Okay, last mention of Star Wars for a while I promise. All kinds of stuff to cover today though, including a new game, a DVD review, and best of all an Episode III trailer run-down, so let's get right to it. Beware of major spoilers for Revenge of the Sith in this article - turn back now if allergic to such things.
Episode III - The Game
| Anakin makes the most of his last breath of fresh air |
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Today LucasArts released a slither of info and five official screenshots from their upcoming video game adaptation of the final Star Wars flick. Due out in May 2005, two weeks prior to the film's cinema release for some reason, it appears as though you'll intercut between playing Obi-Wan and Anakin throughout the course of the game, right up until their climactic duel at the end. Perhaps in proper Star Wars gaming tradition you'll have to pick dark or light side at which point, and subsequently take control of the relevant character for the final confrontation.
Sadly I can't find any mention of which platform(s) this is all heading for, but screenshots appear low-rez and slightly blocky...so that definitely rules in the PS2! Check 'em all out and the full press release at the official
LucasArts web site, and you can also catch some fleeting footage of the game in action on the recent DVD box set release which I'll be coming to in a minute.
Episode III - The Trailer
Having just watched the teaser trailer for Revenge of the Sith, I have the gut feeling that this flick will be silencing all the haters. Let's be honest, many weren't impressed with The Phantom Menace, and although Attack of the Clones was a distinct upgrade, it wasn't met with the same adulation as the original trilogy.
| You're just asking for dark side mojo with eyes like that |
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As Peter Jackson famously said though, the third film is the very reason you make a trilogy in the first place - that's where the payoff comes. And what a payoff it promises to be, with the inevitable birth of Darth Vader.
One might argue how the hell do you go from the whiney Canadian teenage Anakin we last saw, to ultra bad arse in black Darth Vader, but judging from the small nuggets of footage in this trailer, they've done a very cool job of "darkening" up Anakin since we last saw him. Now sporting Riggs-style mullet and evil facial scar, Anakin almost appears to be turning into Vader before he even
gets to the helmet.
Along those lines we see a cool couple of nice frames from Anakin and Obi-Wan's soon to be legendary fight scene (with Obi-Wan seemingly getting his arse kicked) against a fiery volcano backdrop. Is there any doubt that these lava pools are where Anakin will eventually end up?
Elsewhere we can see epic shots and fly-bys from the opening space battle which apparently kicks off the movie; The Battle of Coruscant. Ships, explosions, you know the drill. It all looks rather marvellous I must say.
| The old man was sick of youngsters always nicking his seat on the bus |
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Then there's the usual faces; Sam Jackson in action stance, Natalie Portman with Leia hair-buns, Yoda being a bad arse, and my fave shot of the whole thing; none other than The Emperor hacking away with a lightsaber...complete with Gollum-style teeth stubs (the Sith must have an anti-toothpaste rule). Oh, there's also a Wookie orgy.
This entire sequence is narrated by Alec Guinness (taken from the first film), and the whole thing really gets you pumped up for what is sure to be the highlight of the prequels.
Personally I dig the prequels myself; despite floppy eared Gungans, dodgy Trade Federation accents, bluescreen-o-rama, Natalie "Can't Act" Portman, galloping in meadows, "Yippee!", "Meesa very scared", "Taken 'dis one!", "How rwude", "What's the mitter, Did?" and all that, I still take Star Wars wherever I can find it. For all the wackness in Episode I and II, there's a heck of a lot of downright fucking
coolness, something often forgotten.
Plus I must say, both films are maturing incredibly well over time. Compared to The Matrix, which if you remember came out the same year as Menace, it looks a heck of a lot more timeless and magical than that now aging and overrated plop. Go compare 'em if you don't believe me.
But yeah, I think it goes without saying, Sith will decimate both before it. The question is, will it match up to the originals though?
Star Wars Trilogy - DVD Box Set Reviewed
| The new transfer is colourful and pristine |
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Which leads us onto this. I've been meaning to get a review up of the original trilogy DVD for the past month now, but have just been so snowed under playing all kinds of games; everything from Halo 2 to the previously reviewed FIFA 2005. After all this is, if you hadn't guessed yet, my fave flick of all-time. With it finally coming out on DVD at last, it only feels right to go into why I love it so.
Star Wars to me, is the ultimate tale of teen angst. Luke's a kid who's sick and tired of doing what his parents (albeit aunt and uncle) tell him, and ultimately takes off to follow his dreams. It's a theme that runs through all of George Lucas' films (with the exception of Howard the Duck...), and a story very personal to him, who similarly took off from his small Californian home town in favour of making movies. You can see it repeated throughout other early films such as American Graffiti, and in a more symbolic sense, THX 1138.
Star Wars takes the teen angst angle further though. Luke's main goal in the saga is to destroy Darth Vader after all - who, it just so happens, turns out to be daddy. Come on, it's just like The Breakfast Club. But with lightsabers.
In all seriousness, the cool thing about Star Wars is no single, easy to pin down trait. It has so many different things going for it, and only together do they all culminate in greatness.
For one, there really wasn't anything as spectacular as this ever seen before it. Sci-fi had been around forever, sure, but nothing had taken it to such a pure, fantastic, yet realistic level before.
Science fiction movies and shows traditionally used easy to spot models hanging from string and the like. It wasn't until Stanley Kubrick's 2001 that all that changed, providing a more three dimensional, realistic world. What Star Wars did was take that idea and really exaggerate it; now space ships could fly in over the screen and shoot real fucking lasers. They could even twist, turn and explode. The important part throughout all this was just how
real it all looked. Right from that first shot of the Imperial super star destroyer, it completely and utterly captivated you. Even by today's standards, that opening shot still amazes, and it's a perfect example of how models will forever dominate CGI in the special effects world.
While it has you on a spectacular level, it then grabs you similarly on an emotional level. Luke is one of the great mythical characters of all time, and watching his coming of age story unfold is never negated or softened by the intergalactic setting around him.
And then there's Han Solo, unquestionably the coolest character in the history of film, with a cockiness and hilarity sadly missing in the prequels. He's the guy that brings the whole thing down to earth and mocks the ridiculousness of it all. For all the dire career choices Harrison Ford has taken over the years, for bringing the world Han Solo he'll forever own a "Get Out of Jail Free" card.
| Luke moments before making a pig squeal |
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But it's not just the characters either. One can't forget the concept of Jedi - a sneaky yet wholly successful way of sliding the idea of religion, or should I say faith, into a kids film, that not only manages to draw their attention, but even make 'em go "Wow!". The Jedi are essentially wizards at the end of the day, no different than Gandalf in Lord of the Rings, but Star Wars gives them a unique quality unlike anything else in any other form of entertainment, and they remain the heart and soul of the entire series as a result.
And let's not forget lightsabers - no one could ever argue against them being the coolest damn invention of mankind ever, real or not.
But then it's also the ships...that sound the TIE Fighters make when they come roaring past the screen. And the aliens, like the sneaky little Jawas running around the desert in their shat coloured robes. Or the locations, each one even more stunning and otherworldly than the last. And indeed the music, completely going against everything you'd ever expect to hear in a science fiction film and becoming one of the most hum-able of all time.
Couple all these things with arguably the best villains
ever, both Vader and The Emperor, and everything just slots together perfectly. These are just a few of the millions of endless reasons why Star Wars just flat out rocks. Growing up seeing all these things as an impressionable kid like so many, is it any wonder it stuck with me so vividly?
| The Star Wars take on beating your kids |
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As for my favourite of the three films, I can honestly say I don't really have one. Or rather, it changes day to day.
Sometimes I like to whack on A New Hope - such an innocent, carefree film full of laughs and splendour. Or on a bad day I'll reach for Empire Strikes Back, evil and sinister as it is, punishing the heroes we know and love and proving that evil can indeed triumph, even in a galaxy far, far away. Man it scared the crap out of me as a kid. More often than not though, it's Return of the Jedi that I come back to - a horribly underrated flick let down by its abundance of muppets, which it more than makes up for in every other area. In fact, the subplot in Jabba's Palace, and the Death Star showdown at the end are without doubt the coolest damn moments of the entire saga for me.
If I had to pick a favourite though, in terms of pure film making genius I think you have to hand it to Empire. In a time where The Lord of the Rings trilogy is in danger of overtaking Star Wars as the new king of fantasy/sci-fi film making, I think Empire is the single Star Wars film that can easily stand up to any of the Lord of the Rings movies and hold its own. In terms of spectacle, character development, acting and pure emotion, it reigns supreme. It's a heck of a movie, and it doesn't need three hours of screen time to pull it off either.
What About the Fucking DVDs?
Something you really can't appreciate until you see them in motion, is just how sparkling these discs look. The new clean-up restoration job done to all three films is so utterly flawless in fact, that they can happily be passed off as recent films. Without doubt, this is the best they've ever looked...and with so many damn re-releases over the years, that says a lot.
The one area where the visual quality sways somewhat is in the occasional lightsaber special effects shot. Some are a little blurry and some are off-colour, particularly in Return of the Jedi, and on first viewing it's a little distracting. This is disappointing considering how much I love that final saber battle.
The soundtrack has been remixed into Dolby 5.1 EX, technology that obviously never existed back in '77 when the series began, but it certainly benefits from the upgrade here. Many have complained about the occasional poor quality that crops up here and there on some of the dialogue, but this is merely down to the age of the original recordings - the fact that you can pick out such minor annoyances says an awful lot about the sheer fidelity of this sound mix. Sound is such a mammoth part of the series; everything from the laser blasts and the lightsaber hums to John Williams' epic score, and this disc certainly does the whole lot justice.
| Cartman finally landed his Star Wars cameo |
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One area where I could certainly be more critical however, is with the new "improvements" made to the actual films. These changes span all three flicks and range in quality. The upgraded digital Jabba in A New Hope is a definite improvement over the bastardised version seen in the '97 Special Edition, but it's still not perfect - Han almost appears to walk through it at one point. The infamous "Greedo shooting first" sequence has also been smoothed out a little too.
Then there's the New Zealand accent given to Boba Fett in Empire Strikes Back, in theory a nice update as it ties in with how we heard him in Attack of the Clones as a kid, but the delivery is somewhat off.
The same can be said for the largest of the new additions, this time in Return of the Jedi; after defeating Vader at the end, the three Jedi ghosts that visit Luke in the final scene now include young Anakin from the prequels instead of the aging Anakin it used to be. It's a reasonable concept when you consider this is how he looked when he in fact "died" and turned into Vader, but again the execution is poor, with Hayden Christenson looking off in a different direction to his Jedi buddies, and thus looking very out of place.
Whether these alterations bother you, which add up to no more than a minute out of a six hour long trilogy, depends entirely upon what kind of person you are at the end of the day. Personally I couldn't give a fuck to be honest, and I use it a good tool to gauge who is a mere Star Wars fan, and who is a downright obsessive that needs to get out more.
All in all, although not perfect, this is my favourite release of the flicks so far.
Special Features
| In this new edition all blasters were digitally replaced with clapper boards |
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Moving onto the fourth disc in the set, we find some meaty bonus material. Headlining the lot is the Empire of Dreams documentary, an absolutely essential watch for Star Wars fans and general film fans alike. The two and a half hour long documentary charts the life of George Lucas growing up, how he started writing Star Wars, and thus how he managed to turn it into a film. From there it turns into a more traditional, yet just as captivating "making of" documentary for each film in turn, including the endless tussles and problems he had with Fox in just getting the first one released. I never knew how close Star Wars came to never even seeing the light of day in fact, and it's a strange idea to imagine the world of cinema without it.
The documentary includes interviews with pretty much every single major player involved in the trilogy, ranging from Lucas himself to the main stars (including Harrison "Fuck Star Wars" Ford oddly enough). All in all it's a fascinating watch and worth the price of the set alone.
Elsewhere we get smaller featurettes titled The Birth of the Lightsaber, The Characters of Star Wars and The Legacy of Star Wars. All do exactly what they say on the tin, fun for a quick watch but nothing worthy of endless viewings. The latter is perhaps the most interesting though, with notable modern film directors (including Peter Jackson) popping up with their own take on how Star Wars influenced them, and in many cases, actually spurred them on to start making films in the first place.
| Now that's just fucking sweet |
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Arguably best of all though is the tiny yet pivotal Return of Darth Vader segment. In it we get a small glimpse at the upcoming movie, shots from the duel, and of course, the helmet itself. A great accompaniment to today's teaser trailer.
We also get the usual assortment of behind the scenes trailers, photos and posters, of which the trailers are the most interesting (if only to see how horribly poor the first one was without John William's score to back it up).
Perhaps most interesting to you lot though, are the numerous video game features. The best of which is the Star Wars Battlefront Xbox demo, a lovely little online blaster which I've spoken about endlessly before. Accompanying it is a mini-featurette on the previously mentioned Episode III game. With behind the scenes footage of Hayden Christensen and stunt coordinator from the prequels Nick Gillard helping out on the game's creation, it certainly bodes well for the final product, but the small hints of footage to be found here aren't enough to get excited about just yet.
It's worth noting that there's also three audio commentaries for the films themselves, but with the exception of Empire Strikes Back, they're surprisingly dull, covering stuff many long-time fans have probably heard before, and often with a distinct lack of enthusiasm. Empire fairs better thanks to the inclusion of director Irvin Kershner, who is so hyper he sounds as if he's been snorting sugar prior to recording, and makes it something of a riot to listen to.
Never the less, there you have it - the most popular film trilogy on the greatest format of all time. If you still need convincing, I give up.