According to the Wiki, Revenge of the Sith was never released on VHS in the USA, but it was released on VHS in Australia and the UK.

"This release is notable because, due to marketing issues, it was the first Star Wars film never to be released on VHS in the United States.[43] However, the film was released on VHS in Australia, the United Kingdom and other countries in the world.[44]"

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wa...ge_of_the_Sith

Without Jar-Jar, Phantom Menace would have been a fantastic film. It did a very good job setting up the underpinnings of the fall of the Jedi and the rise of the Empire. You just have to make it through all of the Jar Jar crap.

I totally agree with your comments about Williams score, Phantom is one of my favorites that he has done. It is a fantastic piece of musical work. And the podrace is pretty awesome too. :thumb:

The podrace would have been awesome, but for me, honestly, that two-headed announcer absolutely ruined it. It hate Greg Proops. The score is first rate, though.

Neither bothered me. I loved the political undertones, Liam Neeson's portrayal of Qui-Gon Jin, who embodied what I had imagined the Jedi to be before Order 66, and thought that Maul was an awesome (although under-used) Sith Lord.

My biggest complaint of PM was the casting of Samuel L. Jackson and the character Ric Olie, who explained everything before it happened.

LMAO

Jar Jar bothered me more than Jake Lloyd, and I also could have done without Samuel L. Jackson. Ray Parks as Darth Maul was awesome, and is one of the better villains in the entire series.

Personally, I think Lucas "****ed up" the prequels after TPM because he listened to the fans.

People were clamoring for something far less simple than the PM and more in the vein of ESB. I think had he stayed true to his original vision, the prequels would have been better received.

The bottom line for me is that The Phantom Menace looked and felt like a Star Wars film to me. It was filmed on location in Venice and Tunisia and looked like it. It was shot to film (not digital) and has a very "rich" look. It feels like a great film, even though Jar-Jar was annoying for many.

AOTC looks cheesy digital with too many blue screens. The Geonosis segment looks like a bad video game, especially the superimposed actors. The lightsaber fights were poorly coordinated and Jango Fett's death was an afterthought. Besides that, George Lucas could have gotten a better performance from a digital character than he did from Hayden, who's an absolutely awful, wooden actor.

ROTS was better, but Palpatine's transformation was comical. The Wookie Home World looked far less digital than any of the worlds in AOTC, but it wasn't that convincing. I liked the storyline much better and it was cool to see the lightsaber battle between Anakin & Obi Wan but overall, it felt forced and rushed.

Anakin killing children was whitewashed, Natalie Portman had a difficult time showing any interest in the film and character (besides the fact she "died of a broken heart" LMAO) and the ending was ridiculous and should have ended when Obi-Wan gave baby Luke to Owen Lars.

It was sewn up far too neatly for my taste.

100% agree. Phantom except for Jar Jar was great. The other two looked too digital to me.

AOTC is the weakest of the bunch.

Im not even sure of there needed to be 3 movies (except for monetary reasons) Theres a ton of filler in there.

I think Lucas got sort of boxed in creatively making prequels. Obscure characters and references have to match up exactly right or fanboys will go nuts.

AOTC was the only one of the films that I can honestly say I walked out of the theatre and was severely disappointed in. I was disappointed with some of Revenge of the Sith, but pleased overall, and other than Jar Jar, I was very pleased with Phantom...but AOTC is the one I have watched the least.

You need to watch the Red Letter Media reviews of these movies. They're long, but dead on in the mountains of malice they heap upon Darth Lucas for foisting these three abominations upon us, and frankly they're far more entertaining than the movies themselves.

http://redlettermedia.com/

Thanks for the link, I will check them out.

They'are awesome, but you'll need some time. He also skewers the TNG Star Trek movies.

Outside of First Contact, I thought they were unwatchable, although I really, really enjoyed FC.

**** Lucas in his filthy, billion dollar ass.

Stop milking the same cow, and continue the story, dammit.

First Contact was by far the best movie with TNG. And as I posted in the Movies thread, I caught the climax battle scene in Nemesis and really enjoyed it. Hokie moments to be sure, but I liked it more than I remembered liking it originally (probably since I didn't have to sit through that dune buggy scene, or the whole B4 cluster****).

You should read this thread:

http://www.chiefsplanet.com/BB/showt...ar+wars+%2Cega

New live action TV show, new movies.

Forgot about that thread, and I missed the news that Lucas is wanting to continue the storyline. If it turns out to be true, that's great news to be sure. But, I've come to doubt Lucas' ability to write, much less direct. Looks like there's a few years to get it right, so we'll see.....

I loved FC as well, but Plinkett definitely made some valid points about things that didn't make much sense.

As for the rest, I thought Generations was OK. Insurrection was abominably bad, and Nemesis was mostly bad with some redeeming moments.

Insurrection would have made a bad Star Trek episode. They could have done so much more with that movie, especially since it was smack dab in the middle of the DS9 Dominion Wars storyline.

To bad Lucas never spent 1/10 the time on a descent script as he did on effects.

I will have to pass on these.

Actually, the fact that Lawerence Kasdan had nothing to do with the prequels hurt as well. He helped finish the Empire script after Leigh Brackett passed away, and he also had significant input into Return of the Jedi. Leigh Brackett passing away hurt the scripts more than anything....it was her writing that made Empire the best of the films, imo.

Return of the Jedi was garbage, IMO. Outside of the lightsaber battle between Luke & Vader, it's pretty much unwatchable.

The Ewoks were far more annoying than Jar Jar, at least IMO. It was like watching the Muppet Show.

Oh come on! The ewoks were annoying, to be sure, but it had Leia in the golden bikini, a badass space battle, Vader getting offed as he turned good, and a giant diseased vagina in the desert....

Jedi was still better than Clones and Revenge though.

ROFL

The skiff battle is the greatest action setpiece in the Star Wars Trilogy.

The space battle is the greatest space battle in CINEMA history.

I never thought Carrie Fisher was hot ROTJ but man, did she turn out to be a hottie!

Holy shit!!! It's the woman from Total Recall.

http://www.bloodygoodhorror.com/bgh/...large_03_0.jpg

It was so fake looking that I remember laughing out loud in 1983 at the old Glenwood Theater.

If you exclude every other sci-fi movie ever made, I'd agree.

coughcough

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Jabba pooped out a baby! (I think it was Baby Lee that posted that reference in the Epic Fail thread, btw)

There's nothing fake about it. It was all filmed on location. That's what makes it so badass. No friggin bluescreen.

Bullshit, Dane. Nothing holds a candle to Jedi's space scenes. The shit in the prequel trilogy isn't even as cool, and this is a common opinion among Star Wars fans.

And don't even bring up Star Trek.

What looks fake are the actors imposed over the desert setting, especially as the skiff is leaving the Pit of Sarlacc. The burps were stupid as well.

LMAO

I don't give a crap about what Star Wars fanboys think about ROTJ. I greatly preferred the space battles in ANH and TPM far more than ROTJ.

ROTJ was essentially a remake of ANH, which made it even dumber.

Dane has poor taste in science fiction.

I think the problem with Jedi was the ewoks. If they'd stuck to the original plan and had it be wookies, that film would be viewed in a completely different way.

I absolutely love the end of it, though, the way the three separate storylines play out in unison, woven together by what I think are some of John Williams' best moments.

The movie as a whole is the weakest of the three, but that final act is epic.

Yes.

That was annoying. The Death Star thing again?

What was really stupid is the fact they made a hole big enough to fly the falcon through. The first Death Star was harder to destroy.

As far as pure SFX goes, the space battle in RotJ was unmatched for its time, and it holds up well today. That started with Empire, watching the Falcon go through the asteroid field with the TIE fighters in tow.

As far as the action sequence in the desert goes, it was cool when I was 13 and watching it, but pretty bad in retrospect. The missed kick by Luke, the slow, methodical choreography of the fight itself, the fact that Luke should have been blown to bits by all the mercenaries with blasters....

[/nerd]

Jedi would have been ten times better if it had been Wookies instead of Ewoks. The first part of Jedi is pretty cool, but the Ewoks keep it from totally awesome. Jedi is my least favorite of the original trilogy (Empire is by far my favorite.)

The space battle most certainly has held its own over time....the sarlacc pit, not so much. I would agree with that.

Yeah, another vote for "it should have been wookies". I understand why Lucas did what he did, but doesn't mean I like it.

I disagree. It didn't even have a shield.

Yeah, that shield was really effective.

LMAO

It took about 4 guys to knock it out in less than 24 hours.

Ewwww, that shield was a scary deterrent.

LMAO

Liam Neeson's character was completely irrelevant. It should have just been Obi Wan. Instead we got a Jedi that cheated people using his force powers (Wato) and absolutely refused to use logic or proper reasoning at any point throughout the story. Also, we got Obi Wan doing jack shit except whining and pouting. Obi Wan should have been the one wanting to train Anakin from the beginning. It would have made the other two movies mean so much more.

Midichlorians (sp?) were a such a terrible addition they actually made the original trilogy worse. The entire premise for the peril of the Naboo people was incomprehensible and impausible. (The trade federation blocading against trade? What space supplies did these people need so desperately? WHERE WERE THE NABOOIANS??? (SP??))

Don't even get me started on the Senate scenes with all the politcal intrigue of late night C-Span.

That movie sucked. The original trilogy was great because it made us care about the characters. The only thing I cared about was seeing Jar-Jar die a horrible death and they couldn't even deliver on that. The only cool character in the movie got taken out like a total punk by a sniveling douchebag.

I'm just gonna stop myself, but I think you see where I'm going with this.

This is a thread about fantasy movies. Not science fiction.

Actually it took a completely unforseen save-your-ass-at-the-last-second revolt from the local wildlife to take it down.

The rebels got lucky. If the ewoks don't befriend them they walk right into a trap and get their asses kicked.

It ALSO took a stolen Imperial shuttle.

Taking down that shield was no walk in the park.

You REALLY need to watch the Red Letter Media reviews.

Phantom Menace is one of the worst movies ever made. I don't like the teddy bears killing storm troopers shit either, but seriously, ROTJ is 1,000 times better than PM.

:deevee:

The Phantom Menace is one of the worst movies ever made, why in the name of aids jesus would you want to see one of the worst movies ever made in 3-D?

It's visually orgasmic.

Just like Avatar.

Avatar would have been so much better with Matt Damon.

Damn Bourne Ultimatum.

To me, Avatar was great because of the way the story was told. The story itself, in a nuts and bolts sense, is nothing special. But the world just felt so real, at least on a massive screen in 3D (for me it doesn't translate nearly as well viewing at home). But sometimes storytelling can elevate a shallow story into something great.

(That how I look at Mass Effect 2, to pull another artistic genre into this...)

The Phantom Menace, on the other hand, tells a bad story badly. The acting is bad, the script is bad, the story is awful, and then there's jar jar.

That movie has zero redeeming qualities.

I'm no Avatar fan, but comparing it to TPM is a little unfair.

Agreed. TPM would probably have been much better if Lucas had stolen a good script from an earlier movie.

Watching ROTJ on Spike. This movie is garbage.
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Is that the first time you've seen it?

My wife is dreading the day I will drag her to see these in theaters.

There's no way anything could live up to the coolness of the original two films (ANH and ESB). ROTJ was a little wimpier with the Ewoks but it was still a well-done ending to the story. The space battle, for its time, was very well done. It had Jabba, the Rancor, the floating barge, a metal bikini, some plot wrapup points (yeah, he's your dad; yeah, she's your sister, and you kissed her, you incestual bastard). Vader turned good. Everything wrapped up nicely.

Then Lucas had to make the first three. TPM, at the time, seemed a horrible piece of shit. But that was before we saw AOTC and ROTS. Those two blew horrible chunks. There's very little redeeming in any of them. The first film? Jar-Jar alone is worth caning Lucas over, but then throw a little Jewish flying big-nose alien, a horribly overlong podrace with a two-headed announcer, a pouty little kid, the fact that Darth Vader frigging BUILT C3-PO (please)... ugh. Second film was so craptacular that I can't even recall anything from it. The third film, again, craptacular acting and--aside from watching Vader get his black suit snapped on him--there's nothing redeeming about it.

But then ****face had to go back and "improve" the original three. It was like taking spraypaint to the Mona Lisa. A computer-animated Jabba that has Han "stepping on his tail" to account for the fact that Harrison Ford circled the human actor in the unused footage? Solo firing second? A computer-animated long-snouted singer in Jabba's house band and totally replacing the original cheesy music with even worse music? Showing everyone partying down after the second Death Star blew up, and replacing the actor in the final scene with Hayden ****ing Christiansen? There isn't a flaming AIDS tree big enough for Lucas to crash into. I'm just glad I have the original films from before the "restoration".

Hadn't seen it since before the new trilogy came out.
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No, it wont suck! I swear!

George is looking old and fat.

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WTF is George even talking about? There are people in the background that have information in the scene that really stand out in 3D? What?

...God, he's a boring idiot.

OHHH YEEEEAAAAAAAAH!


http://www.boiseweekly.com/images/bl...vage_randy.jpg


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lets milk the star wars tit till everyone just doesn't watch them anymore

When JabaNeck dies, a decent new one may come out.

That was friggin awesome!

Month and a half away, bitches.

Star Wars in 3D AND in 2D theaters in glorious ****ing DLP!

:hail:

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No thanks. 3d is a complete waste of money.

Heh, I just finished a week long Star Wars marathon watching them ep 1 - 6 in that order. It went. Shitfest, Shitfest, Shitfest, AWESOME, AWESOME, Shitfest.

I'm still mind bottled over their casting selections for ep 1 - 3. Most of all that model wannabe actor who played Darth Vader. I know everybody knows this, but I'm gonna say it again. Why would that piece of shit be chosen to play Darth ****ing Vader, the most badass sci-fi character of all time not named Spock?? WHY?

I might watch the originals in 3D but no way am I watching the prequels again.

I think it's worth it to see them ALL again just because movie theaters are better than they were 13 years ago.

And ****ing yes, the originals are going to own hard.

This ****ing series just prints money... almost as much as the Federal Reserve.

Man, I hope they release them in IMAX.

IN FOR THAT SHIT

I would def check out the originals in IMAX

IMAX is cool. I much prefer that to 3D. Saw MI4 in IMax and that was fantastic. I'm done paying extra for 3d. It just adds nothing IMO.

Well, the opening of A New Hope was made for 3D.

I'd like to see some porn in IMAX 3D.

Piranhas 3D was close

So do movie theaters correct for terrible writing and directing? The prequels are so painfully bad that I can't watch them at all now. They don't make any sense in context of the rest of the films.

Ex: In that trailer Darth Maul says "We'll finally get revenge." Revenge for what? Did we ever find out?

I might try to get the original three on Blu-Ray eventually, but Lucas ****ed with those versions too. Adding dialog for Vader? Changing dialog from the Episode 4? Insanity.

Don't agree? Watch this 70 minute review of Episode 1. Not only is it funny...incredibly funny...it's also more well done and had more thought put into it than was put into any of the writing for the prequels.

Red Letter Media rules. It was the reason I figured out why I didn't like the prequels. I wanted to like them, and I even bought them, but I never liked them and I couldn't figure out why. Then I watched those reviews and it all made sense.

Thank you Mr. Plinkett. You are the master.

BTW, his next review is going to be Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. Can't wait for that.

**Edit** I guess the review is already up. Gonna watch it later for sure!