posted
I think they weren't bad, but they could have been much better. And you are right about the originals having there moments.
Posts: 747 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
Hmm. . . this suprises me. I've been able to get excited about the SW movies ONLY because they've had good trailers. This wasn't even competent.
posted
Yeah, this trailer looks awful, which saddens me. I was at one time a huge star wars fan. I loved the movies, I read all the books. But after the first two prequels...no. It just isn't there anymore.
I am sooo incredibly glad that when they released the originals as a set for the last time before "reworking them to fit lucas's original vision" I had enough money to buy them. I was only in like the 5th grade or something. I had to save all my paper money for a long time to get those.
posted
I think that the trailer was pretty well done. Most of the people who will rush out to see this one are huge fans, and they already have an idea what happens, and why. The trailer teased a lot of thisng,showing that Lucas isn't doing a Peter Jackson....editing out the parts that fans want to see the most (a la Scouring of the Shire), and trys to show how this trilogy will be directly connected to the first one (ep 4,5&6).
I am sure that the movie will look good, as even the latest two looked great...tha was part of the problem with them. Lucas is spending too much time on how they look and not enough time on telling good stories.
I will go see it, but I hope it is better than the first one. I liked the second one AOTC, better than the first, so perhaps there isstill hope.
Hell, if the Red Sox can win the WS this year, anything can happen....even a passible SW movie ...
posted
"I think that the trailer was pretty well done."
Seriously? I mean, leaving aside the mostly unimpressive visuals, the backing audio and video editing were themselves rather poor. I mean, really, they feel amateurish. For God's sake, jump cuts? A slow zoom on glowing red eyes? A bunch of heavy but not particularly resonant breathing?
posted
I read somewhere authoritative that the writers of the EU are like kids building sand castles in Lucas' driveway. They write with the knowledge that Lucas, at any point, can contradict their stories.
Apart from the Zahn books (Heir to the Empire, Dark Force Rising, The Last Command, Spector of the Past, Vision of the Future), the extended universe books pretty much sucked. I'm know there were a few good ones after that(Truce at Bakura, I Jedi), but for the most part, they were absolutely terrible.
What killed the Star Wars books (especially after the first Zahn trilogy that was so like the originals that you could HEAR the John Williams soundtrack) was you friend and mine, that turd in the punchbowl, Kevin J Anderson who destroys every franchise he touches, as he is now doing with the Dune universe. When he took the promising ending of "The Last Command", and after Luke had withstood two attempts to turn him to the dark (one by the Emperor himself in ROTJ), and instead legitimized the Dark Horse 2nd Emperor storyline (Luke joins with a "reborn" emperor since he sees he can't defeat him and becomes the new Darth Vader and Leia is the one who pulls him back the good side, this time) it was all downhill from there.
He took the brilliant handoff by Zahn and some good initial premises (wouldn't the children of Jedi show promising Jedi powers, Luke would want to start a new Jedi Academy) and pissed all over them. He butchered the characters- Han and Lando keep arguing over who the Falcon belongs to, so they keep betting it and it passes back and forth between them- and the universe.
After reading the first 3 of his new Dune series (with Brian Herbert) I've come to this conclusion. It's like he decides to write in a similar universe with characters who happen to have the same name and backstory as the story we love, but are not the same people. He then contradicts their back story and contradicts that very universe's continuity.
And after he came along, others came along that did similar things (The Crystal Star, The Courtship of Princess Leia, Shadow of Empire, etc). I do believe that if Lucasfilm had rejected KJA's stories and made sure that the first stories in the EU were good, the others would have HAD to be better.
The New Jedi Order is OK, but there are still moments where they really disconnect from the originals. And I don't bother reading the prequel novels, not after the Green Planet and the Darth Maul novel (forget the name) showed how lame they could be.
I am looking forward to the new movie, though.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
The trailer was not very good, but that's almost entirely meaningless when you consider that its a teaser trailer.
Posts: 2432 | Registered: Feb 2001
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I think it was a dcent attempt to pull the previous two movies together with the original Star Wars. As a teaser, I think it was effective.
But then, my perspective was a bit askew, since I was wondering if it'll have any scenes of Obi-Wan either tied up or wet, which were high points of EpII for me.
About the novels... They're just officially approved fan fiction, nothing more. Though I bet most of them (The Zahns in particular) were better-written than most fanfic, Lucas gives them no more weight than that. I doubt he's even read 'em, aside from plot synopses.
Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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quote: Does anyone else think they should just go ahead and give in and call it a straight animated movie instead of continuing to pretend its live action?
posted
I'd like to go on record saying that I liked the trailer. Watching it made me excited for the third movie, and since i'm pretty sure that's what a teaser's intended purpose is, I'd say it did its job. Atleast for me.
Posts: 8741 | Registered: Apr 2001
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posted
He sanctioned them as being acceptable uses of star wars characters and settings, not as being "part of the star wars universe". Those are two different things.
There's more than one sort of endorsement, your idea that someone endorsing something in any way implies their full support for it seems bizarre.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
i am grateful to never have read any star wars books.
i still like the original trilogy and don't have any problems with the new trilogy so far. from the p.o.v. of someone who is only familiar with the movie universe, i haven't seen a contradiction or a plot issue. not with the wookies, nor with the bots being involved from the beginning.
Posts: 494 | Registered: Mar 2000
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posted
The Zahn books really are good. They are what revived Star Wars. You might recall that in the late 80's early 90's there wasn't much about SW out. Then those books came out and satisfied the yearning that many fans had. More than that, the brought new life to the series. In EVERY POSSIBLE WAY, the Zahn books fit and expanded the SW universe. Indeed, in some ways, they made the SW universe more mature and realistic than the admittedly childish and simplistic (though fun) that GL created.
I heartily recommend them IF you love the original trilogy. They truly fit and (I think) are probably the only books that GL may have actually read and incorporated into his vision of the universe (along with, as Tom said, the RPG rules for the universE). In fact, there was a poll at SW.com that asked which EU character they'd like to see in the prequel and the overwhelming choice was Mara Jade, Zahn's creation. One can hope that if GL puts her in (as a child, of course) or at least somehow refers to the process that created her (an Emperor's Hand), than that will give Zahn's books the Canonical stamp of approval, unlike that idiot Anderson.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
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posted
I agree with IanO. Zahn is a great author in his own right, I very much enjoyed his Conqueror's trilogy. Although it basically ruined an idea I had for a story.
The thing that I really hated KJA for was killing the spirit of the characters that Zahn created. Like Senator Bel Iblis. Still makes me mad sitting here.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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The nice thing about the final Thrawn Cycle (the last two) was that Zahn took all the crap that the other writers and written that had ruined the SW EU and somehow, even then, legitemized it, in a way. I'll still never consider KJA's Jedi Academy trilogy anything other than emergency toilet paper. But he still brought some sense of meaning and -what's the right term?- some sense of actually being SW to the other books.
GL should have involved him in writing the prequels. Now, unlike most, I actually really liked AOTC. PM was OK but was marred by GL trying to cater to little kids and 'cuteness'. AOTC was much better, I thought. And I've argued this a 1000 times here. But if Zahn had been involved in the prequels, I don't know that there would have been any complaints.
posted
My prediction is that since the trailers for the first two movies were great, and the first two movies not so much, that the fact that this trailer is sucky can only mean that Ep III will blow all previous movies away!
Posts: 3516 | Registered: Sep 2002
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posted
I'll see it because I'm curious, but if Lucas wrote the screenplay, I'm expecting it to suck. (In fact, I'll be trying to keep my expectations REALLY low before I see it, so that when I do see it, I can be saying, "Hey, this doesn't suck as much as I thought it would!")
posted
I thought it did a good job of showing how they will tie it into the first three movies, and I also thought it was pretty damn captivating in that it caught my attention and held it, something a lot of trailers don't do.
Also, what did you ecpect DV to do? He breathed like that for the first 3 movies, didn't he?
I am looking forward to this movie, although I am sure it won't be as good as the first three. I liked AOTC better than PM too....
posted
I am so spoiler-free, it's not even funny. I was pissed when I stumbled across the title. I stop my friends from talking and speculating about the film around me. I don't look at the websites I used to frequent. (This is, however, the time to mention that I pretty much know what's going to happen in the movie, but who doesn't?) Seeing the trailer in front of The Incredibles was the first I saw of the movie.
And I nearly wet my pants. (Well, okay, I nearly did something else to my pants, but this is pretty much a family show.) For someone as deprived as I, the trailer was awesome. And I really liked the use of the old-school Obi-Wan speech.
It was actually kind of funny - we were watching all the kiddy trailers before The Incredibles and I forgot the trailer was coming. So when the Lucasfilm logo popped up onscreen, I pretty much shrieked. I didn't care that I had just made a fool out of myself, because I was writhing in ecstasy.
And I think it's going to be much harder to stay spoiler-free, but I'll do my best.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
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posted
"Also, what did you ecpect DV to do? He breathed like that for the first 3 movies, didn't he?"
It's not that I mind the breath. It's that they made the breath a major thematic audio element, and didn't even make the effort to make it imposing.
Overall, the trailer was poorly cut and mastered -- which is the last complaint I'd ever think to be making of anything from Lucasfilm.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
There were places in the trailer where the CGI was painfully obvious, like the pan across the clone troopers, but overall I agree with Strider--it got me excited about the upcoming movie, almost despite myself.
quote:And what possible reason is there for Anakin's eyes to change color?
posted
I will say I really liked the part where Darth Vader's chair comes up and we see him in his evil incarnation for the first time.
I'm really looking forward to seeing how Amidala handles all of the nasty stuff that's coming at her this movie. I think Natalie Portman is a really good actress and I hope George Lucas lets that show in this movie.
Posts: 4655 | Registered: Jan 2002
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posted
Are people making comments on the trailer based on the crappy downloadable version or the one seen in theaters? This thread started before it was out on the big screens and I was curious because it was a lot better sounding at the big house. My only complaint with the audio was, oddly enough, the line reading from Jones. He kind of had that faux continental accent in the original trilogy that was lacking here. His "master" had a kind of flat affect vs. the cheesier but, I think closer to original, "mahster." I also think it is very likely that the dialogue with DV and the Emporer aren't in the movie, but that is a guess.
This is a teaser, of course. The movie isn't nearly done, yet, and we aren't due for a real trailer for a few months yet. I thought the CG of the new stuff was good (using the Clone trooper pan from a previous movie doesn't count...that is like saying the second Tatooine sun by Luke's place looked aweful...not in this movie!). What looked like the firefighter ship was neat putting out that blazing capital ship, the brief scenes of space battle looked great (with broadside vs. broadside action...excellent!).
Still, like folks have said, it is down to the writing and directing and so far GL has a pretty poor track record of writing and directing post 1970's. I have already heard some spoilers that, if included in the final cut, are worrisome holdovers for a teeny bopper crowd that really ought not to be a part of this audience. Crossing fingers that GL gets a clue this one, last time (unless he gets the itch to shoot 7-9...unlikely, though).
Posts: 896 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Was it James Earl Jones, or a digitized Hayden? the delivery on "Master" sounded VERY similar to the way Hayden called Obi-Wan Master in AotC.
Posts: 2689 | Registered: Apr 2000
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It think it is James Earl Jones. I'm thinking that he might have payed close attention to the way Hayden speaks.
Posts: 312 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Breaking my silence for star wars commentary-
Zahn is perhaps the best sci-fi (as seperate from fantasy) author currently writing. His characters are more fully developed then anyone's, other then OSC's, and has seemed to maintain that edge of writing about things he disagrees with, in a positive manner, that OSC lost in recent years. His plots are usually dynamic, and interesting, often extremely thought provoking. Angelmass was an amazing story, as was Manta's Gift. His star wars books weren't nearly as good as some of the other stuff he's written... and there is no doubt in my mind that if Lucas makes 7,8,9 that Zahn's sequels would make the best possible movies for those episodes.
I thought the teaser was fine, at least the version I saw on my computer. Nothing to write home about, but it didn't make me gag either. I'm looking forward to the movie... even if Lucas has butchered the prequels, they are entertaining fluff, and I KNOW I will be visually impressed.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
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posted
Zhan's that good huh? I've never read any of his stuff. Which of his books would you recommend that a person start with?
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I have a difficult time finding his stuff in the smaller bookstores, so I'd say whatever you could find. The Star Wars books he wrote should be readily available, though.
Posts: 5422 | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
I'll second (or third or fourth) that Zahn's SW books are significantly better than the rest. The ultimate threat in the Thrawn trilogy was well put together and well-constructed out of SW mythos.
However, there's a very serious inconsistency with both the timeline and alignment of forces in the Clone Wars as recounted by Zahn and as presented in the prequels. This might be a fatal defect in turning those books into movies within the canon.
And, as much as many hate it, I love the way the clone aspect was developed in the prequels.
posted
"And, as much as many hate it, I love the way the clone aspect was developed in the prequels."
Philistine! *shudder* One of the things I hate most about the prequels is that Zahn's Clone Wars actually made some sense, whereas the prequel clones are downright silly.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
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posted
"Assuming Luke was conceived before Anakin became Vader, there's no way Vader was visiting the Noghri during the clone wars 40-50 years before."
Yeah, I think Zahn deliberately just ignored the whole time compression aspect of Lucas' mythology. In several cases he almost goes out of his way to establish a campaign of oppression that lasted around thirty years, culminating in the dissolution of the Senate that we see in ANH; my personal opinion is that Zahn just didn't feel that you could wipe out thousands of Jedi and subjugate most of a galaxy in fifteen or twenty years, so he ignored that bit of inconvenient canon. West End Games' RPG did pretty much the same thing -- which would explain why Zahn took those liberties, since I'm told that he relied on WEG's material fairly heavily for technical/social background.
To be honest, though, I'm kind of intrigued by what happens if you take Zahn's books as canon, and ignore the prequels. You're left with the conclusion that Darth Vader was identifiably Darth Vader, at least to the Noghri, for decades before the Jedi were finally exterminated and the Empire declared. It makes Anakin a father in his late 30s, and makes you wonder whether he was able to conceal that side of his personality from his wife and his associates for so long -- or whether he bullied his wife into sticking around until fear for their children's future forced her to act. It also makes you wonder whether he called himself Darth Vader before his fight with Obi-Wan and the volcano bath -- and, if so, whether the Noghri were shocked when he showed up wearing breathing apparatus later.
posted
Saw it when we took the fam to see The Incredibles, and I must say it was much better on the big screen. Gave me chills. Ron put his hand on my knee and said something about how much better that was than the downloadble one.
I bet Mr. Z's books were great (I think I read one of them a long time ago) but Star Wars novels have no more bearing on the movies than fanfiction, Silly Rabbits! Posts: 1664 | Registered: Apr 2004
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posted
Well that robot's pretty hot and I see lots of Yoda, so maybe it won't be quite as bad as I'm thinking Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
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It's an uber robot seen in the Clone Wars microseries on Cartoon Network. You can watch the whole series at CartoonNetwork.com. It's animated by the studio that does Samurai Jack, I think, and it's pretty good, despite having 3-minute episodes.
Posts: 903 | Registered: May 2003
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