[markie]

Trust your instinct ; search your feelings, you know you should watch it.  Jar Jar and his fellow Gungins of 1999 are no more silly than the Ewoks of 1983.  Simply accept them as some interesting culture and comic relief.  Many of us viewers have become older, jaded and cynical over the decades.  There are still lots of story gems, fun and wonderment in the Star wars of 1999, 2002 and 2005.  Count Dooku played by Sir Christopher Lee is tremendous. The Emperor is the same excellent performer. Yoda's CGI is admittedly pretty bad in 1999 but much, much improved in 2002 and 2005.  Darth Maul is great.  Liam Neeson and Ewan McGregor do a fine job. Light saber battles are so much better than in the original Three. Nathalie Portman is lovely to behold. You get to see what happened to the Jedi order and how it came to its end.  The music scores are still from John Williams.  Really, any Star Wars fan would be seriously remiss to not see the prequel.  Sure it has its flaws but so did the original three.  Don't do it half arse ; expect to be entertained, and you will.  Do it right or do not. There is no half arse try.

 

[OzarkTom]

The worst part of EP I is Jar Jar Binks.  His character makes me feel like I am watching a Barney show.  Without him the movie would have easily gained an extra star or two.

Empire Strikes Back is the best overall episode on a stand alone basis.  I have high New Hopes for the new upcoming EP VII.

I just hope Jar Jar never shows back up.

[Phil A]

I just hope Jar Jar never shows back up.

Rumor has it that the below guy is purchasing Audio Circle and changing the language to Gungin

[OzarkTom]

After watching the latest Star Wars trailer, does anyone else here believes that Luke has switched over to the dark side?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

[Phil A]

After watching the latest Star Wars trailer, does anyone else here believes that Luke has switched over to the dark side?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

Great observation as they don't show Luke as Luke

[Phil A]

I realize that many of the characters they create are done in part for marketing purposed to sell merchandise.  I guess Jar Jar was created to get a talking model to give to someone that one doesn't like

[Tomy2Tone]

After watching the latest Star Wars trailer, does anyone else here believes that Luke has switched over to the dark side?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

Just curious where you get that from the trailer? The little bit I've read about the new movie depicts Luke as a Jedi Master in his older years much like Obi-Wan and Yoda. But who really knows, could make for an interesting twist if he is turned.

[RDavidson]

After watching the latest Star Wars trailer, does anyone else here believes that Luke has switched over to the dark side?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

It's possible. But why would Luke suddenly build such a crude light saber? He built one before, which his dad admired.

My guess is that Kylo Ren is Darth Vader's very young apprentice, but didn't learn enough before Vader's death.

[Tomy2Tone]

It's possible. But why would Luke suddenly build such a crude light saber? He built one before, which his dad admired.

My guess is that Kylo Ren is Darth Vader's very young apprentice, but didn't learn enough before Vader's death.

I see, just read the latest speculation is Kylo Ren and Luke are one in the same. From the trailers I've seen Kylo appears to be pretty young and agile so unless Luke has figured out the fountain of youth through the force I'm guessing it's somebody else. My impression was Kylo is the offspring of a couple major characters. Everything seems pretty tight lipped so it's anybody's guess.

[OzarkTom]

To grab fans again, Disney needs to put a lot of twists and turns. The director of the last two Star Trek movies did it with that series, now he is the director of this Star War movie. Could this be the end of Hans Solo?

My pick of a best scene would be Jarhead surprising Hans and Hans shoots him dead. I, and others would give the scene a standing ovation and a belly full of laughter.

[BobC]

The worst part of EP I is Jar Jar Binks.  His character makes me feel like I am watching a Barney show.  Without him the movie would have easily gained an extra star or two.

Empire Strikes Back is the best overall episode on a stand alone basis.  I have high New Hopes for the new upcoming EP VII.

+1

The writing and acting in Ep 1-3 was crap.  Jar Jar was really really bad, but the whining punk who played Anakin (Hayben Christensen) made me want to give up.  Hopefully Disney doesnt f it up and launches a good reboot.  Gotta believe it'll be solid.   

[dwk]

Yeah, lots of speculation on the significance of Luke being absent or at least obscured in the trailer. No doubt done deliberately to generate exactly that type of discussion/buzz. I'd be very surprised if they had Luke turn to the Dark Side, but it's not out of the question - IMHO it's a bit too much of 'exactly the same' as with Vader, and after weathering the challenges of Vader/Emperor in ROTJ you'd have to come up with a pretty darn good story around his turning (particularly if you have it occur off screen - opening the revival of the franchise with 'oh, by the way, Luke is now a bad guy' due to some lame reason would put them seriously behind the 8-ball in terms of audience trust)   
 I think the speculation that Kylo Ren is possibly the child of Leia/Han (with Rey also?) that Luke was mentoring is more plausible - a similar but not identical arc that provides a fair number of opportunities and directly engages all the key players. Of course, the idea that Rey/Kylo are siblings would then also basically walk a path we've already seen, so maybe it's 'none of the above'.

[ctviggen]

+1

The writing and acting in Ep 1-3 was crap.  Jar Jar was really really bad, but the whining punk who played Anakin (Hayben Christensen) made me want to give up.  Hopefully Disney doesnt f it up and launches a good reboot.  Gotta believe it'll be solid.   

I think JJ Abrams did a great job with the reboot of the Star Trek series, so I'm hopeful about Star Wars.  I watched Episodes 1 and 2 and thought they were so bad, I never watched Episode 3.  I particularly did not like the over-the-top use of special effects.  Who needs to see 9 million space ships in every shot?  I'm also hopeful they come out with an "original" version of Episodes 4-6. 

[ajzepp]

With the release of 'The Trailer' I guess things are really ramping up on the Star Wars front.  I'm probably rather unique in that I have never watched any of the prequel movies despite being the perfect age for the original Star Wars to be IT for me growing up.

So, my question is whether watching the prequels is likely to be a 'necessary' step if I'm planning to see the new movie. My instinct says I probably should in order to fill in all the background lore etc, even though they are pretty universally reviled. OTOH, the idea of going in blind is somewhat intriguing to see whether the originals hold up as sufficient background.

Whaddaya think?

It's not a "necessary" step, but c'mon man, it's STAR WARS! There are only SIX Star Wars films that exist...of course you want to see 'em! Are they as good as the original trilogy? No, of course not. But as others said, each has elements that make the viewing worthwhile. Episode III was by far the best of the three for me, but I still enjoyed the first two, as well.

It's a no-brainer...it's only 6hr of viewing total...it's STAR WARS FOR CRIPES SAKE!!!!!!

 

[ajzepp]

Could this be the end of Hans Solo?

Is that Han's German cousin or something?

[wushuliu]

With the release of 'The Trailer' I guess things are really ramping up on the Star Wars front.  I'm probably rather unique in that I have never watched any of the prequel movies despite being the perfect age for the original Star Wars to be IT for me growing up.

So, my question is whether watching the prequels is likely to be a 'necessary' step if I'm planning to see the new movie. My instinct says I probably should in order to fill in all the background lore etc, even though they are pretty universally reviled. OTOH, the idea of going in blind is somewhat intriguing to see whether the originals hold up as sufficient background.

Whaddaya think?

Skip the prequels. Seriously you will gain NOTHING by seeing them. They are horrible. JJ Abrams has obviously done everything possible to make the new Star Wars look and feel like the original trilogy, so watching the prequels - which do NOT have the look and feel of the originals - will only highlight their faults even more.

The prequels have multiple scenes that are CRINGE INDUCING. Straight up embarrassing. Whether we are talking Jar Jar, the immaculate conception/midiclorian nonsense, the ridiculous plot centered around 'trade agreements and embargoes', the almost creepy 'romantic' scenes with Padme and Anakin...

and then the worst scene of all. A scene that I think qualifies as one of the worst moments in movie history, a scene that single-handedly destroys the legacy of one of the great movies villains of all time.

'NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!'

People who have seen the prequels know what I'm talking about.

Don't listen to the fans who say yes. They're trying to offer you the spoiled milk by going 'no, smell it!' You will miss absolutely nothing by avoiding the prequels.

[wushuliu]

All I had to see was the choice of Samuel Jackson as a jedi master....  WHAT in the HELL were they thinking???????????  NOT believable in the least....  Much more believable just going with an unknown actor we have never seen before... Much more effective.... I bet Jackson was just dying to say.. "C'mon, feel the motherfing force!"...

That had nothing to do with Jackson who is a phenomenal actor. That had to do with Lucas being a piss poor director. He didn't give the actors any direction. They've talked about this. Almost ALL the performances were awful. Ewan MacGregor fared the best, but he was lucky in that he could focus on channeling Alec Guinness. So Ewan had more to work with than anyone else and it showed. Same with the Emperor. That's a pre-established character played by the same actor, so McDiarmid was able to do a good job as the emperor.

[wushuliu]

After watching the latest Star Wars trailer, does anyone else here believes that Luke has switched over to the dark side?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sGbxmsDFVnE

I think if JJ and Kasdan are going to 'keep it real' so to speak then yeah Luke is going to be a baddie. Classic tragic structure. Son defeats the father only to take his place.

[ajzepp]

the ridiculous plot centered around 'trade agreements and embargoes',

Most people I have talked to about the film completely missed the entire point of the "trade agreements and embargoes". Not necessarily saying you did, as well, but every time I hear this mentioned and I have a conversation about it, it was obvious it went right over their head.

[OzarkTom]

Has anyone else bought their tickets yet? My wife and I will be on vacation in Branson on Christmas Day, so we bought tickets to see it at the Imax that day.