I don't have the same disdain for the prequels that most do. Yeah I hate Jar Jar, but I can get past some bad acting and enjoy them for the escapism that they provide. What I found really gave me a better appreciation for II and III was watching "The Clone Wars". It gives so much more depth to the events of the prequels.
If anyone loves Star Wars and hasn't watched TCW's, get on it!
The Clone Wars are acceptional, especially seasons 3 and on, when you really start to see how deep Palpatine's fingers are in everything without a lot of screen time by the Supreme Chancellor or his counter ego.
I really wish that some of the elements of the Revenge of the Sith novel had made it into the movies.
First of all, the final seduction of Anakin and the conversation between Palpatine and Anakin was exceptionally well done, and it really explained the seductive nature of the Dark Side of the Forth.
Throughout this book, there's a reference to Anakin feeling like there's a dragon of fear burning in his heart. When he chooses to accept the Dark Side, he can invasion in his mind, unlocking the furnace that is his heart, pulling out the dragon and crushing it with his boot. The Dark Side freed him from everything including his morality that prevented him from taking what he wanted, which was the power to save the ones that he loved.
When he went to Mustafar to slaughter the Seperatists and he had some great Vader like Dialogue.
One leader begging for her life said "Lord Sidious promised us a reward" "And Vader replied with something like "Don't you find me a pretty reward"
And the main leader cried out "Lord Sidious promised us that we would be left in peace", and Vader replied "The communication was bad, he promised you'd be left in pieces".
In the book you could see that Anakin was already plotting to kill Sidious so he could rule the Galaxy and bring peace.
In the Obiwan Anakin duel they had some great dialogue at the start where Anakin, basically asked Obiwan to run, and go and mediate because he didn't need to save the Galaxy anymore, you also got more insight into why Anakin felt that the Jedi from his point of view were evil. For the most part his reasons were fairly self serving but they were reasons.
In the fight between Palpatine and Yoda you got into Yoda's head when he realized why the Jedi had failed and it was heart breaking.
he first dawn of light in your universe brings pain.
The light burns you. It will always burn you. Part of you will always lie upon black glass sand beside a lake of fire while flames chew upon your flesh.
You can hear yourself breathing. It comes hard, and harsh, and it scrapes nerves already raw, but you cannot stop it. You can never stop it. You cannot even slow it down.
You don’t even have lungs anymore.
Mechanisms hardwired into your chest breathe for you. They will pump oxygen into your bloodstream forever.
Lord Vader? Lord Vader, can you hear me?
And you can’t, not in the way you once did. Sensors in the shell that prisons your head trickle meaning directly into your brain.
You open your scorched-pale eyes; optical sensors integrate light and shadow into a hideous simulacrum of the world around you.
Or perhaps the simulacrum is perfect, and it is the world that is hideous.
Padme? Are you here? Are you all right?you try to say, but another voice speaks for you, out from the vocabulator that serves you for burned-away lips and tongue and throat.
“Padme? Are you here? Are you all right?”
I’m very sorry, Lord Vader. I’m afraid she died. It seems in your anger, you killed her.
This burns hotter than the lava had.
“No… no, it is not possible!”
You loved her. You will always love her. You could never will her death.
Never.
But you remember…
You remember all of it.
You remember the dragon that you brought Vader forth from your heart to slay. You remember the cold venom in Vader’s blood. You remember the furnace of Vader’s fury, and the black hatred of seizing her throat to silence her lying mouth-And there is one blazing moment in which you finally understand that there was no dragon. That there was no Vader. That there was only you. Only Anakin Skywalker.
That it was all you. Is you.
Only you.
You did it.
You killed her.
You killed her because, finally, when you could have saved her, when you could have gone away with her, when you could have been thinking about her, you were thinking about yourself…
It is in this blazing moment that you finally understand the trap of the dark side, the final cruelty of the Sith-Because now your self is all you will ever have.
And you rage and scream and reach through the Force to crush the shadow who has destroyed you, but you are so far less now than what you were, you are more than half machine, you are like a painter gone blind, a composer gone deaf, you can remember where the power was but the power you can touch is only a memory, and so with all your world-destroying fury it is only droids around you that implode, and equipment, and the table on which you were strapped shatters, and in the end, you cannot touch the shadow.
In the end, you do not even want to.
In the end, the shadow is all you have left. Because the shadow understands you, the shadow forgives you, the shadow gathers you unto itself-And within your furnace heart, you burn in your own flame. This is how it feels to be Anakin Skywalker. Forever… ~ Matthew Stover - Revenge of the Sith ~
In the novel Dark Lord which is sadly not Canon anymore, in the end, Anakin believed that he was trying to save his wife from death, and Obiwan from ignorance, but they wouldn't accept what he had become. He also believed that his actions had bought peace to the Galaxy and balance to the force.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
I don't have the same disdain for the prequels that most do. Yeah I hate Jar Jar, but I can get past some bad acting and enjoy them for the escapism that they provide. What I found really gave me a better appreciation for II and III was watching "The Clone Wars". It gives so much more depth to the events of the prequels.
If anyone loves Star Wars and hasn't watched TCW's, get on it!
A major issue with the prequels is how much of them focused on what they were capable of doing with effects. The problem with that is that the effects became quickly dated. So in the present, we have a movie that is based on outdated effects. It gives them a real Sharknado vibe.
It's the same reason the updates to the original trilogy are now widely disliked.
It's also part of what makes characters like Jar Jar especially bad. Not only were they annoying, but they were given increased focus in order to highlight the fact they'd created a full CGI character. Now in retrospect you have a bad CGI character that has more screen time than he should have.
So a guy who supposedly has had insider access to movie screenings in the past just posted his review of TFA. No spoilers are included in the review but still spoiler tagging it since there is such a high sensitivity to any hints.
Spoiler!
Lots of fan service, but done very well. I'm not exactly a hardcore fan here, but even a casual person might get a few of the references heh. If you feel worried the marketing has spoiled a bit, you're in for a show. I think their restrained marketing strategy will really please fans.
Wow, if this is restrained, I can't wait to see what they're holding back.
It really is quite the art that Disney has mastered with this movie.
They have managed to completely hammer marketing for this movie, while not really spoiling any of the plot or anything that will ruin the movie.
I know less about this movie, than I do about Batman Vs. Superman or CA: Civil War. And this movie is only two weeks away, has had a whole day dedicated to the launch of it's toys, and has had multiple trailers already.
Edit: And I spend a week in Disney World with Star Wars merchandise everywhere.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 12-09-2015 at 02:36 PM.
I think he means restrained in that they've been very careful not to reveal much in the trailers. Compared to many modern trailers (i.e. Dawn of Justice) which are practically summaries.
The Clone Wars are acceptional, especially seasons 3 and on, when you really start to see how deep Palpatine's fingers are in everything without a lot of screen time by the Supreme Chancellor or his counter ego.
I really wish that some of the elements of the Revenge of the Sith novel had made it into the movies.
First of all, the final seduction of Anakin and the conversation between Palpatine and Anakin was exceptionally well done, and it really explained the seductive nature of the Dark Side of the Forth.
Throughout this book, there's a reference to Anakin feeling like there's a dragon of fear burning in his heart. When he chooses to accept the Dark Side, he can invasion in his mind, unlocking the furnace that is his heart, pulling out the dragon and crushing it with his boot. The Dark Side freed him from everything including his morality that prevented him from taking what he wanted, which was the power to save the ones that he loved.
When he went to Mustafar to slaughter the Seperatists and he had some great Vader like Dialogue.
One leader begging for her life said "Lord Sidious promised us a reward" "And Vader replied with something like "Don't you find me a pretty reward"
And the main leader cried out "Lord Sidious promised us that we would be left in peace", and Vader replied "The communication was bad, he promised you'd be left in pieces".
In the book you could see that Anakin was already plotting to kill Sidious so he could rule the Galaxy and bring peace.
In the Obiwan Anakin duel they had some great dialogue at the start where Anakin, basically asked Obiwan to run, and go and mediate because he didn't need to save the Galaxy anymore, you also got more insight into why Anakin felt that the Jedi from his point of view were evil. For the most part his reasons were fairly self serving but they were reasons.
In the fight between Palpatine and Yoda you got into Yoda's head when he realized why the Jedi had failed and it was heart breaking.
In the novel Dark Lord which is sadly not Canon anymore, in the end, Anakin believed that he was trying to save his wife from death, and Obiwan from ignorance, but they wouldn't accept what he had become. He also believed that his actions had bought peace to the Galaxy and balance to the force.
If the novelization of something that isn't even a book to begin with is better than the film, the film is awful.
All three prequels fail as films first. The fact that they're Star Wars branded is the only reason the public is still aware of them. Episode 1 has one character with an arc, and it's Jar Jar Binks. Episode 2 and 3 feature a bunch of people we don't care about doing things.
As long as we have characters in this new one whose motivations are clear, who actually grow and change like real people, and an emotional connection, things will be fine.
__________________ ”All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”
Why are the prequel fights ####ty? Because I don't give a crap about the people in them and for the most part they don't care about eachother either. It's protagonist vs. generic bad guy in order to stuff some action in there. With the exception of one fight they aren't even important ways of advancing the plot.
Darth Maul vs. Obi Wan and Who Cares.
Who is Darth Maul? Well according to how we are introduced to him he is a bad guy, not the key figure in the plot, but basically a henchman. What does he do that is particularly evil? Nothing. Why do our protagonists want to fight him? Because he's there and it was in the script. They don't know who Darth Maul is. They have no emotional investment in the fight either, why should I? Eventually Who Cares dies, Obi Wan looks pissed, and finally has a reason to be invested in this thing. Some more choreographed fighting then he kills Darth Maul and we can finally move onto seeing that dumb kid again. Nothing screams exciting like a disposable henchman biting the dust.
Now compare it to A New Hope. We know who Vader is. He's the bad guy. Killing guys with his bare hands, taking prisoners, waving his big stick around. Vader does more in the first 10 minutes of A New Hope to show he's a villain and how capable he is than Darth Maul did in the entire Episode I, and he hasn't even used the Force to choke anybody yet. Without any more information, a fight with Vader by anybody is already more compelling than anything with Darth Maul.
Now we learn that not only did Vader kill Luke's father, but he was Obi Wan's pupil to boot. So now Luke not only knows Darth Vader's name (so he's got a leg up on Qui Gon and young Obi Wan already) but has a reason to hate him. Obi Wan lost a friend to Vader, and wants redemption for failing the training. So when those two face off and Vader says "I was the learner but now I am the master" you actually feel like there's some bad blood here. Choreography or not this is an actual duel of fates, master and apprentice finally going at it, this is a big deal. Then Obi Wan just gives up? Why did he do that? He said he'd become more powerful than he could possibly imagine but that's kind of vague, isn't it? Luke is all alone now, in his fight against the ####ing badass villain, but most importantly a villain who actually lasts long enough to get some sort of a story arc going.
Episode II
Who the #### is Count Dooku? I care even less about this fight than the one with Darth Maul. At least he has some kind of introduction. Why am I suppose to care about this fight? Why do the characters aside from "it's in the script that you need to fight the bad guy who we again know isn't the main bad guy"? Just terrible.
Empire Strikes Back
The duel of all duels. Luke is angry, trying to confront the man who killed his father and mentor despite Yoda telling him he isn't ready. Vader toys with him, continuing to show just how powerful he is. Luke is flailing around, Vader is overpowering him with one hand and throwing #### at him and you can't help but feel the blind rage that Luke is feeling. The one of the most culturally impactful moments of cinematic history is unleashed: "I am your father." WHAT?! Are you ####ing kidding me? Who the hell is thinking of fight choreography at this point?
ROTS vs. ROTJ
Luke finally overpowers Vader, resists temptation, and then Vader gets redemption. Perfect. Again, who cares about fight choreography when Luke is just wailing at Vader, or when the Emperor is blasting Luke.
Anakin vs. Obi Wan finally gives us a duel with a little bit of backstory, but is dragged on so long that I don't remember any of it except when a couple of the most hamfisted lines in blockbuster history are given. I'm not sure there is a smiley or emoji good enough to convey just how cringeworthy "From my point of view it is you who are evil" was. This is what is going up against "You don't know the power of the dark side!" Ugh.
This guy knows what's up.
__________________ ”All you have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to you.”
Rowan Roy W-M - February 15, 2024
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HelloGreedo has some excellent videos on his channel, the most recent are a break down of the prequels, I found myself agreeing with the majority of his commentary.
Ok so this movie will be the first in a long time that I'll go on opening night (7pm on Thursday). The theatre I've got my tickets for doesn't have assigned seating. How early should I get there to be in line to get a decent seat?
Ok so this movie will be the first in a long time that I'll go on opening night (7pm on Thursday). The theatre I've got my tickets for doesn't have assigned seating. How early should I get there to be in line to get a decent seat?
It seems that the best practice is to walk into the theater at 6:58, stare incredulously at the lack of vacant seats, and then cram yourself in somewhere. If you have the time to and no work commitments, I would show up around 4:30-5:00 to line up for seating. That's me though.
Glad my show has assigned seating. I'll still probably be there for 6.
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Opening night? the earlier the better man. Hell, when the 2nd Transformers movie had a midnight release the theatre we went to was lined up through the parkade.
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Ok so this movie will be the first in a long time that I'll go on opening night (7pm on Thursday). The theatre I've got my tickets for doesn't have assigned seating. How early should I get there to be in line to get a decent seat?
Can't recall if this was posted before, but new Chinese tv spot.
Lots of spoilery looking footage
So that I don't spoil anything for those that don't want to watch
Spoiler!
We see the Falcon crashing.
We see a huge explosion at the military base, wonder if the Resistance managed to either fire the Imperial Super Weapon or destroy it, but an explosion that big might mean the First Order Base is toast
We see Han and Chewie piloting the Falcon for the first time, I had a moment there.
We hear the voice of the Big Bad I think
We see more of what I think is the First Order World as the Resistance attack begins, they also start strafing a huge structure
Sad I'm going to have to leave this thread soon, since I won't be seeing this movie when it first comes out so I can preserve my feeling of wonder til I see it with the old man.
__________________
My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings;
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!
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__________________ "In brightest day, in blackest night / No evil shall escape my sight / Let those who worship evil's might / Beware my power, Green Lantern's light!"
If you have the time to and no work commitments, I would show up around 4:30-5:00 to line up for seating. That's me though.
