SARS Wars

[dnl2ba]

Er, Star Wars. Ep III trailer mirror 1 (http://erie.nlm.nih.gov/%7Edave/Ep3_trailer_full.avi) / trailer mirror 2 (http://people.deas.harvard.edu/%7Epmillett/media/Ep3_trailer_full.avi).

So um, it looks totally awesome. But then, I was also stoked about Episode I and I held out hope for Ep II. Is this just the Attack of the Guys Who Are Really Good at Trailers, or is this the real deal?

I maintain that the Empire was just a sissy blip in the cosmos. Palpatine ruled for what, 30 years at most? The Old Republic lasted for thousands of years. Darth Shot-His-Load-too-Early probably got dumped in the Death Chute before the frontier had even heard of his coup.

Random Ep II question. Did the massive clone army lead to a frustrating relative shortage of women in the galaxy?

[Rhys]

Maybe they only cloned gay men. Murderous gay men.

[schally]

I gotta download codecs to watch this thing. Anyway.

The Old Republic lasted tens of thousands of years. That's quite a run.

Sure, the Empire's run was a blip, but it was the first blip in over 10,000 years. That's still pretty impressive.

[Ballz]

I gotta download codecs to watch this thing. Anyway.


Download the Defiler Pack (http://www.hellninjacommando.com/).

[schally]

Where's that kissy smiley? Thanks, Ballz.

That trailer kicks ass. I need to get Episodes I & II so I can watch them before the big day.

[schally]

For some reason The Phantom Menace is not available at Netflix but Attack of the Clones is. I suspect conspiracy.

I'd forgotten how obnoxious Jar-Jar is until I started listening to the audio book at work. Yay.

[schally]

I just wanted to say that I saw the Episode III trailer on the big screen last night and it gave me a huge phantom boner. And then Palpy said, "Are you threatening me, Master Jedi?" and I pretty much just came right there.

Speaking of which--in that scene, is it me or does Palpy use Force Scream right after he pulls out his lightsaber? :eek:

[dnl2ba]

WTF is a Force Scream?

[schally]

Exactly what it sounds like.


|Force Scream| Dark Side
Prerequisites: None

This power creates a wave of sound that does 3-18 points of sonic damage and reduces attributes by 2 points to all enemies within 10 meters of the attacker for 30 seconds. A successful Will save by the target at a DC 10 + the attacker's level + the attacker's Wisdom and Charisma modifiers reduces damage by half and negates the attribute penalties.

Improved Force Scream
Prerequisites: Character Level 9, Force Scream

This power creates a wave of sound that does 5-30 points of sonic damage and reduces attributes by 4 points to all enemies within 10 meters of the attacker for 30 seconds. A successful Will save by the target at a DC 10 + the attacker's level + the attacker's Wisdom and Charisma modifiers reduces damage by half and negates the attribute penalties.


Master Force Scream
Prerequisites: Character Level 15, Improved Force Scream, Force Scream

This power creates a wave of sound that does 7-42 points of sonic damage and reduces attributes by 6 points to all enemies within 10 meters of the attacker for 30 seconds. A successful Will save by the target at a DC 10 + the attacker's level + the attacker's Wisdom and Charisma modifiers reduces damage by half and negates the attribute penalties.

[Ballz]

Great, I was just thinking that what the new Star Wars movies lacked the most was Everquest appeal.

[schally]

Oh, fuck you.

[dnl2ba]

2 TV series in the works (http://comingsoon.net/news/topnews.php?id=9301)


One will be a half hour 3-D computer animated series and the other is a live action series. The live action series will star some of the characters featured in the movies, though not the main characters. Lucas will kick-off the series himself. They are planning on writing the entire first season and then shooting Season One all at once. He mentioned Lucasfilm is aiming for a production start in about a year.

[Ballz]

There's video on the interweb showing a 7 minute preview taken at a convention. Even with all the heads in the way, the kinda shaky camcorder, and sound omitted, it looks fan-fucking-tastic.

[dnl2ba]

ROTS has 80% on Rotten Tomatoes after 41 reviews (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_3/)

OTOH, Episode I got 62% (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_i_the_phantom_menace/) and Episode II got 65% (http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/star_wars_episode_ii_attack_of_the_clones/). So maybe 80% is just the first gloss.

[schally]

I got my tickets yesterday. Thursday at 6, baby.

[ohvermie]

Sin City has like a 98% fresh rating on its day of release, then all the conservative papers that hate violence and titties chimed in and dragged it down to where it is now. Rotten Tomatoes I like to give a week before I believe the rating on it. But Ep3 does look HAWT!

[Gump]

Just got back from seeing it. It easily puts the first two to shame. Not that there weren't some flaws (Christenson and Portman still act like plywood together, and some of the lightsaber fights dragged a bit), but I found it pretty exciting. And I don't know if Palpy did the Force Scream, but it sure sounded like one.

The theater was free of freaks when I saw it--mostly just families. A friend who went last night said there were a lot of Jedi, plus a guy dressed as Spider-Man (???), but none of that sort here (of course, it was a different theater).

Something I wondered: do all the fans camping out before opening night have any affect on business at the theaters where they're waiting?

[schally]

YODA A+++ OK

[dnl2ba]

Something I wondered: do all the fans camping out before opening night have any affect on business at the theaters where they're waiting?

Yesterday night, when I went to see Hitchhiker's Guide, there were people camping out in the rain. Wow.

I'll probably see SARS WARS tomorrow or Saturday.

[Gump]

YODA A+++ OK
I thought Obi-Wan kicked mucho ass, myself.

[ohvermie]

I might go catch a matinee of this tomorrow morning, but I definitely hate crowds as the kids in the area are rich snobby assholes. Oh wait, that means they won't care about SARS WARS and are too busy smoking dope in their parent's pool house... I GO TONIGHT! ;p

[Rhys]

I have two big questions. One, how did Chewbacca go from being an apparent badass on Kashyyyk to being copilot for a smuggler? Perhaps the emperor was angry at them for letting Yoda go, so they used him as a scapegoat? Oh, weren't they slaves? Maybe he just escaped. One prime is doesn't he seem a bit small compared to the other Wookies?

Question two is how does it take them approximately 20 years to finish the first Death Star, and then like three to finish the second?

Also I think Palpatine and Anakin made a much more believable couple than Padme and Anakin. Homoerotic fanfiction, ho!

[dnl2ba]

Common complaints, all. Chewie just seems to be a little throw-in (like Anakin making Threepio and Artoo at the age of 6) to make fanboys cream themselves.

What happened to Anakin's mechanical genius? He hasn't made shit since joining the Jedi. And are we to assume that he made Threepio and Artoo from kits or something, since there's a apparently other R2 units and protocol droids out there? So he couldn't invent those by himself, but he did make a pod racer from scratch. ARGH.

[ohvermie]

What happened to Anakin's mechanical genius? He hasn't made shit since joining the Jedi. And are we to assume that he made Threepio and Artoo from kits or something, since there's a apparently other R2 units and protocol droids out there? So he couldn't invent those by himself, but he did make a pod racer from scratch. ARGH.

Well I'm sure all that higher thinking form the force has made him neglect his inborn mechanical skills. Don't Jedi loathe machines? Or is it just Obi-Wan and his distaste for blasters...

As for Chewie, I think the wookie race was enslaved by the Empire after the Clone Wars. Didn't one of the expanded universe books cover how Han and Chewie hooked up?

The Death Star in ROTJ was incomplete, hence the chewed apple core look of the station. And I'm guessing the darn thing was new technology after the clone wars, so 20 years sounds about right to R&D a space station the size of a moon.

[Rhys]

It's possible that once Anakin got a taste for flying and doing cool backflips, making kit robots didn't appeal much to him anymore.

After thinking about it, I decided the Death Star being in episode 3 doesn't bother me. There are several explanations after all. In one of the EU books, someone gets ahold of a prototype Death Star, which is basically just a big framework with a laser attached (as pictured in the movie), and tries to run amok with it. As I remember, the laser didn't work too well and broke down after blowing up a few ships. Also, while the second Death Star was about 2/3 built and had a working laser, there's no indication of how well it worked. I imagine it would take a lot to get something like that up to destroying a planet. So my opinion now is "whatever".

[dnl2ba]

It could be that the hull doesn't take long, but the guts are another story.

[dnl2ba]

Lucas in ROTS cameo (http://www.thegreenhead.com/entertainment/2005/02/baron-papanoida-george-lucas-cameo-in.php) - with pics of Lucas in costume, but no pics of the scene


I saw Revenge of the Sith last night and George Lucas' cameo is right before the "opera" scene. He is standing outside the doorway on the left talking with someone.

[ohvermie]

Ha! It's about time that fat bastard put himself in one of his films.

I think Sheri brought this up before. Now that all six movies have been released which way would you introduce the series to the uninitiated? Would you recommend going IV, V, VI, then I, II, III or go for the chronological order of the series?

Going the original route gives you the fun surprises of Luke's true heritage as well as some of the ironic statements from the prequels (ie Obi Wan telling Anakin that he'll be the death of him). But going chronologically has the benefits of seeing a true fall from grace, the surprise as Obi Wan has to take down Anakin and more attachment to Obi Wan when he gets hackz0red in IV. I honestly think it works both ways, but again I have only seen the prequels when they first came out and haven't really seen the original trilogy in its entirety since ROTJ was re-released in theaters as the Special Editions. Maybe I will wait till III comes out on DVD and do a marathon in sequential order and see if the plot even makes sense. It makes sense in my mind, but its kinda glossed over by warm fuzzy childhood feelings.

[dnl2ba]

The question is, would you be more disappointed moving from rad special effects to 70's special effects, or moving from so-so acting to truly fucking awful acting?

[ohvermie]

Hehehe...
I dunno, I think that the 70s special effects have held up well especially after the Special Edition overhaul (and the subsequent slight overhaul with the DVD release). But that's just me. The acting is horrendous from the original trilogy, but it's on par with the prequel trilogy.

[schally]

As for Chewie, I think the wookie race was enslaved by the Empire after the Clone Wars. Didn't one of the expanded universe books cover how Han and Chewie hooked up?
IIRC, Han Solo was actually an Imperial recruit at one point. Chewie had been enslaved by Imperials and Han deserted and helped him escape. Han got a Wookiee life debt out of the deal and ended up being on the winning side in the long run; not a shabby trade-off.

There are some "Adventures of Han Solo" books, or something like that, but I haven't read them.

[dnl2ba]

The Case for the Empire (http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=1248&R=502535DD0) (The Weekly Standard: May 16, 2002)

[dnl2ba]

Was Darth Vader born bad? 'Star Wars' and the nature-nurture debate (http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Movies/05/19/film.starwars.badseed.ap/index.html) (CNN: May 19, 2005)

[dnl2ba]

Parade of unfortunate Star Wars costumes (http://www.capnwacky.com/sw/sw01.html)