New Trailer for Episode 3

[Acidburn]

Here Is the new trailer........When I saw this I almost fell out of my seat.....it looks great!!!!!

[Prophet Tenebrae]

Bah, it's not fooling me. I think it'll probably be mediocre - most likely better than 1+2 (not hard) but not really anything more than a middling film with some decent fights in it.

[Acidburn]

Hey, we have to hold on to hope.  It is all we have left. Maybe Lucas will blow us away with this one.....*goes to church and prays*

[Ash]

Prophet Tenebrae wrote:

> Bah, it's not fooling me. I think it'll probably be mediocre -
> most likely better than 1+2 (not hard) but not really anything
> more than a middling film with some decent fights in it.

The negativity of certain people against upcoming films, especially this one totally blows my mind.
This film looks badass!

Why on earth do you dog a film before you've seen it?
Because you're basing your opinion on its predecessors?

To me, that signifies ignorance and a closed mind.
Both of which are bad.



Post Edited (11-06-04 05:34)

[AndyC]

Ash has a point.

I'm expecting this to be the best of the three. I mean, we all know what needs to happen, and what we've expected to see. The first two movies have given us precious little of what we hoped to see, and done little except to set up the third.

This is going to be the movie that shows us everything we wanted to see since the new trilogy was announced, and it's going to lay it on thick. It has to, if all the loose ends are going to be tied up.

I'm very optimistic.

[Yaddo 42]

Since we "know" so much of what has to happen to tie up the loose ends and lead into the events of the original trilogy, unless the storytelling is handled very well (and Lucas has really distinguished himself in that area lately) it can be rather anti-climatic. Personally I'm concerned it will feel bloated with trying to cram in so many details to finish off the series, trying to do too much in one film without making it so long that non-fanboys go nuts from the length of the film. Lots of characters to kill off, people to go into hiding, babies to be born and then seperated and taken, Anni has to become you know who, etc.

I understand the cynicism , "fool me once shame on you, fool me twice shame on me". Fool me the third time and maybe I'm a masochist.

I saw the trailer on Fox News, although their banner blocked the bottom third of the screen. Great more Yoda fu, my least favorite part of the second one. Guess I can always hold out hope there's a long detailed torture/execution of Jar Jar done as a stylistic homage to the climax of "Audition". That alone might make it worthwhile.

Yes it looked slick with cool visuals, but as one of those who had high hopes for the new trilogy and disliked both of the earlier films once I saw them I do find it hard to ratchet up the old excitement. It's like seeing an old friend who you always though highly of begin to fall apart or make bad choices in life, you're still fond of them and cherish the memories of the fun you had but find yourself wanting less and less to do with them now and wondering what the hell went wrong. Yet out of loyalty you still find yourself curious to see what will happen. Besides might as well see how it turns out since this is supposed to be the end of the SW films.

Maybe I'm just getting too old to enjoy these films the same way I did when I was younger. But since the earlier films were such messes, I see little reason to think Lucas will pull off a magic trick with this one to redeem the whole second trilogy.

[Prophet Tenebrae]

If it makes you feel any better ASH I think that blind optimism and ignoring the facts is bad too.

I think that this quote sums up my views on the subject...

"You Star Wars nerds are just like battered wives.
'This time it'll be different!"

Besides, considering how many times I've been "right"  about films which this forum has overhyped in the past, doesn't mean that I'm closed minded - just more willing to look at the available information and make a call.

Unlike *some* people here, I wouldn't come out and instantaneously sing the dubious praises of a weak film, just because otherwise i might have to concede that, it wasn't as super-amazing as I'd been hoping for. :|

[Fearless Freep]

Hey, Iliked the first two.  The only thing I didn't like about them was th at the Jedi Council seemed inept and that really led to the downfall of Anakin.  That and I think some good dialog gets missed/overshadowed by the CGI and backgrounds and action.

I watch my kids (my oldest son is twelve now) and they react to the pre-quels the same way in much the same way as I reacted to the originals so I figure there's gotta be something good going on there. I'm not seven myself anymore so I'm not going to see the new ones in the same light I saw the old ones but..  I've still enjoyed them.

[dean]

I saw the trailer recently, and Episode 3 looked pretty sweet.

Although I must admit the trailer for attack of the clones was pretty sweet and the movie was good, but not as good as the trailers made it seem.

I especially like the nice touch of using the old footage of Obi Wan telling Luke about Vader, cool...

Let's keep our guards up, but be secretly hopeful at the same time shall we?

[AndyC]

I agree with Freep. The first two were OK by me. Certainly not great, but I can't watch them through a child's eyes, as I did the originals. Personally, I think all the negativity about them is exaggerated, because people had such high expectations. Either they were unable to capture the same wonder they remembered from childhood, or they had built up some expectation of how this story should be told and are p**sed off that Lucas isn't doing it that way.

I could include myself in both categories, to some degree. When I first heard these movies were coming, I was waiting for the Clone Wars and hoping to see some of the style of the originals. Been a long time since anybody has done starships like the original Star Wars. Instead, I got midichlorians, Jar-Jar Binks, cartoonish aliens, a kid who couldn't act, and action scenes that seemed to serve no purpose but to tie in a video game. And the overall style was not enough like the original movies.

The second movie, I think, was better than the first. It moved the story ahead more, even if we did have to endure a lot of crappy teen drama and more cartoony CGI.

Still, those assessments are coloured by my expectations. Viewed on their own merits, they certainly were not horrible movies. I don't know if they're worthy of the name Star Wars, but they're enjoyable in their own way. And I think it's fair to say that the third will be better, because it needs to include all of the things that have not been shown so far. That has been the source of a good deal of disappointment, and for that reason alone, this movie should be the most satisfying of the three.

I think back to seeing live bands in concert as a teenager, and remember waiting for a favourite song, looking at my watch and thinking they just weren't going to play it. It didn't make sense, because it was such a popular song. I was disappointed until the very end of the show, when they not only played the song, but made a bigger production of it than any other in the show. That's showmanship. I suspect that might have been Lucas' intention all along, to tease us through the first two movies, then deliver the goods in the third.

I mean, this is a special situation, with all of the fans knowing how it turns out. Why give us everything we're expecting right off the bat, especially when our expectations are perhaps unreasonably high? Why not save it up and go out with a bang?

Call me crazy, but I have a feeling this movie is going to be for the fans.

[trekgeezer]

I liked the first two movies also, although they don 't  hold up to multiple viewing like the first three.

Lucas managed to present  a story of political manipulation with stuff thrown in for the kiddies. I didn't like the way some of the CG characters were presented (too catoony), but how do we know what aliens would look like.  I didn't think Jar-Jar was anymore annoying than C3PO always has been and  his purpose to the story was made clear in Episode 2.

I do like the slick maneuvering Palpatine is using. The whole thing with laying the blame for the clones on the Jedi, and not even letting the people working for him (Dooku) know his whole plan.

The first two could actually be a good political thriller if pulled out of the Star Wars Universe.

[The Ghoul]

I wish this last movie was the only prequel. Ep. 1 I watched in theaters in 1999 but never ever watched again. It was worst than the 1978 Thanksgiving Special! I don't have to go over the details but I never needed to rent or buy Ep. 1 on VHS or DVD. It was like a bad high school drama play with no humor or humanistic touches. Lucas should never have written and directed it by himself. He's been a businessman for 25 years and not a director. Ep. 2 tried but failed to be cool. I like how Lucas is now trying to capture the feel of the original trilogy. Ep. 2 was a heading in the right direction but had the same wooden dialog. And yet again, the best parts were about 15 minutes in a 2 hour movie. Now with Ep. 3 it's the last shot to pull this out of the slump. I've noticed a few design touches in the Ep. 3 trailer, like the X-wing like space craft looks like Ralph McQurrie's original concept sketch for the X-Wing, which was more softer, smaller and rounded. The chroam princess space ships look like Flight Of The Navigator's space ship which looks boring and fake. I like the lava bit with Vader, which is what we always expected to see someday. But I have no grand hope for Ep.3, as it will be lame in the acting dept and just drag out between CGI shots. The prequels never had someone cool like Han Solo, no cool space ships and no empathy what so ever for the new cast. I see Ep 3 at a matinee and have a neutral view as to how good it will be.

[AndyC]

I've been thinking more and more that we are making a mistake in judging each movie individually. Granted, we are accustomed to movies that stand on their own, and sequels of most other movies have been either new, separate stories, or outright rehashes of the original.

The new Star Wars trilogy has to be viewed as a single movie in three acts. The first act is mostly setup and introductions. The second act moves the plot forward and builds suspense (with all Hell breaking loose at the end) but it resolves nothing. The third act is where it all happens - the climax, the big confrontations, the resolution.

It might be because I took up writing fiction a while ago, and have spent some time studying story structure, but I'm beginning to understand and agree with at least some of the choices Lucas has made. Many of us have thought that he hasn't been listening to the fans, but I no longer believe that to be entirely the case.

I was p**sed off when two movies came out that didn't provide any real answers to 20-year-old questions, but answers are for the third act. Any good storyteller will tell you that you never answer a question until you've asked a few more, and you never give up the biggies until the last act. The first two acts didn't reveal any more than necessary, and that's a good thing, looking at the trilogy as a whole. If Lucas handed us everything we wanted in the first movie, what would be left?

Good storytelling aside, I think the only way to make a real impression with a new Star Wars trilogy is to save the really good stuff for the last movie, and hit people when their guard is down. The original Star Wars had the advantage of being unlike any movie we'd seen before. These movies are at an immediate disadvantage because we're going in there expecting to react the same way we did to something that was revolutionary in its day. It's got to surprise us in other ways.

As for the look of the spacecraft, that was another peeve of mine. But now the purpose is becoming clear. We are seeing the look of the original trilogy emerge over the course of the new trilogy. The sleek, shiny, new-looking ships are a part of the past, under the Republic. The cold, utilitarian designs take over as the Empire comes to power and luxury goes out the window. Things presumably get older and more patched together in the following 18 years or so, as the standard of living won't be what it was. I still think some of the really old-looking Rebel ships should already be in use, but I think this approach is good overall. Again, it makes sense when this is viewed as a single story.

I agree that the characters haven't been as good as Luke, Leia and Han, but they set the bar pretty high. Some performances have been lacking, but you also have to appreciate that Mark Hamill was no great actor in 77 either.

I'm not going in expecting the greatest movie ever. That's a sure way to be disappointed. But I am keeping an open mind. As I've said, I'm very optimistic about this movie, and I think I have good reason.