Star Wars: Episode VII: The Nerd Rage Awakens
- Thread starter cooleddie74
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Doctorwhovian
Fleet Captain
Probably mentioned this on the thread before, but in the older drafts of ROTJ, they had Jerjorrodd (The commander who greets Vader at the beginning of ROTJ) as a sort of rival for Vader, who also had more authority than him. There's some trace of this in the final film, as Jerjorodd is somewhat argumentative with Vader, but backs down when Vader mentions the Emperor is coming.
There's also a deleted scene where Jerjorodd won't let Vader into the throne room turbolift since it's the Emperor's command. Vader chokes him a bit but relents when Jerjorodd mentions that.
One of the other interesting deleted scenes (included on the blu-ray and also the Making of book digital version) has Jerjorodd actually questioning the Emperor when Palpatine orders to destroy the moon since the shield is down anyway and he wants to make Luke angry by killing his friends. jerjorodd doesn't want to lose the "Legion of best troops" though. His hesitation actually gives the rebels more time as they destroy the Death Star before Jerjorodd gives the final order.
Speaking of Tarkin, it's too bad that we didn't get enough screen time with him in the prequels, apart from the end of ROTS as a cameo (played by Wayne Prygam). "Clone Wars" sort of helped with that a bit.
Dooku also suffered a bit from having a lot of deleted material, such as his history (which would've been part of the Obi-Wan in the library scene), more of his alleged motivations for leading the Seperatists etc (a lot of his battle with Obi-Wan and Anakin was left on the cutting room floor as well). Granted, Dooku wasn't exactly Lee's best performance, he did seem kind of bored with the role, especially in the light of his "Lord of the Rings" performance as Sauromon which came out roughly the same time. Interestingly I think Dooku was originally meant to be more of a Tarkin-like role (Based on concept art and some other references), while the Sith apprentice would be a different individual. Lucas decided to merge them together at some point during the development of AOTC I think.
There's also a deleted scene where Jerjorodd won't let Vader into the throne room turbolift since it's the Emperor's command. Vader chokes him a bit but relents when Jerjorodd mentions that.
One of the other interesting deleted scenes (included on the blu-ray and also the Making of book digital version) has Jerjorodd actually questioning the Emperor when Palpatine orders to destroy the moon since the shield is down anyway and he wants to make Luke angry by killing his friends. jerjorodd doesn't want to lose the "Legion of best troops" though. His hesitation actually gives the rebels more time as they destroy the Death Star before Jerjorodd gives the final order.
Speaking of Tarkin, it's too bad that we didn't get enough screen time with him in the prequels, apart from the end of ROTS as a cameo (played by Wayne Prygam). "Clone Wars" sort of helped with that a bit.
Dooku also suffered a bit from having a lot of deleted material, such as his history (which would've been part of the Obi-Wan in the library scene), more of his alleged motivations for leading the Seperatists etc (a lot of his battle with Obi-Wan and Anakin was left on the cutting room floor as well). Granted, Dooku wasn't exactly Lee's best performance, he did seem kind of bored with the role, especially in the light of his "Lord of the Rings" performance as Sauromon which came out roughly the same time. Interestingly I think Dooku was originally meant to be more of a Tarkin-like role (Based on concept art and some other references), while the Sith apprentice would be a different individual. Lucas decided to merge them together at some point during the development of AOTC I think.
John Williams' score is perhaps the only aspect of the saga where I feel that all six films can stand on more or less equal footing. His contribution to the saga cannot be overstated.
That being said, I think the spinoffs need to differentiate themselves from the core films. I'm hoping to see a greater variety of style, tone, scope and maybe even genre from the spinoffs. The Star Wars universe is vast. Let's explore every corner.
That being said, I think the spinoffs need to differentiate themselves from the core films. I'm hoping to see a greater variety of style, tone, scope and maybe even genre from the spinoffs. The Star Wars universe is vast. Let's explore every corner.
And Disney stewardship or not, I hope the standalone films aren't afraid to risk being a little dark and getting PG-13 ratings to explore those murkier and grittier parts of the Star Wars galaxy. ROTS proved you can be a more violent and darker Star Wars film, get a PG-13 rating and still have global appeal across every age group. I'd like to see the writers and producers take things as far as they can go and perhaps do something along the lines of the canceled and darker-in-design "Underworld" live-action series concept that had been under discussion and story development by Lucas and Rick McCallum.
Admiral Piett is easily on of my favorite supporting characters. His rise to power and ultimate fall are great story writing.
Also when he fails to tractor the Falcon and expects Vader to kill him for the failure is historic.
As an aside - it never made sense why the destruction of the bridge would result in the Executor spinning out of control. You'd think such a giant ship would have multiple control stations - notably someone in engineering would take control of the vessel.
Agreed. In some ways Piett is the most interesting Imperial in the entire Original Trilogy who isn't the Emperor or Darth Vader.
Doctorwhovian
Fleet Captain
Piett, oddly enough, is one of the characters that the original EU seemed to largely avoid, apart from adding some backstory. Even Captain Needa of all people has more written about him-and don't get me started on General Tagge.
As for why Executor lost control, there's Zahn's explanation from Heir To The Empire that it was basically Palpatine's dark side power or something that was holding the fleet together, and once he was thrown into the chute the Imperials became disorganized. Not canon of course
Also in some sources the 'globes' on top of the Destroyers are actually some form of sensor device and not shield generators. ROTJ sort of retconned that I guess.
As for the music in Episodes I-III, while it was very good, the way it was edited-especially in AOTC-was awful.
As for why Executor lost control, there's Zahn's explanation from Heir To The Empire that it was basically Palpatine's dark side power or something that was holding the fleet together, and once he was thrown into the chute the Imperials became disorganized. Not canon of course
Also in some sources the 'globes' on top of the Destroyers are actually some form of sensor device and not shield generators. ROTJ sort of retconned that I guess.
As for the music in Episodes I-III, while it was very good, the way it was edited-especially in AOTC-was awful.
It's hard for me to pick on any of the music from the films but I will say that the soundtrack for Episode II is and has been my least favorite of the six. It has some fantastic moments and tracks to be sure but it just doesn't have some of the same dramatic and emotional weight and impact as the music from the other films in the Saga.
That said, John Williams music from the worst Star Wars movie is still head and shoulders more entertaining than most soundtracks from other films.
That said, John Williams music from the worst Star Wars movie is still head and shoulders more entertaining than most soundtracks from other films.
I think every Star Wars film is going to be PG-13 from now on. That's the sweet spot for blockbusters. If it's rated R, teens under 17 can't see it on their own, and nowadays PG is treated the same as G.
Doctorwhovian
Fleet Captain
Believe me, I have no problem with stuff with "Across the Stars" and stuff of that nature. My problem is mainly with the Geonosis battle (The arena and the latter stuff), with for the most part is recycled mainly from TPM.
Even ROTS had this problem at some points, the scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan try to land the Seperatist flagship is not only from the Podrace, but also used when the Naboo starship evades the blockade. Anakin leading the 501st clone troopers into the temple is also from AOTC. Granted, the OT recycled some music sometimes, but not this extent.
Even ROTS had this problem at some points, the scene where Anakin and Obi-Wan try to land the Seperatist flagship is not only from the Podrace, but also used when the Naboo starship evades the blockade. Anakin leading the 501st clone troopers into the temple is also from AOTC. Granted, the OT recycled some music sometimes, but not this extent.
The arena fight was clearly taken from John Carter, it's funny that when the John Carter movie was made was how close it was to the arena scene AOTC. But otherwise I can't see the connections you've made.
Doctorwhovian
Fleet Captain
Clearly the arena was somewhat inspired by the Ben Hur movie, as well as Gladiator (Which came out shortly before AOTC, no less-hell, even Russel Crowe was considered to be Obi-Wan in TPM's casting stage). However, the music is still a mess, between some new stuff and tracks clearly lifted from TPM (Although this is more noticeable in the Clones vs. Droids battle).
I somehow doubt the new Trilogy would be PG-13. Considering the ages a lot of the people involved with these projects were when they saw them....10 years old (I was minus one day when I first experiance Star Wars...from the womb. I wanted out after that I am told). PG is likely because it is Star Wars. The massive, mega toy tie-in money maker. What studio would want to limit their money intake from children's parents by making it PG-13? Disney??
But didn't those sources come out after ROTJ? If a source claimed they weren't shield generators I can imagine why they came to that conclusion -- don't we see certain ships getting blown up at a time when their globes are still intact?
cooleddie74 said:
As in the case of Order 66, the Clone Wars "explained" something here that didn't really need explaining. It was pretty obvious that it was Qui-Gon's voice and this was also referenced on the AOTC DVD. And even though the scene featuring Qui-Gon dialogue was left out of ROTS we still got the scene between Yoda and Obi-Wan which explained that Qui-Gon had ghosted.
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It's really hard to say. "Revenge of the Sith" was PG-13, so anything is possible.
I don't know why filmmakers don't release two different versions? At a minimum the Blueray should have 2 versions, one PG 13 and one R. Parents then then decide which version they want their children to watch.
You're kidding, right?
Am I kidding they should release two versions - NO
Am I kidding that parents have the ability to control their children's behavior if they choose to - NO
Am I kidding that technology has the ability to lock minors out of certain types of content - NO
Are we kidding ourselves that some parents don't seem to give a shit about what their children do/see/watch - SADLY YES.
