.As part of the testing process I thought I’d kick off the traditional Star Wars thread.
The Obi-Wan Kenobi series with Ewan McGregor has been confirmed for Disney+ to begin shooting next year.
There’s also been new footage previewed from Rise Of Skywalker, although it’s not online
https://io9.gizmodo.com/new-star-wars-the-rise-of-skywalker-footage-featured-r-1837449069
Sounds like it could be interesting.
Making Vader Luke’s father was just such a dumb way to try and subvert fan expectations. It ruined the franchise.
Is that you, John Byrne?
No, the giveaway would have been if I had insisted that my redesign of Darth Vader was better than any before or since.
Don’t call him Shirley.
Making Vader Luke’s father was just such a dumb way to try and subvert fan expectations. It ruined the franchise.
Is that you, John Byrne?
No, the giveaway would have been if I had insisted that my redesign of Darth Vader was better than any before or since.
His version of Darth Vader without the helmet is, dare I say, better than the one from the movies.
Making Vader Luke’s father was just such a dumb way to try and subvert fan expectations. It ruined the franchise.
Is that you, John Byrne?
No, the giveaway would have been if I had insisted that my redesign of Darth Vader was better than any before or since.
His version of Darth Vader without the helmet is, dare I say, better than the one from the movies.
Wait… is that you, John Byrne?
🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂🤣
❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️ https://t.co/9gedSw8OtV— Mark Hamill (@HamillHimself) June 6, 2020
The World According to Jeff Goldblum is uniquely satisfying.
Somehow, over the last few years, Jeff Goldblum’s career has been…. being Jeff Goldblum.
The Bill Murray route.
Nice cameo in the story segment of Ep. 2:
I finally picked these up. I’ve been meaning to for a while. I figured it’s probably the last chance we’ll have to own the original unaltered versions, even if the presentation on these DVDs isn’t without its faults.
It’s nice to see it as it originally was. I haven’t seen these versions since they were on TV when I was a kid.
And yes, obviously this was one of the first places I looked.
And yes, obviously this was one of the first places I looked.
Yeah, I bet you have
This actually makes me want to watch AOTC again.
Oof. I hate it when that happens. I’d recommend a cold shower and a beer. You’ll be well again soon.
This actually makes me want to watch AOTC again.
I actually liked some of AOTC until……. “Ani” went to Naboo then it became torture.
Still better than ≡̶̨͉̘̩͙̣̺̫̀̌͝ḯ̷̟̅͋͐̿̏̊̚ͅ■̷͓̰̲͕͕̖̊̇̏́̍́͝ẽ̶̞̖͔̜̩͚̀̔̒̆̎́̃̀̕ͅ ̴̥͈̟̽̓̾̇́̈̈́̀͝ ̸̢͇̤̣̥͈̗̪̥̐̈́͑̆̚͜͝0̵̡̖̬͚̮͙̲̱̤͗⌠̸̨͔̻͔̠̙͉̊̑̔̀̎̒̿̆͜ ̶̩̽̀̏͛̈́Z̷̧͈̖̖̙͂╣̸̦̈͒͑̂̕͝͝■̵̨͓̞̗̓̔w̷̥͍̟̃̌́̉̑̃͑a̶̧̨̤͍͇̯̙̼͑̐̓̽͐̈́͘͠┼̸̦͉̰̼̘̀̏̔͆̋̎̓̈́k̵̻͚͉̝̬̣̎͐̑̾É̸̡̛̟̪̣̥̹̥͍̮̀̄͆͐̔̆̌̆̚ṙ̶̤̖̲̙̳̫͎̞̿̍̐͋͝, though.
Never heard of it. Is that like the Holiday Special?
Not really, its closest resemblance to the Holiday Special, the cutesy character Babu Frik, is but a pale shadow of Lumpy Chewbacca.
Best that you do.
the Obi-Wan/Jango Fett parts.
That fight between Obi Wan and Jango was cool. One of the best fights in the series.
When I rewatched AOTC a few months ago I thought the final battle CGI looked really clunky and unappealing. I really only enjoyed the early parts on Coruscant and the Obi-Wan/Jango Fett parts.
Still better than Rise of Skywalker, though.
A lot of the CGI in the prequels has dated really badly.
In TPM, the big battle between the Gungans and the Battle Droids looks like it’s from the Clone Wars cartoon, and some shots are so bad they look they’re from an old PS1 game. And, I also notice that in more than a few shots Jar-Jar looks like he was pasted into the scenes, where his lighting doesn’t quite match the ambient lighting of the rest of the live action parts he’s in. Gollum fared much better in the LOTR films in that regard.
AOTC doesn’t fare any better. Dexter Jetster, the owner of the diner Obi-Wan visits, looks like he stepped right out of the Clone Wars cartoon, and watching him interact with Obi-Wan looks bizarre. Some scene from the final battle in that movie look good, but others go into video game territory. And most of the stuff taking place in the arena is terrible and never quite looks remotely real.
There’s also something about AOTC that comes off really plasticy. The colors look bright and artificial, and don’t fit in particularly well with the aesthetic of the other movies. A lot of AOTC looks like it was shot with virtual backgrounds, and it’s really inconsistent.
I did like a few shots from AOTC, though. The final shot of the Clone Troopers and the proto-Death Stars is kind of gorgeous, as are a few of the battlefield shots on Geonosis.
Practical effects seem to date much better than CGI. It seems like it’s easier to suspend disbelief around something like Harryhausen’s dynamation work than it is ropy CGI for some reason.
Practical effects seem to date much better than CGI. It seems like it’s easier to suspend disbelief around something like Harryhausen’s dynamation work than it is ropy CGI for some reason.
This one I’m going to lay straight at Lucas’ door because, in all the interviews, he gave this impression that CGI was this easy, computer thing and it stuck.
It’s utter bollocks, there’s every bit as much work involved in making CGI work as models and cameras, but no one wants to recognise that.
Changing tack, October is going to be quite the games month for SW seeing both Lego Complete Star Wars and the just announced Squadrons both coming out.
I finished watching both The Clone Wars and Rebels, both of which I mostly enjoyed a lot.
Rebels is a more consistent show, but doesn’t reach the high points of the best arcs on TCW. The Clone Wars has a lot of low points, but it’s very easy to just skip over almost any of the weaker episodes without any problems.
I’m interested to see what they do with the characters/plotlines that are apparently going to come into The Mandalorian S2, though they don’t really seem like they’ll fit the tone of that show very well. I don’t know how people who haven’t seen the shows will react to them.
On the special effects note: Weta digital has, with the LoTR trilogy, proven that best way to go is a solid mixture of practical and cgi.
One thing I appreciate about the ST is that it showed modern audiences aren’t turned off by practical effects, and that they can actually be a selling point.
It’s kind of amazing how the CGI moniker has stuck to the prequels. Like Anders, I used to see Weta’s LORT work as being the better of the two – as those and the Prequels were coming out at the same time.
But the actual record is that there was no shortage of old methods used on the prequels:
Which raises the Q: Was Jackson just better at hiding his own brand of digital special effects?
This isn’t anything new, but if you’ve never actually heard the comparisons this is going to be shocking.
(Some of) the music John Williams stole from:
This is the best review of Star Wars I have ever seen. She starts off trying to be funny and clever about how she hated it as a kid, and then switches to perfectly articulate why we all love it.
Seriously, this is awesome. Worth 8 minutes of your time if you need something to put a smile on your face today.
So, all the “Disney is rebooting Star Wars” rumors popping up lately…
The scuttlebutt I’ve been hearing is that Disney is going to decanonize the sequel trilogy — using that “World between worlds” stuff from Rebels — or remake it. Most likely it’s clickbaity bullshit.
The best we can probably hope for is that, going forward, Disney and Lucasfilm will just sort of pretend TFA, TLJ, TROS don’t exist and never reference them again.
The source of these rumours is a YouTuber who’s been wrong about literally every Star Wars and Star Trek prediction he’s made, so yeah, pay zero attention.
That “news” is total bollocls.
Actual news is Mandalorian getting a load of books.
That’s not happening.
I agree the rumour is likely bollocks, but the fact that it’s even being entertained demonstrates how badly Disney have shit the bed with the new trilogy I think.
And 20 years ago people would have been saying the same about the Prequels. And in 20 years time they’ll be saying the same about the Star Wars of… The Future.
The reality is, for a franchise at the level of mass popularity of SW is, fans are replaceable.
As to the numerous rumours, they’re likely arising from Disney being too cagey – in the absence of news, rumours fill the void.
All I know is Ben is irreplaceable.
Also, in general, I don’t think that pointing to previous examples of how Star Wars fandom played out is necessarily a good guide for the future. It played out one way then, but that was in a very different early 2000s climate.
I don’t even think the core Star Wars movies were ‘damaged goods’ after the prequels in the same way that they are now. Maybe that’s partly because all they did was provide an underwhelming backstory to the trilogy and characters that people already loved, rather than continuing that story in an unsatisfying way that more meaningfully undoes much of the story of the original trilogy.
Also, in 1999-2005 Star Wars wasn’t competing with quite so many other entertainment megabrands in the way it is now. Back then it was still something very special in franchise terms – now it’s struggling to compete with the likes of the MCU and even slightly older stuff like Harry Potter that has captured the imaginations of subsequent generations.
We talked before about box office and how it fluctuates, and there were lots of confident predictions about how The Last Jedi would be similar to Attack of the Clones, and represent the low point of the trilogy which would then bounce back with Rise of Skywalker. But that didn’t happen, and RoS barely scraped a billion.
Box office isn’t everything, but especially combined with the Solo flop it does demonstrate a waning interest in the movies, for whatever reason.
I don’t really think it’s possible to argue that the franchise is in trouble when announced film projects are being cancelled and delayed and the entire direction of Star Wars overall is being retooled on the fly.
What I agree with is that Star Wars isn’t going away any time soon. I think the rumours are more about retooling Star Wars and making it something new and different to capture people’s imaginations again.
I imagine they’ll be focusing on the stuff that does work, like Mandalorian and the cartoons, and looking how to build on that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the core movies are now largely left in the past.
It’s quite obvious that they need to rework the entire Star Wars approach. Starting by getting rid of JJ and some people on board who actually have some vision for the Star Wars universe. But honestly, the sequel trilogy doesn’t need to be remade or ignored or whatever; it’ll just become part of the canon, and they’ll be movies that’ll be revisited less often than others. But there’s more than enough room for new stuff, both in the past and in the future of that universe. So I hope they just focus on that, and on making cool movies. Giving one to Waititi is definitely a good start, but I’d also be game for more movies focusing on Rey, or on Finn and Poe, or all three of them. Just give it a good story.
I’ve been playing that old PC game, Knights of the Old Republic (because my kid really wanted me to play it with him), and apart from it being generally pretty good fun, there’s also a lot of nice world-building going on. There’s a lot of Star Wars stuff that works.
Yeah, I think it’s important to distinguish here between the over-the-top idea of saying Star Wars is dead and just acknowledging that the franchise is in a bit of a hole and feels somewhat rudderless at the moment.
That’s happened quite quickly, too – The Force Awakens, for its faults, was a perfectly fine reboot that set the stage for things to be continued and built off and spun out into the larger universe. They’ve just fumbled that process and put themselves in a situation where they already need to rebuild the foundations again.
A pocket universe?
Star Wars: No Jakku Required
#ReleaseTheJacketCut
In the sense that it was on the same level as the movies, no. But it was a clear shift in status that allowed them to clear the decks for a completely different continuation.
And if Lucas hadn’t sold up and did a sequel instead he would have ignored the EU as well. Hell, the Prequel Trilogy totally ignores the description of the Clone Wars from the Thrawn novels!
Regardless of the specific details of canon status, the fallout from the prequel trilogy – Lucas abandoning the franchise and selling up, the direction of Star Wars completely changing from his plans, and a new continuity being created – is a pretty good example of the scale of shift that people are speculating about in the wake of the sequel trilogy, so I definitely think the “history repeats” angle is relevant here.
There’s a lot of conflation here. The specific rumour – that Disney are going to retcon away the Sequel Trilogy, specifically because of some behind the scenes battle between Jon Favreau and Kathleen Kennedy is so unfeasible as to be laughable. For Star Wars moving forward, who even knows? The next big event movies will probably be far removed from the core 9-film saga that it won’t particularly matter whether they’re in canon or not, if only to reduce the amount of exposition.
In the sense that it was on the same level as the movies, no. But it was a clear shift in status that allowed them to clear the decks for a completely different continuation.
Regardless of the specific details of canon status, the fallout from the prequel trilogy – Lucas abandoning the franchise and selling up, the direction of Star Wars completely changing from his plans, and a new continuity being created – is a pretty good example of the scale of shift that people are speculating about in the wake of the sequel trilogy, so I definitely think the “history repeats” angle is relevant here.
Books and comics were never on the same level of the films, though they wanted to claim it was so.
The amount of games and chicanery engaged by Lucasfilm to both keep their marketing promises while Lucas did whatever he wanted – Lucas isn’t consistent with his own work, so stuff anyone else’s – was legion. The only reason it doesn’t look too bad to us here is we’re used to DC and X-men continuity.
As to films, they won’t do an Epidode X, or call it that, for the same reason that Marvel abandoned numbers – the films look more accessible. Episode X = ‘you need to have seen 9 films before this one’.
All I know is Ben is irreplaceable.
I’ve got like 800 Bens from alternate realities lined up and ready to go. One of them will be close enough.
I wouldn’t open that door Lorcan, one will be a wheeler dealer that makes Gordon Gekko look like a bleeding heart and the other will be a corpse.
I wouldn’t open that door Lorcan, one will be a wheeler dealer that makes Gordon Gekko look like a bleeding heart and the other will be a corpse.
We don’t know which one will be the corpse until we open the door.
“Darth Gekko Zombie…. Rise.”
A pocket universe?
Richard Kelly’s Benny Darko?
For Star Wars moving forward, who even knows? The next big event movies will probably be far removed from the core 9-film saga that it won’t particularly matter whether they’re in canon or not, if only to reduce the amount of exposition.
Yes. I think there’s a definite risk that the extended movie continuity becomes a barrier to accessibility, so I think it makes sense to ditch the ‘saga’ approach at this point.
Disney is moving forward, by going backwards, with the High Republic initiative. Set 200 years before the prequels, when the Republic was at its peak and facing a new threat. They have it mapped out to span movies, TV series, comics, and novels with materials aimed at different age groups. This time, they actually have a plan.
Now whether the plan is good or works remains to be seen…
High Republic is starting off cautious – books and comics only. If a success, maybe animation then maybe a film.
I don’t buy the multiverse idea but I could see LFL quietly moving away from the ST, so instead latching onto Mando, which is what they are doing.
What’s really needed is animation news because you can’t move for some new bullshit rumour turning up.
One trick I think Disney is missing is small run physical releases due to fear that people will stop subbing to Disney+ if they do. I think that’s a mistaken view of fans, fans won’t wait – they’ll sub to Disney+ then buy the BR later, while still keeping the Disney+ sub running.
We don’t know which one will be the corpse until we open the door.
Schrodinger’s Ben?
More like Schrodinger’s ObiWan.
You don’t know if he’s a Jedi Knight or a crazy old hermit until you observe him.
More like Schrodinger’s ObiWan.
You don’t know if he’s a Jedi Knight or a crazy old hermit until you observe him.
And even then…
“If you strike him with a lightsaber, will he be cut in half and scream or will he just disappear and turn into a Force Ghost? Let’s find out!”
Star Wars: Why Darth Vader Fan Designs Are Always Cooler Than the Original
Just a few of the fan designs:
Star Wars: Why Darth Vader Fan Designs Are Always Cooler Than the Original
Just a few of the fan designs:
Brainiac?
Yeah I like the head/neck, the rest is suuuuuuper generic…
If the main difference is that those other designs all show something of his face, then the original design is way better.
If the main difference is that those other designs all show something of his face, then the original design is way better.
Not all of them:
https://www.artstation.com/artwork/lx3O5
I think I’ve played at least five of those in video games, Borderlands, Mass effect and such.
None of those are particularly original or good. Apart from the obvious video game tributes/ripoffs there are a few Star Wars inspired (what yer mans name from KOTOR?) and at least two Predatorish. Not to mention M.A.S.K.
The ONLY thing I’d change about Vader is the square box with the red and green light on his chest.
Not all of them:
Well that guy just looks like a thorny Cylon.
Like Anders says, some of the designs also look like other Sith lords. I mean, that’s the good thing, there’s an andless amount of past great Siths you can create looks for or make up entirely without touching Vader’s design. Because it’s perfect. Yes, you’d do some things differently today, which is why more recent Sith designs look more like those guys in the fan art. But Vader’s design was amazing when he was created, and he’s still great today.
he ONLY thing I’d change about Vader is the square box with the red and green light on his chest.
?
To be fair, from the neck down, sure, you could do some improvements to Vader’s costume (as in minor tweaks, mostly)… but the fuckin helmet is just iconic, there’s no point in even trying to “do better” because any difference would just make it “not Vader”… 
To be fair, from the neck down, sure, you could do some improvements to Vader’s costume (as in minor tweaks, mostly)… but the fuckin helmet is just iconic, there’s no point in even trying to “do better” because any difference would just make it “not Vader”…
Yeah, and in fairness there were some slight tweaks and subtle alterations between movies that meant there were multiple variations of Vader on screen, even within the original trilogy. But it always sticks to essentially the same basic design, especially the helmet.
Would it be so wrong to assume that Vader had spare helmets? After all, he needs something to wear on laundry day when he sends his “official” outfit to the cleaners…or the blacksmith…
After all, he needs something to wear on laundry day
I always liked this early Ralph McQuarrie design for Vader with the slightly more expressive face.
Also this is a nice little behind-the-scenes pic from Return of the Jedi that shows that Vader definitely had spares…
Would it be so wrong to assume that Vader had spare helmets? After all, he needs something to wear on laundry day when he sends his “official” outfit to the cleaners…or the blacksmith…
Nah, the suit is gonna reek. No one will be suicidal enough to take the job.
