Oh God what I geek I am, Goobye all..

[Name]

Originally Posted by jdramj

Nah...if you're me, you just have to fire up the old laser disc player

(BTW I read a review somewhere recently that said the laser disc editions of 4-5-6 were the best and still original versions out there.)

Yeah, there is always that way too.(damn, shoulda bought the laser disc player)

Originally Posted by cstephens

LETTERBOXED. None of this panned-and-scanned crap.

but of course, only go the pan-and-scan route for the regular watching though, for those special viewings I get out the letterbox set(don't want to wear them out too fast. maybe one day I will get around to getting a video capture card and making a backup of my treasured star wars movies that I have on VHS).

[Cadaverous Pallor]

I have the OT on VHS....but it's pan and scan! Was a cheap-o purchase from a friend back when the SE's came out. I can't even watch it, really.

[mousepod]

Just came back from RotS... had to wait to see it on a local digi screen.
I'll keep it brief for now:
Enjoyed it, flaws and all. I caught the "Emperor" continuity error, too. It bugged me for about 5 minutes, but I wrote it off as just a gaffe - some of the greatest films have 'em.

I got ready for this flick by watching all the OT (original letterboxed version, thank you), EP I & II, and the Clone Wars cartoon series - in that order.

In that context, I was reminded what a silly hoot Star Wars was when I saw it at 10 years old - that Empire was brilliant, and how disappointed I was by Jedi, especially the friggin' Ewoks. Episodes I and II were hardly better on DVD than they were in the theater...but a little time has taken the bitter edge off my disappointment and disgust. However, I admit that I loved the Clone Wars series. I know they're technically not any more canonical than, say, The Ewok Adventure, but they truly kick ass, and set up EP III perfectly. Heather and I watched Clone Wars just before going to the theater this afternoon, and with our heads in the "cartoon" state surely made us a lot more forgiving of some of the crap dialogue of Sith.

I've heard reviews that call Sith the best SW film since Empire - I'm certainly not going to go that far... but I will say it supplied good stupid SW fun I haven't seen since '77. So Lucas gets my thumbs up.

[Bornieo: Fully Loaded]

I have the OT on laserdisc still. I need to find a laser disk player!

Me: I enjoyed EP3 much better than Ep2 & Ep1. Having watched The Clone Wars cartoon and read the comic adaptation really set up the film for me and I probably wouldn't have enjoyed it as much had I not. I'm sure some of the stuff the left out of the film that was in the comic adaptation will make its way onto the DVD.

Now only if they could take the look and feel of the Cartoon Network series and do versions of Ep 1-3, that would be freekin' cool.

[SusieP.]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Doesn't Obi-Wan seem like he should have blamed himself more for the total enslavement of the galaxy? Don't tell me he's so down with the Force that he doesn't feel guilty.

Yeah, this kind of really is HIS fault, since he didn't stick around to finish the job, or at least make sure that Anakin was actually dead. So I guess that's why he has to go live alone on Tatooine for the next 20 years to make sure that Luke lives long enough to kill Vader. And why he ends up sacrificing himself.

[Ghoulish Delight]

The more I think about Obi-Wan sacrificing himself in the context of EpIII, the more interesting it is. Think about it, what turns out to be Anikin's major flaw? His unwillingness to sacrafice someone he loves for the greater good. He does anything to save Padme instead of doing what he must do.

Well, by the time he's fighting Vader on the destroyer, Obi-Wan's learned his leason. He knows Luke is his father's son, and knows he will make that same decission, attempt to help instead of doing what he must do. So he takes that option away from him by sacrificing himself (oh, for the record Moonliner, I was kidding about the "die in front of Luke" thing, I'm well aware of the meaning of Obi-Wan's sacrifice). So that actually ties in really well.

Still a bad movie with bad acting, bad dialog, and bad editing. And if you have to read and view suplementary material to "get it", that's even worse.

[FEJ]

I saws the movie twice this weekend. Once at the Arclight and once at the Big Newport.
It was better the second time around. even the love scenes didnt seem as long an as bad.
I was happpy with it. It completed the trilogy, connecting epII with epIV.

As for continuity glitches between the original trilogy and the second trilogy, I forgive them. Since ep 1-3 were just outlines/ideas and not completly written, if that, not everything can be connected. Some things need to be looked past a little in order to enjoy the overall tale.

I really liked this movie, and it made all of the episodes more enjoyable. The more I take it in, the more I see the big picture of the story and the underlying tale that Lucas was telling. I think he told HIS story well.

Regardless of how bitter one wants to get, it's done.

Good or bad, a reaction is a reaction. and even if it made you pick the movies apart, Lucas succeeded with what he wanted out of Star Wars: To make you think.

[blueerica]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

Doesn't Obi-Wan seem like he should have blamed himself more for the total enslavement of the galaxy? Don't tell me he's so down with the Force that he doesn't feel guilty.

I feel sort of shoddy discussing this with you, because by no means am I a huge SW fan, nor do I know all that much about it, but I don't know why he has to feel guilty over the choices someone else makes. I think the point is that Anakin made all of his own choices. In real life, and in the movies, hindsight is 20/20.

Maybe if what would happen was known, others would have acted differently, perhaps even tried to appease Anakin, but would that have turned him into an even bigger monster? Every turn, even literal turns right and left affect "destiny" whatever the hell that is. Everytime little Ani feels jilted just made him pissy and made him crave the praise Palpatine gave him, it's just common sense. I can't hold Obi Wan accountable for what a baby Anakin is. I'm sure he felt bad in subsequent, unwritten, unfilmed years, why else would you go into "seclusion"? That is what he did, right? Not feeling bad is moving on with your life as though it never happened, IMO.

He probably should have just killed Anakin/Vader, but that probably hurt too much for Obi Wan. A little too much leaving it all in the grey, but hey, he's a Jedi, probably didn't want to do the last blow, or was just too lazy to tie up a potential loose end. In either case, Vader couldn't die; we wouldn't have 4, 5 & 6 if that happened, right?

[Claire]

We took the girls and saw it a second time yesterday in the largest auditorium and on the largest screen that I know about in Portland. It made a difference to me....you could tell by the comments people were making, that many had seen it already, too. People clapped at the Lucasfilm screen, clapped at the end, and there were two women near us bawling again. My SW geek kids had lightsaber battles with other little geeks again before the movie played....so much fun.

I agree with ubergeek....it was much better the second time around. I was prepared for Dukoo being killed off so early, Padme and Anakin's scenes (while still sucky) didn't make me want to puke, and I noticed a lot more.....dialogue (still bad) and plot points that had me going "huh?" last time.

Someone mentioned here or on another board that it didn't make sense for Obi Wan to choose that weird dragon thing as his stallion....but when I watched it again, it did make sense to me. He was hiding....he had them believing that he'd taken off in his ship, so he was trying to blend in (there were dragon things flying all over the place) and it worked.

We went straight home and watched A New Hope. OMG. I can't believe how much of that movie I think I've never understood, even though I've seen it probably fifty or more times and can recite most of it by heart. All the senate and republic gobbledygook never really sunk in before. Now I've got it.

After almost thirty years, I understand it now.

[Ghoulish Delight]

Originally Posted by ubergeek42

As for continuity glitches between the original trilogy and the second trilogy, I forgive them. Since ep 1-3 were just outlines/ideas and not completly written, if that, not everything can be connected. Some things need to be looked past a little in order to enjoy the overall tale.

Perhaps if they were better movies, I'd agree. But they weren't.

That's what gets me. Whenever I say I haven't enjoyed these movies, people say one of two things. Either, "Oh, just get over the fact that they do a bad job with the story and enjoy them as movies," or, "Oh, just get over the fact that they are bad movies and enjoy the story." I can't, because he screwed both aspects up. They are neither well made movies nor particularly well conceived sotry-wise. While there are spots here and there that are good, and a few story elements which do give me some food for thought, overall it was a sorry effort.

I'm not bitter so much as disappointed. It could have been great, it wasn't. That's unfortunate.