Star Wars - Classic or Dud?

The Phantom Menace really wasn't that bad, I don't know what the fuss was about. So what if it didn't have a plot? Wow, were those special effects ever cool, and Ewan McGreggor, phew! Even in bad hair and doing Alec Guiness's accent, he's still a hottie!

Personally I liked it well enough, seen everything except TPM twice, seen TPM once. That's enough for me, really. I'm sympathetic to the view that the vast amount of attention paid to SW is a bad thing but you can just ignore it.

I haven't seen them in ages either though. I have all the tapes, but haven't watched them since I was a kid. There are some great double entendres in them, if I remember. Something along the lines of:

Darth Vader: 'My son is near. I felt him' Emperor: 'It is strange I have not felt him'

Well dodgy. And of course Han Solo says 'Let's blow this thing and go home.'

I don't understand TPM haters though, they get very uppity about it, as if the original series was a feat of fantastic writing and acting, the acting at the very least in TPM is better.

But silly pseudo-technical babble is what makes sci-fi so GRATE!!! I mean, honestly, does anyone here actually know what a tachyon *is*? Yet they seem critically important in every episode of Star Trek ever. Come on...

Taking Sides: American Graffiti (Lucas) vs. Duel (Spielberg)?

*sigh*

Classic.

Childhood sense of wonder = not, particularly, activated by Star Wars. (Dr Who, however....)

Your answer = weird desire to fence stuff off against discussion. See also: Replacements thread.

But is he right or was he on crack? I can think of no occurrence of EITHER idea in SF prior to this, and these days I sometimes KNOW WHAT I'M'TALKING ABOUT!!

However, I think it HIGHLY unlikely that my dad had Ra in mind (or had even heard of him in 1977). He meant movies and (even more) pulp 50s books.

It's funny mark, I remember my dad raving to *me* (after going by himself first, the bastard) about the aliens etc., I think he went to see it at the drive in, something like four times that summer. We always did have a ridiculous amount of sci-fi books around the house, he was a real fan, so I think he'd been waiting for that kind of scene for his entire life - and if *he* thought it was a film revolution, I'm inclined to believe.

http://www.guitarpunk.com/SW-85DV-close.jpg

http://www.guitarpunk.com/VADER-ZO%20with%20Soft.jpg

That means Star Wars is cool, no?

I can see a certain very cool cat playing one of these, but by god would he have to be cool. Something in the vein of goofpunk that is not necessarily goofy; just a band that has no image projection and acts stoopid. I could see the Dwarves playing this back in the day and getting away with it. Or the Dickies.

-- Kim (grimstitc...), June 18th, 2001.

It was called "Lapti Nek" and I can still sing it (phonetically)!!!

I've always thought that it should have stopped there. I don't care for Empire... and everything past that is garbage.

WARNING!! contains the climactic "blunt-smoking" sequence!

I haven't followed this closely, but I wouldn't be surprised if given the lackluster box office Rian Johnson shared the fate of Phil Lord and Christopher Miller, never to helm a Disney film again.

― Bad wig continuity (Sanpaku), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 7:09 AM (nine months ago)

also Lord & Miller have made literally hundreds of millions of dollars for Sony and Warner and MGM, just because Kathleen Kennedy didn't like the idea of them making a fun movie a) doesn't mean no other Disney-owned company will ever work with them again, and b) if it did, they only have every other film company in the world to go to

― we used to get our kicks reading surfing MAGAzines (sic), Tuesday, June 5, 2018 7:55 AM (nine months ago)

in addition to every other way in which Sanpaku was offtm in this thread, let's note that Lord & Miller's next film was for Disney and has taken $372,831,270 in three months

also also nothing about Johnson's career suggests that work-for-hire on Disney properties was his endgoal, he'd probably be totally fulfilled to go back to his own ideas and Mountain Goats videos if Undead Walt truly cast him out onto the salt flats

tho it is with a humble heart that I acknowledge Johnson's next project was an LCD Soundsystem video, and that his subsequent film had a budget 25% higher than Looper

let's note that Lord & Miller's next film was for Disney

yeah but y'know

Come on, sic, it's not like you to ignore some pedantry! :)

It’s a Disney property!

RIP to Peter Mayhew

https://www.facebook.com/thewookieeroars/posts/2375211675851881

RIP big man.

:((((

I watched Empire with my kids this weekend - the Despecialized Edition OF COURSE - and was struck again how much it's about friendship. from the very beginning Han risks his life to save his friend, who's out in the storm. They all just care about each other so much. Chewie cares about threepio. He goes and finds him and puts him back together. Luke famously cares 'too much' about Han and Leia and walks into a trap. It's about Han and Lando's old friendship, which isn't reliable, until it is. It's Leia's extremely ambiguous relationship with Luke. It's Han and Leia being more than friends, yet also being friends. It's all these very strong personal bonds and feelings that propel everything.

Friendship is great and all but it doesn't make up for a dearth of Death Stars imo.

Episode V: The Dearth Star.

My kids kept calling the star destroyers 'Death Stars' and i kept correcting them like an asshole

We all noticed - for the first time!! - the REALLY big fucking ships that are like as big as 10 star destroyers, none of us had any idea what they were

I mean your kid is fucking wrong to call them Death Stars you’re right to stamp that shit out

he REALLY big fucking ships that are like as big as 10 star destroyers, none of us had any idea what they were

― Li'l Brexit (Tracer Hand)

Those are Super Star Destroyers.

checks out!

Get that same nerfherder fuzzy feeling from the friendship between The Mandalorian and his little Nick Nolte-as-pig buddy on the new TV series. Definitely helps tie it in to the vibe of the first films. For some reason the same vibe has eluded me in the new trilogy, fun as the films have been. Maybe Dexster Jetster (sic) and Obi Wan's friendship came closest (I kid, I kid...)?

Those are Super Star Destroyers.

― chap, Monday, November 18, 2019 6:54 AM (five minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

Long ago, in a galaxy far away
I blew your ship apart during the second film
https://media.npr.org/assets/img/2013/02/04/karencarpenter_wide-0e9215459c1deb191a12aacfb2d0e7175a035b88-s800-c85.jpg

speaking of nerf-herding.. It’s all that little bickering between basically everybody that helps make the friendships real. I agree the new ones, for all their fun, lack that

Finn and Rey bicker a bit in TFA don't they?

Space millennials don't bicker, they problem solve constructively and provide unconditional support and feedback to their peers.

yeah kinda!

chap i we’ll let you know once we get to it - approx 2 weeks time.

(i don't remember it myself)

Rewatched TFA last night and can confirm that yes they do

Thoroughly enjoyed the film too. Yes it's derivative as hell but still hard not to get goosebumps during those shots of Rey driving through the desert with the downed Star Destroyers and X-Wings in the background, the first shot of the 'garbage' ship etc

If you slice open a shit, there is a rich layer of complexity there as well.

― ©Oz Quiz© (Adam Bruneau), Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:06 PM bookmarkflaglink

"wildly imaginative"

― Οὖτις, Wednesday, May 13, 2015 1:06 PM bookmarkflaglink

Maybe this is common knowledge to Star Wars fans, but I only found this out a couple of days ago and I keep thinking about it, regarding the origin of the name "Darth Vader", from wikipedia:

Other words which may have inspired the name are "death" and "invader",[12] as well as the name of a high school upperclassman of Lucas's, Gary Vader.

Gary Vader

um sorry a circular turd with no obvious weld line would be pretty amazing, i would at least tell my closest friends if not my fb feed

― demonic mnevice (Jon Lewis), Tuesday, May 12, 2015 2:12 PM (four years ago) bookmarkflaglink

I think about this post often.

pretty sweet poster

Happy Star Wars day! Poster art of the Star Wars cantina, by Bill Selby, 1978. https://t.co/GGm5KG7UXk pic.twitter.com/nE3RxBUkMD

— Covered Dish People (@doctorow) May 4, 2020

Extremely cool, although I wish it had Lak Sivrak in it.

Some news:

https://www.starwars.com/news/taika-waititi-announce

Academy Award® winner Taika Waititi, who recently won Best Adapted Screenplay for Jojo Rabbit and directed the widely-acclaimed first season finale episode of The Mandalorian on Disney+, will direct and co-write a new Star Wars feature film for theatrical release.

Joining Waititi on the screenplay will be Academy Award® nominee Krysty Wilson-Cairns (1917, Last Night in Soho), who received a BAFTA Award for Outstanding British Film of the Year on the three-time Oscar-winning film, 1917.

In addition, Emmy®-nominated writer Leslye Headland (Russian Doll, Bachelorette) is currently developing a new untitled Star Wars series for Disney+. Headland will write, executive produce, and serve as showrunner for the series.

Awesome news!!

i feel like some posters here will enjoy this. Tuomas in particular i remember wanting something like this.

https://www.thestarwarstrilogy.com/project-4k77/

Oh and I found this for you all

https://i.imgur.com/BCwGQCG.jpg

I can’t stop laughing at the idea that Wookies are about as smart as dogs but Han Solo doesn’t know that because he’s an alien so he just fully treats him like a man and Chewbacca has like 30% idea what’s going on and meanwhile Han is letting him drive a spaceship

— Daniel Kibblesmith (@kibblesmith) August 3, 2020

There's a great follow up tweet to that as well, something like - "that's why Chewie doesn't get a medal, and why Leia thinks Han is a moron."

https://uploads.poplyft.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/23030207/Volkswagen-Dog-Star-Wars-Theme-3.jpg

We were watching New Hope last night and had the brightness on the TV pumped up all the way and saw something new: Vader’s eyes (Proswe’s eyes) clearly visible through his dark crimson visage in at least two scenes, notably during the final Death Star run. Weird

have been watching the original trilogy for christmas, those "despecialized" versions

great stuff

this scene really is too sad ;_;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q19IGr-xeuA

When an Ewok dies, he murders some part of the world
These are the pale deaths which men miscall their lives

the original Dobby

Around 2003 in Chile, when the original trilogy of Star Wars began airing on television there, they did this funny thing to avoid cutting to commercial breaks. They stitched the commercials into the films themselves. Here is one of them, with the English dub added in. pic.twitter.com/wC7N2vPNvv

— Windy 🛸 (@heyitswindy) March 2, 2024

The Truly Special Edition

There is more. It's making this film watchable.

Palpatine You Have To Stop. You Smoke Too Tough. Your Swag Too Different. Your Bitch Is Too Bad. They’ll Kill You pic.twitter.com/rAbW8xUawQ

— Windy 🛸 (@heyitswindy) March 2, 2024

this is the funniest fucking thing ever oh my god https://t.co/XXDzkmxuON pic.twitter.com/spMRtArFvb

— Ren (@StanNajimi) March 3, 2024

Someone shared that with me yesterday and I couldn't breathe.

Right down to the cheesy jingle

what are you talking about that's one of the most powerful commercial jingles ever made

I've been singing "Cerveza Cristal" in that rock voice all day!

There is a Chilean restaurant kinda near me that I haven't been to for a while and I wonder if they have that beer. Might have to go.

I have to say that, as amazing as this concept is, I'm a little disappointed that they apparently only utilized it in advertising Cerveza Cristal. Like why not a shot of Darth Vader in his chamber lowering his helmet and pulling on a pair of Depends pañales para adultos.

i love the implication that everyone in star wars have secret beers hidden everywhere and are constantly riding a 3-beer buzz

"Your sad devotion to that ancient religion hasnt helped you conjure of the stolen data tapes!... "

*smacks lips, eyes start absently scanning the room, tilts head back to "casually" peek under nearby chairs*