits playing minor roles.
They weren't written that well. Why is an astromech droid a great security hacker? Thats one helluva back door in the system. How can a farm boy crop duster turn into a ace pilot with no training? And don't give me lots of "the force" crap. Why can't an ace pilot successfully land a ship in a swamp? Especially if it can hover? "Only Imperial Storm Troopers are so precise"? Please. There are lots more, especially that god awful Tarzan yell in Jedi.
Oh and by the way, lots of aliens looked stupid or plastic in the first movies too. Especially Jedi where the band looked like muppets. Can you honestly say Greedo looked convincing in Star Wars?
Oh and Lucas is almost richer than God so he doesn't need the money. He has ILM pulling in money constantly. He has all the other Star Wars stuff. He doesn't need to spend 200 Million of his own money to make another movie.
The basic problem isn't that Lucas is making bad movies. He isn't, episode one isn't significantly worse then Jedi. The problem is he made another Jedi when people wanted another Empire or A New Hope. And he doesn't have anyone to tell him something is stupid and it should be left out like the overly gratuitous trip through the core in Ep 1. And he's not an especially good director, have you seen his other movies?Remember the horn joke from the set of Star Wars?
His real problem isn't that he's making crappier movies, its that he's making the same level of movies when we want them to be so much better. We want more believable aliens and better writing. We want better acting. So its us who really have to deal with it, not him.
Re:High Expectations (Score:2)
I'd have to disagree. In fact I will. I was in my early 20's when the original was released and was blown away by the story and FX. I still think the first three movies were exceptional in many ways (OK, other than the Ewoks, but I thought those were added to broaden the demographics and open the market for product targeting the kiddie set).
Re:Woo-Hoo! (Score:2)
Christ figures are everywhere in western literature, and you don't have to look far to find other examples. Sometimes it is done well (like in Cool Hand Luke), sometimes not so well (In The World According To Garp, he was conceived when his mother raped an unknown dieing soldier.)
If we are to criticize Lucas for the virgin birth in TPM, it should be for being so ham-fisted and obvious about it, when he was so subtle and crafty with the symbolism in the last half of Empire. Perhaps he should consider hiring a more seasoned director to get his vision on the screen without cramming it down our throats.
BBSpot: Matrix Parts 2, 3 Actually The Same Movie (Score:2)
"What did you think we meant when we said we were filming the two sequels at the same time?" said the Wachowski brothers, directors of the first film. "We don't think most people will notice. The average moviegoer saw the first film 11 times. They can't be that bright. The great thing is the actors don't even know. We only used them for about 15 minutes. The rest is all computers. I don't think Keanu will ever figure it out."
The producers of the movie said, "We toyed with the idea of just releasing the first movie as the sequels, but we figured that would be too obvious to the clever American public." They continued, "Usually the third movie in a sequel sees quite a bit of drop off in quality. This way we can guarantee it will be as good as the second!"
A Warner Brothers official denied the report, "They aren't exactly the same. I mean one is called 'The Matrix: Part II', and the other is called 'The Matrix: Part 3 - Part 2 Revisited', isn't that enough of a difference?"
Re:MTV Movie Awards (Score:3)
kwsNI
Re:Woo-Hoo! (Score:5)
No way - it could turn out to be the key to the series. Consider:
What if the Jedi are wrong? What if those germs aren't the Force, but rather inhabit those who have the Force? (Like detecting anti-bodies to something rather than detecting the something itself...)
These little guys could be the key to the eradication of the Jedi. If you're going to try and kill off the Jedi, how would you do it? Hand to hand combat with every single one? Bomb the annual JediCon? What if you could attack the one thing that distinguishes Jedi from the rest of the populace? What if you could turn the symbiotic relationship into something harmful?
Darth and Co. decimate the ranks of the Jedi sometime between now and when Luke comes on the scene. Wanna bet how they do it? I bet those idiot little germs have something to do with it.
And it could be played as one of those 'spiritual enlightenment' scenes for Obi-Wan... "Those germs have died - I no longer have The Force. Wait! I have The Force still! The Force must be inside me, more than something physical..." and so on and so forth until we all barf.
But, then again, I could be wrong and Lucas could play it out straight and drive us even further away...
Re:Say what you will about Jar Jar... (Score:2)
Jar-Jar (Score:2)
Re:MTV Movie Awards (Score:2)
Did anyone else want to just let Lucas have it [slab.org]? I sure did... hahaha
Old vs. New Tech (Score:3)
I thought the actual 'sci-fi' portion was better looking due to the actual physical models projecting actual shadows over the bumps and curves of the ship, other than the computer generated models which appear flat. The scenery has no depth to it either...
Sorry Lucas, but computers can do everything.... Yet....
...and I'm not sure we should trust this Kyle Sagan either.
"parasites" (Score:2)
Basically, a relationship between two living beings is categorised as parasitical (sp? I took Bio in Portuguese, not English) when one of them survives at the detriment of the other. It's a +/- relationship. Therefore, a disgusting nematelmynt (again, sp?) that lives inside your stomach qualifies parasite. So does an unemployed divorcee who lives off the ex-spouse's hard-earned pay.
However, the MOD^H^H^Hmidichlorians (BTW, what a stupid damned name! It tries to be scientific, while ignoring that "a long long time ago in a galaxy far far away" nobody spoke Latin!) don't. I mean, think about it. They get to float around in your cells. You get premonition, supernatural agility and speed, and the right to wear damned cool robes and use those awesome lightsabers (in five fruity colours!). I'd say it's a +/+ relationship, no doubt about it.
Perhaps the word you were looking for is "symbiosis", not "parasitism", eh?
(BTW: It's spelled "Anakin".
DVD? (Score:4)
Did I miss something, or did Lucas just slip up? :)
Re:Star Wars Whiners (Score:2)
Er, no. I watched "A New Hope" for the first time about a year ago (I'd already seen "Empire strikes back" and "Return of the Jedi" long ago), and I thought it was fantastic. Sharper, wittier dialog, interesting characters, betting acting, and settings that felt real. Much better than the crap that is Phantom Menace.
Jar jar? (Score:2)
The ewoks were bad enough.. a bunch of little pomeranians walking around chanting "yub yub". But jar jar.... *shudder*... save us... I swear, he's someone's vision of Joe Camel while tripping on acid : P
- Rei
Jedi (Score:2)
A word about Jar Jar and different audiences (Score:2)
Yes, that's right, 99% of Slashdot readers are male, computer literate, and young to early-middle-aged technophiles.
As a personal note, I went with a group of over a dozen friends to go see Episode I, twice. 8 guys, 4 girls, all college-age adults except for a younger brother (9 years old) present.
After the movie, it was pretty clear that different people liked (or disliked) specific things about the movie. The college guys hated or at least though Jar-Jar was annoying. On the other hand, they loved the extensive lightsaber duels, Darth Maul, and, of course, Queen Amidala.
The younger brother loved Jar-Jar. He thought he was funny, in a clownish way. He could have cared less about Queen Amidala, but he thought Darth Maul and all the fighting was cool.
The girls unanimously liked Jar-Jar. They thought he lightened the movie's mood, and was generally humorous in a "Dumb and Dumber" way. They generally didn't like Amidala too much (too uptight). Darth Maul was too icky for some of them, and they could care less about "laser sabers" (a direct quote!).
In other words, YMMV. But, try to keep in mind that you speak for probably 5-15% of the population before claiming to represent me, or any of my friends, in your personal views.
Re:Woo-Hoo! (Score:2)
IIRC, Athena was not born at all... she emerged from the cracked skull of Zeus. Also, she was not a person, just another god among many in a polytheistic pantheon.
Shouldn't bug you...unless you think the bible is some sort of factual text rather than a collection of peasant poetry, mythology and moraltiy plays.
Cute. Just what we need, sufficient flamebait to start a massive, off-topic, fundamentalist-versus-agnostic-with-no-room-for-ot her-options flame war.
I'm not going to touch that one, other than to say "thanks a lot" for the shouting match which is likely to follow your comment.
Re:MTV Movie Awards (Score:2)
Hello? (Score:4)
Re:All digital (Score:2)
Re:Star Wars Whiners (Score:3)
Look I don't mean to dig into your comment but have you watched the trilogy lately... Or even episode 1?
True Luke has never flown an X-wing before, but he is obviously piloted some sort of craft before... Remember the comment to Biggs about Beggar's Canyon? And remember the Skywalker's must have a knack for flying spacecraft for the first time, they seem to blow up whatever their target is... Episode 1's Droid control ship... And Episode 4's Death Star...
Second point... Even the best pilots can't land in zero visibility conditions... I mean he didn't see the branches until he actually crashed into him...
And finally this brings me to my third point... These are just fantasy movies... There is no such thing as light sabers, (even though I wish there was) the force (which I wish for more, imagine really being able to use the Jedi Mind trick, it would make life a lot easier convincing my boss to get a raise...), X-wing fighters, gungans (Thank God), etc... So just enjoy these movies for what they are, entertainment. George Lucas is a master at capturing or imagination, and taking it a long time ago in a galaxy far far away...
Let's not be so critical of these movies for now on... I mean even if this next one does suck, is that going to stop you from seeing the next one after that...?
I mean did that stop us from seeing all the highlanders?
Digital Filming (Score:2)
Downs, the colors are a bit off (black specifically, which has to do with the projection, not the capture, and of course is easy enough to fix digitally) at the moment, and film can probably do better resolution with less effort (but who knows, what are the specs on the CCDs used in these cameras)?
Re:DVD? (Score:2)
The bounty hunter (Score:2)
and Aussie Leeanna Walsman, who'll take on the physically-demanding role of a new highly-killed bounty hunter.
Can't be a very good one then...
Re:MTV Movie Awards (Score:3)
Can you see Jar Jar as Jules?
De path of de righteous Gungan is beset on all sides by de inequities of de selfish and de tyranny of evil men. Blessed is hesa, whosa in de name of charity and gooda will, shepherds de weak through de valley of darkness, for hesa is truly hisa brother's keeper and de finder of lost children. And my will strike down upon yousa with maxibig vengeance and cawazy anger dosen who would attempt to crunch mesa brothers. And yousa will know mesa name is the Lord whensa my lay mesa vengeance upon yousa.
Re:Lucus knows what he is doing (Was :Woo-Hoo!) (Score:2)
But my point was that the "Force as religion" concept made Star Wars a great mythical story.
The "Force as a biological parasite" concept makes Star Wars a really stupid Sci-Fi serial.
Re:Hello? (Score:2)
-russ
Made For Children != Dumbed Down (Score:2)
"The axiom 'An honest man has nothing to fear from the police'
Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:2)
While I feel your pain regarding how much PM sucked, I think it's too early to write the next movie. I think it's possible that even Lucas learned from the first movie. Hard to say; either he will learn from his mistakes and the next movie will have a lot more plot, or he will go the other direction -- the dark side, let's call it -- and make Jar Jar even more annoying:
I'm really, really hoping that he learned from the disaster.
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Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:5)
... to gouge yet more money out of fans who are so dedicated to the original series that they'll still go and watch anything with the Star Wars moniker on it, even though it's aimed at ten year old kids who think that Jar Jar Binks is actually cool, rather than being the alien equivalent of slashdot-terminal on crack.
I'm sorry, but whilst the orignal Star Wars trilogy had its appeal at the time, this time around the dubious moralising, dumb looking aliens and slushy character relationships just don't really cut the mustard with me. And a whole series about how great the kid who grew up to be Darth Vader, killer of the innocent, is - what the fuck is that about? What's next, Charles Manson - The Childhood Adventures?
Now lets watch as this post get moderated into oblivion by slashbot moderators who still think that George Lucas is something other than a tight-fisted money gouging bastard. These are the same kind of people who will buy each film on video, then each as "Director's Cut", the collected version with a 32-page commerorative booklet and then finally, in about 2020, the DVDs with amazing "enhanced" features - subtitles and an interview with The Man himself.
Nope, I just can't wait for this film.
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Jon E. Erikson
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:4)
More specifically I'd love to see Ewoks carve Jar Jar apart and eat him.
Preferably in a huge orgy of bloody screaming and burning flesh and spears and cutting and whatnot....
Kintanon
Re:Sticks and Rocks (Score:2)
Jar-Jar is Integral to the Story (Score:5)
One is that Jar-Jar is unconciously weilding the force, and is on his own path to becoming a Jedi. This rumor speaks about how Jar-Jar, although clumsy, still seems to win battles despite his clumsiness. This kind of story line could speak to the nature of the force, how it is far reaching, even to the meek.
Another rumour is that Jar-Jar is a character from the later movies, and is currently "disguised." This rumour speaks about how Jar-Jar is pretty similiar to Human in size and weight (some other stuff too I'm not sure of.) I even saw one website suggesting Jar-Jar was Bobafett(!).
Lucas is a master of weaving storylines. I can't wait to see how Jar-Jar fits in based on Phantom Menace.
Just my $.02
Re:Jar Jar will be evil! (Score:2)
Consciousness is not what it thinks it is
Thought exists only as an abstraction
The magic is dead (Score:2)
Well, perhaps it is unfair to use the term insulting? After all, it's not as if Lucas promised us anything... or did he? Probably not; it's simply aimed at a new generation of viewers (aka purchasers (mom, buy me Jar Jar!)). So those who enjoyed 4-6 should probably ignore 1-3 entirely. After twenty years of being a Star Wars fan (and not too much of an obsessive), I can finally terminate my relationship with Lucas. Just as so many Napster-and-Metallica fans have terminated their relationship with those shmucks. Episode One crossed a line and destroyed the nostalgic magic. So what else can I say about Episode Two? To paraphrase Jay Sherman, the Critic (on "English for Taxi Drivers"): "If the movie looks terrible, DON'T SEE IT!"
For the record I have not terminated my relationship with Chewbacca.
(Movies to pay good money for: Casablanca, Godfather II, the Blues Brothers, A Clockwork Orange, Animal House, Dr. Strangelove. "Empire" holds the distinction of being one of maybe 5 good sci-fi movies ever made, the others are Bladerunner, 2001, uhh... Heavy Metal??.)
Ben Chadwick - Editor, Zero Future/Post-Collegiate Malaise
The Saga Begins (Score:2)
Hell, I posted it on the Pentium story, might as well put one here. I think it's time for some Weird Al [sagabegins.com].
All Al all the time!
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...but some things stay the same. (Score:2)
Don't forget the writing.
And the acting...
Star Wars Episode 2 Starts With Shooting Jar Jar (Score:5)
Now that's a headline.
more JarJar (Score:2)
Should be a good movie. Maybe not great, but still worth seeing.
________
1995: Microsoft - "Resistance is futile"
Episode Three, oh yeah! (Score:2)
Natalie Portman (Score:5)
To type "Natalie Portman"
And not lose Karma.
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:2)
My longstanding hypothesis is that Chewbie is actually half-brother to Luke and Leia, spawn of Darth and an Ewok. He gets his height from Darth.
There is a very obvious subtext portraying an affinity between the Skywalkers and the Ewoks. Remember in ESB when Leia comes out of the Ewok's apartment wearing her pajamas? What the heck was going on in there, anyway?
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Re: (Score:2)
Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:2)
That's just the problem: TPM wasn't entertaining.
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Re:"parasites" (Score:2)
I know as described it's more of symbiotic relationship (esp for those with enough midichlorians to become Jedi's) but for starters I couldn't remeber how to spell "midichlorians" at the time and I already had enough questionable spelling in that post as it was, and you have to admit "space parasite" has a certian ring to it that "space-born symbiotic micro-organism" lacks, though I guess I could've used "space symbiant" but again I liked the sound of "space parasite" better. Besides for all we know the midiclorians really could be parasites and their high concentration in Jedi's could be a side effect of being stronger in the force than others, rather than the cause. If for example the midiclorians do not produce any "force energy" on their own but rather feed off other creatures "force energy" they would be parasites, and would be found in higher concentrations in Jedi's than in normal people. Or I could just be talking out of my ass
Say what you will about Jar Jar... (Score:5)
We pretty much know what happens to most of the characters from Episode I, unless they throw us any major curves.
Anakin: Becomes Darth Vader, is talked about in second trilogy, dies on second Death Star.
Obi-Wan: Lives through slaughter of Jedis, becomes crazy old coot, lives on Tattooine, dies on first Death Star.
C-3PO: Eventually gets built.
R2-D2: Remains an ash can.
Queen Amidala: The assumption is that she becomes Luke/Leia's mother and gets killed.
Really, the only character with room for development, who can have the kind of character arc that Luke had in the first movies, is Jar Jar. He's the one we know least amount, and he's the one who apparently has the farthest distance to travel, in the George Lucas/Joseph Campbell sense. Don't you get it yet? Star Wars, Episodes I-III, is the story of Jar Jar Binks!
He starts out as a bumbling, outsider nobody who can't get anything right. By the end of Episode I, he's proven himself to be an okay guy. In the next couple movies he'll continue to mature and advance, will become a major general or other figure, until finally by the end of the third movie...
(SPOILER ALERT)
Australia v Hollywood (Score:2)
Mission Impossible 2.
Star Wars 2.
...and a host of other lesser known titles...
Anyone see a pattern here? Why does Australia have 2 large studios (Universal in the Gold Coast, Fox in Sydney) making the cutting-edge hi-tech movies?
IMHO We here in Oz are the cheap Asian labour we've always been afraid of. Also Low Crime rate, Low Labour cost, Highly skilled, Politically stable. We even have more Americans emigrating here than Aussies leaving for the US, despite the pitiful salaries for IT engineers here. (How does 15 years of C, C++, Java, HTML costing $40,000 grab you?)
Market forces may increase the salaries - but may not. There are just too many non-monetary advantages to living here. And there are literally thousands of talented CGI programmers who will almost pay to be allowed to make movies here. Actually, given what I've seen at the multi-media training centre 200m away from my house in Canberra, delete the "almost".
Wonder what the Unions in Hollywood have to say about this consequence of Globalisation.
Re:Woo-Hoo! (Score:5)
First of all, he established the groundwork for what are sure to be two very dark and combat-filled movies.
Also, the lightsaber fight at the end was the best filmed so far.
Even during a second viewing, I was still laughing every time I saw the "thin client" attack droids in action. IMHO, anybody who doesn't think an entire army of Crow T. Robots getting their asses kicked by lizzard men is funny needs to lighten up a little. That battle alone was worth my seven bucks.
On the downside, turning The Force into super-intelligent germs was a huge mistake. In two brief scenes, he ruined the whole series by turning a beautifully impossible fantasy into a very implausable sci-fi load of crap.
This was even less forgivable than the cartoony Jar Jar, the Bat-Grapling-Guns that Amidala's royal guard used, or the fact that Brian Blessed (voice of the Gungan King) put in the corniest performance of his carreer since his hammy appearance in Flash Gordon.
Alright, I'm going to shut up now, because I'm starting to sound like the "Comic Book Store Guy" from The Simpsons.
Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:2)
Gosh, perish the thought that a mainstream film can be made with characters that appeal to the kids in the audience. The horror!
Actually, the story of Darth's fall from grace has lots of dramatic potential. Just because you hold Lucas and his fanatical fans in the utmost contempt doesn't mean he shouldn't make the film. When it comes out, by all means skip it, but please lay of the whining. Lucas is no more a money gouging bastard than most people in Hollywood (or anywhere, for that matter), he's just more successful.
Jar-Jar Hidden Jedi (Score:3)
I'm not karma-whoring, it's just funny. Please don't moderate me up.
wish
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But it's FUN ... (Score:2)
For example:
Q: Why does a "photon torpedo" going off nearby throw people around on the Enterprise's bridge?
My candidate A: EMP from the detonation interfering with the artificial gravity's mechanism for compensating for impulse engine acdelleration.)
My favorite from someone else:
Q: Why does the Enterprise go "whoosh" as it flies by (in a vacuum) in the opening credits?
A: Because someone left the vacuum cleaner running.
(Real A: Because they tried it silently and it just didn't work ffor the audience.)
Re:Old vs. New Tech (Score:2)
Kirk gets in the enterprise at spacedock, its like it was just dusted 5 seconds ago and all of the buttons just polished. You're in your typical spacecraft, with its typical array of sci-fi weaponry. It's painted bright white and covered with outdoor floodlights. One would think that would make the craft easy to target, but I'm sure it has its strategic purpose. Most main characters are stereotypes (kirk, the bold adventuruer; spock, the stereotypical emotionless scientist, etc). And that was one of the more inventive sci-fi's beforehand.
- Rei
P.S. - Is it just me, or has anyone else ever had the craving to record the sound of the millenium falcon failing to enter hyperspace, and use that as their windows startup sound (not shutdown sound) (this of course was before I started using Leenukes)
P.P.S. - My proxy is actually going to let me post this time! Woo!
MPEGs of Episode II Racer for Dolphin (Score:2)
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Re:Jar-Jar is Integral to the Story (Score:3)
An excerpt from Episode 3's script:
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:2)
Oh, well.
Re:Expectations... (Score:2)
Your right about the expectations, though. Personally, I think Episodes 2&3 will be a lot better, if only because people won't expect as much out of them.
Actually I'm Glad Jar Jar is Returning..... (Score:4)
2. Putting Jar Jar in EII tells me that Lucas is going to continue to direct HIS vision, despite all the public scrutiny that he got in EI with Jar Jar's alleged references (leave it to people these days to find something to get angry over in something so harmless)
3. I thought (after watching the character for the 3rd time) that Jar Jar's character is a bit more deep than one might first appear, and his character has quite a bit of growth potential (despite the speech impediment of his entire race)
Cheers
Tenement.
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Re:Hello? (Score:2)
Or perhaps the Strangers will wish to posess his mind, now that he has learned to tune.
Or maybe, just maybe, they will do something with their "He's The One" story that hasn't been done a million times before... but I doubt it.
The best thing they could do is just give up on their crappy story about AI robots using people for batteries and just give us two more flicks of Kung Fu fighting and cool camera tricks.
Is it true about the carbon freeze? (Score:4)
Is this true?
because if so PETRIFIED NATALIE PORTMAN! OH YAAAAAAAAAAAA!
-hee. sorry. begin karma burn.
Re:Star Wars Whiners (Score:2)
He flew a T-16 back home. He used to bullseye womp-rats with it, and they're not much bigger than 2 metres.
Poor bounty hunter... (Score:2)
Poor Aussie. I wonder how often one needs to be killed in a movie before one gains the fame of being 'highly-killed'?
-Adam
Morale will continue until the beatings improve!
Re:Hayden Christiansen (Anakin)? (Score:2)
"Sweet creeping zombie Jesus!"
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:2)
Yes, but as annoying as Jar-Jar was, he didn't have to sing a big, stupid John Williams attempt at a "happy natives" song. That was, without a doubt, the most cring-inducing moment in the whole Star Wars canon, and the best deletion from the "Special Editions".
Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:3)
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Here's my mirror [respublica.fr]
Re:High Expectations (Score:2)
The film is for kids. Period. You (general) were a kid when you saw it, now the next generation is getting a taste. Just because the seried didn't appear to "grow up" with everyone else doesn't mean it sucks.
Amusing typo... (Score:2)
Highly killed, huh? Tough job, but someone's gotta do it...
Re:Samuel L. Jackson (Score:2)
Mace Windu
"Who's the man who comes for his Jedi's?"
"Still the man? Any questions?
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Ofcourse
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Re:Another golden Lucas opportunity... (Score:2)
Actually, I went to see the revised E4/5/6 many years after seeing the originals, and I still enjoyed them.
> Perhaps you could choose to turn off the critical adult and let loose the fun loving kid inside once in a while
I do this. I'm like really immature. I read a lot of heavyweight material, so for a break I'm reading the original Conan stories right now, and I'm enjoying them, mindless, flawed, and repetitive though they be. I went to see Jackie Chan's silly Double Dragon when it came out, and I enjoyed it. I rented Cat Ballou last month, and I enjoyed it, in spite of a heap of criticism I could pile on it.
But alas, for the recent SciFi "blockbusters" like TPM, SST, and LiS, I was bored and squirmed in my seat through whole screenings. That's bad. I'm the kind who usually gets so caught up in a movie that I suffer reality shock when it's over. If instead I squirm in my seat wondering when the fun is going to start, or remain a detached critic rather than getting caught up in the show, then there is IMO something dreadfully wrong with it.
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Re:it'd be tough to go downhill?? (Score:2)
Maybe, Storm Troopers cut JJ open to find some hidden message from the Queen that he accidentally ate."Me so hungry."
Then when they start cutting,
"Ohhh, not my gemitalia? That hurt Jar-Jar!"
Then Darth Maul comes and starts cutting through Ewoks, like a sythe through dry summer wheat. Their crys for mercy echoing through woods.
But then that wouldn't sell any McDonalds figurines, or snuggly Christmas Ewoks.
Re:Jar-Jar (Score:2)
TPM did not do this. It could not--after twenty years with Star Wars firmly engrained in our collective consciousness, TPM's impact on us compared to the original's is like the Miracle of Fatima versus the Ascention of Christ. It's an echo, no matter who wrote it.
Go back and look at some other cultural mini-revolutions. Go watch The French Connection, for example. You'll think the entire thing is a cliche. But it isn't--it created whole categories of concepts that were so powerful that they were imitated by hundreds of followers. Go read Raymond Chandler. You'll think he's a hack, until you realize that he's the original that everyone's duplicated since. Find some old black-man-on-a-porch Delta Blues and every lick will sound like famlilar, because you're listening to what the Yard Birds, the Stones, and Zeppelin grew up dreaming they could play. Go listen to Kraftwerk's stuff from the 1970s, then tell me about house music. Watch a couple of Charlie Chaplin films to find out why The Birdcage had a houseboy doing pratfalls with a tray of dishes.
That's genius--when you do something that not only blows everyone away, but seems obvious in retrospect. This it will become ubiquitous. No, TPM is no Star Wars. If you insist on watching Star Wars with a jaded Y2K mindset, you're going to miss a lot, because what you're watching is part of that mindset. It's a part of you now, because you're part of the culture that it defined.
Enough sermonizing. Jar-Jar sucked. If he's supposed to evolve over the course of Episodes I-III the way Luke did from IV-VI, he's got a lot of catching up to do.
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Kid's movies don't have to be lame (Score:2)
The truth is, The Phantom Menace was badly structured (who was the hero?), badly written, and -- unlike Star Wars -- relied on flash rather than a compelling story. It deserves every scrap of criticism it got.
Not all kid's movies need to have adult appeal, but unlike a Barney the Dinosaur movie, Phantom Menance *could* have been something adults would enjoy. Maybe the next one will be.
Yogurt
Kids' films. . . bleagh (Score:2)
-rpl
Re:Old vs. New Tech (Score:2)
The original series (it will always be the original series to me) was set in the rebel outposts and backwater towns of a civilization in rapid decline. Episode I took place in the opulent castle of Queen Amidala, and the Captial City of a massive republic.
(The subway in Washington DC is a lot cleaner and nicer than the one in New York... at least the trains that run to the federal building are, anyway. When I rode them, I never saw a single scrwal.)
The desert scenes in Episode I were plenty grimy, and the racing pods all looked like tricked-out hot-rod junkers.
It makes sense, though, that a royal princess from a peaceful planet would have a fleet of spiffy, barely-used fighter ships, and her personal ship (that silver thingy) was her planet's equivelant of Air Force One, so a lot of dents and scratches would be very out of place.
Re:All digital (Score:3)
That is the intention. With the SONY HD video camera used, they will be able to shoot as if they are using film, but the results will be immediately available. No lab processing. "Dailies" can be seen the same day, rather than the next day. The shot footage will be transfered via the net to the special-effects houses as soon a a take is chosen. No need to wait for a telecine (film scanning) session...the 1080p/24 videotape is the the final image.
There are enough areas where the laborious process of filmmaking will be speed up that, even if the cameras blew up every other day, it will still be faster. Besides, Sony will have their top technicians on-site available to fix anything that can go wrong (hey, who's going to say "no, I don't want to hang with Goerge Lucas"?)
CGI Battles (Score:2)
What this means is that we'll have more huge CGI generated scenes. Moores law having duly cranked a few more times, you can model the more fluid movements of people instead of the robots of Episode 1. Frankly, I'm not terribly excited about this. I like cool effects, but when the whole scene comes out of a giant render farm it loses something, at least for me.
What was the best part of Episode 1? I liked Ray Park, the British kung fu athlete who played Darth Maul. I enjoyed it for the same reason I like Jackie Chan movies. There's something exciting about watching an actual flesh and blood human being do something that he really shouldn't be able to, even if he's had a little help from carefully chosen camera angles and multiple takes.
Maybe the reason massive computer generated scenes leave me cold is that I'm too aware of the technology that goes into it and it spoils the trick for me. Or perhaps the ones I've seen have artistic flaws that will be fixed with better technique and more computer power. Maybe we won't even need actors. I'm not sure though. Would slashdot trolls be fixated on petrified Natalie Portman if she were digitally generated? The company that puts out Tomb Raider still hires a series of increidbly nubile girls to make personal appearances as "Lara Croft".