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Episode III Opening Crawl Released
moggyf writes "The official Star Wars website has revealed the opening crawler text for Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith, currently scheduled for a May 19th, 2005 release."
← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)
... click on this article and get "Nothing to see here, move along..."?
"Derp de derp."
47 49 46 38 49 61 35 02 DC 02 C4 00 00 E0 E0 E0
F0 F0 F0 10 10 10 D0 D0 D0 A0 A0 A0 30 30 30 20
20 20 90 90 90 60 60 60 50 50 50 70 70 70 B0 B0
B0 40 40 40 80 80 80 C0 C0 C0 00 00 00 FF FF FF
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 21 F9 04
00 00 00 00 00 2C 00 00 00 00 35 02 DC 02 00 05
FF 20 04 8E 64 69 9E 68 AA AE 6C EB BE 70 2C CF
[Lameness Filter encountered. Post aborted.]
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
"it was the best of times, it was the worst of times..."
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
Maybe this means that I'll see the Opening Crawl for Episode III before that poor bloke who started camping out in front of the theatre about a month ago!
"There's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all."
- Bob Dylan
I just pissed my pants from excitement.
Slashdot = ((Technology + Politics) / Trolls) % Grammar Nazis
*sigh*
Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
My god, how fucking stupid can Lucas get?
but meesa wait for the broadcast.
"A witty saying proves nothing." ~Voltaire
"d'Oh!" ~Homer
Why does it sound like the story line to Episode I? Seriously, Kidnapped (Captured) Political Figure, Jedi go save her. They dont need to use the story line from Episode 4 all 4 times.
Is it just me, or does the whole "back to the future" approach somehow degrade the Star Wars saga? The new stuff has nifty effects and all, but it just doesn't have the "feel" of the originals.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
Annikin becomes Darth Vader!!
Three men walk into a bar. They all got concussions.
Separatist Droid Army and not SEPARATIST DROID ARMY?
As expected, not very exciting IMHO...
Seriously, with the way the new crawl starts with the word "War!", Lucas just might have replaced it with "Ass!" or something else asinine.
--Chag
That's not true, that's IMPOSSIBLE!!!!
Episode III
REVENGE OF THE SITH
War! The Republic is crumbling under attacks by
the ruthless Sith Lord, Count Dooku. There are
heroes on both sides. Evil is everywhere.
In a stunning move, the fiendish droid leader,
General Grievous, has swept into the Republic
capital and kidnapped Chancellor Palpatine,
leader of the Galactic Senate.
As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee
the besieged capital with their turgid hostage,
two Jedi Knights and a brave but clumsy Gungan
warrior lead a desperate mission to rescue the
captive Chancellor....
I guess that leaves the door open for whatever the upcoming Lucas Arts games.
Tyranny isn't the worst enemy of a democracy. Cynicism is.
And with that, the final raping of your childhood memories of Star Wars is now nearly at hand. Grab your wallet, grab your glasses, and grab your ankles.. May is coming sooner than you think!
No, I am your father.
See. See.
Look. Look. Look.
See. See. See.
See Anakin. See Anakin turn. Turn Anakin turn.
See Jedis. See Jedis die. Die Jedis die.
See Palpatine. See Palpatine rule. Rule Palpatine rule.
Look. See Darth Vader. See Amidala. See Amidala give birth and hide children. Hide them Amidala.
See Amidala die. Die Amidala die.
There's so much to see.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It did say "This isn't the story you're looking for" at which point I had an uncontrollable urge to say "Move along, move along". That was weird.
ugh, no wonder he is evil, what a terrible name "Hello Dooki...i mean dooku"
I mod down so you can mod up. Your welcome.
Cash! The production house is crumbling
under attacks by the ruthless
Sith Lord, and Slashdot fanboys.
There are whiners on both sides.
Ennui is everywhere.
In a stunning move, the
fiendish droid leader, General
Lucas, has swept into the
Hollywood capital and kidnapped
famous movie critics, and leaders of
the big studios.
As the exhasperated Slashdot army
attempts to flee the onslaught
of PR pushed by bought-for flaks
two Jedi Knights lead a
desperate mission to rescue the
captive franchise...
Don't let the MPAA find out that you viewed the crawler text on-line. They'd freak!!!
So for someone who hasn't seen all of the Star Wars series:
Should I wait until this comes out, and then see the 6 in their intended order?
Or should I forget all the prequels, and just watch the original three?
Or watch the original three, then the prequels?
I'm curious what the general concensus is. I've just never watched them, except for the original star wars once. (Now that I've shocked everyone, what's your opinion?)
Dooku is evil, and he is more than likely the current apprentice to sidious. Anakin takes his place after Dooku is disposed of.
Long ago, in a galaxy far, far away, the Old Republic was
crumbling away, rotting from the corruption and treachery
within. Power-hungry technocrats and wealthy bureaucrats
maneuvered and bribed their way into office, while one am-
bitious senator plotted to destroy the Jedi and rule the
galaxy.
Hoping to restore virtue and the remembered glory of the
Republic, the High Council of Senators dispatched the Jedi
Knights - protectorate of justice in the galaxy - on a
quest to retrieve the lost Kaiburr Crystal. They believed
that the small diamond-like object (which intensified the
power of the Force) would unite the disaffected among the
people and would destroy the corruption around them.
However, within their Council, the evil Senator Palpatine
had other traitorous designs. Foreseeing that the Crystal
would secure his position as Emperor, Palpatine deceived one
of the Jedi Knights and sent him to acquire the Crystal.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
General Grievous is described on the star wars site basically as a cyborg, not a droid.
Or do they mean he's the general of a droid army?
These people need good writers, that's for sure.
Anakin gets even with Count Dooku - and cuts off BOTH of his hands - before cutting his head off
Obi-Won Kenobi kills the Jedi hunter, General Grievous - who can use three or more light sabers at one time, with the General's own blasters. The General's light sabers are trophies from Jedi he has slain in the past.
Anakin turns on Mace Windu when Mace goes to face Palpatine/The Emperor. Mace dies by falling out of a window after the Emperor fries him with lightning.
Yoda gets pwned by the Emperor
Qui-Gon Jin comes back as a ghost and explains the true nature of the force to Yoda after he loses his fight with the Emperor.
Anakin and Obi-Won fight each other with blue light sabers.
Obi-won chops off Anakin's other real hand and both of his legs.
Now there is some news about RotS!
HallmarkOrnaments.Com
It's not too hard to make your own SW crawl in blender, just make some 3D text with a stary background and run a camera pointed at an angle down it, render. S'fun.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
It was changed from return to revenge then back to retun again because as a Jedi, you're not suppose to take revenge. It's all about that holier than thou thing the Jedis are supposed to be...but there is no reason a bad guy can't exact revenge
It may only be a crawler when you first look, but I've just ordered this wonderful image enhancer sticker from an online store - the sticker's only about 1.5" by 2" and according to the spec it's manufactured from "advanced, outsized nanoparticles fused with filings from real phase inverted plasma conduits", and when you stick it on the side of your monitor you can see a full length screener of the film.
AT&ROFLMAO
Evil. It's the laughing at wholesale destruction and killing the Jedi that gives it away...
Which is the Empire and which is the Rebellion? Is Dooku on either one of those?
The (Old) Republic becomes The Empire. The Rebellion hasn't started (because it has nothing, yet, to rebel against). Dooku is on the side that will become The Empire.
Which side (Palpatine vs .Dooku) is the one that gets Darth Vader and the Storm Troopers?
Palpatine and Dooku are on the same side. They are both Sith (i.e. evil).
Since Palpatine is the Emperor, how can he be on both sides?
Palpatine is creating a war situation to allow him to seize tighter control and disband the senate. This is a fairly unoriginal trick amongst politicians (see Margret Thatcher in the UK and George W. Bush in the US for real life examples - although they were both a bit less blatant about it). Palpatine's minions are running the separatist movement, under his orders.
I've seen Episode II a bunch of times, but frankly, I can't figure it all out.
It's not exactly complicated...
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Watch all three Matrices in order... you'll get better value.
... That is actually going to ignore this movie. I refuse to give lucas and other assorted madmen one more dollar for the previlage of being dissapointed. Any weakness will be shored up by howard the duck rentals.
I would be remiss in my duties if I did not bring up the Cosmic Wars crawler text.
The Gathering Shadow
It is a time of uncertainty. The
empire's ambiguous tariff statutes
mandate close reexamination of
galactic import quotas. Interim
Princess Agoomba has co-chaired
a subcommittee to draft amendments
to existing trade policies
Meanwhile, regulatory agencies
are being heavily lobbied by a
consortium of mercantile interest
groups and their suppliers to
streamline loading restrictions for
class C cargo vessels. The shipping...
My other computer is a Jacquard loom.
In long, long time ago, galaxy far, far away. War was beginning. Obi-Wan: What happen ? Anakin: Somebody set up us the bomb. Yoda: We get signal. Obi-Wan: What ! Mace: Main screen turn on. Obi-Wan: It's You !! Palpatine: How are you gentlemen !! Palpatine: All your base are belong to us. Palpatine: You are on the way to destruction. Yoda: What say you !! Palpatine: You have no chance to survive make your time. Palpatine: HA HA HA HA ....
Yoda: Take off zig every !!
Yoda: You know you doing what .
Yoda: Move 'zig'.
Yoda: For just great.
I'm pissing my pants with anticipation.... ... this just MAY be the worst Star Wars ever.
The only proper way to experience Star Wars was to watch the original, unbastardized Trilogy in a movie theatre. Unless you can find someone that has squirreled away a properly maintained print, this will never be possible again.
Your next best option is to find someone with the original 3 movies on laserdisc.
Stay away from the remakes and the new movies like you would avoid a bus-load of MPAA attornies infected with the plague.
Each premise becomes more and more wacko.
Each character becomes more two dimensional.
Seriously, I'm expecting nothing but dramatically colored animation with lots of shocked expressions.
If the writing is like anime (not good anime, mind you), the sets are completely animated, the acting is like anime....
To quote somebody from the upcoming movie (you know somebody's going to say it):
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
*sigh*
Why 'General Grievous?'? Because General Electric was already taken!
rimshot
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
What if Palpatine does not want to be rescued...
Or does anyone else think that Lucas should spice up Episode III with some breakdancing?
May I suggest Battlestar Galactica as an alternative. Sci-fi for grownups.
It's not a lie. It's the truth with lossy compression.
Yadda yadda
Just kill Jar Jar FFS!
Today's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why. -- Hunter S. Thompson
Thanks to the Internet, you'll see Star Wars Episode III before that sad git camping out in line for tickets. /Tom Selleck
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Thanks for reinforcing it!
Now with extra mitochondria, or mitichlorians, or mitten chlorine, or some dumb a$$ thing.
Geez lucas, how far you have fallen...
what a terrible name "Hello Dooki...i mean dooku"
You're not the first.
TURGID
[adj] abnormally distended especially by fluids or gas; "tumescent tissue"; "puffy tumid flesh"
Unless Lucas himself is playing Chancellor Palpatine I'm not sure how this description applies. Is it really necessary to point out that the guy is really fat in opening crawl?
Either that or "turgid" is sometimes used as an oblique reference to having a stiffy... and that REALLY doesn't need to be in the opening crawl, IMHO.
=tkk
Bill Gates - Creationist?!?
So, who else can already figure out exactly what's going to happen? It doesn't exactly take a phd in narratology to "predict".
He actually named a bad guy "General Grevious"???
What a breathtaking lack of creativity. I look forward to seeing his counterpart on the other side, Major Niceguy.
Read my blog.
Who will be killed off by the second reel.
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
Check out this parody of Episode III. The guy did some nice work. Looks like everything is green screen. Funny as hell. http://www.sequentialpictures.com/moviestarwarsepi sode3.html
In case I was the only one that noticed:
This is the only episode thus far that does not have the word "galaxy" somewhere within the crawl text.
My comments may be crap...but they are my crap...and I am brave enough to stand by them...Never post as AC!
Wow, George Lucas is that lame that he has to go steal ideas from the Lord of the Rings?
Lets see:
One Ring--> Crystal
Saruman--> Palpatine
Mount Doom --> Lava pit?
does that make yoda gollum? "my precious they stoles, yes"
I would watch 4-5-6 first because if you watch 1-2-3 before 4-5-6, the big punch "Luke... I AM..." in ep5 will be spoiled because you saw ep3.
:)
Yes, SW should be more enjoyable in the 456123 order, or better in the 456 order.
Hey, why not trying 654321? It must be fun
perception is reality
I read an interview once where George said that he lets his kids name that characters...
Hence: Jar Jar, Dooku, Grievous, Elan Sleazebaggo (don't believe me? look it up), etc.
My mom says I'm cool.
Who, me, cynical?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
It's cool to bash the prequels, but at the end of the day, geekdom is going to show up and watch them. You may be honest in not wanting to go, but I guarantee you that all 95%+ of these "SW prequel trilogy sucks" zombies is going to stand in line and watch them.
- sigs are for wimps.
Those aren't the correct lyrics. Here you go:
war
war never been so much fun
war never been so much fun
go to your brother, kill him with your gun
leave him lying in his uniform, dying in the sun
war
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Since Palpatine is the Emperor, how can he be on both sides?
He's a politician, right? It doesn't matter which side of the aisle he sits on, he's evil through and through.
Seriously, episodes 4, 5, and 6 were about the rebels (clearly good guys fighting for their freedom) overcoming the "evil empire". It was clear where the good/bad distinction was. In episodes 1, 2, and 3, it's the story about how they got to that point. There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic. Some people were good and some people were bad, but the good guys weren't organized to see what was going on.
To me, this is all very much related to how we all perceive world events. In the late 70's, early 80's, there was a clear good and bad side to the world (from our perspective in the west). The soviets were the "evil empire", and we were all the good guys fighting for freedom. In this day and age, the lines have blurred. Nobody's sure who's on "our" side, and we're all afraid about terrorists infiltrating our own neighourhoods. We still want to live by the old ideals of freedom, but we are also aware that there are people in power who might not have the noblest intentions. It's hard to paint Iraq or Iran as truly "evil" because we shy away from stereotypes now. The governments can't unite us against any enemy that we can't all agree is evil.
When I was growing up 20 years ago, the U.S. was the ultimate "good guy" nation. Now, none of us (outside the U.S.) know who the good guys really are anymore. Many of us expect the U.S. to turn on the rest of us merely out of its own self interest, even if it's against its own self-proclaimed principles to do so. Within the U.S., it seems like many people also worry about whether their own government will turn on them some day.
Movies tend to mirror the ideas and fears of the time when they are made. These movies are no exception.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
The continuity betweeh 1,2,3 and 4,5,6 is OK, but from 3 to 4 is a huge breach.
The gap between the Queen of Naboo and Dookie and the Rebellion and Leia is jarring. Where did this 'rebellion' and civil war come from? 3 is mostly about a universal shift of alliances -- think NATO and Warsaw Pact -- due to trade inequity (1 & 2). Now we're at civil war? Who is rebelling against whom? Has the 1,000 solar system rift (2) oppressed the other 1,000's of systems?
There's no way in hell Ep3 is going to link to Ep4 with any shred of continuity.
https://www.accountkiller.com/removal-requested
''As the Separatist Droid Army attempts to flee the besieged capital with their turgid hostage''
Turgid hostage!
Did Senator Palpatine get a woody while being held down ?
Turgid:
1. Excessively ornate or complex in style or language; grandiloquent: turgid prose.
2. Swollen or distended, as from a fluid; bloated: a turgid bladder; turgid veins.
On the other hand you can say that all the Lucas movies are turgid.
A droid, in the shape and likliness of a human, holding two lightsabers. I mean honestly!
Oops! You didn't study the picture closely enough. Gen. Grievous is clearly wielding not two but THREE lightsabers. Let's all raise our voices to congratulate Mr. Lucas for striking off in this radical new direction.
It's not exactly complicated...
Actually, I agree with the GP. I have followed all of the movies and Ep II is way too complicated (not to mention boring). I had to watch it three times in order to understand ANY of the politics (on HBO -- I wasn't about to pay to see the movies in the theater again).
I consider Ep II to suffer from a similar problem to Godfather III. Each movie is way too complex (the Senatorial politics of Ep II/the Vatican politics of G-III)). And, each movie has one horrendous acting performance (Hayden Christiansen/Sophia Coppolla).
And the last part of the crawl is.
You'll laugh!
You'll cry!
You'll kiss ten bucks goodbye!
GET IN LINE NOW!
www.eFax.com are spammers
Anyone remember the Simpsons episode that basically trashed ep1?
Their opening text for the star wars film in the episode was incredibly obfuscated, and hilarious.
Another good part was when the AT-AT crashed through the conference, and then sat there like a dog, waiting for the roll call to finish.
Lucas just might have replaced it with "Ass!"
No point in giving away the film in the first ten seconds.
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Completely Hilarious. I rarely seen a parody of this quality.
perception is reality
Seriously, with the way the new crawl starts with the word "War!", Lucas just might have replaced it with "Ass!" or something else asinine.
OK, so you're joking some. But actually, in keeping with the sort of "newsreel" tone of the exposition in those crawls, which harken back to old cinema serials, that's pretty much dead on. It echos WWII newspaper headlines in succinctness punch. I actually kind of like it. Of course, after that first word, it goes completely downhill. General Grievous? Oh, man...
Don't disappoint your bird dog. Go to the range.
Note to Scroll Writing Staff:
Please rework Scroll to include the phrase "hot space-monkey nookie".
Please, no Wookie-Nookie jokes.
THX, GL
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
Count Dooku might realize the error of his ways at the last minute and try to kill the emperor?
Many thanks to Mr. Pratchett.
...
Death
War
Famine
Plague
Grievous Bodily Harm
Cruelty To Animals
Things Not Working Properly Even After You've Given Them A Good Thumping but secretly No Alcohol Lager
and, last but not least
Really Cool People
So, we have General Grievous....
Will we see Captain Cruelty? Maybe Lt. Things (alias Lt. Lager)?
Britain has a senate? Dam, I knew I should have listened more at school.
What's the problem?
"Skill shows through where genius wears thin." -Wittgenstein || Religion: uniting aviation and architecture.
Star Wars has now become a parody of Space Balls...
I was referring to what is actually going to be in the movie, not the concept art. Looks like Lucas wanted an interesting-looking character, saw the concept and stripped it of both interest and innovation.
The opening crawls in the original trilogy served as a method of allowing the movie to open in medias res without the audience having a sense of disorientation. In the latter two movies this included an aspect of establishing that time had passed since the previous movie-- but, no meaningful or potentially interesting-to-watch events were in this way "skipped", it is simply made clear to us that what we expected has occurred in the intervening time (the war continues, Luke continues to train, Vader turned Solo over to Jabba the Hutt) with perhaps one or two little bits of information that alert us as to the movie's focus (the Imperials are known to be building a weapon capable of destroying an entire planet).
In the prequel trilogies the crawls have served two purposes. The intentional purpose is to allow George Lucas to weasel out of characterization, establishing setting and place, and moving the plot along. Unlike the original trilogies, where the Star Wars universe's background and nature was established incidentally, through subtle details of what we see and hear during the movie, in the prequel trilogies they just use the opening crawl to say "plop, there it is", and disorientingly slam down the characters and setting they wish to put the movie in. After this point, since they seem to consider themselves thus freed from explaining themselves, they completely refrain during the movie from elaborating on the things the opening crawl sketches or filling in details beyond the crawl's bare outline (where is Naboo and why, if in any obvious way, are they important? who is the Trade Federation and why should we care? who is "count dooky", why would someone have heard of him, what does he claim he wants, and why does this all appear to be important to someone who does not know his true aspirations? who is "grevious", how and why is he starting a droid army, and what are the implications of this? most importantly what would the answer to these questions appear to be to someone within the movie-- not us the viewer, to whom the answers are "he's the bad guy and he wants to rule the world", what would an average citizen of the Republic think Dooku to be?) and so use the time freed up within the movie in this way to concentrate on roller-coaster-style but otherwise long, boring and irrelivant action scenes.
The unintentional purpose of the prequel trilogy opening crawls is to bash you over the head with how stupid all these character names are ("Grevious"? "Dooku"??? I mean come on!), just in case the majesty of John Williams' opening score might otherwise distract you from the suspicion that the entire plotline to the prequel trilogy was written by Lucas's 4-year-old child in a single sitting some years ago in crayon on a napkin.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
Major Payne!
myke
Mimetics Inc. Twitter
A beginning is the time for taking the most delicate care that the balances are correct. This every member of the Jedi order knows. To begin your study of the life of Darth Vader, then take care you first place him in his time: born in the 18th year before the reign of the Galactic Emporer, Palpatine I. And take the most special care that you locate Darth Vader in his place: the planet Coruscant. Do not be deceived by the fact that he was born on Tattoine and lived his first eight years there. Coruscant, the planet known as 'The City Planet', is forever his place.
Understanding is a three edged sword. - Ambassador Kosh Naranek, Babylon 5
The actual text of the last paragraph is
But the scary thing is, I actually believed the part about the "brave but clumsy Gungan warrior" until I read the source.
Does that say something about me (and everyone else who believed it), or something about Lucas?
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
Electric Boogaloo?
Read my blog.
He should have substituted "EXTREEEEEEEMEEEE!!" for "War!" to give it more appeal to the 16-25 demographic.
" Now, none of us (outside the U.S.) know who the good guys really are anymore."
Speak for yourself I live in Canada. Good guys = Us, Sweden, Switzerland, China, Russia, etc.
because that's where they mine spice! wait...
-
Poll discussions are way better
Note: This sig contains nine S's, nine I's and five O's which... means absolutely nothing.
Epi I's stress on Maul can be redeemed if the droid General Grievous is actually darth Maul saved from death.
He has biological looking eyes, and otherwise it would make no sense to have a droid that can use the force. Why not make the entire droid army have force powers?
I guess making 0 sense hasn't stopped Lucas in the past.
Robo-Blogs of the world: UNITE!
was the scene where Anakin turns to the dark side and Ben Kenobi gets served.
Please stop stalking me, bro.
(I keed, I keed)
Schnapple
Is it just me or is the resoltion of that .gif particularly bad? I'd be prepared to swear I see the line "There are herpes on both sides."
Do not touch -Willie
Elan Sleazebaggo
He is the death sticks guy. Also, he is Mouse from The Matrix.
Never argue with an idiot. They will just bring you down to their level and beat you with experience.
Yes.
Belief is the currency of delusion.
Apparently not, since Margaret Thatcher disbanded it.
In Repressive Burma, it's not just your connection that dies. slashdot.org/comments.pl?sid=314547&cid=20819199
No, because Thatcher disbanded it! Can't you read?
Like how does a major Jedi like Dooku end up turning to the dark side? Why doesn't anyone see this coming? Why can't anyone feel a "disturbance" in the Force (in general, the Jedi seem to have all the psychic ability of Madame Cleo. When something bad happens they just furrow their brow and sit there.) Why do we really care?
I guess my main problem is that none of it seems really plausible in any way. Lucas can do good guy/bad guy fine- Darth Vader wears BLACK and breathes OMINOUSLY and STRANGLES his underlings without hesitation, thus he is EVIL and must be stopped. Luke is INNOCENT and GOOD, and Leah is PURE and GOOD too (they both wear WHITE), let's hope they WIN!
But Lucas is lost with anything that requires subtlety and a deft touch. I could list some examples but they're pretty much self-evident in the prequel movies. It's a shame, because I think the underlying story actually has (had) potential.
Dooku is evil, and he is more than likely the current apprentice to sidious. Anakin takes his place after Dooku is disposed of.
Which, I expect, will occur in the very first act of the movie. Part of the problem of Ep I and II (and from the look of "General Grievous" Ep III as well) has been Lucas' "rent a villain" approach - we get the villain of the week for each new episode, and that means much less time actually constructing credible villains. Honestly, compare the screen time either villain has gone in either of the current episodes to the screen time Vader gets in any of IV, V or VI. Poorly developed completely disposable villains don't tend to make for very interesting stories, especially when new evil villains crop up out of nowhere all the time (they just get mentioned in the scroller at the beginning as the new villain - no other explanation required).
Yes, yes, Darth Sidious is consistent through all 3, but he hardly has any screen time, and isn't exactly a menacing villain that our heroes must battle with, given that none of them have even seen him yet.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
The (Old) Republic becomes The Empire. The Rebellion hasn't started (because it has nothing, yet, to rebel against). Dooku is on the side that will become The Empire.
;-)
Minor Clarification - Dooku is on the "rebels" side, even though he's evil and working for Palpatine / Sidious. There's a few people duped into being on the "wrong" side, or who are playing someone else, so you can't really say Dooku is on one side or the other all the way.
In summary:
Senator Palpatine is Darth Sidious, the Big Baddie Boss. While they haven't officially announced this or made the conneciton in 1 & 2, it's clear from watching 5 & 6.
Palpatine / Sidious is playing both sides. He's a nice senator with the best intenitons for the Republic on one side (Palpatine), and the hidden threat (the "Phantom Menace") that is getting everyone to seperate from the Republic on the other (Darth Sidious). End result - with the war, he can grab more power. He forced the vote (through Amadala) that bumped the old leader from the senate, and got himself installed in the spot. Meanwhile, he's aiding the "rebels" (Trade Federation & Seepratists) that are breaking away from the Republic as Sidious.
Count Dooku is evil, but is being played. He thinks he's bringing down a bad thing and helping the good guys by leading the Seperatists, but he's being tricked by Sidious / Palpatine. There's a scene in Ep 2. where he tries to convince Kenobi that he's doing the right thing, and it's clear he's confused. He's a bad guy because he works for Sidious and is attacking the current government, but he thinks he's doing it for the right reasons.
What's coming up (Minor Spoiler if you haven't seen 4, 5, and 6 yet):
Senator Palpatine has already become the leader of the Senate. He will eventually rename it the Empire, and declare himself Emperor. This is backed up by Vader in Episode 4 early on when he says "The Emperor has just dissolved the Imperial Seante, the last remains of the Old Repuplic have been washed away," (or something close) while talking to Leia.
The Clone Army that was made to help the Republic will eventually become the Storm Troopers that serve the Empire.
The Seperatist Movement, once led by Dooku & Grevious, will become the Rebellion. The current Bad Guys will become the Good Guys in 4 thru 6, when it's revealed that the Emire went from good to bad under Palpatine / Sidous.
That should clear it all up.
Given that this is a story of the fall of the Republic and the Rise of the Empire, Lucas' literary allusion here seems to have all of the subtlety of a high-speed halfbrick to the cranium.
Come on, everyone-- ripping off Shakespeare is a noble literary tradition !
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Then you'll really be in BIG trouble.
Dooku is evil, and he is more than likely the current apprentice to sidious
In Episode 2, Dooku was called "Lord Trannus" by Sidious, and fired lightning at Yoda.
Have you seen it?
Lincoln and FDR are also good examples, but I thought the average /. reader would have more of a change of remembering either of the examples I gave first hand.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
You forgot the See Amidala's hotness part.
I, for one, welcome our beautiful Harvard-attending Queen- & Senator-playing overlord.
You can hold down the "B" button for continuous firing.
I am not convinced by your arguments. Dooku says a few things in favour of destroying the Jedi (hardly the actions of a good guy), and knows about things such as the Death Star. At the end when he talks to Palpatine/Sideous it seems clear that he understands the overall plan. And don't forget that he is a Sith - he has accepted the `power of the dark side,' which seems incompatible with `good' motives. Rather than being played, he is actively involved in playing the other participants in the separatist movement.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
Considering he didn't start using teddy bears as characters until the third film, you may have a point. But then I'm wondering why a shriveled old Kermit-the-Frog as Zen master was such a great device in Empire. And then, have you actually seen the first film? There's a giant monkey in it, stereotype played to the fullest no less (why couldn't Chewbacca have been the smart guy, alpha male and Han Solo the bumbling sidekick?).
Personally I found AotC very watchable and am looking forward to this next one. I expect a huge war and a lot of very serious drama (both in terms of Anakain succumbing to the Dark Side and the whole Amidala giving birth to Luke and Leia thing).
At least Lucas managed to keep Star Wars not only viable, but enjoyable for decades. Not like the Matrix where they went from classic to crapola in one sequel and a handful of years.
I do not have a signature
I think the "Art of Revenge" caption at the top refers to Lucas exacting revenge on Star Wars fans.
Can anyone tell me how to set my sig on Slashdot?
Yes, I have seen it. The only reason I said that he is more than likely the current apprentice has to do with him not being called the apprentice in ep II.
My first thought was, "In AD 2101, war was beginning!"
... bad.
It kind of reads like a bad translation of something
"It doesn't take a rocket scientist" -I guess I should leave then
He appeared in the Cartoon Network Microseries. He is a Cyborg that leads the Droid Army. He was able to fight using up to 3 (yes 3, even with his feet) Lightsabers killing many Jedis in the process.
"There is no teacher but the enemy."-Mazer Rackham
"And don't forget that he is a Sith - he has accepted the `power of the dark side,' which seems incompatible with `good' motives."
that's how the dark side get's ya! it says: "i'm way more powerfull than the light side, but you don't HAVE to use me for evil... use me to do good! it won't hurt....."
observe Vader tempting Luke on Bespin, he basically gives this speech, or Annakin telling Padme how much he wants a great leader to come and make the senate stop infighting. His heart is in the right place, but the dark side seduces you with evil means that don't justify the righteous ends. (and of course when you come to that end, its no longer the good and just one that you started out with)
May you be touched by His Noodly Appendage. RAmen.
Introduced? Didn't you ever see Barbarella?!?!?!?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Actually, it's Sleazebagganno.
^_^
Note to self:
Never use Roman Numerals when writing in the first person.
According to http://www.e-paranoids.com/c/cr/crawl.html: "In television, a text crawl is a moving line of text usually put at the bottom of the screen. It is generally set up to convey news and up-to-the-minute information about weather and other critical situations. A text crawl is an application of the computer graphics technique of scrolling. Text crawls became standard on news broadcasts in the wake of the September 11, 2001 attacks."
Ergo, in this case it is simply a screen-wide vertical text crawl.
Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.
Mr. Lucas, is that you?
Fool me once (Ep I), shame on me.
Fool me twice (EpII)... uh... can't get fooled again.
That twit isn't getting any more of my money. For Ep II he only got the rental money, this time he isn't getting squat.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Count Dooku is evil, but is being played. He thinks he's bringing down a bad thing and helping the good guys by leading the Seperatists, but he's being tricked by Sidious / Palpatine. There's a scene in Ep 2. where he tries to convince Kenobi that he's doing the right thing, and it's clear he's confused. He's a bad guy because he works for Sidious and is attacking the current government, but he thinks he's doing it for the right reasons.
I agree with the GP or GGP or whatever it was - this stuff just doesn't make any sense whatsoever.
And, for the sake of comity, I'll give you credit for trying your best to make sense of it, but what you've written is every bit as nonsensical as Episode II: Dooku is an evil character who purposefully joins with the evil Sidious to create the evil rebellion [or is it a good rebellion? - in Episode I it started as a tax revolt] that will eventually [and magically] evolve into a good rebellion that will bring down Sidious some twenty years later?
I'm sorry, but that's just plain nutso.
The absolutely awesome Episode III wrap-up of this would have been as follows: The Jedi, in their arrogance, follow Palpatine's lead and crush the good rebellion [killing the good Dooku in the process], only to learn, to their horror, that Palpatine was the evil one all along. As soon as Palpatine feels confident in his position, he and Anakin/Vader turn on the remaining Jedi, and kill them in a Pearl Harbor/9-11 holocaust, with only Kenobi & Yoda escaping their wrath.
But that possibility was ruined by the very last scene of Episode II, where Dooku is clearly portrayed bowing to Palpatine/Sidious as his master.
I have followed all of the movies and Ep II is way too complicated (not to mention boring). I had to watch it three times in order to understand ANY of the politics (on HBO -- I wasn't about to pay to see the movies in the theater again).
I consider Ep II to suffer from a similar problem to Godfather III. Each movie is way too complex (the Senatorial politics of Ep II/the Vatican politics of G-III)). And, each movie has one horrendous acting performance (Hayden Christiansen/Sophia Coppolla).
The Imax version of EpII was quite good.
For technical reasons they had to cut over 20 minuttes from the film for it to fit on an Imax reel, so it's the same movie, but with 20 minutes less of Anakin whining.
Much better movie, I think I'm even gonna wait for the Imax of epIII, spare me the useless bits.
You can't take the sky from me...
Or Solo.
Or Chewie.
At least he never used "The Starkiller Kid", from an early draft of The Star Wars.
...Dooku sounds like "from the asshole(do cú)" I just can't keep a straight face...
In Episode I & II, Darth Sidious gets plenty of extra screen time- if you haven't figured it out Palpatine IS Darth Sidious.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Seems to be pandering to the "no one is ever wrong" crowd. The beauty of SW was that good and evil were so well defined. The Empire BAD - Rebellion GOOD.
It is better to be the hammer than the anvil.
Umm chief, our Senate's doing just fine over here.
As long as you do the Chancilor/President/Emperor's bidding, your Senate usually does just fine.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Well duh. But that is hardly time developing a better villain, and actually Palpatine doesn't get that much either. That's a pretty sorry excuse as far as the lack of credible interesting villains goes. You may as well say "But Darth Vader (as Annakin) gets lots and lots of screen time!" Yes, he does, but it hardly makes up for the lack of a villain of any note.
Jedidiah.
Craft Beer Programming T-shirts
Drill baby drill - on Mars
A very subtle set of films, actually.
Did you catch the cloud or water imagery in the second film. What about the use of colours to casually foreshadow Anakin's maternal attachment ("blue for the boy, red for his mother"). Or the use of masks, duplicates, moon imagery???
There is tons of stuff there that most people don't bother to look for because they don't like the film or think reading anything into it is a waste of time. But that doesn't mean it isn't there. Case in point, consider the thematic split between ego and id on Naboo. Hardly accidental that Jar Jar (the id) is the one who proposes the droid army. Anger triumphs reason.
And if Lucas uses conventional imagery, it isn't as stiltedly as you suggest. Consider cloud city. A perfectly "white" (heavenly) city which turns into a blood-red hell sequence as sunset falls suggests the capacity for evil which lies within the individuals of that film as well. Or look at the final transformation of C3PO at the end of Attack of the Clones. His physical transformation into a battledroid is nothing more than a symbolic manifestation of the changes all of the other "good" characters undergo (abandoning pacifism for violence).
No wonder they all lose.
Will this suck more than phantom menace or attack of the clones? I'm going to say its going to be better than menace but crappier than clones. kind of like how jedi was for the first trilogy, but in reverse.
Ever!
and the whole Amidala giving birth to Luke and Leia thing
... Can't be!... Nooo! Luke and Leia aren't Jar-jar's children!! Nooo!"
And the world waits to find out if the caesarian is done with a lightsaber. Or the episiotomy, if they go that way.
You know what'd rock? If the babies pop out and they're half-Gungan.
That'd rock. You'd hear fanboy heads explode all over the world. "Noooo! That's not
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
As possibly the only offense against creativity more dire than naming a bad character "General Grievous" is naming one "Elan Sleazebaggano".
Read my blog.
He's been locked into this series, in some directorial equivalent of typecasting.
So in a passive-aggressive attempt at getting even with the damn fanboys who won't let him be, he's self-sabotaging the movies.
September 2011: Looking for Cocoa/iOS work in Boston area Cocoa Programmer Quincy, MA
It's called the "House of Lords" and is roughly analogous to our Senate. Just as the "House of Commons" is roughly analogous to our "House of Represenatives".
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
Yeah, because, you know George W. Bush is Senator Palpatine. Let's look at the similarities.
* Bush invaded Afghanistan to bring the war to our enemies, establish a democracy in a backwards country, and to overthrow the Taliban, which oppressed women.
* Palpatine helped the Trade Confederacy invade a world to overthrow a free, peaceful democracy, and depose their duly elected leader.
* Bush invaded Iraq to overthrow a tyrannical dictator and establish a free democracy.
* Palpatine overthrew a free republic to establish a tyrannical empire.
* Bush is working domestically to turn our renting society into an ownership society by extablishing Social Security as a long-term investment.
* Palpatine chases down Jedi knights who are supposed to protect the common man and ruthlessly kills them.
* Bush appointed the first black woman to be Secretary of State in our nation's history, opening up a good possibility of having a black woman president in the next decade, given historical precedence.
* Palpatine turns an honest yet naive boy against his own friends and brings him into his dark circle of evil friends.
I mean, the similarities are undeniable! George Lucas obviously made these movies at this time to parody George W. Bush!
The radical sect of Islam would either see you dead or "reverted" to Islam.
I'm not so sure Bush and Thatcher aren't, and weren't, power-grab dictators with evil schemes. Merely because their evil schemes relate more to money than to killing people makes them somehow good? And Clinton was just as evil and power mad. But the real evil is this- we haven't increased security one iota since 9-11. The borders are just as pourous as ever, more illegals are coming across than ever. Iraq has nothing to do with al Qaida aside from a few Iraqi agents eating in the same restaruants in Paris as Mohammed Atta- at least until we attacked, then we drew al Qaida there by giving them a huge fucking target of 150,000 US citizens. Nothing we've done so far in the war on terror has made the United States more safe from another 9-11 style attack, it's all been a waste of taxpayer resources and money.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
There's an old saying on Tatooine -- I know it's on Naboo, probably on Tatooine -- that says, fool me once, shame on -- shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.
- Darth Doobyu
http://www.flickr.com/photos/daveward/
Incidentally, he researched this very carefully and the type face is exact (found interviews with LucasFilm folks where the font are discussed.) He also did very meticulous work getting the perspective of the text, the color and the leading correct. It's not the real thing, but it sure looks like it.
--Rick "If it isn't broken, take it apart and find out why."
I can understand your confusion, but I don't think it's the complexity of the plot itself in Episode II that is the problem; it's the sheer incompetancy with which it was executed.
1. Mace Windu gets killed.
2. Boba Fett kills him.
We find out who Anakin's father really is.
That twit isn't getting any more of my money. For Ep II he only got the rental money, this time he isn't getting squat.
It'll be on Fox for Christmas 2006.
I caught that latest Star Trek on a free movie weekend on Starz or something. I'm not sure if I saw the ending or if I fell asleep, but I lost interest with Patrick Stewart prostituting himself on a nonsensical SUV chase. I paid the appropriate amount of money to see that one and SW3 will be the same.
There could be some neat special effects worth seeing.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
There is tons of stuff there that most people don't bother to look for because they don't like the film or think reading anything into it is a waste of time.
Nor does it make it a good film. Clumsiness is still clumsiness, even if it's subtle. Colors? That's his idea of subtle nuances? That's something a 6 year old does in drawings. Try a Kurosawa film sometime (Ran, for example), or even something as mainstream as The Ice Storm for true use of subtlety. Those examples you listed are so hackneyed and cliched that it's painful.
A good interpretation, and seemingly valid. One thing I would like to point out, however: you're saying that Lucas draws a parallel between the "good" forces and the US, the "bad" forces and whatever our current enemy is. In the cold war era, the US was the blatant good side, whereas the USSR was the "obvious" evil empire. You then go on to say that in the new movies Lucas is portraying the shades of grey in current conflicts. Possible.
You left one part out though, ignoring it. You said that the Old Empire (the US, ie the good) is rife with decay/decadence: "There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic." There is a clear side; whatever side is opposite the Emporor/Palpatine is good. Do you really think that Lucas is criticizing the US (Old Empire...) as suffering decay and decadence? While I believe this (that the US is going the way of Rome), I'm not so sure about Lucas. If Lucas doesn't believe this/desire to portray it, then I think that your earlier readings of epI-III are slightly...generous to Lucas.
On another topic: episodes I through III all suck/will suck; they are crippled by immature writing, excessive and careless use of CG, bad acting, unrealistic interactions/connections, and they completely miss the point of the original 3 star wars. Also, I believe that the three "prequels" are Georgie's mid-life crisis; he's desperatly attempting to prove that he can still make good movies, but all he manages to do is make his audience question whether he ever had that ability and wasn't just lucky.
(\(\
(^.^) INFECTED
(")")
Put all six of the crawls in order (by episode number) and read it as one long continuous story...Then ask yourself one question:
Would I really care about seeing this story on film?
GET FREE APPLE STUFF!
The Separatist movement has nothing to do with the rebellion. It is a ploy by Sidious and Dooku to give power to Sidious.
It already sucks.
Why Why WHY!?! Why are you writing "political drama"?
Why is that good?
I can't help reading the clearly written, simple crawlers from the 4-6 trilogy and wondering how on earth the same person could have written the confused, uninteresting plots of the 1-3 trilogy.
Considering I spent decades of my life being a Star Wars freak
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
How Ironic that 25 years later I find myself once again thinking: "God its really incredible that Battlestar Galactica might have a more compelling storyline than Star Wars, and they spent a fraction of the pricetag."
Actually, it wasn't really true back then. Star Wars ultimately proved to have a far more enduring and compelling storyline. This time around however -- things have changed. There's no comparison. BG's storyline is infinitely superior to episodes 4-6.
Just goes to show you George, all the special effects in the world can't top a well written script.
------ The best brain training is now totally free : )
I would think, even in a hugh robotic biosuit, he would still need the force on his side to beat jedi. Or is he just killing jedi with sheer might? Can't recall if they showed any force powers from him in the toon, but I don't think so.
Back during the run-up to Episode I or II there was an interview with Lucas in Time where he said just about exactly that. He's fascinated by the Fall of Rome and how seemingly invicible civilizations go splat.
-sam
I was just here, where did I go?
I'm sure the Native Amercans considered the new Europeans to be illegals... see where it got them...
Still do- and it's getting them the same thing today- resource grabs by corporations causing unemployment and alcoholism to run rampant on the reservations...Cascadians, aka Kwakiutals, aka The First Nation, realize that we are in the position of basically being an occupied and oppressed people, yes. So why should the white Europeans continue to make the same mistake, especially after massive mismanagement of the immigration system allowed 20 hijackers to cross the border despite badly faked passports, incomplete visa application forms, and FBI arrest warrents? Or a million people+ a year to cross the Arizona desert?
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
I mean, that worked so well for Clinton- letting Al Qaeda attack the WTC and then not capturing them, not going to war, not increasing security.
Clinton was the worst president we ever had 4 years ago. Bush let al Qaeda attack the WTC and then didn't go out and capture them. Where's Osama? Bush did go to war but in the wrong country. Bush has done nothing to increase security... read the 9/11 Commission report if you disagree. The White House's own reports say terrorism has increased since 9/11.
Then again it's hard to change people's minds no matter how many "facts" you have. Right?
Speak truth to power.
Stop wasting your money on Lucas' wayward comical views of the StarWars universe. These guys really know what they're doing. Great story and great characters... Sure, it's a game that will take 40 hours to extract the story instead of 2 but at least you'll enjoy yourself.
At this point I'd rather see a movie about Revan and Malak than the misery that will be Episode III.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
Bush had plenty of warning about 9/11, more than enough to start kicking some asses around. The lower levels of our intelligence agencies had more than enough info to unravel the plot of only someone had done some ass kicking.
Bush blew it. Then he tried to cover it up by first opposing, then stonewalling every investigation. Then he cynically used the tragedy, reinforcing unwarranted and destructive fears, to start an illegal war that's resulted in the death and injury of more than 10,000 Americans and killed tens of thousands of innocents.
No, Bush is no Palpatine. He's a clever fool, but not too foolish for America, it seems.
Play Command HQ online
Evil. It's the laughing at wholesale destruction and killing the Jedi that gives it away...
You're just falling for propaganda from the entrenched power elites. Anyone with eyes can see that the Jedi are the evil ones. Come on, they sent two men to mediate a trade-dispute, but in ten years they did nothing to end slavery on Tatooine -- they couldn't even be bothered to free Shmi Skywalker, the mother of one of their most promising students. Clearly the Jedi are just lackeys of the corporations, bent on maintaining the status quo with no thought to the proletariat.
Les Miserables Volume 1 now up with my reading of
It's not in the clip, but I've always wondered what life would be like in the death star's cafeteria.
"I'd like a hamburger and fries, please"
"Would that be all, Lord Vader?"
"And some chocolate milk. Yummy!"
I loved the "From the office of the Emperor" stationary. Nice touch!
Sounds like the Communist rhetoric that the Soviets wanted to impress apon America via Hollywood.
Politics, Life, and More on my Aspiring for the Future
Reminds me of the fake headline from "The Onion" of a WWII era newspaper. The headline in giant font covering the width of the paper was "WA-" followed by a small sub-heading "Headline continued on next page"
Lucas' literary allusion here seems to have all of the subtlety of a high-speed halfbrick to the cranium
I must haved ducked... English geeks are the worst kind of geeks.
NOt just politicians.
I've worked under many a manager, who've through apparent incompetence, engineered a wholly unrealistic schedule, then, when the team inevitably falls behind, a crisis is thus manufactured, justifying 100-hour work-weeks, and other draconian measures.
If, by some miracle, the project succeeds, the manager is promoted (Cheney/Cold War), and the unneeded engineers (Peace Divident) laid off.
If the project fails, the manager (Powell/Iraq, Ashcroft/Domestic WOT) is moved to another project, and one of the engineers is promoted to take over (Rice, Gonzalez), to take the fall for the failure of the project.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
The way to tell if Dooku is evil:
Check his pad for a Palantir.
If it's got a flaming lidless eye, the Dark Lord has turned him to evil.
These are my friends, See how they glisten. See this one shine, how he smiles in the light.
Shit...and I made a typing error, too. OK, let me have it.
I get the feeling that if Lucas actually DID refilm Ran frame-for-frame his criticism would consist of nothing but attacks on how boring the damn thing was, especially the early scenes which were (really) far too political. No-one needs that many shots of people moping around in the grass nor do they really want to see minutes of old men creeping out of burning fortresses when a couple of action shots would have done just as well.
You get the film you get, and this one is a serial space adventure. Live with the conventions of the genre or don't go. And you can call the criticism hackneyed and cliched, but that doesn't even approach a sophmoric level of film analysis.
>> Lucas can do good guy/bad guy fine- Darth Vader wears BLACK and breathes OMINOUSLY and STRANGLES his underlings without hesitation, thus he is EVIL and must be stopped. Luke is INNOCENT and GOOD, and Leah is PURE and GOOD too (they both wear WHITE), let's hope they WIN!
If you understood the parent post, I think you'd understand why this is a misinterpretation of the film.
War! What is it good for?
These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
The characters have always been named with blatant reference to their looks, their role in the story, or assorted literary allusions. Han Solo the roguish cowboy, Greedo the green criminal, Darth Vader the Dark Father. In a sense, the names are a big element of the story, because they convey additional background for the viewer in what are generally fast-paced movies.
Promote civility: mod down any post starting with 'ummm'.
You're sort of close, but PPG wasn't created by Genndy Tartakovski, it was created by Craig McCracken. Genndy created Dexter's Laboratory, which McCracken also worked on however. Personally, I find that Grievous is more closely related to Samurai Jack anyway, another Tartakovski show.
Perhaps not. "Some fellows need to be hit with a brick. Some fellows you need to hit with a big brick." Martya Koudekelda in Lois McMaster Bujold's "Memory".
English geeks are the worst kind of geeks.
"All I know is what I read in science fiction." It might count for less in that I remember the speech mainly from Sparky's bathtub scene in John Varley's "The Golden Globe." Now that book was an example of ripping off Shakespeare with class!
//Information does not want to be free; it wants to breed.
Yeah, and Mark Hamil's performance was just STELLAR.
You left one part out though, ignoring it. You said that the Old Empire (the US, ie the good) is rife with decay/decadence: "There were no clear sides, just decay throughout the entire old republic." There is a clear side; whatever side is opposite the Emporor/Palpatine is good. Do you really think that Lucas is criticizing the US (Old Empire...) as suffering decay and decadence? While I believe this (that the US is going the way of Rome), I'm not so sure about Lucas. If Lucas doesn't believe this/desire to portray it, then I think that your earlier readings of epI-III are slightly...generous to Lucas.
I'm not saying that movies parallel current events, but rather that they mirror our current popular ideas and fears. There's a difference. Star Trek tended to do the same thing, and actually came close to paralleling events (with the climax in movie number 6). I'm talking more about the "mood". 80's movies were more good vs. evil, man vs. man. Today's movies are more about man vs. himself. There's a lot more anxiety. There's more distrust of authority now than there ever was when I was growing up. Ideas like that cause revolutions.
"I have never let my schooling interfere with my education." - Mark Twain
"Courage!"
(except that was at the end of the broadcast...)
Super ninja monkeys will one day rule the world!
When dooku reaches out and tells Kenobi this information, I don't think he (Dooku) is confused at all. I think he's purposefully giving the truth (even though it implicates his master) because he knows it will breed doubt in Kenobi's mind, and mistrust.
Or...maybe he's giving Kenobi the truth so they can join forces and overthrow the emporer. (Like Vader's first offer to Luke upon revealing WhosYerDaddy.) I guess these No. 2 baddies are always plotting to become No. 1.
Best. Comment. Ever. Enjoy!
Sci-fi for grownups.
I had almost given up on Science Fiction. Lets face it, many of the standards are, well, juvinile. Battlestar Galactica isn't perfect, but I was very pleased to finally see something with more grown up aspirations and it gets a big thank you for helping to bring me back into the fold.
TW
Why are you even mentioning 9/11 and Iraq in the same sentence? They had nothing to with each other until Bush used one to create a war involving the other.
I watched a half hour of Ep II downloaded from the internet, and promptly deleted the file (posted anonymously for obvious reasons). Because the MPAA has teams of robots that scour Slashdot posts for mention of copyright infringment, then file for search and seizure warrants against Slashdot to obtain your IP, then your cable company to obtain your real name, then kick down your door and take all your stuff and hope the files you deleted can still be pulled off of erased sectors so they can FINE YOU!
I'm Rick James with mod points biatch!
I'll just say one thing about that link you just provided: It's a trap!
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
Um, you are joking right? Since someone modded this 'insightful', it's hard to tell.
..a noble ship of Venice Hath seen a grievous wreck..
Why is 'grievous' capitalized in your quote? It's not a name, it's an adjective, 'grievous' means 'regretful'.
A single common (albeit not as common in modern english) word hardly qualifies as a 'reference' by any stretch of the imagination. And hardly as an unsubtle one.
But if we were to assume it is a reference to the Bard, what makes you think it's a reference to Julius Ceasar?
It could be "Richard II": Old John of Gaunt is grievous sick, my lord or perhaps:
The commons hath he pill'd with grievous taxes..
or "Richard III": By Christ's dear blood shed for our grievous sins.. and also A grievous burden was thy birth to me..
or Sonnet 3: Then can I grieve at grievous foregone..
or "Two Gentlemen of Verona": If lost, why then a grievous labour won..
or "Henry IV": He cannot come, my lord; he is grievous sick.
or "Henry VIII": Heard many grievous, I do say, my lord..
or "Othello":
It's a quite common word.
Given that this is a story of the fall of the Republic and the Rise of the Empire, Lucas' literary allusion here seems to have all of the subtlety of a high-speed halfbrick to the cranium.
So, besides the fact that a single word doesn't qualify as a reference, it's also worth noting that the Shakespeare play 'Julius Caesar' isn't 'the story of the fall of the republic and rise of the empire' at all.
Major Asshole
learn from yesterday, plan for tomorrow, party tonight
or one out of three ain't bad
. . .
:)
forgive me what is likely a dumb question,
i agree models look more convincing. if that really is the case, is there a real cost advantage for CGI? I mean so much of an advantage that actors have to imagine their whole environment which numbs performance because of the intellectual overhead?
As much as you can say about ham - acting in the Trilogy, nothing bored me more than the stultifyingly rigid acting of the prequels to date. I think this is a real byproduct of the CGI environment sets. What i am speculating, albeit wildly, is an analogy with how LOTR was imagined by kids before any film ever came out. I mean, everyone thought differently. So, as so much CGI happens in Post, and actors have only storyboards and sketches to work from, do they compromise by defaulting to a static interpretation, rather than risk being wildly at odds with another's take on the imaginary set? I don't doubt Lucas et.al. have contemplated this at some point in time, but can anyone point me to any public discussion of this issue?
On a less serious note. Imagine this - getting seriously rich only to find out all your toys have dematerialised. That wold make _me_ want to build more models at any rate
Frankly, I think there's more to it than just "Palpatine" == "Sidious" I think one is a clone of the other... Sidious is a foot shorter and much older than Palpatine...
I'm open to the possibility that Palpatine != Sidious, although I'd be shocked if that were to prove to be the case.
The goal is that the Emperor will have wiped out the Trade Federation, and depleted the Old Republic of it's forces. The Trade Federation will wipe out all means of cloning, the Republic army will wipe out the droid armies, leaving the Emperor's loyalist in charge with no opposition. It's a "classic" plot, but George just doesn't have the writing chops to pull it off like it should be...but it will LOOK cool!
But that's just WAAAAYYYYY too Byzantine a plot for a single movie, or even a series of three movies.
I mean, hell, that's too Byzantine for something encyclopedic, like War and Peace. A movie [or series of movies] can withstand at most about one subplot, and the more you strengthen the subplot, the more the movie becomes unwatchable. Scripts need to be simple, forceful, and to-the-point.
Even a relatively plot-driven movie, like Pulp Fiction [which weighed in at very nearly three hours], had basically one plot [Travolta/Vincent's loyal relationship with Rhames/Marsellus], and one subplot [Willis/Butch's disloyal relationship with Rhames/Marsellus]. If Tarantino had tried to throw in some further twist, such as Rhames/Marcellus playing off Travolta/Vincent against Willis/Butch in some sort of a Machiavellian uber-text, then the whole thing would have become unwatchable.
Besides, I like my idea of the Jedi's arrogance being their downfall [and Yoda certainly has become one damned arrogant little muppet in these prequels]. Furthermore, introducing Machiavellian themes into Star Wars ruins the appeal of its original premise, which was that it purported to be nothing more than a simple tale of an epic battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil.
It's the turtle wax, man.
Don't blame Durga. I voted for Centauri.