George Did It AGAIN!

I have mostly been on the fence about some of the changes George Lucas has made to Star Wars over the years. Some I have liked like the removal of the black boarders around some of the special effects and the updated Wampa Feading Scene. And others I am very much on the fence about like the updated Sarlacc Pit. However now with the BluRay Release Of Star Wars, Lucas is adding some extra dialogue to the scene where Darth Vader kills Emperor Palatine. This scene was perfect before, the silent defiance was all that was needed, but now Lucas has Darth Vader saying "No!"

There has been some leaked audio of the 'NO!' and WideAsleepFilm has edited it together with a copy of the scene. I think it's a crime against good cinema and something that shouldn't have been changed, but see for yourself.

[Source: Ain't It Cool News]

Star Wars The Old Republic CG Backstory

A few very nice CG videos have been released in the runup to the release of SWTOR and some kind YouTuber has put them together into a fifteen minute compilation. Best watched full screen in HD to be sure.

Trench Run

Snowy trench run from Aaron Dabelow on Vimeo.

Snub Fighter Star Wars Fan Re-edit

A really great Star Wars fan edit.

Luke snatches defeat from the jaws of victory in this re-edit of "A New Hope"
After boasting to the more experienced pilots of Red Squadron, he arrives late for the attack, disobeys orders and ignores Obi-Wan's repeated pleas to use the force. Han Solo is not impressed with Luke and must now deal with a vengeful Darth Vader and all Red Five can do is watch from above as the veteran Red Leader calmly demonstrates the correct way to fire a proton torpedo down a thermal exhaust port.

Boba Fett Hoodie

Occasionally I have seen people on the interwebs wearing a Boba Fett Hoodie. These are media types who probably got given one and this kind of stuff is normally very limited edition, but it has been playing on my mind because I really want one.

So I have been searching for a few weeks now (intermittently, not constantly) and discovered that the Official Star Wars Store Has A Preorder For Them! OMG!!!

Plus postage they are a little expensive. So I have to ask myself, does it meet the Brook critique of purchasability?

+ Item is a silent reference to a much loved franchise.
+ Item does not have text, so people won't stand in front of me and read my shirt, ask to read my shirt or read aloud what I already know to be written on my shirt (this all annoys me).
+ Not buying item will mean I will deeply regret it for the rest of my life as another item that got away. I might even dream about wearing it only to awaken not ever having touched it.

- Tis expensive.
- It might not fit when it arrives.

And then I am like 'can I find photos on the web of people wearing it?'

Yes, YES, and YES! (NSFW). So each time it looks awesome and kind of scruffy lookin'
So did I buy it? Hell YES!
I might post photos come November.

More Dancing Storm Troopers

This is Danny Choo, he has a Blog. I posted this because I can.

Star Wars Dance Off

It is something called the Star Wars Dance Off that is part of a weekend event every year at Disney's Hollywood Studio.

Cinemassacre's Star Wars Review

James Rolfe, better known as The Angry Video Game Nerd is a big movie buff and has done a retrospective review of the Star Wars films. I like James have seen them a lot throughout my life, but he mentions a few things in the first part of his review that I never realised before. I always knew that Star Wars followed a very classic Hero/Villain story, but I never knew how much of a melting pot of classic archetypes it was. So worth a watch.





In relation to James' comment on the optimum order to watch the films in, I think it has been well established now that watching them in the order they where filmed, results in a better first viewing.

Jedi Drinking Test

Let me formulate this so I can go to bed quick (the sooner I sleep the sooner I play Portal).

(Celtic + Rock) + Drinking + Star Wars = Jedi Drinking Test by Dust Rhinos

And there are Lyrics and a Download available if you wanted.

Star Wars Episode 1 - Balance of the Force

There has been a few fan edits of 'Star Wars Episode One The Phantom Menace', most notably 'The Phantom Re-Edit' which removed Jar Jar Binks. This resulted in twenty minuets of footage being cut from the film, but has resulted in much praise from fans and directors alike. Today I watched an edit called 'Balance of the Force' which dubs a lot of the alien dialogue with subtitles and includes the full pod-race sequence from the DVD. There is a mention and list of edits on the Wikipedia Page. It has been well over a year since I last watched The Phantom Menace so I thought I would watch it and see how I felt about it subjectively.

My control opinion of The Phone Menace was that Jar Jar is an unnecessary character and that the film isn't hard hitting enough. I agreed with Lucas's decision to shorten the pod-race sequence as it would have been a long dominating scene in the middle of the film. I thought Anakin was a very happy confidant kid and I didn't understand how the hell he would ever turn to the darkside.

After watching the edit I think Lucas's decision to cut the pod-race sequence was dumb as most of the scenes on Tatooine builds up the the pod-race so having a full length race actually makes it feel worth waiting for. With the edits to Jar Jar Binks he becomes an opportunistic selfish waster, but that is better than the goofy clown he was before. The conflict between the Trade Federation and Naboo is no over the outlawing of slavery instead of taxation. This is a brilliant edit as it makes me feel the Republic was moving towards a brighter more civilised future. Anakin comes across now as a confident, yet tense kid willing to fight as shown with a fight scene between him and another kid named Greedo. Put simply I loved this edit of the film far more than the original theatrical release. It adds depth to the story throughout and corrects a lot of story holes that was left by the original release. The glowing orb-thing that was given to the Gungans at the end of the film which was a mystery in the original edit, is now a Gungan artifact that the Humans stole and rather than them being simple neighbours it feel like the Humans and Gungans could have been on the verge of war. There are a few things about the edit which I haven't mentioned because I don't want to spoil it, but it is much much better edit than the theatrical release of the film.

Star Wars III: A Lost Hope

I have seen a few Star Wars parodies and most of them are very bad and most of the the others are just bad, but A Lost Hope (checkout the mirrors for a good download) is great because they didn't try to redo an entire film, but just a parody trailer. So maybe there is a lesson there.