Just my luck -- "File format not recognized"...

It appears to be a standard Windows Media format (WMV). It worked fine for me.

No probs for me either, just the IE pop-up warning.

I told my boss last year I was taking off the 19th.

Worked fine for me,

Ace, this was news like 4 year ago when it came out. Loose shit man, loose shit.

It looks good, but I'm still afraid it will suck. Hopeful, but wary.

Lucas's problem has never been the space-flight scenes. The underlying problem with Episodes I and II were the scripts -- they were flat, full of exposition and cliched. Episode II's intrigue-conspiracy made no sense.

I don't know how Lucas's movie-making skill could become more amatuerish over the course of his career, but he managed to pull it off.

Hehe, good clip.

As much as these don't live up to the originals, not seeing it really isn't an option.

On another topic from here:

The predicted misreporting of the filibuster issue has begun. This alleged journalism reads like Dem talking points. No mention that this is the first time filibusters have ever been used to block nominees, or that when Dems controlled both the executive and legislative branches no nominees were blocked.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=615&e=4&u=/nm/20050424/pl_nm/congress_judges_dc

Watch the polling on this go from bad to catastrophic as the MSM/DNC propaganda machine cranks up.

Everyone complains about the dialogue in the prequels, but it wasn't much better in the original as I remember. The difference is the original actors were better with cornball sci-fi dialogue. Take Alex Guiness. He had laughable lines like:

DARTH VADER: When we last met, I was the student, you were the master. Now--I am the master.

OBI WAN: Only a master of evil, Darth.

But dammit if he didn't pull it off.

And Harrison Ford was terrific with all the "shut up, kid" stuff.

When Ewen MacGregor or Liam Neeson say their hokey lines, on the other hand, they just sound hokey. Maybe sci-fi just isn't their thing. I can't see them pulling off something like "Khaaaaaaaan!" either.

But here's what gives me hope for Revenge of the Sith. Ian McDiarmid, to judge by the trailer, appears to be a fucking master of corny dialogue.

I'm still pissed that there is so little mechanical Vader time.

I mean this was the one to show what a bad ass mechanical vader was since his accomplishments in the original trilogy were hardly amazing :

1) He couldn't beat Obi-Wan, he had to wait until he surrendered to him.
2) He couldn't beat Luke who had only been training for months.
3) His only party trick is to force choke someone which, while cool, is hardly a sign that you are a master of evil.
4 Is there anything to suggest that Maul wouldn't kick Vader in Armour's ass?

Nay, we want Vader, in armour running round killing jedi left and right, but again, Lucas fails to deliver, opting instead to give screen time to the puke known as Jar Jar Binks.

It's this kind of shitty attitude to fans that is the reason I don't plan on being there at midnight. I'll probably go a week later.

As for scripts, George can't write or direct for shit. Jedi and Empire were both directed and scripted (in part) by other people, and this is probably why the prequels are having problems living up to the originals.

Butchered characters, butchered script, and no real intent to provide the fans with what they want.

I so wanted a Vader vs. Windu fight.
If all he's gonna do is stand around at the end and breathe I'll be annoyed.
But by then I'll be in an eye-candy induced diabetic coma so who cares.

Star Wars was entirely, massively rewritten by other people, too.

There had better be hax0r subtitles.

I have to agree that Vader stompin' around whacking these pansy jedi would be damned cool, so cool that of course Lucas isn't going to give it to us. I was also thinking about seeing Boba Fett going around,bagging himself some Jedi as well and how cool that'd be, and figured it wasn't going to happen either.

Addendum to DelphiGuy's list, as I recall, in the Empire Strikes Back, Vader also stops blaster fire with his hands. As far as I'm concerned, he did beat Luke, seeing how he chopped his hand off. Not his fault Luke took the seppukku option and jumped off the walkway. I'm not saying that DelphiGuy is off base saying that if Lucas gets full value on our money, we should get full value on his Vader, just pointing out that the stopping blasterfire with his hands is a hell of a lot cooler than that lightsaber deflection we see those prancing Jedi doing.

Sorry, Blain, but you're full of shit.

The originals may have had some bad dialog and some bad acting, but nothing comparable to the prequels.

I guess I should be easy on you, though, since I had similar thoughts myself. After Episode II, I sat down with my wife and rewatched Episodes IV, V, and VI. While watching them, I tried to keep as open a mind as possible to these questions: Was I simply seeing them throught eyes of a child? Were they really just as stupid as the first two prequels but I was just to young/stupid to realize it when I'd first seen them, and had I seen them through that prism ever since?

Answer: No. Yes, there was some bad acting in Episode IV, especially by Mark Hamill. And, yes, there were some cornball lines throughout the original set of movies. But, ugh, nothing nearly as bad as the prequels.

We all have our biases, but I really tried to keep an open mind watching them. How open? So open that I had pretty much convinced myself that I had simply been blind to the flaws of the original movies. I fully expected to find this was true, and I was actually surprised when I after viewing them I found they really were good movies. IV has its cheesy moments but overcomes them. V is a masterpiece, a fabulous movie. VI is a step down, but it's still pretty good. I and II are very disappointing.

You want to talk about bad dialog? Let's look at Episode II. Amidala and Anakin are talking about their relationship, and Anakin says to her, "I'm haunted by the kiss that you should not have given me. My heart is beating, hoping that kiss does not become a scar." What THE FUCK is that? That is beyond bad. Who in real life prefaces a statement with "my heart is beating"? Just horrible.

And then later in the movie, Amidala says to him, "I'm not afraid to die. I've been dying a little each day since you came back into my life." This is Star Wars? It sounds more like a Harlequin Romance.

Sorry, but there's nothing comparable in the original set of movies. Think of when Han Solo was going to be frozen. Princess Leia told him, "I love you." His response? "I know." Funny, big laugh from the theater crowd, fit perfectly with his gruff character, but it made the point, too. If Lucas had directed Episode V today, it would have been some ridiculous Harlequin garbage: "Oh, Hanni, I love you!" "Yes, Leia, I love you, too! Ever since you came into my life ..."

I hope Episode III is fantastic. But I'm not counting on it. I really looked forward to Episodes I and II, but after seeing II I kind of felt cheated. Episode I was only OK in that it was Lucas's first movie in a while, and he had to deal with a child actor, and perhaps he had some directing rust to work off, and maybe a lot of what seemed stupid and meaningless would be explained more in II... When II came out and was just more crap I was disappointed by it and retroactively turned against I. And then I rewatched IV, V, and VI to see if they weren't as good as I thought they were, but I found they were. So at this point I hope III is an awesome movie, and I'll see it as soon as it comes out, but if it's another steaming pile then I won't be terribly surprised.

Link is down. It says file transfer unavailable due to exceeding bandwidth or some such. Bummer

Vader could just have had armour plating on his palms, however I have to admit that that scene is teh winnar!

My point is that Vader never really achieved anything in the original trilogy. He fights an apprentice jedi and the best he comes away with is his hand? I'd at least want the whole arm.

It's not like we get to see him rampaging through the corvette at the beginning of Star Wars working his way through the decks hacking and slashing (yeah, Ace had a radio show on Empire FM) rebel scum as he searched for the Death Star plans.

In the original trilogy he was some decadent master barking orders to incompetent underlings who would cock up and get force choked. When he actually had to do something he pretty much ballsed that up too.

He needed bounty hunters to find Han & Co, he couldn't get the location of the rebel base out of Leia, about the only thing he achieved was killing the Emperor and that was a bit of an own goal.

Vader is without a doubt one of, if not the greatest villain of all time, but the thing that makes him a villain is his screen presence and his backstory. The prequels were all about his backstory. Granted, human vader will kick ass, but is George really saying that after the lava pit, vader was...ahem, only half the man he was?

There is talk of a TV show, and one hopes that we get to see Vader kicking ass in that instead.

I believe Ford came up with the 'I know' line from the belief that Han would never get mushy like that. Originally, I believe he was supposed to 'I Love you too'.

Maybe the prequels just have actors that took an interest in their characters. OTOH, Ford is certainly a unique actor.

Episode II - Anakin jumps from the 'car', Obi Wan - 'I hate it when he does that' . Really? Tell me, how often does he do it? Is it a daily thing? Is it like when you land in a plane and you can't be arsed waiting to get to the gate, you just jump out the side? Geeez, surely it would have been better had Obi just shouted Anakin as he lunged over the other side of the car to stop him.

No, better to let kids think thats normal.

Son - 'Daddy, James just fell out of the car door'
Dad - (grimacing) 'I hate it when he does that'

Ah how we laughed.

Maybe the prequels just have

That's meant to read 'originals'

."When Ewen MacGregor or Liam Neeson say their hokey lines, on the other hand, they just sound hokey. Maybe sci-fi just isn't their thing. I can't see them pulling off something like "Khaaaaaaaan!" either."
-------------

It's because they, and Lucas, are taking this stuff too seriously now.

Observation: At the end of Jedi, Luke is unable to defeat the emperor, and Vader manages to do so only through subterfuge. Does this not mean that the Dark Side is inherently more powerful?

I'm genuinely curious; is there some dork theory to explain why this is or isn't so?

Andrew, not more powerful, only easier. Luke took the harder route of not killing his own father knowing it would be his demise.

IIRC, Luke eventually turns to the Dark Side himself (Palpatine didn't die, btw. The sith mastered cloning and spirit transfer) in order to try to defeat the Emporer from inside. However, he wasn't able to turn back to the good side and required the help of Leia to do so.

Yeah, I'm a geek. So what?

I was on vacation in the USA before the hype for the first(fourth?) star ward film, I had not heard if it at all and a American mate took me to see this cool sci fi movie, wow, without the hype it knocked my socks off, I was in my 20s at the time, it is a damn good film (with a few odd lines here and there) the prequels have let it down.

Don't forget that Darth could also use his mind to rip steel parts of a ship off and hurl them at Luke, some of which appeared to weigh 500 pounds or more.

I've beefed elsewhere about the big finale. Obi and Yoda both want Luke to kill Vader. The Emperor wants Luke to kill Vader. So is killing Vader a bad thing or not? And why does the idiotic emperor keep saying, "Do it and you'll be on my team"?

It's like the serpent telling Eve and Adam, "Yeahlp. Eat that fruit, and you're going to die just like the Big Man said. But won't it feel good!"

At the end of Jedi, Luke is unable to defeat the emperor, and Vader manages to do so only through subterfuge. Does this not mean that the Dark Side is inherently more powerful?

Sharp is right -- it's a movie. The events in it are driven by the writer's efforts at creating drama, not making a statement about Jedi theology.

-Nicholas Kronos

As I understand it, Obi Wan and Yoda are telling Luke to whack Vader impartially, like putting down a rabid dog. Palpatine is telling Luke to let that hate fill him up so he kills Vader in a emotion-filled, Dark Side pumped rage, opening him up to the Dark Side. The act itself is pretty neutral ( killing Vader) but the motivations and means are what differentiate the Light and Dark Sides of the Force.

I mean, I guess, I don't do this for a living.

This is so dorky, but I agree with Alex_fs. It's the only explanation that makes sense, although the movie doesn't really hint at it much. Obviously, Jedi can kill (they do it all the time), so the problem must be Luke's emotional state regarding the killing. He's not dispassionately dispensing justice; he's filled with hatred and rage and the craving for vengeance.

Killing Vader with that mindset, with the Emperor within twenty feet of him (and hence, presumably, able to psychically twist him around and make him a slave), is the wrong thing to do.

And one more possibility... Obi and Yoda could be wrong. Luke isn't any padawan by the end of the series; he might know in his heart that what the Force "wants" is for him to allow Vader to redeem himself, and his "feelings" on the matter might be clearer and more accurate than Yoda and Obi's (or, perhaps, killing Vader would be right for Yoda or Obi, but not for Luke).

And thus that killing him is just wrong under the particular circumstances he's confronted with.

Yes, we can manufacture an explanation that sort of works, but it's really just Lucas being unable to make up his mind. Frequently ambiguity is not a sign of art and genius but rather indecision.

I prefer, BTW, the explanation that Obi and Yoda are wrong because it provides symmetry to earlier Jedi miscalculations regarding the Skywalker clan: Obi attempting to train Vader by himself and Yoda later telling Obi it's a bad idea to start Luke's training so late.

The two of them think that Luke should kill Vader, which is exactly what the Emperor wants. And all along the Emperor has out-smarted them. Luke goes with his gut, and for once the Emperor is caught off guard.

Ever notice that the main problem is Lucas' directing? Admittedly, the dialogue is often terrible (although I'd argue it's better in V and VI, which Lucas didn't write), but good actors like Ewan MacGregor and Natalie Portman should have been able to salvage a good performance out of the mess that was given to them. The only thing standing in the way is George Lucas. He may be a great storyteller, and blessed with an amazing imagination -- but the human side of his stories ring totally false and stilted.

This is so dorky, but I agree with Alex_fs

I get that a lot.

About Vader vs. Luke in Ep. V: Vader didn't want to kill Luke, he wanted to turn him to the Dark Side and become his apprentice to help overthrow the Emperor. He wasn't trying to kill him, he was trying to defeat him. I'm sure that Vader could have taken Luke out if he had really wanted to but he was trying to avoid killing him.

About the Light vs. Dark Side argument: The other reason why the Light Side is as strong as the Dark Side is because if you're Yoda, you don't have to worry about Mace Windu sticking a shiv in your back so he can become head of the Jedi Council. Whereas if you're a Sith Lord, you have to train others to help you (because you can't exercise control or resist threats without powerful factota), but they're as likely as not to be your own undoing, and so everyone is keeping secrets from each other to keep aces in the hole for the eventual showdown, while the Jedi Council (we assume) don't have a lot of secret techniques they keep as weapons against each other.

Anecdote (possibly true) about Harrison Ford in Ep IV: when told by Lucas to read some line as it appeared in the script, he replied, "George, just because you write this shit doesn't mean I'm gonna say it." Anyone else notice that as Han becomes the hero of IV and V instead of Luke (whom Lucas always intended to be the hero), he gets turned into comic relief in Ep. VI so Luke can shine?

A must-read on the "making" of Star Wars from modernhumorist.com:
http://www.modernhumorist.com/mh/0010/starsaga/

Lucas has always seemed like he can't control his own creation.....his tinkering with the story, constant changes to the old movies, the indecision over if it should be for kids and adults or just kids, and his insistance on directing all the prequels, much to their detriment

Lucas genius is not in his story-telling, which is just re-hashes of Dune and other classic era sci-fi, but in pushing film technology and in his business sense where he's marketed and sold everything from cereal to toliet paper.
The best Star Wars stories are in the books and games, where characters are developed, worlds and philosophies (lightly) explorered, and Lucas has nothing to do with the writing, except sign off on it.
For me, the movies' stories only have to be good enough to string together the effects sequences.

Lapsed Leftists :

I believe this quote is more along the lines of "You can write it, George, but you sure as hell can't say it"

Meaning that stuff that looks OK in print just comes out as dorky on the screen...like in Episode I 'You catch on pretty quick kid' aaaargggh!

The link's not working.... Can anyone help? I need to see clips for this movie that make it look good so I can be thoroughly disappointed when I fork over the $12.50 opening night.

don't worry, Lucas is planning Star Wars spinoff TV shows to further crapify the once good series

http://movies.yahoo.com/mv/news/eo/20050426/111455394000.html