Star Wars coming to Blu-ray! (part2)

Just finished watching Ep. I, II and III.

For me the worst of the entire saga remains Attack of the Clones. The "romance" between Anakin and Padmé is so awful it must have been written by a 9 year old with poor understanding of human relationships and behaviour.
All the actors' performances are terrible (mention spéciale to Christensen), maybe except from the guy who plays Jango Fett.

At least in Phantom Menace Liam Neeson was great. This episode wasn't as bad as I remembered it; I tried to excise JarJar's antics from the movie and it worked much better.

The story of Revenge is better, and the art direction as well, but everything goes by the motions to the unsurprising conclusion. Some actors are still freewheeling (Ian McDiarmid/Palpatine) but everyone's a bit better.


Overall, it was quite a disappointing experience: bad directing, incredibly bad dialogue, a lot of awful choices... for a very few and sparse moments of brillance.

 

I came across a used copy of this set yesterday and bit the bullet and picked it up - at least Lucas won't see another penny from me.

I watched Phantom Menace and agree with Plan9's comments above; Liam Neeson was the best thing about the movie and the series may have been better if he'd played Obi-Wan. I really did not like Ewan McGregor in this film and can't remember if he improves in the following ones. The character of Anakin would have been better played by a slightly older actor with some dramatic talent. His mother was great, though!

Overall, not as bad as I remember. I'll move on to the next one next week.

 

I watched I and II last week and - I'm loath to admit this - having watched each at least a half dozen times over the years I finally hit on (for me) a plausible approach to watching the prequel films. If you take them on the level of the old 30s/40s serials so beloved by Lucas, with their dodgy plots and stilted acting you might just be in the right headspace to enjoy them. The prequels have the above elements, but with superior special effects and sound design.

 

Sounds about right; that's probably EXACTLY why he directs the way he does.

 

It is a little weird (as pointed out by The Secret History of Star Wars) to consider that Anakin Skywalker appears to be maybe 21-22 at the end of Revenge of the Sith, where he loses his arm(s) and legs and soon afterwards gets turned into Darth Vader. And then about 20 years later, he eventually gets reunited with his son in Jedi... but when Luke removes Vader's helmet, what we see is a 70+ year old man! The real Anakin Skywalker should only be about 40 (even considering the burns and scars).

This lends credence to Michael Kaminski's theory that Lucas had never intended for Darth Vader to be Luke's father when the screenplay for Episode 4 was first written. I think ultimately, it makes sense, but the casting of this actor in Jedi is a troubling issue.

I still want to see the deleted scenes of Anakin slaughtering all the people who kidnapped his mother, and also the scene where he murders all the little kids.

 

Fixed that!

Age wasn't the issue with E1's Anakin - it was Jake Lloyd's lack of talent. They could've gotten a much better actor in the same age group - Jake was just overmatched in the role...

 

I always had the impression that the Empire had been in place for quite a while - Ben's comments in Star Wars being the prime example. Apparently, 20 years is more than enough for both Obi-Wan and Anakin to age dramatically and for almost the entire population - even in out-of-the-way places like Tatooine, to act like the Empire had been in place for generations.

 

Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru look more than 20 years older, too!

 

It must be all of that sun on Tatooine. It can't be good for the skin.

 

Yeah, the ages don't work out particularly well, though I don't think Obi-wan's off by a ton. He should probably be mid-50s in "Star Wars" and Guinness was 62 during the shoot, so he's not off by that much.

For comparison, Joel Edgerton - E2's Lars - was 27 at the time of the shoot, so he should be roughly 47 in "Star Wars". Phil Brown was 60 and looked like he was about 100.

E2's Beru was only 19, while Shelagh Fraser was 56 during the shoot of "Star Wars". Another bad connection!

Sebastian Shaw was 77 when they made "Jedi" - not too close to the 40-something Anakin, huh?

 

And for those who can't get enough Star Wars talk, here's a link to the new VFX Show podcast in which I talk a bit about the video transfer:

http://www.fxguide.com/podcasts/#thevfxshow

 

Always bugged me too.

 

Regarding the age discrepancies, it's nothing another round of CGI cannot fix.

 

Thanks for sharing your informative insights in the podcast, Marc! Very much enjoyed it!

It was pleasing to hear you draw a moment’s recognition to the cinematographers on the Original Trilogy. Peter Susc-hit-zky's (forum won't let me spell out his name fully!) use of colour and shadow in the Cloud City carbon freeze scenes of EMPIRE, in particular, is stunning.

I wholeheartedly agree regarding the VFX. Some of the best shots were simple yet emotionally effective ones. The twin sunset with the swelling John Williams score is an indelible moment in the saga.

The glimpse you provided into the Lowry restoration process, and its grain management algorithm, was also particularly interesting.

Thanks again!

 

Jedi on bluray makes for a trippy viewing experience. The green screen speeder bike stuff has not aged well, and there's a weird look to Luke's close-ups right after he chops off Vader's hand. (spoiler!)

Might have always looked like that, but I never noticed before.

 

Looking at all the "improvements" made in the movies, I wonder if the technology exists to redo or improve the Speeder Bike green screen work. The stop animation looks fine, but the green screen stuff looks awful.

Could that be improved?

Going through some of the special features, I had to laugh when a green screen shot of C3PO and Luke in a Landspeeder was cut from "Hope" because it didn't look good enough.

 

I saw this at my local Target last night. Didn't know it was coming out.

http://www.amazon.com/Star-Trilogy-Episodes-IV-VI-Blu-ray/dp/B00E9PMMX0/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1381928621&sr=1-2&keywords=star wars

Is it just a repackaging of the 2011 blu-rays? The sales tag had the word "original" on it. I figured if it was the theatrical versions, it would be a bigger deal. Which makes me figure its just a repackaging.

 

It's just a re-packaging that comes with DVD this time.

 

I got this set I think a few months after it came out. Really enjoyed it. By far, my favorite is probably Empire Strikes Back. I thought they could have gotten a better actor for the part of Anakin Skywalker for the prequels. I also thought they should have left the original Anakin Skywalker when Luke sees their spirits at the end of Return of the Jedi. I had the original films on VHS from the 1990s (not sure if that one was a remaster also) so I guess I'm used to that version of Anakin Skywalker at the end of Return of the Jedi.


I thought it would have been cool if they included the deleted scenes in the actual movie rather than in the extras.

 

One of my biggest gripes with the prequels is at the end of Revenge of the Sith, we learn that Darth Vader had fathered twins and one went to live with his relatives on Tatooine and one went to live on Alderaan. Now if somebody is watching for the first time, all the reveals from the original series spoiled.

Chad

 

If they're watching Star Wars for the first time and they're starting with the prequels, they deserve all the spoilers they get. They don't deserve Star Wars in the first place.

 

"Yippee!"

 

Cruel, but true.

I still wanna know why Vader was five feet from her daughter in the first movie and never picked up on that. And was ignorant about Luke until about the middle of the second film. It's as if the story was being made up as they went along...

 

Isn't that pretty much what happened?

 

The force was not strong in that one.

Chad