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Star Wars II Trailer Online
Jager writes: "You can download the new starwars trailer here. Enjoy." Seemed to me as if Lucas was worried about the "love story" emphasis in the previous teasers, and wanted to make sure people knew there would be plenty of zapping and slashing.
On the previous post about the trailer airing on Fox, many people said that they do not like the direction that Star Wars is taking. Although I agree with most of what these people say, some went as far as saying not to spend 10 dollars at the theatre to see it, but rather wait until rental time.
To those people who do not think this movie will be worth seeing, reconsider -- the visual effects in Phantom Menace did not disappoint, and from the looks of it, this movie will be just as nice with the CGI. As a fan of CGI, I was very happy with the pod race scene on a 40 foot screen, and I think I'll get my money's worth seeing the new movie when it comes out at theatres.
If you've read this far, you probably agree with me.
See, George Lucas' inspiration for Star Wars came largely from a man by the name of Joseph Campbell. If you're unfamiliar with him, he was a renowned mythologist (really a mish-mash of cultural anthropologist and psychologist with a focus on cultural dialectics).
Mythology is rarely original. In fact, Campbell, were he alive, would likely point out that there are only a handful of basic mythological stories and most every contemporary myth has some root in a far more generic myth.
So, my point: indeed, there isn't anything original about Star Wars. It's just another way of characterizing a myth, in this case, the fall from grace, that has been around for thousands of years.
I was saddened and perplexed to see that Jar Jar is back even though he was supposed to be eliminated entirely. Lucas needs to listen and read these 10mostly unranked reasons Jar Jar should have been totally written out of Episode 2.
1 ** Sufferin' Succotash, Speech Impediment:
I understand that Lucas has a difficult task in creating a rich and diverse universe of alien races, each of which needs its own unique culture, look, and language. But he couldn't come up with anything better than "Moi moi, I wuv you!?" This is the first in a series of things that makes Jar Jar less realistic and more cartoonish than necessary.
2 ** Jar Jar, Future Winner of the Darwin Award
All right, you've got a stampede of frightened jungle creatures bearing down on you. They're followed by elephantine troop transports. Also, there's this jedi-hippy Qui-Gon guy heading right at you. What do you do? If you've got any survival instincts at all, you run. YOU RUN! Any creature, big or small, that doesn't flee simply deserves to have its genes exterminated.
2 ** Benedict Arnold. Twice!
Jar Jar, cowardly turncoat, reveals the ultra-secret refuge of his race not once, but twice! First, he reveals where the "secret" underwater city is after about 10 seconds of interrogation. Later, he doesn't even need any prodding to reveal where the backup secret "sacred" place is. I'm sure not telling him where my Y2K survival cabin is.
3 ** Five-Fingered Discount.
MOS ESPA POLICE BLOTTER - Tuesday, 10:45 AM. Local merchant reports that a passer-by attempted to shoplift from a street display of food. The perpetrator was described as a pink male, approximately 7 feet tall, with ritualistic tattoos covering both of his arms. Anyone with information on this crime is encouraged to call the Mos Espa police department's Crime Watch Hotline.
4 ** Bring the GPS Receiver, Jar Jar's 'Navigating.'
"We're going through the planet core, we'll need a navigator." (Or something like that.) Real bang-up job on that, Mr. Binks. He doesn't actually know where anything is, can't give even the most general helpful hint, and in fact, panics during some rather tense moments during the fish chase scene, constituting a distraction which had a very real chance to cause physical harm. Of course, with the force to guide them, the jedi come out ok, but this begs an explanation for why a navigator was so necessary in the first place.
5 ** Road Trip, Destination Mos Espa.
I simply can think of a but single reason Qui-Gon takes Jar Jar along with him on his mission to find a replacement Nubian warp drive. Qui-Gon secretly planned to sell Jar Jar into slavery when nobody was looking, in order to make money for the parts. That was a plan that I'm sure most audience members could have gotten behind. Unfortunately, Padme/Amidala insisted on tagging along, ruining Qui-Gon's plans.
6 ** Who Framed Jar Jar Rabbit?
Jar Jar is supposed to be the first major photo-realistic character in a motion picture completely generated by computers. Realistic. So why is he able to violate several of Newton's laws when he jumps into the water in a completely cartoon-like way? Star Wars is not a cartoon. When he's in Watto's shop, why does he juggle robot parts in the same non-Newtonian way? Star Wars is NOT A CARTOON. When he runs from the blue energy balls, once again--cartoon! George, I'll say it one more time--STAR WARS IS NOT A CARTOON.
7 ** Sun Tzu He Ain't.
Pity the Gungans. They're lead by Boss Nass, a man so blinded by his own inferiority complex that he decides to send his people into a slaughter to prove that not only aren't the Naboo thinkin theysa betta than tha Gungans, but the Gungans may in fact be betta than tha Naboo. Then, the Gungans have Captain Tarpals, who selects his second in command based upon, well, apparently no logic at all, since he selects Jar Jar. And of course, they're led into battle by "General" Jar Jar, who surrenders at the first opportunity (To an army with orders to commit genocide, no less! "Wipe them out--All of them!" Surrender means certain death!). Indeed, the sum total of JJ's military brilliance consists of saying, "Steady, steady." Such is the art of warfare.
8 ** Miscellaneous Dumb Quirks.
The Gungans have a law actually called 'Nocomebackie'? What the heck does "Maxi big da force" mean anyway? (If it means "The force is big," well, that's so dumb it hurts.) What's with Jar jar and the poop 'n' fart jokes? And did Lucas really name the whole race "Gungan" after a nonsense sound his son made? What's next, the "googoogagas?"
9 ** How Wude!
For a creature so obsessed with the social graces of others, berating them with his "How Wude!" sentiment, Jar Jar sure uncouth himself. Tongues are not for grabbing food.
10 ** Success through incompetence.
One of the core values that I hold is that hard work and talent breed success, and incompetence and laziness lead to failure. This isn't really such a novel idea; it should be pretty fundamental to anybody who thinks capitalism is a good thing. It's the basis for the American Dream.
Young Anakin Skywalker is a good example of these values. Anakin is filled with the force, so he's a great pilot without even trying. In spite of this, he also spends his free time exercising his mechanical skills, trying to search for his slave transmitter, and in general making himself a better person. When Anakin succeeds, we feel he deserves it.
Jar Jar is a mockery of these values. He's unintelligent, a coward, and lazy. He's mechanically inept. His clumsiness makes him such a burden on his society that they force him into exile. He is careless with military weaponry. He almost breaks the pod-racer by dropping an tool into a jet engine! And in spite of all of this, he succeeds too!
The idea that Jar Jar can succeed without trying simply because he's good-hearted is offensive to Libertarians everywhere.
Why did Lucas waver again. He has no integrity. First the video trailer clps showing scenes not in the movie, and now this doublecross of his fans.
I don't think Lucas was focusing on the action to downplay romance.
If you look at the Episode 1 trailers, and look at how Lucas does things, you'll see he likes to create a different effect with each trailer. The other trailer was a "love story" trailer, this one is an action trailer. I would not be surprised if there are one or two more that each emphasize a different theme or plot.
The pod race is a visual allusion to the chariot race in Ben Hur. Ben hur, for those who haven't seen it, is the story of a man who turns to violence to avenge his mother and sister, and finds redemption through the love of Christ.
Agree with the "too much CGI" comment though.
my old trick for getting around Apple's lame referrer check for "Quicktime Pro" has failed:
/ clone_war_ctp_ap640.mov
wget -U "QuickTime (qtver=5.0.2;os=Windows NT 5.1)" http://starwars.apple.com/ep2/clone_war/media/640
anybody else had any luck?
Is Anakin going to become Vader in this episode? That would be the best, as the whole next movie we could see him in action. Yet, maybe Anakin is too young...
BTW, How come Anakin grows up so fast, and the Queen still looks like a teen? Then they fall in love... in the first movie there was a big age difference... it's a little strange. Oh well, just a movie.
This is really excellent, because as you cheat yourself out of enjoying the film because you're foolish enough to prejudge this, the rest of us will probably love it because it's bigger and better than any of the other movies. I loved Ep. 4 when I was a kid, and my nephew loved Ep.1 and so did I. I'm really looking forward to Ep. 2, and your opinion won't matter an iota when the tidalwave of this movie arrives. So go ahead gripe and bitch, it says more about you than the film. Some people are just spoiled, they get Star Wars and it ain't enough they still find room to bitch and moan. Don't tell us how bad it is, nobody cares, just don't go and see it, I dare you. Of course there's no chance of that, you WILL see this movie. At least I'll get my moneys worth when I go see the film because I'll have a chance of enjoying it.
Heh, mesa thinks that someone in the company had already downloaded it, i got it with 5 megabytes pr sec. for once I was happy about having our proxy.
Watching EP1 last night on the Movie channel I had a rather interesting insight. That Anakin is/was always the second Sith [candidate].
Anakin 'imaculate conception', hint's of genetic engineer, aka The Clone-Wars.
Palpatine familiarity with Tatooine, 'a minor outland planet on the edge of known space', he clearly knows about it, Why ? He Certainly he has some interest in it!
Tatooine close proximatly to Naboo, Palpatine home planet. Convenient or Coincidence ?
Qui-Gon Jinn believed Anakin to be the Chosen One spoken of in an ancient prophecy, the one who would bring balance to the Force. What does he know to suggest he is not a natural produced/wild Jedi? And Why is training Anakin, the most important thing/ last wish he asked of Obi-Wan ?
Anakin's unatural talent for machines, when Jedi are supposed to be connected to living things.
Anakin 'training' on Tatooine.
Bobafetts links to Tatooine, and Palpatine and Sith's.