ST George Lucas confirms (almost) Big Three return!

Definitely. I think Abrams will give us this. The most brutal lightsaber duel in the PT was the one between Obi-Wan and Anakin, but even that wasn't near as brutal as it could have been. I also wouldn't mind seeing a few punches and kicks, too.

 

Watched ROTS yesterday and that face replacement on Dooku, Sideous and the clones looks absolutely horrible on Bluray. On the other hand that whole Sideous against the council scene is bad. I mean these are Jedi masters and can't even dodge one lightsaber swing? I'll rather have Luke in a duel like ANH than something bad CG (ok it should have improved since EPIII) or annoyingly cut (Sideous versus council) or badly lighted (Dooku against Ob1 and Ani EPII).
Call it nostalgia, but I still get the chills the moment Luke screams "Nooooo" and attacks Vader in ROTJ. The music and camera angles are just perfect and the intensity of that duel is far greater and more emotional than 20 minutes of jumping over lava...

 

I personally feel that the Dooku head replacement in ROTS is pretty seamless given that any action would have been impossibe for Lee to take part in. AOTC was not as convincing given it was earlier technology, but it still holds up well in my opinion. Paplpatine versues the Jedi/Mace - I thought it was reasonable given the actors inexperience at choreographed fights, but I agree - given the participants something more spectacular would have been apt - although saying that there is a clever sense of build in scale to Anakin v Obi-Wan and Palps v Yoda. And Palp v Mace does feel 'savage' (IMHO) which works well in context. I do agree that Anakin v Obi-Wan was a couple of minutes too long... and would have been better without the lava platform jumping (the rest of it is pretty great).

Re. ROTJ - I agree that the final part of Luke v Vader is brilliantly executed and one of my fave sequences from the entire saga. However, it's very short and the proceeding 5/10 mins of duelling isn't very inspiring (although I take into account it's a fight Luke is resistant to). I don't think the filmakers would be able to get away with that, a duel that is quite sedate, in the new films.

 

In retrospect I think it would have been better to not show Sideous disposing the other council members, but to have Anakin arrive, see the dead council members and Mace standing above Palpatine (that would have cheated Samuel of a fight, but his lightsaber skills weren't that impressive anyway). It would have been a nice way to get Ani's POV as well.

I think what worked on many movies from the 70-90's was that due to technichal limitations they rather implied than showed certain things (Alien, Jaws, Wampa in original ESB etc.) while from 2000 on they tried to show everything. While I liked parts of the EPI and EPIII duels, I think the emotional investment for the viewer was bigger in EPV and EPVI (the same could be said about the ship to ship battles).

Back to the original topic... I think that any battle involving Luke should rather portray his mastery of the force than his prowess with a lightsaber. As Mark said himself during his CEII chat, if he would be in EPVII, he would be rather a sage than a warrior. Heck I could even see Luke pull the old Indy move and shoot a saber swinging Sith with a hidden blaster ( in EPiV and V he was not as adverse to that than the Jedi of old)...

 

He actually says, "Never!"

But I agree about the music and vibe of the scene.

 

I think that could of well been an alternative...

I think the "emotional investment" was/is bigger in the originals... but I was brought up with them. However I don't know a single person, whose first Star Wars films were the prequels, who prefers the duels of the OT. Perhaps (I hope) JJ can marry the two styles successfully...

 

This.

 

Idea:

My 60+ parents just took up Tai Chi. Wouldn't it be awesome if Luke did some kind of Jedi Master-inspired Tai Chi?

 

I am in support of the actors for the big three returning as long as they have fairly small but important roles.

 

I personally think Luke needs to at least have a role as big as Obi-Wan's in ANH - otherwise it may just feel like a reboot rather than a remake... and I personally wouldn't want that. I'd rather the old charcters not be in it at all if they were merely going to be cameos/bit parts. Yes - handing over of the torch is inevitable, but this still needs to be a continuation of the story and characters (well at least Luke anyway) from the existing movies.

 

I don't understand why so many are worried that the OT cast could just be silly cameos.

Obi-Wan and Anakin/Vader where young in the PT and old in the OT.......... I don't think anyone considers their part in the OT to be silly cameos.

Luke's part will likely be similar to that of Obi-Wan in the OT.

Leia/Han's roles may not be as clear just yet, but most of us are assuming that they will have a child/children in the ST, so they would likely act as the Owen/Beru counterparts, however, because we know their characters, they would be way more involved than the Lars clan.

Lando could be more of a cameo, but I doubt that too. If he's in it, it will likely be a small but important inclusion.

The Big 3 will serve the story just as much as other characters have carried over from previous trilogies.

 

Harrison Ford was pretty good on Conan tonight! Nothing new on Star Wars! But boy is he milking it!

 

He looked great on Kimmel the other night too.

 

Harrison has spent years, understandably, distancing himself somewhat from both Han Solo and Indiana Jones. I think as he's got a bit older he's come to realise that those will be the films he'll always be remembered for... and that they still are head and shoulders above modern action/adventure movies (IMHO).

 

It's amazing that he played two iconic characters (Han Solo and Indiana Jones) yet he was still able to avoid being typecast and will be also remembered as Jack Ryan and Dr. Richard Kimble. Ford has so many great movies post SW & Indy (Witness, Presummed Innocent, The Fugitive, Patriot Games, Clear & Present Danger, The Mosquito Coast, Frantic, etc.). When I watch those films I don't think of Han or Indy, and that is VERY hard to do in TV and Movies once you play someone so well known. I look at James Gandolfini and every movie I watched him I always thought of Tony Soprano, or Carroll O'Connor I could never stop thinking of Archie Bunker.

 

Don't forget Rick Deckard.
You can't forget Rick Deckard.

 

Oh I agree with all that... Ford has certainly given us numerous good performances in many a movie... but it's a bit like Sigourney Weaver or Anthony Hopkins i.e. they get associated with a specific performance or character. And it's not that they are type cast - it's just that the films they were in/or character they played have become part of popular culture.

 

I don't agree at all. Assuming they can get the look right for an older Luke, Leia, and Han, I'm not worried at all about watching aged versions of these characters.

Look I love the OT 3, but neither Harrison, Carrie, nor Mark put in Oscar winning performances, or were even given that kind of material. This isn't anything like a prime athlete coming out of retirement and not living up to his glory days. All three of these people went on to much higher artistic ground after the films wrapped, all three are much better, sharper actors, and all three shouldn't have any problem whatsoever slipping back into their old character skins. If anything Michael Arndt has the very real potential to take all three of these characters deeper than we've ever seen them before...

Also there wasn't anything inherently too youthful about Luke, Han, or Leia by the time the OT closed. Leia started off mature and grounded from the first Star Wars film, and despite Carrie's young age, she always looked more mature than her years. Han was a grown, jaded man from the very first time we met him. Luke started off fresh and naive, but by ROTJ all that newness had completely disappeared. These characters are easily ripe for making the transition to older incarnations without losing much depth or interest at all. This isn't like sitting down to catch up with the aging gang from Grease or Fast Times at Ridgemont High, or asking a middle aged Tom Hanks to do the underwear slide in Risky Business 2. The big 3 should be able to age just as smoothly as the original and TNG Star Trek casts did.

I think the only issue here will be appearance. If they all look good, like older, but still attractive, versions of their OT selves, even a lot of that will likely be kept to a minimum.

 

Oh that's awesome! I love that grin he gives at the end...he just loves messing with people.

Yeah, he got the 'long time ago galaxy far, far away' wrong, but so what? He's said himself he's not a fan of the movies, and he made them over 30 years ago. I mean, would YOU guys remember a catchphrase from something you gave up thirty years ago? Huh?

 

Thank you. I'm a little surprised by the double standards and revisionist history going on in this thread right now.

The assumption that Mark Hamill, in only his early 60's, will be expected to sit on the sidelines because of age in a franchise featuring plenty of middle aged, to down right elderly, actors playing characters in high battle/actions scenes is beyond me.

In what Star Wars franchise have the featured older jedis/sith simply sat down and done nothing but dole out wise platitudes? Or just stood by and moved machines with their minds? Yoda, the freaking puppet, was the closest, and the PT changed that.

Liam Neeson was dueling in his late 40's.
Samuel L Jackson was dueling in his late 50's.
Sir Alec was dueling in his 60's.
Ian McDiarmid was dueling in his 60's.
Christopher Lee was dueling in his 80's.

Why is the assumption automatically that less will be expected from Mark as Luke?

And hell, why is the assumption that Carrie's Leia won't be in the action when the likes of women like Helen Mirren and Sigourney Weaver have played action rules into their middle ages? Or heck, any of the aging Star Trek women from the first and TNG film series?

We don't have any idea what Lucas and Arnt have in mind for these characters, but considering the 30+ year history of Star Wars so far, the likelihood is strong that aging characters will still very much be expected to kick ass since that has NEVER been a barrier in any Star Wars movie for any character.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, anyone?

 

His coyness is hilarious and gets me everytime.

In other news, that's the best I've seen him look in years. Can they film this man RIGHT NOW! That would be a killer look for Han Solo.

 

The Mosquito Coast is an awesome film