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Han Solo To Reportedly Return For Star Wars VII
eldavojohn writes "El Mayimbe (who has a history of scooping movie news) has been picked up by Fox News Latino as claiming that Harrison Ford is confirmed to return for Star Wars VII (about 7 minutes in)."
Is he going to pass on his legacy to his son, played by Shia LeBoeuf?
But Han shot him first. In the face. Repeatedly.
The Millennium Falcon will be fast enough for HIM!
Yes, but why was it dying? I'm convinced it's declining health was largely due to no one having the balls to tell George Lucas what parts of his movies were salvageable and which parts were absolutely shit.
Like, anyone working on Episode one. Pod racing specifically. Anyone say "Hey, uh, maybe we cut pod racing down to a few minutes. Or out entirely?" Jar Jar Binks. Anyone mention to George that putting a minstrel in Star Wars was idiotic? No, of course not. He's fucking George Lucas. Nevermind that he had a lot of help making the movies that were decent.
.. cause really - he's just too good for what Star Wars has become.
Well he was part of what Indiana Jones has become.
How else is Abrams going to get that whole red matter / time travel loop going so he can reboot the entire franchise.
Can't wait for the first lightsaber lens flare.
the pod race was the most entertaining part of the entire film.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
Now, now. There was nothing wrong with the pod racing, at least compared to anything in the original trilogy. It was all the other crap. In facyt, in the Red letter Media review of the movies, I don't think Mr. Plinkett really rails on the Pod Racing at all. The stupid wager Qui-Gonn makes BEFORE the racing, now that was dumb. I actually remember the pod racing as being the best part of the movie.
I hope they hire Justin Long to be his sidekick.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
At least Pod Racing gave us StarWars:PodRacer.
That was a pretty entertaining, though simple game. And it ran fluid on my trash PC.
There's a new Death Star being built by the remnants of the trade federation army, being led by a young and brash Jedi (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) who's being turned by the haunting apparitions of Emperor Palpatine and Count Dooku. To test their new, fully operational battle station, they use it to blow up Corellia, killing most of the inhabitants. As the Millennium Falcon sweeps in, piloted by Chewbacca and his protegee (Shia LaBeouf), to see if anyone survived, it's hit by a largish rectanguar piece of debris, causing the Falcon to yet again lose its precarious sensor dish. The Falcon sweeps around to see what hit them and pick it up, and they discover that Han Solo survived. He escaped in a Corellian intergalactic-class refrigerator that was flung from the explosion at less than 4 parsecs.
It doesn't hurt to be nice.
The problem was that Lucas was too rich and too capable of doing whatever he wanted regardless of input. It was a hard fast rule of the original trilogy that the better the film, the less Lucas directly had to do with it. The problem with the prequels is that Lucas was deeply involved. He was literally able, especially by the prequels, to do anything he wanted it, and did it all to excess. The prequels had every flaw in Lucas's inabilities with plotting and dialogue that the old films did, but magnified many times over.
But worst of all, even under good direction, I think the prequels would have been lame. We already knew the outline of what had happened; that the Old Republic fell, that the Emperor perverted Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, that Skywalker's children had been separated so that the Emperor could not gain both of them. The prequels were inevitably going to be little more than a "fill in the blanks" exercise, and would be necessarily anticlimactic. But Lucas could even do that exercise right; throwing in midichlorians, pointless characters, theme worlds and dull chase scenes, not to mention not even being able to stick to the elements of the story line as they stood at the end of RotJ. One of the most jarring things to me was Padme dying immediately after giving birth to Luke and Leia, when we know from RotJ that Leia was old enough to vaguely remember her mother.
I have some hope that a return of the original main characters and under solid new direction with writers not hampered by Lucas's problems and desire to transform Star Wars from Hidden Fortress In Space to some sort of political statement, this new trilogy can at least recapture some of the old spirit.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Sorry, I deleted Star Wars from my nerd card feed a couple of years ago due to negative personal experiences with this formerly subscribed channel.
This must have made me miss further updates.
That's it, I'm out.
Do not want to see an aging Han Solo sitting in a bar bragging about his glory days and complaining about his jedi bitch ex-wife.
What political party do you join when you don't like Bible-thumpers *or* hippies?
None o' all y'all can count. This is the first Star Wars film that matches its number-qua-ordinal !!!!!!!!!
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
What??? No pod racing? You don't understand the Star Wars formula. Every movie has to have a vertigo inducing chase that forces some of us to turn away from the big screen.
IV -- trench run attack on the Death Star.
V -- attack on Hoth, cockpit views
VI -- speeders through the forest (actually redwoods in NorCal, which everyone should visit at least once)
Pod racing held true to the formula. Unfortunately, I was so turned off by everything *else* in that movie that I couldn't muster the interest to see the others. I don't know if they had good big screen freek-out chases or not. That was just part of the beauty of those movies though. They could give you the 3-d freakout without glasses.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
The sandpeople sniping pod racers was the best part of the whole movie. At least that's the scene I remember from watching it once.
Star Wars may be the brainchild of Lucas, but Gary Kurtz is what gave it its soul. My theory is that once Kurtz and Lucas split after Empire, the franchise was toast. Kurtz wanted Jedi to be much darker, Lando and the Falcon were to be destroyed during the battle, and no happy teddy bear celebration at the end. In my mind, this would have been a much more powerful film.
If you look at the tone of Jedi, especially the Ewoks, it is easy to see that Lucas was starting to get no critical feedback of his ideas. Kurtz filled this role. Without him, the franchise falls apart and we wind up with the crap that was the prequels. Lucas is a terrible director on his own. Just awful.
This is why I have high hopes for Ep. 7- Lucas is out the door, and Abrams probably understands what Star Wars means to the fans better than Lucas ever did. I just hope that Ford's role isn't too similar to Nemoy's role in Abram's Star Trek movie... a star cameo that helps our protagonist when he needs it most.
True enough. But his acting wasn't the problem with that movie. Karen Allen wasn't bad either. It was, well, parts of the plot, the script, and that weasely little fellow who wore black leather was swinging in the trees with the monkeys. For his part, Harrison Ford made that movie more palatable than any of the prequels since he, at least, was still likable.
Perhaps you'd prefer Star Wars IIIIIII?
Lucas sold $2 billion in merchandising rights. You need pod races for toy pod cars, dolls, and 2-headed announcers.
I'm not saying its awesome ("Roger, Roger!" -- The joke so funny Lucas used it twice!), but the tail wags the dog here. Expect even more of the same.
(-1: Post disagrees with my already-settled worldview) is not a valid mod option.
Nobody told Christopher Nolan how awful the last Batman film was with like, 90 minutes of pure pablum.
Nobody told Peter Jackson how awful The Hobbit, episode 1 was with like, 2 hours of pure cgi wanking.
Nobody told JJ Abrams how completely ridiculous the screenplay to Star Trek was by... AGAIN!!! using time travel... and Spock Prime(Spock Prime? What is that, where you get your time travel even faster?)
We have entered a new realm here, a realm where directors ruin films that could be great, but end up ok, or passable.
Why?
Because they can't help themselves, and there is an "Emperor Wears no Clothes" mindset with these guys.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
You're spot on, but I always took that part in ROTJ to think she was speaking of her adoptive mother.
21st Century Renaissance Man
You know, I wonder if Lucas understood that the prequels would necessarily be a "fill in the blanks" excercise and tried to avert that with all that added shit that nobody liked. I don't think he's by any means as completely out of touch as many think. I think he's every bit is incompetent as your post portrays him though so I think he tried to fill out the already carved in stone narrative with bad ideas not knowing the difference between good ideas and bad ones anymore.
Appended to the end of comments you post. 120 chars.
Two characters from Star Wars were completely and totally awesome: Han Solo and Darth Vader. Han wasn't in the prequels at all. Vader got maybe 5 minutes of screen time and IIRC Vader doesn't even force choke someone, threaten people, or do any other badassery in that 5 minutes. He just whines and breaks stuff. The decision to bring back just about everyone in the Star Wars universe except for its two resident badasses is just as terrible as all of those Police Academy movies that happened after Steve Guttenberg said "Fuck it. I'm outta here." Tackleberry is cool but he can't carry a movie.
I am old enough to remember watching Episode IV in the theater in its first run in 1977 (mainly remember my dad going "Wow!" a lot). And yes, when I was a kid, Star Wars was the THING. I remember my dad buying my brother and I our first figurines; Darth Vader, Han Solo, Luke Skywalker, Obiwan, Chewbacca , Princess Leia and a Storm Trooper, in the days before toys had to be safe and they came with little tiny detachable guns. I was very popular when I brought them to school.
I recently rewatched all six films from prequels through to original trilogy. I'll freely admit that Episode IV is pretty cheesy, but no worse than your average cowboy film, and part of its charm lies in the underlying goofiness. The most awkward parts of the first film are the Jedi mysticism, and I can imagine Alec Guinness coughing on some of the neo-hippy lines Obiwan was spouting. The second one, other than the Hoth battle which went on a little long, is by far still the best. In RotJ, the whole Jabba's Palace sequence just takes too long, but once we're into the action, it's a pretty decent film with an ending that ties up the loose ends.
The prequels just don't stand up. Elements are not bad, in particular Ewan McGregor's casting as Obiwan and the return of Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. I won't go into how awful Jar Jar is, or how bad an actor Hayden Christensen is. Suffice it to say that, pull all the flash, and these are inferior works made by a guy who had made what was originally a whiz-bang set of adventure films with characters that you could care about, and turned into a ponderous bad-dialogue laden set of films where you really couldn't give a shit by the end if Padme died or whether Anakin became Darth Vader or not.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
Both Han Solo and Indie are action heroes though, and I mean let's face it, not too many people in their 70s make for an inspiring action hero. They can play almost any other role but there's a physical element to the two fisted pulp role.
Obviously Sean Connery is the exception to that rule.
But worst of all, even under good direction, I think the prequels would have been lame. We already knew the outline of what had happened; that the Old Republic fell, that the Emperor perverted Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader, that Skywalker's children had been separated so that the Emperor could not gain both of them. The prequels were inevitably going to be little more than a "fill in the blanks" exercise, and would be necessarily anticlimactic
Based upon watching The Clone Wars TV series, I have to disagree. You walk into the series knowing all of the key points about main characters and the war as a whole, republic wins, Palpatine is secretly a sith, etc. Almost every episode is better than any prequel movie when it comes to plot, dialogue and characters. If this team would have been given the reigns to develop the prequel movies and Lucas only played a consulting role... I think the galaxy far far away would have been much better.
Horrible.... I remember when Star Wars was amazing... It's been dying a slow death the last 15 years
Or maybe you grew older and had more to compare it against. The kiddies with simple palettes and little experience seem to like episodes 1-3, much as we did when we were children during episode 4 and teenagers during episode 5. YMMV.
That;s the problem with memories.
You remember the original trilogy as being amazing and fantastic. And they were -- by 1977 standards. 35 years later, not so much. What you are actually remembering is not the movie itself but the feeling of amazement you felt when you first saw it.
What's unfortunate about Jar Jar is that his character design was in my opinion - really fricken good. He's also the only one of his kind who acts like a damned sideshow. His character could have easily be changed to be more useful and more like the others. Perhaps he could have been an honorable but slightly clumsy warrior or something. Something perhaps more deserving of that senate seat he would get later on.
I became very disappointed(I was trying to be optimistic) when Disney had c-3po(Poorly costumed) and r2d2 showing up in the disney kiddie shows that my kids watch, and I try to tolerate in the background. I want to say the show was Ant Farm... I thought the angry birds co-branding was as washed out as it could get, I was wrong.
I think we all long ago came to grips with the fact that what Lucas says "I originally intended" has always been highly variable.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
In my mind, this would have been a much more powerful film.
It would to my mind have been a much more confused film. The original movies were black and white, good and bad, clean cut heroic fantasy. Introducing nuances like the rough diamond hero perishing would have jarred even more than Jar Jar.
In our new era of HGH fueled older action stars he may be able to pull it off. Between that and the camera swinging around everywhere.
Howard the Duck
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OMG you're a genius! Lucas has been rehashing the same "vehicles moving at high speed" formula for 30 years!
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
First we had the AT-AT and AT-ST walkers. Now I'm imagining something with tennis balls.
Han Solo, or Han Solo's dad? It has been quite a while since he was in a Star Wars film, and he isn't really readily recognizable as Han Solo any more. It might be easier to find a younger (or younger-looking) actor to take the role if you want it to make sense and not be a tale of Han Solo's retirement.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
And, nobody told you the difference between hyperbolic, headline-grabbing crucifixion and thoughtful criticism. Most of these sci-fi movies that induce Slashdot nerd rage seems to somehow build up a big fan base, revenue, and many-many repeat viewings. Yet, the critically acclaimed sci-fi flicks get nothing more than quiet whimpering over how poor the quality is of your pirated copy.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
He's so freaking old now that for him to play Han, they're going to have to put that bajillion dollars into the computer animated version of him because his wrinkled and leathery face can't play the part unless they say he got aged 300 years by a sith or something. Same with Mark Hamil playing Luke Skywalker again.
They are just too damn old for their original castings.
Anyone say "Hey, uh, maybe we cut pod racing down to a few minutes. Or out entirely?"
George: Rick, fire that man, we're doing the scene.
your thin skin doesn't make me a troll
All the over-the-top criticisms about how much George Lucas sucked and how anyone could do a better job and how he's just milking the franchise (6 moves in 30 years and a handful of TV projects?). You're about to get pile drived by reality. You're going to see what it looks like when a corporation REALLY milks a franchise to get their 4 billion back in one CEO terms. You're going to see what a REAL mass-appeal version of Star Wars looks like with Disney-developed child stars and some schmuck producer's pet actress/mistress on the billboard. And, unlike the prequels, you're REALLY going to find out what it feels like to turn your back on a franchise instead of nerd raging about how you will after your last ThinkGeek purchase.
I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
You remember the original trilogy as being amazing and fantastic. And they were -- by 1977 standards. 35 years later, not so much. What you are actually remembering is not the movie itself but the feeling of amazement you felt when you first saw it.
I think they've stood up pretty well to the test of time. Part of that is that CGI still doesn't look real, the models used in the movies ring truer. Another part is there was no effort to try to produce something complicated in terms of plot, this was sheer larger than life pulp, end of story, and this is what a lot of people don't get - trying to make it more sophisticated wrecks that timeless effect, as we saw with the prequels. This world was never meant to be nuanced, it's a fairy tale in the best possible sense.
I'd say if the movies were released for the first time tomorrow, they'd do just as well.
When as old as Han Solo you get, look as good you will not.
"Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
I - Pod Race
II - Chase in skycars after assassin in Coruscant
III - Battle above Coruscant to capture Count Dooku
You're welcome. Good point, though. I don't suffer from the same issues, but after you pointed them out, they're hard to miss.
Grammer Nazis - I mod you "troll" unless you actually add something on-topic. Yes, I know I have mispellings in my sig.
I think I've just come up with a polynomial time solution to the knapsack problem.
.. cause really - he's just too good for what Star Wars has become.
He belongs in a museum!
how many pairs of boxer shorts should you own?
Both Han Solo and Indie are action heroes though, and I mean let's face it, not too many people in their 70s make for an inspiring action hero. They can play almost any other role but there's a physical element to the two fisted pulp role.
Obviously Sean Connery is the exception to that rule.
Alec Guinness pulled it off as old Ben Kenobi in Episode 4. They are after all swinging light sabers not steel broadswords. :-)
Oh, I think the prequels could have been done better, but ultimately we know how the story goes, and most importantly we know the ending. Certainly better writers could have told it far far better, but I still think that sequels are ultimately going to stand up better than prequels.
The chief problem now is whether they're going to deal with the bazillion novels and comics that make up the Expanded Universe. If they try to fit these films into that universe, they may suffer a lot of the same problems the prequels had. If they don't, a lot of expanded universe fans are going to be pissed.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The problem was that Lucas was too rich and too capable of doing whatever he wanted regardless of input. It was a hard fast rule of the original trilogy that the better the film, the less Lucas directly had to do with it. The problem with the prequels is that Lucas was deeply involved. He was literally able, especially by the prequels, to do anything he wanted it, and did it all to excess. The prequels had every flaw in Lucas's inabilities with plotting and dialogue that the old films did, but magnified many times over.
The problem isn't that Lucas had input, it's that essentially no one else did. All writers have a blind spot with their own writing. You need an extra set of critical eyes – someone to look over the script and say "This doesn't make any sense" or "This part just isn't entertaining" or "We need more reason for the audience to care about plot point X".
Letting a writer/director have full control over the creative process is usually a disaster. Google "Heaven's Gate" for one particularly egregious example – $40 million (in 1980 dollars!) squandered on a mediocre, 3.5-hour Western that no one really wanted to see.
Liam Neeson seems to be doing well as an action hero, at only 10 years younger than Harrison Ford.
Learn to love Alaska
I disagree with the idea that the prequels could only be a fill-in-the blank affair: the same could have been said for the LotRs trilogy but it still managed to be turned into something enjoyable with near-universal appeal (Pippen and Merry seem to have their own following, for instance) even though whether you read the book(s) or not the ending seemed like a fore-gone conclusion.
"UNIX is very simple, it just needs a genius to understand its simplicity." -Dennis Ritchie
Aren't they moving into the next generation of characters? It is pretty easy for them to play their characters aged the same as the actors are, han grows up in the star wars world the same way harrison ford does.
Indiana Jones was awesome.
I loved the part, where Indy was on a plane and then he put an egg into the microwave, so that the stewaredess would come and clean it up.
You know, she was blocking Indy's path to the toilet before. But he outsmarted her.
Such an inspiring movie.
Not to mention star wars was the star destroyers, storm troopers, xwings, tie fighters, and generally a junked up craft design, instead we get like 1980's portrayal of 'future tech' sleek and glossy crap designs, and not a single thing of the star wars set / ship design that made star wars, star wars.
Don't forget Bruce Willis, who just did the fifth Die Hard movie. He's gotta be an old fart by now.
Knowing the ending doesn't make the journey necessarily less enjoyable. I've re-read books. I've re-watched movies. Knowing the ending (without knowing the plot) isn't an issue. Even knowing the plot isn't a show-stopper. Shakespeare is still popular, curiously more popular among those who have read it. So those who know the plot best enjoy it most.
Learn to love Alaska
you mean like Gimli in LOTR. I read the book,watched the movie and wondered who taht short funny character was for it was not Gimli. More like Gimli's brother goofy.
Life is a great ride, the vehicle doesn't matter
News flash.... The character of Jar Jar isn't supposed to be a particularly likeable one... he's supposed to be an incompetent goof whose gullibility directly leads to Senator Palpatine's ascent to power as Emperor.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Don't forget Bruce Willis, who just did the fifth Die Hard movie. He's gotta be an old fart by now.
Ok, I am confused. Is the example of the Die Hard 5 movies supposed to support or counter the parent's point of view. Please clarify.
The problem is I have I-VI on video, and have showed them to my children (3 and 7) and they prefer IV-VI.
Learn to love Alaska
No, actually it was Episode IV right from the start when it hit the theatres. Lucas originally intended to make 9 movies, and started with number 4.
"The first time I got drunk, I got married. The second time I bought a chimpanzee, after that I stayed sober" Arian Seid
Clint Eastwood
Or maybe you grew older and had more to compare it against.
The problem with that argument is that it has a very short window. It works perhaps for my pre-teen late 70's self. However, it doesn't work at all for:
The fact is, most folks are not Gen-Xers.
Luke: Do you remember your mother? Your real mother?
Leia: Just a little bit. She died when I was very young.
Luke: What do you remember?
Leia: Just images, really. Feelings.
Luke: Tell me.
Leia: She was very beautiful. Kind, but sad.
Leia, by then, more than likely knew she was adopted. Bail Organa would have told her. Otherwise, when Luke said "your real mother" I presume that Leia would have been all "WTF do you mean, my REAL mother??"
Dream as if you'll live forever.
Live as if you'll die tomorrow.
~Anonymous~
I thought A New Hope and IV were added later, after it was successful and he put it as a movie in the middle of a serise. I have the first VHS printing of the trilogy around here somewhere, just no way to play it anymore to check.
Learn to love Alaska
Alec Guinness pulled it off as old Ben Kenobi in Episode 4.
"Episode 4?" F*ck off. Guinness pulled it off in Star Wars. Now get off my lawn.
Oh and BTW, Guinness's age when Star Wars was released? 63. Ford turned 63 in 2005.
I hope they CGI out the awful earring holes he has in his lobes. HD does a wonderful job of pulling me back to reality when I see old men with pierced ears.
http://i.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/article/2/7/8/37278.jpg?v=1
It does have plenty of kids stuff, but it also has a lot of stuff that's completely over the top of most kids' heads (trade federation, galactic senate, etc.), and not to mention a lot of violence (in particular, Revenge of the Sith is PG-13). The original trilogy was more kid-friendly, but it was also adult-friendly (though the ewoks were pushing it). I don't think it's unreasonable at all that adults should expect to enjoy the films.
If you can't convince them, convict them.
Ford turned 63 in 2005.
That's why this will be titled Star Wars VII: Attack of the Gums.
I remember seeing episode I with the gang from work. I literally fell asleep during the movie.
I'm "that guy" too. I was 8 when Star Wars came out. I saw it almost every day the next summer at the local theater. I remember when we first got our Betamax copy of the movie (pirated, of course)... ...but it was all a fluke. It was an amazing, unrepeatable, moment in history.
Sure, lines for summer blockbusters happened for the next 10 years, but the magic that was Star Wars won't happen again. ...but you look back at it now, 35 years in the rear view window, and judge it simply as a film... ...it's 'meh'.
We experienced that magic back in 77 (and 78, and 79 as we kept going to the theaters and watching our bootlegs). We had the bedsheets and the McToys. Part of watching it now IS remembering that magic. ...but not the movie itself. It's held up well, but it's no Citizen Kane. [Heck, I'm not even sure Citizen Kane is Citizen Kane any longer.]
*sigh* Get it right, folks, and stop repeating nonsense. Lucas didn't intend shit.
The lines "Episode IV: A NEW HOPE" were added to the opening title crawl upon its 1981 re-release, one year after "Episode V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" was released with its full title. The new opening crawl also capitalized the word 'Rebel' in 'rebel spies', which was not capitalized in the original 1977 opening crawl. This altered the formatting of the text to accommodate the two additional lines, and slightly changed the timing so the crawl no longer appears at the same music cue. (This last change had been present on EMPIRE's initial release, and would remain on all four subsequent films as well.) The "Episode IV: A NEW HOPE" subtitle would appear in all future releases of the film with the exception of the 2006 DVD release of the unaltered film.
Correct.
The lines "Episode IV: A NEW HOPE" were added to the opening title crawl upon its 1981 re-release, one year after "Episode V: THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK" was released with its full title. The new opening crawl also capitalized the word 'Rebel' in 'rebel spies', which was not capitalized in the original 1977 opening crawl. This altered the formatting of the text to accommodate the two additional lines, and slightly changed the timing so the crawl no longer appears at the same music cue. (This last change had been present on EMPIRE's initial release, and would remain on all four subsequent films as well.) The "Episode IV: A NEW HOPE" subtitle would appear in all future releases of the film with the exception of the 2006 DVD release of the unaltered film.
Which is the only explanation that would make sense. That is, if it weren't for the fact that Luke specifically asks about her real mother. Or maybe Lucas changed the dialogue for that scene as well and I'm remembering it the "wrong" way...
The consensus on this is that it's just a glaring (thought minor) plot-hole that Lucas didn't care enough about to fix.
Originally, the assumption was that Luke/Leia's mother (unnamed at the time) survived the birth and spent time with Leia before she died. Many assumed that the unnamed mother actually married Bail Organa (Leia's adoptive father).
Various retcons have been suggested. It's canonically unclear if Leia was aware that she was adopted before EPIV, and if she did know, there's some indication that she (and Luke as well) never found out who her biological mother was. There are various expanded universe materials that imply conflicting things in regards to this.
It is also unclear when Bail Organa's wife (Leia's adopted mother), Breha Organa died. Expanded universe material contradicts itself in this regard. In some cases it is implied that Leia's adoptive mother died when Leia was very young. In other (more recent) material it is stated that she died in the destruction of Alderaan.
Actually it was only retconned as Episode 4 for the re-release around the time Empire Strikes Back came out. Those of us who saw the original theatrical release just saw "Star Wars" and it wasn't clear whether "A New Hope" was part of the title or not.
"Look! I have ONE job on this lousy ship! It's STUPID, but I'm gonna do it, OK?"
Be who you are...and be it in style!
I think he's referring to the original theatrical release where the episode number and title were not present. It was presented as "Star Wars". If I am not mistaken, the episode number and title, A New Hope, we added on subsequent at-home releases.
The very first cut did NOT have Episode IV in the crawl, because Fox made Lucas take it out. In every subsequent printing, he inserted it back in without telling them.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Not in the original release in theaters it wasn't. And Han shot first! What are you still doing on my lawn?
The very first cut did NOT have Episode IV in the crawl, because Fox made Lucas take it out. In every subsequent printing, he inserted it back in without telling them.
Kids these days! I was there, I was 11, it was just "Star Wars" and supposed to be a one-off, and only when we sat down and saw the crawl for Empire did we find out we're in the middle of a nine-part trilogy of trilogies, subsequently pared back to a hexology.
Exactly this. None of the movies are terrible in my opinion. But the difference between Empire and the others is that Irvin Kershner and Harrison Ford ignored George's poor writing and substituted their own. Instead of "I love you," "I love you too," (and this can even be seen in the Empire Strikes Back novel and comic book I have) it became the iconic "I love you" "I know."
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
So which film are you apologizing for? Please, indulge me.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
And all three of those films where excelent. hobbit was a bit slow to start, but picked a nice pace up as it went on.
Not sure your point here?
Excuse the Unicode crap in my posts. That's an apostrophe, and slashdot is busted.
The prequels just don't stand up. Elements are not bad, in particular Ewan McGregor's casting as Obiwan and the return of Ian McDiarmid as Palpatine. I won't go into how awful Jar Jar is, or how bad an actor Hayden Christensen is. Suffice it to say that, pull all the flash, and these are inferior works made by a guy who had made what was originally a whiz-bang set of adventure films with characters that you could care about, and turned into a ponderous bad-dialogue laden set of films where you really couldn't give a shit by the end if Padme died or whether Anakin became Darth Vader or not.
Very concise and accurate run-down of what was right/wrong with the prequels.
I have seen the TV show and while I can stomach a few of the episodes, they are not even close to the quality of the prequels. The Cartoon Network version was actually better than the CGI version, IMO.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
And it's sad that a race was the most entertaining part of a freakin' Star Wars film.
/* No Comment */
Oh, and BTW, the last time I watched a pirated copy of a film was 1999 when Episode 1 came out.
I pay full price for films I really want to see at a theatre.
We play the game with the bravery of being out of range
I liked the last Batman. My main complaint was that I wish it could have been longer since a lot of it felt rushed.
Star Trek... I go back and forth between liking it and resenting the hell out of it. I That said, I am excited enough that the new Star Trek may be my first IMAX 3d movie
And, nobody told you the difference between hyperbolic, headline-grabbing crucifixion and thoughtful criticism. Most of these sci-fi movies that induce Slashdot nerd rage seems to somehow build up a big fan base, revenue, and many-many repeat viewings. Yet, the critically acclaimed sci-fi flicks get nothing more than quiet whimpering over how poor the quality is of your pirated copy.
Absolutely right. No matter how much Slashdot whines about the prequels, they made over $300 million each in the theater. And Empire, which everyone says is the best (cause it's dark, right), made the least of all.
What you as a techo-geek like, and what the more average and female population like, are two different things. (My wife loves the romance between Anakin and Padme. It's just like her lame novels.)
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
Or will it be Yoda?
But in every government incompetent people get elected because they are popular and then screw everything up. It's George's whole point.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
The sandpeople sniping pod racers was the best part of the whole movie.
No it wasn't; they missed too often.
"Little does he know, but there is no 'I' in 'Idiot'!"
To add a thought. I think it's an artiest mindset. They are having such a good time making the film that they go to far, add to much.... Didn't you do that to art projects? I did.
They come in the dark, only in the darkest.
I have a bad feeling about this....
Star Wars is the MOST nuanced film series of all time. I have seen them dozens of times, maybe 50. And I am always catching new things based on small pieces of things I read online, etc. I can't think of any other movie series where that is possible. George drops you into a living, breathing world that has everything already going on.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
My girls (who are teens now but were kids when the prequels came out) actually prefer 1-3. They think #4 (Star Wars itself) is incredibly boring and way too long to get started. They like #5 and while they like the Ewoks in #6 (because they're cute), they think the final battle is completely ridiculous.
They have valid points. The original trilogy is put up on a pedestal by our generation. The prequels are incredibly similar, it is us who have changed.
Peter predicted that you would "deliberately forget" creation 2000 years ago...
i just watched them again a few weeks ago. my wife hadnt seen them. so she saw them fr the first time.
I took a star wars noob, nearly 40 years after they were made, and she was enthralled. i'd say they hold up pretty damn well.
and then we watched the prequels last weekend.
she was bored, and kepts asking me why this and why that.
same star wars noob, and she nailed it on the head why the prequels suck, without giong into our conversation. granted, she does have a masters in the arts, and has studied storytelling.
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
I have some hope that a return of the original main characters and under solid new direction with writers not hampered by Lucas's problems and desire to transform Star Wars from Hidden Fortress In Space to some sort of political statement, this new trilogy can at least recapture some of the old spirit.
I believe that said transformation actually began before ESB hit the screens, and 2 years after ANH came out. I distinctly recall that the third time ANH made the rounds, the scene with Han and Greedo was cut short. Immediately after Han says "Yes, I bet you have," the scene cut away to the bickering among the brass scene on the Death Star. So not only did Han not shoot first in that version, he didn't shoot at all.
For years, I thought that perhaps that was just a damaged spot on that particular copy of the film that my theater had received. But when the "Greedo shot first" incident came about, that put that other incident in a whole new light.
This space unintentionally left blank.
Just because the plot isn't nuanced doesn't mean the details can't be sophisticated.
Not in the original version.
-Dave
Having not seen all of the JJ Abrams Star Trek reboot (I know, I really should see it), I choose to envision Spock Prime as what happened once Spock obtained the Matrix of Leadership. "Federation... It is only logical to roll out!"
My sci-fi novel, Ghost Thief, is now available from Amazon.com.
Obi-Wan Kenobi wasn't a 'two fisted' 'physical' character. He was a mentor. Calm and collected, even in the face of death.
Whaddya mean, Han shot "first"? Han was the *only* one who shot.
And Disney did well with Tron Legacy. I enjoyed the story, effects, and the music. Yeah, the intro was weak, but software should be free!!!!!
I do believe that Daft Punk made the movie, best soundtrack in some time in my opinion. Really turned me on to Daft Punk actually.
BlameBillCosby.com
It was, well, parts of the plot, the script, and that weasely little fellow who wore black leather was swinging in the trees with the monkeys.
Errr, yer. Basically anything that George Lucas came up with. I have a feeling that Speilberg was somewhat less than happy with the outcome with Lucas and there will be absolutely no other Indiana Jones films. Ever.
Just imagine, blowing up a forest, but with Lens Flares.
FTFY...
I've nicknamed the new Die Hard movie "DIE HARD OF OLD AGE" because of this.
Unlike porn, which yada yada rimshot hey-ooh!
Same with Mark Hamil playing Luke Skywalker again.
You mean like in Return of the Jedi, where he looked like he had aged 20 years in the year that was supposed to have passed after Empire Strikes Back?
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
I HATED the JJ Abrams reboot of Star Trek. Now he's teaming up with Disney to do the next Star Wars trilogy? I'll pass. In fact, I'll wait until its available on Amazon Prime AND at a low price...and that probably wont happen soon since Disney has a deal with Netflix. As for Harrison Ford, I respect him but The Crystal Skull was an abomination in an otherwise excellent Indiana Jones franchise. Can't he see that this new Star Wars trilogy will sink as low, if not lower?
And it's sad that a race was the most entertaining part of a freakin' Star Wars film.
The downfall was not having them race down the L.A. River. Everyone knows that you are supposed to race down the L.A. River. It doesn't matter where or when your movie is set.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
DIE HARD OF HEARING
I think Jar-Jar could have been the brightest of his race and still fulfilled that role. Palpatine fooled all of the Jedi.
http://soylentnews.org/~tibman
WHAT?!?!
Why would a story that happened a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away use Roman numerals?
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Most of use will get the first available HD rip and watch it in the comfort of our homes for the sake of curiosity, without the guilt associated with giving such a horrible franchise money.
Don't know about most of the rest of us, but I have NEVER ripped a movie in my life. If I don't want to give a horrible franchise money, then I don't want to give them the idea that I might be interested in it if it was free, either.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
except the complete canocial LOTR trillogy was written for *years* before the first frame was shot (or drawn in the case of the 1977 Hobbit)
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
They'll probably have a UFO and some aliens in it.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
Han Solo, played by Ford, time traveling into the past to team up with his younger self, played by Nathan Fillion, to hunt down the entire prequel cast, making an alternate timeline where none of the prequels actually occured.
heh.. no, I think actually most of us won't be
You expect far too much.
Actually Lucas had the vision of the 9 episode story arc from the beginning. 20th Century Fox was giving Lucas the time of day on Star Wars because American Graffiti had made a shit-ton of money for Universal Pictures, after Fox had passed on the project. They weren't going to chance making the same mistake twice. At the same time though, you have to remember to the world they inhabited in 1975 when this pitch was taking place. With the notable exception of Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey (and maybe Planet of the Apes), most sci-fi films up to that time had been cheesy, poorly made affairs that mostly served as money pits for the studios. Fox was optimistic to break even on their $11M investment on the strength of Lucas' involvement in the project, but envisioned nothing of the cultural phenomenon they were unleashing. For his part, Lucas was keen to avoid overplaying his hand, knowing he'd be lucky to get funded for a single movie, let alone nine. Episode IV was chosen as it was the most self-contained, and most readily film-able, given the state of visual effects technology at that time. As originally filmed, what we today refer to as Episode IV was meant to stand alone. By the time it had earned $460M in gross receipts, Fox of course had a change of heart; thus the "Episode IV" was tacked on.
There's no "California is the best at everything" attitude implied here. Read up on the coast redwoods and you'll see that they're among the largest trees in the world. I feel the same way about the Metropolitan museum in NYC after having visited that. I would probably have similar feelings about a number of other places on Earth if I could visit them. I'd love to see the Himalayas too; but it's out of my price range.
BTW, I'm happy to hear that they're growing redwoods in New Zealand. Unfortunately they've only been at it for 100 years. In 1000 years they could have the best redwood forest.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Take out the words "parts of" and I agree totally.
7 minutes in? Bet he shoots first.
In all greek tragedies, you always knew the ending and the major events. the form is so settled that everybody knows the structure. This is true for shakespearian tragedies as well. The enjoyable part is how you get there.
And eps 1-3 should have been a good tragedy.
I think you wanted the Star Whores trilogy.
Learn to love Alaska
Jar jar was quite skillfully manipulated by Palpatine, but I would not think the emperor-to-be could have necessarily as easily manipulated just anyone. Padme, for instance, having a much stronger will and being considerably wiser than Jar Jar had ever demonstrated himself to be, would probably not have been so hasty to have made that motion, knowing that such a turn of events would move the republic sharply away from a democracy, and heading firmly towards dictatorship, the very concept of which Padme herself expressed profound disapproval to Anakin while they were on Naboo. Palpatine almost certainly recognized this conviction in Padme's personality, which is why he conspired to try to get her off of Coruscant, so that the much more easily manipulatable Gungan would be compelled to be the Naboo representative in her stead.
Still... at no point was the character of Jar Jar ever really *supposed* to be likeable. Comic relief, perhaps... but never overly likeable.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
I went to see all three prequels movies, expecting to see just why in IV-V-VI they spoke of Darth Vader like he had committed such atrocities, the Holocaust was a mere footnote(no, I didn't expect the killcount from Alderaan to have outnumbered his acts in even War of the Clones, let alone Revenge of the Sith). I wanted to understand why "his kids" thought he was such a monster, before they even know they're his kids.
I was most disappointed when he isn't even thrown out of the Jedi order before last half hour or so of ROTS, I wanted to understand all that rage.
Disney did a Terrible job with TRON Legacy. Disney owned the rights to TRON 2.0, a vastly superior story about viruses, cyber espionage, and the logical consequences of the digitizing technology, but decided to trash it in favor of a stark story about emergent AI on a sparcstation 4.
To be fair, they had to make the sandpeople less accurate than imperial stormtroopers to keep consistent with canon.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
The thing is the prequels didn't necessarily have to be a "fill in the blanks" exercise. C3PO and R2Deus Ex didn't have to be in there, neither did Yoda, Jaba, Boba Fett, Owen, Beru, Death Star, Tantiv 4 or all the other "remember me from the good movies" elements.
The prequels should have been more focused on the failure of the Republic, Clone Wars action, the hubris of Obi-wan trying to train Anakin, with the Padme side love story.
For some reason I keep thinking the prequels should have been more like the HBO series "Rome." All the politics and backstabbing that leads a great republic into a great empire. The prequels had a few interesting scenes to that end, like the chancellor being controlled by bureaucrats, and "This is how liberty dies."
Of course, the movie you make in your mind is always better than the actual one.
D6 63 0D 70 89 81 BB 8E 7B 7C 5F 5D 54 EA AB 73
It's clear that Han will be the main negotiator in the pension dispute with the Stormtroopers union. Thousands of aging clones, all with the same left kidney failure at the age of 63.
I think that you're underestimating his acting skills a bit. Some of the original Star Wars scripts would be a slight bit dull if not for Ford's unique "alterations"
For example, changing "I love you too" to I know in Empire. Acting with personality, and knowing when to override the script, is a much bigger skill than being an "Action Hero"
CGI? Its called makeup
If you look at the tone of Jedi, especially the Ewoks, it is easy to see that Lucas was starting to get no critical feedback of his ideas. Kurtz filled this role. Without him, the franchise falls apart and we wind up with the crap that was the prequels. Lucas is a terrible director on his own. Just awful.
Depends on what you mean by "franchise falls apart". IIRC, from the "making of" Ewoks replaced wookies as they would be better loved by kids and at selling merchandise. This was stated mater of fact by Lucas. Judging by the amount of stuff I saw friend's kids with, I can't really argue with that. True, it might have made a movie that you and I wouldn't like as much, but it probably did make it more appealing to the younger crowd and sell more stuff. SImilarly, I see lots of kids with Anakin Skywalker and Princess Amidala stuff. If you take the Star Wars movies as children's movies for pre-teens, then they probably are very well done.
It wasn't really nine parts... even if Lucas said it was. It was supposed to be a just a movie like the old serials that Lucas used to watch. A dry, but very fascinating book anyway, is The Secret History of Star Wars It used to be free, but it looks like they are selling it now. Supposedly, the first 100 pages are free. It's amazing how much research this guy did. It will change your way of thinking about how Star Wars developed.
I enjoyed the last Batman too, but I do have a number of complaints about it. Some of them were so blatantly obvious that hard to tell if being rushed was the worst offender. I believe cracked.com covers my feelings best. Just have a spare change of underwear handy because this article is really funny.
Eh... not exactly. Read The Secret History of Star Wars. (It used to be free, but they are charging money for it now. You can probably find a pdf somewhere.) George didn't know what the hell he was doing. It certainly wasn't 9 movies. Sure, he said he was making 9 movies after some point in time, but the facts the author dug up is absolutely amazing. Here's some gems and the page numbers (in the copy of the book I have):
1) Star Wars was the 1st "episode", not the fourth. The Episode IV was decided during the scripting of Empire Strikes Back. Page 164
2) Anakin and Darth Vader were two separate characters up through the first draft of Empire Strikes Back. Page 165
3) The prequel trilogy was formed due to the Anakin / Vader merging. Page 169
4) Leia was never to be Luke's sister. Page 193.
5) Darth Vader was not to be redeemed at the end of Revenge of the Jedi. Page 193.
It's bad, but it's not in the same league as bawdy-heided bastards with pony tails.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
8 bit RGB?
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Are you sure? I remember seeing the original - it was the start of about a 20-year run of not bothering to go to the movies at all - and I don't recall any mention of "Episode IV", or "4", or whatever then. Just "long long ago" and "far far away".
Anyway ... that's still the only one of the Star Wars franchise that I've seen in it's entirety. I've seen bits of the others - probably - but only when I've not had the choice of what to tune the Recreation Room TV into.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
The pod racers are technically brain-dead. Even in the magical pseudo-science universe of Star Wars, the physical configuration is below moronic. It's emblematic of the massive stupidities that permeate episode I and make it painful to watch.
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I would have been delighted to see Lando die. His causing Han's suffering far outweighs any good he did later. Buckling under pressure is not the mark of a hero.
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Episode IV was a breakthrough in SF films that set a standard for everything that followed. The immense new vision far overwhelms the importance of the more mature themes and defeatist attitude of Episode V.
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With Kristen Johnston and French Stewart? I'm there, man.
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Is there any information on how long after episode VI the new movie is supposed to happen?
They may all be just the right age for their characters.
Thank you for your thoughtful answer which is not adressing at all the sentence I was responding to: "which everyone should visit at least once"
Write boring code, not shiny code!
Ahhh... OK, in real life that would be conveyed with a rhetorical enthusiasm and not taken so literally. It's not a literal call to some sort of Mendocino Mecca. Think, "you've gotta have the steak with mushrooms at that new restaurant!". Obviously you don't, since not everybody likes mushrooms or eats meat.
If that doesn't explain it, just remember that this standard disclaimer applies to all my posts.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
ok, thx. I guess I was having a bad day.
Write boring code, not shiny code!
I think you can safely add Ridley Scott / Prometheus to your list...
I've read where Lucas was genuinely taken aback by the backlash to Jar Jar. I wonder if for once he listened to fans in converting the character from comic relief to useful idiot. (Okay, okay, Coruscant is the other time he listened to the fans.)
Disney's in it for the money, and I think they know the money is in the older fan base -- for now. How long until we have Disney's Gungan Adventures on Disney XD, indoctrinating a whole new generation like Lucasfilm tried to do with the Clone Wars?
--Not seeing a downside... Indiana Jones does NOT ride "bitch" position on the motorcycle. They really messed that one up.
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== WolfriderV6 == I'm willing to admit that *I just might* be wrong... Are you??
I recently rewatched all six films from prequels through to original trilogy. I'll freely admit that Episode IV is pretty cheesy,
"I'm Luke Skywalker and I am here to rescue you.", is one of the greatest lines ever. It had the perfect blend of campiness and seriousness to make it a truely great film. Cheesy is when R2D2 is given a medal by whats-her-face (Natalie Portman) in episode 1.
"Someone needs to talk to the tree of liberty about its ghoulish drinking problem." by ohnocitizen
I actually liked Star Trek even if they did the time travel thing. My beef is they did the time travel thing so poorly. The one huge stupid plot hole is:
So your world gets destroyed by a black hole, and you get thrown back in time by 3 years. Do you:
A) Go on a murderous rampage to commit genicide against the people who you blame for not saving your people.
OR
B) Actually just fly over and warn everyone and save your people etc...
I guess A) makes for a better more exciting movie. However if I was him, I think I would have just went ahead and save my people. That way I am a hero, and I don't die etc...
I watched the theatrical release as a kid, i can clearly remember thinking "episode IV? I've mssed the first 3!" Being (until my mid-30s) slightly obsessional about seeing movies and reading books in the order they were released....