The non-toy Star Wars discussion thread

[Hursticon]

How different would our lives have been if these movies were never made... every movie, script, and actor have all been reversed engineered by studying Episode 4 (or rather episode 1- that's what we call it because let's face it, episodes 1 -3 sucked hairy Ewok balls)

Hmm...

In all honesty, I quite liked Phantom Menace, Attack of The Clones & Revenge of The Sith.
That being said though, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back & Return of The Jedi are above and beyond superior movies and I agree 5FDP, our lives would be so dramatically different if Star Wars had never got off the ground.

In actuality, if Star Wars had never been made then that would've inadvertently affected the G1 Transformers Cartoon! - Because a lot of the sound effects were actually drawn from the Star Wars movies.

[GoktimusPrime]

Sir Alec Guiness always hated Star Wars. Unlike Ewan MacGregor who, after being told by Lucas that he was accepted for the role of Obiwan, hung up the phone and victoriously yelled, "I'M OBI-F***ING-WAN KENOBI!!"

[GoktimusPrime]

RIP Bob Anderson

[GoktimusPrime]

From here

- much like Star Wars Episode 3 is actually quite an entertaining movie when you skip all the boring plot and romance bits.

I found Revenge of the Sith to be the best of the Prequel Trilogy; while the movie is long (they all are), I can't think of any scenes that were dragged out too long (like say the Pod Race in Ep 1) or failed to contribute to the plot and was just wasting screen time (like say 90% of Jar Jar Binks' appearances). Attack of the Clones had that really long and awkwardly done romance thing (and romance isn't bad if it's done well, like say the romance between Leia and Han Solo in The Empire Strikes Back; but the romance between Anakin and Padmé was just awkward) -- Hayden Christiansen just can't do romance -- but Lucas came to accept this criticism and the romance in RotS was much shorter than in AotC. Yes, it was just as cringeworthy, but it was important to have it to show that Anakin was still very strongly in love/emotionally attached to Padmé because it's this emotional bond that ultimately leads to his fall to the Dark Side. But the scene was brief -- it served its purpose, then moved on.

I'll give Lucas credit where it's due, yes, he made mistakes in the prequels, but he took the criticism on board and showed signs of improving on them in each successive movie.
e.g.

+ In TPM he was criticised for Jar Jar Binks who just wasted screen time. In AotC Jar Jar Binks appeared very briefly, and his appearances contributed directly to the plot. No more rude table manners, falling about or sniffing farts -- he appeared with Padmé in the beginning and was reunited with Obi-Wan and Anakin, then he was later manipulated by Palpatine and helped him create the Empire (or at least its foundations ). In RotS Jar Jar only appears once -- at Padmé's funeral procession. And he had 0 dialogue.

+ AotC was criticised for the badly done romance between Anakin and Padmé - this was significantly reduced in RotS and was more directly relevant to the plot.

+ AotC also had the worst light sabre choreography in all the SW films ... very showy, swingy, fancy... and unrealistically ridiculous. Like Yoda hopping about while barely taking a swipe at Dooku (what a waste of energy/effort!). This was greatly improved in RotS... in Kasshhyyyk (sp?) when Yoda jumps, he beheads the Clone Troopers with one swift cut. When fighting Palpatine, every leap/strike made contact with Palpatine's blade. He wasn't pouncing just for the sake of pouncing like on Geonosis (which was so damn stupid). The fighting form of Obi-Wan and Anakin was much better too -- their showdown on the Invisible Hand was way more enjoyable to watch than the Geonosian showdown. TPM still had the best sabre fights IMO, but that may have been because they had Ray Park (Darth Maul) - a martial arts practitioner - to help.

+ The Pod Race was criticised as being way too long and boring. It would've been better if done as one lap. This was somewhat improved in the Coruscant chase scene (thought parts of that are kinda implausible); but in RotS there are no overtly drawn out and pointless chasing/racing scenes, rather they were incorporated into the story/action which made them more exciting and helped to progress the plot rather than stalling it (e.g. Obiwan/Anakin trying to get aboard the Invisible Hand, Obi-Wan chasing Grievous)

I actually found Revenge of the Sith to be better made than A New Hope, I rate it as my third favourite Star Wars movie after Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back.

[VERT]

Totally with you on all points Gok. Well said. In My mind all six are just one movie with different chapters. I cant say I hate any cause its all part on the one movie. But I do love certain chapters...Acts more than others

[GoktimusPrime]

Regardless of the flaws in his films, Lucas at least _tries_ to tell a good story with his films (which are Eps 1, 2, 3 and 4 -- eps 5 and 6 were directed by Irvin Kershner and Richard Marquand respectively); and as you said, they're treated as different chapters within the same story. Lucas makes mistakes, but he takes them onboard and makes an effort to improve on some of them. While Lucas uses loads of special effects, he's ultimately still trying to use them as a tool to tell a story, rather than making stories to tell special effects.

...which is more than what I can say for Michael Bay's work on Transformers.

[Demonac]

I don't think Lucas can tell a good story. He was lucky enough with Star Wars & TESB to be surrounded by people who could criticise his work. By Jedi, he was just surrounded by 'yes-men'.
The prequels are an over plotted mess that leave me cold.
With no central 'audience relation' character, we are not really invested in the movies.
Star Wars had Luke in that role.

[Trent]

The People vs George Lucas. Very interesting (and amusing) documentary if you get the chance and a copy.




























Oh, and Han shot first.