posted
I've come to the realization that Episode II is a really great movie.
*dodges pitchforks* Just hear me out for a second...
A guy in my ward has video editing software, and his pet project over the past few months was getting all the crap out of Episode II.
--Like almost everything said by Jar Jar Binks, the viceroy Newt, and C3PO. --And all of Anakin's creepy "Sand is rough/I'd rather dream of Padme/I want to rape you and eat your children in a creepy manner" dialogue. --And Padme's "stay away from me/come closer/you're making me uncomfortable/let me comfort you after killing an entire villiage/I truly deeply love you" dialogue. --C3PO's bad jokes during the fight scene.
What you are left with is a 30-minute shorter version of a movie that is a hecka lot better than the original.
Posts: 4089 | Registered: Apr 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Having just read Survivor's Quest by Zahn, I have come to the conclusion that Zahn is the new keeper of the Star Wars spirit, even more so than GL. Writing before the Yuzhon Vong wars but after the Thrawn Cycle, he expands that SW universe again and legitimizes elements others have added. This time, he takes elements ALSO from the prequels and once again, with a little thought and maturity, fleshes them out and makes them more palatable.
Now keep in mind, I liked AotC, though there were things I didn't like. GL's timeline is admittedly too short for the rise of the Emperor and extermination of the Jedi and Zahn's made more sense, as did his reasons for why the Clone Wars were so bad (one could hope that GL will include some that in Ep3, but I'm not holding my breath). And while GL is clearly trying to parallel the path Hitler took from Chancellor to Dictator, he still shows that his universe is essentially a simple Saturday matinee (and that's not a bad thing, we must not forget. THAT'S what he was trying to make from the outset and he has always been up front about that- a simple myth that called to mind those sometimes campy, sometimes goofy that nevertheless had an impact on his generation. Our problem is that, with profoundly deep and well done SF/Fantasy movies-- ironically, often inspired by what SW itself did, as attested to by the directors in the SW trilogy DVD documentaries-- our tolerance for the the "campy-ness" has lessened. We've seen what good SF/Fantasy movies look like and they don't have to appeal to slapstick humor. That and he "kid-i-fied" his movies even more. The original trilogy wasn't really cute and cuddly and slapstick, even with the Ewoks. While pushing the envelope, they didn't quite cross the line, at least for me. The humor was in the adult banter (Han and just about everybody), something I remember even as 6 year old kid watching Empire when it first came out. Whereas Jar-Jar and the Gungans and Threepio's jokes in AotC pissed all over that line.)
But Zahn (and West End Games with the background material) made the SW universe more realistic. Zahn kept the fun and swashbuckling adventure of the original but still made it believable.
And he did it again with Survivor's Quest. If Lucas wasn't so arrogant, he could do worse than get Zahn as a script consultant, at least, on the new movie. Fat chance of that, I know. But I wish.
All hail Timothy Zahn, the new keeper of the Star Wars spirit.
Posts: 1346 | Registered: Jun 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Man, that's high praise Paul. Who do you consider the other contenders to be? If you were to recommend a single Zhan book to serve as an introduction to his work, what would it be? I've not read his stuff.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm not sure who else I'd place in zahn's category. OSC, obviously. Neil Gaiman maybe? Mostly fantasy, though. I haven't found very many good sci-fi authors in the past few years, to be honest. Halperin was extremely good, but only wrote two books, and isn't working on a third, so he's not active.
Angelmass, Manta's Gift, and Icarus Hunt are good places to start with Zahn. Angelmass and Manta's Gift are more serious then Icarus Hunt, but Icarus Hunt is the best representation of his style and method of writing.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
quote: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.
For the life of me, I cannot find any episodes of Clone Wars on that website.
Posts: 1515 | Registered: Feb 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm pretty sure they've since removed the series from the CN website. The only ways you can get them now are to join StarWars.com's Hyperspace thing (it costs money) or to buy the DVD when it comes out in March.
CN might show the whole series in a marathon, though, when the third season premiers. They showed the entire first season when the second season premiered so...
Posts: 450 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Hail]](graemlins/hail.gif)
All hail Timothy Zahn, the new keeper of the Star Wars spirit.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
