May The Fourth Be With You ~ Happy Star Wars Day 2014!!!

[Karl Henning]

What if they CGI Billy Mumy in, instead? . . .

[NJ Joe]

What if they CGI Billy Mumy in, instead? . . .

From that Twilight Zone episode. He can send everyone to the corn field.

[Rinaldo]

Call me sentimental, but seeing an alien done by practical FX, not CGI, made me all warm up inside.

http://www.youtube.com/v/XfNiC9iKM0Q

[Rinaldo]

Call me sentimental, but seeing an alien done by practical FX, not CGI, made me all warm up inside.

And almost a year later..

https://www.youtube.com/v/A_K10fX9DSY

By an unlikely turn of events, I'm actually at the Celebration right now. And this blew my mind even more than the new teaser trailer. Cheers from Anaheim!

[Purusha]

The chances of this film being any good is basically zero. You have been warned.

[Rinaldo]

The chances of this film being any good is basically zero. You have been warned.

The chances of you and me agreeing on anything are basically zero. I have been bored.

[Purusha]

Perhaps this will not be a problem with one 2-hour movie: it might be a problem with a 6-hour storyline.

You clearly haven't seen Into Darkness. Not sure i'd blame that on Abrams alone though. Orci and Kurtzman are also part of the problem. Horrible, horrible writers whose career can't end fast enough.

[mc ukrneal]

Here's the latest preview....
https://www.youtube.com/v/ngElkyQ6Rhs#t=45

[springrite]

Fearless prediction: All will suck.
I base this on 37 years of steady suck.

If first you don't suck-seed, suck suck again! 

[Rinaldo]

You clearly haven't seen Into Darkness.

Oh, I have - and I hated it. But Abrams' spielbergian sensibilities (and his self-professed preference of Wars over Trek) could do wonders for the movie. I think he's a talented blockbuster director who didn't have good enough materal to work with yet. There were parts of Super 8 that were brilliant and reached the emotional level I'm hoping to see in The Force Awakens.

[Ken B]

What if they CGI Billy Mumy in, instead? . . .

You know you're getting old when ... you recognize Billy Mumy references!

[TheGSMoeller]

Based on the trailer for Star Wars TFA, I'm excited. With the use of practical effects and what looks like better acting than episodes 1-3, this could be a winner. I don't know if Abrams is the right one for the job, but I hope he is, and I'm perfectly fine with the SW universe being expanded on without Lucas being too involved. I mean, we were all treated to how bad of a screenwriter he is with the previous 3.
And back to my first line, trailers are tricky little devils. They can make bad films look good and good films look great. So who knows what the final product will bring. (Hopefully less lens flare...J.J.)

I do have two words that I'm more excited for...Mad Max. Now THAT movie looks insane. Again, George Miller has relied on practical effects rather than computer generated.

[Rinaldo]

I do have two words that I'm more excited for...Mad Max. Now THAT movie looks insane. Again, George Miller has relied on practical effects rather than computer generated.

Word. A guy who has two movies in my top whatever and both of them are polar opposites of each other - Road Warrior and Babe - is a GOD. 2015 is gearing to be one of the golden years of geekdom.

That said, I remember oh so well ho absolutely MESMERIZED was I with the The Phantom Menace trailer. Boy, did THAT turn out differently..

[vandermolen]

I trust that you've all noticed the thematic similarity between the March from Prokofiev's 'The Love of Three Oranges' and 'The March of the Ewoks' from 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi' by John Williams.

[TheGSMoeller]

Word. A guy who has two movies in my top whatever and both of them are polar opposites of each other - Road Warrior and Babe - is a GOD. 2015 is gearing to be one of the golden years of geekdom.

That said, I remember oh so well ho absolutely MESMERIZED was I with the The Phantom Menace trailer. Boy, did THAT turn out differently..

I was at a midnight showing of Phantom Menace with a few buddies, looking back we laugh at how when it was over we tried so hard to justify it being good. Of course we failed.

Here are my 3 changes that would have improved Phantam Menace, or even the trilogy...

1. Hired a screenwriter. This to me was the biggest failure of the new trilogy, the dialogue was embarrassing at times, and the flow of the films were all over the place. I see Lawrence Kasdan has returned, as he helped pen Empire and Return.
2. Kept Darth Maul around for all three films. Maul seems to still be the best and memorable part of the trilogy. Palpatine, Dooku and Grevious were never very threatening as villains, whereas Maul could've been frightening throughout. A main stay villain, like Vadar, was missing.
3. Less CG. This includes Jar-Jar, the Gundans and the floating heads of the Clone Army.

[Cato]

I was at a midnight showing of Phantom Menace with a few buddies, looking back we laugh at how when it was over we tried so hard to justify it being good. Of course we failed.

Here are my 3 changes that would have improved Phantam Menace, or even the trilogy...

1. Hired a screenwriter. This to me was the biggest failure of the new trilogy, the dialogue was embarrassing at times, and the flow of the films were all over the place. I see Lawrence Kasdan has returned, as he helped pen Empire and Return.
2. Kept Darth Maul around for all three films. Maul seems to still be the best and memorable part of the trilogy. Palpatine, Dooku and Grevious were never very threatening as villains, whereas Maul could've been frightening throughout. A main stay villain, like Vadar, was missing.
3. Less CG. This includes Jar-Jar, the Gundans and the floating heads of the Clone Army.

All good ideas!

Squandering Liam Neeson was the biggest sin!   Other sins: stupid plot (a trade war?  See The Simpsons episode satirizing that idea and the rest of the movie!), miscasting for the Anakin roles, and not showing Anakin as a child undergoing something which would give him a predisposition to succumbing to the dark side.

[TheGSMoeller]

All good ideas!

Squandering Liam Neeson was the biggest sin!   Other sins: stupid plot (a trade war?  See The Simpsons episode satirizing that idea and the rest of the movie!), miscasting for the Anakin roles, and not showing Anakin as a child undergoing something which would give him a predisposition to succumbing to the dark side.

+1
Anakin didn't seem to "dark" until Obi-Wan pissed him off. 
I mean, the young Anakin was woo-hooing during Phantom while he blew up a spacecraft and possibly thousands of life forms on board. Just a kid having fun!

[Cato]

+1
Anakin didn't seem to "dark" until Obi-Wan pissed him off. 
I mean, the young Anakin was woo-hooing during Phantom while he blew up a spacecraft and possibly thousands of life forms on board. Just a kid having fun!

Ewan McGregor's imitation of the voice of Alec Guinness was phenomenal! 

Film actor Richard Basehart (Moby Dick, The Brothers Karamazov, Time Limit, La Strada) had also acted in Ibsen, Chekhov, and Shakespeare plays on stage.  He was once asked, when he was playing in the science-fiction TV show Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea in the 1960's, how difficult it was to do Shakespeare in contrast to an "easy" TV role.

He disagreed with the premise: "Shakespeare is easy in comparison, because the lines are there!"

Ewan McGregor would have been much better if the lines had been there!

[Rinaldo]

Très cool!

Annie Leibovitz on the set of The Force Awakens:

https://www.youtube.com/v/yRwuD68NHoI

[Jubal Slate]

Has George Lucas ever given Edgar Rice Burroughs credit, having stolen all his ideas from the Barsoom novels?