The Star Wars Thread

[Oddjob0226]

I think Peter mayhew would do it, since he seems like an affable kind of guy. Hamill probably would, although he's actually got a great career going as a voice actor. Carrie Fisher- who knows. As Hollywood royalty she doesn't really need the money, and has tried to distance herself from the Star Wars stuff somewhat. She was nice to me at a recent convention, but at $30 a signature on a photo or magazine, I'd expect her to be! (Oh, but emotionally, well worth it... it was Princess Leia!). She has a t.v. show on the Oxygen cable network now, I believe. That was the only reason that she was at the convention, to promote the program.

I'ms sure Frank Oz would do..... something. As would Billy Dee Williams. I don't think Harrison Ford would go for it, though. He's a serious actor now, was never terribly fond of the who Star Wars thing and seems to be getting older quite rapidly. Must have been the carbonite sleeping sickness.

 

[Celtic_Emperor]

LOL, yeah. Damn that carbonite! 😛

And I'm glad to see Mark doing voice acting. He did/does the voice of the Joker in the Batman animated series, and at least to me, he's most popularly known for his role as Col. Christopher Blair in the Wing Commander series. I love that series, and he really worked his part. Although, its sad that Blair dies in WC: Prophecy. But at least he went out with style and doing the usual of saving the universe of menaces both great and small. 🙂


- Damien

 

[BigJim]

Allow me to completely agree with you.

Furthermore, even though some circles might want to hang me for it, I actually prefered Yoda as a muppet. There was just this very earthly, live feeling from him actually being there physically, dispite the wirings, or hands up his a$$ or back.

It may seem impossible, but I actually think the visual quality of Star Wars has been dimimished somewhat over the years despite the advancments in CG technology.


- Damien

Hell yes, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that! The latest film was awful with it's top-heavy CG enviroment. I liked the story, but the graphics were foul and obviously fake! I think the old ones were more realistic.

 

[BigJim]

Another bit of crappy scientific fact............

The Star Wars Encyclopaedia waffles on a bit about how having the crystals different distances apart in the lightsabre hilt can change the bladelength.

*waffling tosser alert......waffling tosser alert!!!*

CRAP! That would only work if the lightsabre was channelling something along the same wavelengths as visible light, like a laser beam. We already know it isn't because it's physically impossible, so whoever wrote that bit was waffling hopefully in a lame attempt to sound impressive. (Much like I do in political and religious posts. 😀😀😀)

 

[BigJim]

I'ms sure Frank Oz would do..... something. As would Billy Dee Williams. I don't think Harrison Ford would go for it, though. He's a serious actor now, was never terribly fond of the who Star Wars thing and seems to be getting older quite rapidly. Must have been the carbonite sleeping sickness.

Billy Dee Williams and Dennis Lawson (Lando Calrissian and Wedge Antilles respectivley) have both voiced their characters in Star Wars video games. (Williams in Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast and Lawson in Rogue Leader.) Maybe they'd both be positive about playing them on screen too?

 

[Phineas]

...not entirely. I mean, if they were going to do the third trilogy about the Yuuzhan Vong invasion, Luke is pushing 50 by the time all the badness goes down, so getting the original actors wouldn't be an issue; their age would be fine.

however, as in my eyes the entire Star Wars saga is essentially about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, I think doing another trilogy after Episode III wouldn't be doing the series justice. the story has been told... let it be.

 

[Dave2112]

If a new trilogy were to be made, it could be a truncated version of the New Jedi Order story. The age of the principle actors is roughly what the age of the characters would be. However, it'll never happen. Harrison Ford has no interest in ever playing Han Solo again. You'd be looking at new actors for those roles if it ever came up.

People are going to like what they like, and I think that people see the story differently depending on where in thier lives they first saw it.

Lucas never envisioned the prequel trilogy exactly as it is back in '75. I think that people have taken the "9 Episode" story to the area of myth over the years. Lucas said that he envisioned so many parts to it, but never had it ALL planned out at any time. Maybe some basic ideas, but not anything approaching scripts or actual storylines.

The novels are pretty much acceptable as fact, as they must first be approved by LucasBooks. Not saying that Lucas himself approves every sentence and storyline, but they have the final say in any major development. In the NJO novels, for instance, the authors are encouraged to develop parts of the overall story as they see fit. But the overall direction of it is gone over by a council of elders, so to speak. So, you can change the tactics of the Yuuzhan Vong to fit the tide of war, but you can't kill Luke off...stuff like that. There was a big meeting over this in regards to Chewie's death. There was talk of killing Luke off during the first engagements, leaving the door open for the new Jedi, but this was nixed quickly.

 

[ShiningIce]

*'Looks for Dave's secret outpost on Dathomir*

 

[Moses25]

There was a big meeting over this in regards to Chewie's death.

Chewie's dead?

I need my 7 foot "walking carpet", man!

Cheers.😀

 

[Oddjob0226]

Hell yes, I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks that! The latest film was awful with it's top-heavy CG enviroment. I liked the story, but the graphics were foul and obviously fake! I think the old ones were more realistic.

Man,if you thought the last Star Wars film CG effects were over the top, take a look at the Bond film Die Another Day!

For the most part I like the CG effects because they give the films an alien, other world feel. But sometimes they just try too hard. What the hell were those things Anakin was riding on Naboo? Or that guy Obi talks to in the diner. Stuff like that, just weird misshapen scheiss in an effort to be different is too much. On the other side of the coin, when the CG effects look great, but they are about all you see in the scene... just do an outright cel-animated cartoon, man! Ease back a bit, grab the reins......

The models & other effects from the first film looked more real because they were real - an actual physical thing, be it a matte painting or a model. The downside was that there was a much more limited range of movement related to these things, and the larger, epic scale might be a little more difficult to pull off, but the stuff had a texture and depth to it. It all looked perfect, but still had enough of that human touch, that impercivable human imperfection that a hand made object would have so that this stuff didn't seem unnaturally perfect.

And I'm glad someone else liked the story. I haven't had the guts to tell my friends,who thought it was corny. The corniness was what made it work for me - it was a forbidden-love story, mixed with great action and political intreage. The the struggle of a young person trying to find his way, but kind of like Aladin, Spider-man, or even Jesus Christ (Aniken had no father, after all...) he's a human person who also has this power, this role and added burden that he has to carry WHILE trying to find his way. It was as timless as anything, whether it took place here and now or in a galaxy far away.

 

[Limeoutsider]

Man,if you thought the last Star Wars film CG effects were over the top, take a look at the Bond film Die Another Day!

I'm not trying to hijack this thread, but I'd like to point out that, despite the fact of the dialogue mentioning that they were in ICEland, they were actually in GREENland. I see the writers are from the "edsucashun" state.

 

[BigJim]

Chewie's dead?

I need my 7 foot "walking carpet", man!

Cheers.😀

Fraid so. I think he died in a launching accident when Anakin was piloting the Falcon.

 

[BigJim]

however, as in my eyes the entire Star Wars saga is essentially about the rise and fall of Anakin Skywalker, I think doing another trilogy after Episode III wouldn't be doing the series justice. the story has been told... let it be.

True, but only from a modern perspective when you watch the first episodes in order. For people like me (24 years old) who saw the 4th, 5th and 6th episodes first, the story was all about Luke. We didn't even find out that Vader was Luke's pop until the last 15 minutes of Empire. (We didn't even find out his first name was Anakin until the last half of Jedi!)

Even though there's a huge slant on Anakin now, with the fall to the dark side and all, I'd still give vital parts of my anatomy to see 7,8 & 9 make it to the big screen. I do have to agree that Harrison Ford would'nt come back as Han Solo though. Hamill, Mahew, Fisher and Lawson might come back; but I seriously doubt that Ford would. He's had too much sucess and become too much of a "serious" actor since Jedi, to do it. I don't think him being too old would be a prob. With make-up you could turn him back into his 1980's looks wih no trouble. But he would'nt do it...... 🙁

 

[BigJim]

A point someone made earlier.

Someone said something earlier on about George taking an interminable 3 years between episodes. In a documentary I heard Lucas say that he was "intrigued" by the idea of doing the third trilogy, but every time he did it, it was another decade of his life gone. Well damn, but didn't Clones only take 2 calender months to shoot? I know computer editing and dubbing takes longer, but if Peter Jackson can do The Lord of the Rings with 12 monthly intervals using old fashioned cans of film, I'm damn sure Lucas could do the same with 7,8, and 9 using digital cameras.

 

[Phineas]

I'm prob'ly stepping into a trap here, but for those of you complaining about the overabundance of CG effects...

can you name any of the actors who played the Clone Troopers? how many extras do you think they used?

 

[Oddjob0226]

I'm prob'ly stepping into a trap here, but for those of you complaining about the overabundance of CG effects...

can you name any of the actors who played the Clone Troopers? how many extras do you think they used?

From what I remember reading, they used two actors, using a composition of the faces for all the clones. That was a GOOD use of CG - and they still used a 3-D object (a human) to do it. Another good use of CG are the beautiful ships and their smooth, graceful flight. When I'm talking about an over aboundance of CG is when all you see is wierd looking things making noise or moving around to the point of distraction, effects heavy scenes or films in leu of writing or plot (ID4 anyone?), or all you see on the screen is CG stuff, and its oddly, unnnaturally perfect - the same problem that occured when cds first came out, the total lack of noise, so the pure music sounded antiseptic and unusual. Now they actually have a "noise" button they use when pressing cds to to create an unobtrusive white noise that mixes in, making things more realistic.

 

[Phineas]

From what I remember reading, they used two actors, using a composition of the faces for all the clones. That was a GOOD use of CG - and they still used a 3-D object (a human) to do it.

...almost. None of the Clone Troopers were real at all. There were no actors, no costumes, nothing. All Clone Trooper movements were motion-captured using ILM staff members to provide the motion, and the movement data was mapped onto a 3D model.

(I wasn't referring to the actor who played Jango Fett, I meant the armored fellows we see during the battle scenes.)

I didn't discover this until I watched a couple of the behind-the-scenes documentaries. Never would have guessed they were entirely CGI; I expected that they copied and pasted a bunch of extras in Clone Trooper armor, but not that the troopers were entirely modelled.

THAT'S amazing.

 

[Dave2112]

You'd think I'd be taking the side of the CG guys, but actually I tend to agree that it's a bit of overabundance. It wouldn't be Star Wars without special effects, but there are points where it's too much. Getting Yoda to fight - Cool! Having a Ronto step in front of the camera during Obi-Wan's Mind Trick on the stormtroopers - Irritating. The creation of non-human characters, the beauty of the space combat scenes, etc...all are things that make this series so great. But even right after seeing AOTC for the first time, I remember commenting to my friend as we discussed it that the Battle of Geonosis was too "busy." Yeah, it's a war zone, but you don't need a different colored laser for every vehicle. The corkscrewing missles were a nice touch, and the scene could have used some more conventional-weapon warfare, less laser work. The rack of small missles on top of the Troop transports (the Republic version of the Apache, I guess), looked really cool...too bad they didn't get to unleash it on anything.

Also, having Han Solo shoot first was the dumbest decision made when updating A New Hope. The whole point was that he was kinda cold-blooded at first, giving more weight to his final decision to help the Alliance. Reinserting the Jabba scene was good...watching a worker droid bitch-slap a hover-drone was just stupid.

I also agree that CG can sometimes come across as TOO perfect, therefore distracting. The asteroid chase in AOTC was cool, but again too busy. The asteroid chase in ESB was grittier, with more of a sense of imminent danger.

And for the record, since this thread is for all things Star Wars and this has been on my mind for awhile...for all of the original slamming of so many elements of TPM, and all the talk of a darker episode in AOTC...I find myself looking back now and liking Phantom Menace more as a film. I don't know what it is, but there's more of a feel of the "myth" of Star Wars, the deep history...where as AOTC was more of an action film, a good one, but mostly action. As a story and for it's merits as a film on it's own, I still like TPM a bit better. Although the Yoda fight was very cool...the three-way between Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Darth Maul, and the highly pitched duel between the two survivors at the end still ranks as the best lightsaber sequence yet, and one of the better martial-arts scenes in general from a fight choreography standpoint.

Speaking of which, the talk is that the final fight between Obi-Wan and Anakin is going to be a bitch. Hayden Christensen has reportedly bulked up considerably. He was pretty tall to begin with, but you didn't notice so much because he was so thin. Apparently, a more "Vader" look is in store for Anakin.

Again, good thread...thanks for starting it.

 

[BigJim]

I'm prob'ly stepping into a trap here, but for those of you complaining about the overabundance of CG effects...

can you name any of the actors who played the Clone Troopers? how many extras do you think they used?

Apart from that ANZAC bloke who played Jango Fett, every single trooper was CG'ed to my knowledge.

 

[BigJim]

You'd think I'd be taking the side of the CG guys, but actually I tend to agree that it's a bit of overabundance. It wouldn't be Star Wars without special effects, but there are points where it's too much.

I gotta agree 100% there Dave. The Yoda duel could'nt have been pulled off with a model, no matter how skillfully done. But having him CG through the whole thing made me feel like I was watching a cartoon. Add to that what I like to call the "Armagheddon factor". When I first saw Armagheddon, I found it very difficult to follow the story, because all the effecs were making me lose concentration badly. Put simply, there was too damn much going on all the time. I think AOTC suffered the same fate.

Another thing I agree with you on, is the enjoyability of TPM. I liked seeing how the Jedi order used to be and seeing the story behind Anakin. I think I'm also the only fan in the world who didn't hate Jar-Jar Binks. Maybe it's because I've got the same sense of humour as him.

 

[Phineas]

Apart from that ANZAC bloke who played Jango Fett, every single trooper was CG'ed to my knowledge.

...that was my point, and unfortunately nobody fell into my trap. 😀 but I'll admit I didn't know that nobody actually ever donned a suit of clone armor to help with the filming until I read it at the IMDB. THAT, in my opinion, is perfect CG; the stuff you don't even notice.

...and I'm a rather big fan of Jar Jar Binks. Every time he gets that hand stuck in the pod engine, I lose it. I guess I'm just easily amused. 🙄

 

[primetime]

hey Dave, i will agree with you. the Phantom Menace was a good film. i kept hearing from fans that didnt like it, but i LOVED it. i love history and watching this prequel is like a documentary. AOTC was good, but it didnt "sell" it to me. like Anakin's personality. it sucked. he just wasnt believable, but i think it is the actor's fault. i never got into the love story, as it was kind of slapped together. i wanted to FEEL the love. oh well. oh, and Yoda fighting had to be the highlight of the movie.

a reason why i think fans are not getting into this prequel is because it is just that. a prequel. unlike myself, a lot of people are not into history. we already know what happens to Anakin, Yoda, Ben, Palpatine and the rest of the gang. there is no suspense. there is no mystery. Episodes 4, 5, and 6 had drama to it. when Vader told Luke he was his father, that was a shock. you couldnt wait till Return of the Jedi to see if he was lying. you dont get that same shock and suspense in Episodes 1, 2 and soon 3. you know Anakin will be Darth Vader. no shock, no surprise. so, if you think about it, George Lucas is doing a great job of making this prequel, BUT fans were expecting much more. i dont know why, because Lucas had to make the story "fit" so that it goes along with what we already know. he couldnt do something drastically different. however if he was making Episodes 7, 8, 9 i think fans would view it differently. then he could do radical story changes without having to worry. anybody agree with this assesement?

 

[BigJim]

...that was my point, and unfortunately nobody fell into my trap. 😀 but I'll admit I didn't know that nobody actually ever donned a suit of clone armor to help with the filming until I read it at the IMDB. THAT, in my opinion, is perfect CG; the stuff you don't even notice.

...and I'm a rather big fan of Jar Jar Binks. Every time he gets that hand stuck in the pod engine, I lose it. I guess I'm just easily amused. 🙄

Yeah, I found it out from the documentary on the DVD. As for Jar Jar, the bloke is as clumsy as I am. When he shakes his head and say 'my tongue is fat' it has me on the damn floor. That and him destroying vast quantities of the Trade Federation army, despite his best efforts to run away or surrender.

 

[BigJim]

Replying to a post someone made earlier, but that I can't find now.............

I don't think Obi-Wan is Owen's brother. I know it said that in George's novel, but it's never mentioned again and it's somewhat suspiscious that they've got different surnames. (Kenobi and Lars.) Maybe they were only meant to be half brothers? Oh well, whatever it was, it seems to be something that Lucas dropped early on. Maybe a proof reader missed it?

 

[Oddjob0226]

Re: Replying to a post someone made earlier, but that I can't find now.............

I don't think Obi-Wan is Owen's brother. I know it said that in George's novel, but it's never mentioned again .....

I'm just usin' it as a point; no matter how much the Lucasfilm camp tries to tell me that all of this was always planned out as a trilogy, etc... I still get the feeling that a bunch of this was pieced together over the years and not a part of some great blueprint.

I think the prequels are cool becuase you actualy get to see "the senate", the "Jedi knights", and the politics & developing civil war, all that stuff the 1st movie (and the other two later on) touched on. If Star Wars never had any sequels and just stood by itself, it was a good, satisfying movie- I don't need to know any more about the "clone wars" or the "old Republic" any more than I need to know about the Spice Mines of Kessel, wamp rats & T-38s or Biggs and the Academy (other background one-liner "flavor" that hasn't been touched on in the films). But it's a neat thing to see this played out.