Star Wars Episode 3 PG-13?

geekboxjockey writes "This story hints at the next Star Wars being a bit more of a mature themed movie: "[The film] is much more dark...more emotional. It's much more of a tragedy," adds Lucas. "...it will be the first Star Wars that's a PG-13.""There's also a new trailer airing during tonight's The O.C., so you can use that as an excuse to watch FOX teen drama. Fortunately for me, Summer is the only excuse I need. And maybe Captain Oats.

Comments

too little, too late

[kin_korn_karn]

Lucas lost me completely with Attack of the Clones. The only Star Wars material worth the time these days is the expanded universe stuff.

Re:too little, too late

[The Amazing Fish Boy]

But how will you know how it ends??

Re:too little, too late

[gimpynerd]

I think that maybe the third one will be better. George Lucas can't be oblivious to the fact that the public opinion of his last two films was not so favorable. I doubt he would want to be forever remembered of ruining a potentially good saga.

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

Fool me once, shame on you
fool me twice, shame on me
fool me three times, who cares? George's career is over.

Re:too little, too late

[ZephyrXero]

I'm not watching "the O.C."...lol. Who volunteers to rip it and bittorrent it for everyone else?

Re:too little, too late

[spideyct]

How well did that logic work for you after Episode I?

Re:too little, too late

[dswensen]

Good one! Well, actually, you're right. He's not oblivious. He just doesn't care.

He's made it abundantly clear in interviews that the fans don't mean shit to him. In an interview with CNN, his response to fans wanting an un-screwed with DVD of the OT was, "I'm sorry you fell in love with a half-finished film, but get over it."

George Lucas doesn't give a tin shit for his fans or how they (or film history) see him, and moreover, because so many of them pay him money regardless of what he does, he doesn't have to.

So yeah.

Re:too little, too late

[petsounds]

It has been many years since Lucas had any sense of perspective. Return of the Jedi was arguably his first steps in his long journey towards Craptown, Oblivia where he has decided to take up permanent residence.

If Lucas really wanted to win back the fans, he wouldn't have propagated new and existing defacements of the original trilogy, such as not returning the Greedo scene to the original narrative, or replacing Darth Vader in the Return of the Jedi celebration scene with that mullet-wearing, no-talent hack for the sake of "continuity." No, George will make the films he wants to make, regardless of the opinions of the public at large, which is in of itself a noble thing in filmmaking. But apparently no one close to him wishes to risk telling Lucas that he has no clothes.

Re:too little, too late

[dittrich]

So, do what I'm going to do...Flip over to Fox 5 min before OC is over, watch the trailer, then flip over to CBS to see CleverNickName on CSI

Re:too little, too late

[MightyMartian]

I don't think Lucas hears his critics. He's only listening to people who fill in "Jedi" on the religion question on census forms.

I thought SW was cool when I was a kid, and that persisted into my mid-20s, but now I really have a hard time watching them, save for The Empire Strikes Back, which is still a damn good story that easily survives the meteorically bad talents of Carrey Fisher and Mark Hamell. It's also likely that it's the best because it had an actual SF writer with a good deal of work under her belt. I'm speaking of the incomparable Leigh Brackett.

Re:too little, too late

[KinkifyTheNation]

Or how it begins, really.

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

George L or George W ?

Re:too little, too late

[Curtman]

Have no fear. It'll be on Quicktime's page in a day or two.

Re:too little, too late

[John Courtland]

"They" are Wil Wheaton

Re:too little, too late

[MightyMartian]

Well, I personally am very sorry I can't remember how to spell the names of two actors who meteorically plummeted from the highs of Star Wars. Well, alright, Fisher is, by all accounts, a good writer, but as an actor, she was meteorically bad.

Re:too little, too late

[gimpynerd]

...or replacing Darth Vader in the Return of the Jedi celebration scene with that mullet-wearing, no-talent hack for the sake of "continuity."

I was wondering if that was just my eyes playing tricks on me or if I really didn't remember the originals. Thanks for the clarification.

Re:too little, too late

[yintercept]

I thought SW was cool when I was a kid

Yeah, I want Lucas to make me feel like I did when I was a kid. Anything less is a betrayal. Damn, I am going to end up watching this thing and end up feeling like some type of lame slashdot reading middle aged computer hack.

Mr. Lucas, YOU ARE FAILING YOUR FAN BASE!!!!

Re:too little, too late

[SeattleGameboy]

Why should he care???

This is his art. He should be able to create/modify whatever he pleases. This is how he expresses himself (how much money he makes off of it should not matter).

Let's say you wrote a novel. After your friend reads the draft, you decide that the ending sucked and changed it, which you like MUCH better. However, then your friend comes back and says the old ending was better and you should produce that novel instead of the new version that YOU, the author, like better.

What business is of your friend to dictate what your novel should be? It is not a collaborative effort (unless YOU wanted it to be). Most artist would demand the same.

If the public likes the new version, great. If they don't, that's fine too. At least you published what YOU, the artist, wanted.

Why is that so hard to understand?

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

After reports of negative expectations of the third installment, George was quoted as saying:
"Fool me once, shame on ... shame on you. It fool me. We can't get fooled again"

Re:too little, too late

[MaxQuordlepleen]

Do you even know what you meant to confer?

Do you? "Confer" - I do not think it means what you think it means.

Normally I don't play grammar nazi on /. but in cases of hypocrisy I'll make an exception.

Re:too little, too late

[nametaken]

I'm watching the OC now, and damn Lucas straight to his lava planet hell for this.

Re:too little, too late

[CrazyTalk]

Half finished??? I've said it before and I'll say it again. If the film I saw 10 times in the theatre in 1977 was only half finished, then I demand half of my money back.

Re:too little, too late

[maglor_83]

Yeah, but Ep II had a slightly less annoying anakin, and a lot less Jar Jar

Re:too little, too late

[jasonmicron]

hey, you want to go camp out in a mall? it would be, like, totally AWeSomE!

Re:too little, too late

[gimpynerd]

Yeah the loved scenes killed me.

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

First, these were major motion pictures that were released, not a rough draft of a novel shown to a few friends.

Second, Lucas wasn't the artist who made Empire Strikes Back - the best of the Star Wars films. So your argument has no merit with that movie.

Third, there is no reason to not release the original versions. Given that Lucas hasn't written or directed a good film in decades, any pretense of this being to prevent embarrassment at seeing the old versions has no merit.

Fourth, by not preserving the original version for posterity he is destroying a small piece of modern history and culture. If he were verifiably insane instead of simply losing his talents and abilities, I doubt anyone would agree with this destruction.

Fifth, the original movies would be public domain by now if not for the government-corporate corruption of copyright law.

Re:too little, too late

[TheGavster]

It irks me to read a comment on basically every movie that is considered 'rather good' that reads something like "$lead_actor is really bad, and the story is crap". Its like people are reiterating what some critic said for shock value, as a publicity ploy. 'Come see the critic who gave Casablanca a thumbs down!'

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

"Let's say you wrote a novel. After your friend reads the draft, you decide that the ending sucked and changed it, which you like MUCH better. However, then your friend comes back and says the old ending was better and you should produce that novel instead of the new version that YOU, the author, like better."

I disagree with this characterization. What George Lucas has done is different.

Imagine that someone wrote a novel that you, and many others, thought to be a real satisfying read. Then twenty years later a new method of distribution comes along called Book 2.0; the author could ?repair? the novel, ironing out anything he felt he didn?t like, before transferring it to this new media. However he should try to comprehend how many readers that have read the novel since is original release. Because the fans that loved the original work, despite whatever flaws the author might perceive, are the ones that made its reputation. To disrespect the fans by going as far as refusing to transfer the original version to a new and better media because you, the author, feels it isn?t perfect seems to me to be a spit in the face to those who loved the original, however flawed it might be.

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

Sometimes I wish there was a "-1:Use of analogy" moderation. An unpublished book and allready released movie aren't even close to being the same thing.

Re:too little, too late

[JWW]

Damn, that's funny, I wish I had some mod points.

Re:too little, too late

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's your $4. Wanna buy a DVD set?

Re:too little, too late

[bleckywelcky]

Wow, I didn't realize we were all considered George's friends. Thanks George, I understand why you made the changes now.

Re:too little, too late

[The Wooden Badger]

Spoiler warning: Darth Vader kills Emperor Palpatine and the rebels win.

Re:too little, too late

[aichpvee]

Well if he doesn't like the original movies in their original forms I guess he won't mind if I make some copies for my friends.

Re:too little, too late

[JasdonLe]

And that really is the point right there. Well, said. If it were not for the fans that fell in love with Movie 1.0, George Lucas would never even have the chance to change anything.

Re:too little, too late

[SomeGuyFromCA]

if memory serves, someone in the lucas camp did say re: episode 1: "you'll have to wait six years to really appreciate this movie".

having been throughly spoiled on ep 3, i now know what he meant.

you had to see the galaxy (and anakin) as they were before the darkness to see how major the changes were:

you had to see the bureaucratically hobbled, glacially slow to act republic to understand why it was even possible for the empire to be born.

you had to see the "whee! now this is podracing!" anakin to truly see how far the fall was to the "i don't 'fear' the dark side... i embrace it" vader. `

episode 1 really cannot stand alone. it is the prologue both to its own trilogy and to the overall saga. the events in it seem minor and unimportant... except that you know what things like 'chancellor palpatine' will lead to. or when qui-gon said, "anakin skywalker... meet obi-wan kenobi"; the entire theater collectively draws a breath at that point because they know where and how these two men will end their friendship and their lives. and that was just with knowing what would happen in 4-6. now that we (are about to) have seen all of it (obi-wan crying out in frustration "you were the chosen one!" from the new trailer sticks in one's head) we can go back to ep 1 and see the shadows forming.

yes, jar-jar is annoying. what, the universe of long ago and far away doesn't have annoying critters? besides, that's the irony - that jar-jar helped palpatine to power. yes, anakin's annoying, whiny, selfish, and clunky in "love scenes" with padme. that's part of his story and part of the reason he could fall to the dark side - palpy plays on his desire to be more powerful and his fear of losing/failing those he cares about.

if anakin were the uber-cool, suave, humble-yet-powerful jedi people seem to want, what could palps offer him to tempt him to the dark side? moreover, why would he accept? the great irony of the star wars story is that anakin falls to evil because of love. because he wants that power so he can keep those he loves with him. and then once he knows he's lost padme forever, he fully accepts his role as darth vader, taking the only power and control he can, in bitterness, guilt and probably not a little self-hatred.

and this is why luke was able to redeem vader. anakin was finally able to save someone - his own son - and not with the dark side of the force, and not even with the force at all, but by merely making a choice, a choice that he probably thought was lost to him forever.

Re:too little, too late

[eddeye]

Who owns an idea? This isn't a facile question, it's actually the root of the issue. A book/movie/song/painting/artistic expression is just a set of ideas fixed in a tangible medium. When you view a creation, you experience those ideas and make them your own. In other words, your thoughts and feelings filter your perceptions to create a unique personal experience.

Subsequent alterations of a work can never replace your experience of the original. Ideas can't be "undone". At best, changes to a work can supplement or enhance it in the spirit of the original. At worst, they corrupt or cheapen the ideas into a twisted distortion. But it's never the same experience as the original, and every person will perceive the changes differently.

Creators are given distribution rights over physical manifestations of their works to encourage them to create (how effectively that works is another topic). This includes the ability to create derivative works by altering the original. Some people will prefer the new version, others the old. But ultimately they are two separate works, as surely as if made by two different artists. One can never replace the other because each embodies a (perhaps slight) variation on the ideas of the piece.

A creator who owns his creation lock, stock, and barrel is given unnatural dominion over other people's minds. An artist is free to create as many new versions as they want. But eliminating access to the originals deprives the world of that experience. It is an invasive intrusion into our minds to say "No longer can you experience what you saw before. Now you must see it as I say." It is shameful revisionist history.

Lucas can keep his super special terrific happy deluxe editions. They are a gross debasement of what I love about the originals and I will not spend a dime on them.

Re:too little, too late

[eddeye]

If he were verifiably insane instead of simply losing his talents and abilities

What?! You mean he's not insane? Jar-jar isn't the product of a horribly deranged, twisted mind? May god have mercy on us all.

Re:too little, too late

[Hellad]

Mary Shelley re-wrote Frankenstein in a smiliar way as GL. In books, this was an especially common practice. Iit is different in books because GL is preventing modern distribution of the old version, but Shelley did the same thing after she updated her text. It wasn't until after her death that the original version became available. The only reason that was even possible is becasue of the lax copyright laws on old texts.

Re:too little, too late

[lgw]

While I agree with everything you're saying, none of it excuses the monsterously bad dialog, mostly from Annakin, in Eps 1 and 2. It's not a bad story at all, and the character development is interesting, but the actual writing (as opposed to the concepts behind it) is just so bad.

Re:too little, too late

[Feanturi]

I tried to watch it, I really did. I had the TV on and everything. But I also ordered food a short while after the show started, and forgot all about the trailer while I worked on the computer, and then the food arrived. I ran downstairs to get it, came back up, got in my chair, looked at the TV, saw the back of Darth Vader's head and then the title came up, it was over. FUCK!

Re:too little, too late

[MightyMartian]

I don't need a critic to tell me that Hammil and Fisher couldn't act, because, well, they couldn't. It was the gee-whiz-bang adventure story that carried the first one, the rather good plot of the second and the momentum of the first two which have carried Episodes VI, I, II and now III.

Oh, and I'm not too sure what Casablanca is doing with most of the SW flicks. I know Ebert has said that the first movie was one of the greatest, though it's as much because of the technical innovation the movie was as anything else. It's just rather badly written, and the acting is rather bad. I can well imagine why Alec Guiness begged Lucas to kill his character off. Still, the first movie is great fun, and like I said the second is such a good story that you can paper over the acting deficiencies.

In no way do I think that anything past the first two movies are good in any sense I care to think of.

Re:too little, too late

[kamapuaa]

Wow, you make Star Wars sound almost watchable. I'd like to hear you describe a good movie, I bet that would really be something!

Re:too little, too late

[chrono325]

I agree. In addition, I have a problem with some of the locale choices made, specifically that anakin lived on Tattooine and the introduction of Naboo.
Respecting Tattooine, the sense I got from the trilogy was that the whole point of hiding Luke (and the droids) on Tattooine was that that it was so remote and insignificant that Vader would never find him. Would Leiah really try to hide the droids on Vader's homeworld? It just doesn't make sense. If you want somewhere safe from the prying eyes of the empire, choose a place which they have never heard of, like Niruaun.
Naboo (understandably) doesn't appear in the wider universe (at least as far as I know, I've only read novels from after ROTJ), and it seems strange to introduce what seems like a major player which was never mentioned in the trilogy and seldom (if ever) in the novels.

Sorry, but its late and I just got on spring break, so I'm naturally celebrating by playing Rome Total War and reading /. until dawn.

Re:too little, too late

[Mortlath]

I can well imagine why Alec Guiness begged Lucas to kill his character off.

IIRC, Alec Guiness was quite upset that Lucas killed off his character. As one of the (or only?) well-known actors in the movie, he was expecting a bigger role in the movie, and was not happy at first when he found out that he was to die half-way through.

Re:too little, too late

[drsquare]

The main problems with the shitty new star wars films isn't the actual plot, it's the awful dialogue, the awful score, the awful CGI, the awful dull screenplay, the awfully irritating characters and the complete lack of tension, emotion or adrenaline. I mean, in the first one, they spent most of the film sat about bitching about politics. Who goes to a star wars film to see politics in space? People watch star wars films to see spaceships and lightsabres, not some face-painted bint flying about bitching at people.

Re:too little, too late

[m50d]

The problem is that he did publish it. It's not just his friend, it's most of the world. And now he's refusing to do new releases of the old version. If it was just a draft it would work, but *it wasn't a draft, it was a final, released film*.

Re:too little, too late

[kahei]

I agree, those are the themes, ep1 is a prologue.

In other news, though, the movies sucked. This theme has been explored thoroughly elsewhere so I won't elaborate on it.

Re:too little, too late

[gowen]

someone in the lucas camp did say re: episode 1: "you'll have to wait six years to really appreciate this movie".

Hey! How did he know I was going to become affected by early-onset Alzheimers?

Re:too little, too late

[JohnFluxx]

Lol. I thought the exact opposite. I want to watch something with a story, and not stupid pod races and hours of light sabre fights.

Re:too little, too late

[Cougem]

Why publish it if you don't care what they think?

Just because they shouldn't expect him to change it, doesn't mean he shouldn't care what they think.

If someone told me I was ugly, they wouldn't expect me to have plastic surgery, but it'd still hurt.

Re:too little, too late

[miu]

Why should he care???

He should care because SW is commercial entertainment, not art. Lucas has lost at least $60 of my money and I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one. I'm sure the money doesn't matter to Lucas at this point, but it does to the big business aspect of Hollywood.

No matter how you look at them, the first two movies of the trilogy have been awful movies. Without the SW name attached to them they would have been complete financial failures. Alienating the existing fanbase devalues the name itself, since the work itself is poor the name is the only real value remaining in the franchise.

Re:too little, too late

[aggies11]

Yep, it was quite the fall from grace.
From a whiney annoying little kid, to a whiney annoying angst-full teen, to a bad-ass jedi killing cyborg...

Wait a second? Vader is actually an *improvement* over anakin, after watching the first two episodes, it'd be preferable if he was just killed outright! Not to save the jedi from extinction, but just to put the viewer out of his misery.

At the end of ROTJ you feel bad for luke, and his dad, a supposedly nice guy who fell to the dark side. Now that you see the truth, you still feel bad for luke, but this time because his dad was a total loser, and that he didn't kill him sooner!

Anyone who has seen the spoof trailer for Episode III, knows the truth of the above.
Aggies

Re:too little, too late

[nurhussein]

Reality check : the dialogue in the original trilogy was monsterously bad too. Sir Alec Guiness hated his lines because they were so awful. Yet, people loved the original trilogy. Come on guys, it's supposed to be just a fun movie, don't take it too seriously.

Re:too little, too late

[Freaky Spook]

Being a star wars fan, I have been dissapointed with the new movies. George Lucas can do what he wants, he just planted Star Wars in the hearts of every fan, but it was the fans who Truley built the Star Wars Galaxy, it was the technical designers drawing up blue prints to Ships in their spare time, it was the writers bringing new stories to us to enrich our experience, it was the Game Designers building Role Play & Computer games. To take on a project like Star Wars anyone has to have an interest in it. Lucas may have envisioned it, but it was the fans that took it from him & created a vast universe full of detail & colour. THese movies may be shit, but it hasn't reduced my interest in Star Wars one bit, because the movies are only now 1/10th of the experience to me.

Re:too little, too late

[Wyatt Earp]

Stephen King did this with the Stand, no one is ripping on King for it. It was prased in the reviews I saw of it at the time (1990). Hell it was done to the Bible lord knows how many times with books removed, translations changed, etc.

Historians do this sometimes with reprintings and new editions. For example, one sitting on my desk right now, Guilmartin, John F. Gunpowder and Galleys, Changing Technology and Mediterranean Warfare at Sea in the 16th Century , a new edition came out recently and he'd changed things, rewrote things and so on.

Re:too little, too late

[Random BedHead Ed]

I'm not so sure the character development was as interesting as you say, except maybe Anakin. I really wish Obi-Wan had been more of a bad-ass, perhaps more like Han Solo than Alec Guinness. It would be neat to see him develop into a more stately Jedi. Instead he started out much as he ends. And Palpatine, though interesting, would have been far more interesting if he had started out as a more major, central character. Not just a stuffy politician in the background, but someone you really like - one of the "good guys." Watching him become emperor would have been like watching Princess Leia become Emperor - as impossible to accept as finding out Vader is Luke's father. Lucas could have done much more interesting things with these characters.

Still, I'll be near the front of the line on May 19th. Here's hoping for another Empire.

Re:too little, too late

[lgw]

Well, you have a point, but I guess the dialog for the original trilogy was par for genre films, more cliche than bad, where the new stuff doesn't even have that excuse.

Re:too little, too late

[why-is-it]

Fourth, by not preserving the original version for posterity he is destroying a small piece of modern history and culture. If he were verifiably insane instead of simply losing his talents and abilities, I doubt anyone would agree with this destruction.

Agreed. Google to see why George Lucas was totally opposed to colourizing classic B&W films. He argued something to the point that the director made the best film that could be made at the time given the constraints of time, money and technology. He was totally opposed to altering those films (by adding colour) as the films should be viewed in the context of what was do-able at the time.

Contrast that with Lucas' rather lame justifications for his alterations to Ep 4-6.

(BTW - does he really expect us to believe that he had always intended for Greedo to shoot first?)

Hyocrite thy name is George Lucas

Re:too little, too late

[SeattleGameboy]

You guys really need to go out and do something other than watch old SW over and over again...

WHETHER OR NOT I used an analogy of an unpublished book makes NO difference in my argument!!!

Numerous artists such as DaVinci, Beethoven, Mozart, Mahler, Pollack, etc. (too many to name) regularly modified their work AFTER they were published/exhibited.

Why should DaVinci care that you liked the old background over Mona Lisa's left shoulder instead of the new one? Should you be able to force him to change back? Or make him create another version of the old layout even though DaVinci CLEARLY prefers the new version?

Mahler, like most composers continued to tweak his symphonies, AFTER they debuted in concert halls. Should he be forced to direct his old version, although he only wants to perform the new, better (for himself) version?

This is art. George Lucas created it. He has all the right in the world to change it as he sees fit. It is too bad that some fans don't appreciate it, but so what? If you don't like it go create something of your own.

Re:too little, too late

[Lowly Stormtrooper]

Well known...I think I have another actor for ya: Peter Cushing (aka Grand Moff Tarkin) *salute* http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001088/

Re:too little, too late

[silicon not in the v]

I think that maybe the third one will be better. George Lucas can't be oblivious to the fact that the public opinion of his last two films was not so favorable. I doubt he would want to be forever remembered of ruining a potentially good saga.

You know, you don't have to be trying to be funny to be modded Funny. I think if George had paid any attention to the fans, ep II probably would have been better.("I truly, deeply, love you." Blech!) George seems to think that he knows exactly what is best, contrary to the opinion of most of his fans.

Here is a trivia bit from IMDB about what happened when George Lucas visited on the set of Martin Scorsese's movie "Gangs of New York"

19th century New York was recreated on the lot of Cinecittà studios in Rome. When George Lucas visited the massive set, he reportedly turned to Scorsese and said that sets like that can be done with computers now.

We know that George, and that's what makes your movies suck now. We rather like REAL props and filming on location *cough*LOTR*cough* that get you more immersed into the world.

Re:too little, too late

[16K Ram Pack]

Well, I may not count for much, but I want the version that was either the widescreen VHS like I have already or the LDs.

None of the tacked on shit, completely unnecessary.

And I will buy nothing else.

Re:too little, too late

[Mr. Slippery]

Then twenty years later a new method of distribution comes along called Book 2.0

Actually, David Gerrold did just this with When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One (the book that introduced the term "virus" as applied to software, though that was a brief tangent to the story). The later version is indeed titled When H.A.R.L.I.E. Was One, Version 2.0. I have copies of both editions, they are radically different.

IMHO, they're two different works and both should be in print.

Re:too little, too late

[gimpynerd]

Sorry for the typo the love scenes killed me.

Re:too little, too late

[TiggertheMad]

While I agree with everything you're saying, none of it excuses the monsterously bad dialog, mostly from Annakin, in Eps 1 and 2. It's not a bad story at all, and the character development is interesting, but the actual writing (as opposed to the concepts behind it) is just so bad.

Amen Botha! If GL would just let someone else write the dialouge, they could be some of the best films ever made. The imagry is gorgeous, the story vast. But the dialouge is PAINFUL.

Re:too little, too late

[coronaride]

Nice attempt to use a quickly-becoming-cliche movie quote in order to 'correct' me...

However, I do not believe that I misused the word 'confer'. Among other things, confer means 'to invest with', as one could invest a statement with a meaning. The original poster was using a metaphor (actually a metaphorical adjective) - an expression that attempts to describe something not very well known by likening it to something else more commonly known. In doing this, the poster was investing or even infusing (and actually, in this case, confusing) his/her statement with a certain feeling or meaning about the subjects.

Normally I don't play grammar nazi on /. but in cases of hypocrisy I'll make an exception.

If we're going to get right down to it though, you might be quite the hypocrite, yourself. My argument wasn't with the poster's grammar, but about their selection of words. As anyone knows, grammar is primarily confined to syntax whereas in this case, I was clearly arguing semantics.

That said...my grammar can beat up your grammar! Too bad she's 94 and in a nursing home, though..

nyah nyah nyah.. :)

It's all in good fun, right?

Re:too little, too late

[corsican]

Ah, yes; I remember fondly going to the Episode 1 premier, walking right past all the freaks that had camped out for a week, whipping out my debit card, buying two tickets from the kiosk, then going inside to great seats while the Freak Patrol were all still standing in line...yes, as if it were yesterday, I remember smelling them as they all came filtering in, looking around for the best seats, which of course I already had; dead-center in the screen (stadium-style theatre).

Those were the days...

Re:too little, too late

[corsican]

Now, you gotta admit; Padme looked pretty fine in that little backless number...with the mams poking the front...mmmm.

Re:too little, too late

[k96822]

Hey, man, thanks! Everybody says I'm annoying as feck too. Now, I have a great excuse: the universe is full of annoying creatures! :-)

Re:too little, too late

[Guppy06]

"You'll have to wait 20 years to really appreciate the original trilogy."

Having been thoroughly spoiled on episodes 1 and 2, I now know what they meant.

You had to see the Star Wars universe it was were before the darkness to see how major the changes were:

You had to the the bureaucratically hobbled, glacially slow-to-act LucasFilms to understand why it was even possible for Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones to be born.

You had to see the "Whee! This is profit!" Lucas to truly see how far the fall was from "I don't 'fear' the big movie houses... I embrace them" George.

Episodes 4, 5 and 6 really cannot stand alone. They are the prologue both to itself and this new trilogy. The events in them seem minor and unimportant... except that you know where things like "Directed by George Lucas" will lead to. The entire theater collectiely draws a breath at that point because they thought they knew what was once and could have been. And that was just knowing what happened 20 years ago. Now that we are about to see all of it (fans crying out in fustration "Star Wars used to be good!" from the internet sticks out in one's head), we can go back to episode 6 and see the shadows forming.

Yes, Jar-Jar is annoying. What, the universe of media hype and mass-marketing doesn't have annoying mascots? Besides, that's the irony: Jar-Jar and the Ewoks helped George Lucas to power. Yes, Lucas has, through interviews, come across as a whiney primadona. That's part of his story and the reason why he could fall to the dark side--large amounts of cash plays on hsi desire to be more famous and his fear of losing/failing his fans.

If Lucas were the uber-cool, swave, humble-yet-good writer/director people seem to want, what could marketing contracts offer him to tempt him to selling out? Moreover, why would he accept? The great irony of the Star Wars story is that Lucas falls to evil because of money. Because he wants the power so he can keep the fame (and income) he loves with him, and then once he's lost the adoration of his fanbase forever, he has fully accepted his role as the destroyer of dreams, taking the only income and "fame" he can, in bitterness over not being able to write as well as he used to.

And this is why there will be no "Luke Skywalker" to redeem Lucas. George doesn't want to save anybody or entertain, he just wants fame and fortune and will gladly whore himself out for another buck from another cereal box toy or cheesy poof promotional contest. He will not be saved by the Force (and especially not by "midichlorians"), because he has already made his choice, a choice he will keep making again and again every time he has the urge to put out a new "movie," forever.

(Yes, I was bored. Yes, I had too much time on my hands. Yes, I have no life.)

Re:too little, too late

[PingPongBoy]

But how will you know how it ends??

How could you not know? It happened such a long long time ago.

Re:too little, too late

[virg_mattes]

> Respecting Tattooine, the sense I got from the trilogy was that the whole point of hiding Luke (and the droids) on Tattooine was that that it was so remote and insignificant that Vader would never find him.

Once his mother died, what reason would Vader have for returning to Tattooine? I'd think that it would be a great place to hide, given that if I were Anakin, I'd have exactly zero desire to go back there.

> Would Leiah really try to hide the droids on Vader's homeworld?

Nobody except Obi-Wan knew that Tattooine was Vader's home world, and Leia was going to Tattooine to find Obi-Wan Kenobi and bring him to Alderaan, not stash droids. She did that when her ship fell under attack and she had to get the Death Star plans away from Vader.

> Naboo (understandably) doesn't appear in the wider universe (at least as far as I know, I've only read novels from after ROTJ), and it seems strange to introduce what seems like a major player which was never mentioned in the trilogy and seldom (if ever) in the novels.

Naboo wasn't all that important in terms of the story as a whole, it was just that Queen Amidala happened to be the (sitting at the start of episode 1) chancellor's staunchest supporter, and so Palpatine's effort to become chancellor centered around getting Amidala to withdraw her support (which she did).

Virg

Think of the children!

[grub]

"This story hints at the next Star Wars being a bit more of a mature themed movie

We wouldn't want pre-teens emulating the movie and killing themselves trying to surf on lava, would we? Good plan!

Re:Think of the children!

[ZephyrXero]

A more mature Star Wars? Thank God! After the first two, I had lost almost all my hope for this one...maybe it will be halfway decent after all? It would make sense for this one to be the darkest of all of them since it shows how he turns to the dark side ;)

Re:Think of the children!

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

It's much more of a tragedy," adds Lucas.

One thing's for sure, he's right about it being a tragedy.

Re:Think of the children!

[Neop2Lemus]

there is always the 6-breasted dancing girl in RotJ.

At least there was, was she cut out in the new releases?

Re:Think of the children!

[coopaq]

A more mature Star Wars? Thank God! After the first two, I had lost almost all my hope for this one...maybe it will be halfway decent after all?

Nope. You are wrong.

It only gets the higher rating because Anakin whips out his flacid Light Saber at the end of the movie and says, "Yeah Baby! I'm a Starwhore."

Re:Think of the children!

[Luigi30]

No, they actually brought her back to film an extra scene for the DVD release.

Re:Think of the children!

[aichpvee]

Oh yes, so "*very* serious" that you couldn't post it without hiding behind the AC?

Now I better get back to playing video games and watching movies so that if I ever kill anyone you'll know to blame those and not my childhood, living conditions, or mental defects.

Re:Think of the children!

[cybercuzco]

I had lost almost all my hope for this one...

Sounds like you need A New Hope.

Re:Think of the children!

[Animats]

We wouldn't want pre-teens emulating the movie and killing themselves trying to surf on lava, would we?

You mean like the lava-surfing scene in "Spy Kids 3D", which does have underage kids surfing on lava. Available on DVD or as a PC game. From Disney, no less.

Re:Think of the children!

[Anonymous Coward]

Think Darwinism. We're better off if some kids do surf on lava...

Re:Think of the children!

[bonch]

Yeah, right! I've already heard this hype. It was before the release of Attack of the Clones.

When Lucas attempts serious drama, we get a whiny Anakin bitching about Obi-Wan, rolling around on grassy Naboo hills, and poorly-done CG animal surfing in a romantic bonding moment.

"We live in the real world...come back to it." Ooooooh, serious acting! Why did she dress up in that cleavage-revealing outfit anyway if she wasn't wanting to get it on?

Re:Think of the children!

[R.Caley]

A more mature Star Wars?

He's targetting 10 year olds rather than 6 year olds.

Re:Think of the children!

[Anonymous Coward]

I just got it!!! That's why Ep. 4 is called "A New Hope". Lucas, you sly dog you almost had me there.

Re:Think of the children!

[NoMoreNicksLeft]

I was thinking he meant more how he's ending this trilogy, and he still hasn't a fucking clue what he is doing.

Re:Think of the children!

[16K Ram Pack]

I wonder if this is an appeal to the mature audience. Have kids got into Star Wars prequels, or have things like Spider-Man had a bigger impact?

think about it...

Make it G for all I care

[Neil Blender]

Just make it good.

Re:Make it G for all I care

[fodi]

not if they go and see it with their parents...

Re:Make it G for all I care

[themysteryman73]

G for Good - yay!

Here's to hope

[BWJones]

"[The film] is much more dark...more emotional. It's much more of a tragedy," adds Lucas. ".

Great. Will the story be any better than the last two? Will the acting be any better? BUT.....I ^H^H^H LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!!! Please. I hope I am wrong as I thought that Empire Strikes Back was the best of the three original Star Wars films principally because it was dark and did not have Ewoks or (Exsqueeze me?) Jar Jar and the acting was much better. Star Wars had its appeal, but they started dropping off in Return of the Jedi and buying into the Hollywoodification and hype.
There's also a new trailer airing during tonight's The O.C., so you can use that as an excuse to watch FOX teen drama.

This is where they are choosing to premier this trailer? Oh man, all hope is lost. Seriously though, why? What is the demographic that they are appealing to for this film? Are Anakin and Padme going to develop into some soap opera? This is soooo disappointing. Perhaps I will see the trailer once it hits the Internet, but given the fact that I have not yet seen the last Star Wars film, I don't have much hope.

Re:Here's to hope

[cot]

Yeah, I'd say that the choice of the place to debut the trailer would be a bad sign, as if we needed another one on top of the two big ones known as eps I and II.

Good thing I've never been a big SW fan, I know some people who've been practically crushed.

Re:Here's to hope

[techno-vampire]

You do know, don't you, that Episode 6 was originally titled Revenge of the Jedi, but Lucas changed it before release because "Jedi don't take revenge."

Re:Here's to hope

[Anonymous Coward]

About why it's premiering during the OC:

Star Wars is under Fox, and the OC airs on Fox...it probably had nothing at all to do with Lucas and all to do with what show Fox wanted to bolster some ratings for.

Re:Here's to hope

[gimpynerd]

He is referring to the new trailer mentioned in the article.

Re:Here's to hope

[iowannaski]

This is where they are choosing to premier this trailer? Oh man, all hope is lost. Seriously though, why? What is the demographic that they are appealing to for this film?

I am a 26 year old male. The Star Wars trilogy have been my favorite movies since I was 5 years old. The O.C. is the only show on television that I watch every week.

If The Returning Revenge of the Darth Sith or whatever it is called is half as good as The O.C. it will be a huge and welcome improvement over the last two installments.

That said, I get the O.C. via bittorrent without commercials, so who know what the hell that means.

Re:Here's to hope

[riptide_dot]

This is where they are choosing to premier this trailer? Oh man, all hope is lost. Seriously though, why? What is the demographic that they are appealing to for this film? Are Anakin and Padme going to develop into some soap opera? This is soooo disappointing. Perhaps I will see the trailer once it hits the Internet, but given the fact that I have not yet seen the last Star Wars film, I don't have much hope.

Seriously, is this really a surprise to anyone? Lucas (and the rest of Hollywood for that matter) KNOWS that geeks (more specifically, 20-30 something MALE geeks) are salivating to get any glimpse of the new trailer and will sit through this chick-flick show just to see it early. This show's appeal is mosly to women, so they are attempting to (at least temporarily) expand their viewing audience to include the 20-30 something males that normally wouldn't think twice about flipping past it...

I'm glad I have a Tivo though - that fast forward button will come in REAL handy tonight...:)

Re:Here's to hope

[darkgumby]

What kills me is I had a chance to buy a poster for 'Revenge of the Jedi' way back before the movie came out. I passed it up since I was too cool to collect SW stuff. Stupid, stupid, stupid!

Re:Here's to hope

[dillon_rinker]

So your theory is that the OC is the ONLY show on Fox? No, I think the original poster was correct in assuming the target demographics had been carefully calculated...much to the chagrin of the True Fans (tm).

And you further assume that George Lucas has NO POWER? I find your lack of faith...disturbing.

Re:Here's to hope

[quandrum]

As a member of three member household who doesn't have cable, spends 5+ hours a week gaming together, goes to the Comic book store on new comic book day, and generally geeks out everyday, I think you're dismissing The OC prematurely.

We have someone tape it for us every week and we all love it. It generally has material relevant to geeks in every show, and it's a great way to start conversations with those women you so easily disdain. It may in fact not be for you, but I think more geeks than you realize are regulars.

Now, as for the Spiderman-inspired kiss... *groan*

Re:Here's to hope

[jeblucas]

Empire Strikes Back was the best of the three original Star Wars films principally because it was dark and did not have Ewoks or (Exsqueeze me?) Jar Jar and the acting was much better

I think the telling thing is that Empire was not written nor directed by George Lucas; credit there to Brackett & Kasdan and Kershner respectively. Lucas' writing is sophomoric and his direction is pretty damn bad to say the least. Even good actors become crappy in his milquetoast hands. My friend had the best summary critique of Return of the Jedi ever: "Too many muppets." All those ewoks, the stupid little thing in Jabba's house, the stupid band, &c. They aren't fantastical creatures if you look at them and see a muppet.

As for showing it during The O.C., who cares, or expected differently? Fox is just trying to marry its hot properties. That's the other problem: Fox sees Star Wars and The O.C. as pretty much the same thing. Star Wars will bring in x dollars over y weeks--there's no sense of the non-monetary aspect of the saga. It's just a franchise. The people that grew up with the first set of movies want it to be more.

I think we could all stand a glance at Brin's essays again, just to revel in this Lucas-bashing.

Re:Here's to hope

[NanoGator]

"I'm glad I have a Tivo though - that fast forward button will come in REAL handy tonight...:)"

I'm glad Slashdot warned me not to watch OC tonight!

Re:Here's to hope

[MikeXpop]

Really? I've always heard it was because the Star Trek movie at the time was going to be called Vengeance of Kahn, and Lucas didn't want any confusion.

Re:Here's to hope

[Durandal64]

And of course, the the response from a Star Wars fan.

Re:Here's to hope

[drsquare]

Really? I thought it was because he practically copied the title (like a lot of the films) straight from Tolkien?

Re:Here's to hope

[spack]

It's very true. My friend has that very movie poster in his computer room. It's probably worth a good penny or two.

Re:Here's to hope

[Xiaran]

Has anyone ever seen David Brin and Salmon Rushie together in the same room ?

Re:Here's to hope

[JayBlalock]

I think the telling thing is that Empire was not written nor directed by George Lucas; credit there to Brackett & Kasdan and Kershner respectively.

More than that, Lucas had virtually no input into the creation of ESB at all. He spent the vast majority of the shoot in California, doing Executive Producery stuff, while all the primary filming happened in England. Reportedly, he really disliked a lot of what Kirshner was doing, but was pretty much powerless to stop it. (and these things, of course, we'd later identify as what made ESB good)

If you haven't read it, I'd recommend the book "Empire Building" by Garry Jenkins. It's a rather warts-and-all look at the making the of the trilogy, and it specifically does not deify Lucas, as everything else written on the subject often does.

Re:Here's to hope

[dave1g]

I wonder if the bt scene will leave this comercial in...?

I assure you

[Sheetrock]

The first two were a far bigger tragedy than the third will ever be. Eclipsed only by all those people waiting in line for months every time a new Star Wars is churned out.

Re:I assure you

[cosinezero]

I would have agreed with you, until I RTFA, and TFA actually not only mentions that we're going to Hell in this movie, but can DESCRIBE IT like it's not a metaphor.

Think Jar-jar was bad? Just wait until we hear the heavy metal playing in Hell a la Spawn.

Re:I assure you

[Auckerman]

In all honesty, I really don't understand all of this bickering about the new movies. Have you seen Return of the Jedi, Ewoks, annoying little sh*ts, with their stupid little feel good dancing. How about the predicable way everyone gets out of a bad situation in the old movies, time and time again. If people re-watched the originals with the same critical eye they had for the new ones, they would hate them too.

They are just movies, a lot of fun to watch, fun plot, and cult classics in their own right, but please don't put them on a pedestal.

Re:I assure you

[trawg]

I queued for 6 hours to see Episode I at the midnight session to make sure I got decent seats. Thinking there was no way I could be as disappointed for Episode II, I queued again (for like 4 hours).

I'm not queueing for another Star Wars movie. I'm glad I still get a student discount, because I sure as hell wouldn't be forking out AU$14 or whatever the current rate is to see Episode III given how disappointed I was with the first two.

Re:I assure you

[aztektum]

No I think its eclipsed by all those that have paid 15 dollars a month for 1.5 years to play SWG.

Captain Oats!

[CyberBill]

Captain Oats and Princess Sparkle are totally gonna hook up and do it. Last episode Seth and Summer kissed, so now its only a matter of time before they bring their plastic companions into the mix :)

Re:Captain Oats!

[ackthpt]

Captain Oats and Princess Sparkle are totally gonna hook up and do it. Last episode Seth and Summer kissed, so now its only a matter of time before they bring their plastic companions into the mix :)

Wait a sec... what happened to Mr. Sparkle?

Re:Captain Oats!

[dismorphic]

captain oats... isnt that the name of the military guy trying to get Bill in the army on Bill and Teds bogus journey? oh wait, thats colonel oats. close enough.

Re:Captain Oats!

[Jedbro]

Ha.
Yeah, Princess Sparkle is pretty hot, I'd go for it.

more mature?

[Audent]

What like, plot and character development?

I find that hard to believe. More likely it's a warning that JarJar features heavily in the movie.

shudder

Re:more mature?

[gl4ss]

somehow pg13 doesn't strike me into believing it has any of those.

it might have a semi cruel execution or something.

Re:More mature?

[Anonymous Coward]

Does this mean we will be seeing the cut scene from Natalie Portman's movie "Closer" where she does a full nudity scene. I am sure they can work it into the movie somehow.

But if she's not petrified, what's the point?

Re:More mature?

[cgenman]

I'm personally amazed that you can film a child watching his father be beheaded, walk over, pick it up, and still get a G rating.

Bambi was bad an all, but at least she didn't crawl inside of her mother for warmpth.

Re:More mature?

[RsG]

Well, if they had shown Jango's cauterized neck and lifeless face, then yeah, they would have gotten a higher rating. But all we saw was the mandalorian helmet...

Which raises the question: is showing a horrible fate without any actual, you know, _horror_, really something suitable for children? I'm generally anti-censorship, and in favour of the rating system, but we seem to have some rather odd priorities when blood gore and nipples (gah! evil corrupting nipples!) get all the ire of parent groups and watchdogs, while stuff that may actually be mature is ignored.

Re:more mature?

[Lotana]

Perhaps there will be a scene where Jar Jar is *brutally* executed with a lightsaber and the leftovers are thrown into the lava pit?

If that will be featured, I will actualy watch that movie!

Re:More mature?

[NormalVisual]

I would too. Fortunately "Attack of the Clones", along with all of the other Star Wars movies, was rated PG. :-)

Re:More mature?

[bubkus_jones]

1) Wasnt AOTC PG?
2) Bambi's a male (hence, why he grows up to have antlers)

Re:more mature?

[Jesus_666]

Judging from the past few movies, Jar Jar will probably kill Anakin and become Darth Vader - shortly after, we learn that Darth Vader still is Luke's father.

I'm waiting for the original trilogy's Second Special Edition... Luke... *wheeze* mee'sa your father.

Re:More mature?

[fishmasta]

Yes, but are there any grits involved?

Re:More mature?

[cgenman]

What about when a son chops off his father's head, they show the cauterized neck and lifeless face, and it's his own?

PG it is.

Re:More mature?

[RsG]

Y'know it took me a sec to realize what you were talking about whereas I got the first posters reference at once... funny since I prefer the old trilogy to the new.

But the cave sequence in Empire is brief, merely a vision and I dont remember it being particularly gruesome. All you see is a second of Luke's face framed in Vader's blasted open helmet and shrouded in smoke. Lifeless but not especially realistic or horrible.

And as someone pointed out somewhere else in this topic, the Star Wars trilogy predates the advent of PG-13 by about a year, so PG sounds about right. Whereas Attack is recent, only got PG (I think), and did in fact have at least as much, if not more, dismemberment as Empire. So it's a little surprising that it was rated the same, being as PG-13 would seem to fit.

OTOH, no Star Wars movie to date has had any real horror, even when people die, it's usually quite clean and bloodless. Which is kinda the point of my post - a nipple warrants warnings and attention, but decapitation and dismemberment sans blood does not. There are what? 4 scenes (including the ones in the upcoming one) that have people getting their hands chopped off, and at least two cases (Vader's vision and Jango Fett) of people getting their heads chopped off, and this is considered a childrens movie? In the same country where showing a tit or saying fuck gets you an R rating? I dont mind kids seeing this, I'm pretty heavily anti-censorship, but it's inconsistant with the so-called values the moral majority types keep screaming about.

More mature?

[bdigit]

"This story hints at the next Star Wars being a bit more of a mature themed movie"

Does this mean we will be seeing the cut scene from Natalie Portman's movie "Closer" where she does a full nudity scene. I am sure they can work it into the movie somehow.

JarJar and Anakin decide to go out to a club one night and are shocked to find the princess slumming it up for some extra cash.

IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[tepples]

The PG-13® film rating did not exist when the first three Star Wars movies (Episodes IV through VI) came out. Return of the Jedi (Ep VI) came out in 1983; PG-13 didn't start until July 1984, apparently because Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom was right smack between PG and R. In fact, some believe that The Empire Strikes Back (Ep V) could have been PG-13 had that rating existed.

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[macdaddy357]

PG-13 is nice, but how about making it NC-17 with lots of nekkid Natalie Portman goodness!

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[iowannaski]

Aren't Luke and Leia born in this movie? Won't she be pregnant during the whole thing?

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[RedWizzard]

In fact, some believe that The Empire Strikes Back (Ep V) could have been PG-13 had that rating existed.

Empire is dark, sure, but I don't see anything that would justify PG-13. Temple of Doom, OTOH, was clearly not PG material.

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[dabigpaybackski]

Empire is dark, sure, but I don't see anything that would justify PG-13. Temple of Doom, OTOH, was clearly not PG material.

Luke's hand get's lopped off. Granted, there's no blood, but it still probably freaked some little kids out when their hero got maimed. I do not know the MPAA's exact rating criteria, but were the film made today, I'd say the lopped-off hand part would get it a PG-13.

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[Lil'wombat]

Red Dawn was the Movie that spawed the PG-13 rating and the first to have it.

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[tristan55]

If it was the first to have the PG-13 rating, it could not have spawned it. Chicken and the egg, you know.

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[RedWizzard]

Luke's hand get's lopped off. Granted, there's no blood, but it still probably freaked some little kids out when their hero got maimed. I do not know the MPAA's exact rating criteria, but were the film made today, I'd say the lopped-off hand part would get it a PG-13.

Is a 12 year old going to be bothered by it? I doubt it, so PG would be appropriate. I think the burnt corpses in Star Wars are worse.

I just searched the MPAA's ratings database and the three movies were rerated when the special editions came out, and again last year (I guess for the DVD changes). So none of them were bad enough for PG-13.

Re:IV through VI were before the PG-13 era

[RedWizzard]

In fact, some believe that The Empire Strikes Back (Ep V) could have been PG-13 had that rating existed.

According to the MPAA's ratings database, all three movies were rerated for the special editions, and again last year, presumably for the DVD versions. They remain PG.

R18 for some

[fembots]

I thought, since NP is onboard, SW is always R18 in a geek's eyes ?d

Who cares what the rating is...

[l33t-gu3lph1t3]

Am I the only one not holding his breath on this one? Seriously...who cares what the rating is.

Dear George Lucas:

Please, PLEASE don't screw this one up.

Re:Who cares what the rating is...

[Headcase88]

Dear George Lucas:

Please, PLEASE don't screw this one up.

Better yet...

Dear George Lucas:

Let someone else do it.

Was RotJ PG?

[TheGuano]

Well then, if we're going to have one of those Leia-in-a-bikini scenes in Ep3, PG-13 means we get to lose one piece of clothing, right?

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[iowannaski]

Leia is like 2 months old in Ep3, you fucking pervert.
Incidentally, that means they cango full frontal on her and not take a rating hit. Naked babies are OK.
So are vaginal closeups during childbirth, I believe, so maybe we'll get some of that!

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[bofkentucky]

Have you ever watched a natural childbirth, unless it is your own flesh and blood (and genes) its hard to appreciate the beauty in it, I don't care if it is Natalie Portman.

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[iowannaski]

I think you may need to fiddle with the sensitivity dial on you sarcasm detector.

That said, I have never witnessed a natural childbirth.

I did, however, watch my daughter's birth via c-section. That was gross despite its wonderfulness.

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[TheGuano]

lol. I didn't mean the ACTUAL Leia, but I forgot that the princess is in the movie as a newborn. Wait, what exactly was she a princess of again? Does that make Anakin king?

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[bofkentucky]

They need to make every girl entering puberty watch one live, with no drugs, we wouldn't have a teen pregnancy problem in this country if they could see that miracle.

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[iowannaski]

I'm going stictly off what I recall from the movies here, but Leai, Daughter of Queen Amidala of Naboo(?), would be Princess of whatever the Nabooish equavilent of Wales is.

Anakin is either the Prince Consort (a la Prince Albert or the soon to be Princess Camila?), or just some dude who did the Queen.

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[TheGuano]

So either way, that makes Luke a prince, right?

All heil the Jedi dynasty.

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[cgenman]

"Which means....

YOGURT Which means, if you hurry, there could be a princess in your future. Now, if you want to get back there before she marries Sleeping Beauty, there's and special can of fuel in your glove compartment. Good luck, boys.

BARF Bye, Yogurt.

LONE STARR And, Yogurt, thanks.

YOGURT You're welcome. And my the Schwartz be with you..... (starts to fade away) .....oh...oh....what a world, what a world. (completely fades out)"

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[SidShakal]

From what I remember, Leia was born and transported to Alderaan without her father's knowledge. She was adopted into the royal family as a princess. Anakin had no ties to Alderaan as far as I know. I don't think he was ever king or emperor or of equal importance to such. So to answer your questions directly: - Leia is an adopted princess of Alderaan. - Anakin is not king. (Perhaps by marrying Queen Amidala he is made King of Naboo, but that's about it, I think.) -- Sid (URLs added after text of post and text not updated to match info in the urls)

Re:Was RotJ PG?

[TheGuano]

You know what sucks about Naboo? The royalty is elected and serves a limited term (Amidala is no longer queen by Ep2). If your family line is not selected by God to rule forever, what's the point calling it royalty?

PG-13...That simply means...

[jbarr]

...that they are caving in just like everyone else to modern pop culture pressures. No doubt, they'll try to spice it up ala the Matrix, and the gratuitous violence will no doubt abound. I'm certainly no prude or anti-violence-in-movies proponent, but it's a shame that they can't come up with truely stunning and excellent stories without having to resort to all the typical gratuitous stuff. I guess I'm just getting old...

Re:PG-13...That simply means...

[vought]

I guess I'm just getting old...

It's called maturing. It's a good thing, really. Adds perspective.

Re:PG-13...That simply means...

[GreyWolf3000]

Or is maturity simply the return to the inner child? The un-learning of all of the garbage picked up in adolescense and early adulthood?

Seriously, though, in Korea only old men mature.

Re:PG-13...That simply means...

[mike.newton]

Damn right you're getting old! Four digit user id, that must make you about 82, right?

Re:PG-13...That simply means...

[Maserati]

Hey you ! Get off my lawn !

Re:PG-13...That simply means...

[Pete]

*quavery voice* Whassat? Shpeak up!

The Age Restrictions are Backwards

[johnlittledotorg]

Am I the only one that thinks his last few movies showed be restricted to those 13 and under? These movies are lifeless, poorly written, sparkly eye candy. Ihey're the filmmaking equivalent of dangling a shiny keychain in front of a monkey.

Re:The Age Restrictions are Backwards

[johnlittledotorg]

Showed=should Ihey're=They're ...what can I say it's been a long long day.

Re:The Age Restrictions are Backwards

[shutdown -p now]

You're right in that they are harmful to children and adults alike. Therefore, they should be banned completely, and Lucas is to be taken to international court for crimes against humanity.

Now, where's my lightsaber?

I love this!

[ackthpt]

Way back when Jurassic Park came out, all these brilliant parents took their anklebiters to the local Bijou and to see the interesting dinosaurs. Whenever something graphic or loud happened the kids would scream, some bursting into crying fits. I could just hear these parents being roused from sleep for the next month by kids having nightmares. What could be so disturbing in this film? "Aaauugghhh! Mommy! Daddy! The Jar Jar has invited me to a sleepover with Jedi Juice!"

But will the DVD version be PG-13?

[PoitNarf]

I think Lucas will have one of his "brilliant" ideas again and edit the hell out of the movie before it goes to DVD and turn it into a PG movie.

Come on, the young Anakin in the end of Episode III? I still want to but that DVD in the microwave just for that!

Re:But will the DVD version be PG-13?

[ackthpt]

I think Lucas will have one of his "brilliant" ideas again and edit the hell out of the movie before it goes to DVD and turn it into a PG movie.

They'll edit in Han Solo's father shooting Greedo's father first!

Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[GPLDAN]

I'm gonna kill your motherfuckin pasty white ass! Lightin bolt sendin motherfucker. Yo' bitch, you ever think of gettin new dentures? {ZZZZZZZap} God DAMN that hurt! Shit, your ass is mine now. With my blue Yoda saber, when you absolutely postively have to kill every last Sith motherfucker in the room...

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[Zocalo]

That was my first thought too. Maybe we'll finally get to here some of these lines on the big screen. Or maybe not. ;)

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[MsGeek]

Apparently the Mace Windu lightsaber has the letters "BMF" engraved somewhere on it. At least that's what I've heard, anyway...

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[Kaimelar]

Don't forget to check out Pulp Phantom. Thanks to this inspired bit of animation and voice acting, Episode I is almost bearable.

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[robyannetta]

For those of you who haven't memorized the infamous Pulp Fiction quote yet, allow me to cut & paste from imdb.com:

"The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men. Blessed is he who, in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of the darkness. For he is truly his brother's keeper and the finder of lost children. And I will strike down upon thee with great vengeance and furious anger those who attempt to poison and destroy my brothers. And you will know I am the Lord when I lay my vengeance upon you."

[blam] [blam] [blam] [blam] [blam] [blam] [blam] [blam] [blam]

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[Ripp]

We really should have shotguns for this shit.

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[useosx]

I'm gonna kill your motherfuckin pasty white ass! Lightin bolt sendin motherfucker. Yo' bitch, you ever think of gettin new dentures? {ZZZZZZZap} God DAMN that hurt! Shit, your ass is mine now. With my blue Yoda saber, when you absolutely postively have to kill every last Sith motherfucker in the room...

You are so white.

Re:Hooray! Now Samuel L. Jackson can let loose!

[korbin_dallas]

Thank you I love that quote.

Now also add that cigarette hanging precipitously out of his mouth with the really long ash ala Jurassic Park, and we got one really bad-azz Jedi here.

Clarify 'tragedy'

[Mr. Sketch]

"It's much more of a tragedy," adds Lucas

We know that the first two movies were tragedies, so does the 'tragedy' here refer to aspects of the story line, the movie itself (as in it will be following in the footsteps of the first two), the box office revenue or the fact that it will be rated PG13?

Re:Clarify 'tragedy'

[EEBaum]

"does the 'tragedy' here refer to aspects of the story line, the movie itself (as in it will be following in the footsteps of the first two), the box office revenue or the fact that it will be rated PG13?"

Yes.

Karma mod +

[novakane007]

Instant Karma to the first person to get the torrent to us here at ./

Re:Karma mod +

[Anonymous Coward]

From others, I don't deserve the Karma so posting as a/c: small large

Re:Karma mod +

[moosesocks]

wow, that has to be one of the most throughly seeded torrents i've seen.

1536 seeds, 1490 peers

Re:Karma mod +

[proverbialcow]

No stress-testing a protocol like a good Slashdotting. :)

Re:Karma mod +

[Foo2rama]

Wow so few comments on this after 5 hours... Everyone must still be dling or it is so freakin awesome that you pooped your pants and are still in the shower...

Re:Karma mod +

[jh6cd6d3cktp7w9h7vxw]

Perhaps it would have been better to read the comments and see the torrent that was posted within the first three main posting?

Re:Karma mod +

[Trogre]

mplayer -aspect 4:3

Not a problem

I thought I read....

[Schnapple]

Some Star Wars nut out there can probably find it faster than I can, but I thought I remember reading somewhere that the contract Lucas signed with Fox stipulated that he was to deliver three PG rated movies by 2005. So either what I read was wrong, or Lucas has renegotiated, or the movie will really be PG.

I think the comment is supposed to be read "I see this movie as more of a PG-13 rating" whether or not it really gets that or has to be pared down, instead of "yeah we got it reviewed and it's getting a PG-13"

The line that did it.

[pete-classic]

Weesa really fucked nowsa.

-Peter

Re:The line that did it.

[FuturePastNow]

As long as those are his last words, you'll hear no complaints.

Out of all the reasons for a PG-13 rating...

[The_Rippa]

I really hope it's because of a Natalie Portman nipple slip.

Re:Out of all the reasons for a PG-13 rating...

[Doctor Faustus]

It took me a few minutes to find the beach pictures, again, but here you go.

If you hate The O.C.

[BloggerErrant]

The trailer is viewable on my blog. Yeah, it's a bootleg. No, I don't give a damn about movie piracy.

Quicktime required:

http://geekfactor.uni.cc/vids/episode3trailer.mov

Re:If you hate The O.C.

[Chanc_Gorkon]

AWESOME! Looks wonderful. I don't care what the common Slashdot geek thinks but I am going to see this and I will like it.

Re:If you hate The O.C.

[Mondak]

It looks like everyone bagged on you for this, but I apprecite being able to see it early in any quality. Thanks for the effort and sharing.

Re:If you hate The O.C.

[Keebler71]

Yeah, it's a bootleg. No, I don't give a damn about movie piracy.

That's ok... we don't care about your hosting server either...

Re:If you hate The O.C.

[NanoGator]

" No, I don't give a damn about movie piracy."

Not that it matters. It's a teaser. A teaser is not intended to be secret or exclusive. It's meant to draw people in. George will probably give you a reach around if he finds out you're doing this.

Re:If you hate The O.C.

[NanoGator]

"Wow, that looks like crap.

And the video quality sucks too."

...and the video's too short!

PG-13!

[MrMiyagi]

You will probably mod me down, but...

Finally, Nathalie Portman in a Hot Gritz scene!

Re:PG-13!

[game kid]

They'd mod you down because of the Nathalie, fool.</pedantic> Seriously, I too can't wait.

I don't have much hatred for the films, and I think Lucas made a calculated attempt to bring in younger viewers with the "dream-raping" Eps I and II; those "kid-friendly" ones *cough*JarJar*cough* would make parents bring in their kids, and the grown kids would be subconsciously inspired (by the hauntings years before) to watch Ep. III with the others waiting to watch how Anakin become Vader after seeing Eps. IV-VI; the result would be double Profit! (prepend Underpants Gnomes list jokes there) Oh, yeah, and Natalie...me likes...

Re:PG-13!

[Zillatron]

But nevertheless: If you mod him down he will get more karma than you could possibly imagine.

George Lucas on 60 Minutes this week

[geoff313]

For those of you who don't want to tune into the OC but want your Star Wars fix this week, I just noticed this over at starwars.com:

Tune in to "60 Minutes" Sunday, March 13 on CBS for a special in-depth interview with George Lucas. The show previously profiled Lucas in 1999 during the release of Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace to document the beginning of the prequels. Now that Star Wars: Episode III Revenge of the Sith heads into the final stages of post-production, "60 Minutes" correspondent Lesley Stahl returns to Skywalker Ranch to chat with Lucas about his family, his technological innovations and his plans after Episode III.........

You can find the rest of the article here:

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/release/public ity/news20050310.html

-geoff313

Re:George Lucas on 60 Minutes this week

[Tackhead]

> Tune in to "60 Minutes" Sunday, March 13 on CBS for a special in-depth interview with George Lucas.

JAR JAR: (to ACKBAR's GRANDFATHER): "Youssa think itsa beesa TRAP!?"

Hey, wait a minute. This script... umm... We, uh, we stand by the story, even if the script itself may have been forged.

Courage.

Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[SuperKendall]

This movie will be better than the first two. Why? Because as Lucas moves closer to the source material, he has less wiggle-room to screw up the story.

The acting better? Who knows. Special effects? Undoubtedly similar to before. But the story at least will probably be better, and that's what I'm really looking forward to.

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[techno-vampire]

I really doubt he will be moving closer to his real source material. If you'd like to see what he orignally wanted to do, check out The Lensman Series, by Doc Smith. Ignore the crap vidio, and the three by David Kyle. He ended up making Star Wars because Smith's daughter didn't understand what he wanted and wouldn't give premission.

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[(void*)]

The story is already fixed. It's the characterization that's important now! And I doubt Haydon Christensen can put it off. If it was Natalie Portman that gets turned to the dark side, I would believe there's hope for Star Wars Ep III.

No re-edits can save them now.

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[Misagon]

He hired a "dialogue coach" this time around. I guess it could make the acting appear less "wooden"..

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[STrinity]

Because as Lucas moves closer to the source material, he has less wiggle-room to screw up the story.

This is the guy who reinterpreted "the greatest star pilot in the galaxy" to mean a seven year old kid who goes "yippie!" He doesn't have to stick to anything that he said in the previous films. He could quite easily decide that Luke is Anakin's clone, Amidala is Mon Mothma, and that Chewie is Jabba's son.

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[angle_slam]

Admittedly, they didn't show off how Anakin was a great star pilot. But 7-year olds say the equivalent of "yipee". I'm sure that Michael Schumacher (the greatest driver in the world today) or Neil Armstrong (an accomplished pilot before he did a certain something in 1969) acted like, well, children, when they were 7-years old.

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[agendi]

I'm sorry.. but doesn't he do it in the exact reverse.. if the older movies don't agree with his current "work of art" he wiggles the rest of the movies to match.

Re:Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[Gumshoe]

"Neil Armstrong (an accomplished pilot before he did a certain something in 1969)"

Kept his face straight?

Also on the O.C. Tonight: New Beck

[Le Marteau]

What is Beck and Star Wars doing on the O.C.?

Never saw the O.C., but I will tonight. Beck will be premiering 4 or 5 cuts from his unreleased new albums.

Off topic, I know, but I don't give a damn. This one should be worth watching.

mature theme

[frankmu]

does this mean we get to see Carrie Fisher in a bikini AGAIN?

Re:mature theme

[ecastanedo]

*** Spoiler Warning *** Well, I heard that Jar Jar was going to be in a bikini. Don't quote me on this though....

Dark, Emotional and Tragic, huh.

[pathological liar]

Because we all know how dark, emotional and tragic PG13 movies are.

Surprising

[Auckerman]

Having seen and enjoyed all of the Star Wars movies, I'm surprised by this. The nature of the epic does require a betral by Anakin and a hunting down of the Jedis, I assume it's this part that makes it a higher rating. Perhaps Lucas decided to show a little more than the misty red that Darth Maul got when he was chopped in half as Anakin begins his move to the Dark Side. I really don't seen it being necissary for the story line.

Re:Surprising

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Are you stupid? Light sabers seal the wounds they make. As soon as the cut is made it's sealed, hence we won't see no blood unless it's not a light saber duel..

He said it...

[ccharles]

"It's much more of a tragedy," adds Lucas.
Hey, he said it :P

Re:He said it...

[selectspec]

If it gets a PG-13 rating, then Lucas won't be able to bring his date to the premier...

Re:who cares about a rating

[ZephyrXero]

No more? ...wouldn't it be a first for the series? lol

Sorry George, but..

[chalkoutline]

the less people that get to see this, the better.

Pleeeze . . .

[Red_Icculus]

I just hope they brink Jar Jar Binks back.

Just get ready for VII-IX

[Bob Finklestein]

Oh I know it'd be a terrible idea, but since when has that stopped anybody? Episode VII - Lucas Smells Green Episode VIII - Attack of the Lame New Characters and Unnecessary Special Effects Episode IX - Just Let it Die At any rate, I'm going to see this third one, if only to see how the story wraps up And I'm a rabid fanboy.

My cynical opinion

[techno-vampire]

If this does get a PG-13 rating, it will be so that all the parents will want to go to it on their own first, to see if it's OK for their kids, then back to see it again with them. Just a marketing ploy.

Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[dasunt]

We all remember Episodes I - III with fond memories from our childhood, and they seemed to have stood up well to the test of time. The slowly building arc of Anakin's fall from the dark side against the backdrop of the crumbling republic made for some good cinema. Sure, there were a few mistakes (Jar Jar), but none as annoying as the new trilogy (Episode IV-VI) that Lucas started producing a few years ago.

Compare: The multi-facetted Anakin vs the rather shallow Luke who has the depth of the average parking lot puddle. Or what about this 'Han Solo' character which seems right out of a John Wayne western? Instead of political intrigue, we have straight shoot-em-up space battles. And don't get me started on the third movie -- according to the leaks, not only is it going to have Luke blowing up the Death Star yet again, but it will have these cute cuddly teddy bear aliens that are an obvious ploy to appeal to the youngsters.

Lucas! Stop raping my childhood! Ugh, you should have stopped with Episode III back in the 80s. How dare you ruin all that was good in your quest for more money!

(This post brought to you by an alternative-timeline slashdot)

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[cosinezero]

Airplane was in 1980... Hell, Barbarella got a PG rating in the 70s, and there's full frontal in that ...

OT:I assure you

[The Good Reverend]

Is your sig some sort of inside joke? You've got a Yoda quote and call Spock "Dr" (Mr. Spock is the Trek guy, Dr. Spock is the baby guy).

Re:Screener and poor quality

[BloggerErrant]

Sorry. I assumed 'bootleg' automatically meant absolutely lame in terms of quality.

Maybe...

[badmammajamma]

we'll get to see Padmé's boobies!

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[dhakbar]

Mod this up.

American ratings don't make sense, but it's because they are inconsistently applied, not because we're so fucking worried about sex and bad language.

Finally, at long last, we get to see...

[Lead Butthead]

"This story hints at the next Star Wars being a bit more of a mature themed movie."

Finally, at long last, we get to see Jar Jar Binks die a horribly painful death...? A graphic scene of Emperial Walker stepped on Binks would do nicely.

Use the Cache Luke

[Anonymous Coward]

http://geekfactor.uni.cc.nyud.net:8090/vids/episod e3trailer.mov

A New Hope was originally G until...

[GuyMannDude]

As an interesting side-note, the original Star Wars was slated to get a G rating. Lucas was already worried about having his film seen as kiddie fodder and the G rating really bothered him. So left in the scene of Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's remains burning in the fire when Luke finds them. That was sufficiently gruesome to get the rating raised to PG.

I wonder if Lucas's shooting for a PG-13 rating with Revenge of the Sith is supposed to be some kind of tribute to what he did with A New Hope.

GMD

Re:A New Hope was originally G until...

[bckrispi]

I don't think it's a tribute. I think it's just a necessity for telling the story. He's said he isn't aiming for a rating. He's writing the story he wants to write, and if the MPAA says PG-13, so be it.

Re:Spoiler alert!

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, but we still don't know who is going to be Darth Vader, do we?

Carrie Fisher in bikini (was:mature theme)

[Lead Butthead]

That sir, is a rather disturbing idea. Have you seen her LATELY? Are you sure you want to see her in bikini? I understand that she has ... matured into a writer, but good gods, the years have not been kind to her appearance.

Re:Carrie Fisher in bikini (was:mature theme)

[BrynM]

Have you seen her LATELY?

Gahhhhh!!!! My eyes! Where has the magic gone!?!?!?!?!

Oh yeah... 30 years went by. That explains it.

Re:Carrie Fisher in bikini (was:mature theme)

[ChuckleBug]

She was on one of the celebrity poker shows a while back and... [shudder]. She was totally obnoxious, loud, and overbearing, and her voice was like teeth on a chalkboard.

Ye gods...

No, but....

[TiggertheMad]

You get to see her in diapers...

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[iowannaski]

You can say anything up to and including "shit" and still get a PG-13 rating, you fucking retard.

Didn't they say Episode 2 was darker?

[muntjac]

I think we have heard this before, and with Episode II it just turned out that hayden christenson couldn't act evil any better than he could act any other way.

Good.

[Hobadee]

Good. How can you have an intergallactic war between good and evil and have it rated "G"!? *Hopefully* we'll be getting something like Empire Strikes Back. (What's that I hear? "HAHAHAHA!" Oh damn, that was Lucas laughing his ass off at me!)

Waiting for NC-17

[spywarearcata.com]

with Princess Amygdala. Also I would like to see the Androids Fighting that was promised but not delivered in Rocky Horror Picture Show. Thank you.

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[filtur]

Airplane was in 1980... Hell, Barbarella got a PG rating in the 70s, and there's full frontal in that ...

I don't think PG-13 existed back then. Jaws got a PG rating if I'm not mistaken and that's got people getting chomped in half....I still can't go into the ocean becuase of that damn movie.

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[the arbiter]

He should have stopped BEFORE episode 3.

Ewoks
Glowing dead Jedis
Stupid hack job writing
Hamfisted cinematography

Oh, I could go on for days. The series should have stopped right at "Empire", which was probably the best of all of them. But the cash cow must be fed.

Nude Natalie Portman - bring it ON!

[melted]

How about showing us a beowulf cluster of nude Natalie Portman overlords in Soviet Russia, you, insensitive clod?

I, for one, would welcome that. Despite the PG13 rating.

What I would like to do......

[simetra]

is go to this Star Wars movie when it opens... and during a dark, sad moment, say when the muppets get stomped on by a wookie, make a really loud fart noise! Heh, that would be funny.

Re:Also on the O.C. Tonight: New Beck

[Turn-X Alphonse]

DONT watch it. It's Dawnsons creek with snobs, it airs here every weekend and if I wake up at that hour I regret it... this is the only way they will EVER get a geek to watch this shit. It's teen-pop at it's worst

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[BeeRockxs]

Re-read the GP.

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[spywarearcata.com]

I think the American rule is that you can't show a breast being kissed, but you can show it cut off.

epic stories

[nounderscores]

is showing a horrible fate without any actual, you know, _horror_, really something suitable for children?

Remember that Lucas has pretensions of telling an epic story suitable for being the basis of mythology for centuries to come. (Or at least that's how he comes off in interviews.)

We tell our kids about the Spartans at Thermopylae, and The Trojan Horse, The Sack of Troy and so on. We tell them about valiant men who put whole civilisations being put to the sword.

We do this so that when we want them to go off and fight wars of imperial conquest, they have some idea of how we want them to behave.

Of course we don't tell our kids that if you stab somebody in the liver the stuff that comes out of them as they lie dying is coloured green.

Re:epic stories

[PsiPsiStar]

We tell our kids about the Spartans at Thermopylae, and The Trojan Horse, The Sack of Troy and so on. We tell them about valiant men who put whole civilisations being put to the sword.

No we don't. I had to read about it in magazines in my parent's basement.

It won't be as good

[Turn-X Alphonse]

Look, you saw the original films 20 years ago, you were children, He-man winning every week was entertaining then. We're now that much older and want more, so to us it's "watered down crap" but we're looking at the older films with rose-tinted glasses.

Go find someone who has never heard of Star wars and get them to watch all 5(6) films. See how they rate each films.

Re:It won't be as good

[rk]

Go find someone who has never heard of Star wars and get them to watch all 5(6) films. See how they rate each films.

I would do that, but do you know what its like to convince these people that "No, there's not tiny little people hidden in the big box." or "No, I'm not your messiah", or "No, I don't taste good, please don't eat me?"

Star Wars - Nine episodes

[surelyserious]

Am I covering old ground here by remembering there are supposed to be NINE episodes of the Star Wars saga, the three original, the last three prequels, and then three predecessors to the orignial three?

Re:Star Wars - Nine episodes

[(void*)]

There never was nine. That's a lie that Lucas perpetuated. Giving him credit, maybe he has an outline of the PLOT but an outline of a plot alone is not enough to call it a "saga"

Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[buckhead_buddy]

Though I'm tempted, I think I'll avoid seeing this movie in the theatres for at least a month (if not completely). Why?

• It'll do well enough without my money. LucasFilm doesn't pay attention to customers today; giving them more money on opening weekend won't change that.
• There's almost no chance that the theatre version will be the same version released to DVD or in any other form in the future. Why become attached to an unfinished version of the film?
• Hear the true reviews. I don't mean shills like my local newspaper reviewer, but the sci-fi fan sites that have similar values in film as mine. Will seeing the movie further ruin my appreciation of Star Wars and Empire? That's a bigger concern than whether this episode is any good.
• Inevitability of Boredom or Disappointment. We know what will happen in the sequels, yet after two attempts no plots or characters have been developed in the first two prequels that I really care about. More than likely any "surprises" will undermine the movies that follow.

I'm posting this on slashdot in case enough disappointed fans and geeks will join me in waiting at least a month after the debut to go see the film. I can't deny there's a curiousity about how this story will be finished, but my expectations are set very low and really only amount to knowing whether it will expectorate, urinate, or defecate on Episodes 4-6.

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[aztektum]

I sir, shall join you in your holding out. I shall raise you a wait until it hits the budget cinemas. Unless it is said to be hotter than grits, then I'll probably fold like a wet dish rag.

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[angle_slam]

Waiting a month isn't exactly boycotting.

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[angryLNX]

good. fucking. luck.

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[afroken]

Boycott for at least a month? I'm right behind you. In fact, I think I'll wait until July when the damn movie comes out in my country.

http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/release/theate r/news20050128.html

Sure, this isn't a list of every country in the world, but Japan certainly sticks out like a sore thumb with its two month delay. I suppose this is where the phrase insensitive clod would be thrown about. Eh, what do I know?

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[Mr.Progressive]

Wow... 'at least a month,' eh? Man up, Nancy, and just don't see it. Whether you see it on opening day or a month later, you're still another 10 bucks in Lucas' pocket. Also, what you're suggesting is not a 'boycott.' Save the word 'boycott' for things that actually matter and save your money by renting a good movie on May 19th. May I suggest Malcolm X?

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[silentbozo]

$10? Man, if that's the price for a matinee in your area, then I feel for you. It's $8 in my neck of the woods, and that's already way too much. :(

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[evenprime]

I already told several people that I don't want to see it. I'm so pleased with Brin's version of episode III. He says:

I could scribble a 3-paragraph outline that would save Lucas. It would explain every awful inconsistency/paradox in his universe. It would make the #!#*& coincidences all work out... including the totally predictable lunacy of having Obi-Wan grab baby Luke and hide him from his darkside father... on Darth Vader's home planet, in his old home town! This is the core scenario that we know will happen in "Episode Three" and it is the most towering of three dozen real plot horrors. But the amazing thing is that I see a simple way for Lucas to climb out of this hell.

In fact, a scenario is possible, if Vader and Obi-Wan conspire together against BOTH Emperor and Yoda. Go on, follow all the movies with this possibility in mind.

Why else would Obi-Wan 'hide' Vader's son in Vader's home town? Their final 'deathfight' distracts the guards to let Luke/Han/Leia get away. How else do you explain that Vader grabs/interrogates Leia, yet never detects her force? Watch carefully... Vader's 'chase' of Luke in the first film clears all the other Imperial fighters off his son's back and halts the antiaircraft guns, giving the kid a clear shot! And guess who's the only Imperial survivor?

I like that version so much better than anything Lucas could come up with.

Re:Boycott Episode III - The Only Sensible Action

[iminplaya]

Uh huh

Call me a troll but...

[Mantus]

The first three (last three) do not hold up to their hype, Episode 1 was a lousy movie, can't comment on number 2.
Weak plot, weak acting ok effects. I know they were "great" for their time but not anymore, and the effects were the only thing that made it any good.

Star Wars Trailer

[Egorn]

If you are interested here is a dirty bootleg of the new Star Wars trailer: here.

I don't care how you moderate me. I'm not just promoting my site or trollin'. I think you might actually be interested in this link.

Summary of the parent's post

[rbarreira]

Summary of the parent's post:

"I don't like Star Wars."

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[EvanED]

Actually, provided that there isn't too much other "bad stuff", you can say "fuck" and get a PG-13 rating, provided that it is only used once and in a non-sexual manner.

And actually, even that isn't a hard and fast rule, as it can be overturned. For instance, IIRC both Gattaca and Quiz Show had "fuck" used twice. (There are probably other examples.) Even Spaceballs, which is PG, had "fuck" in it. (Pre-PG-13 era though.)

There are only a couple explicit rules for movie ratings, and these are they:

-Any recreational drug use (I assume besides cigs and alcohol) moves you to PG-13
-Any use of the word "fuck" moves you to PG-13
-And additional use of the word "fuck", or if the first use is in a sexual manner, moves you to R

But these can be overturned even if there is enough redeeming quailities.

SW3: A Lost Hope

[yodaj007]

I hope it's as good as the previews indicate it is!

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[cybercyph]

and one 'fuck,' so long as it's not a verb

The end..

[levitater]

Use the fork Luke... this series is done.

Re:The end..

[the_2nd_coming]

no... Lucas made all the skywalker ranch folks sign NDAs regarding 7, 8, and 9

star wars for mature audience?

[porky_pig_jr]

is this, like a joke. mature audience alwasys considered star wars as a 'second rate pseudo-philsophical kind, for the poor'. What's next? pokemon for mature audience?

on the other hand, some of those star wars fans never grow up --- but on yet other hand --- should they be considered as the mature audience?

Movie ratings are based on irrational fear

[leereyno]

Movie ratings are based upon the dubious assumption that children will be adversely affected by seeing certain things when these same things are considered harmless to adults.

If you believe that I've got a really nice bridge I need to get rid of and I'm willing to sell it to you on the cheap.

I'm 32 years old and I don't think I've ever seen anything as a child or teenager in any movie or television program that ever warped my psyche or damaged my character. Yet the superstition persists that children need to be "protected" from seeing two people have sex, or from seeing violence, hearing certain words uttered, or any other number of other things that parents and society in general have irrational fears about. What I find most absurd is that things like movies are presumed to have an almost magical hypnotic influence over the young, while their real life experinces are not nearly so obessed about. If you're going to worry about your kids, worry about the example that you set for them, the things that they see YOU do, not whether they listen to Britney Spears, Howard Stern, or see an R rated movie.

When I was younger I believed that society's treatment of the young was a case of intentional malice. As I grew older I came to realize that society was not out to oppress anyone per se, rather people are as a general rule really, really stupid and have a memory about as long as their little finger. The ludicrous myths and superstititons about what it means to be a child that get passed around as fact by those who only 20 or 30 years ago were children themselves would be hilarious if everyone didn't actually believe them.

It is becoming more and more clear to me that civilization is carried on the backs of the relative handful who aren't tragically dumb. Everyone else is merely along for the ride.

Lee

Re:Movie ratings are based on irrational fear

[Kuro-Bishounen]

I always wonder why people complain about not being able to see sex and violoence on the scenes. If they wanted sex, wouldn't it be better for them to have it themselves than watch someone else fake it? as for violence, isn't that what liberal US gun laws are all about?

Re:Movie ratings are based on irrational fear

[man_ls]

People go to movies to be entertained, and a lot of this entertainment comes from watching novel or unrealistic situations which the viewer could never be a part of. It lets your imagination take you away for a while, in a fairly passive sense, you're engaged but can have the "fantasy" played out for you.

Sex in movies isn't generally just plain straight-up sex. It's sex on your lunch break on the production floor of a sheet metal mill (8 Mile), it's sex with a murderer or an alien, in an odd situation, place, time, or way.

The same thing with violence. It's not socially acceptable to take out a gun and start blazing in the middle of Grand Central Station, but I'm sure its something everyone caught in a traffic jam, backlog of passengers, frustrating situation at work, or bad relationship, has considered (even briefly) at one time or another. Portrayed violence lets you vicariously live your tendancies. Watching a disgruntled cube-farmer lay a few PHBs out before being taken out by the cops in a storm of gunfire not only allows the people watching to release stress the same way the character on-screen is doing it, but allows them to have it reinforced that, if you do this, there's something bad that'll happen to you as a result.

For people with a good seperation of fantasy vs reality, such displays are quite healthy and natural. And for those with a less-than-good grasp of the same, well, these people are called sociopaths -- and they tend to be destabilized by the viewing of the same.

Re:Movie ratings are based on irrational fear

[leereyno]

Actually the liberal gun laws help prevent violence by ensuring that the honest law abiding citizens are able to protect themselves from criminals. The areas in the US with the highest crime rates are always the ones where the local government interferes with the 2nd amendment.

Kids movie?

[Hamster Lover]

This coming from the guy who told everyone to "lighten up, it's a kids movie" due to the savage criticism about the craptastic Phantom Menace. It's not an exact quote and I don't have time to find it, but it seems a little odd to me that his answer to the criticism of Phantom Menace was that it is a movie for kids and then produce a PG-13 sequel. Which is it?

Not forgotten

[SuperKendall]

You've OBVIOUSLY forgotten what he did to the original trilogy.

Honestly, can you compare the things he did in the Special Edition to soemthing like Midichlorians?

They are not even in the same league. Not even the Solo thing.

Yes I know he re-worked it a bit. But just as he could really dedimate the original series, so to will he be unable to avoid making a half-decent movie of #3.

The PG-13 is a good indicator towards a more favorible direction as he cannot pander to ten-year olds as much as he might like.

Re:Not forgotten

[UserGoogol]

What's so bad about the midiclorians?

I can understand hating Jar Jar. I can understand hating "I'm gonna be a Jedi, whee!" I can understand hating Jar Jar. I can understand thinking that Lucas strung together about a half hour of plot with showy CG. I can understand hating Jar Jar. But I don't see what's wrong about Midiclorians.

I mean, the force is still a mystical energy field which flows through the universe. But midiclorians are how humans (and whatever) manage to interface with this energy field. What's wrong with that?

Re:Not forgotten

[Jeremi]

I mean, the force is still a mystical energy field which flows through the universe. But midiclorians are how humans (and whatever) manage to interface with this energy field. What's wrong with that?

With the wholly unnecessary introduction of "midiclorians", Lucas reduced the Force from a mystical quasi-religious power to a biological parasite.

Now as an atheist I'd be the first to entertain that sort of reductionist biological explanation for religion in real life... but what was the point of adding it to a work of fiction? It took all the meaning and mystery out of it. Now having "The Force" is like having herpes. It's no longer part of any grand moral schema, it's just an incidental property of your blood cells.

If there was any reason for introducing this idea, I might accept it, but as far as I can tell, the only reason "midiclorians" were brought up was that Lucas didn't have confidence that a new generation of kids would take "the force" at face value, and he thought that he needed to fob them off with some kind of pseudo-scientific explanation for it. It's that complete lack of faith in the audience that's made the second series of Star Wars movies look and feel like well-rendered video games rather than compelling (or even interesting) drama.

All IMHO, of course.

Re:Not forgotten

[Cplus]

Let me know if I'm over-reaching with this, but I'm a film student and it comes naturally.

I took the introduction of the fact that the force was active in people through midichlorians to be indicative of the level of knowledge the Jedi's and the Jedi Council had about themselves at the time, compared to the folk-lore-like manner in which Luke was taught by Ben and Yoda. It seems to make it look like the lessons learned in the first-made trilogy comment on the lessons taught in the second-made trilogy. Something was definitely wrong, in that the Jedi Order failed and teaching of the use of the force fell back to a more natural religious, rather than scientific, state.

Trying too hard?

Re:Not forgotten

[pete-classic]

That's a great theory. Execept that it's the same freaking dude (Obi-Wan) who runs the test on Anikin's sample that is totally silent on the matter in the original trilogy.

In all his pontificating on the Falcon on the way to Alderan he might have mentioned, "You're father had the highest midi-whatsit count ever measured." Maybe he was about to say that when Alderan blew up. Or maybe Lucas is full of shit. :-/

-Peter

Re:Not forgotten

[bar-agent]

Yeah, midichlorians were an unnecessary addition. And they way they were presented in the movie seems to say that they are the source of the Force ("I'm a poet, but I don't know it").

But I always figured that midichlorians were not the source, but rather an indicator. Like, how can you tell if something is cold? Well, you can touch it. But you can also see the frost that formed on the outside. Midichlorians are like frost; they hang around beings with Force potential.

Re:Also on the O.C. Tonight: New Beck

[gordgekko]

Cool, an ad for a shitty movie and a chance to listen to Scientologist-influenced music!

Reverse advertising?

[ehiris]

Since when are the shows advertised with commercials?

Re:Reverse advertising?

[Greyfox]

Well it worked so well for the Terrance and Phillip "Asses of Fire II" trailer, they thought they'd try it again. After all, if T&P could get us to watch "Fighting with Russel Crowe," maybe the awe-inspiring marketing power of Star Wars could get a couple of folks to tune in to OC. Though I rather doubt that anyone will be able to stand sitting through it, even for a new Star Wars trailer.

Me, I've been avoiding the whole Star Wars franchise since I realized what Lucas was up to in Ep. 1. The new T&P movie should be coming out soon though, and I'm looking forward to THAT. They were dressed like cowboys...

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[poot_rootbeer]

Sure, there were a few mistakes (Jar Jar)

And we haven't yet seen him in episodes 4-6, have we? In fact there's not a single representative of his race to be found anywhere.

That must by why Episode 3 is going to get a PG-13 rating -- due to the scenes of the entire Gungan civilization getting demolished, disemboweled, and defenestrated in graphic detail.

BEST. STARWARS. MOVIE. EVER.

let go of your hate

[geoffrobinson]

I can feel the good in you. Lucas hasn't driven it from you yet.

Re:let go of your hate

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont understand why everyone blast Episodes I & II. The original trillogy tells of Luke Skywalker fighting the Empire (the story starts right in the middle of a major war). Unlike Episode I which tell the begining of the WHOLE saga. Everyone wondered "How/why did Anakin switch to the 'Darkside'?" Well Lucas decided he would tell us and thus the second trillogy. Episode I & the first half of episode II paint the picture. Then it starts to pick up, just like a book. The first 1/3 of a book is BORING but it is needed in order for the reader to know all the characters and subplots. I just watched the E-III trailer and it looks very promising. It could be by far THE BEST episode of all.

Re:let go of your hate

[geoffrobinson]

While many things in 1 could have been better, I largely agree with you.

The old trilogy followed the traditional hero's journey myth, which will 9 times out of 10 make for a great movie. But new trilogy has to explain things like how the emperor took over. People, besides political junkies, just don't connect as well to that.

But the 8 year old in me always thought that Jedi action was lacking in the original trilogy. For that alone, the new trilogy is wonderful.

Re:let go of your hate

[kin_korn_karn]

Here are things I hate about the prequels:

1) Jar-Jar
2) The midichlorians thing is just fucking idiotic. Lucas ass-raped the entire spiritual subtext of the Star Wars universe with that concept. He turned the Jedi into simple X-Men style superheroes rather than the sort of Shaolin-lite guys they were before.
3) The dialogue, especially the romance dialogue. Again, fucking idiotic.
4) The acting. All of the actors involved in the prequels are good, talented actors - yes, even Hayden, in the right role. However, Lucas can't get a performance out of them that contains one shred of emotion. Or, he might be telling them to downplay their acting in order to not upstage his CGI sets.
5) The complete rejection of all of the expanded universe work. A lot of the SW novels are crap, but the good ones, like the Zahn novels, are brilliant extentions of SW into real sci-fi. Lucas in his arrogance has invalidated all of that work.

Re:let go of your hate

[why-is-it]

4) The acting. All of the actors involved in the prequels are good, talented actors - yes, even Hayden, in the right role. However, Lucas can't get a performance out of them that contains one shred of emotion. Or, he might be telling them to downplay their acting in order to not upstage his CGI sets.

I read an interview with Mark Hammil, and he recalled that George Lucas' directing techniques involved asking the actors to re-do the scene, either to do it "faster" or "more intense". There wasn't much more direction than that.

In the same article, Hammil also stated that George would be probably be really happy if he could replace all of the human actors with CG creations, since he did not relate well to the actors.

Missing the Target Audience

[spideyct]

This is a shame.

I think the largest demographic that enjoyed Ep 1 and 2 are under 13. I know my 7 year old nephew enjoyed them a lot more than I did.

The older generation (that enjoyed Ep 4-6 when they were 30 years younger) has been alienated by the new movies.

I was able to accept the new movies, knowing that they weren't meant for me, they were meant for the kids to enjoy, just like I enjoyed the others.

It is disappointing that the new generation that DID enjoy Ep 1 & 2, and eagerly await Ep 3, will not (or rather, should not) get to see it for a while.

Re:Missing the Target Audience

[bckrispi]

Don't presume that every fan who grew up with the films shares your feelings of "alienation". For me the prequels have been just as enchanting, just as exciting, and just as flawed as the original films.

Re:Missing the Target Audience

[Glsai]

I don't think it's much of a problem. If the kid is above 13 they can go see the movie. If they are under 13 they probably wouldn't have the money to go see it themselves so their parents would take them to go see the movie anyway and they'd still get in.

Re:Missing the Target Audience

[spideyct]

I know they are ABLE to see it, its more a matter of whether they SHOULD.

Re:Missing the Target Audience

[spideyct]

I was talking in generalities. Of course there are exceptions. I think the general consensus is that the older generation was disappointed in the new movies.
It is great that you enjoyed them as much as the old ones. I guess that makes you the perfect target audience for Ep 3.
While it is nice that you will be able to enjoy it, I still think its a shame that the younger generation won't be able to.

PG-13 means more preteens will see it

[WillAffleckUW]

the lure of the forbidden is similar to the lure of the Dark Side of the Force.

Re:Also on the O.C. Tonight: New Beck

[Le Marteau]

Beck a Scientologist? Really? I had no idea!

Anyway, that's a relief. I had a hunch he might believe SERIOUSLY demented things, like immaculate conceptions, and resurrections. Knowing that he believes merely the SOMEWHAT demented Scientology stuff is a good thing.

But still... if he DOES belive in that stuff, I'll have to reconsider thinking he has talent.

ARGH!! COMMERCIAL!!

[NanoGator]

"There's also a new trailer airing during tonight..."

ARGh! I'm so angry! Movie trailers are *snort* obviously advertisements and not "News for Nerds". Though I'm not sure why a commercial cannot be news, I'm extremely angry that Slashdot isn't being overly literal with every word it uses! Boy I can't wait until the next "your rights on-line" story comes up, I've got an off-topic bitter remark all cooked up just for that!

Re:American ratings don't make sense to me

[NanoGator]

"PG-13 just means that there might be some space girl in a bikini"

Or they might feature somebody who was badly burned by something really hot like lava. Speaking hypothetically and spoiler free, of course. :)

Droids Gone Wild!

[snuf23]

Jawas without cloaks!
Hot Tusken on Tusken raiding!
Watch as Mon Mothma shows Ackbar her trap!
See Han's solo action! (He shoots first!)
Steamy TK42 1 on 1 action!
See Luke "bullseye" those wamp rats back on the farm!
Find out which Jedi really has the biggest saber!
Slave girls drunk on Qui Gon Jin!

And yes finally Amidala with hot grits!

Re:Droids Gone Wild!

[Anonymous Coward]

best comment ever.

Hey! What happened to

[iminplaya]

Boycott the MPAA!
Yeah, just let me catch the last Matrix movie...
Boycott the MPAA!
But, but, but, The Lord of the Rings triligy is coming out...
Boycott the MPAA!
C'mon, man. Cut me some slack. I'll promise to join ya after this one last Statr Wars flick. Really, I mean it...
Yep, we got 'em right where we want 'em. MPAA is damn near broke, and they're begging for forgiveness. Aren't we the ones accusing our parents, our gov't of always telling us, "Do what we say, not what we do."? Just curious. That's all... I don't want to rock the boat or anything.

Re: Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[gidds]

Er, how come you got moderated as 'Funny' rather than the 'Insightful' you so richly deserved?

Anyway, just what I was thinking. People have extremely rose-coloured memories. It's only natural! It's almost impossible to objectively judge something that you've known and loved (or hated) for so long.

Okay, so Jar-Jar was an annoying twat. But then C3PO was also an annoying twat, just a slightly different sort of annoying twat, one who's overlaid by years of warm fuzzy feelings. I wish I could compare the two of them fairly, but I can't. Like a lot of people, I see the former as execrable, and the latter as loveable; however, if I were coming fresh to them both, would I still see them that way round? I don't know. But maybe it's a useful exercise trying to guess.

Re:Hmm.

[ClosedSource]

I don't buy it. Han firing first wasn't a technical problem and wasn't demanded by a public who had never seen the movie before. It was a decision made by the director at the time he was making the movie. Do you really think that 20 years later old, rich Lucas is better qualified to make this decision then lean and hungry young director?

Re:Spoiler alert!

[DavidTC]

I suspect Jar-Jar.

When during the OC?

[Ether3k]

Anybody know WHEN during the OC the trailer will premiere? :D

...it will be the first Star Wars that's a PG-13??

[borg1238]

I think this means he's still planning on making more of them.

God help us all.

Who really cares...

[sandman935]

The rebels are terrorists.

so the trailer was pretty cool

[enrico_suave]

which probably means it's going to dissapoint =(

e.

ENTERPRISE FANS!

[istewart]

Take notice! The Temporal Cold War isn't over yet!

Trailer

[derEikopf]

Just saw the trailer, and it looks VERY serious. There was absolutely NO humor at all in the previews. Looks very action-packed and, frankly, I'm pumped up to see it now. Can't wait until May 19.

Sweet bouncing feathery baby Jesus in a car seat!

[Quiet_Desperation]

PG-13! Damn! I better wear a diaper to the film lest I soil myself from the inevitable shock!

So will someone actually, like, use a cuss word? Or perhaps some wanton actress will display her ankle, or even a complete stockinged shin?

For shame, Mr. Lucas, for shame, you pr0n merchant!

"In case you didn't notice, that was sarcasm." -- Homer Simpson

Stupid CTV

[Sandman1971]

Because of stupid [censored] [censored] [censored] [censored], TV shows playing at the same time on a Canadian station (this time CTV), the broadcast is preempted by the Canadian one, showing Canadian commercials. What does CTV do? Not show the Star Wars trailer, instead showing stupid [censored] Old Navy commercials instead. Good thing I just PVR'd the episode, or else I'd be even more pissed off.

I disagree

[hsoft]

I agree that we all tend to see ep 456 as better than they really are, but I re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-re-rewatched 456 lately , and I still think that ,although he's abviously not the best actor ever, Mark Hamill is a much better actor than this dumbf*ck Hayden Christensen.

Re:I disagree

[AbRASiON]

I recently watched Bridge on the River Kwai and I've come the conclusion that Alec Guinness actually did a hell of a lot for star wars.

If you check his bio on IMDB it even says he helped the original actors of Star Wars take themselves a litle more seriously.

We all know the original 3 are hammy if you look at them without the nostalgia glasses but there is something and fun in the movies.
Also the dark side he's not scared of showing - example someone's arm coming off within 60 minutes or so in the original movie - that kind of thing - it really seemed gritty and real unlike Star Trek which portrays things differently.

Stop ripping starwars...

[bytor4232]

Yeah sure, IV to VI are far better than I and II, but its still far better than most of the crap that gets realeased nowadays. Lets have a look at the box office shall we?

1. The Pacifier
2. Be Cool
3. Hitch
4. Diary of a Mad Black Woman
5. Million Dollar Baby
6. Constantine
7. Cursed
8. Man of the House
9. Because of Winn-Dixie
10. The Jacket

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather see any of the prequels over any of these movies any day.

Re:Stop ripping starwars...

[mike.newton]

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather see any of the prequels over any of these movies any day.

Yes, Luke Skywalker's acting abilities are far superior to the stilted, one-dimensional, and frankly amateurish talents of Hillary Swank.

Oh wait, I meant the other way around...

Re:Stop ripping starwars...

[schotty]

The pacifier was pretty good. It was a kids film, but very watchable for anyone. I probably will buy the DVD. But then again, I dont need a R movie with cusses and blood every 100th frame. Boobies are nice, but again, not needed.

But your point does hold some water. As of lately, the only movies I saw in the theater are:

Passion of Christ
Matrix movies
LoTR Saga
AvP
Spider Man 2
Pacifier
Leminy Snickett (not bad, but forced by GF to see it with her)

Note -- the fact that they are all part of a saga for the most part (well even Jesus was part of a saga, the Bible so ...).

We definitely need more quality.

Re:Stop ripping starwars...

[Telastyn]

Actually, Constantine was far better than the prequels. Oh, certainly not fantastic or 'dvd-worthy', but it was entertaining, and Keanu Reeves was left to do as little acting as possible. Now if they could only do the same with Christianson....

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Bad odds.

[QueenOfSwords]

Reality of the situation, the original trilogy was a fluke. Right time, right technology, and if you watch the documentary on the final DVD of the OT box set, there must have been a hundred times that a divergence from GL's original vision, or serendipity, made the movies better. I'm talking about stuff like the Khiber crystal, using Anthony Daniels actual voice and not an american dub, stuff like that.
I'm not saying that the final movie won't be good, I'm saying the odds are against it :(

I'm waiting...

[tmleafsar]

....for the NC-17 Director's cut featuring full frontal nudity and a three-way with Yoda, Jar-Jar, and a time-warping wook....

...

...I've said too much already. :|

Rated R

[yallways]

When Star wars first hit HBO, they had it listed as rated "R". This can be varified by looking it up in old 80s TV Guides. It was listed as rated R due to 'brief nudity'. That part I can't explain to this day. I dont remember Star wars having any nudity whatsoever in it.

Re:Rated R

[MykeBNY]

Oh, c'mon, Chewie was walking around wearing nothing but a bandolier!

On the other hand, that's not very brief, is it?

I'm stumped too.

Re:Rated R

[Legion303]

"This can be varified by looking it up in old 80s TV Guides."

Words escape me.

Re:Rated R

[yallways]

Ok, i looked this up. come to find out, the reason it was origionaly rated "R" but did not actually have the nudity in it is because the ratings for this film came out before the Directors made certain cuts in the film. the origional cut "Diretor's Cut" Did in fact have Nudity in it. Unfortunately Ive never seen that version though.

Re:Spoiler alert!

[kin_korn_karn]

Darth Binks?

those BASTARDS!!!

[sootman]

Not Lucas, et al, but the jerks at Fox. I TiVo'd The OC tonight. I never watch it but wanted to see the trailer. They played it right over the :59-:00 split, so I'm missing the last (5? 15?) seconds. Oh well. Looks great so far. Let's hope this one is good. (It's aiming too low to just hope it's better than I & II.) I've been suckered by a million trailers before, but this one really does look good. As does Sin City, which I'm looking forward to just as much as Episode 3. (Trailer for that was also on the OC.) Tarantino is back with a great cast of characters (Bruce Willis and Michael Madsen, to name just two) and I haven't liked anything he's done in a while (Jackie Brown, Kill Bills) so I hope he's back to his old self.

Re:those BASTARDS!!!

[hondo77]

Tarantino is back with a great cast of characters (Bruce Willis and Michael Madsen, to name just two) and I haven't liked anything he's done in a while (Jackie Brown, Kill Bills) so I hope he's back to his old self.

Robert Rodriguez and Frank Miller are directing. Tarantino is, I believe, just directing one of the "episodes".

With apologies to Dr. Frasier Crane

[Who drank my chocola]

This is his art. He should be able to create/modify whatever he pleases. This is how he expresses himself (how much money he makes off of it should not matter).

There is such a thing as being perceived as a complete and total sell-out who is looking to milk every last dime from his one good friggin' idea in life. You're right when you say that money and art shouldn't mix... But these days they sadly do. Any art work that is significantly popular or influential enough can bring great wealth... Or, to the person who holds the rights, anyway. But I want to tell you, I don't think its abou the money, at least, not entirely.

Lucas is a flaming narcissist: He is totally pre-occuppied with himself--in this case as he sees himself through his past works, and he doesn't care who hurts in the course of his self-preoccupation as a result of a (possibly unrealized) low self-esteem. He's probably seen a shrink for a million years who never got him that far.

Of course, IANACP... (I Am Not A Clinical Psychologist,) I'm just saying he's a sharp guy. Why not make up a new story?

The artist needs to learn to stop editing his work once it has been released to the public. Why can't Lucas accept that his work has given so many people so much joy and take pride?

Who doesn't look at their past and want to go back and handle things differently, with all your years of experience, knowledge, and skills. Yet you can't. And if you try, you live your life in an Uncle Rico-esque spiral of failure and never grow as a person. I'm not saying he doesn't have the right to change the movies, I'm saying he's a pompous ego-maniac for wanting to doctor the past.

Re:With apologies to Dr. Frasier Crane

[Legion303]

"and he doesn't care who hurts in the course of his self-preoccupation"

It's a fucking movie. If I were Lucas and I saw this kind of whiny drivel from people who expect high art out of a blast-em-up series of films, I'd run it into the ground just for spite. I'd make Jar Jar Luke's real father and have Anakin adopt him at some point. Imagine the rash of nerd suicides *that* would set off!

Re:With apologies to Dr. Frasier Crane

[Who drank my chocola]

If I were Lucas and I saw this kind of whiny drivel from people who expect high art out of a blast-em-up series of films, I'd run it into the ground just for spite. I'd make Jar Jar Luke's real father and have Anakin adopt him at some point. Imagine the rash of nerd suicides *that* would set off!

Although I'm sure you were trying to be contrary, your post actually reinforces what I said.

This is the exact type of bitter vitriol that Lucas is showing his fans. He certainly has the right to say "Its my movie, get over it" but I also have the right to denounce the man as a bitter old crank. ...And by the way, movies are art, whether you know it or not.

Re:With apologies to Dr. Frasier Crane

[FingerDemon]

The way I see it, by trying to create a new mythology but only revealing it in stages over several years, Lucas was doomed to this sort of criticism. Look a little further up in this thread and you see two people criticizing EP1 for exactly the opposite reasons. The mythology he created in EP4, left a lot of people filling in the blanks, which I guess is a part of what mythology is all about. By the time these latest prequels came out, hard core fans had years to develop widely divergent expectations.
Given that, I can't say I think Lucas "hates" his fans or is "bitter". I just think he feels he can't make them all happy, so he'll do what he wants with the thing that he feels he created and owns. You might argue that he could have tried to be in touch with the majority of fans, but he doesn't seem to have done that, so that's that.

By the way, I think the novel analogy is a perfect analogy for this discussion. Not so much because I think artists should take that approach, but because I know Lucas takes that approach. He as much as said so with his "house painting" analogy on 60 minutes the other night.

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[AbRASiON]

MOD THIS MAN UP!

but in all seriousness, George lucas will leave more holes in the plotline than you can poke a stick at..

the series is dead to me - the 2 new movies have gone to the point of damaging the originals for me - now that's sad / disapointing :(

new spoiler from the trailer

[WormholeFiend]

Darth Sidious: I'm going to have a nice suit designed for you, my young apprentice.

Darth Vader: Ok, but I want it black!

Darth Sidious: How much more black could this suit be?

Darth Vader: None more black!

BITTORRENT LINK IN HERE http://www.torrentreactor.

[Anonymous Coward]

http://www.torrentreactor.net/view.php?id=5060754

peace in da hood!\

Direct link to torrent: http://www.torrentreactor.net/view.php?id=5060754

Torrent at Torrentspy

[Man in Spandex]

http://www.torrentspy.com/directory.asp?mode=torre ntdetails&id=188542

Correction

[Punto]

lesbian FOX teen drama. Although knowing TV's track record so far, it might all be just a cruel sweeps stunt :(

Yes, movie will be better - here's why

[cgenman]

This movie will be better than the first two. Why? Because it will end. And with it the bastardization of my childish notions of purity and good will finally cease.

At least until the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy movie comes out. Or the next US Doctor Who. Superman. Jurassic Park IV. The Transformers live-action movie. Narnia. Did I mention Keanu as Sinbad?

My poor, poor notions of purity and good...

Bit Torrent of the trailer

[LintBoston]

http://mininova.org/get/16482/Star%20Wars%20Episod e%203%20-%20Revenge%20of%20the%20Sith%20Trailer%20 with%20OC%20Intro%20%7BC_P%7D.avi.torrent Enjoy.. I have tested it, it works and looks great

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[inkswamp]

If plot holes ruin these films for you, then how did you enjoy any of them? Fantasy stories are flawed by design, by the very fact that they must break with reality. The original trilogy is rife with plot holes.

I was just watching Empire Strikes Back a few weeks ago (you know, the film that so many fanboys claim is flawless and perfect?) and I caught a screamer. Why is it that Luke's training with Yoda appears to take a long period of time (seemingly many days--even Yoda refers to the events in terms of days) and yet the story of what's happening with the Millennium Falcon appears to take a matter of hours and yet, the two plot lines converge toward the end of the film anyway.

That's one amongst many, many plot holes and problems. Finding these things is really not the point of watching them. If you seek films without that kind of problem, you probably shouldn't be watching things like Star Wars in the first place.

The torrent:

[AIX-Hood]

The torrent: heres the video

Re:The torrent:

[SwItCH_LiVEs]

4.3% for the BT link 15% for the direct download link. Sorry to say, the only time bittorrent has ever been fast for me, is when I catch a new BT on a slashdot thread. Otherwise, it's quicker to DL it normally.

What is RotJPG?

[cgenman]

Is that some form of crappy encryption for images?

Trailer mirror

[DrHanser]

Eh, I don't know how long it will last, and I won't directly link it. http://rianjs.net/?p=111 Should be fast before I have to take it down due to bandwidth concerns.

Re:Trailer mirror

[DrHanser]

Ack, let's see if I can make it a URL.

Link.

Re:Trailer mirror

[DrHanser]

Holy shit 600 downloads in 2 hours.

Re:Trailer mirror

[joseaplaza]

Got it! Thanx

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[JudgeFurious]

No it was not. I saw it. I saw it 22 fucking times (hey I was something like 12 years old so in 1977-78 I lived Star Wars) and there was no "Episode IV" in front of the opening scrawl, there was no "A New Hope" in front of it either.

It was "Star Wars" and that's all it was. Did Lucas plan on making more? So he says. Do I believe him? No way in hell. He may have wanted to tell a bigger story at the time and he may have had an idea in his head where all of this was going and where it came from but I think he's a lying son of a bitch when he starts talking about his master plan and all the magical myth bullshit that he sells.

He made a movie, it was successful to a degree that rarely happens. It wasn't an episode in the middle of some grand series he had planned all along. That's a load of crap. Empire Strikes Back got made because Star Wars made a load of money. Return of the Jedi got made because Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back made a load of money. The prequels got made because... hell I don't know, because George hates us all and wants to punish us for some reason?

Still Episode III looked pretty damned good in the trailer. I'll see it just on the outside chance that it finishes washing the taste of Phantom Menace out of my mouth. Attack of the Clones didn't quite do the trick.

Link

[ChickenBlood]

http://www.movie-list.net/exclusive/star-wars-ep3- trailer-640x360.mov There it is. They make it look good by letting Anikan talk for only 2 seconds.

my suspicions

[CAIMLAS]

I suspect that the reason Lucas said this about Episode 3 is because he, like other film industry insiders, have actually gotten to see the film: after production is complete, but before the public gets to see it.

In other words, if it's going to be like Empre Strikes Back, I'm betting my money on the fact that Lucas himself actually had precious little to do with the actual production of the film. We've all seen what a Lucas perspective will do to a film, and "dark and broodingly emotional" does not fit in that scope. If Lucas were the primary artistic vision behind the film, we would have purple bunnies with lightsabers, muchkins, and "Wizard of Oz"-style technicolor effects.

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[michaeldot]

No it was not. I saw it. I saw it 22 fucking times (hey I was something like 12 years old so in 1977-78 I lived Star Wars) and there was no "Episode IV" in front of the opening scrawl, there was no "A New Hope" in front of it either.

Lucas claims that the studio did not want "Episode IV" in the title (confusing to the audience etc), so for the initial release it was not.

However, for later prints AFTER it had become a box office smash, it was added.

They also remixed the audio at least 3 times for the initial release, depending on where it was going to be shown: newer theaters with Dolby stereo, old ones with mono, and drive-ins, so depending on where you saw it, you could have heard different things.

Lots of interesting things like that in the DVD commentaries. Not once does he apologize for fscking up our childhoods though!

Re:Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[Jeremi]

The series should have stopped right at "Empire", which was probably the best of all of them.

[Clerks] "Empire" had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings. All "Jedi" had was a bunch of Muppets.[/Clerks]

so...

[weldon416]

Just because you live at home with your parents, your not 13, your 29, you dont need them to come with you to see the movie.

Re:Hmm.

[lgw]

Sure, Lucas can release a new edit with whatever changes he pleases, and I have no problems with that. Supressing the original is what I have problems with. Works should not be removed from public availability at a whim!

Re:SPOILER: PADAME DIES IN EPISODE THREE

[G27 Radio]

Nah, it was just a joke. Anyone who's been on Slashdot a while probably remembers the "Trinity Dies" spoilers that were popular when the Matrix movies were still coming out.

I'm sure Padme is just fine at the end of Ep III.

PG-13...

[DownloadTHIS]

If this movie is PG-13, it means that they are allowed to use the word "fuck" once. Given that, the best use, I think would be Mace Windu delivering the following line: "Galactic Basic, motherfucker, do you speak it?!"

Thanks!

[sithkhan]

Thank you. Thank you for helping me to put this in context. I have been subtly swayed by the bitter /.rs, and your post was the first rational thing I read in this story. I appreciate it!!!! Having finished viewing the trailer, I am ready for May 18th to be DVD day, and watch Episode I and II!

If the first two are any indication...

[Cecil]

It's much more of a tragedy

I'll drink to that, Lucas.

Jar-Jar must die

[Neo-Rio-101]

The movie will be worth seeing as long as Jar-Jar gets hacked to pieces somewhere in the movie. When I see that I will cheer in the theater.

Reactions?

[OmniQin]

That was really fucking good. Please don't let this suck. Please let Jar Jar die violently. Please don't let this suck.

Re: Ugh! Can Lucas destroy Episode VI any further?

[gad_zuki!]

> Er, how come you got moderated as 'Funny' rather than the 'Insightful' you so richly deserved?

Because it ignores the art of filmmaking and what gets people excited about movies.

Yes, the grandparent is pretty correct that the first three were more mature and complex, but that doesnt make for that emotional connection we get from movies. Dumbed down space operas don't ask much from the viewer and they do entertain. They do pull at our heartstrings. That's good filmmaking.

Jar Jar is annoying, but 3PO and R2 have gotten laughs out of me. Han is a cowboy but at least he's entertaining. Luke is shallow, but he's the "nobody" anyone can project their own insecurities upon. Portman outacts and out-everything Fisher, but Fisher was charming and sexy.

I'd say the first three movies, with much added complexity, would make some really good books while the last three are and will continue to be great movies. Its all about the medium. I dont think this is just nostalgia, as I've seen kids fall asleep watching episode 1.

Torture

[Aexia]

Soldiers make Achmed play naked twister and that's considered torture, meanwhile Achmed's cousins are cutting heads off of American's!!!!

I'm guessing you're unaware of the rape(including children) and murder that was going on as well. Read the Taguba report(what little of it that's been released) by the military if you don't believe it.

The press has pretty much ignored what was going on at Abu Graib. Thus there are people like you who still believe it was all fraternity style hijinks and whatnot. There's a reason those five mercenaries were killed and strung up in the same city as the prison...

Re:Torture

[DA-MAN]

I'm guessing you're unaware of the rape(including children) and murder that was going on as well. Read the Taguba report(what little of it that's been released) by the military if you don't believe it.

Point of fact I was unaware. I will Google for this later.

The press has pretty much ignored what was going on at Abu Graib. Thus there are people like you who still believe it was all fraternity style hijinks and whatnot. There's a reason those five mercenaries were killed and strung up in the same city as the prison...

If what you say is true, then this is fucked up. The news was running all this crap about "torture in abu graib" but all they showed and talked about was goddamn naked twister and a dog collar on some dude. It's about time we got real news in this country...

What's this "O.C." everybody's on about?

[KlaymenDK]

What is this "O.C." thing that everybody's going on and on about?

(Disclaimer: poster is non-USian.)

Re:What's this "O.C." everybody's on about?

[Hyecee]

It's an evening drama on FOX about rich kids in Orange County.

http://www.fox.com/oc/

Get back in touch with reality...

[omnix]

This is amazing... I can't believe there are so many people who can't get over the fact that Lucas retouched the original trilogy. It's done, he owns it, get over it!!! Personally, I too like the original version, but so what, I don't own it...

As for the new trilogy (prequel), I don't think Lucas ever really wanted to tell the story, because it's not as good as the original. He knew it then, and he knows it now. Ep 3, may have some magic, though...

Just try to keep this stuff in perspective, is all I'm saying. There is enough real problems, like corrupt politicians, murderers, RIAA, and Microsoft to bitch about. I just can't see a reason to getting emotional over something I don't own.

Re:Also on the O.C. Tonight: New Beck

[Chris Carollo]

Ah, whatever, it's guilty pleasure at its finest.

Much of the dialog is really well done (particularly Seth's) and everyone on it is drop-dead gorgeous. It's not "good" TV, but it's certainly entertaining enough to enjoy.

Ha

[first.last]

Star Wars: Nemesis

Tragedy

[Chreo]

"It's much more of a tragedy" Is Lucas coming to his senses and realising that any movie with Hayden Christiansen in the part of Anakin and Lucas himself involved is a frelling tragedy.

Not too impressed

[xtheunknown]

I wasn't too impressed with the trailer. Hopefully the movie will be better that the first two, but I wouldn't count on it.

For what its worth, forget Mischa Barton, Rachel Bilson is the REAL star of The OC.

Re:Not too impressed

[dowobeha]

I wasn't too impressed with the trailer. Hopefully the movie will be better that the first two, but I wouldn't count on it.

Huh?!

That trailer rocked. I'm really starting to think that it's just not possible for most of the supposed Star War fans to be satisfied by anything new that Lucas comes out with....

Please Please Please Please

[jpiggot]

I, for one, would like to see Natalie Portman's breasts.

And I think that if all the "Star Wars" fans help me raise $30 million dollars to give to George Lucas, it could happen.

Re:Spoiler alert!

[caveat]

Luke...meesa bein' your father...

I thought it was more the bad acting

[caveat]

I wouldn't so much say it's even the writing as the acting; give a good actor a bad script and you can still get a passably decent performance...but Hayden Christensen is absolutely horrible. Beyond horrible even. A plank of wood with a dubbed voice would be better.
I didn't think EpI was really that bad; it just didn't go much of anywhere plotwise, but in retrospect it shouldn't have - it was just laying the framework for the entire story.

Re:SPOILER: PADAME DIES IN EPISODE THREE

[codecracker007]

I suppose Lucas wont be tht foolish to rape the story like anything. Considering the fact that Liea tells Luke bout her having faint memories of her mother in episode 6, it doesnt look probable that Padme dies in episode 3 until Liea grows up to ,say 3-4 yers of age, which i suppose the ep3 story/timeline wont allow.

Episode III looks so good...

[SamSim]

...I realise this is a bit premature, but I can't wait for Episode IV!

Now there's a first

[devphil]

I'm glad I have a Tivo though - that fast forward button will come in REAL handy tonight...:)

This may be the first time anybody has used a Tivo to record the commercials and skip the show.

It Should Be Rated R

[MeauxToo]

Episode II and III should be rated R. The stroylines from IV, V, and VI eluded to Vader do some really nasty stuff that all seemed R rated. The fact these two movies are not rated R goes a long way to demonstrating just how weak the prequels have been and the opportunity that was missed.

Re:too little, too late - Bittorrent

[JoeCotellese]

If you use eXeem, I've published the eXeem link on my website Coolcrap.

If you don't want to visit the site, here is the eXeem link.
ep3-trailer-640-360.mov

Re:BITTORRENT LINK IN HERE http://www.torrentreact

[JofCoRe]

Another one here... that they claim doesn't have the OC intro: http://www.piratebay.org/torrents-details.php?id=3 300612

(remove the space from the link, etc, etc...)

Great News

[LPetrazickis]

The high quality trailer is already available for download. It seems as though Lucas has had to switch actors, though. Of course, that can only be a good thing.:)

One possible explination

[steveo777]

Well, I'm probably wrong... mostly becuase I haven't seen episode V in a long time (too long). I can't remember if the Falcon jumps to lightspeed or not before heading to chum it up with Lando. If it does, then your statement stands. I never noticed, but now I remeber Yoda talking about the training.
Anyway, good call.

Re:One possible explination

[inkswamp]

Here's another one I caught just recently too. In Episode IV A New Hope. The good guys have just escaped the Death Star. Princess Leia knows that they were allowed to escape and say so, including that they are being tracked. So... where do they go? That's right... straight to the rebel base, the secrecy of which she just risked life and limb to protect. Score one for plot holes.

Anyway, the point I'm making here is not that these are bad films because of plot holes, but that any fantasy or sci-fi film is going to have them. I love the movies, plot holes and all. The viewer must be a willing participant or the films will suck. The prequels don't seem to be getting the same willing participation that the older films got. They are no worse than the originals in almost any respect.

Excellent points, still think it's going to suck

[TylerDurden0]

Lucas can't help himself. Like a drug addict who knows he can do better but slips in one last one just to 'shut down the mother.'

Your cynical opinion.....

[Ogre332]

does not take into account America's half-assed parenting.

Re:Spoiler alert!

[The Wooden Badger]

I thought it was Darth Darth Binks.

Re:Spoiler alert!

[kin_korn_karn]

I've heard people say that but IMO it sounds stupid.

Major Plot Spoiler

[StarWarsMasterJedi]

At our weekly Magic game some friends and I were talking about the episode III and came to the conclusion that Darth-Sidius was actually Counselor Palpatine. This would give Sidius/Palpatine great insight into the Jedi plans and allow him to manipulate younger more impressionable Jedi like Anikin. Like Yoda said "The Dark side is Hard to See". I bet his will be reveled in the new movie.