The Zone

pretty well done (like how each actor's name comes up on the same kind of smug face shot they would use in a tv show intro). i would've preferred they end on "and introducing Chewbacca as himself" though. also, the Millenium Falcon is way cooler than a Ferrari. almost makes up for the lack of 'stache.

by **justcheckin** on Sat Aug 25, 2012 9:22 pm

TheBaxter wrote:
justcheckin wrote:

also, the Millenium Falcon is way cooler than a Ferrari. almost makes up for the lack of 'stache.

I agree

by **TheBaxter** on Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:05 pm

george lucas has been trying to destroy Star Wars for years now. it looks like he's finally succeeded

congratulations lucas. now your failure is complete.

by **so sorry** on Mon Aug 27, 2012 4:16 pm

TheBaxter wrote:george lucas has been trying to destroy Star Wars for years now. it looks like he's finally succeeded

congratulations lucas. now your failure is complete.

Fuck.Me. Fucking Seth Green too. Dumb little shit.

by **Wolfpack** on Mon Aug 27, 2012 11:26 pm

so sorry wrote:
TheBaxter wrote:george lucas has been trying to destroy Star Wars for years now. it looks like he's finally succeeded

congratulations lucas. now your failure is complete.

Fuck.Me. Fucking Seth Green too. Dumb little shit.

Wolfpack unimpressed.

by **TheBaxter** on Tue Aug 28, 2012 10:19 am

Wolfpack wrote:
so sorry wrote:
TheBaxter wrote:george lucas has been trying to destroy Star Wars for years now. it looks like he's finally succeeded

congratulations lucas. now your failure is complete.

Fuck.Me. Fucking Seth Green too. Dumb little shit.

Wolfpack unimpressed.

by **justcheckin** on Tue Aug 28, 2012 8:20 pm

I think it's just a way to connect to new customers... pulls in the kiddies. All of us were already fans.

by **TheBaxter** on Wed Aug 29, 2012 10:20 am

justcheckin wrote:I think it's just a way to connect to new customers... pulls in the kiddies. All of us were already fans.

but kids won't get the "jokes" unless they're already big fans. you have to know the movies to get most of the "jokes".
and those of us who understand the "jokes" realize they're not actually funny.

by **justcheckin** on Wed Aug 29, 2012 7:28 pm

TheBaxter wrote:
justcheckin wrote:I think it's just a way to connect to new customers... pulls in the kiddies. All of us were already fans.

but kids won't get the "jokes" unless they're already big fans. you have to know the movies to get most of the "jokes".
and those of us who understand the "jokes" realize they're not actually funny.

Good point... BUT, I've taught hundreds of teenagers and they watch stuff like Family Guy and they don't get half the jokes. Hell I have to look up a few myself, but they still watch it and think it's funny.

Another example of a cartoon like this is Total Drama Island. I think it is stupid but if you haven't really watched a lot of reality "kicked off the island" type of show, you don't get half the comedy. That is what this reminds me of... same thing.

by **SilentBobX** on Sun Sep 02, 2012 10:36 pm

To me this is just Lucas straining more cash out of the mummified corpse of the one thing he's known for. But then again, if he's reelin in the coin, who can blame him? The only problem of course is that star wars is basically ruined for those who enjoyed it in their youth.

Mahalo

by **Wolfpack** on Mon Sep 03, 2012 11:30 am

You can keep the dream alive by reading the novels, although none of the writers have managed to keep Anakin from seeming like a whiny little pussy.

by **Indy Jones** on Wed Sep 05, 2012 4:47 pm

TheBaxter wrote:george lucas has been trying to destroy Star Wars for years now. it looks like he's finally succeeded

congratulations lucas. now your failure is complete.

My heart literally sank. I thought it'd be something cool and just as funny as the SW Robot Chicken episodes.

What is this...? I don't even...

by **Spandau Belly** on Mon Sep 17, 2012 7:29 am

Here's my question for you sci-fi buffs out there:

Is it because of STAR WARS that sci-fi movies frequently have redundant expository devices such as text onscreen at the beginning to tell us something that will become immediately obvious in the first scene of the movie?

I get that studios have a low opinion of audiences, but I wonder if people really are that stupid. I recently saw a whole bunch of scifi films such as IN TIME, THE RUNNING MAN, and the TOTAL RECALL remake and they all had this.

Even sci-fi films that I consider more intelligent that aren't aimed at the broadest audience, such as 12 MONKEYS and BLADE RUNNER, have this pointless stupid text telling us something we then see dramatized right away.

by **Bloo** on Mon Sep 17, 2012 11:17 am

I don't know if you can truly credit Star Wars for this device. I don't think Carpenter intentionally used it in Escape From New York because Star wars did. I think it's used as lazy writing (Lucas included in this) so that they don't have to bother with a bunch of back story within the script.

by **TheBaxter** on Mon Sep 17, 2012 12:46 pm

honestly, i'd prefer the obvious exposition was done in some introductory text instead of shoehorning it in with distracting and obvious dialogue. it makes me cringe when i hear characters explaining things to other characters who should already know all those things, solely for the purpose of making sure the audience knows them too. it's very difficult to work that kind of exposition into the dialogue or the plot in a way that feels natural and unforced, and most of the time those attempts fail miserably. i say get it out of the way at the beginning, so the characters can act and speak naturally instead.

by **Spandau Belly** on Mon Sep 17, 2012 1:11 pm

But what I'm talking about is times when that information is in the early dialogue/scenes AND the expository text, making the text redundant because the audience would figure that stuff out within 5 minutes of the movie starting without that text stuff.

Like 12 MONKEYS, the text tells us that a great plague has forced mankind from the surface of the Earth and animals now rule the surface, then we start the film with a scene of Bruce Willis living in an underground cage, putting on a biohazard suit, and then going to the surface where we see that all the buildings are abandoned and lions are roaming around. The text stuff was, IMO, redundant because I think everybody could tell what was going on without that text.

by **Al Shut** on Mon Sep 17, 2012 2:00 pm

I think a lot of times the text is very helpful without it it can be pretty hard to figure out what's going on whjen we can't rely on our knowledge of the real world to provide context for everything that is happening on screen.

by **TheBaxter** on Mon Sep 17, 2012 3:39 pm

Spandau Belly wrote:But what I'm talking about is times when that information is in the early dialogue/scenes AND the expository text, making the text redundant because the audience would figure that stuff out within 5 minutes of the movie starting without that text stuff.

Like 12 MONKEYS, the text tells us that a great plague has forced mankind from the surface of the Earth and animals now rule the surface, then we start the film with a scene of Bruce Willis living in an underground cage, putting on a biohazard suit, and then going to the surface where we see that all the buildings are abandoned and lions are roaming around. The text stuff was, IMO, redundant because I think everybody could tell what was going on without that text.

yeah, there are probably times when it's redundant and/or insulting to the intelligence. i don't remember 12 monkeys, but i seem to remember children of men did a good job of giving the exposition and explaining the situation at the beginning without using text.
but when in doubt, i suppose it's better to err on the side of over-informing the audience than under-informing. it can be disorienting when a film throws you into a setting you don't understand and you spend the first 10 minutes trying to figure out what's going on.
also, peoples iz dumb.

by **Al Shut** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 4:11 am

I seem to remember Twelve Monkeys being explained pretty well too, but I'm not sure at wich point. If it was after Bruce Willis' mission to the surface it might be a bit unlear for me what's going on.

I also thought the seup for Children of Men (not the childlessness but the consequences) weren't very plausible, not having it written down might be a good idea to distract from it.

by **so sorry** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 8:53 am

fanfic animation sequence

This clip is making its way across the intertubes...and its fucking awesome.

by **Fievel** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:32 am

so sorry wrote:fanfic animation sequence

This clip is making its way across the intertubes...and its fucking awesome.

As the guy's labor of love, I'll give it an A+. Very cool. But if Lucasfilm put this out as a trailer of a new project I'd almost (almost) be as disappointed as with the new Seth Green project. It just screams 1984 Robotech all over it. While it gives my sense of nostalgia a boner, it's just incredibly dated and unoriginal. I do find it interesting that it's all from the perspective of the Empire, though.

When they announced The Clone Wars as an CGI series from ILM, I assumed it was going to be a photo-realistic series. To say the animation style there disappointed is putting it mildly.

Any future animated CGI series from Lucasfilm that doesn't look as good as The Old Republic trailers will immediately disappoint me. These are still the best Star Wars-related animated product I have ever seen in my life (and I still haven't played the game).

by **so sorry** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 9:59 am

I happen to like the Robotech animation style. Is it "new" and groundbreaking? No. But its cool. I think seeing a battle from the Empire's point of view (especially one where they are seemingly kicking ass) is a nice twist too.

by **Bloo** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 10:43 am

Fievel, I get what you're saying, but I personally thought it was cool as hell. I guess the animation didn't bother me and I felt it fit the style. I like the idea of doing Star Wars, which is inherantly a product of the 70s and 80s, in that style of anime worked. It's not perfect, I didn't care for the zoom in on the tie fighters pilot, helmet disappears bit. But I loved seeing the tie fighters undock and zoom around the AT-ATs as they left the hanger.

by **papalazeru** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:42 pm

TheBaxter wrote:honestly, i'd prefer the obvious exposition was done in some introductory text instead of shoehorning it in with distracting and obvious dialogue. it makes me cringe when i hear characters explaining things to other characters who should already know all those things, solely for the purpose of making sure the audience knows them too. it's very difficult to work that kind of exposition into the dialogue or the plot in a way that feels natural and unforced, and most of the time those attempts fail miserably. i say get it out of the way at the beginning, so the characters can act and speak naturally instead.

This right here!

Bring us up to speed quickly and let our imagination do the rest.

The bit in the new Star Trek where they talk about creating a parallel universes, I can't help but think of Space Balls - it would have been so much better if at the beginning of the film they just spelt out something like, '..but that universe was soon to end with a fracture in space and time'' or some shit like that.

by **Fievel** on Tue Sep 18, 2012 2:59 pm

Bloo wrote:Fievel, I get what you're saying, but I personally thought it was cool as hell. I guess the animation didn't bother me and I felt it fit the style. I like the idea of doing Star Wars, which is inherantly a product of the 70s and 80s, in that style of anime worked. It's not perfect, I didn't care for the zoom in on the tie fighters pilot, helmet disappears bit. But I loved seeing the tie fighters undock and zoom around the AT-ATs as they left the hanger.

Yeah (and this is to So Sorry, too), I totally get that. This is just something that should have come out back then. Really, how amazing would this have been back then instead of Droids or Ewoks?!?!? 9 year old Fievel wants to see this in 1984 because everything is so right about that. The disappearing helmet thing was weird... I came away with no opinion on that. With that AT-ATs in the hangar... I really, really, REALLY wanted to see one of them scratch behind their ear with their rear leg like I dog would. I don't know why, but I was just waiting for it and would have laughed had it happened.

I think the biggest turn off for me about it... and this happens so much with Haryy's geek-topic articles, is that he writes in a tone that screams not "Ain't It Cool," but rather "This Is Fucking Cool And If You Disagree You're A Fucking Moron That Just Doesn't Get It." And the worst part of that sentiment is that it's not always necessarily in what he writes, but rather in what is said in the Talkbacks that follow. But that sentiment always revolves around that 70's to early 80's era, which I do love, but I most certainly do not regard as infallible. There have been times where I've had my opinion changed on a topic based on his article and/or the Talkbacks on these very subjects. A stupid sore spot for me - one that I shouldn't let affect me, but one that exists.

by **King Of Nowhere** on Thu Sep 20, 2012 3:31 am

Fievel wrote:
so sorry wrote:fanfic animation sequence

This clip is making its way across the intertubes...and its fucking awesome.

As the guy's labor of love, I'll give it an A+. Very cool. But if Lucasfilm put this out as a trailer of a new project I'd almost (almost) be as disappointed as with the new Seth Green project. It just screams 1984 Robotech all over it. While it gives my sense of nostalgia a boner, it's just incredibly dated and unoriginal. I do find it interesting that it's all from the perspective of the Empire, though.

When they announced The Clone Wars as an CGI series from ILM, I assumed it was going to be a photo-realistic series. To say the animation style there disappointed is putting it mildly.

Any future animated CGI series from Lucasfilm that doesn't look as good as The Old Republic trailers will immediately disappoint me. These are still the best Star Wars-related animated product I have ever seen in my life (and I still haven't played the game).

The problem with the Old Republic trailers/cutscenes (i haven't played it either, doesn't sound too good) is that they do look quite videogamey.
I never got into the CGI Clone Wars show, but it does have its own style.

Given that Star Wars was a mishmash of concepts, i find it really strange that we've never had a show (or even a fan animated thing) that looked like maybe a western, camp space adventure or a Kurosawa film. I think a show where each 1/2 hour episode was animated in a different style would really work.

by **Spandau Belly** on Thu Sep 20, 2012 7:17 am

King of Nowhere wrote: I think a show where each 1/2 hour episode was animated in a different style would really work.

The Wachowski Siblings approve.

by **RogueScribner** on Thu Sep 20, 2012 11:32 pm

Off topic?

The Old Republic MMO is worth playing if you're a Star Wars and video game fan. If you liked Knights of the Old Republic (the game), you should like this too. It's very immersive and the only reason I stopped playing was because it was threatening to take over my life (ringing endorsement?)! :-P

Now, I'm not a big MMO guy and I try to avoid multiplayer in the games I play, so I can't really speak much to that side of things. I purposely avoided teaming up for missions or doing arena challenges when I could and tried to solo as much possible. The game is HUGE and whether you're playing light side or dark side, jedi or bounty hunter, if you're into Star Wars you should find plenty of interest.

I hear now there's a free to play option (or there will be soon). It's worth checking out, IMO.

by **Fievel** on Fri Sep 21, 2012 12:06 am

Loved, loved, loved KOTR 1, Was at x2 that with the sequel until the ending (seeing the blasted out Jedi Temple is one of my favorite SW moments).
Am definitely planning on checking out the free version of the Old Republic. I have no interest in MMO and want to just do what I can to get what story I can from it.

by **RogueScribner** on Sat Sep 22, 2012 11:59 am

I'd say 85% - 90% of the game is playable solo. Like I said, I actively avoided multiplayer when I could. Now, to get through some of the tougher missions I had to level up beyond the mission levels, but staying 3 or so levels above the mission level was a pretty sound strategy for me so I didn't have to enlist any help from anyone.

I was actually having a lot of fun with my Smuggler character before my subscription ran out and would like to get back to her someday. But I need to play some other games first... :wink:

by **justcheckin** on Sat Sep 22, 2012 8:11 pm