Hurin

Ya know, this (in bold above) was my biggest gripe with Lucas ever since Jedi, and it had gotten progressively worse in each film since. But I think one of the reasons I enjoyed Sith so much was because this is dialed way back in both quanity and degree. . . almost to pre-Jedi levels.

Hurin, why don't you try to restrain yourself from tarring everybody who disagrees with you with the same brush. Nobody is telling you that you *must* like the prequels, or that your opinion *must* agree with the rest of ours. What we *are* trying to get across to you and others who share your opinion (they know who they are) is that you can actually discuss these things without resorting to childish, overblown hyperbole such as "childhood rapings." THAT is the reason that the "fanboy" label gets thrown around, not because you disagree with our opinions. You're free to put on your best Comic Book Guy face and make declarations about the "Worst. ______ Ever." but you should expect to be treated as such. Stupid overreactions like "Raped Childhoods" are a large part of why SF fans get looked down on. That, and Trekkies. The problem with this is that I'm not the one who used the "rape" phrase at all and have actually said (twice) immediately above that doing so is lame. Indeed, the irony is that I was addressing someone who was engaging in the very same behavior your post is meant to decry. How is calling someone a "moron" and then attempting to seize some type of moral high-ground by claiming moral offense at the use of the word "rape" any better than someone using the infamous rape phase? I'm really at a loss to explain your post since I really don't recall "resorting to childish, overblown hyperbole such as 'childhood rapings.'" Seriously, what are you talking about? Anyways, I saw the movie. I liked it a lot. Though, we were surrounded by about ten f'ing punk kids from the local university (freshmen, by the look of them) and I had to turn around and threaten bodily harm in my old fogey way to get them to shut the hell up when they were still laughing and commenting (very loudly) halfway through the yellow crawl. One of them thought it would be hilarious to yell "Shut up" at everyone who cheered when "Star Wars" blazed on the screen (no, I wasn't one of those cheering). I almost snapped there. But when they continued, I finally just turned around and pulled an Agent ONE. Suprisingly, they shut up after that except for when they laughed heartily and forcedly whenever children were either killed, or their killing was alluded to. I kid you not. Our latest generation is broken. So, anyways, I liked it. The acting wasn't as bad as reported. The wookie scream was inaudbile (not even sure I heard it and definitely would not have if I hadn't been tipped off). I didn't think Portman was that wooden at all, and all the "lame" lines of dailogue (with a few exceptions) didn't sound nearly as lame as I feared they would. So, what else? Oh, Vader's hands looked too small. H

Hehe. Maybe I won't notice the scream then. Thus saving the theater operator the expense of a "urine extraction" line-item showing up on their next screen cleaning bill.

At 80 words-per-minute, it's not exactly hurting me. I can type faster than you can talk. But since I think you may be mildly retarded, that's not saying much. But, yes, you're correct. Inane ramblings from the thought police do tend to get me typing. Congrats! Impressive. Most impressive. Edit: Now don't go defending retarded people, Mr. Sensitive.

Valk Exchange is a bit pricier lately. But you can't do much better as far as service, security, and well-packaged/preserved items go.

Oh God! Make it stop! He called me a fan boy again! I'm devastated! You've got nothing.

Well, since you obviously have no response other than that pathetic tripe, maybe you'll stop derailing the thread with personal attacks ("moron") and feigned moral outrage at a perfectly legitimate (though lame) use of a word.

You really want to start a "who's the bigger fanboy" debate here? Okay! I wouldn't be so quick to do so given what you've been writing about Star Wars lately though. After all, it appears you were there in line on opening day (or midnight before!). What did you dress up as? Did you read the latest EU novel while in line? God, you guys crack me up. You dismiss anyone who criticizes the movies as "fanboys". . . but so many of you are sycophantic fanatics yourselves. You kept it under wraps for a while, but now that a new movie is out, you're all quoting EU novels and obscure trivia!

Dude. . . puh-leaze. . . I'm sorry that you know people who have been raped. So have I. That doesn't mean I now patrol the internet making sure that people don't "misuse" the word. I also find it odd that, after all the times this has been debated here, you choose to bring this up now. Why weren't you so seriously offended before? I know you've seen the phrase here before. Where were you when we were discussing (at length) rape in Macross Plus? I was trying to convince people of the brutal nature of the act and the fact that no rape probably could have taken place because Myung would never forgive Guld for such a brutal, horrific act. Where were you? I could have used your moral outrage! But, if you want to be all pissy and pedantic. . . in case you didn't know, there are multiple meanings for the word rape. Buy a dictionary. The crime of forcing another person to submit to sex acts, especially sexual intercourse. The act of seizing and carrying off by force; abduction. Abusive or improper treatment; violation: a rape of justice. So, lighten up and go sell your moral outrage somewhere else. Nobody's buying here. I realize you've been bored with MW for a while now. But trying to stir up drama like this is beneath you. H

Awww crap! I'm sorry, but that's just the last nail in the "Lucas is a cinematically tone-deaf ass-clown" coffin. As if one was needed. Well, I already have my tickets to see the movie in two hours. Maybe if I rythmically repeat to myself: "They're his movies. He is a genius. My opinion doesn't matter. All his movies are equally good". . . over and over again as some type of mantra until the lights dim in the theater, I may be able to stop myself from rising from my seat and unceremoniously pissing on the screen when I have to hear once again a wookie imitate a movie icon from a far away galaxy in the future. H Edit: Fixed orphaned italics tag

Please, please tell me that you are referring to RotJ and that he didn't do this again in RotS! H

Oh, we're calling people "morons" now for disliking Lucas's vision for the last three movies. Thanks. I missed that memo. As for you being "insulted" by his use of the word rape. . . it may be lame. . . but "insulting?" Lighten up, Mr. Sensitive. H

i highly doubt the 20 valks you're trying to get is going to put a dent in the yamato stock, all these folks are just crazy. I think he's saying that, if he can't get as many as he wants, he'll be okay with it. I don't think he was offering his valks up to try to sate demand. H

Just go slow and sound each word out, sweetie. You'll be okay. . .

And while we're at it, how about Watto and that green chick who gets eaten by the rancor! H

If you hit the wrong ones, he does seem to use a few too many 10-cent words. But there are also short entries. . . and some that are quite breezy. Don't give up on it too quickly. Here's one of my favorite (humorous) entries:

I think it will be made explicit in the movie that he is using an electronic device to modify his voice. It may not be true to the comics, but I think that explains the odd sound to his voice and also makes a certain amount of sense. His voice definitely had an electronice sound to it to me. H P.S. Couldn't stand Keaton as Batman either. I didn't like the fact that Batman's status as a perfect human specimen fell by the wayside. Keaton wasn't buff at all, and couldn't even pull Vickey Vale back up onto a ledge whereas the "real" Batman could have done it with his pinky finger.

Except for the part where he doesn't? Shaw still plays Anakin when his helmet is removed.

Sundown, I appreciate and agree with nearly everything you have said regarding the replacement of Shaw with Christiensen. My biggest problem with it, however, is. . . shouldn't Yoda and Kenobi be really pissed that they need to spend the rest of eternity as old fogeys while this jerk who killed all the jedi gets to be a young, handsome punk? Just another "problem" introduced by the change. As with so much else, Lucas was so enamoured with the idea that he could make a change, he never stopped to ask if he should. But remember, he's the creator, and apparently, even though he has drastically changed his outlook towards his own movies over the last twenty years, we are not to criticize anything he chooses to do with his movies. Because they are his and everything he does with them (or retroactively does to them twenty years later) is a good idea. And if you disagree with this infallibility, you're a fanboy. Oh, and all the movies are the same. H

I think the problem, Max, is that they're saying that he isn't smiling and doesn't look happy at all. H

You can purchase it from YesAsia.com or from Amazon Japan. It ain't cheap though. Also, be aware of the interlacing issues it displays on a computer screen as described in my review of the DVD here. I'm actually working on a way to remove these display issues from the video stream. Basically, I'm looking at doing a process called IVTC to the video stream. However, the original DVD was mastered so poorly (just dumped as interlaced video into an MPEG encoder) that I have to do it manually. Usually, as long as the DVD was mastered even semi-competently, you can use a relatively automated to IVTC a 30fps video stream back to its original 24fps film frames. But not in this case. IVTC-ing of any kind does entail re-encoding the video to MPEG. And while I don't think any visual quality loss will be visible to the naked eye (and there is quite an increase in quality due to the removal of the interlacing issues for a net gain in quality), it's a looong process of looking at each and every field and frame of video in the stream (That's something like 400,000 frames). After a whole week, I'm only at frame 5,000. And, to throw more doubt on the project, it may not work out in the end. But, if it does, we'll have the ability for everyone who downloads these subtitles to also have the option of transforming the video stream back to a very close approximation of the original 24fps film rather than the mangled 30fps interlaced (and then re-interlaced) video stream currently on the DVD. Best Regards, Hurin

What exactly is a workprint? Is it pre-post-production? Or is it the finished film? I wouldn't download it. Just curious. H

Well, I left out the part where I would normally say: "to undo, as much as possible, the damage that the prequels have done to the classic characters."

All you Qui-Gon junkies need to read this from the Blog of Darth Vader: This takes place (in RotJ) just as Luke is led away from Vader on Endor, to be flown to the Death Star. . . They should have this guy re-write the novels anew, taking the prequels into account. H

But the inverse of that argument is that all you "pro-prequel/they're all the same" guys are such nostalgia-influenced fanboys that you are blind to the glaring flaws and horrible choices that George Lucas has made with Star Wars. Oddly, however, those who think Star Wars ran off the tracks with Jedi (if I recall correctly, that came out when I was a kid and I loved it back then), go to great pains to divest themselves of this charge. . . whereas those who so lovingly defend each and every film are the ones most vocally accusing the critics of being fanboys. In keeping with this point I tried to make above: I'm noticing that a lot of the people who have casted around accusations of "fanboy-ness" towards those who are critical of the new films also seem to have attended midnight showings of EpIII and/or have already seen the movie very early on opening day. I always knew you guys were the real fanboys! Did you dress up?