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Star Wars Prequels Media Movies

Assorted Star Wars Tidbits 48

Posted by CmdrTaco from the are-we-there-yet-georgie dept.
The hype machine keeps on rolling: jarv writes "CNN has an article where George Lucas talks about how the Star Wars hype has gotten out of hand. " and an anonymous reader sent us a link to an article over at DVD resource where Lucas talks about DVD Star Wars and how it looks like it'll be a loooong time before we see it. Lastly jkottke wrote in to tell us that the Fray is running a thing about Star Wars memories. There's some good stuff there... my first Star Wars memory is seeing Jedi with my Dad- its the first movie I remember seeing on the silver screen. Then there was watching SW blipped out on HBO, watching Empire and being scared so bad that I had to be reminded that I had already seen Jedi, so Darth couldn't kill Luke. And more recently, watching the trilogy almost every weekend for 2 straight years with Dave while doing homework in our dorm room.
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Assorted Star Wars Tidbits More

Assorted Star Wars Tidbits

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  • Posted by lordzor:

    I don't think that waiting for all the movies is that bad of an idea for a DVD release. I already have 2 different copies of the "middle" trilogy, so I won't mind have a VHS copy of the first 3 before I can get all 6 on DVD.

    I also have fond memories of the trilogy being played over and over and over while studdying was (supposedly) being done.
  • Warning: I am not trying to slam Star Wars here,
    as I do enjoy the original 3 movies, and I am
    looking forward to the next 3. However, there
    comes a time that reality does need to step it.

    This weekend at that special preview of SW:TMP,
    many of the critics that were invited came out
    with somewhat negative reviews of the movie,
    somewhere between 2 and 3.5 stars out of
    4 overall. (This including magazines likle
    Variety, Rolling Stone, and the NY Times).
    The reviews give TPM the same treatment as they
    would the batch of summer blockbusters in the
    last few years, saying it's technical merits
    are outstanding, but without plot and character.
    I've heard that Lucas has responded to this
    by saying that Star Wars was and always meant
    for kids.

    Pause a moment. While I certainy think that
    Lucas is truthful in that statement, given
    my own childhood enjoyment of the movies,
    and seeing the next generation of children
    with big smiles on their faces after seeing
    the Special Editions in theaters, there is
    just a bit of hypocritism to that as well.
    I find it very hard to justify spending
    well over $100mill to make a movie that
    is aimed at kids. Yes, the kids will see it,
    the kids will buy the toys, and in general
    will provide a large chunk of the expected
    $500 mill in worldwide profits that this movie
    will make. *BUT* that certainly is not a
    majority of the money that will be made.

    Look at the number of restrictions Lucas has
    put on the sale of tickets to TPM. Look at
    the sales of TPM action figures and other
    stuff that started at midnight last week
    (*midnight*! How many kids are up then?)
    Look at the number of people expected to
    call in sick next week for the opening
    day. Look at the sales of one-day airtrips
    to the US from Europe just to see this movie.

    There are more than just kids that will
    fall to the TPM spell come May 19th. People
    will be shelling out big bucks for anything
    Star Wars after that, and I very much doubt
    kids are providing those funds.

    Surprisingly, I think that TPM mania is just
    the same as the mania before any Trek movie,
    but at a very larger magnitude. The difference
    in size is due to the less-scientific nature
    of SW (where you don't care how a lightsabre
    works, you just enjoy the action) which allows
    a large crosssection of the population to
    enjoy the movie, and the media buildup. The
    latter makes me wonder if this was delibrate
    on LA's part, or if the media/hollywood
    built it themselves.

    What would have been the reaction to the movie
    if it was only annouced to be in theaters last
    week (as with most other movies, notably
    The Matrix)? Would the hype be there? I doubt
    that it would disappear, but it certainly
    would not have been as large as it is now.
    If anything, it would have been as much
    as a Trek movie opening under the same
    conditions.

    So this all begs the question of Lucas' motive.
    Is he truly making the most expensive children's
    entertainment in history, or has LA manipulated
    the market to make it as big as it is? I
    certainly hope it's only the former, as Lucas
    is a great storyteller, but the amount of
    hype for this one movie is beyond belief.
  • They've been slowly building up this hype since 1991. What does he expect really...

    Of course it got out of hand. He got hoist on his own pitard...err marketingmachine...
  • "I have been trying to make sure that the DVD is the ultimate repository of the Star Wars saga."

    Come on. The DVD format is great compared to consumer predecessors, but it could hardly be used as the "ultimate repository" for modern 70 mm film and Lucas knows it. There must be other motives. What could they be other than the obvious greed & politics?
  • DVD/HDTV aspect ratio agreement has been worked out, sort of. Many films are released in anamorphic format which squeezes the picture horizontally on the recording (the technique has been used since the early days of film) then uncompresses it on screen. DVD resolution is roughly comparable to a stretched wide version of SDTV 480i (the very low end of the 18 DTV/HDTV formats). It will probably be a few years before HD-DVD (720p or 1080i, 16x9 native) comes around.

    Expect to wait, and to pay for HD-DVD. Today, not all studios release DVDs in anamorphic format. Most studios play all sorts of games with the video, audio and "special edition" extras to get you to buy their movies several times. If, say, you collect movies from 1995 - 2005, you might end up with all of these copies of the same film in your collection: 1 LD, special edition LD, 1 DVD, 1 special edition DVD, 1 HD-DVD, 1 special edition HD-DVD, ad infinitum.

    The whole problem of paying over and over and waiting for format improvements because the industry wants to saturate the market with old formats before releasing new ones will not be addressed until the industry addresses licensing. For any entertainment information, you should be able to purchase a license where the price is based on time of license and quality as compared to the original. Upgrades for either of the two or new media (for as long as media is around) should be incremental (f.e. I might buy a lifetime license for Star Wars in the full 70 mm film quality and pay only incrementally for the HD-DVD media and later to download the 2.5 TB lossless compression dump of the 70 mm film).

    I've decided to bite the bullet on DVD. The quality is so much better than today's DTV (digital cable, satellite), VHS or LD. If you shop right, DVDs can be relatively cheap. The web sites that sell DVDs have gotten much better in the past few months about specifying format specifics like anamorphic and 5.1 audio. When DVD players with component output are available (for progressive scan output-- you can get this today with a PC DVD and the correct video card) and connected to an HDTV monitor with upconverting (convert 480p to 720p or 1080i) the picture will be fantastic. There are other workarounds today (like line doublers), but they're kludgy and expensive.
  • Stop paying attention then.
  • No one will buy TPM on VHS? I suppose *that's* the reason retailers still stock VHS tapes...
  • My "conspiracy theory" is that Lucas suddenly "declared" that Episode One was a "childrens' movie" when he realized that the fans who were children when the first trilogy came out would be disappointed. I'm unclear whether he had this idea in mind when he wrote it, or he realized what he had done only after the fact. My guess is the latter. Though the fact that he cast a 9 year old in one of the lead parts worries me that he was trying to make a character that children could "relate to."

    I think it's a damage-control spin in preparation for any up-coming backlashes... obviously, the hype that Lucas is complaining about is all of his own doing-- talking about the Campellian archetypes and his desire to make "modern myths", etc.

    To think that I am beginning to worry whether my baby sister-- who just turned 13-- might be TOO OLD for Episode One is a really disturbing thought.

    -Dean
  • Yes, I remember finding Jedi thrilling and slowing learning to appreciate ESB for the great movie that it was, and spending spring break one year watching the trilogy time and time again. I still sometimes get chills when I see Lando disguised in Jabba's palace.

    But I can't help but wonder if George Lucas's current "backtracking" regarding the hype is a result of the fact that he realizes that perhaps he made a slight misstep. I mean, only a month ago he was on the cover of _Wired_. What was he expecting regarding hype?

    Perhaps the previews made the movie look darker than it really will be, but the problems people are mentioning about it are now all becoming clearer, in retrospect-- a 9 year old in the lead part, Jar-Jar sounding suspiciously similar to Elmo from Sesame St., etc. I'm beginning to think that George Lucas has realized, now that the movie is finished, that this isn't the "mythic epic space opera" that he intended it to be and is trying to re-package it as a "childrens' movie... fun for the whole family!"

    It's the influence of having young children, I tell you! If only Lucas's children had already been grown up by the late 90's, this wouldn't have been a problem! :) Perhaps while he was writing, he subconsciously didn't want to make anything that would frighten or bother them, and then when Episode One was completed, he realized that he had to repackage the hype.

    Well, maybe Episode One will be "candy", and then Episodes Two and Three will be better.

    -Dean
  • I'm really wondering how much the financial investment in producing a DVD is. For example, if I'm Studio X, and I have a good film copy of a movie here, with a DTS or DD soundtrack, how much does it cost to encode and produce the DVD, including the standard array of extra goodies?

    I have no idea what this costs, but I'm assuming it's not that much compared to the production cost of the movie itself. Any people in the business care to comment?

    Basically, what I'm getting to, is how much it costs to throw out a movie in DVD format, and whether the resulting sales can compensate for this cost. I tend to believe that people would buy lots of copies of Star Wars on DVD, and the medium should be thought of as more of a consumer medium than some kind of archival medium. If Lucas is really concerned about the staying power of the movies, he should just digitize the movie frame for frame, store it uncompressed in a mountain somewhere, and not worry about DVD.

    And his "ultimate repository" argument doesn't help to explain the fact that the trilogy exists on VHS tape, which we all know is rather lame when it comes to quality.

    People want the trilogy on DVD, and they're willing to pay for it. There will be better formats eventually. But people want it now!
  • DVD should theoretically be able to accomodate both on the same disc. Try renting "Crash" sometime (well maybe you don't want to but anyhow...): it gives you the choice between "NC-17" and "R", automatically inserting or removing the proper scenes based on your choice.
  • Remember, the first trilogy is, essentially, the life of Anakin Skywalker. If The Phantom Menace seems light-hearted and childish, it's because Anakin is still a child. As the first trilogy goes on, the tone should get darker as Anakin is seduced by the Dark Side, and becomes the heavy-breathing, mask-wearing, subordinate-choking SOB we loved to hate in the second trilogy.

    Once the first six episodes are out on video, and you take it all in during one (marathon) sitting, the "mythic epic space opera" will be clearer. And, after 12 hours of movie watching, the cheesy ending on Return of the Jedi SE might be tolerable. (Although I'll still fast forward past the musical number in Jabba's Palace.) :-)

    Keith Russell
    Whatever happened to peaceful coexistance?
  • I wish I could erase every bit of knowledge about Star Wars from my mind at will, just so I could be shocked by the end of Empire each time I watched it, just like the first time I saw it...
  • I had just about everything you could imagine Star Wars. I loved it. My entire room was totally decorated in Star Wars merchandise. I wish I had some of it today (long story about why it is all gone but I still had the Millenium Falcon and the Rebel Transport in their boxes). Few things from my childhood touch me as did those toys and universes I made up playing with them. All I have left today are an original blaster and some of the die cast toys. I spent part of Saturday looking at the vintage Star wars toys on eBay and feeling jealous (Hey! I had that....That too!)

  • ok lets think about this, how long did LaserDisk really last? how long will DVD last? In all likelyness we will have replaces DVD with some increibly small media in 5 years, and we will look back and say remember when we used to have DVDs and hard drives were magnetic platters, god, and 1 GB was a LOT? now we have __ insert name here __ and it hold 40 billion terrabytes on a matchbook size disc. Face if Star Wars DVD isnt out by mid 2000, it WONT HAPPEN!!!
  • That was another thing on my mind! Thank you for pointing this out! Yet another example of anti-Wookie racisim! If it wasn't for Chewie, they never would have got into that detention center to save Her Worshipfullness' ass!
  • Why no Wookies in Episode I?? Has Lucas and the rest of the Lucasfilm crew suddenly turned against our most beloved of characters, Chewbacca, and his most noble race, the Wookies?

    Why are there (apparently) no Wookies in SW:TPM?

    I can attribute this to nothing but latent anti-Wookie racism. First, you slowly write them out of the trilogy. Then, they're nothing but a bunch of lazy Wooks who will rip your arms out of your sockets if you so much as breathe wrong. Of course, you wouldn't want them living in your neighborhood and marrying your daughter. Unless you live in Kentucky, in which case your daughter probably has more hair than a wookie.

    This wookie racism has to stop! Remember, Chewbacca is hundreds of years old by the time of SW:ANH. Why shouldn't he be in the first trilogy? I am going to write Lucas a letter and explain to him my feelings on this subject. Just as soon as they let me out of the Institute.

    Thank you for your time.

  • Speaking of hype for episode one, how will this affect the reaction to episodes two and three? Episode one is really special because it is the first new Star Wars in 15 years, so can episode two possibly generate as much hype when it comes out? And by the time episode three rolls around, it will be "here we go again" sort of attitude among most of the media. Just think of all the attention the first "special edition" release got, and how the other two paled in comparison as far as public responce goes.
  • I can't live without Star Wars! Ohh, what am I gonna do till then? I guess I'll just keep rerunning Bladerunner, 2001 and Gattaca...

    I guess I can see the reasoning in this. The DVD's that are released later tend to have better production quality and more features. Bladerunner was rushed to the shelves and undeservedly has the absolute worst interface of any DVD I've seen.
  • Just out of curiosity, does any one know the REAL reason why George has decided not to do the last three films? I remember when the SE's were comming out and StarWars.com had anigifs for 7,8,9. This seemed to imply that he was going to work on them.

    We all know that the story was intended to continue on to 9 full movies. How are we expected to find out what happens afterwards. Please don't tell me that it's going to be in book format. Some of the after Jedi books have been ok, but now I think it's just overkill on most of them. Nothing seriously wrong can ever happen to any of the major characters because some other book has all ready been written that takes place after it.

    But I digress. Plain and simple, what happened to 7, 8, and 9???????


    ----
    "War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left"
  • But I digress. Plain and simple, what happened to 7, 8, and 9???????

    Plain and simple Lucas got bored. He says he's had enough Star Wars and he wants to do other stuff before he retires. If he was to do 7, 8 and 9 then that would take up the rest of his career.
    Sure he could hand it off to someone else, but we all know that won't happen. According to Lucas the only reason he let some write the books was because he knew he never would make the movie.

    I don't know about the rest of you, but I was less than impressed by the post ROJ books and as such I'm quite happy that Lucas has decided to drop the whole thing.

  • Not to mention that by that time, they might have worked out the whole HDTV/DVD screen ratio thing. I won't get DVD or HDTV until they play nice together.
  • Hmmm... all this fuss. No idea what you're all on about though, I've never seen any of the films!

    However, I'm prepared to bite the bullet and watch all three - I've found Jedi and Empire in the local Blockbusters (which order should they be in, BTW?), but not the first one - which I would like to see before the others! So, my question is, where in the UK can I buy copies of these films on video?
  • Umm...well, gee, I seem to have misplaced my 70mm film projector. DVD is not all things to all people, to be sure, but it's a damn sight better than a WHOLE LOT of alternatives. It's a VERY convenient, VERY compact, VERY user friendly format, and I think it's terrific. How would YOU make the "ultimate repository" publicly available?
  • I plan on seeing Star Wars many times, but I'm also expecting that it will garner few if any good reviews. Our society has become so jaded, cynical and arrogant in the past 10 years, and it loves to see the fall from grace of major figures. Because of this, there will be a concerted effort to utterly trash The Phantom Menace (it's already started - see David Ansen's perfunctory review at Newsweek. However, the kids will love it, just like we did when we were young. And that's all that really matters.
  • Haven't seen it myself, won't be seeing till July 16th (UK) but the previews according to this article [scifi.com] in SciFi Wire are not very promising...
  • Haven't seen it myself, and I won't be seeing till July 16th (UK) but, the previews according to this article [scifi.com] in SciFi Wire are not very promising...
  • Hell yes. I can live with the extra monsters dubbed in. I can live w/ Jabba (one of the most foul creatures eve) turned into a skinny cutesy reject from "A Bug's Life." But I absolutely can NOT handle Greedo firing and missing at 3 feet and Han "defending" himself after the fact. SCREW THAT!! Han shot first. It is the only way it can be. Now...is TPM a 'shot first' kinda movie or not? I fear the answer.
  • It's always ticket me off that Leia gave Luke and Han medals at the end of Episode IV, but didn't give one to Chewie. Huh? He sure earned one every bit as much as the others.
  • 1- Do not look at the song names on the Phantom Menace soundtrack. There are major spoilers
    2- There will be a Souvenir Guide [canoe.ca] on sale in Canadian movie theaters ONLY.
  • I'm from Canada, and I've got a slight nitpick- the souvenir guide will only be available from Cineplex Odeon theaters, not Famous Players.

    This is kinda irking me, as I will be going to the new Silver City theater in West Edmonton Mall for my Star Wars experience, and it is a Famous Players one.

    Oh well. I'll probably see it at a Cineplex sometime in the future. btw, wish me luck! I'm going for tickets this Wednesday, as they go on sale one week in advance. There is no way I'll be in school...
  • Long time for DVD on PM? I don't think so!

    Saw a copy of the 6+ hour Director's Cut on DVD this weekend, running on a nifty notebook in a major US city.
  • Just like some people thought CDs would never catch on?
    The problem with LaserDisks was that they weren't any better than VHS. The movies wouldn't even fit on one disk and the quality wasn't noticably better than good VHS.
    I thought the same thing when DVD first came out, but now that I have learned what it is and what it can do, I have repented for my unbelief. DVD _IS_ going to take over, and stay the standard for a long time to come.
    As for your arguement that something better will come. Well, so what? Just like mini-discs, those came out, but there's really not any advantage to use those over CDs. Sure, you can record on them, and they are smaller... but why not just get an MP3 player?
    CDs _have_been_ replaced, but there is no good reason to leave them. That was exactly how it was with Laserdisc before. VHS was replaced, but there was no good reason to switch over. DVD is immensely superior to VHS and Laserdisk, and offers so many more features.
    DVD will be the choice of the mainstream viewers in less than three years.
    I don't know if you are aware of it or not, but it is required in the US that all broadcasters switch over to digital HDTV signals by 2002 (give or take a year--I'm not sure the _exact_ date), and DVD will be the preferred storage format.

    ~unyun~
  • Regarding your comment about MiniDiscs, I don't see them as a replacement for the CD because there's nothing wrong with the CD for storing audio data - it doesn't need replacing. MiniDiscs are, however, a long-overdue replacement for the cassette, and this is the reason why they have taken off in such a big way over the past couple of years.

    I can't really see MD being successful as a medium for prerecorded music, and I certainly have no plans to buy albums on MD because the sound is likely to be slightly inferior and I prefer the larger booklet which the physical size of the CD makes possible. It's as a cheap, re-recordable and (relatively) high quality replacement for cassette that the MiniDisc will be (and is becoming) successful.
  • There are a few things that need top be cleared up here.

    1) LaserDisc is vastly superior to VHS.
    2) DVD is inferior to LaserDisc but superior to VHS
    DVD uses a lossy video compression that can quickly screw up a good movie in the hands of a bad engineer. Look closely at static shots in movies on DVD especially on a large screen and you will notice dithering just like in Quicktime movies (only not as bad).
    3) MiniDisc is inferior to CD and was never designed as a replacement but an enhancement. Again it uses a lossy compression CODEC.
    4) Commercial broadcasters are required to be broadcasting in digital (DTV) by 2002. This is not the same as HDTV. It is ment to lay the ground work for HDTV signals in the future. All it really means is that they need to replace/upgrade the last segment of the chain (the bradcast eqiupment) they are already captureing editing and playing digital signals.
  • Critics, for what it's worth, didn't like the original Star Wars either...
  • I love how it came out around the same time cloning was prevalent in the news. Really made you think. The funniest part was seeing Gabriel!
  • Gee, we used to watch Highlander... every day... starting around supper.

    "Nice to see you again Mcleod"..."Nice to see...[Thwonk]"

    Then there was the Star Wars Drinking game... You better hope that you don't draw Luke's name... start of A New Hope... "Luke? Luke? Where's Luke? Have you seen Luke? Luke?"


    -

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