Sundown

Add me to the catiously optimistic list. Is it me or do the new shots of Grevious look photorealistic-- much more so than the previous ones we've seen? Did they build a real Grevious mask for some scenes, or get themselves a better renderer or something? -Al

But is she a hot invertibrate? -Al

Ahh. Those zany, fruity, Jedi. -Al

Sony referring to the sometimes problematic and less sensitive square button, due to it being positioned so closely to the screen: "Nobody would criticize a renowned architect's blueprint that the position of a gate is wrong. It's the same as that." Uh... there'd be plenty of criticism if the gate was difficult to open and gets stuck on a regular basis. -Al

Grey Fox wants his head back. -Al

Bits and pieces that look like functional clutter adds to the believability and grittyness of a design. This is a staple and well accepted method amongst sci-fi designers and artists, partly pioneered by McQuarrie. And it works. Everyone likes Darth Maul, but not for his dialogue. He's a cruddy character in so far as development and personality goes. But visual style, and execution on screen, brilliant. *chuckles* I do admit it's hard to resist when folks keep offering counterpoints. Silly me for assuming someone talking about it again might actually expect response. At any rate, I agree to disagree. Already did several pages back, actually. -Al

See, again, it was never obvious to me. No swinging saloon doors, no cowboy hats, nothing that screamed Look at me! Western!-- about zero copying of style. Other than the basic theme and premise, all the visual design elements were unique or masked the inspiration. I guess that's the difference I see between the OT and PT. The OT takes a familiar theme, mangles it and spins it until it's no longer recognizable, yet still manages to retain resonance with what we're familiar with. The PT takes those same things, then forcefully injects elements from our culture that call way too much attention to themselves. Flash over cohesion. Ah well. I have to admit I'd be curious to see what McQuarrie would have done with the same direction that Lucas gave. Palpy does look moderately cool. How old was Ian McDiarmid when he played Palp in ROTJ? He looks just about the right age now. -Al

For what it's worth, he actually performs with Triumph in a duet in one of Triumph's stand up shows. I have the CD. -Al

Bah to Lucas. Art Nouveau and Art Moderne are decidedly not. The irony is that Ralph's designs still haven't dated in 20 years-- and that Lucas/Chiang are attempting to create timeless designs by emulating designs that are already way dated and short-lived by definition. So we get retro for retro's sake. Prequel designs fall firmly into the "too design-ey" end of the spectrum in my opinion. The difference lies in that Ralph used real world functional design elements-- which inherently becomes part of history-- things end up looking a certain way because they "should". Chiang drew more heavily on past art forms and applied them to a foreign world, but didn't ground these styles on gritty real world functional considerations, even of their period. So as a result, we just get speculation that a galaxy far, far away would enjoy 50's chic for its own sake-- and spaceships that look like chrome SR-71's and air speeders that look like 50's taxies, only because he wants them to. Flying art shapes, in essence-- when these sorts of designs in history have always been fleeting and shortlived, and the first to fall out of fashion. These designs will date quickly because they're based on already dated designs, chosen without applying practical reasons on why they would be built this way. Perhaps that's the whole point... but that makes for a less believable and less engaging world. *shrug* The prequels' design weaknesses lie in that they draw bits of real Earth culture without hiding it very well, so everything looks out of place and anachronistic, especially when compared against the self-consistent visuals of the OT. Ralph drew heavily from WWII imagery-- creating compelling designs and visuals, but the viewer had a hard time picking up the design influences and putting a finger on what made it work, hence the magic. PT designs give a bit of the following impression: "Oh, a space 50's diner. Oh, a space 50's hotrod. Oh, some space French foofy thing." However, I have to say that I'm particularly fond of Darth Maul's design, and its success was that I couldn't immediately place its inspiraiton-- Chinese painted masks-- even with that being part of my own culture. A great design, because it resonates with reality without giving away why. Then Lucas made some art direction decisions that I don't particularly agree with, and I heavily distrust his current sense of aesthetics. =P There never really was much of argument about who was responsible and why-- the issue of contention I had was whether these were good decisions and thus, good designs. In the end, I think most of the PT vehicular designs will fade into obscurity, or at least never approach the recognizability and endearment of their predecessors. The methodology of "hey, let's grab fleeting styles from the past, take them out of context, and slap hypedrives on them" isn't an effective way to design for longevity. -Al

On the topic of customizing heads, I wouldn't mind a slightly resculpted VF-1J head either. There was one floating around on the web that reworked the head to give it even more accurate proportions-- beefy and more robust, fuller chin and taller profile, straight out of the anime. That, I'd like to see. Here's the link again... http://f11.aaa.livedoor.jp/~gazouup/1jhead.html -Al

YESS! And then we could have some perfect TV Max and CF VF-1A customs made! -Al

I'm obviously very, very confused. Too. Much. Popular. Media. Not to mention an accidental Robotech reference of all things. -Al

I dunno, actually looks vaguely decent visually. The feel's better than I expected. Except I have the opposite reaction as treatment-- Human Torch and Mr. Incredible look mostly spot on. The rest were meh. Never was a fan of Alba, and No, No, No, No, No! She's just not Sue Graham! She looks like a blond Angelina Jolie, which to me, being a fan of darker hair, and not a fan of her lippy-ness, is two strikes on Alba here. She's also too 7-of-Nine-ish. Meh. What bugs me about Alba is that just because a certain segment of the population finds her drop-dead attractive, they try to cram her in every comic/sci-fi flick/show they can, regardless of whether her face fits the role. Elisha Cuthbert or any other blond actress with a squarer jawline would have worked a lot better. -Al

So true. He might look a bit closer to Sebastian Shaw (old Anakin) than Hayden does. At least he doesn't have whiny pretty boy written all over his face. James Franco would have been an interesting Anakin, too. But then again, they'd all have to overcome Lucas's abysmal writing and directing, that somehow transforms top tier actors into stiff dopplegangers of themselves. -Al

Well it would parallel nicely with Luke letting go as Vader/Anakin reaches out in the Empire Strikes Back... and for once in the PT, might actually add additional depth and meaning to the original OT scene. So as cliche as it is, it wouldn't be out of place. That said, I'd rather see Obi Wan kick the whiny snot into lava. -Al

Well, you might not actually have to design full on pants. Seems like leggings that cover the Valk's calves would be enough, since the coat would cover most of the legs. In the shot of Max's VF-1A in gerwalk, it looks like he's only got leggings as well, and not full on pants. -Al

My reply to ya in PM, Final Vegeta. Sorry folks for being off topic-- slipped my mind that this was the one-post-per-user Mac 7 thread.

I think some clarification is needed on this statement. The Catholic Church did not "create" Satan nor Hell. Both are clearly in the original Scriptures long before the formation of the Catholic Church through Constantine (as Protestants see it... Catholics see their church as going back to Peter). However, Satan as a characature with horns and pitchfork, and Hell as a place where devils and demons poke forks into sinners is something developed later-- and that doesn't particularly have any scriptural basis. The scripture of the Bible does allude to Satan: as a fallen angel, the Enemy, the serpent, Baal, etc., and the spoilsport figure that is the embodiment of rebellion and pride against God. Hell's also mentioned as a place of torment, with some allusions to fire (possibly figurative). But references to both remain somewhat vague. The Bible and the Judeo/Christian tradition is probably not the only tradition that includes the idea of Good versus Evil. I believe there are other belief systems that incorporate this spiritual dualism. There are also many within the Christian faith that do not view Evil as a separate entity or force that exists apart from Good, who's only aim is to battle Good. Evil is merely a corruption of Good and corruption of a previously perfect creation, and not an existant force with power by itself. And scripture points to the root cause of this corruption as pride, self above all. It's interesting to see that the most evil men capable of the most evil deeds of the greatest scope had some very admirable attributes-- what would actually be considered good as part of God's creation in Judeo/Christian thinking: intelligence, charm, determination, perserverance, leadership. Many also did evil in thinking that they were doing the right and the moral. In a manner, Evil has no power of its own except from the corruption and power of a created good. And the greater that good corrupted, the great the evil that results. -Al

1963, Nov. 22, I believe. Huge C.S. Lewis fan here... more of his non-fiction than his fictional stuff. Had no idea he died on the same day as JFK. -Al

So there you have it. Prequel Trilogy = Deconstructing Vader Well boo. I've always felt that Vader should have been portrayed as a noble albiet prideful man, who made a deal with the Devil and lost. Maybe because that's simply the sense I got in viewing the OT. The sadness should have been in his actions and his fall, not in his lameness. Bah. =P -Al

I got to hear Burt Rutan speak recently at a seminar. Very, very cool. Surreal to hear that Virgin Galactic spacelines has been formed already, even with no space liners to fly. -Al

Come on, you gotta like when she jumped, landed, and strutted away eeriely without missing a beat (if I remember the scene right). Slick! Could be that the action scenes needed better choreography... but I do really like how she moves, and the way she struts and runs with efficency, confidence and purpose. She's not flailing, unbalanced, and akward like so many starlets pushed into action roles. I dunno, I kinda find the old Just Shoot Me chick vaguely attractive... They could always pick up Carrie Anne Moss for the Aeon Flux role. She had that androgynous thing going pretty good in the last few Matrix movies, and it'd be a lot more accurate visually. But then I wouldn't watch it. -Al

Odd. I thought her action scenes in Underworld were fantastic. Oozed style, confidence, and moved like a girl that wasn't about to trip over herself. I've also heard that the scenes of her with steely gaze while shooting firearms is actually her with steely gaze while shooting firearms-- a rarity supposedly, since most actors flinch to some degree. Supposedly that's also part of the reason for the sunglasses in Matrix-- to hide flinching eyes. Her physicality is pretty admirable, especially for an actress that can actually act. Anyway, I'd take either Beckingsale or Theron over the andgrogynous abomination that starred in the original animation. Go figure. -Al

Actually, when I see the Naboo Transport, I see the exact opposite. The majority of the design is similar, and few elements are original. And in my opinion, this isn't a great way to design things in an alternate fantastical galaxy, especially when the movies prior did fine if not better by avoiding precisely this design methodology. Irregardless, it's acknowledged by official sources, and I presume Chiang himself, that the transport is predominantly inspired by the SR-71. That pretty much ends any question of how much the Blackbird played into the Transport's design. Straight from the source, no less. Apparently neither Lucasfilms nor Chiang needed apologists to explain away or diminish the SR-71's influence. That's all I wanted you to say. Then again, Lucasfilms' own words ended up being a whole lot more indicting than mine. My opinion remains that the Transport's design is weak visually because of it. I'll agree with Max and say that Anakin's crying was excusable in the first movie. He's a kid. Ok, I question the judgement of portraying Anakin as that young, and I think we could have used a better actor, but the behavior of the character as written was tolerable for a kid of his age. But Darth Vader as a whiny teen-- NO, NO, NO, NO, NO. I don't care how that plays on Luke being whiny himself-- It's just bad story-telling and tears down one of the greatest villians ever to grace the screen. The I-want-mommy-complex is just not something you pin on Darth Vader as his primary underlying psychological motivation. AOTC did more to weaken Vader as villian than Lucas ever did by showing him as a wrinkled, frail, old pasty guy. After watching The Aviator, I'm back to thinking that De Caprio (I know, I know, blasphemy) would have made for a good Anakin. But De Caprio played Hughes just as how I'd like to have seen Anakin-- a man of amazing talent and abilities, of character, with a noble streak, whom even after you know his fate, you still end up rooting for him, hoping against hope, and delighting in his momentary triumphs against an impending doom. You liked the character. I think we should have been lured into liking Anakin. But of course, this also requires a script that writes Anakin as something other than a shallow, conceited, whiny teenager. Anakin should have been portrayed noblely at some point, and had stature of his own among the Republic and the Jedi Council, before he became Dark Lord of the Sith... because of his character, real, identfiable, relatable and admirable qualities-- not just because he has a high count of midi-whatchamacallits and can swing a mean glowstick. I agree that changes in aesthetic sensibilities may force designers to "update" sequels or prequels visually. But Star Wars is one francise I felt that such "updating" wasn't necessary, as the designs were so good that they still remain believable and compelling today. The irony is that the "updated" designs in th ePT actually draw more heavily from retro and outdated styles, some of which are used more for novelty's sake than the fact that they really do look better to an audience today. I realize they needed to make some stylistic changes, but I just don't dig the direction they went, and the drastic departure from gritty... especially when the PT movies were supposed to be reflecting a universe only two decades younger. Real reason the PT looks so different-- different artists, who didn't hold McQuarrie's styling up on a pedestal-- different visual direction, that wasn't the same as the one that used to guide and refine Lucas' raw vision-- and a Lucas who himself has changed since 1985 in taste and sensibilities. -Al

For what it's worth, found this on imdb's Star War's trivial, too. "The design of Queen Amidala's starship, in which she escapes Naboo with Qui-Gonn and Obi-Wan, was inspired by the Lockheed Martin SR-71 "Blackbird" reconnaissance jet." The strength of McQuarrie's designs pulled viewers into the world-- because they looked like real, functional, operating things-- and yet looked like nothing anyone had ever seen before. I really miss that vibe in the PT. I can see Lucas's aim, in providing something different by injecting glitzy, glamorous, campy retro-fare. He'd always imagined Star Wars as Sci-Fi serials. The problem here is that Sci-Fi serials, Buck Rogers, their retro look dates quickly... and when it's reemerges, it's brought back only for novelty's sake and then is quickly forgotten again-- while OT Star Wars design elements have remained iconic, believable, and has lasted this long precisely because it took the gritty approach, because it was not Buck Rogers fare-- and because WWII and its feel strikes a chord within our subconscious that won't likely fade in some time. Frankly I think Lucas abandoned one of the strongest things he had going for him in the OT... and I guess in my opinion, he should have relied more heavily on this same lived-in "feel", even as he was designing a more "civilized" world.