OT: Attack of the Yawns?

aa said:

The acting performances are solid all around. With the possible
exception of christensen and portman (the lovestory).

Click to expand...

...unfortunately these are the two central characters!!! and how WOODEN were they, ouch. absoloutely awful!

george lucas simply cannot direct actors. the original films (well, star wars and empire strikes back anyway) were chock-full of real adventure, comedy, tension, excitement, great dialog (including classic one-liners), engaging characters and interaction (e.g. han solo- princess leia's love-hate relationship, han's hopeless frustration with the millenium falcon, etc) and all-round charm that ep.I and II are entirely lacking

i agree ep. II was waaay better than ep.I, but that's honestly not saying much. some nice battle scenes though.

but why the hell didn't yoda simpy move obi-wan and annikin out of the way, instead of the pillar which was falling onto them? hmmm, strong with the force he is, but not IQ, no, mmmmm

Michael Thomas Mitchell said:

What a grand opportunity was missed, however, for Anakin to have
paused and taken in the dual sunset, just as his son, Luke, would
do later, contemplating his destiny. If the moment had been there,
would Williams have bothered to notice? With everything else he
failed to see in the film, it's a tough call.

Click to expand...

You should have been consulted in the script writing. What a wonderful moment that would have been. In fact, I can still hear that scene in my mind from the first film, perhaps the best moment in the score. When the strings swell to full volume, it nearly always gives me chills.

I had the soundtrack on LP, and nearly wore out that part on the record!

--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net

Warren Prasek said:

but why the hell didn't yoda simpy move obi-wan and annikin out of
the way, instead of the pillar which was falling onto them? hmmm,
strong with the force he is, but not IQ, no, mmmmm

Click to expand...

Stop it, you guys. You're cracking me up and my wife is sleeping in the bed next to me!

--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net

The Special Edition soundtrack included an alternate track for that scene. Very different from what ended up being used, but it would have been ideal for such a scene with Anakin.

M

Bryan Siverly said:

Michael Thomas Mitchell said:

What a grand opportunity was missed, however, for Anakin to have
paused and taken in the dual sunset, just as his son, Luke, would
do later, contemplating his destiny. If the moment had been there,
would Williams have bothered to notice? With everything else he
failed to see in the film, it's a tough call.

Click to expand...

You should have been consulted in the script writing. What a
wonderful moment that would have been. In fact, I can still hear
that scene in my mind from the first film, perhaps the best moment
in the score. When the strings swell to full volume, it nearly
always gives me chills.

I had the soundtrack on LP, and nearly wore out that part on the
record!

--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net

Click to expand...

Unlike the first SW pic, this one did not leave any lasting musical impression in my ears/head....I don't recall a single tune.... how about that for a score?

Now...who can forget that combo playing in that bar on Tatooine?

Michael I found your musical "take" on the movie very interesting...seeing the film and hearing more than most of us would in such a visual medium.

Grins again,

Steadman

Michael Thomas Mitchell said:

M

Bryan Siverly said:

Michael Thomas Mitchell said:

What a grand opportunity was missed, however, for Anakin to have
paused and taken in the dual sunset, just as his son, Luke, would
do later, contemplating his destiny. If the moment had been there,
would Williams have bothered to notice? With everything else he
failed to see in the film, it's a tough call.

Click to expand...

You should have been consulted in the script writing. What a
wonderful moment that would have been. In fact, I can still hear
that scene in my mind from the first film, perhaps the best moment
in the score. When the strings swell to full volume, it nearly
always gives me chills.

I had the soundtrack on LP, and nearly wore out that part on the
record!

--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net

Click to expand...

Click to expand...

Personally I loved the movie! What in the world do this have to do with photography?

Ricky

Bryan Siverly said:

Ok, this is off topic but of interest to probably many here... and
it is one of the first truly digital major studio releases, so it
fits here kinda.

What did you think of the movie? You know which one I mean.

I do reviews for our local country music station and we had a
lively discussion this morning. Though I found the movie slightly
better than the last one, it's like when they added blue diamonds
to my Lucky Charms... it still tastes pretty much the same.

I saw the first Star Wars movie 57 times in the theater (I dated
the ticket girl at my hometown movie-house). I don't think I could
sit through this one (or the last one) a second time.

The first trilogy was a masterpiece... well, the first two movies
qualify, maybe. This one is like watching Lucas paint the canvas
one painstaking brushstroke at a time. Some may find that
interesting, but it's not nearly as entertaining. And I'll admit
that it's hard to hold your suspense when you know how it all ends.

This movie is in serious need of edit, and then it might be better.
At least 40 minutes needs to go, but even that won't give these
characters the kind of charm and grace that made the first three so
much fun.

Star Wars is no longer the work of genius, and that's just sad.

The Sony Talk Forum is talking about the following Ebert and
partner review, and though I'm likely in the minority, I think
Ebert is right on the money.

http://download.theforce.net/episode2/ebert_roeper.mov

Have at it guys (and gals). Time to rip me to shreds.

--
Bryan
http://www.siverly.net

Click to expand...

--
Ricky L. Jones
Canon Elan II, EOS 3, G1, D60(soon)

OK, I think I can bring this thread back on-topic, because I had a
unique and interesting experience when I saw it.

I saw it in a normal non-digital theater, and it still looked digital
to me. When I get my D30 pics printed out at a place like Ofoto, they
look as good as wet-process film prints if not better, but there is a
difference. Maybe it's the color, or the greater shadow detail, I
don't know. They just look more three-dimensional. Anyways I got the
same "hit" from watching AOTC for two hours. After the movie I had to
go outside and look at something real for a few minutes to reset my
brain. My wife thought I was acting strange until I explained what I
was doing.

I mean, when people ask you why digital is better than film, what do
you say? You say the images are sharper, silky smooth, with no grain,
and the color is better. The truth is the image is smoother and
grainless IF there is enough resolution present (MP's relative to the
final display size), and the color is better IF it has been
white-balanced properly. I disagree with what Roger Ebert said, that
the 35mm (movie film) prints made from digital just don't look right,
but they sure do look different.

As for the movie, it was big and great and wonderful and I had not a
single lasting impression of it the next day. Lucas was just plain
lucky that Mark Hamill/Harrison Ford/Carrie Fisher had the on-screen
chemistry they did. He will never recapture that, even if he does
delegate directing duties for Episode III. Natalie Portman is a babe
and a good actress but she did not look ten years older. Maybe in ten
years when she fills out, Lucas will re-film her and edit her back
into the movie.

And then there's THAT thing with all the tinkering. Since Lucas does
everything digitally, he treats his films like software. We just saw
Star Wars 2.0, soon there will be the DVD with extra scenes (2.1),
then in a few more years a "Special Edition" (2.2) with Hayden
Christiansen's embarassiing line readings looped over. It just goes
on and on...

Just my $0.02.

Roger Ebert said, that the 35mm prints made from digital just don't look right when put up on a big 80 ft screen, that there was a noticeable lack of definition.

Aotc was shot with the Sony HDW-F900 camcorder with specially made Panavision lenses. The HDW-F900 combines a 3-CCD HD color digital camera (where each RGB imager has 1920 x 1080 sensors).

So i understand correctly it's basically a 2 Mp image you see up there on the screen. And they say this is equivalent of 35 mm ?

I thought you needed at least 6 mp to equal 35 mm.

aa

I loved her in the Professional, that class of acting at her age.

On a serious note did you feel she was being over sexualised in Attack of the clones.

I did feel that her ability was not in the slightest tested, but she was outfitted in a string of very revealing clothes.

There are plenty of brainless, superficial 'lookers' out there. I'd hate to see her get cast like that just because she's extremely pretty.

Warm Regards

Jon
[email protected]

I think George Lucas is going senile...

Peter Phan said:

I think it's pathetic that it was Jar Jar who ends up proposing
that Palpatine get his sweeping powers to create "an army of the
Republic". Give me a break. The creation of the Empire gets traced
back to Binks? I think I'm going to hurl.

Click to expand...

I saw also the non-digital version but I agree the digital look is really there. I was not impressed though with the scenes in the appartments of Padme where it's dark and you could see a lot of noise in the background. This looked like digital artifacts to me.

Charles

Richard Smith said:

I saw it in a normal non-digital theater, and it still looked digital
to me. When I get my D30 pics printed out at a place like Ofoto, they
look as good as wet-process film prints if not better, but there is a
difference. Maybe it's the color, or the greater shadow detail, I
don't know. They just look more three-dimensional. Anyways I got the
same "hit" from watching AOTC for two hours. After the movie I had to
go outside and look at something real for a few minutes to reset my
brain. My wife thought I was acting strange until I explained what I
was doing.

Click to expand...

Bryan Siverly said:

Ok, this is off topic but of interest to probably many here... and
it is one of the first truly digital major studio releases, so it
fits here kinda.

What did you think of the movie? You know which one I mean.

Click to expand...

Off topic or not... the Star Wars films might be classics in their own right, but IMO they don't hold a candle to the best fantasy film of all time. Of course, I'm referring to "The Lord of The Rings - The Fellowship of The Ring." I remember the first time I saw it.. the theatre was packed... and even though it was 3 hours long, the audience was riveted to the screen the entire time. After it was over, I heard comments from people like, "Wow, I didn't expect it to be this good," or "It's going to be a long year." (The latter, of course, referring to the wait until the second installment comes out.) The Star Wars films may be pure entertainment, but LOTR bordered on the awe-inspiring. (Of course, others' mileage may vary, depending on their attention span and their appreciation for the genius of JRR Tolkein.)

To keep this on topic, did anyone notice the D60 hanging around Gandalf's neck in the balrog scene?

--
Steve
http://home.att.net/~bishopweb/

Warren,

Your point about yoda moving the pillar instead of obi-wan and annikin had me cracking up....its such a simple detail, but yet so true. Yoda almost busted a vein holding that thing up for a few minutes, LOL when he could have simply pulled them both over to him with no effort. This shows that there were "no" geniuses working on this script....

Also why was he so weak, when in Empire Strikes back he lefts a whole space ship without the strain.

Warren Prasek said:

aa said:

The acting performances are solid all around. With the possible
exception of christensen and portman (the lovestory).

Click to expand...

...unfortunately these are the two central characters!!! and how
WOODEN were they, ouch. absoloutely awful!

george lucas simply cannot direct actors. the original films (well,
star wars and empire strikes back anyway) were chock-full of real
adventure, comedy, tension, excitement, great dialog (including
classic one-liners), engaging characters and interaction (e.g. han
solo- princess leia's love-hate relationship, han's hopeless
frustration with the millenium falcon, etc) and all-round charm
that ep.I and II are entirely lacking

i agree ep. II was waaay better than ep.I, but that's honestly not
saying much. some nice battle scenes though.

but why the hell didn't yoda simpy move obi-wan and annikin out of
the way, instead of the pillar which was falling onto them? hmmm,
strong with the force he is, but not IQ, no, mmmmm

Click to expand...

I saw AOTC twice, the first time on an analog screen, the second digital. Artifacts are definitely visible from time to time in the digital projections systems -- I was, however, only about 5 rows back from the screen, perhaps they are less noticeable further back. Most of the time I didn't notice it, but in particular scenes suddenly the "pixels" would jump out at me. It was actually a lot more noticeable during the previews of coming attractions, so I either got used to it before the main event or the transfer from film causes more of these artifacts.

I saw it as a tradeoff though; film projection systems tend to have part or even most of the screen at least partly out of focus, the prints degrade, have scratches and burns, etc. The digital system offered some pixelation from time to time, but was sharply in focus and doesn't degrade with repeated viewings.

I have taken to waiting for most films to come out on DVD before watching them, as they often look better on my (expensive) home system than they do in the theater! But mostly I like having a pause button.

SteveB Ohio said:

To keep this on topic, did anyone notice the D60 hanging around
Gandalf's neck in the balrog scene?

Click to expand...

That explains a lot; I didn't notice the D60, but the Balrog definitely had a Nikon D1X in his left hand. Plus he's obviously a Linux programmer.

;-p

The next Starwars movie is going to be dark, very dark.

We all know how it all turns out but the question is how.
So the next movie we see the Republic fall, replaced with the Empire.
We see Anakin become Darth Vader. Well his does get his wish become
the greatest Jedi of all. We know Yogi next residence is a jungle.
No more penthouse views for him in his new hut. Obi Wan decides he
needs a tan for life, so he hide in the desert. And the rest of the Jedi
are hunted down and killed. Maybe Samuel Jackson's character gets it in
the back from a droid. It is going to be one hell of an upbeat movie
for us fans.

It is going to be like watching the war movie the "Longest Day" but all the heroes die and the **** win. That is going to be fun (((

My take on the latest movie, hated the love story. What was Anakin on
some drug that accelerated in grow to reach close to Padme's age. That
must be some force to make he grow that fast. Padme has no problem
marrying a guy who just killed women and children, has a fondness for
dictatorships and has no respect for authority. Just the type of guy all
fathers would like their daughters to marry.

Why was she dress in white? To reminds us of Princess Lea. Princess Lea
had a pair, she does not. Has to have a double to take the bullet for her.

Most best part of the movie for me, leaving the movie theater. Why?
Because outside there where two guys looked around 18, fighting it
out with toy light sabers.

I just wonder if they knew what girls are or the force just went to their
head and exploded.

Bill