Back when special effects were "real"

In my brief five years of blogging, I've grown up a little bit. Things such as Star Wars don't seem quite as important to me as they used to. So, not that it really matters anymore, but one of the huge problems I had with the Star Wars prequels was how fake everything in them looked. For me, this was due to the fact most of the scenes with human actors were filmed in a movie studio, in front of green screens. The one generally considered to be the very worst of the three, The Phantom Menace, seems to have the most actual, real location or real set shots featuring live actors. Ironically, it may turn out to be considered the best of the prequels in years to come(!). Wouldn't that be wild?

To commemorate the release of The Making of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, Vanity Fair has a few, really cool behind the scene pics from the making of what is not only my favorite Star Wars film, but perhaps my favorite film of all time. I still get a little bit excited just thinking about The Empire Strikes Back, so maybe I haven't grown up that much.

Happy B-Day, Empire

Hard to believe, but it is thirty years to the day that I first sat in the Galvez Mall movie theater (now gone - the mall and theater) and marveled at The Empire Strikes Back. Although I was twelve years old that distant summer (12 years old seems so much older today), a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, I was completely into it. Darth Vader was still frightening and evil, and amazingly, nobody knew he was Luke Skywalker's father. A secret like that wouldn't have survived today.

And naively, innocently, I clearly remember walking out of the theater thinking somehow, Han Solo was really frozen in carbomite and in the hands of the bounty hunter Boba Fett. Empire had a profound impact on me, and it is still the movie I say is my favorite film of all time if ever asked...I am not ashamed to admit (perhaps I should be) that the cliffhanger ending still gets me choked up. It's just so beautiful and poignant! Perhaps it's just John Williams' musical score, but I doubt any film will ever so affect me again.

Photoshopped??

At least Obibama Kenobi isn't wielding a red one....
Gawker via Buzzfeed

Saber rattling

Animals With Lightsabers

Best when ingested with "Duel of the Fates."

Asteroids

I suppose this post is as much about my love for the music of John Williams (in this case, the soundtrack to The Empire Strikes Back) as it is about one of my favorite scenes from the very same film. Other than the "Carbon Freeze" scene or the beautiful, heart-wrenching final moments of the film, that scene would be the one in which the hyperdrive damaged Millennium Falcon (containing Han Solo, Princess Leia, Chewbacca, and C3PO) manages to escape from Imperial Star Destroyers by going straight into an asteroid field. First of all, you can't tell me the special effects in this scene aren't at least equal, if not vastly superior, to any computer-generated imagery in any film of the last ten years. And the fact CGI isn't used in the original version of Empire makes this an even more breathtaking sequence. I recently watched the entire movie (not the 1997 re-release) for probably the twentieth time and realized something for the first time. It's after this exchange:

Leia: We're going to get pulverized if we stay out here much longer.
Solo: I ain't gonna argue with that.
C3PO: Pulverized?
Solo: I'm going in closer to one of the big ones.
Leia and C3PO (almost simultaneously): Closer?

It's a small thing, but at that moment, I always thought C3PO is thrown into Chewbacca due to turbulent movement of the ship. I hadn't noticed until seeing it, like I said, for the twentieth-something time, that C3PO is actually grabbing and holding onto Chewbacca for dear life. That little detail makes me love the scene all the more.

And of course the whole time, John Williams' brilliant score is working its magic. Has there ever been such a perfect marriage between what is happening on the screen and the music playing beneath? The moment when the "Han Solo and The Princess" theme kicks in melts me every time. It's one of those times in the movie when I can virtually smell the theater in which I first saw The Empire Strikes Back on the day it premiered, some twenty-eight (OMFG) years ago, it's impression on me was so profound.

Indiana Jones IV....

....I loved it! I saw the 7:00 showing here (Nacogdoches) in a packed theater last night (Thursday the 22nd). Not a perfect movie, by far, but I thought it was wonderful. There were a couple of moments I just wanted to clap with shear joy. I find it hard to understand the bile and hatred spewed towards it in some of the reviews I've read. The first reviews out there (at Ain't It Cool News) were negative. So I stopped reading the reviews. I decided that I wanted to enjoy it and not let anybody influence my perception of it, or effect my expectations. It pretty much worked, because I liked most of it. Harrison Ford was such a hero of mine when I was a kid (I mean, c'mon, he was Han Solo and Indiana Jones), that it was a strangely touching experience to see the "old guy" do it again.

Shia LaBeouf was perfect. I think he must have spent some time trying to replicate Harrison Ford's facial expressions. The first scene with Indiana Jones and Marion (Karen Allen) from Raiders of the Lost Ark is so special....I think you'd have to have been the age I was when I saw Raiders its opening weekend back in '81. I need to quote Ain't It Cool News here, because he has such a great way of putting such things into words:

Then there’s Indy’s reaction to seeing Marion for the first time. I couldn’t describe it to save my life. It’s about 40 different emotions all at once. And only Harrison Ford’s face could deliver that… effortlessly. And at the same time – there’s Marion’s reaction – and ya know… It’s a combination of relief & joy. When you’ve been captured by evil agents of the Soviet Empire and are threatened at Gunpoint… You want your life in the hands of someone that loves you like Indiana Jones.

Honestly at that moment – that second of connection between the two of them. I honestly haven’t had the emotional impact anything like it in years. That look shared between them… suddenly it wasn’t just the entirety of RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK – but suddenly it was a flood of what probably happened between that film and LAST CRUSADE. And you could tell that they fought… my god, it’s Indy and Marion.

I was relieved to see that George Lucas and Steven Spielberg didn't go overboard with CGI effects. In fact, when CGI was used, it wasn't noticeable until the final third of the film, when it was definitely noticeable. Cate Blanchett is awesome, but what else is new? It was maybe a tad bit long, and I do have to wonder about things in it. Like, why were Indians hiding in the walls of rock in the Mayan-type pyramid at the end? They literally come out of the walls at one point. Neat, but one does have to wonder why. And the conclusion is also a tad bit hard to swallow, but it is, after all, just a movie. I read somewhere that it was "Jar-Jar Binks bad." That's definitely not true. In fact, I think Lucas may earn back some of the good will he has irrevocably lost from the nerdy fanboy community so frustrated by him after the Star Wars prequels (like me). Maybe he tried harder on it because of what happened with the whole Star Wars prequel debacle. Some commenter somewhere felt Steven Spielberg "walked" through it like he did with The Lost World (1997). But that's also definitely not true. Steven Spielberg is still the top director out there, as far as I'm concerned, for this type of movie. The ending felt a little bit like the ceremony scene at the end of Star Wars, and that's a good thing! People have to go see it. If you didn't grow up with the Internet, you'll love it.

John Williams and Indy 4

From this interview with him, we find out the two most interesting (and ironic) facts about John Williams:

1. He never goes to the movies.
2. He rarely listens to classical music.

Williams is set to begin working on Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at the beginning of October. No matter how good that film is, it's about to get a whole lot better.

He is one of those composers whose music improves the movies in which it's used. In my opinion, his soundtracks for the Star Wars movies, for example, are a big reason why they were so successful.

The Clone Wars

Lucasfilm is definitely not involved with the animated Tales of the New Republic. Quite to the contrary, Lucas appears to be somewhat putting the kabosh on it, perhaps to keep people from confusing it with the upcoming 3rd season of Star Wars: Clone Wars. Clone Wars debuts in 2008, and will concern events between Episode II and Episode III:

From the Wikipedia entry:

The third and last season of Star Wars: Clone Wars gives the audience a look at Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker's adventures in the Outer-Rim Terrortories as mentioned in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Anakin is knighted into a Jedi Knight and Coruscant comes under attack by the Confederacy of Independent Systems, as a diversion for General Grevious to sneak in and capture Chancellor Palpatine.

3D, Yoda is.
It's easy to see why Lucasfilm would want to squelch interest in Tales of the New Republic. For one thing, with the animators of Clone Wars transforming it it into a 3D, CGI-style for the 3rd season, its look is similar to that of Tales of the New Republic. Here is the teaser trailer:

Tales of the New Republic

Tales of the New Republic


UPDATE (5/31/07): Lucasfilms has yanked the video from YouTube, so try the Tales of the New Republic site for a much better quality, Quicktime version.

I must admit, I'm fairly curious about Tales of the New Republic. Its origin and purpose are shrouded in mystery. Even the people who you would think know something about it, don't. There is a book that came out in 1999 called Tales From the New Republic, but I can't find anything indicating this animated thing is related to it.

any relation??

Retro Star Wars

To coincide with Star Wars Celebration IV, two "super - collectible figures" have been modeled after the original Ralph McQuarrie conceptual drawings of C3PO and R2D2.
(From starwars.com) The action figure exclusive for Star Wars Celebration IV and Star Wars Celebration Europe will give fans not one, but two super-collectible figures that never before have been available anywhere. Modeled after artist Ralph McQuarrie's original concept illustrations for beloved droids R2-D2 and C-3PO, the figures celebrate the 30-year legacy of the Star Wars saga as well as the creative, guiding vision of McQuarrie, whose drawings helped George Lucas convince studio directors to back the very first Star Wars movie.


McQuarrie appears to have adapted his vision by the time of Episode V (image from ralphmcquarrie.com)

Stuck on Tatooine

From starwars.com (via TheForce.Net):

"One of the most iconic scenes in the entire six-movie Star Wars saga features Luke Skywalker on his home planet of Tatooine, peering at the twin setting suns. As the Force Theme swells in the background, Skywalker ponders his destiny. Over the past 30 years, millions of Star Wars fans the world over have been touched by that scene, and inspired to look to their own personal horizons."

The poster is for Star Wars Celebration IV , the big Star Wars convention being held in Los Angeles in May of this year to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of the original film.

This is my tribute of sorts to the scene I did a while back entitled "Evolution of a Scene":

Lightsaber duel-o-rama

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Jedi duel in real time

Imagine seeing this shot in the trailer for Return of the Jedi back in 1983! What did it mean? Was Luke going to be on Vader's side? Had Luke given in to the dark side?

Continuing what I started with my "Empire duel in real time" and "Duel of fates in real time" posts, here is the final showdown between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader from 1983's Return of the Jedi.


Other than to discover the fate of Han Solo, this is what moviegoers were interested in seeing when the movie premiered. Unfortunately, George Lucas also felt his fans would enjoy seeing Ewoks. Silly man. I've taken the liberty of removing that problem.


Two thoughts about this sequence: First, it dawned on me that when Luke finally overpowers and begins to beat Vader down, ultimately severing the same hand Vader sliced off of him in The Empire Strikes Back, he and Vader are in the same basic positions on the screen (Vader to the left, Luke to the right) they were in Empire, only in Jedi, they are moving from right to left (as opposed to moving left to right as in Empire).





Remembering the lesson of the cave


Secondly, the beginning of Revenge of the Sith (when Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin defeat Count Dooku) felt very much like this scene from Jedi. It even looked like it, thus giving Star Wars fans a sense of false hope about the rest of the last prequel...

Not directly related to the duel, but a great scene nonetheless, here is the end of one of the all time great movie "villains":