Star Wars Episode VII - The Force Awakens (SPOILERS)

Discussion in 'Media Central' started by Black Dove, Jun 2, 2014.

  1. Diacanu

    Diacanu Comicmike. Writer

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    Now, now, I won't hear that.

    ROTJ has many a flaw, but it has slave bikini Leia, speeder bikes, and the final Luke/Vader/Palpatine fight, and "it's a trap!".
    Thanks to DVD, you can go right to those parts.
    :dendroica:
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  2. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    I mostly agree with Black Dove, but I'm also with Aurora, in that I find all six movies highly entertaining. Where I differ from her is that I consider the original cuts superior to any of the re-releases.

    Anyway, back to Episode VII. I have no doubt it will entertain. Disney has never failed when it comes to good eye candy, and the much diminished Lucas presence should be good for the story telling (which is another Disney strength). I think it could very well turn out as one of the best Star Wars movies ever made.
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  3. Paladin

    Paladin Overjoyed Man of Liberty

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    Slave bikini Leia makes up for a lot of RotJ's flaws. I was 14 the year it came out; Carrie Fisher was responsible for a considerable amount of chaffing on my part. (Heh heh, I said "on my part.")

    Just want to second a few things said upthread:

    1. Most SE changes damaged the films rather than enhanced them. There is no improvement in the SEs that makes what was lost worthwhile.

    2. If Star Wars wasn't bonded to your soul in 1977, the PT films are perfectly acceptable space fantasy fare and the box office returns back that up. But for many of us, the magic of the OT was missing.
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  4. ed629

    ed629 Morally Inept Banned

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    JJ Abrams response to the leaked Millennium Falcon pics.

    [​IMG]
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  5. Dayton Kitchens

    Dayton Kitchens Banned

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    bikini Leia? Bah, There are lots of better looking actresses you can find in movies.

    Besides which it makes no sense as to why Jabba would find a bikini clad Leia the least bit interesting. To him she would probably have the same attractiveness a slug would to us.

    Even worse, ROTJ was during the depths of Carrie Fisher's cocaine addiction IIRC and you can tell with her wooden acting and glassy eyed look.
  6. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    When I first heard that they were making Episode 7 I was sceptikal. I think a lot of people are. When I heard JJ Abrahms was directing I became slightly less sceptikal. I don't want to say JJ ruined Trek because he didn't, but he did do some things that I flat out hate. It's not intirely his fault though, let's face it, Orci and Kutzman are not good writers. JJ has mad some pretty horrible movies. Super 8 and Cloverfirld sucked. Having said that, I know that JJ is a huge Wars fan and it seems like he knows what made Star Wars so great. With these pics of practical effects and real sets, I'm starting to become more excited about this movie.

    I have no problem with CGI if it's used properly. The CGI in the Marvel movies are great. The CGI in Godzilla was great. CGI isn't bad unto itself, but when actors are acting on a stage with nothing but a green screen, it diminishes their performance. One of the best examples of practical effects mixed with modern effects is the movie Moon. The director used models and build real sets for that movie and used CGI where it was needed. They used real models and added CGI to add more layers, they added dirt and light reflections and gave the models a more metallic look to them. For the space scenes and backgrounds they used a real set and added stars and the Earth in the background. This is the type of approach I want to see with any movie, not just SCIFI.

    I mean, Cristopher Nolan used real locations and built sets and models on the Batman movies and those movies look great. Even when you look at the first Alien movie, the movie just looks great. Yeah, some of it looks dated , but there's no reason why that couldn't be cleaned up and enhanced in another release. The interior of the ship looks real because it is real. It was a real set, not a green screen with actors sitting at a table. The face huggerwas a real thing, not a digital effect put in later. CGI IMO is meant to enhance a film, not replace people places and things.

    So far, we've seen very little, but what we have seen is real objects that the actors can interact with and practical effects. I'm sure some things will be CGI and it must be, but I really hope JJ gets it and will work with as much real stuff as possible . Hopefully he'll bring us full circle and show the world that you can still make good movies without only relying in CGI. This is true film making.

    I'll still remain sceptikal because it is JJ Abrahms and because the prequels weren't as good and because it could be that he only uses a few practical effects and the rest is CGI, but I definitely feel better about the movie than I did when it was first announced.

    On a side note, I'm glad to see the wall of secrecy is down a little. I doubt this is JJ's doing, bit I'm hoping Disney tell him it's okay to give people little nuggets every once in a while. I mean pictures of the set don't reveal anything about the plot and if I start to see huge plot spoilers, I will shy away from this film. I doubt want to be spoiled, but I wouldn't mind a few non-spoiler pics now and then.
  7. Diacanu

    Diacanu Comicmike. Writer

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    I think the "wall of secrecy", has to come down more.

    I mean, don't spoil plot, but give us a fucking title, and what the spinoff movies are going to be about.

    Marvels is telling us their phase 3 plans fer chrissakes.

    What makes Star Wars on such a high pedestal?
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  8. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    I also want to add that I hope JJ doesn't do to the Falcon what he did to the Enterprise by changing the interiors of the ship. I see the Falcon as sort if Han's restored muscle car, you make to give her new engine parts, but you don't dare change the original look of the car.
  9. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    I don't think the Falcon will look substantially different. AwesomeTrek™ was an intentional re-imaging of Trek, which can't be said regarding Episode VII's relationship with the rest of Star Wars.
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  10. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    Yeah, but how many of them were Princess Lea, the love object for every 13 year old boy in America?
    You seem to have missed why he did that. He didn't find her physically attractive, he enjoyed humiliating her (which no doubt did make her sexier to some in the audience).
    That didn't interfere with how she looked in the bikini.
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  11. ed629

    ed629 Morally Inept Banned

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    There were two women in the original trilogy, and Dayton manages find everything wrong with one of them. Are you surprised?
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  12. Sean the Puritan

    Sean the Puritan Endut! Hoch Hech!

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    :marathon: There were?
  13. ed629

    ed629 Morally Inept Banned

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    Oh wait.... the dancers at Jabba's, the Twins at the Cantina, and Aunt Beru.
  14. Paladin

    Paladin Overjoyed Man of Liberty

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    I think J.J.'s Star Wars will look very much a continuation of the original trilogy.

    That said, I hope the new Falcon will have some small differences from the old one. After all, it's been 30 years; the thing must've been overhauled a few times. At a minimum, there'll need to be a new deflector dish to replace the one Lando scraped off in RotJ.
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  15. Diacanu

    Diacanu Comicmike. Writer

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    At the least, some new game cartridges for that holo-table.
    I mean, monster-chess has to be old by now.
    Get some Robot Unicorn Attack, or Angry Birds on there.
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  16. NAHTMMM

    NAHTMMM Perpetually sondering

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    Yes, and the title still works, in both the context of the movie itself and the context of the trilogy (as we see New Hope Luke mature and ultimately become a key part of the final victory). Here the title would be chosen from the beginning.
  17. Shirogayne

    Shirogayne Gay™ Formerly Important

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    Funny you mention that....as a kid, I first saw SW when Lucas re-released the OT in '97, and without knowing anything about the actors, it was obvious that Carrie Fisher looked REALLY off in episode 5. Like, she had no cheek fat and I chalked off the lack of color cuz of being on Hoth. :unsure:
  18. Dayton Kitchens

    Dayton Kitchens Banned

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    One thing I've always hated though about Star Wars.

    It seems that in Star Wars, both the movies and in other material that they are forever introducing something that everyone thinks is "ancient" or "legendary" and yet shortly thereafter we see that "ancient" & "legendary" means "last Thursday".
  19. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    What do you have in mind @Dayton3? Off the top of my head, I'm not coming up with much.
  20. ed629

    ed629 Morally Inept Banned

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    Same thing with Trek, they have to be converted, coerced, etc... until he gets the the Star Wars he wants.
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  21. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    I wonder if he'll change the color of the hyper drive from blue to red? Or the dish is replaced with the Enterprises dish from TOS?

    I think the look of Star Wars will remain mostly the same, but I do wonder if we will see some advancement of technology and I wonder what kind of lightsaber Luke has. I also wonder if they'll change the look of the Jedi robes. Also, I hope Han has a new set of clothes. The blue pants, white shirt and vest should have been donated to the Salvation Troopers by now.

    Lastly, no Beastie Boys.
  22. Dayton Kitchens

    Dayton Kitchens Banned

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    In Star Wars, it was implied that the "force" was the equivalent of an "ancient religion" and that Darth Vader was a bit odd to be a practitioner of it.

    Yet in the next movies we discover that the era of the Jedi Knights who frequently used the force was well within the memory of most of the adults of the series.
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  23. Dayton Kitchens

    Dayton Kitchens Banned

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    I have the Star Wars I want Ed. It came out in 1977 and a brilliant sequel came out in 1980. A lesser sequel came out in 1983 but then a series of books by Timothy Zahn kept things going quite well.
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  24. gul

    gul Revolting Beer Drinker Administrator Formerly Important

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    Hmm, in the version I saw, it was revealed that the force had been a commonly used tool by the Jedi Knights only a generation prior to the General of little faith mocking Vader. It was a derisive comment made with the intent of embarrassing a rival, not exposition for the audience.
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  25. Quincunx

    Quincunx anti-anti-establishment Staff Member Administrator

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    The Star Wars universe isn't really a place for technological advancement. That's one big clue that it isn't really science fiction, it's fantasy fiction that happens to be set in space. The technology is just there. Not much fantasy literature deals with advances in sword-making technology.

    Most religions can be considered ancient, even if they survive in some form to the present day. Besides, the Jedi Knights were basically a secret society with highly esoteric doctrines and practices that would not have been comprehensible to the average military officer. They were probably seen as a bunch of kooks with a "hokey religion" even before they were almost wiped out.
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  26. Dayton Kitchens

    Dayton Kitchens Banned

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    While we're on the subject of the Jedi I have too questions:

    IIRC, in The Phantom Menace when it comes to the question of training Anakin (future Vader), Liam Neeson's Jedi character is for it while the Jedi Council considers him too old and does not want to.

    I believe Obiwan Kenobi says to him "You're not going to defy the council again are you?"

    How had Qui ed Droma or whatever defied the Jedi Council before and for what reasons?

    Secondly..

    In Attack of the Clones, Mace Windu in session with the Jedi Council mentions there being "few of us left". This implies that the Jedi were rather weak in terms of numbers they traditionally had at that point.

    Why were the Jedi weak at that point?
  27. K.

    K. Sober

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    You mean that enormous palace in the capital with the constant envoys from and to government and the gigantic school for the "younglings" next door?
    ...who staffed the upper officer ranks of the clone army, that eventually became the storm troopers?
  28. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Christianity is an ancient religion, yet people still practice it. The questioning of the force could make sense by the timeline of ANH. Imagine if for the past 2,000 years since Jesus died there were other people who could preform miracles. Then some time in the late 1970s, some guy just decided to kill all the Christians except a few were in hiding. A whole generation or two wouldn't even know that they existed unless someone told them. Sure, there may have been rumors and maybe stories. Some people would believe it, some wouldn't. Of course older people would be fully aware that those people existed, but maybe they never actually saw one. Maybe they did, but for the past 30 years they've been led to believe that the Christians were traitors. Maybe they are forbidden to even talk about them. As time goes by, most people start to forget they even existed and furthermore, think they are a myth or just a bunch of swindlers that never really had the powers that they claimed to have had. I find that concept very believable. In fact, we have people on this very thread who call Christianity a bunch of mumbo jumbo made up by Bronze Age assholes who just wanted to control the population. It's highly conceivable that someone who was born slightly before Order 66 or after could question whether the force exists at all.
  29. Diacanu

    Diacanu Comicmike. Writer

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    No one in China remembers tank man just 25 years later.
    :shrug:
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  30. Steal Your Face

    Steal Your Face Anti-Federalist

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    Apparently they don't teach that in the history classes. They are forbidden to discuss it.
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