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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.

33 of 691 comments (clear)

  1. Sounds bad by ttyRazor · · Score: 5, Informative

    At least they all get slaughtered within half a second. http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,4-2001601540,00 .html

    1. Re:Sounds bad by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      Hey, why are we bitching? We'll get to see 'NSane die!

      Because it's only special effects?

  2. has the targeted demographic really changed? by steeef · · Score: 5, Insightful

    after all, those of us who grew up loving star wars saw them originally as children.

    1. Re:has the targeted demographic really changed? by Legion303 · · Score: 5, Funny
      I *made* a light saber when I was 9 (well, OK, it wasn't a light saber, it was a fluourescent light tube, and I didn't make it so much as "got it from the garage"). It was better than my brother's light saber, which was a broom handle.

      It also did more damage in the form of shards of glass lacerating his nose. He got me back by spraying oven cleaner in my eyes. I'm still amazed we got through childhood without permanently maiming one another.

      -Legion

    2. Re:has the targeted demographic really changed? by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 5, Insightful


      ...those of us who grew up loving star wars saw them originally as children.


      This gets bandied about every time Star Wars is mentioned. Especially after George Lucas used it to dismiss his fans' critisims from EP1. Star Wars is a kids movie. Anybody who claims otherwise are blinded by nostalgia.


      I don't buy it.


      Sure. I'm a sucker for nostalgia. There's lots of things I enjoy simply because I had enjoyed them in the past. But I can tell when I'm simply being nostalgic.


      There are plenty of examples within movies (and television). I still enjoy the first 3 Star Wars movies. I was disappointed in the 4th (EP1). Even now, comparing all four on VHS I get the same reactions.


      Distorted views through nostalgia lenses? Hardly. I used to enjoy some B-grade scifi, Buck Rogers, and The A Team. Now when I see these same works, I also see the small bits of why I thought they were so cool. But its also glaringly obvious why my father would roll his eyes and leave the room.


      Good, if not great, works remain so even if they were origionally seized by a younger generation. And uninspired works remain... uninspired.


      Star Wars was a suprise hit in an area that The Industry had, rightfully, disreguarded. It did something different and suceeded. Alas, that something is now lost to Lucas. He's sunk in to mediocraty. And his defense is our childhood.

  3. You miss the irony by fleener · · Score: 5, Funny

    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.

    1. Re:You miss the irony by RoninM · · Score: 5, Funny

      The others don't need cameos -- 'NSync can play them.

      --
      If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
  4. urge to kill rising, rising... by eexlebots · · Score: 5, Funny

    It's the New Year and God still hates me.

    --
    ***
  5. Bring it on! by x136 · · Score: 5, Funny

    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
  6. The Downward Spiral of Lucas by IvyMike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.

  7. uh... a few seconds ruins a film? by Jish · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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!

    1. Re:uh... a few seconds ruins a film? by dimator · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It's not the logistics of their appearance, it's the reason that Lucas would put them in the movie: namely, so it will connect with a market that's not exactly taken with the whole Star Wars thang. Now, girls that would never pay to see anything like Star wars will do so to catch a glimpse of Justin, or Fag-wad, or whatever their names are.

      That's pretty fucking low, if you ask me. The market, and in fact the bottom line, has become a greater influence to Lucas' decisions than his creativity. Dis-fucking-gusting.

      --
      python -c "x='python -c %sx=%s; print x%%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))%s'; print x%(chr(34),repr(x),chr(34))"
    2. Re:uh... a few seconds ruins a film? by Nastard · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, god forbid there should be any girls standing in line with us.

  8. you hypocrites! by minusthink · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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.
  9. LOL-LOTR by MillionthMonkey · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard Peter Jackson is giving Al Gore a cameo in the Two Towers. He plays one of the Ents.

  10. Simpsons cameo. by Nathdot · · Score: 5, Funny

    I hope its like the N'Sync Simpsons cameo:

    Justin Timberlake: "WORRRD!!!"

    :)

    "Yvan eht nioj" - Now that's catchy

  11. Add to the confusion... by TedCheshireAcad · · Score: 5, Funny

    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".

  12. Episode 2 - 'N Sync Style by (eternal_software) · · Score: 5, Funny

    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."

    1. Re:Episode 2 - 'N Sync Style by inc0gnito · · Score: 5, Funny

      I sincerely hope you looked up those lyrics online. Beacuase no self respecting /.er would admit to actually knowing the lyrics.

    2. Re:Episode 2 - 'N Sync Style by SoLoatWork · · Score: 5, Funny

      How did you know they were the real lyrics?

  13. Re:Who would once rather see wasted by Jango Fett? by Legion303 · · Score: 5, Funny
    Who would you rather see die by the hands of Jango Fett or the Sith....Jar Jar, or any member of N'Sync?

    George Lucas.

    -Legion

  14. Bah... by tcc · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Bah... by MulluskO · · Score: 5, Funny
      Having NSYNC in there just shows the commercial side of lucas that has overtaken his artistic soul. What is it going to be?


      He is more machine than man now...

      ...given in to the dark side.
      --

      Too busy staying alive... ~ R.A.
    2. Re:Bah... by Watts+Martin · · Score: 5, Interesting
      Actually, The Phantom Menace was much closer to Lucas's original script ideas for Star Wars, one he drastically reworked at the urging of friends who told him, essentially, that for anyone to give a crap about the story it needed to be archetypal: a sci-fi incarnation of myths and legends. Lucas found the works of Joseph Campbell and used The Hero With a Thousand Faces as a virtual blueprint for the reworking of the script, morphing the tale he'd come up with about the young boy Anakin into a tale about the young man Luke Skywalker, changing the rather passive kidnapped princess--also nearly pre-teen--into a feistier adult, and stripping the convoluted Dune for Dummies politics down into a straightforward tale of good and evil.

      And it worked, despite the fact that Lucas isn't a good writer. (He said so himself, long ago around the time of American Graffiti.) The script for Star Wars still isn't really very good. Watch the movie trying to be an objective bastard instead of a long-time fan and you'll see what I mean: most of the dialogue is pretty stilted, and even the direction is somewhat dubious--great visuals, to be sure, but the relatively inexperienced actors clearly weren't being given a lot of support from the man behind the camera. But what the movie had was, as Campbell would put it, "the power of myth"--and it had special effects and action sequences like none ever seen before. When Lucas first showed a private test screening to his friends, most of them thought it was terrible. The one who didn't? Steven Spielberg, who said, "This movie is going to go on to make a hundred million dollars."

      And, lest people think I'm slamming Lucas a little too much, keep in mind that he neither wrote nor directed The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi; he only came up with the general stories. (He didn't even write the Star Wars novel that bears his name; it was actually ghost-written by Alan Dean Foster.) Almost everyone I know, including myself, thinks Empire was the best of the set--and I suspect that was largely due to Leigh Brackett's script. Almost everyone also seems to think Jedi was the weakest of the set--and I'd argue the things that drove most people nuts, from Luke and Leia being sisters to the insufferable Ewoks, were sadly part of Lucas's original story.

      But at least then he still had the power of the first one propelling things forward. Now, George Lucas has become... George Lucas. Evidently he'd decided years ago that his original concept was background for the "new" story of Star Wars, and now he had the confidence to make it--because he knew that audiences had grown up with his mythology, and they'd flock to see his new work.

      Lucas isn't selling out--he's becoming egotistical. He was part of a group before, not one lone visionary--what genius there was in Star Wars was a collective genius. Now we're getting pure, unadulterated Lucas. p.And the sad thing is, he's right: people will keep flocking to see it.

  15. Target demographic by MouseR · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

  16. Re:Big deal. by Shiblon · · Score: 5, Funny

    Who can tell one extra from another?

    Now, that gives a whole new meaning to the title of the movie!

  17. Target Demographic: Lovelorn Teenage Girls by Digitalia · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  18. Whats next? N'Binks? by Bowie+J.+Poag · · Score: 5, Funny



    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

  19. Holy shit, get a grip by bryan1945 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
  20. The damage done... by Cplus · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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
  21. The demographic HAS changed. by krmt · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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."

  22. So, all you people who are panning Ep2.... by Minupla · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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
  23. Re:Because it's only special effects? by mblase · · Score: 5, Funny

    So's their music.

    *ba-dum*