Star Wars

[Darth Punk]

Actually I think next summer for the release would be ideal. Rebels is going to regenerate and create new interest in OT and Episode vii will be off the charts in terms of hype. Disney is very good at creating and taking advantage/profiting off such situations.

[Jedi-Bendu]

Interesting article regarding a rumored 'I am your father' sized moment

http://makingstarwars.net/2014/10/huge-rumor-star-wars-episode-viis-father-sized-moment/

[Fives]

I read that... lets just say that this, while still a rumour, shook me up a bit. I just don't know how to digest that sort of information.

On a less sombre note, here is a spectacular piece of fan art of young Yoda (aged apporx. 120 years old) on the cusp of Knighthood.

http://www.unleashthefanboy.com/news/young-yoda-movie-star-wars-episode-7/111528

To me, this proves that Disney could easily accomplish a Yoda stand-alone while still keeping the muppet Jedi shrouded in mystery. Rather than delve into the origin of the character, they could explore how he rose to the position of Grand Jedi Master, and what state the Republic was in during his adventures as a Jedi Knight. Show us Yoda's relationship with his Master and how what he learned shaped him into the wise old muppet we all know and love.

[Artanis I]

Star Wars must be on the minds of a few out there, today* I got 2 comics referencing it.

XKCD

And after Oky's "Jawa update" joke on the weekend:

The Argyle Sweater

*probably yesterday's, but you know, world time zones...

[commdr_neyo]

SPOILERS: The following link contains leaked concept art from Star Wars Episode VII

https://imageshack.com/user/themillenniumfalcon

[Jedi-Bendu]

Guess who's coming back in Episode VII........

[Jedi-Bendu]

"Run Chewie!"

http://www.starwarsunderworld.com/2014/10/new-episode-vii-set-reports-and-pictures.html

[Fives]

Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens

http://makingstarwars.net/2014/11/star-wars-episode-vii-force-awakens/

[montgocloud]

That's a fine title. I don't hate it, I don't love it. But I could be made to hate it or love it depending how well it fits the film. The Phantom Menace is a great title on its own, but does it fit the film? Nope!

[Borador]

I really don't like the title, actually. I hope the movie is good enough that it balances it out, because that's a pretty lame title...

[Tariq j]

Good title choice. As said above, I hope it lives up to the film.

Edited November 6, 2014 by Tariq j

[Mr Man]

It fits in with the other titles quite well, so, it's okay.

[Fives]

That's a fine title. I don't hate it, I don't love it. But I could be made to hate it or love it depending how well it fits the film. The Phantom Menace is a great title on its own, but does it fit the film? Nope!

The Phantom Menace is the perfect title for Episode 1 because it is directly referring to Sheev and how he's basically setting in motion all of the events of the films. Anyway, I digress.

Personally, I love the title. It sounds good next to the others ( The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, Revenge of the Sith, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens ), and if the most recent rumours about the state of Luke during the film turn out to be true, then this title is very fitting.

Heres the newest Luke rumour. As always with spoiler-ish stuff, read at your own risk.

http://makingstarwars.net/2014/11/star-wars-episode-vii-state-luke-skywalker/

If this turns out to be true, then I'm totally on board. And knowing Hamill's work as the Joker and how amazing he was at portraying crazy, I have no doubts in his ability to portray a deranged Luke.

[commdr_neyo]

''SomeNorCalGuy'' on Reddit wrote something that seems very likely to me:

''Well I'm just going to pretend that instead of pulling this title out of a hat, JJ Abrams is trying to tell us something about what to expect here.

In the prequels, ~30, 40 years before Ep. IV, we saw maybe a dozen or so true Jedi which were representative of hundreds, perhaps thousands of Jedi and others perceptive of the ways of the force. In the original trilogy it's widely believed that Vader is all that remains of their ancient ways (if you're counting though, there's still only 6 force perceptive individuals in the movies: Vader, Palpatine, Yoda, Obi-Wan, Luke, and Leia).

So I think to make up for lost time and the silencing of thousands of voices we're going to going from two Jedi (Luke and Leia) to a few Jedi (Luke and Leia's kids) and then Luke (who is the one who is supposed to bring balance to the force) will be using super-enhanced force powers and sensitivity to those with force perception to bring about a reconstituted Jedi Order of dozens, maybe hundreds of people all across the galaxy.

BUT...

There's still the Sith out there. Always two there are - master and an apprentice. Vader had an apprentice out there. And Luke knows it. And try as he might, he can't find him. But he's out there, growing older every day and he needs an apprentice.

The force is rising. For both the Jedi and the Sith, the force is becoming more concentrated; more powerful. More benevolent and more destructive. This is that first story. The rise of the power of the force, the reconstitution of the Jedi and, perhaps most importantly, the rise of the Sith.''

Even though I do not completely agree with the last part about the Sith, I think the rest sounds reasonable. Sith could also feature due to ancient Holocrons with teachings, or Nightsisters could be involved.

Edited November 6, 2014 by commdr_neyo

[Ultron]

if the rumor about Luke being some decrepit old hermit hiding from society like Obi-wan I'll be very, very mad. Luke needs to start a new jedi order, not run away from all of his problems. And didn't Yoda tell him to go on and teach others the ways of the force? He essentially is the last known jedi (in the movie universe). If he doesn't become a master and at least teach Leia, it will be a huge mistake. I don't want to feel like we're reusing old plot lines with the hermit thing either...we've been there done that.

[Venkefedo]

if the rumor about Luke being some decrepit old hermit hiding from society like Obi-wan I'll be very, very mad. Luke needs to start a new jedi order, not run away from all of his problems. And didn't Yoda tell him to go on and teach others the ways of the force? He essentially is the last known jedi (in the movie universe). If he doesn't become a master and at least teach Leia, it will be a huge mistake. I don't want to feel like we're reusing old plot lines with the hermit thing either...we've been there done that.

The rumors say more than just that; he's not hiding for the same reasons Obi-Wan & Yoda hid; he's hiding because he's scared of his own power; supposedly he does something huge, beyond what anyone besides TFU's Galen Marek might have done, and it terrifies him--can he control such power? Does he have the right to use it? What if using it just makes things worse? Can he safely teach anyone--Leia, kids, anyone--when he lacks control? Sure, I'd like to have seen a new Jedi Order already growing as the ST begins, but the rumors also suggest by the end of the film, the newly-clean-cut Luke is firmly back on the side of the heroes and is ready to teach the new heroes the ways of the Force. IMO, these latest rumors are the best ones yet; everything else with "Jedi-hunters", imprisoned Luke, full-on dark-side Luke, etc, all filled me with dread; this one fills me with hope. It's not the EU I loved, but it's an interesting way to go; it may start out radically different to what we knew from the books or what we expected from the new movies, but by the end it'll hopefully be something wonderful and have us all jonesing for Episode VIII!

[BrickG]

An unaltered version of the original trilogy is as bad as the new ones. Some things NEEDED fixing. The crappy lightsaber effects in ANH. The hover "field" under the speeder. Etc.

It's about smart enhancements. The problem is a lot are dumb. Like Vader's additional "no"s or Han shooting second.

[Venkefedo]

An unaltered version of the original trilogy is as bad as the new ones. Some things NEEDED fixing. The crappy lightsaber effects in ANH. The hover "field" under the speeder. Etc.

It's about smart enhancements. The problem is a lot are dumb. Like Vader's additional "no"s or Han shooting second.

This kinda came out of left field considering all the conversation's been about the new title & recent rumors, but you're right... I mean, there's a charm to the unaltered versions, but from the start the SEs were mishandled. The Jabba scene didn't need to happen--its absence was already addressed by cutting & pasting Han's "even I get boarded sometimes" audio over a shot of him loosening his blaster in its holster back in the cantina... so now Han repeats himself, verbatim, 5 minutes after he fries poor Greedo, and the scene just gives us a silly intro to Boba--who, whatever their excuse, still looks like he's mugging for the camera--and a horrid gag of Han stepping on a weak CG Jabba's tail. It's just all around bad, and that's not even getting into the Greedo Clones hanging around under the Falcon...Jabba, why are you so concerned about Greedo? You've got a couple backup copies right there with you.

Mos Eisley's 'enhancements' were mostly misses for me; too much, too cartoony, and too uneven (a ronto replaces an astromech in the foreground, making the ronto a lot smaller than the one we see a Jawa riding). Fixing the speeder 'hovering', removing matte boxes, that kinda thing was what I expected... and fixing Obi-Wan & Vader's saber blades, especially in the one scene where Obi-Wan's saber basically 'goes out' revealing the spinning rod beneath the light; that was the number one 'broken effect' I expected them to fix back in 1997, and they failed then, and failed again in 2004 and the Blu Ray. All they finally did was add the soft blue glow around the blade, when an intern with an arm tied behind his back could have rotoscoped the bright white core of the blade over the spinning rod in an afternoon. That shot has bugged me since I was little and still didn't understand that lightsabers were supposed to be made of light... because of that broken effect, I thought they extended rods like a collapsible radio antenna, and those extending rods lit up with energy and became the blades, and that Obi-Wan's saber was faulty.

I didn't mind them replacing several of the Death Star battle scenes with CG ships; the original model shots were kinda dull & plodding, based on old dogfight footage of fighter planes. The CG added more dynamic motion to the ships, which was a nice help.

Anyway... yeah, lots of unnecessary 'fixes', and many things missed that shouldn't have been, but a cleaned-up 'original' version would be nice to see someday.

[K-Nut]

Bit generic for my tastes, but not a terrible title. I'm sure it'll make sense with the content of the film. Then again, without seeing the films ESB and RotJ can seem like silly titles.

[Venkefedo]

Bit generic for my tastes, but not a terrible title. I'm sure it'll make sense with the content of the film. Then again, without seeing the films ESB and RotJ can seem like silly titles.

At least we can all rest easy knowing it's a better title than "Attack of the Clones" (pfft, lousy clones swooping in for a rescue in the last 20 minutes, barely an 'attack' at all)

[Faefrost]

Still a much better and more interesting title than "The Phantom Menace".

[Mr Man]

An unaltered version of the original trilogy is as bad as the new ones. Some things NEEDED fixing. The crappy lightsaber effects in ANH. The hover "field" under the speeder. Etc.

It's about smart enhancements. The problem is a lot are dumb. Like Vader's additional "no"s or Han shooting second.

Hey, I agree with you on something .

Instead of buggering around with adding more rocks around R2 in ANH or making Jabbas door 3 times bigger on the outside as it is on the inside, it would be a much better use of time to re do all the Lightsabres, holograms, and lasers in the OT (and remove the deeper colours and stupid points in ROTS).

Some of the bigger changes where great, the CGI extensions to cloud city (the vanishing windows not withstanding), the CGI in the Battle of Yavin (that really made it come alive and added excitement). Even some of the voice work was good (Replacing the voice of Bobba, contentious I know ).

Imagine how much more epic (an already epic) a battle, the Battle of Endor would have been with a boost in numbers of command ships.

I think the problem is not that the OT has been edited, it's that there is no unaltered release in full HD.

Also the current SEs are badly and inconsistently done: Some matte boxes around some TIEs have been removed, some haven't (including the same TIE in a different shot), Lightsabres are still crap, Jabbas TARDIS, The Falcon missing the centre strut on its cockpit canopy on the set, but not on the model, masks that can be seen through, spliced shots, crappy holograms. The SEs of the PT have really bad colour filters making peoples skin greenish, the colours of the Lightsabres (in AOTC and ROTS) are too intense, Jar-Jar hasn't been edited out.

[Praiter Yed]

An unaltered version of the original trilogy is as bad as the new ones. Some things NEEDED fixing. The crappy lightsaber effects in ANH. The hover "field" under the speeder. Etc.

It's about smart enhancements. The problem is a lot are dumb. Like Vader's additional "no"s or Han shooting second.

Some people enjoy the 'crappy lightsaber effects' & 'hover "field"'. Some people want to see the film they saw in their youth, warts and all. Plus, Star Wars is a film of historical significance - it should be preserved and presented in its original format.

Do you also think that other old films should have 'enhancements'? For example, Jason and the Argonauts could have some cgi skeletons added because the current ones look a bit fake...

Edited November 7, 2014 by Praiter Yed

[Brickadeer]

Still a much better and more interesting title than "The Phantom Menace".

That's a fine title. I don't hate it, I don't love it. But I could be made to hate it or love it depending how well it fits the film. The Phantom Menace is a great title on its own, but does it fit the film? Nope!

The Phantom Menace is the perfect title for Episode 1 because it is directly referring to Sheev and how he's basically setting in motion all of the events of the films. Anyway, I digress.

I always liked the title "The Phantom Menace" because of its double meaning. First, it can be understood as referring to the fact that the driving force behind the events is unknown. Second, it can be understood as referring to the fact that it is (so to say) not a real, but a fabricated threat.

"A New Hope"can be understood as referring to the aspect that the rebellion might succeed, so that after the destruction of the Death Star and the rebellion's military success there is a new hope for the people who hate the empire and know of the respective events. And it can be equally understood as referring to the emergence of a new Jedi apprentice, something that is obvious to the audience, but not for the characters in the film who have to deal with the threat.

This distinction, information available to the audience and information available to characters in the film, can be applied to both cases, and I'd expect that the new title has such a double meaning as well.

Edited November 9, 2014 by Brickadeer

[the last chronicler]

I'm a more recent fan, but I've really thought about the whole SE vs. originals argument and if Disney gains the original trilogy rights they should do the Star Wars re-release as a two disk edition with an "Classic Cut" and "Original Theatrical Edition."

"The Original Theatrical Edition" is self explanatory as including the original films, as first released, restored.

BUT The "Classic Cut" would edge out the SE, matching the Original films' cut and therefore NOT adding anything new and only cleaning up obvious flaws in visual effects and any other goofs. Star Wars 1977 will have the subtitle A New Hope added and Empire will have the monkey-Emperor replaced with the final version. This way, over time, the "Classic Cut" can become the official version of Star Wars, having internal continuity as well as name and numerical continuity.

Note: Return of the Jedi's ending was altered in many ways in the SE. Not only does it make sense to remove the celebrating cities and return to the original song for the sake of matching the original ending, but it also makes sense for the continuing conflict in Episode VII. Unfortunately the big issue comes to Haden Christianson, as the argument for matching the original films and the bias of hating the prequels come in conflict with keeping up continuity. Since I'm considering added scenes like Jabba in ANH 'fake' continuity, Haden may fall under that category.

Edited November 9, 2014 by the last chronicler