The Star Wars Thread

[Mick]

Yeah I've never got the Jar Jar Binks hate, it was a nothing character aimed at little kids. I can understand not liking him, but the amount of people that actively hate the character is ridiculous; he didn't take anything away from the films at all.

I don't care one way or another about Jar Jar, but really, the only role he has that's of any merit is to be the one that introduces the motion for the Grand Army. Without Jar Jar, it would've just been some other boob.

Aside from being annoying, the Gungans at least show that people are willing to overcome their differences, given the tensions between the Naboo and the Gungans, but whatever.

My biggest overall complaint from the sequels would be that there wasn't enough Tarkin. We get him for a few seconds in ROTS, and that's it. For being the big bad of ANH, he should've been given more expansion.

For what it's worth, they could've done a lot worse. I know the Millennium Falcon makes a brief cameo in ROTS, but at least they didn't have Obi-Wan or whoever show up on the ship. Christ, they originally wanted to show Han as a kidhelping the goddamn Wookies, be thankful that got cut out.

[Matt]

No. He really, really does take away from Phantom Menace. So, so much. I don't know a single kid who liked Jar Jar - not when it came out, or any of my cousins, nieces, nephews and so on who've seen it since.

Fair enough, I didn't think he took anything away from the film (not that there was much to be taken away) but I guess that's just opinion. He probably wasn't as successful as they wanted him to be but (speaking as someone who was 7/8 year old when Episode I came out) I remember him being quite well liked by a lot of kids my age. Maybe my friends were the exception rather than the rule, though.

[Dingle]

No. He really, really does take away from Phantom Menace. So, so much. I don't know a single kid who liked Jar Jar - not when it came out, or any of my cousins, nieces, nephews and so on who've seen it since.

I'm with Matt here, a lot of people my age were huge fans of Jar Jar and regularly would do his voice and quote him. I haven't seen any of the Star Wars prequels since I saw them in the cinema, and I can't remember my initial reaction to him from the film (my hatred of Jar Jar comes from the Playstation game where he wanders around with you, annoying the fuck out of you) but plenty of kids found him humorous.

[Skummy]

My biggest overall complaint from the sequels would be that there wasn't enough Tarkin. We get him for a few seconds in ROTS, and that's it. For being the big bad of ANH, he should've been given more expansion.

This is a contentious one for me - in principle, I completely agree with you, though I would have been slightly uncomfortable with them attempting to recast Peter Cushing. It's almost a lose-lose situation. Though I would have loved to have seen a little backstory for Tarkin, though, he's a fantastic villain.

Also, I always got the impression that the nature of Darth Vader changed quite drastically between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back. In ANH, it's very obviously Tarkin pulling Vader's strings - Vader's little more than his enforcer, really, and it's not just Tarkin; the guy who gets force strangled shows that other officers clearly saw fit to talk down to Vader and boss him around - whereas in Empire, Vader is much more in charge and seen as pretty much the second-in-command to the Emperor, he's a much more powerful figure. It could be argued that this is a direct result of his superiors being killed in the destruction of the Death Star, or him asserting himself a little more, but from a purely storytelling perspective, I get the impression that Vader was planned to be a very different character to what he wound up being - especially as, in the initial draft of the Empire script, he wasn't revealed as being Luke's father.

The prequels are very much about Vader becoming the Emperor's right-hand man - in terms of character development of Vader, it effectively skips ANH and goes straight to Empire. Tarkin doesn't fit in with the story Lucas was trying to tell.

[SeanDMan]

Skummy... where did Star Wars touch you?

[Skummy]

In actual news;

By the end of the year, the $4.05 billion sale of Lucasfilm to Disney should be finalized. And since George Lucas owns 100 percent of his company - which has little to no debt - all that money goes to him. After that, Lucas plans to quickly put the bulk of the money into a foundation which will primarily focus on educational issues, a spokesperson for Lucasfilm tells THR. "George Lucas has expressed his intention, in the event the deal closes, to donate the majority of the proceeds to his philanthropic endeavors."

...

"For 41 years, the majority of my time and money has been put into the company," Lucas said in a statement Wednesday. "As I start a new chapter in my life, it is gratifying that I have the opportunity to devote more time and resources to philanthropy."

The spokesperson noted that this "announcement continues a commitment that Lucas made in 2010 to The Giving Pledge where he stated, "I am dedicating the majority of my wealth to improving education. It is the key to the survival of the human race. We have to plan for our collective future--and the first step begins with social, emotional, and intellectual tools we provide to our children. As humans, our greatest tool for survival is our ability to think and to adapt--as educators, storytellers, and communicators our responsibility is to continue to do so.'"

Maybe he's okay after all.

[SeanDMan]

If he spends all that money educating people that Greedo shot first then he's still history's greatest monster.

[Hobo]

I like watching the theatrical versions of the trilogy that are on my DVDs because you can totally see the 'made up as we went along'-ness of the whole thing.

[Jimmy]

Oh, yeah, and one thing that doesn't make sense to me about the latest version of ROTJ (or at least the latest version I've seen): Why in the hell did they change Anakin's ghost to Hayden Christensen but leave Yoda and Obi-Wan alone? Doesn't make sense, even if its Lucas trying to say that Anakin really died when he became Vader in the first place.

This was just ret-conning - Anakin appeared, initially, as a middle-aged man. Which doesn't really make sense, as he never looked like that. So now that we have a better idea of what Anakin actually looked like, he pops up as the ghost, instead of the fairly universal reaction of "wait, who's that guy?" that the scene illicited in the first place, even if just for a second.

It wouldn't make sense for Obi-Wan to appear as ghost Ewan McGregor, as that's not how he looked when he died, nor would Luke recognise him.

That's one edit that I don't have a problem with, in theory, though I feel bad for the guy who played Anakin's ghost, and the guy who originally did the voice of Boba Fett, for being written out of the whole thing. Must suck.

Yeah I've never got the Jar Jar Binks hate, it was a nothing character aimed at little kids. I can understand not liking him, but the amount of people that actively hate the character is ridiculous: he didn't take anything away from the films at all.

No. He really, really does take away from Phantom Menace. So, so much. I don't know a single kid who liked Jar Jar - not when it came out, or any of my cousins, nieces, nephews and so on who've seen it since.

Na, kids really did love Jar Jar when he came out. I remember being a fan and so were all my friends at school. I was like 5 at the time and he continued to be popular throughout the whole series. I haven't rewatched them since I first saw them in the cinema, so I don't know if I'd dislike Jar Jar or whatever. But he made them a lot of money in merch, so they did something right with him.

[BentleyMonroe]

How about a reboot from the beginning? Just a thought, lol..

[OctoberRaven]

How about a reboot from the beginning? Just a thought, lol..

[Nick Adams]

Why do I get the feeling that the first thing they do with this is put some Star Wars toys in to a Toy Story short?

[Kaney]

Considering it says in the first post the first thing they plan to do is make Episode 7, no, I don't know why you feel that.

[Colly]

?

[Toe]

I actually consider Attack of the Clones to be worse then Phantom Menace. It's probably nostalgia that makes me like Menace, but I can rewatch it and still enjoy it despite some of the terrible acting and plot holes.

The "romantic" stuff between Anakin and Padme in Clones just ruins it for me. It's all just awful. The only thing I really enjoy about Clones is Count Dooku (because Lee is fantastic) and I kind of like stuff between Obi-Wann and Jango Fett.

Are they going to continue the 3D re-releases? It was a lot of fun to see Phantom Menace in the theatre again, and I would like to see the original trilogy again too.

[GhostMachine]

If they actually do an Episode 7 (I suck at Roman numerals), and it takes place between III and IV, then I hope the opening scene is Vader attacking some Jedis, Jar Jar shows up, and Vader kills him with his lightsaber.

Lucas went about creating a character for kids the wrong way, because Jar Jar is/was an annoying fuck to everyone else. Like I said, just about the entire theater groaned when he showed up in Episode III. Would have been better if Lucas had made an animal/pet character for the kids instead of a character who is as clumsy as Goofy but without any redeeming qualities.

Hopefully no Gungans will show up in any future movies or tv series except as incidental or background characters unless they're more like Boss Nass and less like the galaxy's biggest retard.

[LL!]

How about a reboot from the beginning? Just a thought, lol..

Your thought sucks.

[OctoberRaven]

I don't see why Star Wars Episode VII (Adrian's Revenge) would be another prequel GhostMachine...

Though I wouldn't mind a look into Han Solo's story leading up to ANH. As an animated miniseries or something, I mean.

[Blaze09]

If they actually do an Episode 7 (I suck at Roman numerals), and it takes place between III and IV, then I hope the opening scene is Vader attacking some Jedis, Jar Jar shows up, and Vader kills him with his lightsaber.

You know what, 3.5 needs to happen now. Vader just fucking shit up would be amazing.

[GhostMachine]

I don't see why Star Wars Episode VII (Adrian's Revenge) would be another prequel GhostMachine...

Though I wouldn't mind a look into Han Solo's story leading up to ANH. As an animated miniseries or something, I mean.

One thing I will say defending Lucas: With all the revisionist history/outright lies about things being intended that clearly weren't, Lucas did once say in an interview even before the prequels were made that at one point he wanted to make 9 movies total, but felt that would take too long. So a 7th film (or even 8 or 9) isn't really something to be rolling eyes at. However, according to a friend of mine, he also once said he thought about doing 12!

The problem with doing anything post-ROTJ would be getting certain actors involved. Alec Guinness is long dead, but with the resolution to the series there's really no reason to have the ghosts of him, Anakin and Yoda still around so that's not a problem. But Harrison Ford is a definite no, since I don't believe his attitude toward playing Han Solo has changed since he tried to get Lucas to kill Han off in ROTJ and I can't really see recasting his part. So I guess Han will have to have died (or conveniently `mysteriously disappeared') between 6 and 7.....

Just out of curiosity, who would you like to see do Han Solo's voice for an animated project? If it wasn't for the fact I associate him too much with Cowboy Bebop and The Big O, I'd go with Steve Blum.

Edited November 2, 2012 by GhostMachine