Footage From Star Wars: Episode III

An anonymous reader writes "Leaked footage of Star Wars: Episode III is now online! Included in the 2-minute and 37-second clip are shots of the Australian set, George Lucas behind the camera, Chewbacca looking cooler than ever, and even a quick peek at Hayden Christensen (in Vader get-up!) and Ewan McGregor duking it out, all being played to AC/DC's 'Back in Black.' I've downloaded it, but am undecided as if I should watch it or not, lest it spoil something (here's hoping that it's good)."

Comments

No real spoilers in the clip.

[Patik]

There really aren't any spoilers in the clip. Most of it is just people fighting in front of a green screen; no produced shots at all, just actors dancing around in a studio, usually not even in costume. It barely even shows Chewy. If you're looking for a reason not to watch this, do so because the video is choppy and low quality (camcorder pointed at a monitor) and hard to watch.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Otter]

Most of it is just people fighting in front of a green screen; no produced shots at all, just actors dancing around in a studio, usually not even in costume.

Is Darth Vader a chubby, nerdy kid making whooshing noises? I could swear I saw this new "leaked footage" over a year ago! Of course, I'm a really, really 1337 w4r3z g0d.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Anonymous Coward]

Not like anyone would care about spoilers anyway. I still haven't seen episode two. I regret seeing episode one. And while episodes four, five and six were good, they were nothing particularly amazing. Granted, I'm only in my mid 20's, but I don't understand how star wars ever gained enough popularity to have been more than a "cool thing" for a couple months after the movies hit the theaters back in the 70's and 80's. I mean - good enough movies for a little fun action and adventure, but there's nothing about them that would make me give a fuck almost 30 years later.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[orthogonal]

There really aren't any spoilers in the clip.

I have a spoiler for you: you will die alone!

(With apologies to Triumph the Insult Comic Dog and Robert Smigel.)

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Cat_Byte]

Have you ever seen Tron? Just imagine that being the coolest special effects of all time then watching Star Wars. If you're in you're 20's yeah I can understand not seeing the impact it made. But compared to the movies of the age like Tron, The Blob, etc, it was the dawning of a new age in movies.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Anonymous Coward]

No spoilers OK, but how about we view these new episodes as a whole? Now, let's speak truthfully.

New episodes are LAME! A MAJOR DISAPPOINTMENT! This is the truth. Am I the only one who has the balls to say how it really is? Starwars episodes 4-6 are all great but the reality is that they lost the fire. These new episodes have something missing really badly. It's hard to define what it is, but it's just not there.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[macshit]

Um, you're a bit confused about the timeline -- Tron came quite a bit after Star-Wars, and indeed was generally thought of as having great special effects, even compared with SW. Tron's sfx lacked a sort of gritty and realistic quality compared to those in SW, but they were very cool. [Story-wise, of course, Tron was pretty damn stupid...]

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Anonymous Coward]

No real spoilers you say....

How do you explain Blue Man Group fighting Old Ben Kenobi eh? Let us not forget the chubby Ewok in the director's chair.... As you can see good sir.... the film hath been spoiled!

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[SoTuA]

These new episodes have something missing really badly. It's hard to define what it is, but it's just not there.

Hard to define? Why yes... it's hard to stay with a single topic... you can't make up your mind if it's the horrible acting or the lame script or the overused CG or that hunk of dog shit called Jar JAr or...

I'll stop there, ran out of air :D

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Golias]

His point is still valid. Watch "Logan's Run." That's what sci-fi adventures prior to Star Wars looked like.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Anonymous Coward]

I've died several times before and having someone there with you doesn't help.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[drakaan]

I was listening up until you said "Granted, I'm only in my mid 20's...".

I was 7 years old when I saw Star Wars, and it was AWESOME (to me at the time, anyway).

In the 70's and 80's, there weren't 15 new movies a week coming to the theaters, and hand-made special effects meant that making cool high-tech stuff was really, really hard. Star Wars may be dated today, but George and crew have been improving special effects for the entire industry for 30 years.

You might want to be grateful for the flash-in-the-pan "cool thing" that you don't give a fuck about...not that you're required to be.

Goddamn 20-something AC Star Wars trolls...[grumble]

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[sketerpot]

I thought that Jar Jar did much better in episode 2, since he only got a few minutes of screen time, and then only as a weak-minded fool who sold out the entire republic.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[SoTuA]

I thought that Jar Jar did much better in episode 2, since he only got a few minutes of screen time, and then only as a weak-minded fool who sold out the entire republic.

I think Lucas made Jar Jar do that when he saw the public outrage at Jar Jar. I'm guessing he had dreams of Jar Jar becoming a Jedi and saving Anakin's bacon numerous times during epi2.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[ShawnDoc]

Maybe he meant Disney's The Black Hole.

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Golias]

Or "Zardoz." :)

Re:No real spoilers in the clip.

[Moskie]

From imdb:

Tape Taken on Set of New 'Star Wars' Post on Internet

Despite rigorous efforts by the George Lucas organization to prevent any leaks from the set of the Star Wars: Episode III, a crude 2-minute, 37-second clip from the Australian set has popped up online. It reportedly includes a shot of Hayden Christensen in his Darth Vader costume. One fan who watched it said on the Slashdot.org website that it contains no spoilers and that "the video is choppy and low quality (camcorder pointed at a monitor) and hard to watch."

heh.

Not Worth It

[DoctorGrim]

Any bets that this'll be worse than the others?

Re:Not Worth It

[Anonymous Coward]

Well episode 2 was better than episode 1... not that that says much at all. Cut out the "love" scenes and it might have been a nearly (but not quite) enjoyable movie.

I might see it, if it gets good enough reviews (I doubt it), but then probably at a cheap theatre.

Re:Not Worth It

[NanoGator]

"Any bets that this'll be worse than the others?"

Too easy. How about whether or not it'll be worse than Revolutions?

Bittorrent

[blat.info]

Here's a Bittorrent: http://blat.info/torrent/

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

"Bad Data from Tracker" Your shit sux dewd.

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Sorry about that. Hey, it's not easy, you know. It's ok. Try it now.

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Still broke :|

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

argh you suck, call your self a geek?
"Bad data from tracker"

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

try http://66.79.177.160/~suprnova//torrents/1032/epii i-leaked-avi.torrent

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod parent up, confirmed this one works.

Re:Bittorrent

[Anonymous Coward]

mod parent up...

PTS vs. PTR...

[danielrm26]

Remember, it's only a spoiler if the movie is actually *good*. This one has a huge PTS (potential to suck) rating, with only a moderate PTR (potential to rock). Given those facts, I can afford a peek at what amounts to some backstage stuff usually included on the DVD.

Re:PTS vs. PTR...

[telstar]

Yeah, but pretty much everybody is supposed to die by the end, so that's got some redeeming value.

Use the force, George

[corebreech]

Given the rumors of Episodes VII, VIII & IX, I think there's a good chance that Lucas has been slapped out of whatever doldrums that produced I & II and that he understands that III has to be put out of the park.

In other words, if Episode III is the Star Wars equivalent of Star Trek: Nemesis, then he loses the franchise.

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

You're an idiot.

It's nothing like the Star Trek situation. Rick Berman doesn't personally finance the movies. He has to answer to someone when things go sour.

Lucas answers to nobody. If a movie flops, he has nobody to answer to, nobody to blame but himself. Should he wish to make another, he can pump out as many Star Wars movies as he wants as long as he has money. Lucas has buckets of money, end of story.

Re:Use the force, George

[shaitand]

Yes but a Star Wars Movie COSTS buckets of money to make. It hurts MORE not less when it's your own pocket, even if your pockets are deep.

You think dealing with a boss if tough, try being one.

Re:Use the force, George

[interiot]

It didn't do THAT badly, did it? Wikipedia notes that it was the first time in the series that a Star Wars movie wasn't the highest-grossing of the year. It may have been a let down for Lucas and perhaps not worthy of spending so much money on production of future films, but it was still a commercial success, no?

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Even if Star Wars 3 is a total and complete failure pulling in no more than 50 million dollars, the merchandising + endorsements + Pepsi + whatever the hell else they make money with will rake in the fat sacks of cash that will far out strip the cost of the movie.

Re:Use the force, George

[meta-monkey]

Have you not been paying attention? There is no correlation between the quality of the film and the profits made. Episodes I & II may have cost buckets of cash, but they also MADE buckets of cash. Not counting all the merchandising, the toys and t-shirts and video games and jar-jar toothbrushes. Lucas has no incentive to make a good movie, because no matter how bad the movie is, you know 92% of geeks will still go see it, just so they can bitch about it on /.

Re:Use the force, George

[geekoid]

True, but if you spened 150 million, and make 400million, it hurts a lot less!

Re:Use the force, George

[patternjuggler]

I think a year ago people were trumpeting LOTR and the Matrix films as the new genre movies of choice, and not thinking of Ep III at all. Then the Matrix sequels came out and were underwhelming, so maybe there's a chance fans will look to Star Wars again for that inspirational spark or whatever the first trilogy had in spades.

I'm going to keep my expectations low, but see it in the theaters anyhow.

I'd rather someone would come out with a new science fiction franchise to take the reins from Star Wars- something fresh, with mind-blowing imagery in every frame. Maybe a live-action Ghost in the Shell?

Re:Use the force, George

[Coryoth]

I think a year ago people were trumpeting LOTR and the Matrix films as the new genre movies of choice, and not thinking of Ep III at all. Then the Matrix sequels came out and were underwhelming, so maybe there's a chance fans will look to Star Wars again for that inspirational spark or whatever the first trilogy had in spades.

Yes, but unfortunately for George LoTR rather spectacular, and epic, and very successful. Star Wars is going to lose the Genre Film crown - but a large part of that is due to the ill feeling generated by the most recent two films. I doubt the third will offer too many saving graces at the late stage.

Jedidiah.

Re:Use the force, George

[Mulletproof]

Whoa, slow down there Quick-draw. What do you think another flop is going to do to his consumer base? I don't care if he produces the movies himself or not, like the man said-- If this a repeat performace of one and two, quite a few people are going to assume the magic is gone and simply won't have faith in his future projects. Oh sure, he'll have the die-hard fans who'll die loyally at his feet, but like Star Trek, you can only screw with the franchise so much before your fans start taking a negative outlook on your movie before it's released (ie, half the threads in this topic).

Feel free to put down the idiot gun, because Corebreech is absolutely right... If he keeps screwing up, he's lost the franchise. Maybe not the rights, just his loyal following, which is nearly, if not more important than a license you can't do shit with because you've lost touch with reality.

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Episode III ties right into the original Star Wars canon, so all the old geeks in the audience will love it no matter what.

The biggest problems with the Star Wars Prequels is that Lucas stretched what should have been one single movie out into three really long boring movies. He did not have enough of a backstory to fill all that time.

Re:Use the force, George

[uptownguy]

I'd rather someone would come out with a new science fiction franchise to take the reins from Star Wars- something fresh

Settle down... I'm working on it. But I'm still about 6 months away from finishing. It'll be good though, I promise.

-A

Re:Use the force, George

[fenix down]

You've got $2 billion, you have a house, a ranch, a stained glass window worth more than most people's lives, and your own naval base. What the hell else are you going to spend it on besides wrapping extras in green plastic and paying Samuel L. Jackson to beat them mercilessly with a purple broomstick?

Re:Use the force, George

[MisterFancypants]

True, but if you spened 150 million, and make 400million, it hurts a lot less!

Not to mention the billions made from Pepsi, etc.

It is kind of funny how people view the prequels as such a huge failure. I can understand why they might not like them, but that has nothing to do with the financial success of the movies. Most studio executives would kill to have a "failure" that pulls in as much money as Episode 1 or 2 did.

Re:Use the force, George

[MsGeek]

Maybe not a live-action Ghost in the Shell, but there *is* a live-action Neon Genesis Evangelion movie in the works. WETA Workshop, the folks who went a long way towards helping the definite non-sucky LOTR trilogy not suck, is going to do the FX.

Hopefully Gainax, WETA, and ADV Films and the unnamed but Very Major American Movie Studio(s) will be able to make this work.

If it's done right, this Eva movie will blow the Star Wars prequels and The Matrix trilogy out of the water. Big time.

If it's done wrong, it's going to be the American-financed Godzilla movie all over again. Here lizard, lizard, lizard....

Re:Use the force, George

[the_2nd_coming]

Nemisis was not a bad movie...stop bashing it.

Re:Use the force, George

[limekiller4]

corebreech writes:
"In other words, if Episode III is the Star Wars equivalent of Star Trek: Nemesis, then he loses the franchise."

Unless something has happened in the last few years that I utterly missed, he owns the franchise. He ain't losing jack.

Re:Use the force, George

[Durandal64]

It was a shoddily-written piece of shit that shamelessly copied from other, better Trek films. The plot made absolutely no sense. Go here for a nice, pictorial plot analysis.

Re:Use the force, George

[Guppy06]

"In other words, if Episode III is the Star Wars equivalent of Star Trek: Nemesis, then he loses the franchise."

Except that there's this little thing called "copyright laws." He owns it, his children will own it, his children's children will own it, and probably even his great-grandchildren if another Bono bill or three gets slipped in there.

The "limited time" bit in the constitution is more of a running gag than anything else. Kinda like the Twenty-Seventh Amendment

Re:Use the force, George

[BackwardEngineer]

Actually I read in a past issue of NewType, (Sorry, I can't remember which one) that Mamoru Oshii stated that he is working on a live action Ghost in the Shell. (or at least he'd like to work on one.)

Re:Use the force, George

[YomikoReadman]

I'm going to have to side with the AC on this one. As long as Lucas does nothing more than pump out more shitty Star Wars movies, people will continue to go see them, regardless of how much they suck. Once you count in the licensing deals, he's made back the cost, plus a bit. What's really sad, is that people didn't boycott the second after the first one sucked, and I sincerely doubt that anyone will ditch on Ep III just because the last one was way subpar. As for what happnes with the Tales of the New Republic, should they be made, Only time will tell on that.

Re:Use the force, George

[pizza_milkshake]

agreed. the man can pump out as many crappy star wars flicks as he likes and rake in more money that anyone else until the end of time.

Re:Use the force, George

[pizza_milkshake]

What do you think another flop is going to do to his consumer base? I don't care if he produces the movies himself or not, like the man said-- If this a repeat performace of one and two, quite a few people are going to assume the magic is gone and simply won't have faith in his future projects.

if that's the case, why are people still interested in III? personally i hated I but saw II in hope of anything decent. i will not see III.

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you want the "You're an idiot" tag too?

How can you even compare Star Wars & Star Trek.

There've been 5 Star Wars Movies. FIVE.

There've been TEN Star Trek Movies Plus over 400 TV episodes. Star Trek is played out.

They're in completely different leagues. No Star Trek movie has ever come close to making the same kinda money a Star Wars Movie has. They're not even comparable.

Re:Use the force, George

[NanoGator]

"In other words, if Episode III is the Star Wars equivalent of Star Trek: Nemesis, then he loses the franchise."

Oh I doubt Episode III will flop. There are no LOTR or Harry Potter movies scheduled to release then.

Re:Use the force, George

[SamSim]

I'd just like to back up the above comment with some figures: here is the IMDb's all-time top grossing movies. Episodes I and II are placed 3rd and 19th respectively. I don't think these numbers include merchandising profits either.

Re:Use the force, George

[BlackHawk-666]

Lame fan-boys will go and watch his rubbish no matter how bad. They can't stand the idea of everyone else talking about it and them not being able to trash it from a first person perspective. It will take a few more absolute stinkers from Lucas before the nerd-a-terri give him up for dead.

Re:Use the force, George

[YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT]

Sigh, I don't know how to put this in a way that won't look like flamebait, but I thought NGE was really, really bad. Waited and waited and waited for the payoff, and the ending was just... just. I dunno. Dumb. I dunno how they're going to salvage it into something that one, doesn't suck, and two, is palatable to the kind of audiences you need to finance a project like this. I mean, it looked great, but...

If they're going to do a giant robot movie ( admittedly without the monsters ), I think Robotech would have been a shoe-in. And if they wanted a giant robot movie with religious symbolism, I'm told Raxephon (sp?) would have been a better substitute.

Anyway, I hope it's cool. But I've kind of lost faith in the NGE franchise.

-- YLFI

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but notice that ALL of the star wars movies are in the top 25. Really neat list.

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Nemesis? The only reason I didn't walk out of the place showing it was that it was 10,000 feet above Siberia at the time.

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Does that chart take inflation into account? It appears not to, which means that it's hardly comparing like with like. Does the word "meaningless" mean anything to you?

Re:Use the force, George

[Blondie-Wan]

Yes, but the ratio of the movies' box-office takes to their production costs dropped dramatically with the prequels. The original movie grossed more than thirty times its production cost; [i]Episode I[/i] grossed "only" about four times its cost. Sure, they all make far more money than I'll ever see, but the prequels aren't nearly as profitable as the originals, in terms of the return on each dollar invested.

Re:Use the force, George

[Rogerborg]

It was a koala turd smoothie, but that's forgivable. What's not forgivable is putting the tag "Star Trek" on it. That's the context here, and what makes it relevant to this story.

Re:Use the force, George

[Rogerborg]

Including $2 billion dollars from Pepsi. Yes, you read that right. <Dr Evil>Two beeelyon dollars</Dr Evil>

Re:Use the force, George

[maxpublic]

if that's the case, why are people still interested in III?

Natalie Portman. 'nuff said.

Max

Re:Use the force, George

[Rogerborg]

It's got nothing to do with whether people watch them or not. It's whether he can still keep raking in merchandising money. They'll see the films, sure, but they'll only buy the branded crap if they liked them.

Re:Use the force, George

[Blondie-Wan]

Gahh, stupid brackets... sorry; I forgot what site I was on for a moment... ;)

Re:Use the force, George

[YomikoReadman]

Do you really think that people will stop buying Pepsi just because they don't like Star Wars?

Re:Use the force, George

[Rogerborg]

Do you really think that Pepsi would have paid two billion dollars to put Jar-Jar on their products if they agreed with you?

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Pepsi and a lot of other people took it up the ass on Phantom Menace -- there was hardly any merchandizing for Ep2.

Re:Use the force, George

[YomikoReadman]

Obviously they do, because they did pay for the rights to associate Star Wars w/ Pepsi products, and People continued to by pepsi products. Lucas continues to rake in cash from all his licensing deals, and will continue to have cash flow from that. Lets not forget the fact that he still has the original trilogy in his back pocket, waiting to do a DVD release for that. He won't run out of money any time soon, and in the meanwhile he'll continue to shoot himself in the foot with bad Star Wars movies, and whether we like it or not, enough people will go see them to pay for the film, and will buy the associated merchandise to keep it going for another bad movie.

Re:Use the force, George

[W32.Klez.A]

Did you know that at almost all American movie theatres, they make nearly all their money from the concession stand? The actual profit margin per ticket is literally pocket change; pennies.

Think about that for a second. All of our movies and music are just big flashing screens to entice us to go places and buy shit to make us feel different, and we happen to eat a bunch of junk food in the process.

Re:Use the force, George

[Acidic_Diarrhea]

I think that continuity gap that exists between Episode III and Episode IV is also a problem, in addition to Anakin's turn to the dark side. [A character's change to the dark side is enough for three movies, by the way, but with the way Lucas has established motivation and reason behind that movement, there's no point in making it 3. Anakin turns to the dark side but the viewer really doesn't care much about that turn because Anakin was never established as a likeable character.]

In Episode III, Luke and Leia are presumably born. If past precedence dictates anything, at the end of Episode III, Luke and Leia would be, at most, 6 months to 2 years old. [No more time than that is expended in any single Star Wars movie.] So you've got Luke at 2 years in III and then Luke at 18 or so in IV. All that time when Darth Vadar was kicking ass and making his name one to be feared won't see filming, ever. It seems like a big gap to me.

And why does copyright last so long these days? When the copyright laws were originally established, it was to protect artists and allow them to have adequate time to profit from their work. With primitive means of transportation and publication, it is understandable that it may take many years for an artist to fully get their work 'out there.' But these days, artists can make their money quite quickly. Copyright on Star Wars should have expired ten years after the first film was released. And just note that this doesn't mean Lucas couldn't have made I, II, or III - it just means his I would have had to compete on level ground with another version of I; a version that would have been superior, I am sure.

Re:Use the force, George

[meta-monkey]

I worked concession at a movie theatre one summer.

Yes, the concession stand is where the theatre makes its money. The ticket sales all go to the film company. Lucas doesn't care whether people are eating popcorn or candy. A butt in a seat is money in his pocket.

Re:Use the force, George

[Rogerborg]

Correct, but that's not the question that I asked.

Re:Use the force, George

[Lanboy]

But pepsi shelled out before ep. 4 was released. The movies were expected to gross half a billion each domestic each... and they didn't. The returns have been going south for a while. It isn't that we didn't go and see them, its that we didn't go and see them 12 times. Or buy the videos and DVDs.

And I think that somewhere there is a bit of pride in the man that wants to make something really good.

Re:Use the force, George

[kalidasa]

Which part of it was not bad? Stealing the Mutara Nebula fight from STII? Stealing the death of the logical character from STII? Transferring the memories of the logical character to another character who ends up surviving, just like ... STII?

Re:Use the force, George

[TwistedGreen]

I doubt the third will offer too many saving graces at the late stage.

But, of course, we'll all go and see it anyways.

I know I will. :)

Re:Use the force, George

[Anonymous Coward]

Boy, you haven't watched Star Trek in a long time, if you think it's a magical label that should only be applied to quality TV shows and movies.

90% of Star Trek is utter and complete bollocks.

Re:Use the force, George

[proj_2501]

i thought NGE ran out of funding, so they never filmed a proper ending until the movies.

Re:Use the force, George

[proj_2501]

he doesn't own 20th century fox, though, and they can decide that it's not worth their cash to distribute his movies anymore.

Re:Use the force, George

[YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT]

so they never filmed a proper ending until the movies.

Arguably, the they never filmed a proper ending during or after the movies either.

eeeeeh,
YLFI.

Re:Use the force, George

[the_2nd_coming]

since Voyager started...YES, Voyager and Enterprise are crappy....though enterprise does remind me of Babalon 5.

Re:Use the force, George

[16K Ram Pack]

Thing is, he could be really damaging the DVD releases.

Sure, a lot of people of a certain age (like me) will be in line waiting to buy these films, but for those people who didn't see them first time around, EP1 and 2 will have really soured the Star Wars brand.

Enough people will see the film, but I expect audiences from young fans will be a bit non-existent. They don't have the same mania about these films as older folk. LOTR and Harry Potter are more the films the kids care about.

Personally, I love the original trilogy, was disappointed by EP1 and gave Lucas another chance with EP2 (which was one of the worst films I have ever paid to see). I still want to see EP3, more because I'm curious about the Anakin storyline. However, I'll wait until it's out on DVD and borrow it off someone.

Re:Use the force, George

[16K Ram Pack]

I love the original trilogy, I ain't paying to see any more Star Wars movies until I start seeing good reviews. I will watch them though, probably borrow a mate's DVD of it when it gets released.

In fact, if the feedback I get from EP3 reviews is "worse than EP2", I won't waste my time on it.

These hardly feel like Star Wars films to me. I know I was young when I first saw them, but these prequels are just flabby garbage riddled with ludicrous plot holes and no sparkle. I can't imagine any kid feeling anything about them beyond 10 minutes after they leave the cinema.

Re:Use the force, George

[limekiller4]

proj_2501 writes:
"he doesn't own 20th century fox, though, and they can decide that it's not worth their cash to distribute his movies anymore.

(a) Even if this happens, he hasn't "lost the franchise" as the original poster wrote and;
(b) Right, Lucas couldn't find someone else to distribute Star Wars.

Re:Use the force, George

[YomikoReadman]

First off, I sincerely doubt that they paid 2 Bil. Maybe 4-5 hundred million, but I doubt even that much went into that campaign. As far as a bunch of folks taking in the ass, like the AC said, I doubt that either. It is Star Wars, and they wouldn't have put any money into it if it wouldn't have broken even. Lucas is doing well enough with the video games to not have to worry about much.

As for whether or not Pepsi would pay for Jar-Jar isn't the issue. It's whether or not they will pay for Star Wars, which they did for Ep1, and they did for Ep2, and I'll bet that they'll be back for Ep3 too.

hate it.

[OwlofCreamCheese]

we all hate it. no matter WHAT happens we will all hate it, no matter how great it is, or how bad it is we will say how awful it is. we don't even need to see the movie, we all have our opinions already. although it will probobly be right in the end after all.

Re:hate it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Our minds may be already made up. But not out of ignorance or stupidity:

1. almost everything about ep1&2 sucked. Most of it directly because of lucas.
2. Lucas' personality does not allow him to see that he's a complete asshat and should hand over the project to someone else.

Maybe if he realized that people thought ep1&2 were ass and changed things completely for 3 there would be a shot.
But. This is lucas we're talking about.

Re: hate it.

[Black Parrot]

> no matter how great it is

Small risk...

Re:hate it.

[ClosedSource]

The problem is that Lucas wrote himself into a corner by deciding to make Luke's father Darth Vader (it's painfully obvious that this decision was made after episode 4 was filmed). This created a lot of inconsistencies that Episodes 1 and 2 only made worse. I don't see how episode 3 can possibly duct-tape the plot back together (unless dreaming or time-travel is involved).It also means that the finale of the current trilogy has to end on a downer. Who wants to see that?

Re:hate it.

[stienman]

It doesn't have to be a downer. Remember, it ends with the death of most of the Jedi -- So we've got a real big "End of the Good," then we discover that there are yet two born who can reclaim the Jedi.

I'm not sure how he's going to put this together, but to most humans, and especially to the crowd which grew up with the original series, having kids is going to be a big "upper." Just right to end the story on, and pick up later in the later movies.

-Adam

Re:hate it.

[ClosedSource]

If we actually "discovered" there were two children for the first time in Episode 3, that would be one thing, but we already know it, so there's little dramatic payoff there.

Lucas chose to make the films out of order, so he has to make them work dramatically in the order they are actually seen.

what?

[arcadia]

You can't spoil it, we already now the ending, eps 4-5-6. Can you really spoil a middle?

Re:what?

[double-oh three]

Technically, Eps 4, 5, and 6 ARE the middle. 1-3 is the beginning, and 7-9 is the ending. Though I have to wonder the logic of shooting the ending eps. Considering all the books that have been written, wouldn't the movies trample on the book's storylines?

Re:what?

[edwdig]

Everyone knows what happens in Episode 3, but what we don't know is how it happens.

How does Anakin become Vader?
Where does the name Darth Vader come from?
How come he doesn't know about that Padme has twins?
How does Palpatine gain total control?
How do all the Jedi die?
What Jedi survive other than Yoda and Obiwan?
Will there be an answer to why Obiwan and Yoda fade away when they die, but the Jedi we've seen die in Episodes 1 & 2 don't?

The biggest question I have is in Episode 3, will we see Anakin become Darth Vader, or will we see Anakin "die" and then Darth Vader first appear soon after?

Re:what?

[double-oh three]

Actually, a few of these questions have been answered in the books.

Anakin really becomes Vader-Vader after falling in a Lava pit while fighting a worm not unlike the sandworms of Arrakis. He survives, but needs the black suit to survive.

Padme goes into hiding after seeing that Anakin goes over to the dark side. She never tells him that she had kids.

Palpatine has a military coup, the final bit of which is seen in eps 4 with the dissolving of the senate.

The Jedi are hunted down by bounty hunters like Fett, along with Darth Vader and some other force-users that the books allude to.

A few Jedi survive in out of the way places, some of them turn up in the books. (One teaches Kip Durron a bit in the mines of Kessel, another guards a cache of lightsabers on an old library planet that's name eludes me.)

The longer it's been since the Jedi has died, the harder it is to come back. Even Obiwan stops appearing to Luke after a decade or two.

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

We don't know how it happens nor do we care. So shut up.

Re:what?

[bubkus_jones]

7,8 and 9 aren't guaranteed to be made.

As it is right now, ROTJ is the ending as far as the movies are concerned. Whether that changes in the future, I don't know.

What else can be told? Are they going to start a new storyline? 1-6 tell about the life and death of Anakin and everything he does.

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

The longer it's been since the Jedi has died, the harder it is to come back. Even Obiwan stops appearing to Luke after a decade or two.

I think he was referring to the dissapearing vs. having a body that needs to be burned after death.

Re:what?

[bucky0]

My biggest questiong is how Lucas expects to pack all of that into a two hour movie without making losing tons of detail. I think we're gonna have another matrix3 on our hands where there was far too much that had to be shoved into the movie, so the good stuff off every part was taken out, leaving distilled suckness.

Re:what?

[Excen]

The biggest question of all is how wild and kinky the baby making scene(s) is.

Bring on the hot grits!

/obvious

Re:what?

[Bloomy]

The trouble with the books (or anything not actually in the movies) is that they aren't canon, and contradictions are starting to show between the Expanded Universe and the films.

It's been a few years, so I can't remember which book or the details, but Luke was trying to track down information about his mother. He found that she was also Force sensitive, but followed different teachings than the Jedi (though not Sith). We haven't seen anything hinting that Padme has Force powers.

Who designed and built the first Death Star? When we see the plans in Episode II, by "we" the Geonosian leader could have meant that the Geonosians are designing it, or the Separatists as a whole. Some Episode III spoilers hint at further developments in the Death Star's construction. The books point to an Imperial thinktank set up by Tarkin (who we haven't seen in the prequels yet) in the middle of a black hole cluster. And in a flashback in one of the books (Darksaber?), the Emperor kills the Death Star's designer because there was an exploitable weakness (the exhaust port). But he had a clone of the designer made, because a brilliant mind like that shouldn't go completely to waste.

I think Lucas said that the authors can do almost anything they want in the Expanded Universe, but he is the only one that sets the canon, and the movies could end up contradicting the books. That, and no one could write any kind of backstory for Yoda and possibly Kenobi.

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Having seen and liked Episodes 4 & 5, and seen and not really liked Episode 6, and then having seen and actively detested Episode 1 (enough to avoid Episode 2), I couldn't really give a fuck.

Re:what?

[Wumpus]

How does Anakin become Vader?

I'm glad you asked. It was a horrible garbage disposer accident. Remember to always turn off the garbage disposer when reaching in to retrieve your light saber, kids!

Where does the name Darth Vader come from?

From the Akkadian root for "wooden performance".

How come he doesn't know about that Padme has twins?

For the same reason that Homer Simpson failed his fatherhood quiz.

How does Palpatine gain total control?

That one's easy.

How do all the Jedi die?

They hold their breath for a very long time and go to doggy heaven.

What Jedi survive other than Yoda and Obiwan?

The ones who don't hold their breath when Palpatine asks them.

Will there be an answer to why Obiwan and Yoda fade away when they die, but the Jedi we've seen die in Episodes 1 & 2 don't?

No, but they'll finally explain why Klingons had ridged forheads, then lost them, then got them back. I bet you can't wait to find out!

Re:what?

[azuretek]

I think we're gonna have another matrix3 on our hands where there was far too much that had to be shoved into the movie, so the good stuff off every part was taken out, leaving distilled suckness.

actually I think the reason matrix 2-3 sucked was because there wasn't enough content so they distilled it to create 3 movies intstead of just 2 and I think that's what caused me heartache.. it could have been really good as two movies instead of good then horrible as 3

hopefully with this movie we get to see stuff that matters, this one has potential to be pretty good since we get to see alot of the things that kept us wondering in the previous 4-6, no one really cared to hear about jarjar binks but they did like the info about the Jedi in 1-2.

In number 2 I think a big problem was, when the Jedi were fighting and dying we didn't really care because they lacked any emotional attachment we didn't even know who they were so it was hard to make their loss seem important to the progression of the story... anyway enough of my rambling, it looks like there are more fights in this one so I hope it's better :D

Re:what?

[bucky0]

That's kinda weird, I thought that if the matrix was to be done properly, they needed more than 3 movies. They should've done a lot of explaining on what happens to neo, how everyone is released, more explanation of 'the source', more development of the merovingian character and whatnot.

Re:what?

[mog007]

A few of those were answered in the first (or second if you look at continuity) trilogy, and even in Ep. 2.

How does Palpatine gain total control?

Palpatine was given control in Episode 2, to create an army large enough to fight Dukoo(sp?).

In the original trilogy Obi-Wan said that the twins were separated from birth, without their father's knowledge. It can be inferred that Anakin is busy fighting droids and Sith, the very reason why Jedi arn't supposed to get attached anyway, so he probably got Amidala knocked up, then was sent off to war, and didn't see her again for another ten months or so, and by the time he came back, she could be dead, or he could come back as Vader and Amidala might sense the evil, and not tell him about the children.

As for the Jedi being exterminated, it's not too hard to figure that one out either. Vader probably goes around and just slays all of them, or maybe has a nice lightsaber battle, then kills them. After all, he IS the "chosen one", so you must "see that".

Re:what?

[mog007]

The books arn't exactly viable sources for the films. According to the books the Empire is solely responsible for the creation of the Death Star, not some trigger happy, got his ass kicked by Yoda, Sith wanna-be. The books, while entertaining, have no impact on the films at all, unless the book is written by Lucas (such as the original Star Wars).

Re:what?

[NanoGator]

"You can't spoil it, we already now the ending, eps 4-5-6. Can you really spoil a middle?"

If the writers and director are talented, then yes. There's plenty of room to make an interesting and surprising movie there. I don't see that as being terribly likely here, sadly.

Re:what?

[NanoGator]

"The biggest question of all is how wild and kinky the baby making scene(s) is.

Bring on the hot grits!"

Sadly, they'll be hot grits floating in front of poorly pantomiming actors.

Re:what?

[NanoGator]

"How does Anakin become Vader?"

Annie had an unfortunate encounter with a pit of lava after a Jedi-mind trick prank went awry. You wouldn't believe the japes they play at the Jedi Academy.

"Where does the name Darth Vader come from?"

It originated from the word 'dearth', an affectionate title that was born one day after exiting a cold swimming pool.

"How come he doesn't know about that Padme has twins?"

Women habitually gain weight shortly after getting married.

"How does Palpatine gain total control?"

He funded a company that dominated the market with computer operating systems.

"How do all the Jedi die?"

Accounts vary, but many believe that it has to do with being a little too strict on the celibacy rule.

"What Jedi survive other than Yoda and Obiwan?"

Well if a bunch of bounty hunters are hunting down Jedi, are you going to put it on your business card?

"Will there be an answer to why Obiwan and Yoda fade away when they die, but the Jedi we've seen die in Episodes 1 & 2 don't?"

Well, you see, there are two sides to every Schwartz...

Re:what?

[Chicane-UK]

Not trying to be stupid here, but isn't Darth Vader just dutch (or something similar) for Dark Father?

Bit of an obvious name if you know the language I suppose! :)

Re:what?

[stickb0y]

Actually, I'm thinking (and hoping, but probably in vain) that maybe we don't know what we think we know.

For example, everyone is expecting Anakin to become Vader. What if he's not? Perhaps Vader is a clone of Anakin. This could explain a few things:

• The stupid midochlorian plot element of Episode I. It could have been written in as a (lame) way to get a blood sample from Anakin sent off to Coruscant.
• How Vader was unaware that he had children. Perhaps they weren't his but instead were the original Anakin's.
• Obi-Wan's lies and half-truths from different points of views. Maybe Vader really did kill Luke's father.

Or it could be the other way around, and a clone of Anakin sires Luke and Leia.

I doubt that any of this is the case. I bet Episode III is going to be a boring piece of trash with nothing substantial to add. I can dream, though...

Re:what?

[colmore]

i think lucas has pretty well said that the books aren't influencing his writing of these movies at all.

shame, really.

Re:what?

[colmore]

two of those can be answered

the name Darth Vader is slurred German for "Dark Father" how it will come up in the movie, I don't know.

as for Palpatine gaining control? Seems the second movie made it clear: he's manufactured a war to subvert the authority of the senate. It's pretty well modeled on Roman history (Julius first, and then Augustus for keeps) and is somewhat scary when you think about current US politics.

Re:what?

[Machine9]

Vader (pronounced Vah, not Vey) is dutch for father yes. Darth doesn't mean anything beyond the meaning attributed to it in the movie, I assume it's a Sith honorific.

Re:what?

[grandmofftarkin]

I built the Death Star!

Re:what?

[Keitero-sama]

Here are my answers for those, note, these are only my opinions. So none of you guys get all high and mighty. (Like me >_) How does Anakin become Vader? - He needed a cool nick for slashdot. Where does the name Darth Vader come from? - Cause it sounded cool when posting on slashdot. How come he doesn't know about that Padme has twins? - Spent too much time posting on slashdot. How does Palpatine gain total control? - Vader's home site got slashdoted and his cable connection crapped out. How do all the Jedi die? - *DarthVader Quit (Read error: Ping Timeout) What Jedi survive other than Yoda and Obiwan? - The Jedi that plays WAS going to be in ep 4 but canceled to play some CS. Will there be an answer to why Obiwan and Yoda fade away when they die, but the Jedi we've seen die in Episodes 1 & 2 don't? - Cause, they are special and SOMEONE didn't forget to hit the summit button.

Re:what?

[Richard Allen]

Answering those questions won't make it any more fun for me.

One of the things I didn't like about I & II, aside from Jar Jar and the overall poor writing, is that I felt as if most of the movie was written for the sole purpose of explaining things in IV, V and VI. It was like every few minutes you find yourself saying "Oh, that's how the force works ...", "Oh, that's how Yoda fights ..." etc.. (not to bust on Yoda)

We didn't have every answer in the trilogy and they were great movies. (well, IV and V anyway)

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Most of that information was in the novelization of "Star Wars" written by George Lucas!

Re:what?

[MarsCtrl]

With apologies to The Brunching Shuttlecocks: Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Foreshadowing

Can't get enough foreshadowing? Feel cheated because there wasn't a scene in Attack of the Clones where someone says "You're a pretty good Moff, Tarkin, but you're not quite a grand Moff"? Well, you're going to be ass-clenchingly happy with Episode III, because our sources inform us that there's going to be plenty more of the awkward, forced foreshadowing that filled the first two prequels! Check out this preview:

"Golly, no one will ever make the Kessel Run in less than 12 parsecs!"

"If I ever have a son, I'd like him to have my lightsaber when he's old enough. But not to use against me!"

"In local news, Mos Eisley has moved up to second-most wretched hive of scum and villany."

"Okay, me and the rest of the Bothans will be back soon with the information! Don't worry, we won't die!"

"Call me Ben. Obi-Wan is a name I hope not to hear again in a long time. A long time."

"These new 'Scout Walkers' can handle anything you throw at them. Except wood of course."

"Your voice is kind of whiny and reedy for a Sith Lord, Anakin. Can't you get a voice coach or something?"

"Jedi Master Windu's bravery and wisdom will be remembered for, oh, 27 years, tops."

"Aren't the Skywalker twins cute? And such sexual tension between them!"

"Let's remove R2's jet rockets and put in some sort of teddy bear zapping device instead."

"Well, that's it. There's no hope."

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

the name Darth Vader is slurred German for "Dark Father"

Slurred German? Try "Dutch", mister.

Re:what?

[Prowl]

I thought Lucas went to school with someone called Vader at school (IIRC), and got the inspiration from there. I'm sure there are the yearbooks online with their pictures, but I can't seem to find them at the moment.

Can't see that being mentioned in Episode III though...

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Hi, your sense of humor just called. It wants to come back.

Re:what?

[babbage]

> YELL AT REBELS
You begin to get a sore throat.
The torpedo slams into the side of your battle station.

Your battle station collapses in a cloud of dust, and a stray flying brick hits you squarely on the back of the head. You try to think of some suitable last words, but what with the confusion of the moment and the spinning of your head, you are unable to compose anything pithy and expire in silence.

> YELL "MY DEATH STAR! NOOOO!"
You keep out of this, you're dead. An ambulance arrives.

> YELL AT THAT DAMNED BASTARD VADER
You keep out of this, you're dead and should be concentrating on developing a good firm rigor mortis. You are put in the ambulance, which drives away.

> KILL EMPEROR
For a dead person you are talking too much. As the ambulance reaches the mortuary a fleet of Vogon Constructor ships unexpectedly arrives and demolishes the Galaxy to make way for a new hyperspace bypass.

We are about to give you your score. Put on your peril-sensitive sunglasses now. (Hit RETURN or ENTER when ready.) >

Your score is 10 of a possible 400, in 15 turns.

Would you like to start over, restore a saved position, or end this session of the game?

(Type RESTART, RESTORE, or QUIT): >

Re:what?

[senor_burt]

I dunno. They did seem to allude to this a bit in Ep. 2 - I think they had Liam Neeson say "Anakin, no!" when he went nuts over those Tusken raiders.

Or was I the only one who heard that?

Maybe the implication was that a jedi needed time to prepare to fade away. Kenobi took some prep-time in Ep 4, and Yoda had all the time he needed. Most of the jedi we saw die in Ep. 2 were taken by surprise. (Though they shouldn't have been - they really did charge into a terrible tactical situation).

Re:what?

[kalidasa]

Any posting that can make allusions to Star Trek, Star Wars, and a major East Semitic language written only in cuneiform has to be rated +5 Funny. Nice job.

Re:what?

[kalidasa]

Well, the Roman history thing is a lot more complicated than that. Remember that Julius is coming after a long, long period of Civil War, and the Roman war he fought was a war of conquest, while his main rival was fighting off pirates and the like. SW is also partly modeled after Nazi Germany (the Kanzler becoming a dictator and all).

Re:what?

[colmore]

Slurred German? Try "Dutch", mister.

... the difference is?

*ducks* *runs*

Re:what?

[azuretek]

yea but also they could have taken out alot of the crap and developed the things that were important

I think it had enough content to make less than 1 movie, but if they had added in the things you mentioned it would have equaled 1 good movie

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

I prefer their take on Luke and the force. Very eye opening!

Re:what?

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, a few of these questions have been answered in the books.

Yep, but even though Lucas authorised the books, and gave the authors plenty of information to help keep things consistent, and implicitly authorised everything in them, he's apparently decided to say "Fuck you, you're just licensees, I'm going to make up some different shit. Continuity is not my problem, I'm a visionary".

Re:what?

[ultranova]

Hmm... Open source plot development :).

heh

[ruprechtjones]

Some enterprising souls have already jammed this thing into After Effects and applied their own lightsabre effects and lava-planet backgrounds. Pretty cool. There are some great discussions of this over at www.theforce.net.

Spoiler Alert!

[ackthpt]

Anakin Skywalker becomes 'Darth Vader'!!!

You heard it here first! (c=

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

Jesus, this post is the reason for the "overrated" moderation.

ATTENTION MODERATORS: "Anakin becomes Vader spoilers!" are on the same par as "Dur, there's already books about LOTR so there's no spoilers, dur!!!" It's NOT FUNNY.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[geekoid]

see thats the surprise, Anakin is killed, and to avenge his friend Jar-Jar become Darth Vadar!

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[wanion]

> (c=

What's this? A poor replica of the old Commodore logo?

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

It would appear to be a smiley with a nose ring. Some sort of teenage rebelious smiley? I'm not really sure why it was necessary in his post.

Or perhaps the ring is in its nose to signify that the poster is some sort of slave to Slashdot and it's bad joke traditions. Like a ring in a bull's nose to get control over it (or whatever)--that sort of thing.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[inertia187]

Here's a spoiler: Chewbaka delivers Luke and Leia.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoiler: Queen Amidala dies by drowning in hot grits. While petrified.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Fulkkari]

That is suposed to be a joke, but in reality I know many people who hasn't understood that Anakin is the same person as Darth Vader, even though I keep explaining it over and over again.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Omega996]

hmmm, looks like eyes, a grin, and a chin underneath it all to me...

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

You can't convince them. they idiots have overrun the moderator system here and if you try to reverse moderate you lose mod status (like me). Only the idiots get a voice here. Yeah sure this is as funny as 5 ppl putting +1 informative on "microsoft sucks" postings.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[prockcore]

Anakin Skywalker becomes 'Darth Vader'!!!

Knowing the way George Lucas likes to rewrite history, Anakin Skywalker will probably become a Walkie-Talkie that shoots first.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Dr. Cody]

Anakin Skywalker becomes 'Darth Vader'!!!
You heard it here first! (c=

Okay, I kind of missed out on the PR before Episode I, but how did we find out that Darth Vader is Anakin? Was it in a book? Was it written in 50ft letters of fire in the sky over Skywalker Ranch?

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

> see thats the surprise, Anakin is killed, and to avenge his friend Jar-Jar become Darth Vadar!

Jar-Jar is Lukes father? Who would've though?

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[raodin]

Pretty sure it was the flaming sky letters. :)

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[I Be Hatin']

see thats the surprise, Anakin is killed, and to avenge his friend Jar-Jar become Darth Vadar!

Hah... that would be awesome... and I suppose Jar-Jar will knock up Amidala? Man, if Lucas wants to send a nice "fuck you" to all the geeks out there who are bad-mouthing him, he should include a love scene between Jar-Jar and Natalie.

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[ackthpt]

Okay, I kind of missed out on the PR before Episode I, but how did we find out that Darth Vader is Anakin? Was it in a book? Was it written in 50ft letters of fire in the sky over Skywalker Ranch?

You pretty much had to piece it together. Star Wars is a serial(shhhh!!)

From Ep IV: There's a lot of evasive talk about luke's father, Obi Wan says Darth Vader killed his father.

From Ep V: "Luke, I am your father"

From Ep VI: It're pretty much revealed.

Somewhere in V or VI there's some weasel talk by Obi Wan that when the dark side took over Anakin and made him Darth Vader metaphorically killed Anakin Skywalker.

Not man people actually follow the plot or very deeply. The shock probably to some of todays yoots is how cheesey the first movie looked (which is probably why Lucas is dragging his feet on those DVD's, he wants to further clean up the early movies, never quite satisfied, you see...)

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[Schnapple]

you laugh, but you should have seen my Mother-In-Law's reaction when we told her that in the car on the way back from Episode I...

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[ultranova]

So stop explaining and let them enjoy the surprise.

Why shouldn't stupid people get to enjoy the advantages of being stupid ?-)

Re:Spoiler Alert!

[DCheesi]

Yousa don't be knowin da power of da Darkside! *LOL*

Not much spoilage

[elvesRgay]

If it gets slashdotted and you are really wondering if you have missed something don't worry about it.
Somebody put a small video camera in front of a TV showing some video of the film development from about 4-8 feet away. I wonder if they where worried someone would come in and catch them doing it.
There definitely doesn't seem to be any spoilage. Everything that could be given away in this (very poor quality) video clip is given away buy the description of this story!

Re:Not much spoilage

[Kargan]

Don't be too proud of this technological terror you've constructed. The ability to Slashdot a web server is insignificant compared to the power of the Force.

Re:Not much spoilage

[Anonymous Coward]

"buy the description of this story!" Hell, I wouldn't even buy the script!

Re:Not much spoilage

[Anonymous Coward]

This sounds like the webcam they set up to allow registered memebers of the Official Star Wars website to watch the production of EpIII as it happened.

Re:Not much spoilage

[Anonymous Coward]

s/Force/Source/

Re:Not much spoilage

[elvesRgay]

Either I should read my own posts before I submit them or it was a freudian slip.

The sad thing...

[bagel2ooo]

is that even with the discussion of choppy video and people prancing around a green screen it still sounds like better plot than the other 2 prequel movies I've seen. :)

Re:The sad thing...

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't worry. George is talented enough, he'll make sure that by the time he's done it'll be good and screwed up.

Characters

[Anonymous Coward]

"The set, George Lucas, Chewbacca, Hayden Christensen, Ewan McGregor..." blah blah BLAH
The important question is... how much Natalie Portman does it show?

Re:Characters

[Patik]

The important question is... how much Natalie Portman does it show?

Absolutely none.

Oh, but Jimmy Smits makes a brief appearance.

Re:Characters

[Anonymous Coward]

gee thats great.
One thing that I appreciated about the first
star wars was the use of obscure british
actors all over the place A)gave it a feeling of
depth and B)I wasn't going "Hey I know that guy
from LA LAW" or "Hmm I liked that guy alot better in
Unbreakable" or "Gee I wish George Lucas would get
hit by a truck or something".

Re:Characters

[NFNNMIDATA]

She's in there quickly a few times, just as horribly cute as ever. Worse than any ewok, that one.

Re:Characters

[misspelled]

No, the important question is... how much OF Natalie Portman does it show?

Re:Characters

[Call Me Black Cloud]

I'm sure no matter how much it shows, it's not as much as this

Re:Characters

[the pickle]

how much Natalie Portman does it show?

And how big is the bowl of hot grits that Hayden Christensen jumps into when he gets injured and thus has to wear the black suit?

p

BAM

[Anonymous Coward]

Already Slashdotted!!!

Val Da Car....

My Star Wars Name..

Hurray for bootlegging:-)

[jbrader]

Haha 5 minutes after its posted and /.ed already. Must be a leaked Star Wars clip

The only spoiler I want to know...

[Dukeofshadows]

...is how Jar-Jar dies.

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[Joe the Lesser]

You mean 'Darth Jar'?

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[kurosawdust]

maybe Lucas can get that fat gradeschooler to do him in with the curtain rod?

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[GoRK]

Don't you mean Darth Darth Binks?

All Yousa Peoples Gonna Die!!!

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Me-sa Sith Lord now!

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[Anonymous Coward]

Its only spoiled if he survives

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[kamog]

Wouldn't this be Darth Darth Binks?

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[kamog]

Sorry - should have checked before posting.

On a somewhat related subject, David Brin publicly offered help to Lucas to save Episode Three (in Salon Magazine)- goes without saying, Lucas did not take the offer...

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[Darth23]

When will this 4 year old obsession with Jar Jar dying end? Lucas already said he's not going to die on screen. If anything he won't kill him off to piss off the faux fans out there who whine and bitch about everything.

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[Anonymous Coward]

David Brin should have offered help to Kevin Costner to save The Postman. Brin's book was excellent, but the movie version was some of the worst dreck I've seen on screen.

Re:The only spoiler I want to know...

[grubi]

Aw, you ruined the movie for me. :-(

Down already

[Anonymous Coward]

If only the actually movie could get Slashdotted too.

Why would you wanna see this?

[jasonfncsu]

Who would WANNA see leaked crappy footage? I wanna wait until the final release and see it on the big screen. Boo all you people who leaked it. I'm just glad this is Lucas and not Valve Software. "We're gonna delay release until 2134 because of the 2 minutes leaked"

Oh Lord.

[Inquisitor13]

I havent even bothered to look and it bores me.

Is it just me...

[goMac2500]

...or does it look like there is a dual with the Blue Man Group?

Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[ObviousGuy]

He let us down with ROTK.

All was forgiven and he let us down with TPM.

All was forgiven and he let us down with AOTC.

He's got one shot left (four if rumors are to be believed), but I don't see why this is so. Any other director would have been laughed out on his ass for ruining a film series as epic as Star Wars, yet Lucas fucks it up again and again.

I'm saving my money this time.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[r_glen]

"He let us down with ROTK"

Yeah, I was kinda hoping to see Jar Jar in place of Gollum too.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[jpr1nd]

He let us down with ROTK

um... he did?

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[nacturation]

He let us down with ROTK.

So that was Yoda saying "my precious..." all the time? Yeah, it's a lousy rending of Yoda there -- I can see how you'd be disappointed.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Wil63]

I'm just guessing, but it's probably because he owns the script rights - or something similar.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[geekoid]

ROTK?

You may hate the movies, but they make money.

Plus Lucas owns them, and backs them himself, so he can keep making movies as long as he can bank roll them.

Any film that makes money is a good business venture. Hollywood is there to make money, not please you.

I was displeased with TPM.
I was more pleased with AOTC. If the Jedi had not been so angry when they fight, and if yoda was calm and collective, and not a freaking superball, it would have been a pretty good credit to the series. Clearly Lucas listened.

Now, the 2 bits I din't like could be OK if they turn out to be part of the plot(why is the force weakening?), which I suspect.
I have more hope for this movie then the last two.

always remeber, Lucas could do it in sock puppets, and still make 100Million.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[jbrader]

Well in the universe the rest of us live in Lucas had nothing to do with ROTK

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[mroch]

Anyone consider that J and K are right next to each other on (most people's) keyboards? Cut the guy some slack....

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[meta-monkey]

Bull. You say that, but you know you're going to see it, eventually. Even if you're not in line on day one, you'll let your friends drag you to it a week or two later, or you'll rent it or something. I don't believe anybody who says "I'm not going to see it!"

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Anonymous Coward]

So he meant to say Return of the Jarjar? ROTJ? WTF is that?

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Anonymous Coward]

He keeps on targeting the damn 5 year olds.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Anonymous Coward]

Is this your first time here? All posts must be perfect in every way. Errors will not be tolerated.

I would suggest brushing up on your grammar and spelling if you can't handle criticism.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Neop2Lemus]

Thanks goodness you said that. I was getting seriously confused; and I couldn't figure out what ROTK now stood for.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[BoneFlower]

I think the Jedi showing anger was likely a show of the rise of the Dark Side and its subtle influences, and along with the calm, contemplative Yoda thowing down and fighting on the front lines, showing just how desperate things are becoming.

When Yoda is commanding troops in battle, making split second decisions, and drawing his saber, you know that things are coming quickly to a head.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[east coast]

"always remeber, Lucas could do it in sock puppets, and still make 100Million."

Perhaps but I'm hoping that the age of such pop culture dogma is quickly comming to an end. I'm fairly sure that Hollywood will be banking the the assumption of a healthy return from Episode III. Now, if Lucas pulls a Matrix III move (no offense to the swarms of Matrix fans that are sure to shout me down) he deserves nothing less than to lose everything. The same twists and turns that Hollywood gives us with nearly every film is really an insult to the consumer (in the case of the Matrix: Another Christ analogy? Give me a break. I thought that crap played out a couple of decades ago).

If this one does turn out to be a really weak attempt at reclaiming former glory hopefully the movie going public with counter it with a refusal to pay 8.50+ for fluff. If Lucas can start to deliver something not market researched and watered down by popular trends maybe there will be a chance at redemption. Don't hold your breath tho. Hollywood just isn't that motivated yet.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Anonymous Coward]

Return of the Jedi.

Christ, are you ever fucking stupid. Why hasn't someone killed you yet?

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[cubicledrone]

Hollywood is there to make money, not please you.

This sentence has probably the highest irony to words ratio ever.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[LordLucless]

One other little niggle from AOTC; it would have added much to the romantic thread of the story if Anakin had not looked like he was afraid of getting girl germs every time he went near his beloved.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[danidude]

Any other director would have been laughed out on his ass for ruining a film series as epic as Star Wars

Do you know why they don't laugh at Lucas? Because he created a film series as epic as Star Wars!!

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[SkankhodBeeblebrox]

Didn't Peter Jackson direct Return of the King? heh heh

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Gobiner]

Lucas could do it in sock puppets, and still make 100Million.

I'm sure plenty of people would think the sock puppet version was superior.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Saba]

This sentence has probably the highest irony to words ratio ever.

He's right, however.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[identity0]

Yeah, I was kinda hoping to see Jar Jar in place of Gollum too.

Oh god, bad mental image... "Meeesa wants da pwecioussss... It callsss to ussss..."

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[PCM2]

When Yoda is commanding troops in battle, making split second decisions, and drawing his saber, you know that things are coming quickly to a head.

Well if that's all it took to make you feel like "things are coming to a head" after watching the rest of that dull-ass movie, I'm wondering why Lucas didn't just put "things are quickly coming to a head" in the opening scroll. He could have cut a half hour of production.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[JabberWokky]

Bull. You say that, but you know you're going to see it, eventually.

I haven't seen Ep. II. And I am a hardcore SF geek, catching just about every SF and Fantasy movie as it is released. We did a expanded edition marathon of LotR before we went and saw Return on opening night. I stood in line for three days with a friend and bought 24 tickets for Phantom Menace. We were on the national NBC feed... he was singing "Luke be a Jedi tonight", I was next to him with the digeredoo (sp?).

But I haven't seen Episode II. And unless I hear good things about Episode III, I won't see that either (although if Ep. III gets rave reviews, I'll likely watch II and then see III in the theater).

Lucas lost me. When Rohan rode into battle to answer Gondor's call during RotK, I turned to my SO and said "Suck it Lucas, suck it long, suck it hard". That moment had thrill, which Lucas (at least in Phantom Menace) had utterly lost. Pretty much sums it up. I don't think any movie that Lucas has had full control over turned out well. He's a good producer, and has been a fairly capable director, especially when it comes to visuals. He really broke ground with the original trilogy, assembling an excellent team. As a writer, he sucks. And his ego won't let him see that.

I'm not adverse to seeing it... I just don't care enough to go. And I went to see Paycheck at the Metreon because it was SF... my standards are pretty low when it comes to giving a flick a chance.

--
Evan

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Maserati]

Lose just the frolicking scene and AotC becomes a much better film. The pacing works a lot better with that scene excised.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Branc0]

I turned to my SO and said "Suck it Lucas, suck it long, suck it hard". That moment had thrill, which Lucas

Your girlfriend name is Lucas?

Just kidding, no need to be offended :)

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[TomV]

I saw it as Anakin knowing full well that the relationship was forbiddenand dangerous for a Jedi, and being afraid of the possible consequences but unable to stop himself. The romance with Padme was every bit as important in his fall from grace as his vengeance against the Tuskens.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Anonymous Coward]

Anyone consider the Preview button is right next to Submit? The guy deserves all the crap he gets for it.

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[Anonymous Coward]

I turned to my SO and said "Suck it Lucas, suck it long, suck it hard"

Besides showing that you are dating a man named Lucas, what else does this prove?

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[MNNM]

Any film that makes money is a good business venture. Hollywood is there to make money, not please you.

But I am there to be pleased, not to be made money off. If I like it, I'm happy if it's good business. If I don't, I hope it's not.

Hollywood wants money, I want good movies. They make a good movie, I give them money for it. Now it's Star Wars, so I have to watch it... why not be pissed when it isn't good?

Re:Why does anyone give Lucas any more chances?

[16K Ram Pack]

My advice is stick to that opinion.

I left EP2 at the end and HAD to have a drink. I was so angry at having spent money on such a turd of a film. I was disappointed at EP1, and thought that maybe EP2 would be better. It wasn't.

I tried to think back to the last time I'd spent money on a cinema film and had such a miserable time. Police Academy IV at least had that guy who did the noises. Even "Under The Cherry Moon" had some good Prince songs.

I had to conclude it was the worst film I had spent money on, ever.

BitTorrent Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

http://66.79.177.160/~suprnova//torrents/1032/epii i-leaked-avi.torrent

seems to be working

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[cy_a253]

Yes it works. Keep your torrents alive, at least for a few minutes after you're done, please!

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[NavelFozz]

http://briefcase.yahoo.com/mikenfozzy/ for the torrent

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

works awesome... thanks!

Re:BitTorrent Mirror

[DirtMcGirt]

hotttness

bittorrent not working manually or any other way

[Anonymous Coward]

bittorrent not working manually or any other way

Open Mind

[TubeSteak]

I'm going in with an open mind. Episode I blew, Episode II was somewhat better, but both still fall far short of 4, 5, 6. Maybe he's doing The Matrix, but in reverse: the first one is the worst and the last one is the best. If this one sucks... i'm just going to ignore I, II, III and go read the books (unless you're going to tell me they suck as bad as the film versions of Episode I/II)

I wonder if Jar Jar had any nuts? Even if he did, his voice couldn't go much higher.

Re:Open Mind

[CaptBubba]

Watch the books be edited in "special editions" that all of a sudden are exactly like the movies.

Spoilers

[DaeO]

Personally.. I never download these spoilers and I try to avoid commercials, reviews, and basicalyy everything that might give away part of the plot.

Re:Spoilers

[Anonymous Coward]

I live in a box too... which corner are you on?

Re:Uh...

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoiler warnings on the front page please? Some people like to be surprised when they finally see a film.

Uh, was "Footage from Star Wars: Episode III" not clear enough that it contained footage and might be a spoiler for you? If you don't understand what footage means, I can see your point... but otherwise, try using your brain a little bit, okay?

Skeptical

[DarkHelmet]

I admit...

The lightsaber fights do end up looking good, even in these green screen clips.

Then I remember Star Wars: Episode 1. The lightsaber fight with Darth Maul / Obiwan was very very good, but the movie overall wasn't. I realize that from these scenes, that what's shown amounts to roughly 5-10 minutes of the movie that *might* actually be good.

Call me what you will, but there was nothing in Episode 1 that was truly memorable. There were no lines that are worthy of geeks repeating. There was nothing that truly captured me when I watched it, and made me want to see it again. Just because it's Star Wars, doesn't make it automatically fantastic.

I hope to god Episode 3 makes up for the other two. But I'm not holding my breath.

Re:Skeptical

[nacturation]

The lightsaber fights do end up looking good, even in these green screen clips.

Then I remember Star Wars: Episode 1. The lightsaber fight with Darth Maul / Obiwan was very very good...

Sure, if your definition of "good" is having the fighters flip around maniacally in all sorts of improbable positions, doing spins and twirls which would make it easy for any capable swordsman to kill them. What I'd really like to see is for the lightsabre fights to employ traditional swordsmanship techniques. After all, what's the point of doing any kind of spin or wind-up movement... to build up more momentum which doesn't even affect an energy beam?

I know, people probably expect to see lots of crazy acrobatics so that they can get their action fix rather than having a lightsabre duel be an actual plot device, used in the context of telling a great story.

Re:Skeptical

[Zelxyb]

There were no lines that are worthy of geeks repeating

Are you kidding? I quote the kid all the time:

"Woah man. This thing's flying."
"Hey man. I can shoot."
"Woah man. My lines suck."

Or one of the older Jedi dudes:

"This kid has a million mitochondria! Let's never speak of this again."

Re:Skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

building up momentum to knock that faggy sabre out of the other faggot jedi's hand.

Re:Skeptical

[MalleusEBHC]

I know, people probably expect to see lots of crazy acrobatics so that they can get their action fix rather than having a lightsabre duel be an actual plot device, used in the context of telling a great story.

I'm not going to get into how it's ridiculous to compare the fighting styles of saber-wielding, force-using Jedi to normal men using metal swords, but how in the hell would the style of the fighting change the context of the duel with regards to the plot? As long as the general flow of the fight stays the same, that is all that matters for the plot. In the meantime, why not have the Jedi and Sith doing some bitchin' acrobatics and saber work to please the 99.9% of us who realize that it's not real, it's a movie.

Re:Skeptical

[dswensen]

Lightsabers aren't traditional swords, and Jedi not traditional swordsmen, therefore I think it a little far-fetched to expect much in the way of historical realism from something such as this.

If you're looking for authenticity in sword fighting, you might try something like Rob Roy instead of a science-fiction flick.

Re:Skeptical

[ScaldedTauntaun]

The lightsaber fight with Darth Maul / Obiwan was very very good

I'm sorry, but I've never understood this seemingly prevalent opinion.

The Maul/ObiWan/QuiGon fight was a perfectly entertaining battle...for mortal combatants. I, however, was hoping for something more along the lines of Vader vs. Luke in ESB (objects being flung about) or Yoda vs. Dooku (force powers, insane acrobatics, etc.). Instead, we got high-energy, low-creativity swordplay. All that atmospheric machinery and electrical conduit should have inspired a good deal of creative mayhem. >=)

And was I the only one surprised when ObiWan failed to Force-summon his falling lightsaber, preferring instead to watch helplessly as it disappeared into the chasm?

Perhaps the trio really were rookies. =P

-ST

Re:Skeptical

[azuretek]

well, remember in 6 where luke is fighting Darth Vader? it wasn't all fancy spins and flips, they actually talked during the fight and it ended up being a major part of the film...

just because they have light sabers dosen't mean they can't use the fight to make an interesting story...

Re:Skeptical

[robson]

There were no lines that are worthy of geeks repeating.

I'll admit to enjoying one line (and only one line) from Ep 1:

"You were right about one thing, Master. The negotiations were short."

And, as Ewan MacGregor finishes this line, you can see all hope evaporating from his soul as he becomes painfully aware that his last opportunity to act on the 3-film project had just passed him by.

Re:Skeptical

[Ieshan]

As a past fencer, one simple question: Have you ever SEEN a sabre fencing match?

The dynamics are relatively the same. A single touch from either weapon ends the fight. Moving in "3-D" doesn't really help the Jedi, as unless he's fighting off lots of other things, the closest thing to his opponent is still a straight line, and he's only got to touch him once to win.

Here's how it goes. People scurry back and forth. Wildly. Points last a couple of seconds. Since we can assume that the Jedi are weighing far more heavily the chance that they'll be hit, they'll be relatively more cautious. The stop cut or a hand-touch would probably be used all over the place. Battles would last seconds, maybe less, since they're mind force wielding jedi with precognition.

Want to know how exciting it would be? None at all. If the Darth Vader - Luke Skywalker fight lasted 15 seconds, you'd be pissed, and so would I. People like the spinning moves. They're fun to watch. :)

Re:Skeptical

[ArmorFiend]

Heh.

I forgot about that one.

But I was thinking in the shower the other day, the part where Darth Maul and Qwai-Gon are seperated by an force field, its pretty cool how DM paces angrily and QG meditates serenely.

The conclusion of the fight, of course, sucked ass. I mean, c'mon, your name is DARTH MAUL, and you have a chance to mutilate a mortally wounded Jedi's body in front of his apprentice. What kind of a Sith passes that up? Oh, and just force-push Obi down the damn infinate pit.

Re:Skeptical

[c.emmertfoster]

You make a DAMN good point. However, let us not foget EPIC SPACE BATTLES. They were a core component of the original movies and were nigh but irreplaceable.

I go now to play X-Wing vs. TIE fighter, because I am too drunk to drive a car, but for pete's sake, I can still pilot a TIE-fighter!

Re:Skeptical

[KFK - Wildcat]

Call me what you will, but there was nothing in Episode 1 that was truly memorable. There were no lines that are worthy of geeks repeating.

"I don't know. Mesa day startin pretty okee-day with a brisky morning munchy, then BOOM! Gettin very scared and grabbin that Jedi and POW! Mesa here! Mesa gettin' very very scared!" - Jar Jar

If that aint a great and memorable quote, I don't know what is!
(just kidding, of course)

Re:Skeptical

[mseeger]

What I'd really like to see is for the lightsabre fights to employ traditional swordsmanship techniques.

Good swordmanship usually doesn't make good movies. If two skilled swordsman meet, usually the first stroke ends the fight.

Unless you have a lot of supply concerning fighters, there won't be much of a scene. Perhaps you could use slow motion and spinning cameras to make it appear longer ;-).

Regards, Martin

Re:Skeptical

[pizen]

Battles would last seconds, maybe less, since they're mind force wielding jedi with precognition.

Not so sure about that. Yoda sees what Dooku is going to do. But Dooku sees that Yoda sees what he is going to do and changes. But then Yoda sees that Dooku sees that Yoda sees what Dooku is going to do and changes. Then Dooku sees that Yoda sees that Dooku sees that Yoda...great, now I've gone all crosseyed.

Re:Skeptical

[weicco]

Yep. And propably most of the figth would end up in draw, both falling dead on the floor. I remember when I used to "fence" with my friends as kids. We had metre long wooden sticks and we we're very lucky we didn't broke any fingers becuase most of the hits falled on hands or wrists. Well, maybe jedis would be little more experienced fighters but I think hands would be the first thing they would try to cut off :)

Re:Skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

That's one of the lamer things I've read on this site so far...

I really think you just said "plot device" because you thought it would make you sound smart, without actually knowing what it is.

Re:Skeptical

[PCM2]

There were no lines that are worthy of geeks repeating.

Sure there are!

Next time you wonder whether George will return to the former glory of the Star Wars series, or whether Episode III will be just another shabby, poorly-conceived commercial cash cow like Episodes I and II, just purse your lips a little bit and in as deep a voice as you can, repeat:

"I think we're going to have to accept Federation control, for the time being."

Re:Skeptical

[nacturation]

I'm not going to get into how it's ridiculous to compare the fighting styles of saber-wielding, force-using Jedi to normal men using metal swords...

Actually, I wish you would. Regardless of any supernatural powers they're supposed to possess, it still boils down to two people with weapons, each trying to win. Then again, maybe in Jedi school they teach students to spin around and turn their backs on opponents because it looks better to someone who may be watching.

... but how in the hell would the style of the fighting change the context of the duel with regards to the plot? As long as the general flow of the fight stays the same, that is all that matters for the plot.

You're right -- I worded my post poorly. The point I tried to make here wasn't whether or not the style of fighting affects the plot but that the fighting should be realistic and fight scenes, when used, shouldn't be merely for filler. It's a side point to the fight quality, but still important I feel.

In the meantime, why not have the Jedi and Sith doing some bitchin' acrobatics and saber work to please the 99.9% of us who realize that it's not real, it's a movie.

In movies, one of the goals is to have a suspension of disbelief and, to achieve that, scenes should be reasonably believable. When things go so over the top that it's difficult to take seriously, it affects the movie experience in my opinion. Imagine they took a Bruce Lee movie and changed around the fight scenes, enhancing them with computer graphics so that Bruce can defy gravity and kick 20 people in a row with a continually spinning roundhouse. Would you say that would result in a better movie for 99.9% of people? Or is the original better, where the main focus of the fighting is an awesome exhibition of incredible raw kung fu talent, with only minimal effects to enhance it?

Re:Skeptical

[nacturation]

Good swordmanship usually doesn't make good movies. If two skilled swordsman meet, usually the first stroke ends the fight.

This is also true of lightsabre duels. First stroke wins. However, Luke and Vader managed to have a fairly extended fight without resorting to insane acrobatics, and they managed to throw in a bit of great dialogue into the middle of it all. Same with Obi-Wan and Vader. Yeah, the moves weren't all that spectacular but it sure added to the story.

A good sword or lightsabre fight should be full of great, exciting moves while still being relatively believable. Make it last for a while too -- have moments where the opponents size each other up, look for weaknesses, and then go in for a barrage of blows and parries. All we know about Darth Maul (from the movie alone) is that he's got an ugly face and he's a good fighter. What a waste. They could have thrown in a bit of dialogue into the scenes and fleshed out his character a bit more. As it were, Darth Maul was the equivalent of a red shirt Star Trek security guard, only he managed to last a tad longer.

Re:Skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

Imagine they took a Bruce Lee movie and changed around the fight scenes, enhancing them with computer graphics so that Bruce can defy gravity and kick 20 people in a row with a continually spinning roundhouse.

That describes about every HK martial arts flick I've seen.

Re:Skeptical

[forgotmypassword]

If you want to be realistic, lets just kill all the Jedi with lasers. The freakin blaster fire is slower than arrows.

A laser would be silent, deadly, and invisible.

Re:Skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

Have you seen "The Water Margin"? There was a big battle scene that lasted *weeks*. They didn't move, and the first one who twitched made the outcome inevitable, so they didn't bother completing it.

Re:Skeptical

[awol]

After all, what's the point of doing any kind of spin or wind-up movement... to build up more momentum which doesn't even affect an energy beam?

Well, here's a thought. Jedi's ability to "feel" the force (remember the drone whose laser bolts LS deflects in his novice training in ANH) means that all the spinning and stuff is necessary to even attempt to defeat their ability to put the light sabre in the right place at the right time to deflect a blow. Now, I am not trying to offer a "coherent" defence of all the faffing around, but just that it is _plausible_ that such dynamism is necessary in order to create the opportunity for an attack at some point during the fight.

Re:Skeptical

[hkmwbz]

"In movies, one of the goals is to have a suspension of disbelief and, to achieve that, scenes should be reasonably believable."

And guess what, just about everyone else will watch the movies and see the cool moves in the light saber fights and bingo, instant suspension of disbelief. Just because you are anal about something, maybe because you know how "real" sword fights work, doesn't mean that everyone else can't enjoy it.

I know how you feel, though, because I hate it when they start bringing computers doing bleep-da-beep sounds and "cool" stuff in movies. It's so... lame and completely unrealistic.

Maybe you are a swordsman and are as anal about swordfighting in movies as I am about computers in mainstream media. That doesn't mean that all the other dumbasses can't have some suspension of disbelief, if just for a moment.

Re:Skeptical

[DarkSarin]

I think this is probably the first coherent answer to the question. It makes a defense based on the supposed nature of the universe we are supposedly watching.

Until I read this, I was agreeing with the parent. All in all, it is unrealistic, but if you consider the force and all that, maybe such jazz would be necessary.

Then again, maybe not. Who knows.

Re:Skeptical

[Hast]

Have you seen samurai movies? Or for that matter the last fight in Kill Bill part 1?

While they don't jump around all that much that doesn't mean that the fight can't be suspenceful. In many ways it's like the "good old fights" were the two gunslingers stand and wait for the other to make a wrong move.

So while the exchange of blows doesn't last very long that doesn't matter that the entire fight is over in seconds.

In many way Darth - Luke is exactly that. Brief exchanges of blows and long periods of waiting and drama.

Personally I'd like it if they had someone who spent some time thinking about how a Jedi would fight instead of just doing stupid flips all the time. Play a game like Jedi Knight and you'll routinely do cooler stuff than they do in the movies. (One favourite is force pulling an opponent and impaling him on your sabre. Or force leaping over him and force pulling in the air. Thus giving him a nice air trip followed by a crunch.)

Re:Skeptical

[Hast]

If we're going to be realistic I guess we can't have light sabres or Jedi's in any case.

What I want is that the movies makes sense /in that universe/. In SW blasters are slow as molasses and you can make a sabre out of light, those are the rules. But you don't have to do stupid flips when you try to hit your opponent just because you can.

Re:Skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

> If you're looking for authenticity in sword
> fighting, you might try something like Rob Roy
> instead of a science-fiction flick.

May I point you towards "The Princess Bride"?

Re:Skeptical

[Hast]

That's a nice idea.

Unfortunately it's a lot easier to deflect a blow if the guy spins around first, you have a lot more time to react. Just try it yourself, a straight blow to the face is hard to deflect. If you do a 360' turn before it's a lot easier, and you can spend time pounding his back while it's turned.

Re:Skeptical

[Hast]

Though about Yoda and Dooku I never understood why Yoda was aiming at Dookus sword all the time. If would have made a lot more sense if he just chopped off Dooku's legs first. Bring Dooku down to his own level so to say.

First time I saw it (at the movies) I thought it was great. That was probably only becuase the other 2 hours of the movie was so mind numbingingly dull. (Sound of music but with even more pathetic dialogue.)

Re:Skeptical

[awol]

Unfortunately it's a lot easier to deflect a blow if the guy spins around first, you have a lot more time to react.

True, but with a light sabre, its cutting power means that a lateral sweep must be defended, lest even if you jab your opponent in the face (killing him) you will still get cut in half by the momentum of the blade after he (or she) is dead. My point was not that the blow should be harder to deflect by all the faffing, but rather that it is only by using the faffing that one can draw ones opponent out of the "predict" everything phase into one where the opponent is reacting to your moves and thus opening up a chance for a move they can neither predict nor defend.

Re:Skeptical

[Ieshan]

They don't compare nearly as well because in both of those movies, simply touching your opponent wont wound him enough to win, you actually need to put some force behind the blade.

Re:Skeptical

[Aquitaine]

Disclaimer: You have a good point and a valid complaint.

But: it's the same complaint a lot of people who know a lot about swordsmanship have with movie and stage combat.

I recently did a production of Dangerous Liaisons and had to do a small sword fighting scene (that's 'fighting with small swords' and not 'a small scene with swords'). Now, we knew people who were fencers and could've brought them in. We also knew a licensed stage fight choreographer. The first thing the fight choregrapher said is that any real 'fencer' who sees stage or film swordfighting will bitterly complain that it isn't anything like real fencing and they're embarassed that you even called it 'fencing.' How dare you, you neanderthal.

The reason why you don't just get a fencer to choregraph those things (not to suggest that a fencer couldn't also be a fight choregrapher) is that they are really different skills. Real swordfighting or competitive fencing is about getting the other guy. It is, as you say, about actually trying to hurt/main/wound/score points against the other fighter. Theatrical combat could not be less about that. It's about threatening. The best way I ever heard it explained is that an ideal move in real swordsmanship is one that, er, stabs or slices the other guy while not leaving you exposed. An ideal move in stage combat is one that comes two inches away from hitting the other guy -- /not/ because you obviously don't want to really hurt them, but because, to an audience, a guy who's been skewered is not really dramatic. A guy two inches away from being skewered is. This is even more true with Star Wars, where you really can't just 'wound' somebody else very creatively.

I guess what I'm saying is that fight choreography, by nature, has to prioritize a) safety and b) looking dramatic and convincing to the majority of the schmucks in the audience, most of whom will never hold a real weapon in their lives. It never claims to be real swordsmanship, and it would be silly if it did. (we have lasers and explosions in space and The Force and muppets but god damnit, our swordfighting is genuine).

Re:Skeptical

[pjdurai]

You are probably thinking along the lines of Yojimbo and Murotho staring at each other for an interminable minute.. then draw the sword and fight is over in half a second. (I wont say who won the duel.. lest someone bitch about spilers.. :) )

Not going to work for lightsabers does it?
From what I have seen, lightsabers are used more as bludgeoning weapons than cutting weapons. And the fights are on par with that.

Re:Skeptical

[nacturation]

You are probably thinking along the lines of Yojimbo and Murotho staring at each other for an interminable minute.. then draw the sword and fight is over in half a second. (I wont say who won the duel.. lest someone bitch about spilers.. :) )

That was a great scene. :) But more like the bokken fighting in The Last Samurai where Cruise and the other guy (sorry, don't remember the names) fight and it eventually ends in a draw. Yes, it was a relatively quick fight but that sort of fighting could easily be choreographed and drawn out longer. Similarly when Cruise gets jumped in the street later on by numerous guys. Surviving a multiple-person sword attack is improbable, but the way it was shown is certainly plausible.

From what I have seen, lightsabers are used more as bludgeoning weapons than cutting weapons. And the fights are on par with that.

Good point. Now that you mention it, it does rather seem that way.

Re:Skeptical

[Anonymous Coward]

Call me what you will

Karma whoring ass.

Re:Skeptical

[stienman]

Call me what you will, but there was nothing in Episode 1 that was truly memorable. There were no lines that are worthy of geeks repeating.

Unlike, I suppose, the other three movies which are teeming with lines such as
Wedge! Pull out! You're not doing any good back there!
and
Grab me, Chewie. I'm slipping -- hold on. Grab it, almost... you almost got it. Gently now, all right, easy, easy, hold me Chewie.

-Adam

Re:Skeptical

[strike2867]

In movies, one of the goals is to have a suspension of disbelief and, to achieve that, scenes should be reasonably believable. When things go so over the top that it's difficult to take seriously, it affects the movie experience in my opinion. Imagine they took a Bruce Lee movie and changed around the fight scenes, enhancing them with computer graphics so that Bruce can defy gravity and kick 20 people in a row with a continually spinning roundhouse. Would you say that would result in a better movie for 99.9% of people? Or is the original better, where the main focus of the fighting is an awesome exhibition of incredible raw kung fu talent, with only minimal effects to enhance it?

Perfect story of the Matrix. In the first it was raw kung fu talent, with only a few impossible things like power out of nowhere and amazing speed. In the later two it was just impossible crap. Except for maybe the flying thing in the end of 1. The first one was very good. It centered around the story. I hated the second two. Still have them on my computer, but will delete them any day. And also wasnt Bruce Lee the martial arts champion of China. I do Kung Fu. Saw him do the 1 inch punch(video). Cooler was when in one of his earlier movies he grabbed a guys jaw, pulled it out, moved it side to side to dislocate it. So I would say, some effects are always better than reality.

Re:Skeptical

[ultranova]

And, of course, when Yoda sees what Dooku is going to do, and decides to do something about it, Dooku sees that counter before it happens, and thus doesn't start the attack in the first place, but decides to try something else.

I can just see it now:

Dooku and Yoda face. They pull their lightsabers. They are standing, staring at each other, occasionally twitching a little. Then, they relax, and Yoda speaks.

"Strong have you become, old student."

"I am a master now."

So saying Dooku tenses again, as does Yoda. After a minute or so Dooku suddenly turns and runs, extinguishing his lightsaber as he goes.

Yoda doesn't bother following, because, after all, it's pointless; he knows that Dooku will simply throw the machine on two downed Jedi, and he'll have to help them. Dooku, knowing this, doesn't waste his powers to actually throw the thing.

Sarcasm aside, I did wonder how a fight between two precognitive opponents would go, and this is the conclusion I came to. And I didn't even think about it in a Star Wars context...

Re:Skeptical

[ultranova]

The conclusion of the fight, of course, sucked ass. I mean, c'mon, your name is DARTH MAUL, and you have a chance to mutilate a mortally wounded Jedi's body in front of his apprentice. What kind of a Sith passes that up?

The kind that has seen Dragon Ball Z ?-)

If you believe that anger makes you powerfull, you would have to be pretty stupid to enrage your opponent ? Just because your a Sith doesn't mean that you want your kidneys liquedated...

Re:Skeptical

[16K Ram Pack]

This sounds daft, what with it being set in another time/place with strange supernatural forces/aliens/spaceships, but the character motivations and actions make sense.

There's so many silly things in EP1 and 2 which are like 'Huh' and feel like Lucas just cut a corner to get past a difficult bit.

Re:Skeptical

[ArmorFiend]

Interesting point. Would an angry jedi be less or more powerful than a passive, at rest jedi? Once you're a full-fledged jedi can you borrow power from the dark side? Was Darth Tyrannus ever a full-fledged "good" jedi? Is this whole light/dark side thing mostly just a dichotomy more for scaring jedi-apprentices?

MOD PARENT UP

[Anonymous Coward]

This is SO true. I wouldn't put it past Lucas to try to pump out a storyline for the "final" trilogy in the Star Wars world. As a matter of fact, maybe he will go the way of Star Trek and just make Star Wars movies that stand on their own. It's probably a lot easier than trying to fill plot holes caused by previous movies. I'm up for anything that involves the death of Jar-Jar Binks and any actor other than Hayden Christianson (aka Wooden Board). At least George Hamilton had charisma!

Re: MOD PARENT UP

[Black Parrot]

> This is SO true. I wouldn't put it past Lucas to try to pump out a storyline for the "final" trilogy in the Star Wars world.

VII : Star Wars - A New Action Figure

VIII : The Action Figures Strike Back

IX : The Return of the Action Figure

Re: MOD PARENT UP

[babbage]

Responding to your .sig...

How come Homer and Krusty look like clones

Matt Groening did a Fresh Air interview in which he said that the resemblance between Homer & Krusty isn't a coincidence. Originally, the joke was that Bart had absolutely no respect for his own father, but he completely idolized this television clown that in many ways is exactly like Homer -- including the uncanny resemblance between the two.

The interview was really interesting stuff. If you have a RealAudio player available, you can listen to the show from the above link.

Re:bittorrent not working manually or any other wa

[double-oh three]

Manually? I told you that connecting a Cat-5 cable to your brain wasn't gonna work.

Isn't this illegal?

[leftie_hater]

And by downloading it you're breaking the law?

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Not worth the download...

[smkndrkn]

...a grainy video set to AC/DC back in black without any real interesting footage...of a movie that we already know will suck hehe

and now on a positive note....

Re:Not worth the download...

[Anonymous Coward]

...a grainy video set to AC/DC back in black without any real interesting footage...of a movie that we already know will suck hehe

and now on a positive note....

Well, The Positive Note (not to be confused with a positive note) is...

And for no apparent reason, the movie's soundtrack will top the download list in Napster;

AC/DC: Back in Black (Scene 2; Jedi fight The Flatulator)
Queen: Bohemian Rhapsody (Scene 5; Jedi Holocaust)
Maralyn Manson: Beautiful People (Scene 8: Emporer corrupts a Jedi: Anakin)
Metallica: House That Jack Built (Scene 10: Anakin, the Emporer's concubine)
AC/DC: Gone Shootin' (Scene 12: Anakin learns to Telefag^H^Hrag)
Heart: Dreams (Scene 14: Yoda and Mace alone)
WhiteSnake: Is this love (Scene 15: Yoda and Mace meet again)
Alice In Chains: Over Now (Scene 16: Anakin Telefrags all remaining Jedi)

Many more popular songs you'll hate! But who cares as long as "Star Wars" and those cool Light Sabers are stamped on the face of every album?

Heil Lucas!

Working Torrent...

[Saeger]

And here's a working torrent of the clip.

I've seen it, and it's not a spoiler, or a leaked workprint clip as you might be led to believe. Rather, it's just a bad cam of one of those Behind The Scenes things they show on E! and whatnot.

--

Re:Uh...

[Quobobo]

Whoa, such insight into the plot as "Chewbacca looking cooler than ever" completely spoils the third movie for you too?

Not the point

[Anonymous Coward]

The point is that every time Star Wars news comes out, Slashbots are in such a rush to put on their kneepads.

OK

[geekoid]

Old Age.

see, you really didn't want that spoiler, did you?

Re:OK

[ikekrull]

When yousa eesa nine hunner yersa olda, look as gooda you will no-sa, mmmmm?

Re:OK

[Anonymous Coward]

When yousa eesa nine hunner yersa olda, look as gooda you will no-sa, mmmmm?

What the hell is that, some strange bastard mutant child between Yoda and Jar Jar ?!

You could at least give the movie url!

[Anonymous Coward]

The quicktime video is at http://www.movieweb.com/media/news/01_04/e3low.mov .

I'm getting 4kBytes/sec with wget.

Is it just me or...

[69charger]

does the young Vader look a lot like Jim Morrison in these clips?

Hayden

[Coneasfast]

anyone else find Hayden Christensen was not right for the role of Anakin? it was kind of irritating, i found his acting to be quite poor in star wars and would have preferred someone else in his place; not sure who though.

just my C$0.02

Re:Hayden

[_Sexy_Pants_]

I thought about it. Hayden's a really annoying character...and i guess that's the point

Re:Hayden

[maelstrom]

He's almost as whiny as Luke, I guess whiny is inherited.

Re:Hayden

[MrBallistic]

to be honest, though, poor acting defines the starwars flicks, right? i mean, come on... check out mark, er, luke's 'acting' in the first three. whew...

Re:Hayden

[dripwipeflush]

[...]his acting to be quite poor in star wars and would have preferred someone else in his place; not sure who though.

Yoda: Resurrect McCully Culkin, you will? Weakened, the force is.

Damn you, Lucas! Damn you!

Re:Hayden

[Morpeth]

Actually, check out "Life as a House" w/Kevin Kline, you'd be surprised. H.C. actually CAN act (he does a great job as an angst-ridden, confused teen), which lends more support to the idea that Lucas can't write or direct for sh*t. Actually, many of the actors in his films do have talent - he just has no friggin idea how to use it.

Re:Hayden

[FreshFunk510]

I hadn't really thought about it from Episode 1, but after Episode 2 I found the acting for both Christensen and Portman to be very, very poor. Portman just looked stiff throughout the whole movie and repeated lines as if she were in her first year of acting. Christensen, it seemed, put in good effort but I just didn't buy it when he tried to look like he was converting from good to evil.

I don't think I'm much of a film critic either nor do I think I'm any sort of pundit but this is just an average viewer's point of view. Oh well.

Re:Hayden

[the pickle]

I agree with you 100%. Might I suggest James Franco as a "if-I-had-a-time-machine-and-a-George-Lucas-cluest ick" alternative?

p

Re:Hayden

[filtur]

I don't think he's right for any role. I can however imagine him saying "whoah", but that's it. Nothing else.

Re:Hayden

[AndroidCat]

They checked Anakin for miticlorines and found the highest level ever, but they forgot to check for whiney, D'OH!

Re:Hayden

[Anonymous Coward]

You're thinking of Keanu?

Re:Hayden

[djneko]

Actually, he was just as whiney and annoying as young Luke Skywalker. As much as I hated him, he was actually perfect for the role in regards to being Luke's father. :D

Re:Hayden

[16K Ram Pack]

Harrison Ford to George Lucas "You might be able to write this shit, saying it's another matter" or something like that.

He can write IMO. Star Wars and Indiana Jones.

Re:Hayden

[filtur]

I'm thinking for that precise moment in the Matrix that Hayden could have shown his acting chops and replaced Keanu for that line

Spoiler

[jdifool]

Yoda is a woman. Regards, George.

Re:Spoiler

[Penguinshit]

I thought Yoda was Frank Oz (aka "Fozzy Bear", et al).

Re:Spoiler

[Anonymous Coward]

How graphic is that bang scene? And does it involve Jar Jar too? Okay I'll shut up now.

Re:Spoiler

[Cackmobile]

You forgot No. 1 1/2 anakin becomes a whiny little bitch and uses some terrible lines to bang amidala.

Re:Spoiler

[Anonymous Coward]

How graphic is that bang scene? And does it involve Jar Jar too? Okay I'll shut up now.

Well, with a tongue like his...umm, I think I will shut up too. :-)

Re:Spoiler

[tntguy]

And Miss Piggy.

Re: Spoiler

[bar-agent]

Cue "The Crying Game" music.

Rewind a couple decades...

[Anonymous Coward]

anyone else fine Mark Hamill was not right for the role of Luke? it was kind of irritating, i found his acting to be quite poor in star wars and would have preferred someone else in his place; not sure who though.

i do know that i need to get my shift keys fixed.

Star Wars Kid

[Anonymous Coward]

so where is the lil bugger?

Re:Oh, gay

[Deraj DeZine]

Please tell me Old Age was wielding a baseball bat and aiming for Jar Jar's crotch...

Spoil it?

[east coast]

If anything 'spoils' episode III it will be Lucas' complete witlessness in episodes I and II. IMHO.

So call me a troll! :)

Download Mirror

[Sumocide]

Get it here.

Re:Download Mirror

[Darth Maulrat]

Wow, I hadn't realized that Lucas will include a flashback to Darth Maul's childhood. Better acting than that kid who played Anakin in ep1.

Re:Download Mirror

[asadchev]

Oh my god
So is so fucking funny.
Who the hell is this idiot anyways?

Re:Download Mirror

[JabberWokky]

Re: Star Wars Kid: Oh my god So is so fucking funny. Who the hell is this idiot anyways?

You're new to the internet, aren't you?

--
Evan

Wait for it......Wait for it......NOW

[vwjeff]

Who cares???

How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or rock

[i_am_syco]

Here's Syco's do-all formula for figuring out if a Star Wars movie will suck or rock.

If the name rocks, the film will suck.
If the name sucks, the film will rock.

Examples:
A New Hope: Name sucks, movie rocks.
Empire Strikes Back: Name sucks, movie rocks.
Return of the Jedi: Name sucks, movie sort-of rocks.
Phantom Menace: Name rocks, movie sucks.
Attack of the Clones; Name sucks, movie sucks (hey, it was an exception)

Revenge of the Sith: Name rocks, movie will probably suck.

See Episode III the second day

[mattdm]

Ok, we've all been screwed over by the first two movies. They sucked. And there's nothing we can do about it: we have to go see the third one too.

But here's my feeble little geek protest: don't go opening night. Go the second night. Wouldn't it be cool if the first day, *no one* showed up?

Re:See Episode III the second day

[east coast]

"Ok, we've all been screwed over by the first two movies. They sucked. And there's nothing we can do about it: we have to go see the third one too."

Well said, lemming. I wish I had a job where I only ever had to produce two or three good products and the rest of the time I could pump out crap and my customers still bought in the hopes that sooner or later I'd do something good again. It'd be great if people were obligated to buy from me if I put out something good only about 15% of the time. I'd be swimming in cash.

Re:See Episode III the second day

[edalytical]

I'd like to thank you in advance for making Episode III such a nice experience for me. I'll have the theater to my self, but best of all I wont have to over hear any of you complain about how bad it was on the way out. I can go home with my delusions that Episode III was a good movie just like II and I (minus Jar Jar of course).

Re:See Episode III the second day

[Anonymous Coward]

You are obviously not a programmer ;)

Re:See Episode III the second day

[Dwarfgoat]

EC, you mean sorta like microsoft? Heheh.

(Though, 15% might be a little forgiving for them...)

Re:See Episode III the second day

[Anarchofascist]

I wont have to over hear any of you complain about how bad it was on the way out.

OT: I saw Return of the King in a cinema in Dublin. During the credits, a loud smelly irishman sitting behind us (who ate his popcorn with porcine snuffling sounds for the first five minutes (I assume he finished his snack during that time)) got up to leave and said...

"Just as I said at the end of the last two fillums: I'm glad it's over."

Oh how we laughed! "Why did you come to the last fillum in the series if you hated the first two so much?" we thought. Then I realised I'm going to see Episode III despite I and II.

[hate-speech addendum - I prepend the adjectives "loud" and "smelly" to distinguish the gentleman in question from the 99.6% of irishmen in the cinema whose personal hygiene appeared (to my brief cursory inspection) to be above reproach.]

Re:See Episode III the second day

[Anonymous Coward]

How about you just don't see it period, you lemming? It's a movie - it's entertainment, not some prerequisite for existance. Hell, it'll save you money and time.

People like you are why so much stuff sucks.

Re:See Episode III the second day

[mattdm]

Wow. I never thought about that. Good thing I read Slashdot, so I could discover this valuable lesson about life.

Oh wait.

Re:See Episode III the second day

[soft_guy]

Wouldn't it be cool if the first day, *no one* showed up?

I'm sure your post will achieve that effect.

Re:See Episode III the second day

[mattdm]

Well, it's a start. C'mon, spread the word!

Solo's opinion about the leaked video

[QEDog]

Fan: What a piece of junk!
George Solo: it may not look like much but is's got it where it counts, kid. Will make a lot of special CG modifications myself.

Re:Solo's opinion about the leaked video

[ir0b0t]

Slashdot: Use the force, George!

Marketing: [The director has turned off his marketing computer. George, is everything okay?]

George: "I'm fine. Everything is okay."

Slashdot: Let go, George!

Darth: Hmmm, the potential to resist the urge to merchandise the crap out of this film is strong in this one. . . .

*******

The real spoiler

[Anonymous Coward]

Alternate ending: Luke's Father is Chewbacca
Does that mean that Chewie gets it on with Natalie Portman? Awesome!

slashdotted!

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, in just 2-min and 37-seconds the site is going slow as heck. Slashdotting along with the regular star wars geeks will bring that place down so bad

Yup.

[Cyno01]

Yeah, i heard on some rumor site that anakin and obi-wan both eat it at the end of ep3, i'm waiting to watch eps 4-6 after III is released. I hope eps 3-6 are at least better than one and two...

Re:Yup.

[thatnerdguy]

Don't count on obi-wan and anakin dieing in ep3...now wait a minute were you joking? Have you not even seen ep 4 - 6??? Damn...well I hope you enjoy them, I won't spoil anything for you (obi-wan dies!)

Re:Yup.

[Anonymous Coward]

dont worry, it was a lame joke, i'm into the sw universe to have made a fanfilm, sorta, click the link to my homepage~Cyno01

Re:Yup.

[stanmann]

Well technically anakin and obi-wan die before episode 4... Both are re-born... but I won't tell you who they are re-born as.

Quote from 'footage'

[r_glen]

"In terms of matching up III to lead to IV, it's COMPLETELY taken care of."

Wow... for as decent an actor as Ewan Mcgregor is, could he have made that sound any less forced?

Impending sense of doom

[use_compress]

I know I'm getting for a head of myself but I think that the main reason that we'll all be disappointed in this movie is that we're no longer five to eight years old-- the age range Lucas says he's targeting. What looked exciting and heroic when you were five looks cheesy and predictable when you're 25.

What I'm really trying to say is that even if this next Star Wars is as good as the first three, no one posting on Slashdot will be able to connect with this movie the same way we did with the first three. I think that we still view them though the eyes of an eight year old and will never be able to recreate that outlook towards another movie of this genre again.

Re:Impending sense of doom

[Jugalator]

I know I'm getting for a head of myself but I think that the main reason that we'll all be disappointed in this movie is that we're no longer five to eight years old-- the age range Lucas says he's targeting.

Sounds strange when he's putting all this about politics and trade blockades into the movie. The problem I have with especially the prequels is partly what you say -- they may seem too childish for adults, but also that children might miss out so much when key moments in the movies deal with the senate and Palpatine. I think this is one of the largest problems with the Star Wars prequels. Most of us don't really think a Jar-Jar talking funny and stepping in poo is very funny, and most children are probably bored by the old man rambling on about politics.

Re:Impending sense of doom

[Flingles]

no one posting on Slashdot will be able to connect with this movie

Sometimes I suspect that Anonymous Coward guy...

torrent

[jtilak]

epiii-leaked-avi.torrent ofn :-P

Sock Puppets?

[dupper]

Close

The Footage Looks Like It Was Leaked From Lucas

[SPYDER Web]

With every game and movie being leaked now adays and getting tons of press, I bet Lucas leaked this footage (especially since Entertainment Tonight gets more indepth than that) just to start getting more hype... I mean I could give a rat's butt about star wars now a days but I downloaded it because I saw the words leaked footage. Just something to think about.

How can you spoil something that is already bad?

[OrangeTide]

Please explain how seeing some SW clips could spoil SW? Seeing as SW1,2,4,5 and 6 are all inferior to Total Recall or a single episode of Andromeda in the genre of science fiction, and those are pretty much scraping the bottom of the barrel.

Why don't you watch some films with some artistic merit to them? Or play outside and get some fresh air?

Re:To think.

[LordLucless]

More to the point, why doesn't the poster include a BitTorrent link, since that system is designed to accomodate transfers that generate a lot of sudden interest, rather than first slashdotting the HTTP source and waiting for posters to mention torrents.

Last scene spoiler

[nnnneedles]

I like the last scene..

where the camera holder gets stabbed in the back of the head by Lucas security goons.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[Anonymous Coward]

I guess it depends on what you think sucks. Personally, I'd say:

A New Hope: Name sucks, movie rocks.
Empire Strikes Back: Name rocks, movie rocks.
Return of the Jedi: Name rocks, movie sort-of rocks.
Phantom Menace: Name sucks, movie sort-of sucks.
Attack of the Clones; Name sucks, movie sort-of sucks.

I didn't find them to be as aweful as everyone else seems to think. No accounting for taste I guess.

Good title = goodish movie. Bad title = could go either way.

Revenge of the Sith (is this the title?, I hadn't heard) = name kinda rocks, movie... we'll see

Re:Oh, gay

[Omega996]

Meessa thinks youussa be no likin' Jar Jar...

Not true, not true at all

[freeweed]

My parents were well over 8 years old when the original Star Wars' came out. More like 38 (+6 for Jedi). They still loved them.

Most people that never saw the first trilogy (yes, they exist) who have seen the new ones as adults don't think they're all that great. My folks can't stand them.

It has dick all to do with childhood memories, really, contrary to what every karma whore has posted to every single Star Wars story on Slashdot for the past 4 years. Kids will eat anything up and call it candy, that is correct. But Star Wars (ep 4-6) stood the test of time because more than just pre-pubescents thought it was good. Same can't be said for the new stuff, sorry.

If you're going after the historical angle, at least point out the fact that in 1977 no one had even attempted the special affects Lucas did, whereas the new ones could really have been made by anyone. That at least is an acceptable excuse. Star Wars WAS something special, for all ages seeing it. Ep 1/2 might as well have been Matrix sequels, really.

Re:Not true, not true at all

[use_compress]

My parents were well over 8 years old when the original Star Wars' came out. More like 38 (+6 for Jedi). They still loved them.

Perhaps your parents got caught up in star wars b/c you enjoyed it so much... It's very easy to like something that was/is so popular.

Most people that never saw the first trilogy (yes, they exist) who have seen the new ones as adults don't think they're all that great. My folks can't stand them.

Exactly... you're grown up and so are they.

It has dick all to do with childhood memories, really, contrary to what every karma whore has posted to every single Star Wars story on Slashdot for the past 4 years.

Be careful.. being a karma whore does not imply you're wrong.

Kids will eat anything up and call it candy, that is correct. But Star Wars (ep 4-6) stood the test of time because more than just pre-pubescents thought it was good. Same can't be said for the new stuff, sorry.

There are tons of childrens movies that flop... Who's to say that ep 1-3 isn't having the same impact on today's kids.

If you're going after the historical angle, at least point out the fact that in 1977 no one had even attempted the special affects Lucas did, whereas the new ones could really have been made by anyone. That at least is an acceptable excuse. Star Wars WAS something special, for all ages seeing it. Ep 1/2 might as well have been Matrix sequels, really.

There are tons of movies with "unprecedented special effects" that no body remembers.

Re:Not true, not true at all

[Anonymous Coward]

Or some people need a story to follow Christopher Vogler's "A hero's journey", and others don't. Also, I didn't start loving the original Star Wars movies until I had seen all three episodes.

Re:Not true, not true at all

[houghi]

Most people that never saw the first trilogy (yes, they exist) who have seen the new ones as adults don't think they're all that great. My folks can't stand them.

I would be one of those people. I was a kid when the first ones came out and never saw them before.
I saw 4, 5 and 6 when 1 was already out. I realy like 4 and 6 and thought 5 was OK. Then I went on to see 1 and it was utter and complete crap, IMHO. There was no childhood memory for me that was linked to those older movies. I saw movie 1 and became almost fysical ill. Never botherd to got to the second one and sure will not go and see number three. It is clear that with 4-5-6 he wanted to tell a story and did this by making a movie. with 1-2-3 he wants to make money and does this by making a movie.

Re:Not true, not true at all

[Jerf]

I have a theory that "the first" is always remembered as a classic, even when otherwise it would be of dubious merit.

Who's the best playwright ever? Why, Shakespeare of course. Who was the first significant playwright ever? Why, Shakespeare of course.

Who are the best composers ever? Why, Bach (first to use 12-tone scale), Beethoven (creator of the symphonic form), and Mozart (early Sonatas and a lot of other stuff too).

What's the best big-budget sci-fi movie ever? Why, Star Wars of course.

Now, if any of the "firsts" came back and wrote a new *whatever* (play, symphony, movie) without the benefit of their name, it would have no commercial or critical success whatsoever. A Shakespeare play wouldn't make it out of the gate, unless he modernized the English, and even then I have my doubts. And so on.

Each of the firsts are great in their own way because they are the one who made the form viable; there were people writing "things like symphonies" before Beethoven but he is the one who brought it all together into a cohesive whole; listening to his symphonies all in a row is like a miniature history of the form. So I don't mean to say they are worthless. But they do end up casting a shadow that is impossible for later people to overcome, and "the first person to do something is always the best" is just too much coincidence for me to stomach.

Now, culture has sped up. Shakespeare had essentially his entire life to be The Great and Mighty Shakespeare. The music composers were often supplanted in their own lifetime by some other school of music, but generally towards the end. Now, culture is moving so fast that Lucas, the previous "owner" of big-budget sci-fi, produces movies that are almost exactly the same as his old movies and he is villified and demonized; the complete cycle within a small fraction of his lifetime.

The fact is that SWI and SWII aren't all that different in quality level then the originals, accounting for the relative effects differences. They just came too many cultural generations too late. If Star Wars itself was somehow released to a public that hadn't seen it, suitably updated, and with some other Big Budget film occurring when Star Wars did in our time line, it too would do well at the box office, but be decried as derivative and sucky by the same geeks who are screaming about SW I and SW II.

Am I saying that SW I and SW II are as good as the originals? No, I'm saying they are as bad as the originals. As the first big budget sci-fi flicks, Star Wars were better then we could have expected. And they are legitimate classics. But they are not so good that no future movie could ever hope to be that good... unless you wrap them in so much nostalgia and mythos that nothing could ever penetrate it.

SW 4-6 have "stood the test of time" because the same "pre-pubescents" who "thought it was good" are still around saying it's good. Show Star Wars to a ten-year-old and ask them if it's any good. They'll enjoy it, but don't expect them to become obsessed with it; they'll go right back to their Pokemon or other modern trend.

Re:Not true, not true at all

[soft_guy]

I completely agree with you. It has nothing to do with the age you are when you see the movie. It really doesn't have that much to do with being jaded about special effects.

I like mostly non-science fiction movies, but I also like really good sci fi. When I think about what movies I have liked the most in the past couple of years, they were mostly movies with no special effects at all. It has to do with the *story* and the quality of the filmmaking.

My theory is that the element that made the original Star Wars movie good was Marsha Lucas's editing. As you may be aware, Marsha and George Lucas were divorced about the time that Return of the Jedi came out. She did not do the editing on either of the two more recent movies (Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones).

I think that George Lucas just wasn't the one with the talent compared to his wife.

Re:Not true, not true at all

[16K Ram Pack]

I think also that kids have a huge tolerance for bad movies, because visual presentation is so exciting at that age. When I got older, things like story mattered more. It's only when a movie that raises the technological game comes along (Jurassic Park, The Matrix) that I'm interested.

However, I also believe that some movies stick with people because they transcend the visual presentation. The Harry Potter movies will be forgotten because they're nothing special. What is there of current times that will remain with kids? Pixar movies? LoTR?

At least the matrix sequels had some visual power about them. EP1 and 2 have less going on that the average car commercial. Remember as a kid the first time you saw that Imperial Star Destroyer on screen ;)

As for childhood memories, I loved EP4-6 because they were just great. Whether kids would view them as a bit backward now because of effects being out of date, I don't know. But I do know that for all their faults, they do have some coherent plot and characters you care about. I don't look at any point of it and say "that wouldn't happen". There are however lots of moments in EP2 which are just like "yeah, like f**k they'd do that". Just felt like Lucas didn't want to worry about stuff as long as it got to the next bit of CGI, regardless of sense.

Somebody

[KalvinB]

apparently isn't aware that video cameras have a "zoom" button.

But then the thing is so shaky I'd hate to think what would have happened if he had zoomed in.

Ben

Re:Somebody

[dominyx]

You'd be shaking too. The man can destroy an epic movie series, just imagine what he can do to you.

Re:Somebody

[lxs]

I've just made myself a new tinfoil hat, so I can safely offer my take on this:

This thing was leaked on purpose by Lucasarts.

Let's face facts, of all the footage that could be leaked all we get is a promotional video,carefully disguised as a cam capture? I've seen better cam versions done in a full theater with kids screaming and laughing in the background.

I think Lucas has just gotten tons of free publicity for 15 minutes of work, and no expense on his part.

But I could be wrong.

Re:Somebody

[hkmwbz]

"This thing was leaked on purpose by Lucasarts."

You mean, as free publicity for the newest Star Wars game?

Re:Somebody

[lxs]

Hey you can't have a good conspiracy theory without twisting the facts!

But you're right, I've got the wrong company. I meant to say Lucasfilm.

HELP SEED!

[Anonymous Coward]

C'mon guys. Stay on and help the seed. I'm getting 4K/s down and 30 K/s up.

Re:How can you spoil something that is already bad

[heff]

i couldn't have said that better myself.. if I could give out medals - you would certainly get one.

I'm already worried

[noewun]

I was eight when the original came out - saw it eleven times in the theaters (this was before VCRs) and loved every minute of it. I felt the same way about the next two (5 and 6).

However, Episode 1 was an enormously painful experience. Episode 2 was almost unbearable, further reminder that Lucas didn't direct the best of the series (Empire Strikes Back) nor was he the sole writer. I have to say that, if the buzz is bad enough, I may actually skip seeing this one in the theater and wait for it to show on HBO. At least then I can switch channels whenever someone speaks.

Re:How can you spoil something that is already bad

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do geeks who are critical of SW continue to bash it as bad sci-fi. Its so bad, its FANTASY.

Re:Uh...

[blincoln]

Hey, I watched the footage. I still fail to see how my post was a troll, just because I mentioned that there are people out there that don't want to know anything about new the new film before it comes out. That includes things like Anakin's new look - previously (at least the last time I looked into Episode III) it wasn't even certain if he was going to appear in the Vader costume.

That having been said, Hayden Christiansen as Captain Harlock looks pretty cool.

I hope you had peerguardian running...

[utahraptor]

I did and I got hit four times by something called SkyWalker sound in California.

freakin crap video

[itsrainin]

what a crappy video, waste of bandwidth if you ask me...

blarg!

[Anonymous Coward]

u r awsum

hahaha

[TubeSteak]

Sorry, thats not funny. You ever read the book Starship Troopers? Mediocre movie which was very remotely based on the book. I have two copies of the book floating around, the original and the same book, but with a "movie cover". Guess which one looks better? If i walked into a store today, i wouldn't look twice at the new cover. Its sad how a derivitive work can tarnish the original (or in SCO's case, the original tarnishing the alleged derivitive)

Ohh the power of P2P....

[Anonymous Coward]

954 Seeders on my torrent presently =o)

Spoiler ? Leaked ? Hardly

[pms2000]

This is obviously some teaser put out by Lucas for some sci fi convetion or film festival. It shows next to nothing and was obviously made for public showing. Why is this even news and what on earth made someone think this was a leak ?

Spoiler

[jhylkema]

1. Anakin grows up.
2. Anakin bangs Queen Amidala.
3. Queen Amidala begat Luke Skywalker and Leia.

The end.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[Anonymous Coward]

Jar-Jar Goes Shopping: BEST MOVIE EVER!!!

Re: Soiler

[dripwipeflush]

Yoda is a woman. Regards, George.

Nooooooooooooooooo!

/.-style spoiler

[jhylkema]

1. Film Episode III with a Beowulf cluster of G5s in Soviet Russia. 2. ????? 3. Include footage of Anakin banging Queen Amidala (for sexually frustrated /. geeks/Star Wars fans.) 4. PROFIT!

Re:/.-style spoiler

[Walkiry]

With that plan, 1. and 2. are optional. Besides, everyone knows in Soviet Russia the Beowulf cluster of G5s film Episode III!

Re:/.-style spoiler

[Tokerat]

No no no, In Soviet Russia, Episode III films Beowulf Cluster of G5s!

Re:/.-style spoiler

[SoTuA]

1. Film Episode III with a Beowulf cluster of G5s in Soviet Russia.

2. ?????

3. Include footage of Anakin banging Queen Amidala (for sexually frustrated /. geeks/Star Wars fans.)

You forgot the "covered in hot grits" part

4. PROFIT!

Take two!

[jhylkema]

1. Film Episode III with a Beowulf cluster of G5s in Soviet Russia.
2. ?????
3. Include footage of Anakin banging Queen Amidala (for sexually frustrated /. geeks/Star Wars fans.)
4. PROFIT!

(Must'nt read /. while studying for midterm.)

Re:How can you spoil something that is already bad

[Anonymous Coward]

While Total Recall is a great movie (I own the DVD), I would have to say that Empire Strikes Back is the better film. As for Andromeda... comparing a feature film like Empire to a freaking TV show? Almost all TV fscking sucks, especially when compared to a feature film of such scope as SW 5.

Here's a torrent

[kuzb]

in case you want to give this poor guy's server a break, here is a bittorrent link for the footage.

Remember!

[Guppy06]

It's only a spoiler if there's actually a plot to spoil.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[Rallion]

I'm so disturbed that you think Revenge of the Sith is a good title. I don't see what it has that makes it better than Return of the Jedi or Attack of the Clones..well, okay, just Return of the Jedi.

Which, incidentally, was almost titled "Revenge of the Jedi," but was renamed because a Jedi would never do anything for revenge. And a Sith would. So there's kind of a neat story behind it, but I don't see how you can consider a play on a crappy title to be a good title.

Mirror

[billatq]

Here's a mirror. Get it while they'res still bandwidth: e3low.mov

Spoiker Free Summary

[OneIsNotPrime]

Here is a spoiler free summary for those who still care.

*FADE IN*

Obi-Wan-Kenobi fights six million clones.

Obi-Wan: There are too many of the clones that I am fighting.

Jar-Jar Binks appears, disguised as clone.

Jar-Jar: Mesa annoy fans but mesa make Lucas money by saying Mesa drink Pepsi Mesa Mesa Mesa.

*4 hours of Boring stuff*

Obi-Wan: Help I am turning into Darth Vader!

Anakin: What, I thought that was me?!?

Obi-Wan: You mean as revealed way back in Empire Strikes Back? Come on, how boring do you think this series is! Lucas must be throwing in a plot twist--what kind of ludicrous narrative takes four films to catch up to a pre-existing plot twist? Lucas cannot possible be that unimaginative! On second thought... maybe you are Darth Vader?!?

Darth Vader: Die!

Jar-Jar: Pepsi!

Natalie Portman: I love you Anakin oh no please do not turn into Darth Vader you mean everything to me I love you oh know.

Darth Vader: Uh oh, am already Darth Vader. Dang.

Natalie Portman: Help me Obi-Wan-Kenobi you're my only hope.

Jar-Jar: The choice of a new generation!

Han Solo: Is this episode VII yet?

Chewbacca: I hope not, I die in the book-series before then!

Luke: It's not fair! I wanted to go to Taji station! Waaaahhh...

FADE TO: Picture of Lucas drinking martinis on private island

Lucas: Mwahahaha! The more action figures they buy, the more shall slip through their fingers!

Mark Hamill: Do I have to keep fanning you with this palm frong?

Lucas (waves hand): There are no palm frongs here, move along.

Mark: That doesn't work in real life.

Lucas- Makes 12 more bad films.

Re:Spoiker Free Summary

[Anonymous Coward]

If I had mod points, you'd get them! That was too hillarious, I shouldn't have read it at work. I've got this stupid grin on my face that took a lot of effort to remove during an executive meeting I sat in on half an hour ago!!!

Now, will someone do a CGI version of that skit? Please?

How Much?

[PetoskeyGuy]

Not this much
http://www.celebmadness.com/natalie-portman/ 2.jpg

That's the only one you'll probably one, but there are 16 in all.
http://www.celebmadness.com/natalie-portman/ [1-16] .jpg

Re:How Much?

[frycarson]

Those links are broken. Damn pornsites fixxing backdoors...

Re:How Much?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's probably that he has a subscription and you don't.

Re:How Much?

[Anonymous Coward]

Works fine here, and I'm damn sure I don't have a subscription.

Not very exciting pictures though. It's just her on a beach.

MOD PARENT SOMEHOW!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

stupidly funny, but a fan-film on homepage!

How dare you...

[gad_zuki!]

...suggest this when the video clip has almost seconds worth of Natalie Portman?!

direct download link

[mrpuffypants]

For those that don't want to bother with bittorrent here's a link to my server.

Do your fucking worst!

Here it is

share with your friends, whatever. I've got 1TB xfer/month and January's almost over!

Re:direct download link

[Anonymous Coward]

That be some righteous speed. Thanks.

Re:direct download link

[mrpuffypants]

Update!

my poor server is now putting out right at 9.88MB/sec with only about 38GB xferred over the last 24 hours (as of this post)

However, Apache seems to have hit its 150-client limit. If you're trying to connect and it times out then sorry! Everybody else that's connected should be getting good speeds, though ;)

I'd like to take a leak on this leak.

[Anonymous Coward]

Really. Nice leaked interview reel...I want my bandwidth back.

Probably wont see it

[buddydawgofdavis]

I saw the first one back in '77, it was pretty good. I saw "Empire Strikes Back" when it came out and thought it was OK.That "Return of the Jedi" seemed kind of cheap and cheesy, real disappointed. The whole "Luke, I am your father" crap just didn't work for me. Episode I was awful, period. I never did see the "Attack of the Clones" though, was it any good? I don't think I'll see Episode III either, this space opera already ended for me.

FYI: The first movie started at episode 4 for the purpose of creating the illusion of a saturday matinee cliff-hanger. There really wasn't any conceived episodes before or after episode 4. The whole trilogy myth/thing came about after the success of the first movie. The cliff-hanger format really wasn't ideal for an extended plot; cliff-hangers relied more on action than plot continuity. The plot direction of "Empire Strikes Back" (Luke, I am your father) has been a hinderance to the SW story line from that point on. The casualties:

• Predictable chracter development
• no further plot twists
• nothing left to create an upbeat or surprising episode 3

Lucas'decision to being faithful to a poor plot twist(Luke, I am your father) set the tempo for every eposode that followed. Go ahead and spend your money to see this movie if you like, but don't go in expecting much.

Re:Probably wont see it

[Udo Schmitz]

The first movie started at episode 4 for the purpose of creating the illusion of a saturday matinee cliff-hanger.

Uhhhh, no. Back in '77 (or '78 here in Germany) it wasn't mentioned that "Star Wars" should be an episdoe IV nor was it named "A New Hope". That was later. And I (like most people I know) always thought "Empire Strikes Back" was the best. It surely was a better movie.

Re:Probably wont see it

[Anonymous Coward]

That's the whole point. Episode 4 was never intended to be Episode 4, and that's why it had neither an episode number, nor a subtitle ("A New Hope") when it was first released in '77. There were a lot of preleading events that were not explained, hence the "cliff-hanger" explanation of the parent post. But it was just that, a cliff-hanger, and not really an indication of a series. Lucas may or may not have been thinking of a Part 2 (or Episode 5, in this case) but it's rather unlikely. Even then, the economic success is what paved the road for "The Empire Stikes Back", and the immense success of that pretty much created what we have today.

As a kid, I thought all 3 of the trillogy kicked ass. Even the "I'm your father" part was great. I still think Part 1 (Episode 4) was a pretty good movie in and of itself, but the only reason I like the other 2 successors is because I can still see them as I did as a kid. Fond memories. However, the movies themselves weren't that great. So now we have Episode 1, which was OK, but seriously lacked in plot. I was hoping that Lucas would be able to give us a serious twist we would have never imagined from the original trillogy, but instead he gave us a bunch of CG effects to tell us pretty much what we already knew, and then a few un-important other details. Really, I really don't see how Anakin creating C-3PO has any importance beyond letting us know where he came from. Still, it was probably a cool movie for an 8 year old.

Then we get Episode 2. I don't know where to start. I'm still trying to find where Lucas put in some effort beyond the equivalent of picking his nose. There is no plot, the action is flat, the acting is flakey (well, it always was, but it looks even worse now), and now we even get a Titanic-esque love scene, which is cheezy, corney, dorky, or whatever else you want to call it. I don't think I would have called it a good movie even if I was 8. 8 year olds aren't THAT stupid! To be honest, I paid good money for Episode 1, but I bootlegged Episode 2, and I'm not ashamed of it. I would be much too pissed off if I actually paid good money for it.

So now we're left with Episode 3. We already know how it's gonna end, and we know how it'll start. There's little room for a plot twist, so if there is one, I'll be mighty impressed to the point that I may even cut Lucas some slack for the previous 2 crappers as a method of building up for the suprise twist. But I'm not holding my breath. I all but expect Jar-Jar to be eating fried chicken out of a KFC bucket, Obi-wan sipping on a Pepsi, and Yoda either doing something or dropping something really obvious that will be continued to a TV commercial as the origin of some new action figure series. I have nothing against merchandising. I'm all for capitalism and good ol' competition, and making a buck (or a billion) where you can. But when the apparent purpose of the movie seems to mainly lie on merchandising... it makes me wanna puke.

Which brings me to my thoughts...

[Anonymous Coward]

Spoiling one of the prequels? That'd be like spoiling Gonorrhea. Seriously, Lucas had one good idea, Lord Of The Rings in space. Even with most everything written down for him, he still managed to somehow fuck it up. Forced to rely on his own talents, now he's content to make a 150 million dollar Ice Pirates staring a sexually confused Canadian.

TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[TheMysteriousFuture]

The Force.Net's Review of Episode III is interesting. TFN Editor Joshua Griffin wrote a review from the point of view of a month from now. Apparently Lucasfilm let a select (him included..wonder if they knew he wrote for TFN) few screen Episode III and give their feedback.

"I'm just returning from something Lucasfilm has never done before and quite frankly something I never thought they would do. Although there is still a month before the release of the film worldwide, they showed a select group of people the movie. [snip] But even in it's nearly finished form you can see the soul of Star Wars in this one."

"You won't want to miss today's new editorial where TFN Editor Joshua Griffin posts a "review from the future" - an article that takes a hypothetical look at a finished film that is actually no where near complete. There are many points of discussion written within the editorial itself which will be expounded on in regular articles, the point is not to show a predetermined bias to loving the unseen final film but to simply believe that Star Wars can be great again.

• click here

for the editorial"

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[TheMysteriousFuture]

And here's the text

TFN's Episode 3 Review

A fictional work by Joshua Griffin
would be dated April 2005

Finally there's a prequel to be proud of. Not that the others have been all that bad - they just haven't been able to cast the same spell over fans that the originals had back in the 70s. We argued that Episode 1 was misunderstood, that Episode 2 was a step in the right direction and prayed for Episode 3 to deliver.

And man does it deliver.

I'm just returning from something Lucasfilm has never done before and quite frankly something I never thought they would do. Although there is still a month before the release of the film worldwide, they showed a select group of people the movie. It wasn't finished, mind you - as always Lucas tinkers until the end. There was one minor scene still incomplete with bluescreen he filmed just the week before our showing. But even in it's nearly finished form you can see the soul of Star Wars in this one.

There are plenty of special effects in this movie - I think at last count they were approaching 2,200. But the driving force of the story captivates like the classics. For the first time we see Anakin's fall from glory to become the evil Darth Vader. You can hardly believe what he'll do even to those he loves after his Dark Side embrace. Any momentum from the prequels and anticipation from the classics lives out on screen here aggressively.

Returning cast for the final theatrical Star Wars movie include Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), Natalie Portman (Padme Skywalker), Ian McDiarmid (Palpatine), Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), Robert Coleman/Frank Oz (Yoda), Jimmy Smits (Bail Organa), and Christopher Lee (Count Dooku). Joining the prequel veterans in the last installment are notables Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), ILM (General Grievous) Wayne Pygram (Tarkin).

The movie starts with a bang - we're in the middle of a giant space battle - the climax of the Clone Wars. When I was a kid I imagined how this would play out, and this exceeds even those expectations. There's the epic capital ship battles moving in side by side like pirate vessels maneuvering for strategic position on each other, while intimate skirmishes that will define the outcome of the war take place nearby. As these huge ships rip apart you see clones being sucked out into space to their doom.

Palpatine is shackled to a solitary chair inside one of these weapons of war, a fully ironic and iconic image since it is he that has orchestrated these very events frozen in the starfield behind him. You can tell from these early moments several key elements are at last coming together. Lucas' Episode I introduction of characters and Episode 2 development of the plot are mere footnotes to the script and acting of this final film. We are on a whole new level of Star Wars here.

I remember the first time I watched Hayden Christensen as Anakin Skywalker in Episode II. I felt he was a bit stiff and wooden like the others, but after watching Episode III I think I understand it better. He is cocky - full of pride as Yoda predicted - and it would eventually be his downfall. You can see it as he slices through separatist forces or flies his Starfighter and it peaks as he's saving a huge cruiser from destruction over Corusant. Even as they hang on for dear life as the ship careens in circles you can see him slipping deeper and deeper into pure evil.

Portman returns to the film a bit later than expected, and this time also delivers her best performance of the prequels. Yoda is amazing yet again - you'll see him do more than you ever imagined again this time, and Ewan McGregor still shines as the venerable and protective Obi-Wan. There's a new and temporary villain named General Grievous, another disposable bad guy in the prequel tradition of Maul and Dooku. But he's a fantastic character with lots of lightsabers and exciting moments. Another part of his defense is that he is central to the plot of the film - think of him as

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[Udo Schmitz]

We've always wanted to see Kashyyyk - the long described planet of the Wookiees.

I've seen it in the 1978 StarWars TV Christmas Special. BTW: You should watch that if you think the prequels suck ...

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[CGP314]

TFN's Episode 3 Review

A fictional work by Joshua Griffin would be dated April 2005

You didn't need to tell us it was fiction. The 5 stars at the end gave it away.

--
In London? Need a Physics Tutor?

American Weblog in London

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[chad_r]

Returning cast for the final theatrical Star Wars movie include ... Wayne Pygram (Tarkin).

Lucas, you bastard!! Now I may actually have to see this movie. He won't be in Scorpius costume, but I can close my eyes and imagine.

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[thelasttemptation]

He won't be in Scorpius costume, but I can close my eyes and imagine.

Like you don't do that enough at home in bed?

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[SpamJunkie]

Lucasfilm owns theforce.net. They had a very good idea who he works for.

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[TheMysteriousFuture]

Ahha okay, thanks for the info

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[Anonymous Coward]

ROTFLMFAO

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[psi_diddy]

That edit is completely misleading Pygram is not a returning cast member. SCO's lawyers couldn't have made a more misleading splice.

Re:TFN Episode III "Review from the future"!

[youritadvisor.com]

When i read this i though it didn't even match the standard rumours that were on the net. Namely that darth Vader is not really anikin but a clone of anikin. (which would explain why he did not know about leia) and why his body deteriated so quickly. The final battle was going to be anikin (real) vs anikin (clone) with clone winning and the audience would know the truth because anikin clone hand would be bleeding (the hand that anikin lost in SW II)

Re:Oh, gay

[Felinoid]

Ohh we like you SOO much you get a part in Star Trek...
Don't forget to wear a red shirt.

three strikes, no balls

[Herr_Nightingale]

you're wrong, there are spoilers. looks like George Lucas himself spoiled it.
on a scale of 'phantom plot' to 'a new hope' expect another zero.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[DinosaurNeal]

Why did anyone ever think that the prequels were going to be any good.

Return of the Jedi came out in 83

What came next?

People always forget that Lucas produced Howard the Duck in 1986 as his next major scifi work.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Jaysyn]

So you're saying that the whole Star Wars thing could have been a fluke?

Jaysyn

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Blondie-Wan]

People always forget that Lucas produced Howard the Duck in 1986 as his next major scifi work.

Actually, more people remember that than remember that it wasn't exactly his movie; unlike Star Wars, Indiana Jones, American Graffiti, THX 1138 and Willow, which were all his creations, Howard the Duck was based on a Marvel Comics character, and it was both written and directed by other people (longtime Lucas associates Willard Huyck and Gloria Katz, to be specific; Huyck directed, Katz produced, and they co-wrote it together, so the couple - they're married - are pretty much responsible for Howard as a film. Lucas was incidental).

I personally think Lucas' creativity took a turn for the worse around 1993. His works prior to that were mostly fine, with several excellent works; his worst works (of his own creation, as opposed to the various movies he executive-produced for other filmmakers) from before the early '90s are probably Willow and the made-for-TV Ewok movies, and even those were Ok for what they were meant to be. After 1993, though, he brought us Radioland Murders and the Star Wars prequels and special editions. I think most of us would agree all those efforts are at least fairly flawed, and perhaps worse. I'm personally inclined to attribute the fact there may be anything worthwhile in any of them to all of them having been at least "on the drawing board" since before '93 or so, when he was still having good ideas.

In other words, yeah, I'm afraid he's not quite what he was (and I hate to say it; I grew up a pretty serious Lucasfilm geek), but I wouldn't pin his decline as far back as '86 just because of Howard. That was just one movie out of a bunch he served as executive producer on, usually for friends or other filmmakers he admired or wanted to help out, and many of those other movies are quite worthwhile (Kagemusha, Body Heat, Twice Upon a Time, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Latino, Labyrinth, Tucker: The Man and His Dream), and include movies made concurrently with or following Howard the Duck.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[ebresie]

Let's face...he is a good producer, writer, and visionary but as a director...he leaves a little to be desired...he did only direct the first Star Wars (New Hope)

But I will keep watching no matter what.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Blondie-Wan]

Well, that, and American Graffiti, and THX 1138... ;)

That said, the last movie he directed before the prequels was indeed the original Star Wars, done 22 years earlier...

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Golias]

Yea, but American Graffiti, THX 1138, and Star Wars were all really good movies, so he was a good director at one point. Why he choses to make such crappy Star Wars prequels now is difficult to explain.

You would think that the man who once talked Francis Ford Coppola into making "The Godfather" would have enough judgment to recognize how awful his recent movies were turning out before he released them.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[squidfood]

I personally think Lucas' creativity took a turn for the worse around 1993.

According to the recent DVD, the Indianna Jones that Lucas had the most input into (as opposed to Spielberg) was Temple of Doom. Enough Said.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[filmsmith]

but as a director...he leaves a little to be desired

If ever there were need for an 'Understatement' mod, this would be it.

fs

p.s. Emphasis mine.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Khomar]

After 1993, though, he brought us Radioland Murders...

Strange, but personnally that is one of my favorite comedies. I think, perhaps, you need to be a real fan of music (especially the music of that era) to really enjoy the humor and creativity of the show. It was a fun, creative show that I frequently recommend to my friends. No, it wasn't sci-fi, but that does not mean it is a terrible film.

I agree with the Star Wars prequels and special editions however.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Clock Nova]

I would have agreed with the sentiment you express, until I bought the trilogy and watched them all (the first time I have ever seen the first two in widescreen, too). Now, I think Temple of Doom gets the shaft undeservedly. True, Spielberg calls it his least favorite, but that's mainly because it was so different from the other two. Temple of Doom was intended to be a darker film, more like Empire Strikes Back. And you know, I actually really like it. But that's just my opinion.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Blondie-Wan]

Oh, I do love the music (I have the Radioland Murders soundtrack, and I don't even hate the film (I actually saw it twice theatrically, and had to drive an hour to see it the first time). It's actually interesting in its social underpinnings - the movie has a subtext about the cultural transition from a world when radio was a much bigger force than it is now to one where television dominates, and if you know something of the history (Lucas actually had the idea as far back as around the American Graffiti / Star Wars [i.e., Episode IV] period in the '70s; the movie was a project he'd had percolating on a back burner for ~25 years), you can see some of the social ideas that were at play in the original idea he'd had as a young filmmaker (whose studies had involved both filmmaking and anthropology, after all). It's as fast-paced as any of the Star Wars episodes or Indy adventures, and has a lot to recommend it; unfortunately, it's just not particularly funny, which is a pretty serious shortcoming for a comedy.

Incidentally (just as a possible trivia point), it's apparently part of the same universe as American Graffiti - reputedly, Penny and Roger Henderson, the characters played by Mary Stuart Masterson and Brian Benben, are the parents of Curt and Laurie Henderson, the characters played by Richard Dreyfuss and Cindy Williams in American Graffiti, making Radioland Murders yet another Lucasfilm prequel of sorts (along with Star Wars Episodes I, II and III, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, and all of The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles).

Re:three strikes, no balls

[TwistedGreen]

...darker? Are you nuts?

Go ahead and watch it again. It's a kids' movie. Just like the new Star Wars prequels. You have your creepy bugs, monkey brains, eyeball soup... and the hero, Indiana Jones, freeing the children from the big bad adults! Numerous child actors + major gross-out scenes + a boring and predictable plot = a movie obviously made for children.

I never realized just how bad it really is until I watched it again last week, and you could just see Jar-Jar coming. It's all starting to make sense now.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Anonymous Coward]

Jaysyn is such a faggy name.

Re:three strikes, no balls

[squidfood]

True, Spielberg calls it his least favorite, but that's mainly because it was so different from the other two...

Heh, to each their own. When I saw that part of the commentary my reaction was "yes! Spielberg thinks the same way I do!"

Re:three strikes, no balls

[DCheesi]

His works prior to that were mostly fine, with several excellent works; his worst works (of his own creation, as opposed to the various movies he executive-produced for other filmmakers) from before the early '90s are probably Willow and the made-for-TV Ewok movies, and even those were Ok for what they were meant to be.

Let's not forget the infamous "Star Wars Holiday Special"! (as much as he would like us to...) I have very vague memories of this from when I was a kid; mostly from the nightmares I had for years afterward :)

Re:three strikes, no balls

[Clock Nova]

A kids movie? Are you nuts. Temple of Doom is the only one of the three I wouldn't take a young child to see. The very idea that an entire village has been robbed of its children, only to have them enslaved, tortured, and killed is far, far darker than Indy's illuminating quests for the Ark or the Holy grail. This movie was NOT made for children.

I never realized how truly good it was until I watched it recently.

How sad for you.

I posted this yesterday

[Anonymous Coward]

How is this a story when I posted it yesterday & it was rejected? Who stole this story from me?

From the link:
January 24, 2004 --
Everybody, get prepared to be blown away. Leaked footage of Star Wars: Episode III is now online! Included in the 2-minute and 37-second clip are shots of the Austrailian set, George Lucas behind the camera, Chewbacca looking cooler than ever, and even a quick peek at Hayden Christiensen (in Vader get-up!) and Ewen McGregor duking it out, all being played to AC/DC's "Back in Black". Check it out by visiting the link below. You must have Quicktime to view it.

Fucking slashdot story stealing editors.

Just saw it...

[fejikso]

and it sucks... both the quality of the recording and the content of what it is seen in the TV.

Perhaps I'm not impressed because I'm not a Star Wars fan...

Anyway, if you haven't seen the video, believe me, it's nothing special.

Translation

[Kjella]

But here's my feeble little geek protest: don't go opening night. Go the second night. Wouldn't it be cool if the first day, *no one* showed up?

I want to be there opening night center row, center seats wearing my Star Wars costume and I hope I can sucker some of my fellow geeks to not grab those tickets before me.

Kjella

Hoping its good????

[Snaller]

Oh you naive child! This is George "here is this script i whipped up in the bathroom earlier" Lucas - but there'll be nifty graphics.

Re:Hoping its good????

[Snaller]

Oh you naive child! This is George "here is this script i whipped up in the bathroom earlier" Lucas - but there'll be nifty graphics.
(Hey, that as another moderator against free speech)

Here is a spoiler!

[Anonymous Coward]

I will tell you what happens in the movie!

Anakin begets Luke and Leaia with Padme (or whatever that slut's name is). Palpatine takes over the senate, immobilizes and destroys it, and uses his dark sith powers to create a new empir ewith Anakin at his side. Padme dies in the fight against him. All the Jedi are killed by Boba, Vader, and Anakin, including Ewan McGregor. All the jedi except Yoda. The Republic is crushed under the heel of the new Empire.

And how do I Know? SOME BASTARD DIDN'T TELL ME WHEN I WATCHED EPISODES 4, 5, AND 6 THAT THEY'D CONTAIN SPOILERS!

Re:Here is a spoiler!

[Kryptic Knight]

Set Mode=Pedantic

Load message (previous)

Run NITPICK

1) Anakin begets Luke and Leaia with Padme.

Should this not in fact read "Anakin begets Padme with Luke and Leia."

- Padme is the mother and is the subject of the beget'ment

- Leia not Leaia

2) All the Jedi are killed by Boba, Vader, and Anakin, including Ewan McGregor. All the jedi except Yoda.

- You mixed ACTOR names with CHARACTER names.
Ewan McGregor plays Obi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi

- Obi-Wan is not killed in Episode III, he looses his head in a lightsabre duel with Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker in Episode IV.

If you are going to rant, then please check your spelling & facts before you post.

Re:Here is a spoiler!

[Hawkxor]

"All the Jedi are killed by Boba, Vader, and Anakin, including Ewan McGregor. All the jedi except Yoda.

Obi-Wan is not killed in Episode III, he looses his head in a lightsabre duel with Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker in Episode IV." ...Hence he is killed by Vader, as claimed...

Re:Here is a spoiler!

[Anonymous Coward]

- Obi-Wan is not killed in Episode III, he looses his head in a lightsabre duel with Darth Vader / Anakin Skywalker in Episode IV.

It's loses.

If you are going to rant, then please check your spelling before you post.

Re:How can you spoil something that is already bad

[PacoTaco]

Or play outside and get some fresh air?

It's kind of ironic that you're posting this on Slashdot.

Info regarding how much this video sucks

[jerkface]

1. There's nothing interesting in this video. The only true movie footage in it is from the original trilogy.
2. The video quality sucks BIGTIME. It is a 15fps video of someone pointing a digital still camera at a TV, and most of the viewing area is taken up by stuff outside of that TV screen.
3. Besides being half the framerate of ordinary NTSC TV, the avi contains terrible sound. The sound is UNCOMPRESSED PCM - single channel, 8 bit, 11024 samples per second. That's why the sound quality is such total shit.
4. The video is motion jpeg, which is nothing but a series of jpeg files, one for each frame. Generally this type of video takes up several times more space than a comparable quality mpeg-1 video file, let alone DivX. mjpeg is very commonly used with digital cameras, though...

Please the higher quality..

[liberta]

The site seems to contain only the low-quality one.. Is there the higher-quality version of film?

Re:How can you spoil something that is already bad

[astro-g]

umm, Ive watched andromeda ascendant.

acting, voices, effects, star wars was never THAT bad. please

From the linked page

[Sivar]

"Everybody, get prepared to be blown away."

Like the last two tries?

Agreed...

[interactive_civilian]

I've often wondered when watching those scenes, why are they trying to hit each other's lightsabers rather than each other's bodies.

The fight scenes in Episodes 1 and 2 were nicely choreographed(sp?), but it was rather obvious that the characters weren't trying to hit each other.

Re:Agreed...

[Anonymous Coward]

This happens in, roughly, every movie in existence. Even a lot of Asian movies.

What about Darth Vader, chopping manically at Luke's sabre-hand before he cuts it off? WHAM! WHAM! WHAM! "I will BEAT you to death in the weapon!".

Yeah...they should have gotten...

[interactive_civilian]

...EDDIE MURPHY!!! :D

That would have really screwed with some people's minds. ;p

What's up with George ?

[master_p]

The original Star Wars was about an epic battle between good and evil, supported by interesting characters like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker. The Force and other bits was the icing on the cake. These new Star Wars is uninteresting, to say the least. We don't care about how Darth Vader became so, we don't care about the history of Jedi, we don't care about all this stuff!!! give us some good old fashioned war between good vs evil, a romantic tale, and a few good heros, and you have a success!!! (after all, this last description also fits Lord of the Rings...)

I can think of one saving grace...

[Anonymous Coward]

It's the last nail in the coffin, so we can just bury it and get on with our lives.

Wrong format

[kusma]

I will only watch this when it gets re-released as an ASCIImation - the special effects are so much better in ASCII.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[don.g]

Your list's order speaks volumes: look at the sequence of movie suckage

1st movie: rocks
2nd movie: rocks
3rd movie: sort-of rocks
4th movie: sucks
5th movie: sucks

George lost the plot during ROTJ, and there's no hope for the future.

PR of new millenium ..

[pecko666]

I think someone from LucasArts read Gibson's Pattern recognition, and they try it on us now ;-)

Lucas won't get another dime from me

[Anonymous Coward]

That guy is an absolute lunatic. Now we can all see what Francis Ford Copppola had to deal with when he was screwed out of making Star Wars WITH Lucas even though he helped out Lucas artisticly AND finacially with THX. This is why Harrison Ford's character in Apocolypse Now is called "Lucas" or Luke. It was a dig at this asshole who snubbed Coppola as a friend and partner.

Re:Lucas won't get another dime from me

[Anonymous Coward]

bitter...party of YOU...bitter....your table's ready...

Dude...chances are:

• you were born AFTER that went down
• you don't know either one of them
• you don't know what really happened
• you've got some unresolved childhood trauma that you're so afraid to face that you're lashing out at some one whom you've never met over a fight and issue that has nothing to do with you.

Dude...I'm just sayin'--ya know, so f*cking what? Hollyweird is full of deal makers and breakers. Don't be emotionally attached to something that's way off your playing field. Be a zen master and embrace ambivilence.

Besides, that Bill Gates is the freakin' devil. User your hate for good. (snicker)

SO what?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can probably already download EP3 on Kazaa. :-P

I saw Kashyyyk too

[Slowtreme]

I vividly remember the StarWars TV Special, from when I was 7 years old. For years wondered if I had dreamed the whole thing. My parents claim no knowledge of it.

It's all about perception I guess. I thought it was "super cool", I was a kid, they had the right audience. I'm sure it sucked for adults, my parents did good to forget the whole thing.

MOD PARENT UP!!!! INTERESTING!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Mod up, now! This is interesting and worth discussing!

Commercial success?

[jotaeleemeese]

Is that the only measure you have for artistic merit?

Re:Commercial success?

[interiot]

The discussion isn't about artistic merit. It's entirely possible for future films to be completely devoid of artistic merit, yet still make enough profit to be able to complete the series to Ep 9.

As nice as it would be that the profit motive would be enough to force Lucas to not pump out a couple more bad movies, I don't really see how that'd be the case. The profit motive is what encourages endless spin-offs of the same old crap in some cases. Unless George Lucas's circumstances are special or something (he insists on spending absurd amounts of money on production no matter what), it will be just as easy for him to continue putting out bad movies as it is for anyone else.

Month?

[Sandman1971]

OK, Either I'm not as informed as I thought I was, or this article is FUBARed. AM I the only one who saw two references to E3 being released worldwide next month? I was under the impression this movie wasn't out until May 2005?

Re:Month?

[Sandman1971]

Yup, it's a hoax/bad joke. http://boards.theforce.net/Episode_III_(Spoilers_A llowed)/b10331/14702368/?33

Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

Theres a mirror here: Mirror Much faster for me.

HTTP Mirror

[Anonymous Coward]

There's a HTTP mirror working quite fast for me here

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[Hittite Creosote]

George lost the plot during ROTJ, and there's no hope for the future

He stopped copying Kurosawa whenever he could and thought he was smart enough to do it his way and keep the quality up. Sadly, he isn't.

Nothing Interesting

[filmguy1105]

So little to see that the link still works at 6:30am cst.

MOD UP!!!! LET'S FIND OUT THE TRUTH!!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

This is interesting and I must say I agree! How about you?

MOD PARENT UP!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hate to say this, but I agree also.

Return of the Jedi: Name sucks, movie sort-of rock

[wiredog]

You mean "Attack of the Flaming Ewoks" don't you. If they had done it, as originally intended, with wookies it would've rocked. As it was, it wasn't the worst movie I've ever seen. But then, I've seen Ishtar.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[freaksta]

Actually, IMHO, the ones you said 'name rock' actually sucked. A New Hope was a great title. Same with Empite, Return. Phantom Menace sucks. Sounds like a kid flick.

worst slashdotting ever

[SQLz]

I wonder what kind of hardware and bandwidth you need to survive a post on slashdot with the words "star wars" and "video clip".

Someone needs to figure this out.

Re:worst slashdotting ever

[toddestan]

I wonder what kind of hardware and bandwidth you need to survive a post on slashdot with the words "star wars" and "video clip".

Someone needs to figure this out.

Probably less hardware and bandwidth than a server holding a large zip file with the words "SCO" and "evidence" in the file name.

It never ceases to amaze me

[SquierStrat]

I never ceases to amaze me how bitchy some of the posters on this site are.

I'm a huge star wars fan. Episode 1 wasn't great but it had its moments. Jar-jar is annoying but geez he didn't "kill the film" as so many people say he did. Episode 2 was in my opinion, a great improvement, still not of the caliber of the original 3, but still a good movie to watch.

All I ever hear on here is how bad the movie was -bitch bitch bitch, moan moan moan. But I bet most of the people on here doing the bitching, have the DVDs.

Realism in a Bruce Lee Movie?

[dbretton]

Imagine they took a Bruce Lee movie and changed around the fight scenes, enhancing them with computer graphics so that Bruce can defy gravity and kick 20 people in a row with a continually spinning roundhouse.

You mean like in the Chinese Connection when Bruce fights the entire karate school all at once (about 15 people. Instead of all descending upon him simultaneously, they attack in waves of 1,2 or 3 at most?

Or like the scene in The Chinese Connection when bruce grabs two karate experts, one in each hand, and spins them around into the air, ultimately releasing them into the wall/other opponents?

*very realistic*

Re:Realism in a Bruce Lee Movie?

[kragaroth]

Actually, in real fights with one/a few against many, only a very few will be fighting at once. I am not saying this particular scene was realistic, only that in a 15 to 1 fight, only a few will be able to fight the person at a time under normal conditions. I do not know this from experience myself, but I know people who have actually been involved in such situations. I also know that anyone with real knowledge of the matter will tell you the same thing. I seem to recall this as being adressed as a potential myth in a fighter magazine where a bodyguard trainer amongst others indeed told it to be true.

characters too serious

[snooo53]

Speaking of characters, I think one of the biggest problems with the newer movies is that the main characters are way TOO SERIOUS! That's one of the reasons eps 4,5,6 were good... the characters were likeable... the kind of people you'd want to hang out at a bar with.

Part of this is bad writing but a lot is bad acting as well. Lucas needs to give Anakin, Padme and Obi-wan some warmth to their personalities. Something to make them likeable. Have them smile or crack a joke once in a while.

In other words, Lightsaber fights and special effects are cool... but only when you actually care what happens to the characters.

Memorable line counts

[ianscot]

One of the ways to measure a pop movie is to think of the memorable lines from it. Dialog doesn't have to be all that great to stick in your head. ("This was no boating accident!" isn't great literature.)

Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back had the same ham-fisted Lucas dialog, but they were fun and you remember a lot of little lines from them. Heck, I can still hear the exact intonation of Luke's lines as he reacts to Ben Kenobi being cut down. "These aren't the droids we're looking for" and a bunch of other quotes have stuck with me forever. "Empire..." I recall a little less from, though I've probably seen it more. Some of the drippingly sarcastic "Your worship" stuff, and lots of Threepio's banter with R2D2, but not tons of it.

By the time we get to Return of the Jedi, though, I recall nothing to speak of. And for the last/first two movies, all, I can come up with is "Mee-sa." Seriously. And maybe, if I reach, "Around the survivors a perimeter create," but that I'm remembering because it was so stoo-pid. (The entire plot point, not just the line.)

Anyway, does anyone remember any lines from Episodes I or II? For good reasons? Try it out.

Re:Memorable line counts

[Schmucky The Cat]

Sure. Watch Joe Lieberman in the Democratic debates and try to not hear "I'm afraid we are going to have to accept Federation control for the time being."
Every time Lieberman opens his mouth, thats what comes out.

Re:Memorable line counts

[ianscot]

I'd laugh, but you know... I don't remember the line from the movie, so it isn't quite as funny.

Every time I see Jeff Van Gundy -- former Knicks coach, now with Houston -- I hear Simon Bar Sinister from Underdog ranting about collecting all the bodies of water in the world. (So Underdog was more memorable for me than Episode I. No surprises there.)

Library Planet...

[Jogar the Barbarian]

I believe the library planet you refer to is Ossus, revealed in the Dark Horse TPB Dark Empire II.

(which was, IMHO, not as good as Dark Empire I. The writing was decent but the art was lackluster)

In the defense of Lucas

[BlindMellon]

I could not disagree more with some of the posts about Star Wars and George Lucas. I believe that the prequel movies were certainly of sequel caliber, and in some respects even better. And although posting against the slashdot bash-fest is probably a waste of my time, I just can't let this one slide. It saddens me to see post after post slamming Lucas. Shameful, really.

First and most importantly, the prequel narrative is just wonderful. How cool is it to see some of the history of the sequel characters? (excuse spelling here...) Obee-Wan (as a bad-ass), 3PO, Luke's parents, a younger yoda (as a bad-ass as well), the senator / dark lord pulling all the strings, and of course a young Vader? And not a single character is one dimensional. Like 'em or not, they all exhibit traits / flaws / emotions that we can relate to. If Lucas did not flush out his characters so well, could we form such strong opinions about them (take Jar-jar for example).

Subtleties in the story, should you recognize them, abound. Yes Annie wined his way through episode two nearly getting on everyone's nerves. But then, so did Luke. Luke didn't whine as much as his father, and Luke didn't get drawn into the dark side as did his father (hate leads to anger...) Brilliant.

Jar-jar has taken a beating, but I for one enjoyed the character. Lets set aside the fact that this character is 100% CG (flawlessly executed). Jar jar was awarded and honored by a race of folks who he was taught never to interact with. And although he did bumble his way through the epic battle facing thousands of droids, it was not finally his dumb luck that got him his place in history, but his bravery and willingness to go after what he believed in despite the odds. In Jar-jar we see a hero. What a shame Lucas has taken such abuse for introducing such a character.

Secondly, the prequel continues to push boundaries of movie making. If I'm not mistaken, episode one was the first all digital shooting. His green screen work, while in breadth amazing at the time, is more impressive in the fact the CG worlds were of his imagination. The battle scene with thousands of CG droids from episode one and the beginning of the clone wars in episode two surly have opened doors for LOTR and others. And even old effects like blasters and light sabers still sound exactly like they should years later.

To say that Lucas is in danger of losing the franchise is ridiculous. To say that anyone can come up with the same special effects is ludicrous. Lucas continues to be one of the greatest artists of our times, which is why he is out making movies, and you all are posting to slashdot. I for one am anxiously awaiting the most exciting story of the entire Star Wars series, and I'm sure it will be nothing short of incredible.

A New Outlook

[redtail1]

If this final movie is any good it might be easier to pretend George Lucas just made a prequel to A New Hope 21 years after Return of the Jedi and deny Episodes I and II ever happened. Episodes III-VI will be canon.

Re:A New Outlook

[trouser]

And maybe while we're at it we could pretend episode six never happened too. Stupid Muppet movie.

Chewbacca is a spoiler

[Savatte]

The fact that Chewbacca will be in the movie should be considered a spoiler, because for the series to make logical sense, Chewie shouldn't be in Episode 3. He is introduced to Luke and therefore the audience in Episode 4.

Re:Chewbacca is a spoiler

[cparisi]

If you watch Ep IV again, you might notice that Chewie and Obi-Wan seem to know each other. Maybe Ep III is where they meet...

Re:Chewbacca is a spoiler

[DCheesi]

Watched it just the other night; didn't really notice anything like that. Obi-wan is simply talking to crewmen from various ships at the bar, and ends up talking to Chewy, who takes him to meet the captain. Other than that I don't remember anything to suggest familiarity.

And remember: "If Chewbacca doesn't fit, you must acquit!" :)

Re:Chewbacca is a spoiler

[bill_mcgonigle]

I suspect when we learn the history of the Falcon we'll know more.

A job well done

[Anonymous Coward]

Worst done, sir! *salutes*

Got another pipe we can totally saturate and bring down?

RE: Drink!

[chooks]

I've got a bad feeling about this...

alone?

[RowdyReptile]

I have a spoiler for you: you will die alone!

Every living thing dies alone.

Re:alone?

[Anonymous Coward]

Every living thing dies alone.[donnie darko]

Man, that movie was a huge disappointment for me. I hadn't seen any previews, but a friend at work kept saying how great the movie was. nope.

Also on that IMDB list...

[RowdyReptile]

I also see all three LOTR movies are in the top 10 for both gross revenues and user ratings. Impressive.

Star Wars: Ep 5 is #15 and #25. The only other movie even in the top 40 of both lists is The Matrix (#32 and #37).

Re:Also on that IMDB list..... edit

[RowdyReptile]

Star Wars: Ep 5 is #15 and #25. The only other movie even in the top 40 of both lists is The Matrix (#32 and #37).

Oops, I just saw that Star Wars is #10 and #12 on those lists as well.

Have you seen. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

The Phantom Edit?

I've become very fond of that version.

I agree that there's a very interesting story unfolding, and that the characters are quite moving and well realized. There is SO much tied to the basic editing of a film. When you remove Medi-Chlorines, and redundant scenes of cringe-worthy acting, etc., the film vastly, vastly improves.

I've been hoping for a time that the AOTC would be similarly treated, but I'm not sure how easy that would be to do. There were I feel, several irrepairable aspects to that film which editing alone could not affect. But I'd still be curious to see what could be done.

In any case, I am certainly looking forward to the next one. I hope Lucas hires a good story and film editor this time, though. We all have our strong and weak suits, and all these young and adoring kids working for Lucas has created an environment which is allowing him to avoid the fact that he is human just like the rest of us. . .

If you want a copy of the Phantom Edit, let me know and I'll send you one. (On the promise, of course, that you create more copies and give them to your friends with the same instructions.)

-FL

Re:Have you seen. . .

[scumdamn]

If you have a BitTorrent link I'd really really like that.

Re:Have you seen. . .

[Fantastic Lad]

If you have a BitTorrent link I'd really really like that.

Don't have one. Sorry. You could probably winMX, or eMule it. But either way, it's certainly worth the trouble.

Offer's still open if you want me to mail you a copy. You can contact me at. . .

the_fantastic_lad@yahoo.com

Cheers!

-FL

No promises

[Anonymous Coward]

But I'll try to have this mirrored on my site for this afternoon:

Mirror (hopefully)

Umm...... no?

[Ride-My-Rocket]

Actually, no, you don't have to go see it. I know I won't, I know my g/f won't, and I know a bunch of people who consider themselves Star Wars fans who aren't going. Why? Because the movies have proven to be more tedious than entertaining.

Maybe we'll see it somebody. But that day will probably be whenever it hits cable or network television. In the meantime, Lucas can continue to milk his cash cow for all it's worth, but he'll have to do it without my $$$.

In the meantime, by all means feel free to pay good money for movies you admit sucked. Like a spoiled child, you're only encouraging him to keep making craptastic movies.

Re:Umm...... no?

[Anonymous Coward]

Wow, good thing you're so much smarter than the rest of us. Too bad about the sense of humor, though.

WTF?!

[atheken]

That was the most pathetic thing I have ever seen. "Leaked" my ass. Like we don't know what a green screen looks like.

Open appeal to all Star Wars fans

[faust13]

Episode III is coming, it is going to make Lucasfilm and 20th Century Fox a lot of money. Lucas is going to do things his way. Star Wars fans will go see it. These are the four facts we cannot do anything about.

However, I make an open appeal to all Star Wars fans. Don't see this film until the second week.

This accomplishes two things:

1. If we can deny Lucas the #1 release spot, his Distributors and the Executives are going to take a second look of Lucas' carte blanche.

2. If we can deny Lucas the #1 release spot, we will voice our opinion in a way that even Lucas cannot deny.

I'm not advocating a complete boycott, we sat through Episodes I and II, we've earned the right of seeing the closure of the first act. But when we spend our money, do it in a way that Lucas, Lucasfilm, and 20th Century Fox will actually notice.

Don't see Episode III until the second week of release.

The link must have changed

[Orion Blastar]

I went to see it, instead I got a review of Pirates of the Caribbean.

Anyone got the real link? I would like to see it.

Wow!

[kitzilla]

Wow! Light sabre battles! I'd never have expected that!

Real Sword Fights Make Poor Cinema

[DG]

Speaking as one who did his share of epee in college....

Real sword fights - at least, between two skilled and prepared opponents (which I guess makes it more of a "duel") make for poor cinema, because they tend to be over very quickly.

And even then, they favour economy of movement. Big swinging flourishes get you killed.

If you watch an epee match, you'll see some opening and closing of distance and some beats (that don't commit anybody to anything) and then suddenly lunge-point! or lunge-riposte-point! or rarely even lunge-riposte-counter-point! But certainly never these long phrases that last for minutes at a time.

I've never done any Kendo, but I suspect that's true there too.

DG

Jedi disappearing bodies

[Orion Blastar]

I will win a no-prize if I answer this right.

Only Jedi Masters have the ability to have their bodies vanish at death. It is a force trick that the other Jedis have not learned yet. Those Jedis that died in battle in episode II were not Jedi Masters. Yoda, Obiwan, Anakin/Vader were all Jedi Masters and thus have the body vanish at death force trick. :)

The body vanish at death force trick requires that the body become part of the force, hence the Jedi Master can come back as a ghost.

Re:bittorrent not working manually or any other wa

[gando]

That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me.

Server overloaded...watch it here too!

[severdia]

http://severdia.com/ Click on the "Star Wars 3" link or the Vader head. . .

Lemmie know when it's done!

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm always up for new Sci-fi to read (it *is* a book, right?)!

Re:Lemmie know when it's done!

[uptownguy]

Yes, it's a book. I'll give you a teaser: Time Travel done right. Oh, and it says more than a little about privacy rights, too.

Holy Christ

[bonch]

Did you see the footage? 90% of it was blue/green screens.

If George Lucas had filmed Lord of the Rings, all of Bag-End would have been blue-screened. Compare to WETA who actually builds a small-scale set, a large-scale set, and an outdoor real location. Guess what, it makes it look like the actors are really there!

Attack of the Clones was endless, flat, eye-level camera shots. It looked like everyone was acting on a theater stage (in a bad way), and it was shot that way. The reason? They WERE on a stage, and the rest of the movie was created in post-production. So we get zillions of little CG elements whizzing around all the time.

Meanwhile, WETA takes the time to build a real Fangorn forest in their warehouse, and a real Dead Marshes in their parking lot.

How bad was Nemisis?

[Anonymous Coward]

So bad that it was the least profitable Trek movie ever released. So bad that the Shatner novels were at least 10 times better. And that goes for First Contact and Insurrection as well.

That's pretty damn bad.

Just waiting for

[Anonymous Coward]

The Alien Vs Preditor movie...

or how about (the new) Cylons vs. Terminators ?

You said the magic word. SAMURAI!

[filmsmith]

All this talk of suspenseful fight scenes and long, elaborate battles reminds me of the battle between Yojimbo and his enemy at the end of Sanjuro. One of the best damn fight scenes in history and riddled with tension. Anyone whose seen it knows that almost any explanation would destroy the beauty of it. It simply must be watched to be appreciated.

fs

p.s. And while we're (I'm) on the subject of fabulous samurai deaths, how about the scene at the end of Throne of Blood with all the Arrows?!

Why is this movie being made?

[Simonetta]

Am I the only one who noticed how tired the last 'Star Wars' movie was? How much of the movie was directly lifted from other films? Like how the first twenty minutes of the movie (the 3-D car chase) was taken scene-by-scene from 'The Fifth Element'?

Am I the only one who noticed that people were actually laughing AT the last Star Wars movie? Like when Princess ImADildo falls out of flying car going 150 miles an hour over packed sand, jumps up and runs away? Everyone in the theatre was howling!

Someone should take George Lucas aside and calmly and rationally explain that this particular comic book fantasy has been milked dry (had been twenty years ago) and he should focus on something else if he wants to maintain his legacy in film history and not become the Ed Wood of his generation.

how not to suck

[KunstCleaver]

the only way that i see that this movie
could not completely suck,
is if the entire film is a long downhill
slope of misery. things start well,
and the good guys just keep losing and
getting slaughtered until the end of the movie.

kinda like the ending of empire, but MORE so,
especially since there won't be another movie!

it would be the greatest cliff hanger ever!
i have no doubt it won't happen.

Re:Who cares?

[Anonymous Coward]

You forgot FOAD. Also, in your first response you neglected to use racial slurs such as Nigger. Please keep this in mind for future trolls.

duct-tape the plot back together

[cgenman]

Why does it need to be self-consistent and completely explained? A good story teller will know what not to tell the audience. You don't, for example, have a 30 second sequence of someone shaking in their bed going "ungh, ungh," and then have another character meet them outside saying "having bad dreams again?"

That desire to have everything nicely rounded up and taped off has prevented the series from taking any real, surprising twists. A prequal, to be artistically successful, needs to make the viewer look at the original movie in a new light. Yoda having been a force for the dark side and repenting, would be a new light. The real Amidala dying and Corde taking her place, being forced through circumstance into a loveless relationship with Anakin, would be a new light. Semperor Palpatine being Luke's true father would be a new light. Saying that Darth Vader has a lot of mitochondria is not a new light. Jar Jar ruining the world is not a new light. Having Darth Vader build C3-PO is almost a new light, but not significant enough to matter.

There is no backstory too small to explain in painful detail in the new series. Even the first movie is completely irrelevant... if things picked up at #2 no plot would be missing.

Flushing out the backstory has been nothing but a mistake for the prequals. The clone army is interesting and relevant, but what does that change? Nothing.

[OT] Re:Spoiler Alert!

[tntguy]

The new Longhorn Start button. It's top secret, and you weren't supposed to see it. Please remove your eyeballs.

BitTorrent mirror

[hbmartin]

http://www.torrentreactor.net/torrents/view_979

Obi says it best...

[Newskyarena]

These aren't the spoilers you are looking for...

Geezus

[Darth23]

Why does everyone forget that the Star Wars Holiday Special came out TWO YEARS before the 'beloved' Empire Strikes Back'? Anyone who was aroudn to see that knows better than to expect perfection from Star Wars. Maybe that's the cure for all the people who hate the prequels, but spend their money on them and follow every piece of news about them.

Re:Geezus

[Blondie-Wan]

Yeah, but to be fair Lucas' involvement with that was minimal (it doesn't even have his name on it, not even for a "Based upon characters created by..." credit). Lucas did work on it, but he wasn't the driving force behind it, and when he finally saw the end result he completely disowned it. Given that, one could reasonably expect that any Star Wars material he really worked on and was proud enough of to put his name on would be better - and it was, at least for a few years...

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[i_am_syco]

It just sounds cool. "Revenge of the Sith". Rolls off of your tongue, and sounds oh-so-badass while you say it.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[toganet]

Do you really think "The Phantom Menace" 'rocks' as a name for a movie?

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, the movie name got changed because Star Trek 2 was originally announced with the title of Revenge of Khan.

Star Wars didn't want people to be confused with the whole revenge thing, so they changed it.

Then of course Star Trek later changed Revenge to Wrath.

Re:How to tell if a Star Wars movie will suck or r

[Rallion]

What you should do, see, is go up to some random person, say "Revenge of the Sith!" and see if they think you any cooler...heh, oh, and tape it! Tape it!

Hey!

[leonbrooks]

I like Howard! (-:

Rusty, is that you? (-:

[leonbrooks]

You're an idiot.

Just checking. (-:

Re:Return of the Jedi: Name sucks, movie sort-of r

[Anonymous Coward]

You mean "Attack of the Flaming Ewoks" don't you.

What? Ewoks are gay?

Actually, that would make sense since C-3PO did look like a huge dildo. And also, they 'made up' Leia pretty well... kind of like the precursor to the Fab 5.

Leaked? Not...

[razorjack]

Anyone else notice the hosting site's IP block is owned by Dreamworks? Hmmmmm....
---
OrgName: Dreamworks SKG
OrgID: DREAMW-3
Address: 1000 Flower Street
City: Glendale
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 91201
Country: US

NetRange: 65.126.221.0 - 65.126.221.255
CIDR: 65.126.221.0/24
NetName: Q1205-65-126-221-0
NetHandle: NET-65-126-221-0-1
Parent: NET-65-112-0-0-1
NetType: Reassigned
Comment:
RegDate: 2002-12-06
Updated: 2002-12-06

TechHandle: GLA3-ARIN
TechName: LAZO, GABRIEL
TechPhone: +1-818-695-7524
TechEmail: glazo@dreamworks.com

NOCHandle: GLA4-ARIN
NOCName: LAZO, GABRIEL
NOCPhone: +1-818-695-7524
NOCEmail: glazo@dreamworks.com

AbuseHandle: GLA5-ARIN
AbuseName: LAZO, GABRIEL
AbusePhone: +1-818-695-7524
AbuseEmail: glazo@dreamworks.com

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-01-26 19:15
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

OrgName: Dreamworks SKG
OrgID: DREAMW-3
Address: 1000 Flower Street
City: Glendale
StateProv: CA
PostalCode: 91201
Country: US
Comment:
RegDate: 1998-12-14
Updated: 1998-12-14

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2004-01-26 19:15
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

A New Hope

[serutan]

Given how disappointing episodes I and II (and I'm guessing III) were, Episode IV's title turned out to be prophetic.

Re:How can you spoil something that is already bad

[Anonymous Coward]

No. Fantasy would involve some halflings, elves and maybe a ring.

Re:Oh, gay

[Omega996]

Youssa mean weesa gonna bein' an engineer like Scotty? Whoopee!!