More Star Wars films announced

[Set Harth]

cooleddie74 wrote:

---

a couple of the novels written after Episode III was in theaters seem to strongly hint at the Emperor knowing through the Dark Side that Anakin/Vader hadn't actually killed Padmé when he Force choked her on Mustafar and that she had indeed survived for a short time after the incident.

Which novels? I've admittedly skipped many of them but I never came across that. Dark Lord, for example, indicates the opposite: Not for the first time Sidious wondered what might have happened had Anakin not killed Padme on Mustafar.

[cooleddie74]

^
Dark Lord was one of the novels I had in mind and the book does indeed have the passage you just mentioned (it helps to have a copy handy). I am incorrect about the passages in that novel, but I think it's kind of a moot point now compared to the other issues we've been discussing. If the Emperor thinks Vader killed his own wife it's still something he deliberately used to break Anakin's spirit and complete his destruction and conversion, and did so with glee as evidenced by his wide, satisfied smile when Vader breaks down with grief and lashes out from the medical reconstruction table.

Palpatine was still a nasty enough bastard to use that information to his own selfish ends....to secure his new apprentice and make sure he had nothing else left to live for. His mother was gone? The Republic had failed? Friends and fellow Jedi betrayed him? Wife dead at his own hand? His child perished with her? What else did he have except Darth Sidious, the Sith philosophy and their new Empire?

He was now the Emperor's tool to mold as he wished.

[CorporalClegg]

CorporalCaptain wrote:

---

Yep. Agreed about Lucas, and that's an interesting way of putting Kubrick.

He is better than just about everyone with the perspective--an argument could be made for Hitch, but he was better than everyone at everything.

However, I think Kubrick often used it as a crutch. In many of his most famous shots, especially later in his career, it became the only focal of the frame. There was nothing going on, and if you were to omit the perspective element, the frame literally loses all its depth.

[Mr Light]

Aside from the Anakin/Padme scenes, I think AOTC is pretty thrilling. The Coruscant Chase. Obi-Wan on Kamino. The Asteroid Field battle. Obi vs Jango on Kamino. Every second of the Battle of Geonosis. Seeing Yoda in action for the first time.

[tighr]

It would have been nice to see a live action Darth Vader that could also move like Anakin could. I realize that in the 70s/80s it was slightly difficult to get a man in a giant suit move with any semblance of agility, but it would have been epic to see Darth Vader do any actual fighting.

Episode II should have ended with Anakin becoming Vader, and Episode III should have started with the fight on Mustafar, resulting in the suit, and then Vader kicks ass for the next hour and a half.

[cooleddie74]

^
Yeah, that would have been pretty thrilling to say the least.

Technically we did get to see Darth Vader move like Anakin because Anakin was christened with his new Sith Lord title before his fate on Mustafar and reconstruction, but yeah, I do get your point. With the bulk of the old David Prowse costume during the original films and the need for someone of Ray Park-level martial arts knowledge to come in and perform acrobatic combat stunts I just don't think we were ever meant to see such fighting out of Vader in the OT.

Anyways, Lucas has repeatedly said that Darth Vader in the suit was a shadow of his former self....a cybernetic creation that did little more than keep the shattered and dismembered man inside alive. Combat was never meant to be Vader's strong suit inside the armor....his forte was supposed to be his skills with the Dark Side(choking people, levitating and throwing things, psychic impressions and visions)....those would be more than enough to help him win the day against most adversaries.

[davejames]

tighr wrote:

---

It would have been nice to see a live action Darth Vader that could also move like Anakin could. I realize that in the 70s/80s it was slightly difficult to get a man in a giant suit move with any semblance of agility, but it would have been epic to see Darth Vader do any actual fighting.

I just can't imagine that looking good at all, even with today's technology. A lot of what makes Vader seem so powerful and menacing is the slow and deliberate way in which he moves.

If you have him suddenly flipping through the air and doing acrobatic moves at lightning speed, that just wouldn't come through nearly as strong, I don't think.

[CorporalClegg]

davejames wrote:

---

If you have him suddenly flipping through the air and doing acrobatic moves at lightning speed, that just wouldn't come through nearly as strong, I don't think.

I don't think it would be too hard to find a happy medium. The way the SWTOR trailers posted up thread depicted Darth Malgus would be pretty close to how I envision a "modern" Vader.

[Kelthaz]

tighr wrote:

---

It would have been nice to see a live action Darth Vader that could also move like Anakin could. I realize that in the 70s/80s it was slightly difficult to get a man in a giant suit move with any semblance of agility, but it would have been epic to see Darth Vader do any actual fighting.

Outside of a video game, I don't want to see anyone moving like Anakin did.

[cooleddie74]

I didn't mind Anakin's combat moves all that much until the final battle with Obi-Wan on Mustafar got way out of control and the two of them started climbing on lava-dippers and mechanical columns to trade blows. All that swinging, jumping and landing on small little platforms hovering just a foot or two over burning hot lava did get tiresome after a few minutes and when the "YOU UNDERESTIMATE MY POWER" scene arrives and Anakin is dismembered and left for dead it couldn't have come a moment too soon.

Prequel Jedi acrobatics worked most of the time....but that last fight before Vader is placed inside the armor was just masturbatory in parts.

[sojourner]

"I have the high ground!"

Oh you do? NOW? So what was all that when you were jumping up and climbing on hugely tall structures? Did that not count as ground? Talk about the most worthy moment in the movie.

[CorporalCaptain]

I think Vader's floating jump after disarming Luke in The Empire Strikes Back is the creepiest move he ever did. Part of its effectiveness as a surprise move comes from us never having seen him do anything like it. As we learn about telekinetic Force powers in that sequel, it makes sense in that context. But Luke's duel with Vader is a revelation to Luke and to us that there is much that Yoda never got a chance to show him. We are still learning during the duel, with Luke, just how far Force powers go.

This is yet another reason why the films should be watched—and the story told—in the order 4, 5, 6, 1, 2, 3, the order in which the ideas were developed in the real world. Change that order, and the suspense in The Empire Strikes Back is lost, beyond just the climax being spoiled.

[CorporalClegg]

sojourner wrote:

---

"I have the high ground!"

Obviously he was talking about his pirate stash of TNG Season 3 Blu-rays.

[davejames]

Lol. You'd think Anakin could just float over to a different area of the rock. Or time his flip better so that his damn legs wouldn't be chopped off.

[JD]

I don't think I would want Vader in the suit jumping around like the PT Jedi. It just would look weird to see someone in a big bulky suit jumping around like that. It looks good with characters in the loose flowing robes and clothes that the PT characters wear, but I just don't see it working with something like what OT Vader wears.

cooleddie74 wrote:

---

My current personal ranking of the six existing Saga episodes and the big-screen Clone Wars animated film:

1. V- ESB
2. IV- ANH
3. VI- ROTJ
4. III- ROTS
5. I- TPM
6. II- AOTC
7. The Clone Wars

I'll think about where the two Ewok movies fall later.

1. ESB
2.ROTS
3.ROTJ
4.ANH
5.AOTC
6.PTM
I really enjoy all six though, so this simply a matter of how much I like them, rather than which I do and don't like.