STAR WARS: EPISODE VII Pre-Release - Page 18

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Originally Posted by Paul C 


Because exploring their interests is what filmmakers do? Because he thought it was relevant? I mean he did make a movie about a guy manufacturing a bullshit war for political gain a year before Iraq after all. Authoritarian governments was one of Lucas's main themes since THX, so making the creation of one the backdrop to the prequels isn't unfitting.

It might be fitting for his interest as a filmmaker. It's not fitting to watch in a Star Wars film.

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Originally Posted by WendellEverett 

 

Look, there's only about three guys who can handle the scope of Star Wars action - Lucas, James Cameron, Sam Raimi, John Woo - and for all we know Joss Weedon's work on "Avengers" was a fluke.  Peter Jackson's work uses a lot of cheats, usually helicopter shots then close ups, and the camera is way more static than it was in any of the prequels - there's a reason you never feel you get a "good look" at most of the monsters and locations, because the creature design and sets don't stand up to the same scrutiny as Lucas / ILM work. 

 

I just have no idea what the hell you're talking about here.  The Avengers is a fluke - huh?  Sam Raimi is one of the only appropriate choices for a sweeping space opera - what?  Combining helicopter shots and close ups is "cheating" - howzit?  LOTR lacked money shots showing off the creatures and sets - THIS IS ANTI-TRUTH AND TO CONTINUE SAYING IT MAY CREATE A BREACH IN SPACE-TIME.

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Originally Posted by Stale Elvis 

For your consideration...

Oh, for fuck's sake:

"So despite only the top brass in Disney nothing anything about the new Star Wars movies, I talked to a friend of mine that left the company two months ago and knows very little about the new movies... and he said Lando is in it!"

New Star Wars movie rumors are a great way to filter out websites that aren't worth shit...

Quote:

Originally Posted by chrknudsen 

New Star Wars movie rumors are a great way to filter out websites that aren't worth shit...

Awwww just go with it - the next couple of years are going to go mental with this type of stuff - i'm loving it.

This just in - Peter Cushing is coming back!

HAHAHAHAHAHHHAHA!! SOMEBODY THOUGHT THE PREQUELS HAD GOOD ACTION!

They do not.

They all had their moments, grouchy.

DAMMIT! I posted in this thread again...

My favorite part of the prequels was

My favourite part of the prequels was this forum. Seriously.

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Originally Posted by Stale Elvis 

 

Awwww just go with it - the next couple of years are going to go mental with this type of stuff - i'm loving it.

 

This just in - Peter Cushing is coming back!

The cameo features his sincere apology to Leia concerning the destroyed planet of Alderaan and the deceased father she never brings up.

I do think General Grevious doing his sword shit while having two separate lightsabers lazily dragging on the ground was kind of a badass intimidation technique. After two and a half movies, that was the first time I thought, oh, this is kinda fun.

Grievous whipping out 4 sabers looked like it was going to lead to a new and exciting twist on the lightsaber battle for a moment.  But then he just swung them twice at Obi Wan and he lopped off the extras without resorting to any clever trick or discernible strategy.  Although why I expected anything like that from the great general whose battle plan was to leap into the middle of the enemy's stronghold and announce his presence is not immediately clear.

The prequels gave us the red letter media reviews. That justifies their existence.

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Originally Posted by Gabe T 

I do think General Grevious doing his sword shit while having two separate lightsabers lazily dragging on the ground was kind of a badass intimidation technique. After two and a half movies, that was the first time I thought, oh, this is kinda fun.

From the look on McGregor's face in that scene, I think he was thinking the same thing. He and McDiarmid are the MVPs of Ep. 3, because they're the only ones who seem to realize that the fun stuff's finally kicking in.

Only thing I took away from the General Greivous lightsaber scene was how two of the lightsaber hilts are Anakin's and Obi-Wan's. I know it's nitpicky but it's the kind of thing that really stands out to me - we're geeks for fuck's sake - we notice stuff like that.

If General Greivous was smart, he would have one or two lightsabers get blocked and used another to stab. What is the point of four arms, if you let them get blocked at the same time?!

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Originally Posted by Chaz 

If General Greivous was smart, he would have one or two lightsabers blocked and used another to stab. What is the point of four arms, if you let them get blocked at the same time.

Lazy way out of thinking away to make the fight interesting. Episode III pretty much killed lightsaber battles. Now nobody can really care to see them.

Anakin vs Obi Wan started off good, but then it turned into an excuse to show off CGI backgrounds.

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Originally Posted by Chaz 

Anakin vs Obi Wan started off good, but then it turned into an excuse showing off the CGI  backgrounds.

This pretty much sums it up...

The Prequels were...Justified, but without the...Olyphant in the room...Timothy! Timothy Olyphant might make a good...Rebel...With a cause!, in the Star Wars Sequels!

Plusses of The Prequels

Ewan McGregor as Obi-Wan Kenobi

Goofy romancing of a Queen that became a Senator that...Begat a Princess, and a young Jedi!, by Anakin Skywalker!

The final fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin in Revenge Of The Sith

The final fight of Attack Of The Clones

The Clone Troopers turning on the Jedi

Obi-Wan and Anakin trying to rescue Senator Papatine unaware he is

the...EEEEEEvil Emporer that would turn the old republic into an Empire that would...Strike Back!

Obi-Wan vs General Grievous and Jango Fett in the 2nd and 3rd prequels

I was glad to see more than...2 Jedi in the prequels.  

Damn, Tartakovsky needs to do at least one of the new episodes. 

General Grievous is the best part of the prequels and Episode 3. As soon as he dies it just become paint by numbers to Episode 4.

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Originally Posted by Untitled 

General Grievous is the best part of the prequels and Episode 3. As soon as he dies it just become paint by numbers to Episode 4.

I really feel they should have had him all through the movies from the first movie, I mean the way they used Darth Maul was criminal if you were going to do that way bother. Just have Count Dooku and Grievous being the bads being controlled by Sidious starting  in the beginning. No lame trade federation and would have had actual decent pacing and character development. Really just a shame that Lucas ruined three potential cool characters in Maul, Grievous and Dooku. Imagine all three systematically destroying the Jedi's with them convincing Anakin to join them at the end of the second movie after the death of his mother (have the Hutt's kill her way more meaningful than some lame Tusken Raiders) who eventually supplants them at the end of the third film. Kind of writes itself. Amazing how Lucas shit the bed with that. That's whats annoying with the prequels a few tweaks and it could have been good, well also would have been better if they hired a director that could have done some competant action scenes.

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Originally Posted by brandhay 

Damn, Tartakovsky needs to do at least one of the new episodes. 

I haven't seen those since they aired, and it's almost Spielbergian the way he balances intensity, humour, and epic badassness in the action sequences.

Christ those Clone Wars shorts are so overhyped. They were alright, but just disposable little action snippets! I swear people were just desperate to like something Star Wars related and latched on to them, giving them disproportionate love just as the movies get disproportionate hate.

I will say, I never quite got the hype about the first Tartakovsky series. They were full of cool action, but that was about it. I think they hit a geek thirst for cool Star Wars action, and in typical geek style everyone went overboard with the hype, but all in all it was a little superficial.

The second series, though, was pretty bloody good. You still had the action stuff but also more lore, some great material foreshadowing Anakin's seduction, the introduction of Grievous (Who I agree was much more impressive than in Ep.3) and the start of the Battle of Coruscant. They really hit their stride, and while the Filoni CW has really come into its own it's a shame we never got to see where else Tartakovsky could take the universe. 

Unsubstantiated rumour...

Kasdan, eh? That'd certainly be nice. If he can work with a level of autonomy more like Empire than ROTJ, I'm all up for it. Of Kinberg's work I've only seen First Class I think, which I thought was solidly scripted if nothing mindblowing, so the jury's out on him.

Mind you, now that they've opened the 8 & 9 script floodgates we're probably going to see rumours come up about every writer in Hollywood, so we'll see.

It's now official. Kasdan is producing and writing either 8 or 9.

Well, alright. Very, very happy to see Kasdan on the job. It seems a little strange, this confusion of who's going to write which episode; I wonder if they'll just co-write both, as they're both producing as well and seem well deep into it already.

I would not be shocked at all if "written by Lawrence Kasdan" ends up being "ghost written by Jake Kasdan", with Patton Oswald blogging all about it after Lawrence croaks.

My theory is the only reason where not getting Special K until after episode 7 is that Lucas' smelly monkey paws are all over the story of Episode 7 and Disney and Lucas just need a "punch up / spell check guy" in Arndt, which he proved he could do by transcribing Lasseter's notes on Toy Story 3.

"Smelly monkey paws"? That's no way to talk about a master action director.

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Originally Posted by The Dark Shape 

I'm a little surprised Kasdan's back. Didn't Lucas try to get him to write Episode I and he declined?

Dream. 

Catcher.

Look, if Luke gets possessed by an alien and takes to tooling around on a snow sled with a plum British accent, I say we just embrace the glory of it all.

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Originally Posted by Workyticket 

Look, if Luke gets possessed by an alien and takes to tooling around on a snow sled with a plum British accent, I say we just embrace the glory of it all.

With all the wipe transitions, Dreamcatcher was more of a Star Wars movie than a Stephen King horror adaptation.

Wow, Kinberg's best movie is a tie between Mr & Mrs Smith and Sherlock Holmes. That's a good start. Although in his defense he did produce X-Men : First Class. Whatever that means.

I wonder what made Kasdan return to STAR WARS, after turning down Lucas's offer to write the prequels ? (Other than the huge cheque).

Do you think Disney saw a great writer/producer or simply wanted to play up to the wants/wishes/dreams of fans of the original trilogy?

And I ask that as someone not overly familiar with Kasdan outside of ESB.

Kasdan had a pretty great run in the 80's.

Yeah and he directed/produced Wyatt Earp in 94, a film I think was unfairly criticised at the time for being to po-faced, although I love it and consider it one of my favorites.

But based on the strength of his more recent output do you still think he's the man for the job? What did Disney see in him that they though he was right or do you think they're just trying to get the old gang back together and recapture some of the magic and gain some good faith in the community?

Now they've got "indie" cred, and "Indy" cred, I guess.

I'm feeling Stale Elvis' trepidation. Kasdan seems like such a fanboy choice. Has he done anything in the last decade that suggests he still has that magic touch? What excited me about this whole ordeal was the possibility of the current cream of the crop getting a chance to play around in the Star Wars universe. As much as it pains me to say it, most writers/directors/creative people in any field just seem to lose their creative spark with age. I wanted a fresh take on Star Wars, but all the rumors of the three original stars returning and now Kasdan scripting and producing one of the films is quickly turning my anticipation to dread...

I'm certainly not feeling dread - just looking for other Chewers' point of view on whether Disney thinks Kasdan has something to offer based on his recent output or whether they've been aware of the fan community's gripes with the prequel trilogy and are simply hiring him as a name to create good will. Personally I can't see that being the case, they must have faith in him as this is their biggest brand to date.

The folks at Disney (like the rest of the movie-going world) probably looked at the prequels and thought So what went wrong there? and as much as we do all love him, the blame lays squarely at Lucas' feet - so with him out of the picture (or squashed to the side) they may think bringing in the original trilogy's creatives is a no-brainer based on nothing other than the fact the George won't be involved.

My guess would be that Kasdan was interested in being involved with the prequels but for all that stuff with the Directors/Writers Guilds that complicated anyone but Lucas working on them.  It certainly seems more likely that his experience on the OT and relationship with George were the motivating factors here rather than mollifying the demographic that is guaranteed to see the movies anyway by attaching GEEK ICON LAWRENCE KASDAN.  Bringing back the original cast is one thing; it plays to the cheap seats, nostalgia-wise.  But it strikes me as solipsistic to think that Disney's is concerned with an implicit apology to the nerds who wounded by the prequels.  Grudging money spends the same as fervent money.

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Originally Posted by Arturo RJ 

 

I really feel they should have had him all through the movies from the first movie, I mean the way they used Darth Maul was criminal if you were going to do that way bother. Just have Count Dooku and Grievous being the bads being controlled by Sidious starting  in the beginning. No lame trade federation and would have had actual decent pacing and character development. Really just a shame that Lucas ruined three potential cool characters in Maul, Grievous and Dooku. Imagine all three systematically destroying the Jedi's with them convincing Anakin to join them at the end of the second movie after the death of his mother (have the Hutt's kill her way more meaningful than some lame Tusken Raiders) who eventually supplants them at the end of the third film. Kind of writes itself. Amazing how Lucas shit the bed with that. That's whats annoying with the prequels a few tweaks and it could have been good, well also would have been better if they hired a director that could have done some competant action scenes.

Exactly. Or have Darth Maul the nemesis for 2 1/2 movies or so before Anakin turns. It would have been cool if the Vader being Anakin twist could have been hidden somehow too. Have Maul and Anakin die in a battle only to have Darth Vader appear later and going around assassinating jedi. If they needed a second villian you could have actual mandalorian soldiers fighting stormtroopers. That way you could have just a cameo of Boba Fett's armor without it being stupid. I've spent way too much time thinking about alternative prequels.