Anybody else heard the announcement that Lucas (in his <strike>in</strike>finite wisdom) will be including members of N*SYNC in AotC?
It's more than a rumour, AFAIK (though I can't find the actual announcement), but apparently Lucas himself is wavering. It's in, it's out, it's in, it's out. . .
Story is that he's doing it as a gift to his daughter, who's a big N*SYNC fan. Apparently, they'd be just minor figures in the background of a scene, visible for just a few seconds. He also apparently said that it wouldn't be the whole band, but just two or three of them. Though you can bet that Timberlake will be one of them;
Remember when this was a band instead of a solo act with accompaniment? --Ed the Sock
Personally I don't really care (as long as they are minor, easily ignored cameos), but the internet community is up in arms.
I'm starting to think Lucas is trying to ruin the franchise from the inside, so that when he retires from SW after Ep.III (after milking it for all it's worth) no-one else will be able to play with his Toys? I mean, Lucas' possessive streak is well-known, it'd be just like him to lock the GFFA away so that no-one else can have it after him.
From what I've seen and heard so far regarding "Attack of the Clones" (What a STUPID title) it sounds like its going to be pretty bad.
G.L. no longer surprises me anymore, he just wants $$$ now, to heck with the product, just look at the new games.
True about the ever rotating $$$ signs that must be plaguing poor G.L. (Yeah - right), but what you gonna do ?
We, the ones who can make or break him by going to se it or not, actually have no say, choice, or way to say -
"OI! LUCAS! NO! I loved what you did with the original trilogy, and the remastered were a master piece. But if start to forget the fans, and pump out endless ****e that makes people lose faith in such a well established and well loved space opera genre, then I will have to cut your nuts off!"
Err - yeah - err, well - you see my point.
But, if the movies go like the games, they will be a period of pap, followed by a rejuvinated and gob smackingly godlike torrent of star dust. (FC to BG to RS2:RL and JO)
Im going to give him one last chance.... 1...
i read a review and they said aotc will be great!
Read.....
If you don't want to be spoiled, don't read it.
"Star Wars: Episode II" - A Review by 'Ali'
By all accounts, Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace was a disappointment. Sure the mind-blowing effects were there; weird aliens roamed the screen; the action sequences were dazzling; Duel of the Fates a revelation in film music. Was all that enough? For many, the answer was no. Oh yes sir, just like Lucas promised us all those years ago, we did at last see what the Jedi did in their prime. And we realised that they led pretty damn boring lives. The sense of fun was gone, the feeling of a boy?s own adventure that would make Mark Twain blush was non-existent.
All this is now a thing of the past with At
tack of the Clones. Unless Lucas et al somehow manage to **** this up royally, this film will be remembered as the true Episode I to the Star Wars saga.
The story is simple, yet intriguing and grabbing at the same time. It has been ten years since the events of the Naboo conflict. The heroes have all gone their separate ways. Queen Amidala is now a senator to her planet and no longer the reigning monarch. Jar Jar Binks represents the Gungans in the Senate. Palpatine has tried (or has he really???) to reform the Republic, but to no avail. And Obi Wan and Anakin Skywalker have been off in many different adventures and the training of the latter Jedi is still going on, though the padawan is plagued by nightmares about his mother. In the meantime, a once venerable Jedi Master called Count Dooku has left the Jedi Order after the death of Qui Gon Jinn and the Battle of Naboo and, backed by a myriad of corporate forces (some of whom familiar), has taken up the mantle of the leader of a separatist movement including hundreds of star systems whose sole intention is to secede from the Republic: an action that will spell a cert ain doom to the Republic. As the film starts, Padme is on her way to Coruscant (the entire planet is one big city: thank you Mr. Exposition) to vote on a new kind of army that the Republic wants to create in order to deal with a possible armed uprising. The action kicks off the film as there is an assassination attempt at her in which her decoy is killed and which, to the disagreement of all the Jedi and the Chancellor, she believes was organised by Dooku. Chancellor Palpatine decides that the Jedi should provide her with some bodyguards and Obi Wan and Anakin are assigned to the task because of their history with Padme. A second unsuccessful assassination attempt on Padme leads to a massive chase through Coruscant?s heavy traffic and just as the Jedi manage to corner the would-be assassin, she herself is killed by a toxic dart whose origins lead to an obscure planet called Kamino. The Jedi Council to order Anakin to take Padme to Naboo and stay with her until further notice while Ob i Wan is given the assignment to track the origins of this dart. Not all is well though it seems, as Anakin?s nightmares of his mother continues, Obi Wan is suddenly given the responsibility of finding out why there is a massive clone army in Kamino waiting for action that seems to have been, unknowingly to them, ordered by a fictitious leader of the Jedi in the first place?..
The difference between the second prequel and its lacklustre predecessor is the return to a sense of adventure. The second main asset of the second prequel is the introduction of a new theme in to the Star Wars series: that of the Chandleresque detective story. I will come back to that later but let?s go deal with the feeling of adventure for the time being. In TPM, the characters did not live through adventure till the last scenes of the Battle of Naboo. The two Jedi went to seek the council of, or just plain visited, all sorts of boring parties in different parts of the universe. Attack of the Clones opens with a literal and proverbial bang and it does not let go. After some necessary exposition, the flick throws at us a what promises to be an amazing chase sequence that separates the main characters who each go off in their own different adventures. They are not trying to negotiate a tax deal this time around, they are all in a real sense of danger.
In an interesting and necessary twist, we are introduced to a completely new villain this time around. The death of Maul in the first prequel obviously foresaw this but it is nevertheless not a traditional Star Wars approach. An obviously very influential new villain in the person of Count Dooku is now the main baddie of the flick and his possible ties with the Sith are not revealed either way until the very end of the movie. Lucas and his co-writer Jonathan Hales do not introduce his character to us until the last third of the film, instead focusing on cryptic dialogue about him between the characters. We hear about this Count Dooku character but his intentions and identity is a complete mystery till later on. It is an interesting approach to tackle a main baddie in any flick and in this film, it pays off delightfully. Once we are introduced to the capabilities of his evil ways and the overall plans in which he and his master plays our heores like the pawns in a che ss game that they are, we cannot let go off him. Christopher Lee is going to be a delight to watch in this role, I am sure.
The veteran characters from The Phantom Menace also get slightly more to work with. Anakin has developed from his whiny annoying self of TPM into a very, very troubled young man. He manages to take his first step into the wider world of "The Dark Side" in a sequence that is surprisingly macabre yet touching knowing what has happened before and is to happen afterwards to this very character in the centre of the saga. Padme is still feisty and idealistic but this time it is obviously more believable. Her character develops much more than it did previously as the story takes her from her picturesque home to the nadir of the galaxy. The love story angle, one so blatantly pushed to its limits in the trailer for the flick, is quite well handled yet very different to the one in Empire Strikes Back. Anakin wants her and wants her bad whereas Padme does not want to give in to her feelings straight away: she knows that the couple have too big responsibilities to throw their li ves away. In a very Joseph Campbellesque twist, the two travel to hell (with its fiery sun, rocky surface, demon like, ugly inhabitants, the planet Geonosis where the climax of the film takes place is pretty much as close to Hell as anything seen before in Star Wars without naming the ****ing place "Inferno") and come through as lovers that will never be split up. Obviously we know what Padme does not but this additional sense of hindsight and "schadenfreude" is what adds to the pleasure of watching this doomed romance. (Pretentious? Moi?)
Obi Wan and the other Jedi also get do some serious and this time, interesting, Jedi work. Yoda probes the dark side (no pun intended), Mace does some serious conferring with Obi Wan and they both get to whoop some serious ass alongside with about two hundred other Jedi. Obi Wan is, however, the main Jedi in the centre of the flick and this is where the previously mentioned notion of a detective story comes back. This part of the story line is really enjoyable juicy stuff. When Obi Wan is puzzled about the origins of the weapon that kills the first assassin, he takes it to an old contact of his, an ex-mercenary now running an intergalactic seedy burger joint of sorts. Having found out where the thing was made, he now has to locate the planet, and so on, and so on. The story of Obi Wan is truly a very original sequence and I cannot wait to see Macgregor flex his acting muscles tackling the seedy underworld of Coruscant or trying to get to the bottom of the clone conundrum.
As you could briefly see in the trailer, Jar Jar is not a thing of the past in this flick, though his role has been seriously reduced to that of a background character. Although his actions lead to a major step in the road to the rise of the Empire, he is nevertheless seen for only about ten-fifteen minutes. He does have some silly lines but he is a silly character. Making him spurt out lines that would suit Iago is not necessarily the best way to approach his character, one thinks.
Two words. Jango Fett. He is a relentless bounty hunter who gives two Jedi Masters a run for their money, has an army of clones based on his essence and is the father to one Boba Fett ? though in a very unconventional way. Interestingly enough, he is not a totally evil character. He is a mercenary and clearly wants to have some kind of a family, some kind of a future after he is gone. He gets more screen time than Maul did and rightfully so, he is a very interesting character on his own without the cool gadgets and things he comes with.
Finally, the action set pieces are going to be as awesome as ever. There is the aforementioned assassination attempts and the chase sequence, three duels, two aerial battles, one massive land battle, three massive monsters ? you name it this film has it. This is definetely the most action packed of all the Star Wars films yet. And don?t even get me started on the clones. When they eventually attack, this film is going to look so amazing that any other name except for Attack of the Clones will seem utterly inappropriate?
This script delivers: it delivers all the things that Lucas promised to with The Phantom Menace but failed. An old fashioned and sometimes cheesy adventure and love story, it was an immensely enjoyable read and I can not wait to see it on the big screen! Well done George, you have, at last, excelled yourself!!!!
*gasp*
i wrote that much!:D
*thanks rhett!*
DOUBLE-POST! And with SPOILERS yet!
verging slightly OT, did anyone catch the Star Wars: Episode 7 bit on Dark Angel last week?
The Pulse hit and they shut down production, so this is like, the only footage there is.
And I've lost a great deal of respect for Max for her unforgivable ignorance of this icon of pre-Pulse culture. I really hope that Logan (being the armchair historian that he is) takes the time out to correct her.
<small>'Cause you just know Logan's a Jedi-wannabe.</small> ;)
Alec, for his part, reaffirms his leadership of my I-want-to-see-these-people-DEAD!!!-list for his Captain Kirk comment.
:swear:
Yeah I read it too.
http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1451630/20020102/n_sync.jhtml?headlines=true)
I'm disappointed to hear this 'cos it could degrade the whole 'star wars' experience, having any sort of affiliations with the 'real world' so to speak hehe. Hopefully it'll be a 'blink of an eye' appearance so that you can't dwell on it too much though :)
I'm a bit peeved, but, saying that it is Lucas' creation so he's entitled do what he likes with it :p Although, you never know, maybe nsync what with all their $'s are paying to get in the hugely anticipated Ep.1 sequel for publicity. Who knows :confused:
It's probably better not to think about it anyway and just enjoy the film for what it is :)
I heard good things about Ep.II but at the same time there's been a few rotters. Main plus was regarding the lightsabre duels. But I can't help think this film'll be too much of a romance and not enough suspense/action.
If it's as good as Ep.I I guess I'll be pleased but they could do better :p
*gasp*
im sorry i didnt know i double post, my comp freaked out.
ill delete one.