Official Star Wars Thread

I'd call the style of filmmaking in prequels minimalistic. The way the story is shown reminds me of a myth or a fairy tale. Like high fantasy.
This isn't far from the truth - high fantasy as George Lucas experienced it while growing up, maybe. The problem is that the way fantasy is told has grown by leaps and bounds since his youth. After the publishing of The Lord of the Rings and the sudden explosion of the fantasy genre, fantasy moved rapidly away from the broad strokes sort of method of myth-telling into a far more realistic-style of universe creation. Part of being a visionary director is recognizing how the landscape of the audience has changed from your own experiences - or perhaps, how it will change in the future. Lucas had that reputation once, but I'd say the prequels destroyed that thought.
 
I don't get "rival" vibes at all. It's definitely a father/difficult teenager dynamic, which helped picturing Anakin's dark nature. You get the friendly, playful tones at the beginning of Episode III. For me that's enough to understand that between TPM and RotS they went through a lot, can get on each other's nerves, but there's still a very strong father/son (or brotherly) bond between them. In addition, there's also The Clone Wars where their relation is developed - it's not a movie, but it's a part of the story and you can't exclude that from the picture completely.
There's tension between them in the very first scene of AOTC. Then you get Anakin whining about him to Padme.

The problem is that there isn't a defining moment for their friendship in any of the films. In A New Hope it's Han Solo returning to the Death Star battle to assist Luke. In TFA the relationship between Rey and Finn develops gradually but is defined by Finn going to Starkiller base to rescue her. Rogue One had one of these moments between Jyn and Cassian but I honestly can't remember it. I know it was there though. Yes we know Anakin and Obi Wan are friends because the movie says so, but frankly that's lazy storytelling. They get along better in Episode III but how did they get there from II? Clone Wars can be excluded because I shouldn't have to consume extracurricular material to understand the character dynamic between the two main characters. That stuff should've been fleshed out in its own movie. If Clones was the first movie there would've been room for this.
 
I'll play the devil's advocate here and argue that the lack of moments defining Anakin's and Obi Wan's friendship is sometimes a bit exaggerated. True, we don't have any moments between them like we did between Han and Luke (although you could argue that after the Hoth scenes, their relationship actually goes nowhere), but it's not like there is absolutely nothing between them. For one, their relationship is defined by Obi Wan's commitment to his old, beloved teacher. Then, the chase scene in AOTC is actually not such a bad character moment. It shows us Anakin's recklessness, Obi Wan's style of teaching and other things. I don't think it's particularly well written, and it has numerous other problems, but it works as a moment defining their relationship.
I'll put it this way: I have less of a problem believing Anakin and Obi Wan are friends than believing that Padme is in love with Anakin.
 
For one, their relationship is defined by Obi Wan's commitment to his old, beloved teacher.
I think this is precisely where it doesn't work for me. Obi Wan wants nothing to do with Anakin until Qui Gon dies. Fast forward ~10 years to the next movie and I'm not convinced that Obi Wan is training Anakin for any reason other than Qui Gon's wishes. Now there's nothing wrong with that if it's really the case, but III and IV both try to tell the audience that there's a much deeper bond between them.

The chase scene is a good moment. The teacher/student dynamic is almost there and yes the characterization is a huge improvement after The Phantom Menace.
 
In addition to many other things that I would like changed about the PT, I think the PT would have been better served had it started during the AOTC era, then a Clone Wars movie, and then finishing off with ROTS. I think Lucas could have really worked on the Anakin/Obi Wan relationship over three movies, and it would have really added to the emotional weight of ROTS when Anakin finally turns. We basically only get 1.5 movies with grown up Anakin and Obi Wan working together, which isn't enough to really establish an interesting enough connection for me. Other than Darth Maul and some narrative elements, TPM was a complete waste of time IMHO.
 
Yeah .. I think starting with the start of the Clone Wars would have been better .. a little exposition could have taken care of the Trade Federation and Anakin got taken away from his Mom when he was little ... or start with Anakin in his Jedi training and end Ep1 with "begun the Clone Wars have"
 
Celebration kicked off today! Anybody got a chance to watch the 40th anniversary panel? No news revealed, but it was a beautiful event full of surprises.

The Last Jedi trailer coming tomorrow! :dancinggeek:
 
I just watched the replay of the panel .. very cool. I can promise I will watch the trailer at least 50 times straight when it is released.

I watched Rogue One for the first time since the theater on a plane on Sunday ... man that was good
 
I'm going to sound like a stodgy geezer. Some of the celebration/anniversary stuff is a bit superfluous for my tastes. I love Hamill and Ford as much as the next fan, but they're just recycling the same old war stories at these things (and today's main panel was no different). I've seen Hamill give a billion interviews on the cultural impact of SW/working with GL/how he got selected etc.. over the last three decades, so other than the cool 'reunion factor', it doesn't do much for me. The panel with Ray Park was a bit more interesting as he is a charismatic guy who rarely gets the limelight (that entrance today!), and I'm glad that they're acknowledging that the prequels actually exist.

Now...events/panels related to the new movie? Count me in :cool: Looking forward to the trailer tomorrow!
 
I feel privileged to have been among the first 200,000 people to view this on YouTube. Thank you, NP!
 
Here are a few things that have caused uncertainty and are cleared up by the German translation: First, "Jedi" in the title is plural. The German translation is "Die letzten Jedi". Then, specifically for the trailer:
The line at the end ("I only know one truth, it's time for the Jedi to end") is completely spoken by Luke. Like many, I was unsure about this, but in German, the entire line is clearly spoken by Mark Hamill's dubbing voice. It also makes the meaning a bit clearer, saying literally "the time for the Jedi is over". Also, maybe even more importantly, the whispering voices are much more audible in the German trailer, and they are Leia ("Help me Obi Wan..."), Obi Wan ("Vader was seduced...") and some quote by Yoda from ESB, but I'm not sure which one.
 
First, "Jedi" in the title is plural. The German translation is "Die letzten Jedi".
The title thing has become confusing, because yesterday Rian said that in his mind it's singular. https://twitter.com/GMA/status/853004555423973376 I'm surprised that whoever is responsible for this kind of stuff didn't make it clear with him before greenlighting translations.

As for the teaser, what can I say - it looks amazing! We got a little less than I thought, but well, now we still have some reveals to look forward to in future trailers. The whole yesterday's panel was a delight to watch. The poster stole the show! It's brilliant:

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