Two More Star Wars Movies Coming?

[HOMELESS CAMEL]

While Lucas is readying the new "Clone Wars" animated series, he told Friedman that he will make two more live-action films based in the "Star Wars" universe as well.

 

"But they won't have members of the Skywalker family as characters," he said. "They will be other people of that milieu."

 

The two extra films will also be made for TV and probably be an hour long each. But, like "Clone Wars," Lucas doesn't know where on TV they will land.

 

http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=20297

[UKMustangFan]

Please no....

[statmanhensley]

Please no....

 

My thoughts exactly.

[ladiesbballcoach]

I love it. Some of my son's favorite characters are the other jedi warriors like Kid Fisto. He would love to see some of his life and the other characters that were not major players.

[Guest Bluto]

I love it. Some of my son's favorite characters are the other jedi warriors like Kid Fisto. He would love to see some of his life and the other characters that were not major players.

As long as there is no Jar-Jar, it's fine with me.

[THEGREENDANDY]

Sounds good:ylsuper: I love Star Wars:banana:

[Bart Fletch]

Please no....

 

PLEASE YES!!!

[PepRock01]

I love it. Some of my son's favorite characters are the other jedi warriors like Kid Fisto. He would love to see some of his life and the other characters that were not major players.

 

Yay more characters in the vein of Shaft Windu and the Jedi Bunch.

 

 

Please George let the series you so shamefully buried alive stay that way.

[PepRock01]

Sounds good:ylsuper: I love Star Wars:banana:

 

I LOVED Star Wars and still love the original(Greedo never firing a shot) movies.

 

The new ones are horribly written, acted, directed AND they lacked a sense of coherency that the others had.

 

If Lucas had been smart he would have let Speilberg direct them; he would have sent Lucas back to the drawing board on his scripts until the dialogue was passable.

 

Sorry, I need to restrain myself. One of my few cinematic hot buttons outside of "historic" films.

[ladiesbballcoach]

I LOVED Star Wars and still love the original(Greedo never firing a shot) movies.

 

The new ones are horribly written, acted, directed AND they lacked a sense of coherency that the others had.

 

If Lucas had been smart he would have let Speilberg direct them; he would have sent Lucas back to the drawing board on his scripts until the dialogue was passable.

 

Sorry, I need to restrain myself. One of my few cinematic hot buttons outside of "historic" films.

My son and this generation will disagree.

 

And I liked all of the 3 new ones much better than Ewoks. #6 was just plain dumb. The Empire takes over the galaxy and is defeated by a teddy bear with a club.

[PepRock01]

My son and this generation will disagree.

 

And I liked all of the 3 new ones much better than Ewoks. #6 was just plain dumb. The Empire takes over the galaxy and is defeated by a teddy bear with a club.

 

Teddy bear with club=More intimidating than Frog with blue ball

 

As I am at work at the moment, I do not have time to delve into the storytelling, consistency, directing and other issues with these films.

 

If all you took from Return of the Jedi was Ewoks as opposed to the greater Battle Of Endor taking place above the Teddy Bears defeating an "entire legion" of the Emperor's best troops, then I feel you mistook the import of the end of the film. There were people dying in that battle to destroy the Death Star, people whose faces you had seen in the previous films, characters you cared about. Luke was battling his father. Those are the important moments of the film.

 

I am stopping there though. I find myself getting ready to go into a Star Wars dissertation unless I stop myself.

 

 

Also, how old is your son?

 

I have found that most people as they grow up learn to appreciate the more mature themes of the original films over the new ones. I knew a kid who grew up on the new trilogy who now can barely stomach them after getting to understand the new ones.

 

When I was a kid, Jedi was my favorite film. Then I got older and re-watched them and realized that of the three, Empire was actually the best film in regards to character development, plot development and storytelling.

[ladiesbballcoach]

Teddy bear with club=More intimidating than Frog with blue ball

 

As I am at work at the moment, I do not have time to delve into the storytelling, consistency, directing and other issues with these films.

 

If all you took from Return of the Jedi was Ewoks as opposed to the greater Battle Of Endor taking place above the Teddy Bears defeating an "entire legion" of the Emperor's best troops, then I feel you mistook the import of the end of the film. There were people dying in that battle to destroy the Death Star, people whose faces you had seen in the previous films, characters you cared about. Luke was battling his father. Those are the important moments of the film.

 

I am stopping there though. I find myself getting ready to go into a Star Wars dissertation unless I stop myself.

 

 

Also, how old is your son?

 

I have found that most people as they grow up learn to appreciate the more mature themes of the original films over the new ones. I knew a kid who grew up on the new trilogy who now can barely stomach them after getting to understand the new ones.

 

When I was a kid, Jedi was my favorite film. Then I got older and re-watched them and realized that of the three, Empire was actually the best film in regards to character development, plot development and storytelling.

My son is 10 and the first 3 star wars are as dear to him as 4, 5, 6 are to my generation.

 

For me, I think #1 was as important in the storytelling as you have mentioned on #6 and if all you took from it was Jar Jar, then you missed it.

 

The little boy who has a grand destiny but instead is simply a little boy who is scared of losing the only thing that he truly has and that is his mother. And then that story moves onto into #2 where he does battle with the lose of his mother. And for many of us in real life who are so distraught over the loss of a loved one that we turn from our faith and go into a path of destruction. For Ani, it begins his downward slide to the Dark Side. In real life, it might be alcohol or drugs or porn or whatever. And then in 3, the little boy in him resurfaces when the next love in his life he knows is going to be taken from him and he makes a deal with the devil to try and prevent it.

 

It lays a great foundation in the story to the final shot where Ani has redeemed himself and back with Yoda and the crew.

 

Of the 6, #1 was my favorite. My son, daughter and I saw it 12 times in the movie theater. The ONLY other movie I have ever been to the movie theater to see more then once was the Passion of the Christ.

[PepRock01]

One of the biggest problems when going back and starting to make prequels is keeping consistency with the original content out there. While there are those who claim that Lucas had it all written out beforehand I don't buy that. Largely because you would expect someone to actually double check the story for consistency. Much like when a witness is questioned in court, if the story doesn't match when asked about more than once there is an issue with credibility. This problem is apparent when comparing dialoge from the original films to the new ones. Notably when Obi-Wan tells Luke: "When I first knew him, your father was already a great pilot," not as we see in EPI a Pod Racer. The ability to fly what equates to a skimmer does not equal flying an infinitely more complex military machine. That would be like comparing an F-15 to a GeeBee in level of complexity. Zany, mad-cap humor with zingy one liners like "This is pod racing" have no place when there is a planet whose people are fighting for their survival either.

 

I disagree with your assertion that EPI was the most important. Largely because it was an unnecessary trip to a part of the life of Anakin that was poorly crafted and served to bog down story telling(well what story-telling there was) in the later prequels. Did we find out Luke and Leia's background in the same fashion? No it was something done via the storytelling of the film so as to avoid wasting time. What about Han Solo? Do they even bother to tell you his background outside of the fact that he was a smuggler? Nope. Background info, while interesting sometimes is not always needed in the kind of detail that they used Episode One for. In fact they wasted an entire film for that purpose. It would have better served the story if they had used details from Episode One (written by someone with a better than 3rd grade reading level) while using parts of Episode II for the first film. Had they done that and made the love story believable they would not have had to rush so many things in Episode III. They could have actually you know, DEVELOPED the characters. Something that happened more in Empire Strikes back than happened in ALL of the new trilogy.

 

While the importance of his mother may well be there, it was not needed to show that much of her in the movie. In fact they could have easily gone straight to teenage Anakin and had his moments where he was talking about missing her. There was no need for them to show that he met Padme at age 8, make a side comment about it when he runs into her again. No need to bog down the main point of the story with unneeded details. I know that this was the crux of the issue from the beginning for Anakin as Yoda said "Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate…leads to suffering. I sense much fear in you." My issue here though is that it feels as though he is hitting you with it so many times to make sure you don't forget it, resulting in what I will refer to as cinematic nagging. Anyone in a long term relationship knows what I am talking about there.

 

I would cite in Empire where General Rieekan makes mention of how he wishes Solo wasn't leaving to pay off Jabba and Solo says "Well that bounty hunter we ran into on Ord Mantell changed my mind." Did they have to go into detail into that? Not really, but it does help to further set up just how much trouble Solo is in and it comes to a head when he is captured by Boba Fett and taken to Jabba's Palace.

 

Jar-Jar, while insipid, was not the only thing I took from Episode One. Rather I feel insulted that you would think that I would be THAT single faceted in my watching of any film. Especially a series I have enjoyed my whole life. In fact it took me over three years to admit that it was a bad movie, so trust me I more than gave it a chance. A 14 year old queen, I can buy that in most situations if it is a hereditary position, but an ELECTED official at age 14? Seriously and I thought OUR political system had problems.

 

-Pod Racing does NOT equate being able to pilot a fighter in a dogfight (as I mentioned earler).

 

-Jake Lloyd was an awful casting choice for what it was worth anyway, Lucas said he cast the kid because he "looked like Mark Hamill." THAT in and of itself is a problem if casting decisions are THAT superficial.

 

-Taking the Jedi from warrior-priests/monks to the forefront of superheroism was among the worst things they could have done. The new Jedi were there for glitz and flash. The only one that I really liked, genuinely liked was Qui-Gonn Jinn. Liam Neeson actually played that role almost as well as Alec Guiness played Obi-Wan. Sadly he died, and with it the best thing that in Episode One.

 

There were superficial things as well, for instance. Trade Federation doughnuts, who just happen to put their reactors in their hanger bays. Certainly strikes me as a logical decision. At the same time don't think I am absolving the Empire of putting the bridge of their Star Destroyers on the very top and putting the shield generators for the bridge in an equally exposed position ( i.e. right next to them).

 

Also Battledroids, stick figures with guns. You know while they were no more competent than Storm Troopers at least Storm Troopers LOOKED intimidating. Of course the battle strategy for the Droids was straight out of the Napoleonic era. March forward in ordered columns while firing, if the Gungans had a modicum of sense they would have actually you know, TRIED to flank them. Yeah their little shields did limit the effectiveness of artillery, but they could have better setup on the edge of a forest so as to keep the tanks from using their mobility to their advantage while inside the shield and they could have made use of the trees to disrupt the ranks of the droids as well.

 

Moving on to Episode II there was considerable potential here that was squandered by a wooden (i.e. FLAT) story arc for the romance that had no development at all. Frolicking in the meadows and so on really doesn't do it, only way it would have been believable would be if the dialogue had been better. This again goes back to writing and directing, I am not looking for Shakespeare here but an attempt to at least show the audience that you respect that they have modertely capable brains. Even then though, some of the worst lines can be made mediocre and passable with the right direction for the actor. Hayden Christenson was not to blame for his pathetic performance, he is no superstar of film talent-wise but he with a little direction he would have been fine. Lucas is known for not directing his actors, he wants to do it all in the film room, hence his obsession with CGI that wasn't particularly believable.

 

Another thing, "The Republic has survived 5,000 years without an army" is complete hogwash and happy pacifist thinking. There is no way that a government and confederation like that can stay unified that long without having a civil war at least once. Shoot we are less than 300 years old as a country and we have already had one. Let's not even go into the ones that have happened in other developed nations. My point there though is that largely countries like England and France (who are both ahead in number of civil wars) are homogenized cultures and societies. In the Republic you not only have different societies and cultures but vastly different races as well. It is clear from their reactions to the "separatist" movement that secession is not allowed. How exactly do they intend to handle it when it pops up? They showed that with enough battle droids (as incompetent as they are), the Jedi can be beaten. Do they intend to use harsh language? Disapproving glares? Threaten to get angry? No way that something like that could exist without a standing army.

 

Going into the superficial again, the battle on Geonosis was full of weapons that were far too impractical to be weapons. Big two wheelers firing clusters of missiles that barely go to their targets, tripods with satellite dishes that shoot, not even mentioning the already pathetic battledroids; are not only impractical but silly looking. Look at the AT-AT that the Empire used on Hoth. Again they at least LOOKED intimidating and they were darn near indestructible to traditional methods. Courscant was an issue for me as well, mostly because it showed that Lucas just ripped Blade Runner off as opposed to making something unique. Not really a big complaint there, more of a movie lover gripe (very minor in this diatribe).

 

The Clone Wars are what SHOULD have been in this film as opposed to the build up to it. Use EP I as the build up and the war itself could break out in EP II with it ending (if we really wanted to go that route) with the Chancellor's capture. You know a cliff hanger ending that keeps the audience enthralled.

 

Another thing the leaves me a bit miffed about the Clone Wars was that all indications involving the Clone Wars, prior to the release of EP II was that the clones were on the opposite side from the Republic. A minor gripe on that count I suppose. But the use of the clones as a ready-made army was the kind of Deus Ex Machina that really irks me sometimes. I think it would have staged more drama had the Republic been forced to rely on the Jedi to hold off and delay the advance of the Clone Army while they were busy mobilizing and recruiting an army for the defense of the republic. Sweeping up the populace in the kind of patriotism that would lead to the kind of fervor that would have allowed Palpatine to turn the army on the Jedi immediately following their victory against the separatists would have made for a much more dramatic story (as opposed to Order 66). That would have made it more down to earth, as it were, if you ask me and would have better shown the horror and drama of the war that lead to the foundation of the Empire. Fooling the people into wanting the Empire amidst patriotic fervor as they did it in the film is not so bad in that regard. However having a fanatically loyal army out of patriotism as opposed to having been bred for it makes a difference in the citizen investment into the system.

 

Moving on to Episode III I have to start with the opening scroll: "WAR!!! Evil is everywhere. There are heroes on both side." A monkey with head trauma is capable of writing better than that. I am sorry, but as soon as I saw that I was immediately concerned about the writing in this film. I wanted it to be as good as the originals and while it was vastly superior to EPI and EPII it a still is at best a mediocre film. I say calling it mediocre is an exaggeration of quality too.

 

One of the things that is clearly exacerbated in this film is the fact that by this film, after 3 whole movies I find that I don't care about ANY of the main characters. If they all died in the battle of Coruscant I would have been content. I cared more about the death of TK421 in A New Hope and Dak in Empire Strikes Back than I did Padme. That is a glaring weakness in developing characters that you care about. Even the performances by the better actors and actresses seemed phoned in save for Ewan Macgregor. Hearing lines like "From my point of view the Jedi are evil" show Lucas attempting to hearken back to the famous line of Obi-Wan when Luke was claiming he lied to him about his father.

 

The density of the characters in this film makes Uranium look like Hydrogen in comparison. For example when Anakin was talking to Palpatine at the weird flying water thingy opera and Palpatine says to him "Have you ever heard the story about Darth Plagus the wise?" Wait just a darn minute here! Darth is a title for a Sith lord, right? And whatever happened to the "I felt his presence" thing that happened in the original trilogy all the time. Of course it would have ended his silly little plot for the prequels, so it was conveniently ignored. Back to the matter at hand though... How in the world would the former senator from Naboo know about a Sith legend? Considering the Sith were almost entirely wiped out generations ago, it is not like these stories are at the corner news stand. Another thing that bothered me was the fact that Anakin's fall to the darkside had NO build up. One minute he was saying to Shaft Windu(yes I know his real name is Mace but I despised this character from the beginning) "You can't do that, it isn't the Jedi way!" Not even taking into account his blatant hypocrisy as he did the exact same thing to Dooku(another insipid name) at the start of the film. Then suddenly he turns to evil and everything about him changes. That is like taking the effects of marijuana(I do NOT know from experience) as portrayed in the film "Reefer Madness" at face value. You do one evil thing and all of a sudden you are a warped individual. What happened to, you know, trying to develop that sort of thing. If you look at the Emperor's plot to turn Luke to the darkside it was a little more drawn out and intricate. Manipulaing him as opposed to just tricking him. Then again as Anakin proved himself to have the cerebreal capacity of a brick, then Palpatine's plot was comparatively Machiavellian.

 

Other things that stand out to me about the new trilogy:

 

-Special effects: I know it seems incomprehensible that I would say special effects hold the new ones back but they really do. The originals were more believable. The ships weren't shiny, they LOOKED like they had been used, pitted and in battle. They looked like they were real. They also didn't look like stupid doughnuts. Seriously folks how can a giant doughnut look intimidating. And what purpose does that serve? The only complaint I have about the design of the Imperial-class Star Destroyer is the inconvenient placement of the shield generators and the obvious lack of protection of the bridge. Other than that it is a great design in that all of its broadsides can fire in the forward arc, making it a devastating design.

 

Even the aliens were more believable. Yes, I found muppets easier to believe than creatures that look like amalgams that seem to have no logical biological backing to their structure. George Lucas is like a freakin' child with a new toy. He sees "OOH PRETTY" and so he proceeds to create armies of shiny objects with a plethora of colors. Look at Lord of the Rings, they used CGI and miniatures to craft a world with infinitely more detail than we see in the new Star Wars trilogy. Peter Jackson would have been a better choice as director.

 

-Believable Villain: I seriously had a hard time finding the Emperor evil in these films. He saw the inefficiency and the ease with which the Republic could be turned on itself, he sought unity. Okay maybe, just MAYBE I could see him that way after seeing him in Jedi, but he could be just like a crotchety old man at that point. He even mentioned that at last there would be peace, in a moment of private reflection with only his guards around. Not entirely different from Lincoln's baby steps to unity in the United States with loyalty to the country first and the loyalty to the state second.

 

-Mace Windu and the Jedi Bunch: I can't say enough about how much I grew to hate the Jedi in these films. They took the force and turned it into something:

A) More powerful than it needed to be

B) A super power as opposed to a carefully crafted and mastered Martial Art.

 

Look at the Jedi in the original trilogy: Obi-Wan, Yoda and Luke. Now compare their personalities, mannerisms and habits to the ones in the new trilogy. They are quiet, reserved and calculating. They do not act without thinking (once they are masters that is). They always know exactly what is going on, their battles are more technique based without the hopping around like fleas on cocaine. They aren't arrogant and pompous rather they are wise and think before they speak. They are in control of any situation they are in as opposed to being swept up by the moment. This is as opposed to keeping their thoughts focused on "where they are, what they are doing," to paraphrase Yoda. Keeping their thoughts focused on the moment is different from being swept up BY the moment. The Jedi in the prequels are constantly swept up by the moment as they seem to be regularly losing control.

 

-Time frame all out of wack: Explain this to me, please. How does it take 19 years to finish the Death Star that looked well underway in EPIII and yet it takes almost no time at all to have a "Fully armed and operational," one in Jedi?

 

 

-Temper Tantrum Vader: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That is all.

 

-Clones: I mentioned it earlier, but I want to elaborate. Okay yes it is a great Deus Ex Machina for tons of soldiers in a hurry who are already trained, but it completely takes the humanity out of the conflict. Clones vs. Droids, can we make it ANYMORE sterile? One of the reasons I am against completely automating conflicts is that it takes the humanity out of it, it makes the sacrifices meaningless. This whole conflict was meaningless!!! They could have swept up the Republic in patriotic fervor, not dissimilar from how we did in WWI and WWII. I am surprised Lucas didn't think of that, considering, you know, how he based his dogfights off of WWII dogfights as opposed to real physics.

 

That would also have served to unify the populace and made the conversion to Empire look like it was something that was done from the bottom up as opposed to the top down. The unswerving loyalty of an army that CHOSE to fight as opposed to was BRED to fight makes a world of difference in public opinion.

 

This also could have served to show the people of the Republic being turned against the Jedi as they could be shown to be traitors to the Republic and you see the tortured decisions of the commanders and their troops in following orders to kill the Jedi. You know, the HUMAN element which was sadly lacking in this film.

 

-Music: Yes I know John Williams did the music for all of the films but I still can't help but feel that much of it was phoned in for the new ones. The music was still first class, but something seemed to be missing. The music in the original trilogy evokes emotion from you and helps pull you into the film and the scenes. Duel of Fates sounded great, but it doesn't really invest you in what is going on, it doesn't ADD to the scene it just kinda fits the scene. The music in the original trilogy was important enough to evoke an emotional response, and really suit every minor detail. All I have to say is watch the battle on the Death Star between Luke and Vader in Jedi and you will know what I mean.

 

-Characters: I can't say enough about having characters you care about. After meeting Luke, Leia, Han, C3PO and R2-D2 in the originals you cared about them. After three movies I STILL didn't care about the new Obi-Wan, Anakin, Padme, Shaft Windu, any Jedi and that about covers all the main characters. That is pretty sad when those are the only characters worth mentioning from the new Trilogy. In the original trilogy I left off characters like Lando, Obi-Wan, Yoda, Wedge Antilles, Vader and the Emperor. Some of these overlap, yes, however I feel they need to be judged as separate entities as they are by no means similar at all between films. Especially considering after three movies the ones in the new trilogy were not as developed as all the others were after ONE film.

 

I know I said it before, but I didn't care about the deaths of ANY characters in any of the battles in EPI-III. When watching the original trilogy I cared about the characters. You want Biggs to evade Vader and his wingmen. You want to see Red Leader survive Yavin, you care about Wedge. You sense the desperation of the attacks on both Death Stars and the Battle of Hoth. The Imperials are imposing and implacable, dedicated and stoic. THEY have a human element to them as well. GOODNESS!! On the Death Star you hear idle chatter between soldiers left to guard a causeway, my goodness they are individuals, and their conversation doesn't end with "Roger Roger."

 

You are somewhat sad when the A-Wing pilot is forced into a suicidal dive at the Executor's bridge at the Battle of Endor. You see the people in their fighters; you know their faces and their voices even if you do not know their names. You see the overwhelming odds of the Imperial Fleet. You see the unstoppable AT-AT's shrugging off the greatest of Rebel firepower and keep on coming unabated. You sympathize with the troopers on the ground who are fighting a delaying action, sacrificing themselves so that others can get away. Again THE HUMAN ELEMENT!!!

 

Nothing about the new movies made me care about any of the characters. I was legitimately happy when all the Jedi died, they were pretty stupid to begin with, and their deaths merely ended an era of idiocy. When Padme died, I was happy for her, it meant she was out of the film. I cheered when Shaft Windu died. In all of the new trilogy, the only character whose death I regretted was that of Qui-Gonn. He was the only Jedi who came close to the mold.

 

Certain stupid things-

A) Turbo lasers that eject spent shells. EPIII, Battle of Coruscant

B) General Grievous' organ parts not freezing, or his lungs undergoing explosive decompression when he blows the transparisteel viewscreen; OUTSIDE an atmosphere.

C) Gungans

D) Stick Figures with Guns

E) Childish sounding names

F) Nothing looks imposing, if I saw half of what was coming at me on those battlefields I would likely be dead before they got to me, on account of laughter. An AT-AT would make me pee my pants.

G) Pod Race= Space Nascar, just more multi-racial. (I am not a fan of NASCAR by the way)

H) Darth Maul, sorry folks the only reason most people think he is cool is because he didn't get enough lines to screw up the character. He also killed the only character worth caring about in EPI.

I) Jango Fett, yes folks the man who has Boba Fett as his favorite character speaks out against Jango Fett. Why? Because it is a moronic ORIGIN!!!!

K) Kamino, a planet full of a bunch of aliens who speak slower than someone with a head injury and necks so small you could decapitate them with a small pocket knife.

[cch5432]

Please no.......PepRock's fingers won't survive typing another post like that...

[SomersetFootball]

Wow...