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Lucas Promises Star Wars on Blu-Ray in 2011
Several readers have written with word that George Lucas has announced a 2011 release date for the Star Wars series — all six films — on Blu-Ray. Engadget (linked) has an explanation of what to expect, and includes a video of a deleted scene that the Blu-Ray version will include. They warn that this might be a disappointment to anyone who (correctly) believes that Han shot first.
See your childhood memories die in brilliant digital picture!
These aren't the prequels you're looking for...
I mean, a couple years ago? Maybe. Now? No. So what's changed? Well, I've gotten older, there are better movies out there that I'd spend my money on, and frankly, I'm tired of producers yanking our chains with new versions every couple years.
So no. I will not be buying this, as I suspect will be the general refrain from his target base.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
As I commented on Engadget:
Originals == Buy.
Special Edition == 1080p MKV DTS torrent.
That and the decent Laserdisc rips of the originals will have to do, I guess.
Trolling is a art,
ANH, TESB, ROTJ, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, The Ewok Adventure & The Star Wars Holiday Special.
Lol you got cock blocked by George Lucus how do you feel?
The films largely are the same from their 70's/80's versions and the 90's enhanced versions. It's not like in the middle of A New Hope that Obi Wan decides to stop with this whole turning off the tractor beam business and start selling Amway to the storm troopers.
Non impediti ratione cogitationus.
As a huge Star Wars geek, I've hated almost any discussion of the films I've been involved in since the prequels came out. I liked the prequels, especially Episode III, which is by far Lucas' best film. Just because you have fond childhood memories of the originals doesn't mean the prequels suck. Why is it that everyone acts as if the original three Star Wars films were perfect? They can be scrutinized just as much as the prequels have been. How is it that Darth Vader didn't sense Han coming up behind him when he was about to shoot down Luke in Episode IV? What happened to the force? What happened to Vader being the best pilot in the galaxy? Why didn't Obi-Wan kill Vader rather than sacrificing himself? He claimed that in death he would be more powerful, but his ghost did the same thing he did in life: guide Luke. We later learn that Luke never has the power to take on the Emperor himself, so wouldn't it have been better to eliminate Vader and then team up with Yoda and Luke and go after the Emperor? And for those who complain about Jar-Jar, I have one word: Ewoks. The entire series is riddled with plot-holes and silliness, but that's okay with me because IT'S A SILLY SCI-FI ADVENTURE. People are able to disregard that fact because, as a child, it was so much more. But as much as everyone wanted to revert back to that childhood mindset when they went to see the prequels, they couldn't, because like it or not they'd matured and the silliness of it all became apparent.
I feel the same way about Indiana Jones. How is the Crystal Skull any more silly than Temple of Doom? And the Holy Grail one was just absurd on every level. If you want to watch a serious Lucas film, watch THX-1138.
Concerning Star Wars, I'll always view the prequels as better, despite my fond childhood memories of the originals. The originals were so black and white, good vs. evil. The only intellectually intriguing moments was when Vader turned on the Emperor, and that lasted like 5 minutes. Episode III gave a deeper meaning to the entire series. A balance between good and evil can never be achieved when one group (Sith or Jedi) is in power. In the end, their allegiance is to an absolute adherence to their ideals, not to what they know in their heart to be right. Compromising men are the only effective governors, men like Han Solo or Lando Calrissian. Men who have vices but have a good heart. But Han and Lando are just presented as bumbling adventurers, it's not until the prequels that their greater significance is realized. It's not until the prequels until we are told that "the Jedi aren't all that," a message that many fans probably didn't want to here.
All this directly ties into politics: we want our politicians to be Jedis. To be free of vice, absolute to their ideals, and courageous. But setting such impossible standards is what makes politics as a whole so dishonest. It's what makes distinguishing between a Sith and Jedi nearly impossible. So we never understand the motives of our politicians because they're so cold an calculating, whether for good or for bad.
Maybe that's not the best explanation of the prequel's theme but that's also what makes them so good: there are so many different angles one can view them from. With the originals, it's black and white. The final declarative message clearly deals with paternity, something like, "nothing can destroy a father's love for his son." I just find the prequel haters to be so ungrateful. Lucas not only made the films, but he added elements that went beyond the simple adventurism. If you didn't like the end product, don't hate on Lucas for it, it's HIS saga, not yours.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Honestly the first 3 were just as targeted. We look at them thru rose colored glasses at this point. Dont watch them for e few years come back and watch them anew. You will see the first one is rather dull and boring with a whiney guy. The second one is a bit better written with some motivation thrown in for the chars this time. The third was a giant effects fest. Sound familiar?
The problem the newer 3 have is pacing. Trim out about 30 mins out of each movie and they would be much better. Lucas is an old school 70s director. Pacing is slow and deliberate. Not what is currently in fashion of moving the the plot along at a fairly good clip. Probably the biggest eye opener of this effect is watching the extras on Ace Ventura. The director said 'I could loose a half hour of this movie and still tell the same story but jim was just too funny not to show all of this'. Many movies get all caught up on themselves and keep telling the same point over and over. A 30 min pod race in the middle of the movie did NOTHING to advance the plot. Next time you watch it, skip it. You will find the movie is much better. The second one was such a snooze fest I do not know if it could be edited to make it better. The only thing it did was make the motivations in the 3rd one better. That one probably wouldnt need much lost out of it.
But overall they are targeted to 8-15 year olds. Just like the previous set. It was truly a rinse and repeat.
Probably the worst thing that ever happened to Lucas was that he got rich. Which removed some of his real creativity. What would we have seen from him if he had actually had to work at his craft. For example I would say his equal of Steven Spielberg really worked at what he had to do. He kept up the relentless pace of making whatever he did better than what he worked on before. Lucas got lazy and fell back onto merchandising (hence the basic re-re-release of star wars on blu ray which is the same as the dvd set).
But considering what will come out on bluray is almost exactly the same as what is currently on DVD. Hmm, guess I will wait some more (and trust me I am not shy about buying dvds or bluray). I do however tend not to rebuy things. At this point I am only slightly mildly interested in re-buying this. I already own the thing 3 times over. I would only be interested in the originals in decent enough quality to merit bluray or dvd. This is your basic shovel of what they already have. They scanned it high quality ages ago. Now it is just a bluray reencode and small menu tweak. Yawnski
Eternity is two robots and sand.
There is nothing but sand.
And robots
For about six years.... Epic fail.
Yeah? Tell that to these guys
For justice, we must go to Don Corleone
No - Vader force-strangles Jar-Jar for two hours. That's the entire movie.
Hail Eris, full of mischief...
E pluribus sanguinem
If you liked the prequels that's fine but we are also entitled to our opinions. I thought they sucked. 3 was marginally ok, 1 was just incredibad. If you want some specifics:
1) The acting. Just bad, bad, bad. This was probably partially the bad writing, partially directing, partially the fact that they were almost always on complete green screens. The combination just adds up to an extremely unconvincing performance from most of the actors. Also some were just flat out bad actors for the roles. The child Anikan was -horrible-. Anikan is supposed to be some hardened, badass slave kid and we get a kid who plays him as a happy go lucky middle class white boy.
2) The writing. As I said the writing is very poor. The dialogue is really bad. Most of it does not feel natural and appropriate, it feels forced. The love scene dialogue in #2 is one of the very worst of all. There's plenty of non-dialogue related badness though, such as the space fight scene at the end of #1 where Anikan is just "playing" effectively and yet kicking ass. Rather than show him as extremely competent with supernatural talents, as you'd expect given the backstory, he is presented as a bumbling kid that happens to be lucky and manages to do what is needed by accident.
3) The story. It was a shitty story arc. You had some just flat out retarded shit like the miticholrians, but over all the story was just bad. In particular the final part of Anikan's conversion to Vader was trite, forced, unbelievable, and poorly developed. It was a massively rushed conclusion that seemed stuck on to a meandering story to try and make it connect to the later films.
I could go on, but I really don't need to because someone already did an excellent and extremely lengthy (and funny) analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI There's one on EP2 as well.
"don't hate on Lucas for it, it's HIS saga, not yours."
Oh please, of all the cop out lines this is the worst "You can't criticize this because you didn't make it!" That is the same as saying "You can't criticize the government because you aren't the president!" Fuck you, it was MY time and MY money I sure as hell can criticize and I can can refuse to spend more on it. You can get down on your knees and blow Lucas and worship everything he does but you cannot demand I do the same. I get to have my own opinions and my opinion is that the prequels suck.
Call me crazy, but is Star Wars even culturally relevant anymore? It feels like Disco at this point.
Ask your average boy who is 4-8 years old how relevant Star Wars is. I teach pre-K Sunday School, and I can tell you that Star Wars is extremely popular, especially the prequel/Clone Wars stuff. It is weird to get kids whose favorite character is "Obi-Wan". For more details on the how relevant Star Wars is there is a great article by Emily Bazelon called Why does Star Wars still take over the minds of small boys? http://www.slate.com/id/2215160
They're good movies,
Not really, no.
I hardly need to argue that point for the newer three.
As for the original three, they are bad movies made just about bearable by (a) Harrison Ford and/or (b) being 15 or under.
Outside of nerd circles this is obvious. Inside nerd circles this is obscured by (somewhat ironically) the very same mindset that the very same nerds loudly decry in the smuggest possible terms whenever they observe it in anybody else: such as fans of sports teams, Bieber, American Idol, or whatever else. Namely, it's something people have in common. Drivel, but because it's shared drivel, it provides a platform for conversation, in-jokes, feelings of group identification and so on.
The actual quality of what is in common is irrelevant, only that it is in common. But once something becomes key to a tribal identity, it's impossible to get people to analyse it objectively, and because nobody likes to admit they base their tribal identification upon childish drivel, they will come up all sorts of long-winded justifications for why it is not.
... as silly as rebuilding your basement into the Emperor's Throne Room?
Of course it is silly... Every knows you build the Detention Center and Waste Reclamation Compactor in the basement. The Emperor's Throne Room goes upstairs in the kitchen.
In this version Han shoots first and last!
Few people realize that Han Solo was using a quantum blaster. Upon the first viewing of the state of the shots fired, it appeared that Han shot first. In reality, the quantum state had a 50% chance of Han shooting first, and a 50% chance of Greedo shooting first. When Lucas remastered the movie, the observation of the quantum state rendered it as Greedo shooting first. So there was actually no change made to the movie.
Want to improve your Karma? Instead of "Post Anonymously", try the "Post Humously" option.
Hans is introduced as an amoral smuggler with little regard for life. All he wants is cash. He hangs out the bar not as a person who has to due to his chosen profession, but as a person who enjoys the life. There is no question that he is going to shoot first, because to do otherwise would be to acknowledge the needs of others. Obi-wan sees this in his character which is why he offers a small fee up front, to tweak his interest, with a large fee at completion. The thought that goes into this not only insures that Hans will not space them as soon as they leave the planet, but will continue on to the rebel base instead of doing the logical thing and abandoning them at the death star. There is a reason that Harrison Ford has a career. He was able to pull off a very complex character.
By the end of the movie the Force and Luke had changes Hans from a self centered opportunist to a person willing to acknowledge that the universe was greater than himself. He was willing to risk his life for something that would not benefit him. Of course it is hard to believe that such a huge transformation could occur in a person, but that is why Star Wars is a fairy tale. Unfortunately, like all fairy tales, it has been cleaned up to suite a wider audience to gain more profit. In effect, Star Wars, and many of Lucases project, has taken the opposite trajectory of Hans Solo. Rather than progressing from amoral to enlightened, Star Wars started out as a rather gruff view of the Transformative power of Faith, to an amoral tool of profit.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black