Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Arawn

"George once said a really useful thing when I began playing Palpatine (in The Phantom Menace), and I don't know if he remembers this. He said, 'In a sense, your eyes are contact lenses.' In other words, the Palpatine character was the most artificial - it was as if they had grafted his face and put in (his) eyes. Because the real Palpatine is the one who bursts forth at a calculated moment in Episode III just after persuading Anakin to kill Mace (Windu). That is when the true person comes out, letting the evil fully manifest itself. The Emperor that you see in the last film looks the way he does because he's very old and very evil - it is what he always looked like. He just had this carapace of looking like a fairly ordinary looking guy, a politician that smiled a bit, and so on."

"I don't think George had made up his mind when we started shooting whether to continually show Lord Sidious as he really is after his initial transformation or if Sidious would go back forth with his appearance. I (believe) when George finally saw Dave's wonderful makeup he decided that constantly changing Palpatine's appearance would be a step backward. So the moment in the film where I make the transformation is the way I appear until the end. It's an interesting sort of study in schizophrenia really - the nice guy you saw was revealed later in the monstrous mask as the self, the Sith self."
- Ian McDiarmid

What annoys me about how Lucas handled the transformation wasn't in Ep III but in Ep II, they deliberately made up McDiarmid to look a lot older and more worn out - Lucas hinting at how Palpatine's true form would emerge in III - only to jack it in and have regular Palps looking pretty fly for a white guy in Ep III! This is also coming from the same mind who didn't want to have any interaction between Anakin and Palps WHATSOEVER in Ep II, leading to the scene in Palpatine's office ("So, they've finally given you an assignment...") being done in the pickups. Oh, George. If only you knew what the **** you wanted, those films could've been so much more.

[Arawn]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

I have an abundance of faith in solid story structure, which is why Revenge of the Sith annoys me to this day. Anakin was going to learn he was living proof that the Dark Side could create and maintain life, while Yoda was trying to teach him to let go of personal attachments. If you found out your mystery birth was caused by a Sith Lord and you knew your wife's death was imminent, that's a temptation that would be pretty hard to resist. Mr. Lucas only hinted at Anakin's origins...people complain about Lucas' tin-eared dialog, but dropping that thread after starting it is, for me, the biggest writing disappointment in the Prequels.

Well, to believe that the power to save people from death exists, and that it is a dark side power as opposed to something that could be learned from the Jedi, the essential thing is for Anakin to believe that dark side powers exist in general. ( And by dark side powers I mean powers which are only accomplished by focused and deliberate use of the dark side. ) But Anakin has every reason to believe that dark side powers exist - in fact, he's been on the receiving end of one of them!

[Show spoiler]

If one dark side power can exist, another can exist. I take your point that finding he was created by the Sith could serve as impetus for Anakin going along with Palpatine, but even in the released film Anakin is told that the power of cheating death exists, in the sense that it is possible to achieve, and it's a question of whether he believes that or not. If the film had been more like the rough draft - if Palpatine had said "I created you" or "the Sith created you" - he would still have just been making a claim without providing proof, and Anakin would still have had to choose whether to believe him or not. In either case the essential "hook" is that the dark side can be used to save the dying. Though it is not unreasonable to assume that both powers may derive from midichlorian manipulation, the alleged ability to "create life" is not what Anakin needs - he's already done that the old-fashioned way!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

The master was definitely optimized for DVD which looks outstanding for DVD standards, but the BD does look slightly better. Not a lot in it mind you, compare for yourself - https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?d1=15...66&i=0&l=0&a=0

Am I the only one who starts hearing the probe droid's signal when I see that image?

Yikes, check that blown out contrast on the Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...2=1669&i=3&l=0

[Alan_Grant]

Originally Posted by happydood

Yeah, I don't think these movies could ever have lived up to expectations on the whole. Then again I'm still baffled at how they're derided out of all proportion to what they actually are.

I totally understand peoples' disappointment. But those folks posting pictures of George Lucas eating Chinese food and talking about how he's an idiot that shouldn't be allowed within 10 feet of the thing he made have pretty much lost at life.

Nobody hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans do, mate.

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by Alan_Grant

Nobody hates Star Wars like Star Wars fans do, mate.

If I riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssk it aaaaaa-allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Sorry, I just like your avatar.

[Alan_Grant]

Originally Posted by dallywhitty

If I riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiisssk it aaaaaa-allllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll.

Sorry, I just like your avatar.

[Blu-21]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Am I the only one who starts hearing the probe droid's signal when I see that image?

Yikes, check that blown out contrast on the Blu-ray: https://caps-a-holic.com/c.php?go=1&...2=1669&i=3&l=0

I've actually forgotten what the probe droid's signal sounds like!

The DVD certainly has better whites in that shot.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

I've actually forgotten what the probe droid's signal sounds like!

The DVD certainly has better whites in that shot.

Here you go:

Star Wars Imperial Probe droid sound effects 2 - YouTube

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by PrimusD

So if she had more similar tastes to you, you would respect her less?

I respect her for being who she is, her own person, and making no apologies or concessions.

Originally Posted by Deathbymonkeys

That's always been his type of logic.

Wha?

[rexcrk]

Originally Posted by Ray Jackson

You know what to do.

Ohhh if only

[PrimusD]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

I respect her for being who she is, her own person, and making no apologies or concessions.

Thanks for the elaboration, makes perfect sense now.

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The public didn't know what he was doing...if he had toughed it out and stuck the landing, "the public" would watch Menace now and say, "Oh...that's what was going on. Hey, that's kinda cool, I was too hard on that film." Again, I think the internet grumblings messed with his headspace, made him second guess himself, when sticking to his guns would have shut them all up, and fast. Nothing's going to redeem JarJar, but at least the midichlorian subplot would reveal itself as the trail of breadcrumbs it was intended to be.

Is George really that influenced by people online complaining about his movies? If that were true I think he wouldve released the original unaltered trilogy by now!

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

Is George really that influenced by people online complaining about his movies? If that were true I think he wouldn't release the original unaltered trilogy by now!

He said he stopped making movies because "what was the point" when people just said mean things about him. He's always been thin-skinned about criticism. He had a t-shirt made of a negative review and wore it in Tunisia while shooting The Phantom Menace. He named the villains in Willow after film critics who gave him negative reviews at some point. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that professional film critics had no real knowledge of film production, so their opinions had no value...yet he was aware and remained aware of what they wrote.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by fat_rancor_keeper

I guess with the PT timeline established it officially shaved 10-15 years off Anakin and Obi-Wan.

Basically. They also wound up greatly compressing the overall timeline of the Clone Wars, Anakin's fall, establishment of the Empire & the Jedi Purge, and Anakin & Obi-Wan's duel. What originally spanned about 10-15 years (don't have my copy of the Guide to the Star Wars Universe on hand so I can't recall the details) was compressed to three, with the biggest plot elements seeming to occur in less than a week. In the old EU before 1999, the Clone Wars ended 35 years BBY, versus 19 years BBY today.

[Alan_Grant]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

He said he stopped making movies because "what was the point" when people just said mean things about him. He's always been thin-skinned about criticism. He had a t-shirt made of a negative review and wore it in Tunisia while shooting The Phantom Menace. He named the villains in Willow after film critics who gave him negative reviews at some point. He told the Chicago Sun-Times that professional film critics had no real knowledge of film production, so their opinions had no value...yet he was aware and remained aware of what they wrote.

TPM came out 17 years ago and people still piss and moan about it, AOTC 14 and ROTS 11, as if they cant just move on from a movie. There is a documentary about how "greedy and awful" of a person Lucas is, despite him giving that 4 billion dollars he got from Disney straight to a charity. People talk tons of shit about Lucas when...all he did was make 3 novies people didnt like. I'd quit too.

[Nicolawicz]

He also vandalized three classic films, two of which he didn't even direct. And he only said he was going to donate that money.

[Arch Stanton]

Is it true Lucas offered AOTC to Ron Howard to direct? And possibly Spielberg before him? I think he was really burnt by the reaction to TPM. Kinda shows in the behind the scenes features from then forward.

[imsounoriginal]

He offered TPM to Spielberg, Howard, and I think even Zemeckis IIRC, but they all convinced him that Star Wars was his baby and that he should do it.

[stvn1974]

Lucas knew how much people hated the "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO" in Revenge Of The Sith so as one last middle finger to fans he added one to Return Of The Jedi.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by Alan_Grant

TPM came out 17 years ago and people still piss and moan about it, AOTC 14 and ROTS 11, as if they cant just move on from a movie. There is a documentary about how "greedy and awful" of a person Lucas is, despite him giving that 4 billion dollars he got from Disney straight to a charity. People talk tons of shit about Lucas when...all he did was make 3 novies people didnt like. I'd quit too.

$2 billion was cash, the other $2 billion was Disney stock, which he still owns last time I checked. I'm going to assume the doc you refer to is The People vs. George Lucas, which is actually very even-handed discussing the fandom's reaction to the Prequels and the alterations made to the original films.