LOLs. Lando Carlissian, Captain Panaka, Mace Windu? Also, there was one dude, the one who played Jar Jar, in the bar scene of Episode II. Did you count that one? Also: :grin:
Anyone else think the black guy in the beginning was Kevin Hart, just for a second? I thought it was a parody. And I was a little disappointed when it wasn't.
First, I turned 14 years old again watching that trailer. Whatever else Abrams is, he is a fan of Star Wars just like the rest of us fans, and I'm sure he was just as dismayed by the 'Prequels' as the rest of us were. He respects the Star Wars movies, and has been given the opportunity to wash away the stink of Lucas' senile ineptitude for the entire world and generations of fans. My expectations therefore are very high. Long rant inside.. Spoiler Second, there are really only two legitimate Star Wars movies - the original Star Wars and Empire Strikes Back. EVERYTHING which came after was controlled completely by Lucas and they are spectacular in their utter lack of any understanding whatsoever of the subject matter or even of WHY fans loved those two movies in the first place. Hell, even as early as Return of the Jedi, Lucas was still writing the FIRST DRAFT of the SCRIPT on Day One of shooting! That is not how you make movies. It is how wealthy rubes make insipid vanity projects and ruin childhoods for millions of fans. Third, people need to understand that Lucas NEVER had some 'grand vision' for how the overall 'arc' of the Star Wars movies would begin, progress, and end. He saw it merely as an ongoing serialization, much like the Buck Rogers cliffhanger serials of the early days of the movies. This means that things he created in the first Star Wars movies had no pre-conceived connections to anything which came afterward. Heck, he was sure Star Wars was going to be a failure - he didn't like it, it was too 'actor-y', and his 'vision' was so spaced-out and 70's-psychedelic-weirdo that , had he had his way from the beginning, it would have been unwatchable. Thankfully his 'writing buddies' (forced on him by Fox), primarily Coppola, MADE him do re-writes (which he hated doing), and reined in his more terrible ideas, CONSTANTLY, until they had a workable script, which became Star Wars. Some other bits of genius were the casting of old Hammer great Peter Cushing as the villain, and a clearly-befuddled Alec Guiness as the old sorcerer, and Harrison Ford, who was roped into the project after American Graffiti. Not to mention James Earl Jones as the voice of the heavy henchman, Darth Vader. Brilliant casting! It was a stressful production, money was short, the technology didn't EXIST for the outer-space fighting.. they INVENTED everything from scratch, which is what gave birth to ILM. Everyone working on the film had to be CREATIVE because they couldn't just snap their fingers and get everything they wanted. SO much good came from all of that, mostly because Lucas was NOT allowed to be in control of really anything at all. And he hated it. But old George was wily, if nothing else. Once he saw the insane success of Star Wars, he knew that he had to take sole ownership of the franchise if he was ever going to be able to make HIS 'vision' of what he wanted to do. So he parleyed his profits into creating his own independent film company. Most people don't realize this, but Lucas' films after Empire have all been independent productions. No studio interference, no other producers, no bosses, absolutely no one holding George accountable. The buck truly stopped there, when it came to George. The only problem was, George was like a dog chasing a car. He *WANTED*.. WANTED.. he wanted to control EVERYTHING about making more Star Wars movies. Unfortunately, just like a dog, he literally had NO IDEA what to do with it once he had it under his total control. He HATED writing. He HATED working with actors. He HATED directing. All he really wanted to do was sit in front of a computer and make synthetic images run around and do things. But it wasn't always like that. Allegedly, Lucas also personally wrote the 'novelization' of Star Wars. His name is on it as the author, unlike many of the other books, which at that time were farmed out to Alan Dean Foster. But when you read the Star Wars novel, you really see the true vision of what Star Wars was, but AFTER the movie was produced. I don't believe he wrote the book prior to the movie having been made. I could be wrong about that, but the book reads far too much like the movie, very much shot by shot, EXCEPT for the scenes which were cut out, primarily of Biggs and also the scene they filmed where Luke actually WATCHES the opening space chase/fight from the ground using his funky binoculars (which he uses later to look at the Sandpeople). (Since people are so concerned with Stormtroopers, it is noteworthy that in the novel, Stormtroopers are specifically described as just normal men *and women*, from various worlds, no different from soldiers in any other context anyone had seen before. The whole idea of them being 'clones' was ret-conned in because Lucas was TRYING to find a way to pluck elements from the original Star Wars and shoe-horn them into his Episode One: remember Leia's hologram plea to Kenobi? 'Years ago you fought with my father in the CLONE WARS.' Lucas seized on THAT ONE LINE to create the entire founding premise for the 'prequels'. There was NEVER any notion of them being 'clones' prior to Lucas' desperate grasping at straws. My point on this is, I guess, don't get too wound up over the Stormtroopers' race or even gender, because the whole 'clone' idea was stupid to begin with and it's perfectly fine if it is discarded.) Anyway, originally Lucas intended the story to follow the two droids, and the travels through the Star Wars universe would actually just be the story of their adventures as they went from one owner to another, new sets of characters and loyalties, one after the other. It was only when Star Wars became such a phenomenon that this plan had to be revised. Luckily Lucas didn't yet have the power to control everything after the first movie, so Empire Strikes Back became one of the most successful and beloved sequels in movie history. It was SO well written and directed, and the actors all brought so much to the roles.. and YODA!! And the coolness of BOBA FETT! And LANDO!! NONE of those things would have been realized had Lucas been in charge of Empire. Oh by the way, Lucas HIMSELF declared way back at the beginning, once it became clear that Star Wars was going to have 'sequels' (plural!!) that his intent was to make it into a NINE MOVIE SERIES. Despite the lies he told in the last several years that he NEVER intended there to be more than SIX. BS. HE himself said he wanted to make nine. The day he finally gave up and sold it all to Disney.. was a GREAT GREAT DAY. Abrams will not give us more complete crap like Lucas did. It may not be perfect, but relatively speaking, it will be a masterpiece compared to anything Lucas created on his own. Well, so, anyway, enough ranting for now. I'm sure there will be plenty more over the next year while we wait for the next movie.. but my advice for everyone is, re-watch Star Wars and Empire, and completely erase everything else from your minds.. they do not exist.. they do not exist.. those are not the movies you are looking for..
On a slightly different note, I'm not a cartoon guy or a comic book guy at ALL, but I'm really enjoying Star Wars Rebels so far. Probably because it takes place where I wish this new movie would take place - between III and IV. Just wish Darth Vader would make an appearance.
Huh? He does appear, and is voiced by the original actor, too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v3Qk3Vn0vXM Some of us were NOT.
^ I'm placing these droids in your care. Treat them well. Clean them up. Have this guy (above) 's mind wiped.
I think it is pretty much accepted that the poor conditions star wars was shot in changed the story and editing (not done by Lucas) saved the movie. Both of those had much more impact than pre shoot rewrites.
Me too. Happened to be at DisneyWorld during Star Wars weekends last summer, and got to talk to some of the actors voicing the characters..that was fun. My younger boy and I are alllll in on Rebels! Fun show.
The original trilogy first came out on VHS tape. They were subsequently released on DVD. Then Lucas re-released the updated DVD versions. If memory serves, the main difference was added CGI effects (such as the bright ring of fire around the Death Star when it explodes in ROTJ) and some added scenes here and there. He then re-re-released a silver edition in the early 2000s. They have since been re-re-re-released on blu-ray. I believe that I still have the original VHS tapes stored somewhere.
Hadn't got to this episode on my DVR yet. But I'd rather see him kicking Jedi ass than just a quick cameo. Better than nothing I guess.
Don't you mean "fighting" or at least "in combat"? Did he ever kick any Jedi's ass? I don't think so, man.
