And the next crappy Star Wars movie is....

2

Comments

  • Reply 21 of 47
    jeffyboyjeffyboy Posts: 1,055member
    I'll take the special effects in LotR over any of Lucas' stuff by a long way.



    Too much of Stars Wars looks like people moving in front of a painting.



    The biggest factor for me is the fact that the LotR world is much more like our own, so things have to look more realistic. Aliens, spaceships, and interstellar cities can look like pretty much anything, but tons of the effects in Eps I and II scream "fake!" to me.



    J
  • Reply 22 of 47
    Precisely. As Jim Rygiel(CG Supervisor for LOTR) said, if somebody never notices the fact that my CG is actually special FX, then I'm happy and I've done my job. That's the beauty of LOTR. 75% of the CG shots in the films you would never know they were CG. LOTR is our generation's Star Wars for breaking new ground in digital cinema. It's as if Lucas is trying to hard with his "Look at me, look what I can do" approach...but utterly fails...and this coming from a former Star Wars geek.
  • Reply 23 of 47
    northgatenorthgate Posts: 4,461member
    This is a great title. I'm a huge Star Wars geek and am proud to admit it. I know it's hard to believe, but I love BOTH Star Wars and LOTR simultaneous for wholly different reasons.



    I hate it when 12 yr olds engage in "Star Wars sucks, Lord of the Rings RULES!"
  • Reply 24 of 47
    pfflampfflam Posts: 5,053member
    CG always ruins a movie . . . even in LOTRs it was marginally ok . . .it only worked because it went by fast and the story was good



    and yes that scene with Legolas was entirely terrible, and now that you bring it back to mind it is practically all thatt I can remeber about that completely OVER-RATED film.



    I almost prefer Ray Harryhausen stuff to CG . . . and I know that they could make better looking stuff in Sci-Fi with models . . . in the long run it probably would be less expensive to do it the old fashioned way and the results would probably be better . . .
  • Reply 25 of 47
    henriokhenriok Posts: 537member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by pfflam

    CG always ruins a movie . . .



    Did you see the latest Harry Potter? The Hippogriff Buckbeak is absolutely astounding.
  • Reply 26 of 47
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Lucas isn't out to make cool sounding movie titles, he is being self-consistent and using typical corny movie serial titles.



    Flash Gordon and Buck Rogers as well as http://www.imagesjournal.com/issue04...ntomempire.htm the Phantom Empire...



    He's not trying to be original, period. Every pixel and word of what he does is paying tribute and utilizing every scrap of movie history, mythology and history he can squeeze into each film, with a Star Wars spin on it.



    Flash Gordon and the Planet of Death

    Escape into Time

    The Electro Man

    The Vengeance of Rabeed

    Akim the Terrible

    The Claim Jumpers

    The Dancing Death

    The Breath of Death

    The Great Secret

    Return of the Androids

    The Frightened King

    The Deadly Deception

    Duel Against Darkness

    The Sound Gun

    The Weapon That Walked

    Mission to Masca

    The Lure of Light

    The Rains of Death

    Flash Gordon and the Race Against Time

    The Witch of Neptune

    Flash Gordon and the Brain Machine

    Struggle to the End

    The Water World Menace

    Saboteurs from Space

    The Forbidden Experiment

    Heat Wave

    The Hunger Invasion

    Encounter With Evil

    The Matter Duplicator

    The Micro-man Menace

    The Space Smugglers

    The Mystery of Phoros

    The Shadowy Death

    Death in the Negative

    The Earth's Core

    Deadline at Noon

    The Law of Velorum

    The Skyjackers

    The Subworld Revenge



    And let's not forget:

    The Fellowship of the Ring

    The Two Towers

    The Return of the King



    "The"..."of the"..."phantom"...."empire"...."strikes back"....."the return of the"...."revenge"...."attack of the"....



    It all fits into his scheme.
  • Reply 27 of 47
    rageousrageous Posts: 2,170member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by johnq

    It all fits into his scheme.



    I believe the point is that his scheme sucks, however.
  • Reply 28 of 47
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rageous

    I believe the point is that his scheme sucks, however.



    Since what, The Empire Strikes Back? That's a classic serial kind of title. The Return of the Jedi is an obvious nod to The Return of the King.



    Don't hold "A New Hope" up as the standard, since that was a retroactive naming. I believe that was added to subsequent copies after Empire came out. He didn't use the "Episode IV - A New Hope" title in the initial release. That was back when it was just "Star Wars", before it was thought it would be successful enough to be a series.



    *sigh*



    What would you have named it?



    Everybody's the expert...
  • Reply 29 of 47
    wrong robotwrong robot Posts: 3,907member
    Except "a new hope" opens with the Title

    STAR WARS

    episode IV

    A NEW HOPE



    Unless you are suggesting that was changed? I dunno, I never saw the original release in theaters\
  • Reply 30 of 47
    rageousrageous Posts: 2,170member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by johnq

    Since what, The Empire Strikes Back? That's a classic serial kind of title. The Return of the Jedi is an obvious nod to The Return of the King.



    Don't hold "A New Hope" up as the standard, since that was a retroactive naming. I believe that was added to subsequent copies after Empire came out. He didn't use the "Episode IV - A New Hope" title in the initial release. That was back when it was just "Star Wars", before it was thought it would be successful enough to be a series.



    *sigh*



    What would you have named it?



    Everybody's the expert...




    Gee... what would I have named them? I don't know.



    But in addition to film names you said Lucas shoots many of his scenes and scripts much of his dialogue to mimic past movies instead of being creative and doing something on his own.



    Could it be I was referring to all of that post, and not simply the part that had to do with the naming of the films?
  • Reply 31 of 47
    scottibscottib Posts: 381member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by filmmaker2002

    That's the beauty of LOTR. 75% of the CG shots in the films you would never know they were CG. LOTR is our generation's Star Wars for breaking new ground in digital cinema. It's as if Lucas is trying to hard with his "Look at me, look what I can do" approach...but utterly fails...and this coming from a former Star Wars geek.



    More than CG, Weta's greatest accomplishment with LoTR was compositing, in my novice opinion. Layering minatures to bigatures to live action on set to live action green screen to CG characters, etc. -- all in one shot. PJ used all the FX tools from the history of film at his disposal (from forced perspective to digital color correction, etc.).



    I don't mind ILM's CG work. They have a house style regarding the SW flicks. What makes it a bit cartoony in contrast to WETA is that I believe everything is CG in those battles sequences--not much compositing with minatures, etc.



    ---



    I like the new film's title. I hope it's as dark and depressing as Empire.
  • Reply 32 of 47
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    There actually were posters made for "Revenge of the Jedi". I had one once.

    IIRC, it was in part due to fan outcry that 'revenge is un-Jedi-like' that the name was changed to "Return of the Jedi". The limited-run Revenge posters were worth more than $100 last time I checked.



    And for pfflam, who recalls the 70s TV specials with such fondness...

    Star Wars Christmas Special. Be careful what you wish for.



    Art Carney, Bea Arthur in the Cantina, Chewbacca's family musical number... it gets worse.

    (gallery here)



    It's on P2P if you're unlucky enough to find it.
  • Reply 33 of 47
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    Except "a new hope" opens with the Title

    STAR WARS

    episode IV

    A NEW HOPE



    Unless you are suggesting that was changed? I dunno, I never saw the original release in theaters\




    Right, the first 1977 theatrical release did not have that, it was just Star Wars then the crawl with no episode number or title, but they added it to the 1978 re-release, since Empire was in development and they wanted consistency with the new (presumed) films.
  • Reply 34 of 47
    johnqjohnq Posts: 2,763member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by rageous

    Gee... what would I have named them? I don't know.



    But in addition to film names you said Lucas shoots many of his scenes and scripts much of his dialogue to mimic past movies instead of being creative and doing something on his own.



    Could it be I was referring to all of that post, and not simply the part that had to do with the naming of the films?




    Relax, you're reading a tone into my post that was not intended.



    One gets tired of needing to use smileys constantly to keep people from being offended...







    I really meant "to all those that are bitching about the new title, what would you have named it?"...
  • Reply 35 of 47
    hmurchisonhmurchison Posts: 12,419member
    Sounds like a good and applicable name to me. Very descriptive.





    Starwars ROTS





    Yeah that about sums it up.
  • Reply 36 of 47
    sdw2001sdw2001 Posts: 18,015member
    I am among a small number of people that are not willing to say Episide One "sucks". It was not as good as it could have been, but I don't think it was terrible either.



    Episode II was far better in my opinion. The problems from Menace were still there: Lousy acting, too much CGI, etc...but the feel was better, and there were some memorable scenes (like when Yoda walks out to combat Count D....people went nuts).



    I think Episode III will be closer to what we expect from Star Wars and may end up being the best of all six films.



    One more random point: I don't think CGI itself is the problem I think that it's great for enhancement. Some of the stuff in the redone Star Wars trilogy was very tasteful (redoing the sky background in the Cloud City, the explosion of the Death Star in Ep. IV, for example). The problem began when Lucas decided he didn't need sets anymore and had the apparently LSD-induced throught of Jar-Jar binks. Part of the magic of Star Wars was that it incorporated real world objects into the film (like the robot trash can and those based on kitchen-aid mixers. Those was classic).
  • Reply 37 of 47
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by SDW2001

    I am among a small number of people that are not willing to say Episide One "sucks". It was not as good as it could have been, but I don't think it was terrible either.



    Episode II was far better in my opinion. The problems from Menace were still there: Lousy acting, too much CGI, etc...but the feel was better, and there were some memorable scenes (like when Yoda walks out to combat Count D....people went nuts).



    I think Episode III will be closer to what we expect from Star Wars and may end up being the best of all six films.



    One more random point: I don't think CGI itself is the problem I think that it's great for enhancement. Some of the stuff in the redone Star Wars trilogy was very tasteful (redoing the sky background in the Cloud City, the explosion of the Death Star in Ep. IV, for example). The problem began when Lucas decided he didn't need sets anymore and had the apparently LSD-induced throught of Jar-Jar binks. Part of the magic of Star Wars was that it incorporated real world objects into the film (like the robot trash can and those based on kitchen-aid mixers. Those was classic).








    It's funny how we agree here. I think in this age of the internet people are way too quick to jump on bandwagons and say " Yeah, it was terrible ". The simple truth was that both of these films didn't suffer because of the FX. Nor were they terrible. The difference between these films and the earlier trilogy is that you cared about the characters and you wanted to know what happened. Kind of like the original idea Lucas had for this series. A saturday afternoon serial at the movies.



    Here you know what will happen. You just don't know how. Also the characters still linger in the background.



    The guy who plays Anakin ( did I spell that right? ) is a big mistake. He doesn't seem like the man that will become Darth Vader at all. And he can't act. He just seems like a spoiled brat with too much power. That's Darth?



    The princess Amadala isn't half as witty and interesting as Lea.



    The only strong one is Obi Wan and still he's not the main focus.



    The FX are great but with out a real interpersonal struggle it just doesn't grab you like before. And you have the fact that in the end the day is already lost and the bad guys will win this one.



    I do have hope that Lucas is listening and the next one will improve.



    If I'd been Lucas I would have done a trilogy about the next adventure in the future ( there were supposed to be three ) and left the past to a TV movie or something that could be summed up in 2 hours.
  • Reply 38 of 47
    placeboplacebo Posts: 5,767member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    Yeah, that's true, but that's also why it shouldn't have been called "the clone wars" (which is what I used to think it should have been called)



    It could have been called "the fall of the republic" or something like that maybe. I dunno, oh well, it's AotC and it always will be.




    It frickin' ENDED with BARELY THE BEGINNING of the clone wars themselves, if I remember correctly. There were no fightin' clones in the whole movie.
  • Reply 39 of 47
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Wrong Robot

    Except "a new hope" opens with the Title

    STAR WARS

    episode IV

    A NEW HOPE



    Unless you are suggesting that was changed? I dunno, I never saw the original release in theaters\






    It was changed.
  • Reply 40 of 47
    jimmacjimmac Posts: 11,898member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Placebo

    It frickin' ENDED with BARELY THE BEGINNING of the clone wars themselves, if I remember correctly. There were no fightin' clones in the whole movie.



    You forget the cloned soldiers that will later obviously become storm troopers. Still hardly a " war ". Perhaps we haven't seen it all.
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