Star Wars: The Force Awakens

[Captain Kelsten]

I still think bringing in Kasdan was a smart move. So what if his recent track record isn't that great? He knows Star Wars, he's a good safe option for this first film of a new trilogy.

And who knows star wars better than anyone else? George Lucas. And look what happened last time he got involved!

[Sabreman]

Everything is going to be alright.

[makkuwata]

First + final acts of ROTJ are by far my favourite in the saga and are enough to make up for the Dagobah/Briefing/Wicket period where it drags. Jedi over Empire for me.

[Space Renegade Ulala]

This horseshit of trying to downplay and minimize George Lucas' contribution to the series he created and came up with in the first place is pathetic nerd garbage of the highest order. Build a time machine, go back and kill him in his crib - congratufuckinglations, enjoy your world without Star Wars and fuck off. The dude made some mediocre films, some bad decisions (and some truly terrible dialogue) but so what? He's only human. He's still done more good and brought more joy to this world than a million shitpiles on the internet whining about their 'raped' childhoods or whatever.

It's funny, some of the revisionist nonsense out there big ups Gary Kurtz' role in things on the production side for the first two films and argues everything goes to hell when once he's out. Truth is, Gary Kurtz was bad at being a producer and let Star Wars run over budget but, because they were buddies, Lucas gave him another shake in handling things on The Empire Strikes Back. Kurtz did another fucking terrible job again, the film ran ridiculously over budget and Lucas - who had his hands full setting up ILM from scratch after the ANH effects team all went off on their separate ways in '77 - was frantically trying to secure loans from various banks to cover the increased costs and get the film finished before having to go cap in hand to Fox for the money to finish it. That's why Kurtz was replaced for Return of the Jedi, the guy couldn't lead ants to a picnic (see also the clusterfuck that was Return to Oz). By the time Jedi rolls round, Lucas' marriage had fallen apart and he was just sick of the whole goddamn thing and wanted to wrap it all up asap, hence Leia being Luke's sister, the Emperor showing up and being killed, and so on. No, not exactly a conducive environment to creating good art but hey it still has The Best Space Battle Ever and the amazing Luke-Vader-Palpatine showdown that far outweighs it all. Yeah, the Ewoks are cutesy as shit to a kid maybe and of course it'd have been better if he could have found a few dozen giant dudes to play wookiees instead but the core idea, of a powerful and supposedly superior fighting force being humbled by 'lesser' beings is perfectly valid and deeply ingrained on the American consciousness at that point and used in many films since.

[Sponge]

Everyone knows Jedi is the best of the OT. Some people might pretend that ESB is better, ooh it's so much more mature, ooh get you, but really, they know.

[Lorfarius]

[Commander Jameson]

Jedi is the only film in the trilogy where an Ewok dies and another mourns it. So there's that, I suppose.

[Bazjam]

Harry Knowles has a very interesting Write up of the trailer over at Ain't It Cool News (sorry on iPad so can't link). Only read if you don't want to go in cold as it's got some good spoilers from the early part of the film which expand on what's going on in the scenes from the trailer.

[Sponge]

Jedi is the only film in the trilogy where an Ewok dies and another mourns it. So there's that, I suppose.

Meh.

All I can say is I sat down to watch them all for the first time in ages, with my daughter who had not yet seen them, and I managed to watch them all with her with a sense of enjoyment and discovery that I've not been able to do since I use to watch them as a child 30 years ago.

Jedi was by FAR the most enjoyable of the three.

[TehStu]

I'd argue Jedi has the best 2 minutes in the whole of cinema, in that final duel between Luke and Vader. The music, the tension, the whole dad/son thing which is actually meaningful. Jesus, just thinking about it is making me well up, it's electric.

And then that whole fucking NOOOOOOO blu ray edit. But still.

[KriessG]

despecialized version.

[Don Wiskerando]

Would you rather Lindelof was writing? Who would you guys pick to write a new Star Wars film?

Charlie Kaufman.

[RFT]

The annoying thing about the despecialized version seems to be that acquiring it involves delving into some iffy corners of the internet where one wrong click is malware hell...

[JoeK]

Did the deal with Disney specifically not allow them to release the original versions at all? Or only allow them to just do it again with even more CGI crowbarred in?

Also, it'd be lovely to think that they could effectively 'lose' the prequel trilogy and just do it again properly...

in these heady JJ days I can hope for anything

[Broker]

Would you rather Lindelof was writing? Who would you guys pick to write a new Star Wars film?

Tarantino

[gizmo1990]

Jedi still has the greatest, most gloriously shot space battle commited to film, so is automatically brilliant.

[Buckheiser]

The annoying thing about the despecialized version seems to be that acquiring it involves delving into some iffy corners of the internet where one wrong click is malware hell...

What are you on about? I just put the word "despecialized" into kat and a perfectly good 720p torrent was the very first thing that came up.

[TehStu]

Finished watching ANH with my 5 and 2 year olds today. I dont think my lad really knows what's happening, but my daughter is old enough to be well into it. She cheered when Vader comes through the door onto the Tantive IV, and got all exited when she recognized Fett, as she knows how much I like him.

Given we're at IV, I figured we'd do the machete run through the films and do V, II, III and then VI. She's seen phantom menace but was younger and didn't really take it in. In fact, Vader has been her favorite character for ages, but I think this viewing was her first where she understood things. Like daddy, why did they kill the bears (Jawas)? Was it those guys (the These aren't the droids you're looking for troopers)? And then the conflict when she clocked the storm troopers, who killed the bears, work for Vader. And then she kept a running tally of the remaining Xwings as they picked them off at the death star.

The mind of a child

[Jug McKenzie]

Finished watching ANH with my 5 and 2 year olds today. I dont think my lad really knows what's happening, but my daughter is old enough to be well into it. She cheered when Vader comes through the door onto the Tantive IV, and got all exited when she recognized Fett, as she knows how much I like him.

Given we're at IV, I figured we'd do the machete run through the films and do V, II, III and then VI. She's seen phantom menace but was younger and didn't really take it in. In fact, Vader has been her favorite character for ages, but I think this viewing was her first where she understood things. Like daddy, why did they kill the bears (Jawas)? Was it those guys (the These aren't the droids you're looking for troopers)? And then the conflict when she clocked the storm troopers, who killed the bears, work for Vader. And then she kept a running tally of the remaining Xwings as they picked them off at the death star.

The mind of a child

So you openly refer to Star Wars as A New Hope, you're showing your kids the special editions of the original trilogy films and you're letting them watch Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith? What kind of a father are you?

[rumblecat]

Is Boba Fett in the original Star Wars..? Or was he added in via some special edition digital fuckwittery?

More importantly is the Return of the Jedi special edition relatively free of all that new stuff? I haven't seen the film in ages and fancy watching it, but haven't seen the special version... I remember reading they fucked around with Jabba's band and the Ewok song at the end, but are there any awful 'stepping on tail' moments?

[Alex W.]

Oh for fuck's sake.

[Captain Kelsten]

Is Boba Fett in the original Star Wars..? Or was he added in via some special edition digital mucking around?

More importantly is the Return of the Jedi special edition relatively free of all that new stuff? I haven't seen the film in ages and fancy watching it, but haven't seen the special version... I remember reading they fucked around with Jabba's band and the Ewok song at the end, but are there any awful 'stepping on tail' moments?

The biggest change for me is that they replace the ghost of anakin at the end with the young chap from the prequels.

They also added some CGI shit to the sarlaac pit monster, so instead of just being this creepy maw in the ground, it now has a massive penis for a head.

[rumblecat]

Weird, because it used to just be a scary vagina, didn't it?



I'm sure this all means something but I don't know what it is and I don't want to think about it anymore.

[Paulando]

Those are both awful, awful changes, but the dance sequence at the beginning is truly an abomination.

[Guest]

They changed the song at the end in the Ewok village for something worse as well.

[Kryptonian]

Crazy Frog?

[Guest]

Listen to them both. The way Yub Nub blends into the Star Wars theme is amazing. The other one, whatever it's called, is shit in comparison. It might as well have been Crazy Frog.

[macosx]

That should be Ewan McGregor with Yoda and Wooden Chair in that ghost scene if George's logic followed through.

[Captain Kelsten]

No, it's based on what they looked like when they 'died', suggesting that Anakin hadn't continued to grow old in the suit into the crusty old man and had, in fact, died looking like he did in the prequels. Daft, I know.

[Commander Jameson]

Listen to them both. The way Yub Nub blends into the Star Wars theme is amazing. The other one, whatever it's called, is shit in comparison. It might as well have been Crazy Frog.

This so much.

The chorus rising at the end of the theme as the credit wipe begins and the Star Wars theme kicks in is perfect. The wishy washy pan pipes and drums change that moment completely.