tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post5621739319715054924..comments2024-03-18T19:36:10.480-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Star Wars VillainsAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-55014302219743377762015-11-14T08:14:19.232-05:002015-11-14T08:14:19.232-05:00For me, the great appeal of Star Wars was the same...For me, the great appeal of Star Wars was the same as that of Star Trek when it first came out: they put on the screen the pictures that were inside my head. With modern CGI, you can show just about anything on the screen, but not so in the '60s, when I was a kid. Then, visual SF was limited to comic books, "The Jetsons," "The Outer Limits," and occasional episodes of "Twilight Zone." (Across the pond, the BBC was doing "Doctor Who" on a shoestring budget, but I never heard of him.) None of this was visually striking.<br /><br />Then came "Lost in Space" and I was delighted. After a few months, though, I was irritably wondering why they never pitched Dr. Smith out the airlock and generally not happy with the lack of plot or science.<br /><br />THEN, a few years later, came "Star Trek." This was SO much more visually realistic. It took a lot of repeated viewing before you noticed the same papier mache boulder showing up on every semi-desert planet they visited (unless the part of the planet was played by a stretch of southern California).<br /><br />Star Wars was another leap in visual realism. Using heavy costuming and masses of repurposed bits from airplane model kits, he achieved a level of believability that even the CGI revolution hasn't surpassed.<br /><br />So, for me, it's been all about improving spectacle.Earl Wajenberghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03972213104063301125noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-61626761385161522052015-11-12T23:30:27.478-05:002015-11-12T23:30:27.478-05:00George Lucas may or may not have been all that gre...George Lucas may or may not have been all that great, but John Williams did a fantastic job. As you say, it's really the music that carries the emotional weight of the film. It's one of a few films that you can recall perfectly just by listening to the soundtrack: you'll know what's going on in every scene from remembering the emotional notes that the score picked out for you in the film. Grimhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07543082562999855432noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-12625353497983210172015-11-12T22:58:26.988-05:002015-11-12T22:58:26.988-05:00I never got into Star Wars. I don't believe I ...I never got into Star Wars. I don't believe I even saw the first film through to completion. My lack of interest in Star Trek perhaps predicted my response to Star Wars. <br /><br />A family friend went to work for George Lucas not long after the release of the first Star Wars film. It didn't take her long to get tired of the Hollywood phonies. After she quit Tinseltown, she carved out an entrepreneurial niche in the arts- not on the other side of the country, but on the other side of the pond.RichardJohnsonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07490819511630683969noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-44754232545110689972015-11-12T22:18:52.061-05:002015-11-12T22:18:52.061-05:00The "slap in the face" got longer and lo...The "slap in the face" got longer and longer as the series went on. Plus he started to run out of regular fantasy and tried more Greek mythology and couldn't carry that as well. The books and jokes felt forced. After a while I couldn't be bothered.<br /><br />WRT Star Wars: The Phantom Edit was competent, and I suppose if one edited down the video game commercials and dubbed in some good dialog the others might be OK too.<br /><br />I probably won't see the new release, but I was glad to see that the writers were chucking the whole "Expanded Universe." Consistency and continuity can be a prison when you're trying to tell new stories. I recall reading a bit in which Niven said he found his Known Universe series to be impossible to write for anymore--pretty much any problem solvable within the framework had been posed and had a solution already, so where's the mystery?jameshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01792036361407527304noreply@blogger.com