> At least Boba Fett got a dimension this time around. Han Solo wasn't terribly well developed, > either, if you stop and think about it. He's a swashbuckler with heart of gold; that's about it. > Luke and Darth Vader were probably the only characters fleshed out beyond a "Write a short > paragraph about the character" point, which makes sense since they were the focal characters.
I disagree. In the un-mucked-with originals, the first thing we see Han do is commit murder. Granted that he's got a blaster pointed at his face and is likely to be killed by Jabba if he goes quietly, so it's sort of, kind of self-defense, but it's still murder. He changes significantly over the course of the movies.
> Umm... Lucas basically invented CGI to pull off the original trilogy. By the standards of the time, > the original trilogy had an overwhelming amount of special effects, too.
I have to concede most of your points, I think, including the point about comparisons and nostalgia.
I can see your points. The core of the story is an interesting one: as you said, the slow descent into evil (via initially non-evil motives). It's a story I myself have thought about telling, though as horror fantasy rather than science fantasy. It's the details of execution that bug the hell out of me, so much so that I find it hard to get past them to appreciate the central story. Some people relate to Tolkien and LoTR the way I relate to the prequels. I love LoTR and see mostly flaws and squandered potential in PM, AotC, and RotS.
I'm not saying that the new stuff makes the old stuff bad, I'm saying that if something new in the franchise turns out mediocre (or flops based on low expectations), then it lessens the chances that someone down the road will have the chance to do something interesting with the franchise.
I'll put it this way about the prequels: If they had been mindless action flicks, I might not have have been disappointed. As another poster pointed out, the action scenes were generally good and entertaining.
As an epic, however, the movies fall flat. The characters (with a few exceptions) aren't really that interesting. The movies never establish sympathy with the main character. If the whole series had been written around ObiWan (with Ewan MacGregor in the role) it might have been entirely different, but as it stands, little boy Anakin was cardboard and teenage Anakin was an angry, weepy bore. Of course, this is all just my opinion.
When I say "needs a rest", I mean that further bad or mediocre iterations of the franchise are likely to damage the whole and make it less likely that a good iteration will be produced.
That's what drives me nuts. Homeboy had already secured his place in American culture and the history of filmmaking. Then he ran roughshod over his old stuff in the interests of money, a new vision, and the like. Once upon a time, he was a decent filmmaker. Now he's just a pseudo-spiritual windbag. If I hear about the mythical or historical underpinnings of Star Wars one more time, I'm going to gag. (The obvious exception to this being later editions of The Hero With a Thousand Faces)
Ah. I see the confusion. The story containing the butt-seal is in the book entitled "Green Hills of Earth" but not in the story which gives the book its name. We're both right.
You remember correctly. I can't recall the name of the story just now, but I've read it in the last month or so. I think it was in "Green Hills of Earth"
Just try not to get killed in the process . . . He gets really grouchy whenever the Worm takes over. He's already killed Duncan Idaho about a hundred times.
I think you may be right. The accusations are nonsense.
I've added numbers and letters to more specifically enumerate the nonsense.
1) They violate the 1st Amendment by a) opening mail, b) caging demonstrators and c) banning books like "America Deceived" from Amazon. 2) They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina. 3) They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps. 4) They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus. 5) They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing. 6) They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov't.
Confiscation of guns (2) would fall to the BATF.
Habeas corpus (4) issues would arise from the (mis)behavior of the FBI, CIA, DIA, or military law enforcement (MPs). Also torture (5). Also maybe crowd/riot control (1b).
Opening mail (1a) would be an FBI thing, or a CIA thing at times when they've decided they want to spy on us, too. Also done at times by the DoD when dealing with mail coming back from combat zones or staging areas to combat zones.
Wars (6), illegal are not, are started by the Executive Branch as a whole, and supported (in whatever fashion) by the Legislative Branch as a whole.
I'm not aware of a government agency whose job it is to take books off store shelves (1c).
This leaves accusation 3, wiretapping, which would actually be part of what the NSA does.
The NSA does SIGINT and ELINT - Signals and Electronic Intelligence - and probably a metric grepload of data analysis. All of the other things would be somebody else's job, an abuse of somebody else's job, or nobody's job.
Anyone's ability to do his job without (a warrant|probable cause) and with impunity is a legislative or judical issue.
Dying is nearly impossible in Star Wars Saga Edition. It might just be an artifact of playing Star Wars, but essentially all PCs are given 6 or so 'extra lives' per level. If they die, they just mark off an extra life, and
stay at 0 hp. You also can't die unless you take more than your damage threshold in damage in a single hit.
So they're turned Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game into Star Wars: The Videogame?
Why not just call it Star Wars: The Search for More Money?
Slashdot Mirror
> At least Boba Fett got a dimension this time around. Han Solo wasn't terribly well developed,
> either, if you stop and think about it. He's a swashbuckler with heart of gold; that's about it.
> Luke and Darth Vader were probably the only characters fleshed out beyond a "Write a short
> paragraph about the character" point, which makes sense since they were the focal characters.
I disagree. In the un-mucked-with originals, the first thing we see Han do is commit murder. Granted that he's got a blaster pointed at his face and is likely to be killed by Jabba if he goes quietly, so it's sort of, kind of self-defense, but it's still murder. He changes significantly over the course of the movies.
> Umm... Lucas basically invented CGI to pull off the original trilogy. By the standards of the time, > the original trilogy had an overwhelming amount of special effects, too.
I have to concede most of your points, I think, including the point about comparisons and nostalgia.
No problem.
I can see your points. The core of the story is an interesting one: as you said, the slow descent into evil (via initially non-evil motives). It's a story I myself have thought about telling, though as horror fantasy rather than science fantasy. It's the details of execution that bug the hell out of me, so much so that I find it hard to get past them to appreciate the central story. Some people relate to Tolkien and LoTR the way I relate to the prequels. I love LoTR and see mostly flaws and squandered potential in PM, AotC, and RotS.
I'm not saying that the new stuff makes the old stuff bad, I'm saying that if something new in the franchise turns out mediocre (or flops based on low expectations), then it lessens the chances that someone down the road will have the chance to do something interesting with the franchise.
I'll put it this way about the prequels: If they had been mindless action flicks, I might not have have been disappointed. As another poster pointed out, the action scenes were generally good and entertaining.
As an epic, however, the movies fall flat. The characters (with a few exceptions) aren't really that interesting. The movies never establish sympathy with the main character. If the whole series had been written around ObiWan (with Ewan MacGregor in the role) it might have been entirely different, but as it stands, little boy Anakin was cardboard and teenage Anakin was an angry, weepy bore. Of course, this is all just my opinion.
When I say "needs a rest", I mean that further bad or mediocre iterations of the franchise are likely to damage the whole and make it less likely that a good iteration will be produced.
Enormous Plot Holes? (The Jedi are mysterious, subtle, mystical monks in 4, 5, 6, and 1 and target practice in 2 and 3.)
Inverse Ninja Effect? (Two Sith vs hundreds of Jedi.)
One and Two Dimensional Characters?
Insipid Romance?
Huge CGI sets which swallow the cast?
> maybe the series will climax with a series finale where an army of ewoks break the fourth
> wall, leaping through television sets at Skywalker Ranch
If only. It would be just enough like the end of Blazing Saddles to be really, really funny and circularly referential.
That's what drives me nuts. Homeboy had already secured his place in American culture and the history of filmmaking. Then he ran roughshod over his old stuff in the interests of money, a new vision, and the like. Once upon a time, he was a decent filmmaker. Now he's just a pseudo-spiritual windbag. If I hear about the mythical or historical underpinnings of Star Wars one more time, I'm going to gag. (The obvious exception to this being later editions of The Hero With a Thousand Faces)
I really wish this weren't happening. Like Star Trek after Nemesis, the franchise needs to be given a rest on the big and small screens.
After I, II, and III, I'm not at all excited by the prospects of Space Balls: The TV Show
Does anyone know the name or number of the bill in question?
The nearest match I can find on thomas.gov: http://www.thomas.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d110:s.01178: seems to date back to February, whereas the News.com story implies that the Bill was introduced on Oct 16.
Should be enough for anyone
s/electro magnetosphere/tachyon field/
s/monster sized gold plated cables/plasma conduits/
s/thick carbon fiber shielding/gravimetric containment/
There. Now the technobabble makes sense.
Ah. I see the confusion. The story containing the butt-seal is in the book entitled "Green Hills of Earth" but not in the story which gives the book its name. We're both right.
You remember correctly. I can't recall the name of the story just now, but I've read it in the last month or so. I think it was in "Green Hills of Earth"
Welcome to Slashdot.
Several hundred times a second.
But did anyone else look at the images and see the Lidless Eye? Or am I alone here?
Yes, I was. Every single time?
Just try not to get killed in the process . . . He gets really grouchy whenever the Worm takes over. He's already killed Duncan Idaho about a hundred times.
Indeed. "Slightly less prohibitively expensive" still simplifies down to "prohibitively expensive"
Bingo!
Should we be expecting Beamquakes any time soon?
I think you may be right. The accusations are nonsense.
I've added numbers and letters to more specifically enumerate the nonsense.
1) They violate the 1st Amendment by a) opening mail, b) caging demonstrators and c) banning books like "America Deceived" from Amazon.
2) They violate the 2nd Amendment by confiscating guns during Katrina.
3) They violate the 4th Amendment by conducting warrant-less wiretaps.
4) They violate the 5th and 6th Amendment by suspending habeas corpus.
5) They violate the 8th Amendment by torturing.
6) They violate the entire Constitution by starting 2 illegal wars based on lies and on behalf of a foriegn gov't.
Confiscation of guns (2) would fall to the BATF.
Habeas corpus (4) issues would arise from the (mis)behavior of the FBI, CIA, DIA, or military law enforcement (MPs). Also torture (5). Also maybe crowd/riot control (1b).
Opening mail (1a) would be an FBI thing, or a CIA thing at times when they've decided they want to spy on us, too. Also done at times by the DoD when dealing with mail coming back from combat zones or staging areas to combat zones.
Wars (6), illegal are not, are started by the Executive Branch as a whole, and supported (in whatever fashion) by the
Legislative Branch as a whole.
I'm not aware of a government agency whose job it is to take books off store shelves (1c).
This leaves accusation 3, wiretapping, which would actually be part of what the NSA does.
The NSA does SIGINT and ELINT - Signals and Electronic Intelligence - and probably a metric grepload of data analysis. All of the other things would be somebody else's job, an abuse of somebody else's job, or nobody's job.
Anyone's ability to do his job without (a warrant|probable cause) and with impunity is a legislative or judical issue.
So does this deprecate the "The Day After Tomorrow"?
Guaranteed Result Uniform Election System
Why not just call it Star Wars: The Search for More Money?