[grannyhiker]

I'm not too sure that the substitution of Disney for Lucas will be an improvement--just my $0.02.

[olderthanIusedtobe]

[Randito]

[Bedivere]

I despise what George Lucas became. He took entertaining movies that had a bit of edge to them when he first made them then neutered them in the false belief that children need to be pandered to and coddled (replacing the cops shotguns in ET with radios was just bizarre) The original Star Wars movies (episodes IV-VI) were great action adventure stories and the first two especially had some fairly gritty moments and somewhat dark themes. By the time Empire Strikes back rolled around it was pretty clear what direction Lucas was heading with his filmmaking (is there anyone else who thought the Ewoks were ludicrous but still liked the movie for what it was?) If it matters, I was 8 years old in '76 when the first movie came out and saw it many, many times over the next year. The prequels were nearly unwatchable dreck. Lousy acting, lousy writing, and boring storylines. That kid that played Anakin in the first movie is one of the most annoying screen presences ever and the idea that he built C3PO was just stupid. Lucas had clearly become far too enamored with special effects and lost any pretense of being able to write a compelling story. Episode III was the best of them, and that aint saying much. I still love me some Star Wars and am eager to see what Disney/JJ Abrams can do with it. Abrams has spent a lot of time on the look and feel of the film (using lots of models/miniatures and set construction as in the original and foregoing CGI where possible) but without a compelling storyline and good actors it will just be another boring special effects fest. That said, I can't imagine how this movie could be any worse than "Episode I" as it has no lousy child actor as the primary character, no CGI racist caricature as a comic (though entirely unfunny) foil and whatever you may think of JJ Abrams movies, he's no George Lucas. Thank God. And yes, a pox on Peter Jackson's house too. The Hobbit movies were awful and as a died-in-the-wool fan of the Hobbit and LOtR books (I used to correspond with my older sister who was also a fan when she lived overseas by writing letters using Dwarvish runes) as well as the LOtR movies I just cannot understand what he was thinking.

[Randito]

[Ski]

I still think this is the best version ever!

[Bedivere]

[joker]

[Ski]

Sir Bedivere - that's the third time I've watched it all the way through - looks like they've done at least another episode as well. (gotta love the scene from Bergman's "Seventh Seal" inserted in there!)

[cascadetraverser]

Randy: Saw Empire Strikes Back (SW5) at the UA 150 as well. That was such a cool theater....Only got the Cinerama left from those great downtown theaters. Abrams is talented. I thought the first reboot of Star Trek was very well done but the sequel (Wrath of Khan redo) was disappointing. I suspect the talent we have seen in the first one will be on display for the new Star Wars film... The trailer for the new film is dope (my teen age son is quoted there!)

[Randito]

The most entertaining (and sadly disturbing) reaction to the trailer for the new film are some people's negative reaction to the black storm trooper. I thought Abrams did a good job on the Trek reboot, including giving Kirk cheesy one-liners and having him bang alien babes. So I'm hopeful that episode 7 will regain some of the fun of episode 4.

[NacMacFeegle]

I don't know how anyone could have avoided seeing any of the Star Wars movies, especially the original trilogy. Now the prequels, those I can certainly see why someone may have skipped some or all. The first prequel movie wasn't too bad, everyone complains about Jar Jar Binks and too much boring galactic politics, but I never did find that these were the worst things about the movie, and I can still enjoy rewatching it. The worst things about it were the horrendous acting by the actors who portrayed Princess Amidala and young Anakin Skywalker. I've heard it said that Lucas's terrible scripts and direction were partly to blame for the poor acting throughout the prequel trilogy, but I also thing the actors themselves should share some of the blame. Episodes II and III were just terrible, their only redeeming qualities being a few isolated action sequences.

[joker]

[Jake Neiffer]