Fan Commentary Needed for book on Revenge of the Sith!

Hey all, I would really like your input and help here!

I'm collecting fan commentary for my sequel to Anticipation: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (2005, iUniverse), which is tentiatvely titled Revenge: The Real Life Story of Star Wars: Episode III -- Revenge of the Sith. With the questions I am posting below, it is almost certain that you will not be able to answer all of them or even close to all of them. So while it may look like a long list, it probably won't take you very long to answer the questions that apply to you.

Furthermore, I want to stress that any answers help! If you don't like a question, or don't feel like answering it, then you don't have to. If you only answer one question, that could still help me, and you could still be quoted in my book. The more questions you answer, and the more intelligent your responses, of course the more likelihood you will be quoted in the book. Also, please use complete sentences, I can't stress this enough. If you use bad grammar and Internet lingo I cannot use the responses.

The only other requirement is I need a first name, last name, and at least a state, so for instance if I were going to respond I would write at the top of my post, "Jonathan Bowen, from Portland, OR" or at least "Jonathan Bowen from Oregon." I can't just write, "JoeBlow7583 from some forum online said that Revenge of the Sith sucked because it didn't have more Jar Jar in it." You get the idea.

If for some reason you are uncomfortable with your full name being on the site, you are free to e-mail me your responses and not post them here! My e-mail address is jonathan@orbitalreviews.com, and just put a subject like "Star Wars questions" or "ROTS questions" or something like that to alert me to it.

So without further ado...


Marketing and Promotion:

-What was your overall impression of the number of product tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith?

-Do you think there was too little, too much, or just enough marketing for Revenge of the Sith?

-How would you describe the marketing tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith? Effective? Classy? Tasteless? Overbearing?

-Did you think the tie-ins for the last prequel helped the movie overall or hurt it? How come?


Fan Enthusiasm:

-Did you skip work or school to see Revenge of the Sith opening day? If so, what was your reasoning behind it and what did you tell your boss / school?


Epic Lineups:

-Did you lineup for at least 12 hours in advance of Revenge of the Sith?s first midnight showing?

-What do you like about lining up early for a Star Wars movie?

-Any stories about your lineup experience you want to share?


Star Wars Celebration III:

-What did you think about the Celebration III store? Or rather, what went wrong?

-How long did you wait in line for the store? Did the ?Fast Path? system that event organizers tried to implement work at all?

-While waiting in line, did you have any good conversations with other fans? Was there a good sense of camaraderie despite the long waits?

The below questions only apply to people who waited in line for the Lucas question-and-answer sessions:
-What time did you start lining up roughly?

-How many other people were in line at the time?

-Can you describe the organization of the lineup a bit? Where were people waiting, were there problems lining up, lineup confusions, etc.?

-How was the weather and were you prepared for it? Did it seem like other fans were wearing proper attire for the weather conditions?

-Do you have any stories about the lineup, like for instance problems between fans in line, issues with the organization of lineups, the cold, or anything else amusing that comes to mind? Feel free to share as much as you want.

-Ultimately, was the lineup worthwhile for you? Was seeing Lucas and hearing him speak worth the effort of lining up in the cold?


Charity Screenings:

-What city?s charity event did you attend?

-How come you chose to see the movie at a charity event? Was it

 

Marketing and Promotion:

-What was your overall impression of the number of product tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith?

I thought there was a decent amount. I know there must have been more stuff released for TPM than they could have ever hoped to have sold in the end, but as a fan I loved the way that whole summer was just taken over by Star Wars tie ins. Taco Bell KFC and Pizza Hutt with their cup promotion, various snack and soft drinks with special Star Wars packaging, Every time I stepped out of my house it was like Star Wars was just everywhere.


-Do you think there was too little, too much, or just enough marketing for Revenge of the Sith?

I don't know, as a die hard fan who logged onto places like this on a daily basis, it's not like I didn't know when the movie would come out. But on the other hand, I love the ads they come up with for these movies. I think they did good, but I don't think I would have ever had "too much".


-How would you describe the marketing tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith? Effective? Classy? Tasteless? Overbearing?

I thought there was a decent amount of diversity, and like I sort of said before, I don't think they could have overdone it for my tastes. As long as they have the sensible stuff as a priority, I think it's really interesting to get some of the really weird things too.


-Did you think the tie-ins for the last prequel helped the movie overall or hurt it? How come?

I don't think the tie-ins or marketing really had much impact on the final box office in the end. Nobody was going to miss this one. But I do think that the trailers with the nostalgia helped coax some of the fans who didn't think TPM or AOTC was badass enough. They sort of told us that the thing we were hoping to get in the first two movies was finally coming in this last one. You know here is where the "Sith" hits the fan so to speak. To me the most effective example of this was the nostalgia trailer, where they used the bit from ANH where Ben tells Luke about what happened to his father. It really made the point that this was the realization of that hut scene recollection from ANH.


Fan Enthusiasm:


-Did you skip work or school to see Revenge of the Sith opening day? If so, what was your reasoning behind it and what did you tell your boss / school?

I took that day and the rest of that week off. Everyone at work knows how much I love SW, so it was no surprise to them.


Epic Lineups:

-Did you lineup for at least 12 hours in advance of Revenge of the Sith?s first midnight showing?

Yes, if I remember correctly, we started lining up at the theater around 8 or 9 in the morning, and didn't see the movie until midnight.


-What do you like about lining up early for a Star Wars movie?

Talking to other Star Wars fans and getting excited for the last installment of the SW saga.


-Any stories about your lineup experience you want to share?

There was this awesome guy with a Jar-Jar mask who was running around with a sign that says "Stop The Hate". Also I was amazed with all the really hot chicks who were lining up just as early as the guys.


Star Wars Celebration III:

-What did you think about the Celebration III store? Or rather, what went wrong?

I think the problem was there are just so many attendees. I don't think there was a good way to make that a lot easier than it was. The only thing I could think of to help out would be to find a way to take care of each person in a timelier manner, but on the other hand, temp help will only care so much. Maybe have a cash only rule for most registers, maybe have some commonly bought things ready to go (like have bags with the store limit of figures so they just hand over a bag when someone wants that in stead of having to fill a bag with the limit after they have been requested. I don't know it's hard to manage crowds that big.


-How long did you wait in line for the store? Did the ?Fast Path? system that event organizers tried to implement work at all?

 

I'm going to email you my responses.

 

I will give responses to all the categories i am elligable to answer

TPM was so over-saturated that LFL was frightened to do anything for AOTC, so there was almost no merchandising hype for that film. With ROTS, they reached a decent middle-ground--it was hyped up as you would expect a summer blockbuster to be, but not unreasonably so. I think Lucasfilm really milked the Darth Vader imagry for the film, however--people don't respond well to PT imagry but they love the OT stuff so they used Vader's iconic image as much as possible, which i thought was very misleading seeing as he has about two minutes of screentime.

I saw it digitally to see if they had improved on the technology at all. While it certainly had, i still didn't like the way it looked--though this is very difficult to judge since ROTS originates on digital tape, and i think my main problem is that the film is shot on horrible HD instead of 35mm film. I am sure that the film looks truer to its original form when projected digitally--and i think thats the problem. A 35mm print gave it a more organic rendition and the naturally-soft edges of film made things look more natural and hid some of the CG seams--digital projection i felt had a clearer image but this was part of the problem. I suppose it boils down to the fact that i think HD, at least at present time, is an abomination to the organic beauty of celluloid film.

I much prefer the OT. I used to love the PT, and while i still like it to a degree, as more time has gone on i realise how average the films are. I have noticed that this distancing is beginning to be common amongst fans. My reasons are the same as many others--it was exciting and fun to have new Star Wars films, and that excitement was infectious. Certainly that doesn't mean that the films are bad--they are decent enough--but they are not memorable or of even comparable quality with the OT. I suppose this is to be expected--sequels usually are lousey, and ROTJ still strikes as an equally dissapointing film as any of the prequels. The prequels simply lacked compelling characters and a thrilling plot. I never cared for Anakin or Padme--Obi Wan was always fun to watch because of McGregors fine performance, and this character harkens back to the OT the most so its no surpise: he is a swashbuckling, witty hero. On top of that the writing and characterisation of everyone else was horrible--i know the OT doesn't exactly have David Mamet dialog but the scripts for the prequels are bad. In fact AOTC has the worst script in any blockbuster i have seen since Battlefield Earth, even if it has some very sophisticated and interesting concepts in it (the same as Battlefield Earth does, just to be fair).

They made mo

 

Hey thanks for the responses so far guys, these are great! I can definitely use a lot of this, you guys are a huge help.

Any more commentary is very much welcome, especially Celebration III stuff. If you know anyone who went, get them to fill out that section -- they'll probably make it into the final book because overall (from other fan commentaries on forums) I have almost no stuff on CIII. Gomer, you're a life-saver.

 

Celebration III was awesome. Me and a guy I work with both drove out to Indianapolis from the Chicago area and the whole time was just a blast.

My favorite things about the convention has to be getting to see all the fans in various costumes. I went to Celebration II and there were quite a few costumers, but for Celebration III, it was like all the people who regretted not dressing up overcame their fears to let their Star Wars geek flags fly even higher.

I don't have a costume so I made do with SW T-shirts, but I applaud all the people who did dress up especially all the beautiful ladies who dressed up like Slave Leia, and "ripped shirt" Padme. I would especially like to single out Christy Marie, who I felt won Celebration III. There were a lot of hot women dressing up in the metal bikini, but she just had this amazing, beaming smile to go with it that you just had to get a picture of.

[image=http://www.leiasmetalbikini.com/Profile_ChristyMarie_pic1.jpg] [image=http://www.danzfamily.com/archives/blogphotos/starwars/star_wars04.jpg] [image=http://www.leiasmetalbikini.com/Profile_ChristyMarie_pic3.jpg] [image=http://www.leiasmetalbikini.com/Profile_ChristyMarie_pic5.jpg]

She was hanging out with this great Han Solo costumer and they would pose for fans the whole time.

There were lines for everything, and one thing we learned from Celebration II was we had to stagger our expectations, figuring in line time so we could set realistic goals and ensure we saw the most important things. We weren't there for signatures; we just wanted to do a lot of the Q&A sessions.

The best part was the Rick McCallum spectacular, were we got to see footage from ROTS. What's great is there was a handy cam video that went around the net of the particular showing I was in, and you can distinctly hear me going "Oh No" when they show the shot of Sidious electrifying Yoda across the room, into the wall and onto the floor.

I had tickets to both the official "Celebration at Celebration" party, and the 501'st party, and again it's just so awesome to party with so many people who love Star Wars.

[image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pe4a427f338c7d2df925d8969d5b76430/f44e454b.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pcbddcabeb079947d71e34d2c7b378ae5/f44e4500.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p6872c372bc957c61407d0813ea8f7085/f44e44d1.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pe2d2f48934cf4209e28fb73b66f34191/f44e440e.jpg]

 

[image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p7f5d8ebe81863f860f76ea76f4e54e8e/f44e4457.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p584a7cc0a9adb749938643407ef36753/f44e4376.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pbbf3ce290e6aa10963c9277e9736f167/f44e4367.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pa625b169ce4ed8151a64f22289950eb6/f44e4338.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p25d431cbb4f023ca85a525fb91981344/f44e465d.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pac36ce951661b09746c0f7fcca93fe29/f44e45f3.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p243ffce3d7842cd1236748f73531aa8b/f44e45c5.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p0ef248721637a44aad0dfd45b107d09e/f44e4565.jpg]

At the 501st party, there were a lot of celebrity guests like Peter Mayhew (Chewbacca), Jeremy Bulloch (Boba Fett), Rena Owen (Taun We), Jerome Blake (Rune Hakko), Michael Sheard (Admiral Ozzel), Timmothy Zahn (EU Author), Richard Le Parmentier (Admiral Motti), Steve Sansweet (Head of fan relations), not to mention all the great fans in costumes from "Lucas Trooper" to "Captain Chaos" (from Cannonball Run). They had an area set up where they were showing various fan films.

At the Celebration at Celebration party, there weren't too many notable celebrities attending that I noticed, but they had a really cool "carnival" theme with ring toss and stuff like that.

[image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pa8d7b7fbd510bae02d8fd490e9c7094c/f44e40f8.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p992ed073dfd4e4b08736ef29a34318cd/f44e40df.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p4df0e99e0fb827e7229b3d6db945c14e/f44e40cd.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p7a4a0e052cb3cf5b8f1b8146d4c7166f/f44e4057.jpg]

Again the sheer number of beautiful women dressing up as Leia and or Padme was just mind-boggling. They started out with a Jazz Band playing jazzy versions of Star Wars songs, and of course the cantina music. Then later on they had this band called "Pallet", who played this head banging song called "Death Star", and that sort of kicked things up a notch.

[image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pb51058a0ec9ce2eac1e004b5b3b8ea61/f44e40a0.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pc7e555db67cb06648633afdccfaea430/f44e408b.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p055197bf71816ffb64877f4582966d46/f44e403a.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p018d3bac483baf094d92ea4649470852/f44e4022.jpg]
[image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p158d74a1c778ff22f1c1979346fcc226/f44e3fb1.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pff0c3be6465d1d5723d76d5eeca8960a/f44e3f93.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/pae67452c92686f57837443e70294cff8/f44e3f40.jpg] [image=http://www.imagestation.com/picture/sraid166/p232d6a0d1c9ff0d9933c1f5770bf3f9c/f44e3f1d.jpg]

(I tried to do this in one post, but the board couldn't handle it)

 

Nice, that's awesome. Yeah I was at CIII and had a blast too, went with my mom, that will always be a fond memory for me. Christy Marie is so hot, that's why everyone was obsessed, lol. I got my picture with her too, she is absolutely gorgeous, and she was really nice too. Man oh man that costume was killer, she was like 20,000 Star Wars nerds' dream girl.

This is my sideways picture of Christy and I, hehe: http://orbitalreviews.com/pictures/SlaveLeia2.JPG

 

She seemed to thrive on the attention. It's one thing to be really hot, but to also be so accomodating to a bunch of SW fans was just way above and beyond the call of duty. I wonder if she even got to do any of the events, it seemed like she was always posing for pics. Always with that bright smile.

 

Yeah her smile is great, she was actually very nice. Somehow she loves attention from all kinds of drooling Star Wars geeks

My favorite part of the autograph area was how the longest lines were almost always for Amy Allen, who has all of like 8 seconds in Revenge of the Sith, haha. But it was a Star Wars Celebration, and there were A LOT of guys, and Amy Allen is incredibly hot, so of course her line was always long. Never underestimate the power of a hot girl in the midst of a bunch of sci-fi geeks

 

Marketing and Promotion:

-What was your overall impression of the number of product tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith?
It was merely adequate. I was much happier with the tie-ins for The Phantom Menace. In addition, Star Wars products are aimed mainly to boys and men, having very few things for girls and virtually nothing for women. They are missing out on a large segment that would love to buy Star Wars-themed items but are unavailable.

-Do you think there was too little, too much, or just enough marketing for Revenge of the Sith?
I thought there was just enough marketing on ROTS.

-How would you describe the marketing tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith? Effective? Classy? Tasteless? Overbearing?
It was too much of Vader and not enough of Obi-Wan and Anakin ? which was more than half the movie. Even in the calendars, I couldn't find Anakin smiling at all. I think they wanted to go for dark and angsty but there was some light-hearted portions to the movie and they should have used that more. What they did have was nicely-done.

-Did you think the tie-ins for the last prequel helped the movie overall or hurt it? How come?
I think the over-emphasis on The Phantom Menace tie-ins really killed any effort on marketing for the other Prequels. There was a lot of merchandise left from TPM and the dealers weren't happy about it.

Fan Enthusiasm:

-Did you skip work or school to see Revenge of the Sith opening day? If so, what was your reasoning behind it and what did you tell your boss / school?
I went to the midnight showing and took a vacation day the next day to sleep and see it again. I told my boss that it was the last Star Wars and I wanted to be part of the opening night. They already knew I was a SW fan.

Epic Lineups:

-Did you lineup for at least 12 hours in advance of Revenge of the Sith?s first midnight showing?
No. I did buy the tickets as soon as they were available, though.

-What do you like about lining up early for a Star Wars movie? N/A

-Any stories about your lineup experience you want to share? N/A


Star Wars Celebration III:

-What did you think about the Celebration III store? Or rather, what went wrong?
I didn't go to CIII store because I'd had such a bad experience with CII. They had run out of things and people were buying multiples so that some of us never got a chance to buy one of the special items. At least with CIII, you could buy some of the tshirts online afterwards. That's how I got my CIII shirts.

-How long did you wait in line for the store? Did the ?Fast Path? system that event organizers tried to implement work at all? N/A

-While waiting in line, did you have any good conversations with other fans? Was there a good sense of camaraderie despite the long waits?
I loved the lines. Where else could you be around 30000 other fans and talk Star Wars non-stop? Even waiting for shows to start, you could get into a philosophical discussion or talk about costuming or fan films or fan fiction. It was great.

The below questions only apply to people who waited in line for the Lucas question-and-answer sessions:
-What time did you start lining up roughly?
5AM. I looked out my window and realized that the line wasn't as long as I thought so I rushed down to get into it.

-How many other people were in line at the time?
A lot. But I think a lot more were scared off by the idea that they could wait in line and not get in.

-Can you describe the organization of the lineup a bit? Where were people waiting, were there problems lining up, lineup confusions, etc.?
I thought the lineup worked somewhat. They gave us wrist-bands as soon as we got into the building. I did wish that I had known that there was space for the third talk. I tried to find the end of the line to go back in and couldn't so I gave up.

-How was the weather and were you prepared for it? Did it seem like other fans were wearing

 

Hey,

Thanks, that was just a great response -- immensely useful. I will absolutely be able to use that commentary, thanks so much! It's harder to find the people who were at CIII and lined up for Lucas, and your responses are wonderful. I can't wait to integrate that into the book.

 

Great topic, and I will try to be as honest as possible:

-What was your overall impression of the number of product tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith?

Too much suited Vader for the screentime he got in the movie. Except for diehards like us who follow every thing about SW, the average SW fan would see the constant barrage of Darth Vader in BurgerKing, on commercials, etc, and then see him in the suit for only 2 minutes and feel like they had the wool pulled over themselves.



-Do you think there was too little, too much, or just enough marketing for Revenge of the Sith?

I never argue with too much marekting towards anything someone is trying to sell, because the ultimate goal is to get as many people in the theaters. But you can dilute your product with over exposure and that can cause a backlash when the inflated expectations are not met with a so-so movie: The Phantom Menace.


-Did you think the tie-ins for the last prequel helped the movie overall or hurt it? How come?

SW never gets hurt by showing suited Vader to the public, and I believe Lucas showed more Vader in the commercials then was in the movie because he wanted to get back the OT fans who may have given up after TPM/AOTC. I also think that is why Chewbacca is in the movie too, cause they could have sent Yoda to any planet, but he specifically chose Kashykk for the OT fans, just like Jango Fett in AOTC.








-Did you skip work or school to see Revenge of the Sith opening day? If so, what was your reasoning behind it and what did you tell your boss / school?

I actually waited for the weekend, specifically Friday night, cause I refuse to sit in a movie theater with anyone who dresses up for a movie, that to me is a bit weird. I am as diehard as it comes to SW, and I love the anticipation of each movie, but you guys who dress up, that is where I part ways with this fanbase. When you start dressing up, it puts us in the category of Star Trek fans.




Looking for younger fans (under 21) to answer the following few questions.
1) Do you prefer the prequels to the original trilogy? Why or why not? Please be as specific as possible.

I am 34, so I hope I can give you a nice cross section of answers from all aged groups. I prefer the OT to the PT, and the reason is solely the quality. ANH & ESB are just the two best scifi movies I have ever seen, and the other 4 SW movies pale in comparison.




2) Why do you think the prequels have taken so much criticism from the media, considering that they have received overall positive reviews, many fans, and made huge sums of money?

The reason they take so much criticism is I believe they are just average movies that are living off the name of the OT. I also believe the reason they made so much money is that people still wanted them to succeed and were atleast willing to see each one til the end of the story, so in that respect the PT is living off the OT's name too.

The big myth that I always hear is that the PT received positive reviews, and that just isn't true. The only SW film ever to get glowing reviews is the original, and the rest of the movies were just made for the SW base, cause that is why sequels & prequels are made: For the fans who loved the first one and want more.

There are so many fans who love the Original SW who don't like ANY of the sequels, let alone the prequels, and yes I am talking about ESB too. As Zombie stated earlier the reason TPM made the most money of the 3 PT movies is because EVERY SW fan went to see it once, even those who were just SW '77 fans. It was 16 years between films, and the curiosity of whether Lucas could do it again was going to make this a hit. Many fans checked out after TPM and never went back, and that is why ROTS, which seems to be the prevailing favorite among PT fans still was 50 million behind in the final gross as compared to TPM. But there were just as many displeased fans with the PT who were going to see the story through and saw every film once or twice ju

 

Thanks for the response.

To be fair, football fans dress up for games, too, sometimes in face paint and ridiculous getups in like freezing cold weather -- I do not dress up for anything, even Halloween, haha, so I'm not like that but it's not just Star Trek and Star Wars fans who dress up. Plus, I don't think you can fault the great work that the 501st Legion does for the franchise and for charity. They are a good group of people who have brightened a lot of days through their charity work.

Also, ROTS got better reviews than ANH, and the PT got better reviews than the OT, by quite a ways actually. Every prequel got at least 60% positive reviews; ESB didn't hit 55% and ROTJ didn't even crack 35% on its first release. Their reviews have subsequently increased to much higher levels, which is nice to see.

My books definitely argue against the idea that the PT lives off the name of the OT -- that would be the first time in the history of cinema where a trilogy of movies could become the most financially successful trilogy ever and yet actually nobody really liked 'em. Maybe that's true of one group of 30+ SW fans. But plenty of 20-and-unders consider the OT inferior, and would say the OT is only worth watching because of the much-better PT, so it's really a matter of perspective. It's nice to hear both sides of things, I'm in the middle as I love 'em all, but it's definitely always good to hear from different groups of fans.

 

I really want to contribute a substantial answer to this.

I've gone back and forth on the prequels: I've been a basher, gusher and several things in between. I am much more a gusher than a basher today, but with all this jostling that I've had and still had, not to mention friction with people here and elsewhere, I want to answer this thing as fully and honestly as possible. I've actually given this issue some thought already and come up with a slightly different take on matters. I hope to have it all written up and posted in the next 24 hours. It's been a pleasure to read everyone's responses in here -- even though I instinctively bristled at a couple of the more negative, longer ones (which takes us back to what I said at the start). Even though we all come at things from a different side and place on the fence, and even though I can't possibly agree with everyone about everything, I have to say: the Force is with everyone in here. Yes -- even zombie and gretzky99, the people I perhaps disagree with most (gretzky, I *know* who you really are -- again! LOL). Anyway, I hope the book embraces all viewpoints. The Star Wars fandom is amazing in its diversity and a book about the final film in a thirty year cinematic and cultural phenomonem should capture and celebrate that.

 

Marketing and Promotion:

-What was your overall impression of the number of product tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith?

It was fantastic! great stuff. But too much Darth Vader products and not enough of him killing jedi in the suit.

-Do you think there was too little, too much, or just enough marketing for Revenge of the Sith?

It was just about right, id say. Perfect to be honest.

-How would you describe the marketing tie-ins for Revenge of the Sith? Effective? Classy? Tasteless? Overbearing?

Effective, amazing, classic and true. I was blown away by the posters, teaser trailer and all the lays chips. yet not enough pepsi tie ins. Overall, it was great.

-Did you think the tie-ins for the last prequel helped the movie overall or hurt it? How come?

It helped alot. seeing Vader in the suit I think made alot of people go see the movie. it was very helpful.


Fan Enthusiasm:

-Did you skip work or school to see Revenge of the Sith opening day? If so, what was your reasoning behind it and what did you tell your boss / school?


I took PTO, Paid time off, meaning I didn't have to explain anything to anyone. it's time that I can take off any time I want.

Epic Lineups:

-Did you lineup for at least 12 hours in advance of Revenge of the Sith?s first midnight showing?

I lined up 4 hours before the midnight showing.

-What do you like about lining up early for a Star Wars movie?


Getting a good seat first of all.
The kids, the people smiling. the people seemed so happy to go see this movie. it was something that made me very happy.

-Any stories about your lineup experience you want to share?


I don't dress up or act jedilike at the lines, I just stand there like a regular folk. for ROTS, I just took it all in and took the film very serious. I was mediating most of the time in the line. because I was nervous.

Star Wars Celebration III:

-What did you think about the Celebration III store? Or rather, what went wrong?

I did not attend. too far for me.


Digital Projection:

-Why did you decide to see Revenge of the Sith in a digital theater?

I saw ROTS on a digital screen 17 times. there was nothing like it. My theater here in san diego has THX and DLP digital projectors. it's be best experience ever. I wouldn't watch any other movie if it's not digital.

-Could you tell the difference between the film in digital form and in 35mm format? If so, what were some of the differences, good or bad?

when you watch a movie on a digital screen it's all about the color and the sharpness. I hate seeing movies with a regular film projector because you can tell it's crap. it's all blurry and the colors are truly bad. I never seen a PT movie on a regular movie theater but I'm sure it would totally blow! I refused to see them otherwise. Difference is that the digital projections comes from satellite into a dvd and then into a computer. it's all technical.

-Are you looking forward to a future of digitally projected movies, or in other words, does it matter to you that studios and theaters work together to make the change happen more quickly?

I look forward to seeing every movie digitally, but unfortunally, places like AMC refuse to change. they are old standards.



Fan Reaction:

Looking for younger fans (under 21) to answer the following few questions.
1) Do you prefer the prequels to the original trilogy? Why or why not? Please be as specific as possible.

I prefer the PT now. Because it was all I dreamed it out to be.

2) Why do you think the prequels have taken so much criticism from the media, considering that they have received overall positive reviews, many fans, and made huge sums of money?

Cause the critics are punks!

The following questions apply to anyone wanting to respond!
3) What is your favorite Star Wars movie? How come?

4) Have the prequels changed the way you looked at the Original

 

I have been through many SW websites, and in all honesty, they are not a true gauge of fandom, as I have found that they bring out the extremes on both sides and leave the true voices in the middle left in the pasture.

Most people don't hate the PT movies, and in the same turn, most people don't love em either. I think the majority of SW fans are in the middle and like them to different degrees. 'Like' is a dirty little word in SW lingo anymore, cause it ends up that you are forced to chose a side.

I don't think it is an age issue, unless you are talking about really young kids 12-under, cause I know from experience, your tastes in movies DO change as you get older.

Of course there will always be a section of fans who love the PT, every movie has that fanbase in some capacity. And there will also be that section of fans of truly hate the PT, but I say both are minorities among the communities.

As for financial success of the movies, what is considered successful anymore? Or the better question is, should we even judge the quality of movies by the money they make?

There is a reason that Schindlers List just made 100 million at the box office in 1993, yet three years later Indpendence Day made 3 times the amount of money with 306 million dollars. Is Independence Day a better movie? Independence Day was just a cool summer action flick that many people saw multiple times, just as SW movies, just as LOTR movies, just as Spiderman 3 will conjure up next summer, but does having a bunch of teenagers see a movie 5-6 times equate to movie quality?

As for reviews on who has a better rottentomatoes score, and all critics in general, who cares? What makes a critc's opinion more then anyone else's hold more weight? Roger Ebert is one of the most well-known movie critics in the world, and I think I disagree with him about 75% of the time on movies, so who is to say who's right?

I think the only way to judge a film is to take a step back and evaluate it years later, and ask yourself, does this movie stand the test of time? I have done that with many fantasy movies that I grew up with. Star Wars, Yes. ESB, Yes. Back to the Future, Yes. Superman:The Movie, Yes. Superman II, No. ROTJ, No. Star Trek Movies, Yes and No.

To be honest, I think an interesting book would be to see how those 10-15 year old fans like the PT movies 10 years from now, when they are in their 20's & 30's. I can only tell you if you wrote a book in 1985, I would be gushing about ROTJ, and calling ESB a BORRRRRING movie that was too dark. If you were to interview me in 1995, I would have said the EXACT opposite thing about ROTJ/ESB, so the most interesting note about SW movies is how do they age over time?

 

Very well spoken, gretzky.

I think it is also interesting that some claim that the PT are unique in that they made lots of money but were critically trashed, and that this must mean that the audience is right despite the critics--but this is neither accurate, nor a unique event.
Look at Bad Boys 2 last year--it got absolutely trashed by critics, and even by many audience members; most agreed that it had impressive technical merits, well done action scenes, but a ridiculous and hollow plot with non-characters. Its "tomatometer" score is a lowly 25%, truely a critical stinker. But it made about $150 million domestically, and hundreds more overseas. Why did it make so much money if everyone hated it? Well, the first installment was half-decent so you had a pre-existing audience, it had big stars and a well-known crew behind the camera, and was massively hyped up by the publicity department and by the press. A lot of people simply wanted to see if it was any good--and found that it wasn't; but by then they had already committed $10 to the box office gross. Even then, you still have many people that genuinely liked it, and may have even gone back to see it. If you were to talk to many 14 year olds, you will find that a great many of them think that the film is cool.
Most summer blockbusters gross over $100 million due to hype, publicity, and the fact that they are sequels to already-successful films--and the majority of blockbusters also are critically panned, as many of them deserve.

The problem when gauging childrens reactions to things is that children don't have very developed sense of taste. Sometimes you can say, "oh this filmmaker is really in touch with what children want because they love his film," but this to me doesn't say anything about the lasting quality of a work. Frankly, children usually like a lot of really stupid stuff--theres a reason that crap like Power Rangers, Moesha and Instant Star were considered really bad television shows, despite their popularity, and on the playground all the summer kids blockbusters are popular, from Chronicles of Riddick to Spiderman 2 to Spykids 3-D. The PT lasted longer because there was a new entry regularly released, so unlike Chronicles of Riddick, it didn't fade away. But anyway, my point is that a truely good movie is one that kids enjoy and that can be viewed by adults with equal appreciation--in this, Star Wars was a prime example, a film that was made for adults to watch but that was equally accessible to children; it didn't pander to them.
Furthermore, it is not as if critics hate Star Wars or fantasy material--far from it, such subject matter is trendy now. Fellowship of the Ring and Chronicles of Narnia are also lighter fantasy pictures that are enjoyable for children, but they were critically hailed as masterpieces because they worked even better for adults, and of course they made a ton of cash. Films such as Corpse Bride and Lemony Snickets may even have more adult fans that children fans!

Certainly though, the PT has its merit, and indeed the films are better made than a lot of the blockbusters out there. But compared to the "greats" of recent times--The Matrix, the LOTR trilogy, Kill Bill, or Gladiator, for example--they are closer to the category that efforst such as Troy and King Arthur fall into. An assistant director friend of mine was recently telling me that once a year he and his little boy sit down together and watch the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy in a single day. I have encountred many similar such rituals of love regarding that series as well; it is perhaps what Lucas wanted the PT to become, a rich, heartfelt fantasy world that was funny and touching and scary and exciting, that kids fell in love with and that adults fell in love with even more, won rave reviews and earned tons of money. I have never heard of such family devotion to the PT, except in fringe cases. Many people who attend conventions and the like will say "oh, thats rubbish, i know plenty of people that do that"--but this is a seriously slanted worldview. I am tal

 

Guys, I meant what I said before, but since when did this become an extended bashing session on the impact and artistic worth of the PT? I thought you answered the questions the first time. And I thought you did so with eloquence and honesty, hence what I said in my first reply -- but now you're taking things too far.

And what's with this?

First post:

Second post:

Still working on my answer, Bowen.

 

The original questions raised by Bowen had to do with the artistic worth of ROTS and the PT in general, as well as our opinion and response to it--just because it is not a positive response doesn't mean it must be labelled as "bashing" or that it is inappropriate.

As for my age, i was speaking in general terms when i said 20, as a prior poster had made reference to "20's and 20-somethings" preferring the PT to OT while only older fans prefer the OT, which is a bizarre assumption.

 

All responses, positive and negative, are welcome. But if I was making a certain point in my manuscript -- which is already complete, sans commentary of course -- then some negative comments will not make it into the book of course. Like for instance, when I asked about the marketing of ROTS, I want to include equal parts negative reaction, positive reaction, or somewhere in between. I have no "agenda" with regard to the marketing or promotion of ROTS, I just want to hear what fans say in a representative sample because it's interesting to note.

When I asked questions about ROTS versus ESB, or the prequel trilogy against the original trilogy, I'm already going about it with the assumption that the OT remains more popular, so I'm really only looking for pro-prequel trilogy comments in a sense because I'm sure they are the minority, so I'm just trying to provide both sides there.

My only goal with my first book was not to make people say, "Go TPM, best movie ever!" or to imply that every fan loved TPM. It was, however, to prove that most people LIKED TPM, to varying degrees, and that this myth of "Everyone loved the OT completely, it was perfect, but everyone hated TPM" is just patently false. It's much more in-between than that -- most people love the OT, they may have had issues with certain parts of it, too, and most people may not have thought TPM was better than ANH or ESB, or maybe even ROTJ, but they still had fun seeing it, enjoyed it as a whole, or at least felt it was a fun movie on some level. That reflects reality. Movies don't make $400M+ if nobody likes them. Hype can only get you so far -- just look at Godzilla, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, The Matrix: Reloaded, The Matrix: Revolutions, etc. Hype might get you $250M, tops, but it won't get you anywhere near $431.1 million. Only repeat viewings and a long summer of moviegoing gets you there.

With my first book, I was unconcerned with spending much effort defending TPM itself, as a movie or as an artistic work, I was much more concerned with defending it against idiotic media comments that were just not true, like that it was a failure because it didn't beat Titanic, or that the toy sales were awful and it was a massive failure for its licensees (this is completely untrue, TPM was the highest grossing licensed film of all-time before ROTS; many licensees, however, did overproduce their items, but that hurt *retailers* more than anyone else as they bought the crap, haha, and Hasbro, for instance, actually beat their internal expectations and earning soared as a result of TPM sales). I just wanted to set the facts straight, so to speak, something that still needs to be done in the media evidently, when I read, "Fans were extremely disappointed by the first two prequels and critics savaged them," I just think... did you read this somewhere and then repeat it, or did you actually do your research? Obviously no research was done. A simple glimpse at the reviews tells you the prequels *were not ravaged by critics*!!! A score above 60% is GOOD. It's not great, it's not like critics declared TPM and AOTC amazing masterpieces, but neither did they call them steaming piles of crap either. It was more like, "These are fun movies with great special effects and some good action, but the acting is iffy and the storyline is murky" or something like that, but to say that critics ravaged them is nonsense. And to say that fans were disappointed is also nonsense. SOME fans were disappointed, as will always happen, and you could even say many fans were disappointed if they expected a four star movie and, in their minds, got a three star movie. But the media often makes it sound like the prequels were basically Battlefield Earth Redux

Oh, and for the record...

Superman II is better significantly than Superman -- this is a common opinion. It does stand the test of time, it is the best superhero film ever made to this day. It's Superman III and IV that suck hardcore

The Chronicles of Riddick is in parts corny, the story isn't very strong like I expected f

 

now how did Bowen's honest attempt to solicit intelligent and informative responses turn into a basher's thread?

Oh yeah, the usual suspects

 

What the hell? So you cant have a response that is intelligent and informative that isn't positive?? This is just stupid and its called baiting, and I am surprised it is being allowed. But i suppose with someone with a name like LoveLucas this is not all that surprising.

 

Bowen, sorry I didn't have time to respond to everything!

 

It's alright, I mean I'm taking what I can use and there is some great commentary here... so it's been very helpful overall.

I wish that a few more of you had attended the charity screenings so I could get commentary there! Haha, but aside from that I'm doing fine as far as putting the stuff in the book.