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Attack of the Clones
ramakant writes: "It looks like George Lucas has really sold out this time. If you thought Jar-Jar Binks was bad, MTV.com is running a story that a few members of 'NSYNC will be making cameos in Episode II. I think the target demographic for these films has changed a little since the original trilogy. Oh well, at least LOTR rocked." The MTV article says that NSYNC asked for the part; an article in a UK tabloid says Lucas asked them.
Who can tell one extra from another?
What we call folk wisdom is often no more than a kind of expedient stupidity.-Edward Abbey
At least they all get slaughtered within half a second. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2001601540,00 .html
turn into a 13 year old girl who actually likes n'sync prior to seeing Star Wars Episode 2
What good is a used up world, and how could it be worth having? --Sting
after all, those of us who grew up loving star wars saw them originally as children.
The movie is titled 'Attack of the Clones.' The film would not be complete without 'NSync. I'm just disappointed that Backstreet Boys, New Kids on the Block, and 98 Degrees will not have cameos.
It's the New Year and God still hates me.
***
Put all the talentless boy bands (redundant, I know) in the movie. As long as:
a) They don't talk, or "sing."
b) They get killed off post-haste.
Given these two rules, it would be quite enjoyable.
SIGFEH
Hmm. Are you sure it wasn't NSYNC who sold out?
About three years ago, I sat in a theater that was about to show "Wing Commander." Why? Because they were going to show the "Star Wars" trailer. As the lights darkened and the projector fired up, the words "Lucasfilms" showed up on the screen. That was all it took to get the entire crowd to erupt in a tremendous cheer.
Then, Ep I came out.
Recently, I sat in a theater awaiting LOTR. "Lucasfilms" showed up on the screen. The audience collectively yawned. We've already been burned once by Lucas; we're pretty sure that AOTC is going to suck. Jar Jar, a lame-ass title, and now N'Sync pretty much confirm that.
The article says a few seconds in a scene with a lot of extras...
Get a grip... nobody will notice unless you freeze frame the future dvd and then who really cares...
If you want to make an opinion of the film before seeing it (which is kind of dumb) then at least do something like watch the trailers... which in my opinion are quite good!
This isn't exactly a big departure from Lucas's stable...
Hamill wasn't exactly a Royal Shakespearean himself...
89. "Eight Is Enough" (1977) TV Series - David Bradford (1977)
90. City, The (1977) (TV) - Eugene Banks
91. Mallory: Circumstantial Evidence (1976) (TV) - Joe Celi
92. Eric (1975) (TV) - Paul Swensen
93. Delancey Street: The Crisis Within (1975) (TV) - Philip Donaldson
94. Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic (1975) (TV) - Ken Newkirk
95. "Texas Wheelers, The" (1974) TV Series - Doobie Wheeler
96. "Jeannie" (1973) TV Series (voice) - Corey Anders
97. "General Hospital" (1963) TV Series - Kent Murray
"Win treats sysadmins better than users. Mac treats users better than sysadmins. Linux treats everyone like sysadmins."
listen, complain as much as you like, but it doesn't change the fact that you would get yourself casted in starwars, even for a brief cameo, if you had the power.
so use the force or something. i never saw the movies.
"when life gets complicated, I like to take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner" - Hobbes.
I heard Peter Jackson is giving Al Gore a cameo in the Two Towers. He plays one of the Ents.
I hope its like the N'Sync Simpsons cameo:
Justin Timberlake: "WORRRD!!!"
:)
"Yvan eht nioj" - Now that's catchy
Hey, does this mean that along with the 35 year old virgins living in their parents' basement, there will be screaming teenage girls camped out in front of the movie theater on opening night?
This would cause a mass confusion in the crowd as Star Wars geeks meet these strange creatures called "girls". I just wonder what happens if one of the geeks asks a teenie bopper if she wants to see his "light saber".
Vader - "Come, and we will rule the Empire as father and son."
Luke - "I don't want to be a fool for you. Just another player in your game for two. You may hate me but it ain't no lie. Bye, bye, bye."
George Lucas.
-Legion
Well, disregarding the fact that it's only a few seconds and they will be unrecognizable. It's a poor move to date a movie with a current fad in pop culture. In ten years people will hear this and think who? A tv show can generally get away with it because of the format, tv shows are contemporary by nature whereas a movie that locks itself into something like this is doomed.
These shitheads are just a short lived trend, not that that matters. Looking at past movies you can see that huge stars, from outside the movie industry generally seem to make the movie worse.
Personally, I'm happiest when a movie doesn't have any huge names at all you usually get a more enjoyable experience because the actors don't carry the baggage that someone you've seen in a number of movies does.
I'm the big fish in the big pond bitch.
Lucas has always said that Star Wars is a modern-day fairy tale. Great love stories intertwined in a universe of Good vs. Evil where the Good Guys win. It's the stuff great kiddie stories are made of.
:)
I mean, hey, let's look at that first triology for a second. We've got a love story between a princess and an outlaw (whose best friend, by the way, is a large, loveable hairy guy). That's classic fairy tale stuff. Then we've got the tale of a confused and tortured young man struggling to become a champion of good whilst laboring in the shadow of his evil father who, as it turns out, is still a pretty good guy himself.
I can't tell if this is a fairy tale or a soap opera. Frankly, there isn't much difference.
The point is, Lucas made a film that adults can - more or less - enjoy, but it's always been heavy on the childish side of things. The story and characters are easy to digest. It doesn't take a literary genius to understand that the Emporer was an evil mad man and Luke was the proverbial White Knight. The story is cut and dry.
But I will admit that including a boy band like NSync in the movie, even for a cameo, is bowing to market influence in a major way. Oh wait...there was Jar Jar and that whole "Pod Race To Sell Toys" scene in Episode I.
My sigs always suck.
Lucas diserved the money he made from the 3 first star wars, in that repect, I support him in every trademark dispute, piracy attacks, and anything that might go against his master piece of work and innovation(tm).
But one thing is for sure, he lost *ALL* my respect with Episode 1, This was clearly a "coup de cash" against his loyal fans. Not only he deceived us, it's not like if he was under-funded or he had to make tough choices (jarjar is the "living proof of poor judgment). Now, he's in it ONLY for the money, he lost his soul and his artistic taste for the movies the same way metallica lost it's artistic side for money in heavy metal music. He had all the time in the world to make a masterpiece, he had all the funding available, he had all the talent, he had enough people around him to tell him what was a good and a bad idea, I guess fans sometimes are really harsh but there's no forgiving for such blattant mistakes and misjudgement; he knew what his fans were expecting and he betted only on the CGI technical skills side (like most hollywood producers) to save the day.
You didn't see me crying when DiVX of his mastercrap went around the net, actually it even did some good; Remember when he commented on the editor that removed *EVERY* scenes where jarjar was? that it was illegal etc etc? Well, on a moral standpoint and to defend the same Trademark that Lucas is tarnishing by himself, I think it was the best thing that the internet and p2p technology could do to save the little content of the movie that wasn't half bad. It's still illegal though, but for someone who saw it at the theatre and gave in money like I did, I would have prefered paying an extra buck to see such a version.
At first, my thought was, maybe I was expecting too much, maybe I've lost that amazement feeling you get when you're younger and seeing something truely fantastic, but LOTR proved to me that it wasn't gone, and SWEP1 should have given me that same feeling if not better. I didn't have such a harsh judgment before seeing LOTR, but what I saw is that you CAN match a buttload of CGI, a good story and good acting and still amaze people... and that my friends, at any age.
Having NSYNC in there just shows the commercial side of lucas that has overtaken his artistic soul. What is it going to be? Big sync dance of Yoda and all his family? oh god, I can see riverdance comming for episode 3 and have a bunch of JarJar lapdansing for 10 minutes... oh and have him signing on top of that, and oh I can see vador joining the club and using the force to lift everybody in the air and and&#*H@IkKn3,22214m3,4
NO CARRIER
--- Metamoderating abusive downgraders since my 300th post.
I think the target demographic for these films has changed a little since the original trilogy.
A New Hope didn't have a target demographic. Not at 600k budget.
The Empire Strikes Back tried the late teens target demographics. It didn't gross out as much as they had anticipated at the time. It caught on later in time.
The Return Of The Jedi targeted kids and up, in attempt to widen the audience. By that time, episode 5 had become a classic, and it caught on.
That's the "magic" formula that was used for episode 1, and don't expect anything for the next two episodes.
From The Sun
"The boys got involved because producer GEORGE LUCAS's 13-year-old daughter Katie is a fan of the band and badgered her dad to give them a role."
Man, I wish MY dad would let me name movies and pick the cast!
This Summer, from Metro Home Video: Christina Ricci and Janeane Garofalo in "Hotter than Natalie with twice the hot grits"
www.matthewmiller.net
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
Well what do you know they actually do look cute with the Jedi customs...
[alk]
The Star Wars we all remember was mostly about telling the story. It was captivating and definently interesting. Sure, there was a bit of 'side story', but the movies were always about the end theme. (If you don't know, well, too bad).
The new movies don't seem focused on the story line. I mean, what have pod racers to do with Vaders character developement? Anyone see him race pods later in life? No? No duh.
Including the droids was a mistake. Later in life, did the just forget to mention what they knew about Vader? Duh. Lame.
It should come as no surprise that the next movie is a rental. If you go to the theater, don't complain here. IT WILL SUCK!
You have been warned.
Here before all but 8486 of you.
I saw an EP2 trailer at Lord of the Rings and it was enough to make me want to reach across the aisle and throttle someone. The only people in the theatre at the time who even enjoyed the trailer were the teenage girls, and the collective simper was horrifying. I can understand modifying the Star Wars we've all known and loved to sell it to the modern demographic, since 20 years does tend to demand certain variations in the theme to capture the interests of the same target. Yet the wholesale bastardization of a concept to attempt to make it appeal to all demographics is a work of marketry and not artistry. It's a damned foolish thing to do and a sign that Lucas has become nothing more than a sellout.
I'd been rallying for another Indiana Jones movie for a few years now. This is the moment when I stop. As much respect as I have for the past accomplishments of Lucas and Co., I couldn't possibly tolerate the desecration of another franchise.
Pax Digitalia
Unfortunately, the target demographic has not changed, as you say. But kids have grown less and less adult-like -- they've gotten dumbed down and will grow up immune to any aesthetic quality. Not that this is any problem to the studios... costs less to pay a writer who isn't as good.
It's either that, or the target demographic has narrowed. Star Wars was clearly marketed towards children AND adults, the former of whom will be entertained by ANYTHING with fur or robotic parts. Case in point is the Muppet Movie, which had furry muppets that kids could enjoy, while adults had fun with the witty dialogue. Newer movies leave the adults out of the equation, reasoning that the kids won't "get" the movie. But they're not there for the storyline -- they just want to see fur and robots (and if at all possible, furry robots!)
So for God's sake, market all you want towards the children, but at least give the adults a darn script that's worth listening to. Kids grow to understand it as they get older. That's how you MAKE a classic for christsake.
This is so profoundly retarded that I'm having trouble, for one in my life, expressing my true feelings.
So, I called up the NIST and asked them to create a unit of measurement that accurately describes the ratio between retarded things and lame things. I proposed that 1.0 would be the standard ratio for something that would be equally retarded and lame, and suggested Episode II, George Lucas, and N'Sync might be good benchmarks from which to gauge this new standard. They agreed, with one stipulation. They wanted to put "mebi" on it somewhere, because there was a sale on "mebi"s this week..They overestimated public demand for them and had a whole bunch lying around they needed to get rid of.
Without further adue, Star Wars's ratio of lameness to retardedness will be measured in Mebijarjars, and more specifically, Episode II will be exactly 1.0 Mebijarjars if N'Sync happens to be in it. Ten bucks says Episode III will feature nothing but chimpanzee actors wearing garbage can lids on their heads beepy-boopy sounds dubbed over a laugh track supplied by the surviving members of Menudo.
Cheers, its meant to make you laugh,
Bowie J. Poag
How about making a mod pack for something like Quake that lets you do the fragging yourself?
You're using her as bait, Master!
Um, some guy makes a couple of films you like a lot. A while later he makes some more films that you don't like very much.
At what point in this story do you figure at all? Don't bother saying anything about giving him your money, 'cause that was your choice. You don't want, you don't buy. Maybe if he came to your house and pointed a gun at your head to buy the DVD...
Why does Lucas have some kind of "commitment" to you, rather than say Tom Clancy or Michael Chrichton (sp?)? They all produce a product, yet where is the outrage that Timeline made obsolutely zero sense?! (Ok read, but bugger the science!)
"He's making the films for his kids! Burn him!" What, making a film for a bunch of whiny ass-monkeys would be a better choice? Sure, they are the luckiest kids on the planet, but still, I can't think of many motivations better than doing something for you kids.
If you don't like what he's doing, sure complain about how it could be better (I sure did), but don't get so excited about how "he owes us more" or "it doesn't match my vision" or "a dog could do it better". He doesn't owe you jack and if you think you can do better, go prove it.
End of long, dumb rant, but I'm kinda sick of people bitching like Star Wars was their exclusive birthright.
Vote monkeys into Congress. They are cheaper and more trustworthy.
The damage done by having a boy band or any recognizable figure in a movie based around a universe, as Star Wars is, is that recognizing them draws you out of that universe and back into the real world. This would be true whether the reaction you have toward the person is negative or positive. As an example, I found it quite bothersome to see the "E.T.'s" in the Senate scene of Ep 1. I liked ET as a child, but it took my mind out of the Star Wars plane that it was dwelling in at the time.
"Share your knowledge. It's a way to achieve immortality." -- Dalai Lama
Sure, Lucas is breaking no law in becoming a total whore and letting some marketing committe script his movies. In the same way, a politician breaks no laws if he sells out his principles and does exactly what some tobacco company tells him to do. Breaking a trust which is not backed up by a contract is something anyone technically has a right to do. And just like no one is forcing you to buy any specific movie ticket, no one forces you to re-elect the backstabbing politician. Does that make this sort of behavior is alright?
Lucas, like some corporate-tool-politician, has shat on the heads of the very people who made him what he is. But it's worse than that in his case. You see, only Lucas can legally make the remaining movies in the Star Wars epic because he owns every last bit of Star Wars IP. There are plenty of directors out there who would be willing and able to finish the series well. Unfortunately, their doing so would be illegal. If LOTR had been made badly, I could have tried to make it again, though better. The future Star Wars movies will be made badly, but we have no recourse. We just have to take it, even if they're opportunistic, poll-driven, stroryless product placement ads (which they will be).
The Lucas of today makes me feel dirty for ever having liked Star Wars and for having spent every cent of my childhood allowance on those overpriced action figures. I imagine some people who voted for Nixon felt betrayed in the same way. Fine... I was a tool, a means to an end for some greedy bastard in whom I once had faith. Excuse me if I'm a little mad about that, but maybe being indignant about this sort of thing is a necessary part of self-respect.
Since we've established that the movie's target audience misses the Slashdot demographics by a mile, maybe it would be good judgement on the part of /. editors to not make a major story out of every stupid Star Wars rumor. They should seriously consider treating it the franchise more like they Dumbo and Barney (with a nostalgic and heavy heart for what the Star Wars prequels could have been). Slashdot is full of former Star Wars fans. With enough /. hype, there will surely be hundreds of readers who pay Lucas for a seat "just to see how bad it really is." And we don't owe him that. We may owe him a bit of ridicule, but more than that, we owe him some indifference. Since the commentators here seem to agree, I hope the editors are wise enough to show some restraint. "Star Wars sucks now" is no longer "News for Nerds."
Lucas is, quite simply, out of touch with his own vision. No one argues that Star Wars is a fairy tale, and a damn good one at that. But look at what makes good fairy tales! Harry Potter is a prime example of a modern day fairy tale that has won the hearts of millions of fanatics of ALL AGES, much the way Star Wars did years ago. Toy Story is another example, where everyone loves it, kids and adults. LOTR is doing it in theaters right this very moment, some half century after its original writing.
The fact is, Lucas did something once upon a time that was magic by creating something for people of all ages to love. You can't really say that about the new movies, something is missing. I think what's missing is both in Lucas and everyone else.
The target demographic of the original movies was not really children, but everyone. Kids don't understand the concept of a Republic vs. an Empire and what that means, or the sexual tension between Han and Leia. That stuff is in there for adults too. And don't forget the violence (which is present in all fairy tales by the way, pick up the Grimms if you don't believe me) which is relatively absent from episode 1. No dead gungans lying around, they're too fucking marketable! Even the Ewoks were slaughtered en masse. These "adult" concepts are things that are very real, that reach out to us and touch us from inside and connect us to the story long after the fantasy has faded away. Harry Potter does this. LOTR does this. Why not episode 1?
I wish I had an answer to these questions, but the fact is that Lucas is simply not targeting his demographic anymore. When he made the first movie, his priority was simply getting it made because he couldn't worry about anything else. Make the movie, and people will come. His demographic was the project itself. Now his demographic is what he thinks audiences will want from him, and he's bending things to this vision. He's not serving the story anymore, he's trying to serve us all, and in doing so he's cheating everyone of something that should have been great.
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
What the hell is this troll? You're saying because Lucas signed an unknown actor for his low budget unknown science fiction film in the late 70's, that having what is right now the world's largest, most visible, and most marketable band show up in what is likely the most visible franchise film series the past decades is even comparable?
"I may not have morals, but I have standards."
How many of you will vote with your pocket book, and mindshare by not seeing it (including in the theater, pirating it, renting it on video, etc)...
:)).
Wouldn't it be a lot more quiet in here if all the rest of you would shut up?
I'll go see it. It'll have cool FX, lots of stuff will go boom, and I can pretend I'm a 12 yr old. Heck, at my age even a couple of hours of being a 12 yr old again will be worth it.
Do what I did next time, watch Ep 4. Watch it honestly, not in nostaliga mode. It's predictable, and geared for 12 yr olds. Gee, I seem to recall seeing commercials for Star Wars toys playing when I was 12, in between the cartoons. Maybe, just maybe, the movies aren't getting dumber, maybe we're getting older and have different tastes (I wouldn't say we're getting any smarter
Just some food for thought.
Minupla
On the whole, I find that I prefer Slashdot posts to twitter ones because I don't get limited to 140 chars before
Maybe Lucas was more objective with himself in Star Wars 4: A New Hope. He was new (only one major film out, American Graffiti), and under a tight budget. His other film in the genre, THX1138 was well thought of but not widely distributed.
If somone wants to be an extra and be shot at, I don't care. It is if they actually have lines then I start to get concerned.
See my journal, I write things there
They were rated PG, and certainly appealed to kids, but there were elements that really were targeted at adults. I'd call them family films in the truest sense of the phrase - films everyone in the family can enjoy, as opposed to the pasturized crap they call "Family Films" now.
I'm the stranger...posting to
So's their music.
*ba-dum*
Look for stupid hair-styles. All boy bands are required by law to have at least one member with stupid-looking hair; you just have to associate hair-style with band name.