Starwars, but IN 3D!

Well, I for one am excited about this.

Say what you will about George Lucas, but I trust him enough to not screw this up. He's careful enough with these movies that I think he'll try to make the 3D conversion not look like shit. I mean, he did go back to the OT to make the special effects look smoother and more refined (though, of course, YMwill definitelyV over how much of it was really needed in the first place).

And I highly doubt that the prequel movies will bomb in theaters and that will be the end of Star Wars. Please. It's Star Wars in theaters again, and there are enough hardcore geeks out there that will show up in droves for the prequels. And of course tons of people will show up to see the original trilogy in theaters again, even if it's the special edition version and not the original version.

Is this another way for Lucas to milk even more cash from the franchise. Probably. But I'm still excited about it either way.

edited 3rd Oct '10 12:00:59 AM by RabidRainbow

Luke and Vader's lightsaber duel...I'm not going to say it had more emotion, because it didn't. It's not about emotion.

It did and it is.

All the lightsaber fights in Episodes 1-3 were bullshit because they didn't matter. Obi-Wan and Qui-Gon's fight against Darth Maul had no bearing on the plot whatsoever, because Qui-Gon was going to push for Anakin to be trained anyway. The whole Dooku fight was just an overlong reveal. The second Dooku fight had nothing to it. Grievous was a boring opponent that we had no investment in.

In fact, the only fight that mattered was Obi-Wan vs. Anakin, but that was wanky and ran out of steam halfway through.

Original trilogy?

Obi-Wan dies holding back Vader, becoming a better guide for Luke in the process.

Vader tests Luke's skills in the Force and reveals his parental status, adding more conflict to Luke's struggle.

Luke defeats Vader but refuses to kill him, thus avoiding the temptation of the Dark Side and earning him the right to bear the title "Jedi Knight".

Hell, that final fight? Luke screaming "no!" and going on the offensive against Vader was marvelous. Between the lights dancing in the darkness and the music rising to the occasion, it was a fantastic summation of the conflict at hand.

Lightsaber fights and Force powers don't need to be overlong or technically impressive. They need to be relevant, with some character investment behind them, or some plot shenanigans hanging in the balance. Every time someone whipped out a lightsaber in the OT, shit was on. We knew that, because the lightsaber was the weapon of a Jedi. It's meant for a more civilised age. It calls upon the chivalrous presence of a dead order.

The PT completely avoided making good that reverence once more and made the lightsaber (and the Force) mundane. It no longer meant anything.

edited 3rd Oct '10 3:13:01 AM by MadassAlex

Even if the idea of the force was cheapened, this is like calling superpowers in comic books "mundane" because there's so many superheroes (except for the 7 billion non-powered people).

Also, isn't the Force supposed to be the source of all life, even in the OT?

edited 3rd Oct '10 3:37:14 AM by OldManHoOh

... except you're entirely right. Using a whole lot of superheroes in the same setting does make the superpowers in general more mundane. That's one of the big draws of X-Men, for instance.

As opposed to something like Batman, where super powers don't really exist. So if something appears to be super powers, then shit just hit the fan.

It's about tension. Sorta like why you only see the Alien a handful of times in Alien.

I thought the draw of the X-Men was that mutants, while there are many of them, weren't integrated into human society and many are outcasts and persecuted. Many don't and can't use their powers in various continuities and adaptations.

^Vadar fighting Luke in the old trilogy was full of ham. The original line of 'No... I AM YOUR FATHER' and Luke's Big No just added the cheese to it.

Luke's Big "NO!" was a legitimate reaction by the actor, who at the time was under the impression that he was about to find out Obi Wan had murdered his father instead of Vader, and was rolling with the scene.

Also,

^^ This. Completely this. Think of it like this: an Eldritch Abomination is a powerful and terrifying character because of its rarity. Because there is only one. Whether it's magic, a character, a monster, what have you, having more of it automatically makes it less special.

One vampire is a terrifying and dangerous adversary. Fifty vampires is a group of cannon fodder waiting for a sword.

One villain with superpowers is a sudden, unexpected, an very dangerous foe. Fifty villains with superpowers and you now regularly defeat people with superpowers.

One wizard is an old, curious, intelligent being who can whip up untold fury at a moment's notice. Fifty wizards is Hogwarts.

It's the same with the Jedi. The more Jedi we see, the less interesting they become, because they start to become a standard element that we can readily expect, instead of exceptional.

edited 3rd Oct '10 5:26:18 AM by TobiasDrake

^And that makes it not hammy how? Maybe it's my lack of age, but I don't see it as something incredibly effectively dramatic, at least not the way it was delivered.

Also, it wasn't an instant reaction, though Lucas did secretly tell him on-set a few minutes before shooting. Prowse's line before the ADR was something else entirely, to keep the secret.

I can understand your Conservation of Ninjutsu and Imperial Stormtrooper Marksmanship Academy gripes entirely, but I still don't see how that adds up to "mundane".

edited 3rd Oct '10 5:38:27 AM by OldManHoOh

The "problem" with there being lots of Jedi is something that can't really be avoided. In the OT, the few remaining Jedi are either very old or young and inexperienced—the Order itself is an all-but-forgotten relic of a past age. An age that ended 20 years ago. Since the Prequel Trilogy is set in that past age, the Jedi are by necessity going to have a much greater public presence.

The Empire and Republic control an entire galaxy. While it doesn't quite fit the whole "past age" thing, how many Jedi were there before Order 66 was executed?

^^ Greater public presence, certainly. But that doesn't mean it has to be All Jedi, All The Time.

The original trilogy's central plot was the Rebel Alliance vs. the Empire. The Big Bad and his Dragon could wield the Force, and so could Luke, but that was just part of the larger story. Luke strikes a crippling blow against the Empire at the end of Episode IV by using the Force, but also by using missiles that every Rebel fighter had. He didn't jam Force Lightning down the hatch until the Death Star exploded, because the Force was still a subtle and mysterious thing, and not space magic.

Episode V has bits at the beginning and at the end where Luke uses his Force abilities to save his own life and to try and fight Vader, and the central training with Yoda. But the plot itself is moved by the Rebels and the Empire; the attack on Hoth, the nakama in the Falcon escaping pursuit, and everything that occured on Bespin.

Episode VI gives Luke his battle with Vader and the Emperor, but that's more to close out his and Vader's arc; just as much, if not more emphasis is placed on the battle against the Death Star, the ground troops moving in on the shield generator, the wild flight to blow up the core, etc.

The Jedi were there, but they weren't THE story, just a small part of it. Contrast to the prequels, which is purely about Jedi vs. Sith, with the war between the Republic and the Separatists given a backseat to lightsaber fights and Force battles.

edited 3rd Oct '10 7:12:31 AM by TobiasDrake

-nods sagely-

One issue with the PT is that it latched onto its capacity to showcase the Jedi too much. They can be an influential, powerful order without activating their lightsabers or calling on the Force at every opportunity. They're supposed to be negotiators and peace-keepers; what we got were spellswords.

Compare how tense and interesting Obi-Wan's infiltration of the Death Star is in IV to what becomes the boring infiltration of planet Naboo in I. We're afraid of him getting found out, because Jedi or not, he's an old man with a melee weapon against Stormtroopers. And those Stormtroopers are considered a viable threat at this point. In Episode I, there isn't that tension; we know things will work out because we've seen that Jedi block blaster bolts with ease and can cut through swathes of adversaries.

But in IV, a man was just a man, Jedi or not. But we saw how clever use of Jedi abilities could turn the tide in subtle ways rather than making the bad peoples fall down.

Personally, I think I could have liked the PT trilogy... If it wasn't for the ¿#%€ing horrible Anakin actors! Hayden Christiansen was boring, wooden who's incredibly dull performance always sucked the life out of every scene and that kid was ingratiatingly annoying it made my teeth curl. I mean really? After they find out that Kid Anakin was a bad actor, they actively seek out an adult that act just as bad?! If they had only chosen like actually decent actors to play young Vader, the films definitely would have been a lot better.

Also the plot of Episode II was just so stupid, even when I saw it as a kid. Unlike Episode V, Episode II was pretty much just stupid unnecessary filler between I and III.

edited 3rd Oct '10 10:28:22 AM by Mattonymy

To be fair, Episode I was just as unnecessary.

Lucas? Not screw up Star Wars? You're kidding right? Hes done nothing but bring about the end of his own franchise.

^I didn't see him fucking up much with the visuals, even if everything else about the prequels wasn't that good.

I'm definitely gonna see the original trilogy in the cinemas. It's something I've always wanted to do. Not in 3D, mind you. I've got no interest whatsoever in that. But still, a cinema release on the original trilogy last happened when I was like two years old.

Oh, and I've gotta love the Ruined FOREVER reaction here. Apparently, your VHS and DVD copies of the films are going to be all the worse for featuring films that were eventually remade in 3D. If you don't like the rerelease, don't go see it. Enjoy the version that you liked the most, and let others enjoy other stuff.

edited 4th Oct '10 1:14:42 PM by Kerrah

I don't have much problem with live-action films that were filmed to be 3D originally. You know, plotted and blocked with 3D in mind, and actually using 3D film on the actors.

But shoehorning 3D effects on old film? NO.

I'm also against colorizing old black and white movies. They weren't meant to be in color. They weren't filmed to be in color. Any color applied to them is being done by someone other than the original creative staff.

And furthermore, anyone who rejects watching an old B&W movie for the sole reason that it's black and white doesn't deserve to watch movies.

I apologize for drifting, but I'm passionate about this subject.

Except for right or wrong this IS George Lucas' creation. He wrote the screenplay for five of the movies and came up with the story for the remaining one.

^No - he wrote the screenplay for four of the movies and came up with the story for the other two. The prequel trilogy and A New Hope had scripts written by him but neither Empire Strikes Back nor Return of the Jedi did. And they were much the better for it.

Pretty sure he wrote Return of the Jedi's screenplay. He didn't direct it though.

I want an autostereoscopy 3D tv. That's the only 3D I'll even consider to be in true 3 Dimensions (until holograms come out). I already have plans to hack my 3DS into a movie player.

^^The screenplay for Jedi is credited to Lucas and Lawrence Kasdan. As The Other Wiki has it, Richard Marquand and David Peoples made uncredited contributions as well.

Anyway, I personally feel no interest in a 3-D Star Wars, but I'm sure some fans will enjoy it.

edited 5th Oct '10 8:56:53 AM by ImipolexG

He had help with A New Hope too IIRC, but the concept and story outline of Star Wars is his to alter to his whims. That was my point.

edited 5th Oct '10 11:42:09 AM by OldManHoOh

I may wanna check it out. I'm not a big fan of Star Wars but I do like me a good light show.

I will wait until someone tells me the 3D effects are good or not. If they are then I will watch all of them save Attack of the Clones. I did not like that one.