Eplicon

I always brought this point up to other people and they were like "Oh come on! Dont be a nit picker!". However, it REALLY does seem to hurt the belieability of such a scene. I mean WTF would he even need to sit down in the first place for? I dont think ghosts' legs need a rest. Of course, the fan boy response would be that Star Wars doesn't take place in our universe, so the laws of physics/science/whatever doesn't apply. And secondly, the Force allows the Jedi, living or dead, to do some amazing stuff. :roll:

I figure one of the last lines spoken will be something the a lines of "a new hope," thus tying up the six films. One theme I would really like to hear, but is hardly used, is the "B" theme. It was used quite a bit (but dialed out) for the Hoth scenes, and last appeared when we see Wedge lead the attack in ROTJ. So the twin Tatooine suns are supposed to be symbolic of the twins; I can just picture the twins being held up to the sky at the suns to symbolize this so-called new hope. But that image has been done before. (The mini-series "Roots" come to mind.)

I believe two of the rumored scenes for Palpy in Star Wars is where he dissolves the senate and the other is where he personally chooses Alderaan as a test for the Death Star's power. The idea of the latter seems obvious: it's just not Leia's homeworld, but where Bail Organa is. I am guessing Bail is going to play a more important part in Episode III, in which he is the most vocal opponent againt Palpatine (first before Palpy shows his true colors, and even more so after). Bail is also one of the key founding members of the Rebel Alliance. So you figure before Alderaan gets blasted to smithereens, we'll be seeing the Death Star from his POV, and physically see some of those "millions of voices" Obi-Wan speaks of. That'd be cool, right? Right?

The Tarzan yelp, whether or not it fitted, was Lucas' homage to Edgar Rice Burroughs -- an author who, among others, was influential to him in the characters and adventures we enjoy today. I would've preferred a Samurai yell instead of Tarzan's.

I wish ROTJ could have captured Anakin's deathbed reflections, which was so eloquently described in the novelization. But then if it had been filmed that way, it probably would've amounted to nothing more than the Luke and Anakin staring at each other for a very long time. Maybe Lucas'll insert flashback scenes in Anakin's final moments. But then it would be more like Michael Corleone's death scene in Godfather Part III. Been there, done that. I am almost wary that the DVD will have a Jedi family reunion at the end, during the Ewo-- er, galaxy celebration. Vader wasn't as menacing as he was the first two films, although I take that to be a slight sentimental weakness he had towards Luke. While Kasdan might have contributed to the screenplay, it was nowhere near the brilliance of its predecessor. I think Lucas fixed it up so it was the way he wanted it. And Lucas hired new guys that would bow to him, hence his falling out with Gary Kurtz after TESB. While ROTJ was supposedly a springboard to give you a backstory to the prequels -- of Anakin's rise and fall -- I've been quite disappointed thus far. Long before the prequels were in the works, I had pictured Anakin as one of the most respected and revered Jedi of his day, not someone who's always pissing and moaning....

Revill was only the Emperor in voice. The Emperor in TESB was an old woman in make-up, with the eyes or eye sockets of some primate superimposed on the face. Lucas has become all-too-powerful like the character he's created. No one is willing to say "no" to him and everyone who says "yes" to him are like the sycophants seen in ROTJ (i.e., Rick McCallum).

Funny, I hadn't really noticed those sounds before. (I guess was I paying too intently to the music to care.) I wonder if it's minor digital glitches? IIRC, this was the first Williams album to take advantage of the CD format? Wasn't it his first album to be released on CD, not counting the "port overs" from already existing albums?

For a time, when TPM came out, I thought it was an improvement of ROTJ. But now comparing the first two prequels to the classic trilogy, I no longer have the same sentiment. The Ewoks are the lesser of the two evils in juxtaposition to the Gun-Guns. As for the Ewoks, I know they were supposed to be analogous to the Vietnamese people from the war; they lived more "primitively" and had far lesser weapons technology. And they still won the war. I would have preferred Lucas' original idea of using Wookiees, but I think Lucas said something about since Chewbacca was so sophisticated with his weapons know-how and being a part of the Alliance, it would have had the same impact if ROTJ featured all Wookiees. (Guess he decided to revive that idea for Episode III.) I don't know what'd improvements I implement. The Tatooine sequences weren't that great, nor was the stuff on Endor. There was not enough insight about Anakin/Vader, save for a few fragmentary lines given by Obi-Wan. While everyone pretty knew much the back story, it was hardly covered in the movie. Yeah, I know that a lot of this material was shot, but ended being cut, for running time, and Lucas probably deciding he wanted to change stuff down the road. Which he did. It only the last forty minutes of the movie when it was an all-out Star Wars film.

Studio noise? Williams has always stated this cue was a very difficult challenge to write and record. He mentions that on the Indy DVD supplement, but when you actually see what he's referring to (as he demonstrated last year in that Washington DC concert), you get a much better appreciation of what goes into it. I believe he did as Korngold did, and that was to have the orchestra pick up pace if they were falling behind on their "synch" points.

Grrrrr on Lucas making even MORE unncessary changes! Unnecessary as in he will never ever ever allow his "original" vision see the light of day ever again. Not that it comes as any surprise, mind you, because it was a given that once Episode III was complete, he was going to go back and "fix" more things so that everything gets rounded off together more neatly. What's next, replacing Anakin in ROTJ? (I know it was just a rumor not too long ago, but who knows?) I always liked the Emperor in TESB; I found him a more menacing presence than what we later got in ROTJ. I just can't picture Palpy without Clive Revill's voice. Of the link, I forgot to take into consideration that not everyone might have QuickTime installed, as standalone or a plug-in for their respective browser. (I have both, so everything always works for me. )

I've posted this a couple times before, but this is the direct link: http://starwars.apple.com/ep2/dvd/ep2_music_m320.mov

The contents of the commercial release of the album wasn't even Horner's idea. Ron Howard and Brian Grazer thought it would be fun to recreate the movie experience on CD. It didn't do much good.

At least Indiana Jones had the most satisfying "part three" of its trilogy. The rapport between Indy & his dad was much better than Luke & his dad, too.

The sound documentary on the Episode II DVD was an absolute waste of time. THAT should have been the web exclusive instead of the Williams featurette. I appreciate the work of foley artists to an extent; they have to "score" and time the stuff like the music and give it the right texture and ambiance. But for the most part, foley just isn't very interesting. Kissing sounds are among the worst added sound effect for movies these days -- it sounds highly unnatural and sounds more like people sucking peaches. In the documentary, you see a couple of ugly women kissing the webbing between their thumb and index finger for the effect. If they really wanted to realistically recreate kissing sounds, they should have kissed each other, not themselves.

Ben Burtt's commentary for Episodes I & II were quite bland. I really thought he was clapping himself too much on the back (Lucas was no better!), including the unnecessary part where he says about how great and how proud he was of a particular sound because he son had recorded it. I didn't care for the name-dropping bit. Burtt should go back to the sound department as he editing thus far has a lot left to be desired. The last thing Star Wars needs is family getting involved. We have Lucas and son for the creation for Jar-Jar Binks, y'know.

Batman Returns is dynamically richer and more complex in orchestration than its predecessor, but it's not one of his scores I listen to all the frequently. And it does utilize the leitmotif a bit more, too. His theme for Catwoman is quite good. One nitpick about the album is that individual cyes are spread over two tracks several times. I also remember how disappointed I was with the revamped main title theme when I saw the movie. He only quotes his Batman Theme for a bit before it dissolves alway totally into a rather low key flourish.

Jack Black....Jack Black.... Nope, can't say I picture him in the movie. He's one of my least favorite actors next to Adam Sandler. Black's presence in every movie he's been in has been grating, obnoxious, irritating, and whatever other bad adjective there is. I didn't mind him that much in Enemy of the State, but everything from High Fidelity onward has made decide never to see any movie he appears in.

Patrick Doyle, who has worked with both Newell and Cuaron, is a big name composer. If Williams is unable to do it for whatever reason, Doyle would do a respectable job. He can do grand orchestral music. Horner: He would be too cliched -- nothing new other than paraphrasing himself and others. Elfman: He can do fantasy, but he's enjoying using his sound library too much with the scores he writes, and it wouldn't fit in the HP films. Young: Haven't warmed up to his style. Serra: After Goldeneye, I felt he shouldn't have been allowed to score another movie ever again. Edward Shermur: Haven't heard enough of his material to get a good enough impression. Mark Mothersbaugh hasn't done much to impress me...yet.

I always thought Vader was merely trying to manipulate Luke, tempting him with power but also appealing to Luke's "good side" by saying that Luke could "end this destructive conflict" if he gave in. The Emperor clearly has something over Vader. Remember when Luke slipped by Vader and got to Endor, the Emperor commented that it was strange that Vader sensed and Luke and yet he himself could not. Vader is probably scared of the Emperor like everyone else. That's pretty much correct. The Sith order is very unstable; it's always full of double-crossing and back dealing. Why share the glory and power with someone else when you can have it all to yourself? Of course Vader would love nothing more than to rule the galaxy with Luke at his side. But what's he going to do, tell that to Luke's face in Palpatine's presence? He'd be fried to ashes before all is said and done. In fact, Palpatine used this psychology on Vader to Luke: "Now, fulfill your destiny and take your father's place at my side!" Vader was quite afraid of the more powerful Emperor, and an easy pawn to deal with. Even Dooku (a.k.a. Darth Tyrannus) pulled the same mind games on Obi-Wan. Get rid of the other guy and find a younger, stronger, more impressionable apprentice to be your partner in crime.

Sony is professional? Have you listened to the "Ultimate Edition" of The Phantom Menace lately? What an insult to FSM and Varese. Neil Problem is, due to a poor choice of words on the fans who asked Sony for a deluxe release of TPM, they mistook it that everyone wanted the full score as heard in the film, not as Williams had written it. So all we have for now is nothing more than an "isolated score" CD. It'll probably have to do until an expanded album comes out. Still, if it has merit, it can be used as an A/B comparison on how scores have to be modified/butchered for the final product. But there's nothing to compare it with at the moment. (The original single disc doesn't count for obvious reasons.)

I inevitably do it most of the time. While I'm analyzing a particular scene, I'm focusing on the music and what the cues are doing in conjunction to the scene. And I look out for musical red herrings. It's the kind that builds suspense to make you think something bad is going to happen, but it doesn't. Yet when there's no music, that's when you know the sudden scare is going to creep up.

Elfman used to do straightforward symphonic scores, but it has been noticeably absent since he seems to enjoy performing the score (via his synths/samples/etc.) with the orchestra. He said on one of those behind-the-scenes things (Planet of the Apes?) that with his music, it was typically 60% orchestra and 40% him, but on POTA, it was the opposite. As much as I like Elfman, lately his main themes the past several years seem nearly interchangeable. My favorite Elfman score is probably Batman, although admittedly when the film came out, it took me awhile to warm up to him. When he was interviewed for Starlog in 1989, he mentioned how he hummed the music into a tape recorder, and I thought, what kind of a composer is that? It was really a poor choice of words on his part because many people, including me, thought he'd, for example, hum the melodies, and the rest of the material was orchestrated (i.e., the orchestrator would "fill in the blanks"). Elfman had to almost always defend himself on that, citing that despite his lack of formal training, he wrote everything himself, and it wasn't created by a musical assembly line.

Scorewise, it's Williams Lite, in the Mancini mold. And parts of it resemble his later score to Sabrina. Neil's right about the legal loophole. It may be OK to sell in Europe (it even has that odd copyright notice on it concerning the ownership of "rights"!). But anywhere else (particularly the U.S.!), it's considered a bootleg, and all the money goes right to Tsunami. At least they had the common sense to use good semi-decent tapes to master the CD, but other than that.... Sooner or later this album will see a legit release....but its appeal will rather be limited.

I'm not sure if Anakin actually gets the full lava bath, but that he probably gets into close contact of the stuff enough to burn him up quite badly. And Obi-Wan supposedly doesn't just leave him for dead. There's at least one indication that Obi-Wan, being the good guy that he is, uses the Force to pull Anakin to safety, just when Palpatine and his minions arrive. Lucas has said two different versions of this, however. One time he says Obi-Wan battles Anakin to the finish and thinks he's gone. Another time he says Obi-Wan saved Anakin's life so that when Anakin's offpsring came of age, the children would redeem their father. The latter of the more recent of the two, of course. He always claiming such and such was always his "original vision" all along, but to me, that's just b.s. -- it's after the fact and his revisionist history at play. When Return of the Jedi was released, I don't remember him saying, "Oh by the way, my trilogy still isn't done. I'm gonna make more changes soon with improved special f/x." At the time, Lucas was taking a haitus from Star Wars, and for the longest time, it seemed like we would not have another SW film. I seem to recall it was Jurassic Park that sparked something in him, realizing how far technology had advanced what it could do for movies. It's no small coincidence (that and the 20th anniversary of Star Wars was approaching) that he decided to make changes., although not always necessarily for the better

Everything sounds good on paper. But so did Episode II. I still have hopes that Episode III is very dark (which it's supposed to be) and tragic. But it's so hard to feel for the characters since Lucas did such a shoddy job at utilizing them, making them lack any depth so we'd empathize with them in one way or another. I was not pleased with Anakin's development in Episode II; it was just too shallow. I had always envisioned Anakin as one of finest and respected Jedi of his day, but no, all we got was someone pissing and moaning the whole time. He didn't do any cool Jedi stuff.