All posts relating to the Star Wars franchsise.
Part of a series of skits featuring Pizza Head, a slice of pizza with a face on it and former pitchman of Pizza Hut. Its relevance in the tag involves cross-promotion with the release of the Star Wars Trilogy Special Editions released in theaters that year.
This should make a comeback as it’d be cool with the kids today.
Several days ago, I posted a quote from George Lucas that came from a statement he made before US Congress in 1988 opposing colorization of old films. Digging a little deeper, I discovered the full transcript of that script. Special thanks to the Save Star Wars site for putting this up, along with a rather good reading article surrounding this now-ironic speech. The site in general has a number of interesting reads if you’re willing to take the time. Definitely worth checking out, especially if you’re opposed to the ten million changes made to the trilogy.
Check it out here.
“People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians, and if the laws of the United States continue to condone this behavior, history will surely classify us as a barbaric society. In the future it will become even easier for old negatives to become lost and be “replaced” by new altered negatives. This would be a great loss to our society. Our cultural history must not be allowed to be rewritten. Attention should be paid to this question of our soul, and not simply to accounting procedures. Attention should be paid to the interest of those who are yet unborn, who should be able to see this generation as it saw itself, and the past generation as it saw itself.”
It has become apparent over the years that George Lucas likes to spite the fans who complain about the constant changes to the Star Wars saga (especially the original trilogy) every time that series is introduced on a new format.
Case in point, the Star Wars Blu Ray release that’s coming in September.
More changes have been made to the original trilogy (and some to the prequels)… including blinking Ewoks designed to scare people into horror beyond imagination, a CGI Yoda to replace the puppet Yoda in Phantom Menace (a chance that kinda, sorta makes sense, but goddamn, the puppet displayed more acting range than the CGI model), and of course, the most infamous changes and the one that’s been getting the most venom since Greedo shooting first in 1997…
They added the Noooo to the throne scene.
You see, it makes sense to add the Noooo because they think the audience is stupid (fuck you, Rick Berman! oh wait…) and won’t get the subtle build to Vader’s redemption… or something.
The sad thing is that it comes off as an amateurish dub job rather than… something.
Yep, thank god I didn’t upgrade to Blu-Ray. Say YES to Betamax!
TO TOP IT OFF…
The countless reviews over at Amazon.com for this set (a set that has YET TO BE RELEASED!) is downright hysterical. Mostly one-star reviews bashing the set, with the few five-star “reviews” being nothing more than spiteful people telling other spiteful people to quit their whining because they haven’t seen the final product yet.
People, news flash for you… STOP YOUR WHINING!
The people bashing this Blu-Ray release haven’t seen the movie. The people bashing the people bashing this release haven’t seen the final product either. I think it’s downright ridiculous that something that isn’t even out yet is up for review. Wait until it comes out and then bash/praise it. You’re all looking like idiots here!
(2019 Update: New video upload.)
The review is a bit of an anomaly, as the video footage is a couple years old, the text review used as the basis for the script was written last year, and the audio being a couple months old when I initially put the review together. But still, it went together rather nicely.
By the way, exactly one year ago, I posted my first video review for Track & Field for the NES. Pure coincidence, I swear.
(2025 Update: Replaced the old Youtube embed with a slightly less old Dailymotion embed that was eventually replaced with a newer than new Youtube upload that I’m shocked made it through in one piece. Featuring a new title card and some considerable edits here and there, including the restoration of an old intro from when this review was originally intended as a Halloween upload. Despite these changes, it’s still the same old review that is outdated and superseded by a new one in 2012.)
So once upon a time, there was a kid named Anakin. He fixed things.
So this was the first piece of Star Wars Expanded Universe fare that I think I’ve read as a younger fellow. Oh, I have dabbled in the Marvel comics stuff and maybe that Splinter Of The Mind’s Eye novel, but in terms of new stories set in that galaxy far, far away that took the narrative beyond the Star Wars trilogy – there was only one – Dark Empire was the first thing that opened up. I wouldn’t get around to the novels until much later down the road, but the comics were easy reads… as were the video games that would come along later, but I digress.
Dark Empire takes place some years after Return Of The Jedi. The leadership of the former Rebel Alliance now head the New Republic and they’re still fighting the remnants of that evil Galactic Empire after all this time. The first thing you notice about this comic is the artwork, which has really rough-looking characters that somewhat resemble those classic characters you know and love, but updated to keep with the times. Luke Skywalker has darker-colored Jedi robes, foreshadowing the dark turn he would take as the series would progress. Leia has heir hair down. The various ships and setpieces are probably the real highlight of the art because they look a little better, but even to this day, I am baffled by the coloring, which seems very all over the place, cloudy, and doesn’t help the line art all that much.
As for the story itself… like I said, the Republic is still fighting the Empire and the Emperor is back from the dead in a new clone body, which makes me wonder if this was something that could’ve happened in whatever sequels would’ve followed if George Lucas would’ve gone in that direction. Luke takes a bit of a dark turn and things go to hell… but they eventually get better. For the time, I thought it was a fairly enjoyable little read and even coming back to it years after the fact, it might not be the one of the better Star Wars stories… and the subsequent miniseries, Dark Empire II and Empire’s End, actually turn out far worse than this one, but it’s an enjoyable little romp regardless.
So I recently picked up this game recently and only played it yesterday.
As of this writing, I made it up to the third level so far and then took a break from it. For the most part, the game is fairly enjoyable; it’s a simple hack-and-slash with force powers, the story seems fairly decent so far (though it’s supposed to get better later on) and the graphics are of decent quality despite the aging hardware.
However, there are issues. The Force targeting is a little wonky; sometimes I force-levitate an enemy as opposed to a piece of stray debris on the floor more often than not. Also, the camera seems too broken for my tastes, sometimes placing it in front of some huge set piece that blocks my view and thus I have no clue what the fuck is going on.
But other than those minor complaints, I’m liking this game so far.
dtm666 