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Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith
HaloZero writes "The title was publicly revealed today in a special presentation to a packed audience of Star Wars fans at Comic-Con International in San Diego, California. The title wasn't the only surprise for those in attendance at the presentation. Click here for news about even more Star Wars DVDs in 2004 and 2005, surprise celebrity guests, new planets in Episode III, and more."
how much more continuity Lucas is going to flush down the toilet with this film. He gives the book writers creative license but makes them follow a pre-determined origin and fate with the characters, and then totally pisses on them with the movies. Boba Fett is a prime example. In the books, he was Jaster Mareel before he was Boba Fett. His ship was custom made, not a stolen prison ship. The ship part was taken from the Bounty Hunter video game. It was a good game, but still didn't do a good job of repairing the Bobba/Jango/Jaster thing. LOL....I guess this post proves I have no life.
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It's even a better mirror when you consider that the original title of Jedi was "Revenge of the Jedi" (good nerds have drooled over the poster).
-B
Jim Ward, Vice President of Marketing for Lucasfilm and Executive Producer of the DVDs spoke about the upcoming release, and announced that the epic feature-length documentary, Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, would appear as a special edited-for-television edition on the A&E network this fall.
Okay, so this question isn't exactly about Episode III. Bear with me, please.
Does anyone know if this 'Empire of Dreams' documentary is going to include all the stuff from the "Making of..." specials they showed on TV in the 80s? Even though I was a kid at the time, I thought those things were fascinating. And I think today, after being innundated with all those "Making of..." featurettes on DVD which just feature some pasty-faced geek typing away at a computer, watching how spfx were done before computers would really be exciting to see again.
Does anyone know if that stuff is going to be included? Or is this new documentary just going to be a bunch of interviews with cast and crew, reminiscing about the good old days? Something tells me that Lucas would be hard-pressed to let people see the "archaic" (read: non-computer) means they used for spfx in the original trilogy.
GMD
watch this
> At no point have we seen any motivation for why the Sith are
> the way they are
My understanding is that Star Wars canon says that the Jedi wiped out the Sith 1000 years before TPM. There may have been something later than that, but Darth Maul did say in TPM, "At last we'll reveal ourselves to the Jedi. At last we'll have our revenge." Too bad for Darth Maul the actual revenge didn't happen until Episode III when Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader kills almost all the Jedi (presumably). Thus the "Revenge of the Sith" title. Good job to Lucas on the title, BTW.
Insert simplistic political, ideological, or personal proselytization here.
W.R.T your comments on the TPM lightsaber battle, I can't help but disagree. What Lucas lacks in ability to pen effective dialog, he *more* than makes up for in visuals. At the point when the three were seperated by the laser fields, you were able to gain great insight into each of the character's motives. You're right, Maul was pacing "like a caged animal". There's no better way to describe this. His whole purpose in Palpatine's plan is to be an assassin and enforcer. At this point, his entire focus was on his blind hatred of the Jedi. Qui-gon, knowing he was overmatched, took a moment to meditate. The simple act of him closing his eyes at this moment gives the most revealing insight into his character: He has total trust in the Force. Even when faced with the most fearsome opponent of his life, and every instinct in his human nature should be telling him not to take his eyes off of Maul, he is able to resist, control his fear, and put his total faith in the Force guiding his actions. Obi-wan, seperated from his master is torn between the two, unsure of what his next move should be. His inexperience and immature knowledge of the force are now painfully obvious. In one shot, he looks at the barrier as though he is trying to will it open, but to no avail. This scene was brilliant, and to add dialog to it would have ruined the moment.
And as far as your White Hat/Black hat western comment. Well, sorry, that's what you're gonna get. If you look at the OT, it doesn't get any more good guys vs. bad guys than the Rebels vs. the Empire, and that aspect isn't gonna change. Lucas has said since the 70's that this was his goal: to make a "space western" in the flavor of the saturday sci-fi serials that he grew up with.
Xenon, where's my money? -Borno
The new first 2 movies follow the general flow of the original first two?
Episode 1 & 4:
They are being chased/hunted, making several escapes, narrowly escaping defeat. Each movie ends with a very clear ending and a large ceremony celebrating the victory.
Episode 2 & 5:
This episode tells a story with family ties. In the 5th episode, we find out that Vader is really Anakin. In the 2nd episode, we see anakin falling in love with Padme. Both episodes end in a continuation type ending, leaving more questions than answers, with no real closure.
Episode 3 & 6? Will 3 follow the layout of episode 6?
Does it seem like Lucas is using the cookie cutter approach?
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Sounds a little like the plot for Bubba-Hotep.
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Am I the only one who doesn't really see the difference in special effects between the original and the SEs? DVDs don't make it that hard to have multiple chapter sequences. There aren't that many differences between the two, so I'm sure one DVD could hold both versions with just a little extra video.
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The Sith were a race, but died out/intermingled with exiled dark Jedi thousands of years ago. At this point in the story though, the last remnants Sith bloodlines have been long since terminated--the "sith" are now just dark Jedi who follow of the Sith ideals. Sepcies-wise, Darth Maul was a Zabrak, not a Sith.
If everything followed the novels then everything would be too predictable in my opinion. If I recall Spiderman nor LOTR followed everything that happened in the comics or novels. But did this make the films less enjoyable? No, they didn't.
When Peter Jackson makes another sequel and it doesn't match up(which he will) will you be little him as well.
Atleast GL makes entertaining films for all ages not just SW fans which I give him credit for. Unlike LOTR most kids won't stay the 3 hrs to watch it. But they will for SW. Sometimes I think most forget that SW was designed more for kids and teenagers not some old adult. Remember critics and adults back in the late 70's said the orig. SW wouldn't make any money but it did, because it was written for the kids not the adults in mind.
You know your Geek when you complain about movie franchise continuity over the net
Lucas has finally realized that a) he can't write dialogue and b) fight scenes require no dialogue*. Also c) sabrefights are flashy and expensive and people like them. Therefore d) look for lots of sabrefights.
He's also realized that e) the great majority of his audience were fans of the originals and f) repeating yourself requries no creativity therefore g) he'll throw in as many references to the originals as possible. (Tatooine, the bots, Jabba, Chewbacca...)
(*: however, the right dialogue can greatly improve a fight scene, especially a duel. See "I want my father back, you son of a bitch! ")
if the answer isn't violence, neither is your silence / freedom of expression doesn't make it alright
I don't even want to talk about the new movies. If they did try to 'explore' the dark side, it would probably be explained that "the Sith have Meta bad ians". Oh, if only Joseph Campell were alive to tell Lucas how to write movies again.
But as to how people are lured to the Dark side, we're tol in the movie, for one, that it's easier. Like- you want to be a bad-ass with a lightsaber? Well, to be a Jedi is hard. It requires training and discipline. Join the Sith, and you can start kicking butt right away. You want to fight battles and be a glorious hero? You want to be king of the universe, or at least the king's general? Be a Sith. Jedis live like monks. Which sounds more seductive to you?
Of course, there's more. There are a number of metaphors floating around in the original 3. But asking why people are seduced by the dark side is (literally) asking why people do "bad things".
I agree. As 12 year old, I wanted to be Vader and to kill Luke. But Han Solo was pretty cool.
Vader is a well-done incarnation of the Jungian "evil father" archetype. The ideas flowed from Jung through Joseph Campbell to Lucas.
Watching the movie again ("ep 4") I'm annoyed that Vader's voice is not as deep as I remembered.
how about
Rise of the Sith
at least it sounds better than the lame meaningless [mockingly creepy voice] Revenge of the Sith!!! [/mockingly creepy voice]
I mean really, what are they getting revenge for?
I am the Alpha and the Omega-3
If Sidious is Palpetine (which i assumed from PM) then who is the Dark Jedi Master who Yoda killed on Dagobah who's force is still present on the Dagobah cave as seen in ep 5 and which force made Yoda's presence unsensable?
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I went to the Comic-Con today for the sole purpose of seeing the Sin City panel... for the sole purpose of seeing Jessica Alba in person. (Hey, can you really blame me? =)
Anyway, the Sin City panel was to take place immediately after the Star Wars thing (in the same hall). So I went in early and sat in on the last half hour of the Star Wars bit. This turned out to be just in time to see them show some preview stuff, and announce the name. Then Hayden came out, and there were questions from the audience. It was a very cool thing to be there for.
On another note, Sin City (based on the graphic novels by Frank Miller) looks as though it is going to be one of THE BEST movies of next year. Director Robert Rodriguez insisted on doing a translation of the stories (instead of an adaptation), and the preview they showed was amazing (it should be released online in about 3 weeks).
And yes, Jessica Alba was unbelievably stunning, drop-dead gorgeous, and every other synonym for beautiful that there is. I don't care what anyone says, she is the most perfect female specimen possible. =D
Mr. Spleen
Well, that tears that.
I'm buying either laserdiscs or clean, good quality VHS THX remasters and transferring them to DVD using the hardware I have access to myself.
I don't want the EX Plus Alpha II Special Champion Edition Star Wars. I want Han Shooting first. I want the goddamned seedy bar band, NOT the broadway mupped production number.
And it looks like I'll have to make it myself.
So be it!
I wonder if anyone with access to the the LaserDisc versions of the original trilogy and/or THX 1138 ever bothered to make an MPEG2 release to burn on DVDs? And to release that on any P2P?
Nothing says Star Wars like Bea Arthur and Art Carney.
Don't know about the Star Wars Holiday Special? Google for it. You won't be disappointed.
One of the things that put me off Star Wars : THe phantom menace, was those 'celebrities' playing roles, that totally f*cked over the Universe.
Come on, Samuel L. Jackson as one of the wise guys... Seriously...
Episode 1 has Jedi sending a slave child to fight for his life in an arena. Most of the pilots in the podrace died, like any good colluseum race. Afterwards, they free him because of his genetics (anyone who doesn't match the Jedi genotype is considered worthless.) In the republic, we see slavery is common and death is cheap; under the empire, we know of no slaves, and we know there is upward mobility (Luke, a simple rural farmboy, had the chance at higher education) Jabba went from public death spectacles in the Republic to hiding from the empire. The Republic slaughters primitive natives on Naboo, while the Empire allowed them to live in peace right next to a major military base on Endor.
The only people who speak ill of the Empire are people known to be Rebels; the non-aligned people we see are Owen and Beru, who are strongly anti-rebel. The only major atrocity commited by the Empire is the destructioon of Alderaan- but the only person claiming it's a peaceful planet is Leia, who is very clearly lying throught that scene. Diplomatic Mission, indeed.
The Jedi are trying to train people to be amoral. What sort of person would leave his mother in slavery? What sort of evil guardian would condemn someone for attempting to rescue his own mother from slavery? Evil, Evil people. In some ways it is worse than that, they're teaching that no one without a high mitochondria^Wmidicholorian count is worthwhile.
In fact, the Sith's motives are rather opaque except that they oppose the Republic. Considering how evil the Republic is, no real temptation is needed, Vader may just decide that he doens't want to work for the evil "light" Jedi any more, and work to build a better future under an Empire.
The only problem is that this rather makes the end of RotJ a sad thing- the galaxy is now back to anarchy.