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  1. In Memory of LAJ_FETT: Please share your remembrances and condolences HERE

PT Irreplaceable things the prequels gave to the Star Wars Franchise.

Discussion in 'Prequel Trilogy' started by Daxon101, Jun 24, 2017.

  1. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    It's nothing like the burp gag. They put a sound effect over a shot of the sarlacc in RotJ.

    In TPM they spent thousands of dollars taking a wee detour from the already too long pod race build up to animate the eopie winding itself up and letting rip, then Jar Jar trying to figure out what made the noise right next to his ear before eventually taking a big whiff and delivering that bit of exposition.

    Peee-yoo indeed. I'm not going to enhance it by pretending it's an evolution of an established concept.

    But I'm not bringing stuff up so that it can be compared negatively with the OT either.
     
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  2. Tonyg

    Tonyg Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 16, 2016
    Obviously every dollar of them is well spent as you still remember it as very important thing. ;)

    But if we speak seriously: without the prequels there would be no Saga. Not literally: I‘m talking about the lore, the world building and the uniqueness of the story. Till then it was typical hero fairytale.
     
  3. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    We already had that lore more or less. The OT told us that Vader fell to the darkside, hunted the Jedi and helped the Emperor take over the galaxy.

    The lore that the PT gave us was the Jedi found a boy who became a Jedi, fought in a war, turned to the darkside and helped the leader of the Republic, who was secretly a Sith, to become Emperor by murdering children in a temple. And his wife died for some reason.
     
  4. Ingram_I

    Ingram_I Force Ghost star 5

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    Sep 7, 2012
  5. Tonyg

    Tonyg Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 16, 2016
    The lore PT gave us is what on Earth the Jedi Order was, why it dissapeared (is not because Vader slaughtered som Jedi) and the moat important thing: why at all the Empire came, what was before it and why it dissapeared. Mostly the story of the Galaxy.
     
  6. ezekiel22x

    ezekiel22x Chosen One star 5

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    Aug 9, 2002
    They also spent money (possibly thousands of dollars) to animate the shot of the desert frog thing who uses his long tongue to slurp up a little rodent before delivering a huge burp. Come to think of it that little detour is so Jar Jaresque it's almost as if Lucas was already planting the seeds.
     
  7. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016

    That's a scene opener, giving us an enhanced view of the hostile nature of Tatooine and demonstrate the expertise of the model and creature department, one of Lucas's main aims with the movie and the Tatooine sequence.

    I don't know what Jar Jar smelling and remarking an exaggerated fart that the eopie goes to considerable effort to make demonstrates either about Tatooine or the film-maker's skills.
     
  8. ezekiel22x

    ezekiel22x Chosen One star 5

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    Aug 9, 2002

    I've always just thought that frog in Jedi was cute and funny. Always struck me as a mood lightener amidst the forebodingness of Jabba's palace. Although I can understand your interpretation as well. From that line of thinking I would describe the Jar Jar moment as one more symbolic representation of the "phantom menace." An invisible, toxic cloud of darkness our heroes have to navigate, even on a remote world such as Tatooine. And it demonstrated the expertise of the CGI and creature department, one of Lucas's main aims with the pod race sequence.
     
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  9. Anakin.Skywalker

    Anakin.Skywalker Jedi Grand Master star 5

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    Oct 11, 2016
    Anakin Skywalker...as only the prequels depicted him.
     
  10. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    It is cute and funny. It's just not gratuitous or gratuitously base, in my opinion. And I don't think symbolism is gonna enhance either scene.

    Since the whole movie is wall-to-wall CGI and almost wall-to-wall Jar Jar, it does not seem necessary to have created a vignette in order to showcase either of those things. And definitely not in this way. It's hardly a unique or signature effect in the movie that they are demonstrating (there's no interaction with actors/props etc).

    People are within their rights to dislike the Sarlacc burp and they can hate the toad-lassoo gag. I posted the eopie fart reaction as a recation to the idea that the PT introduced "depth" to the saga. Not to compare it with the OT.

    :)
     
  11. ezekiel22x

    ezekiel22x Chosen One star 5

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    Aug 9, 2002

    Actually I have no problem with any of the gags I mentioned. I didn't bring up the OT to criticize it, but to provide context. The whole idea of this thread invites aspects of the PT to be compared and contrasted to the OT. Also I have to disagree that one or two small moments of humor somehow invalidate the idea of an overall trilogy bringing new depth to a series.
     
  12. L110

    L110 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 26, 2014
    The prequels themselves.
     
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  13. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

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    Jun 12, 2011
    I don't know. I thought the Sith/Rule of Two added a lot of depth to the Vader/Luke/Palpatine scenes in the OT.
     
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  14. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
     
  15. Ancient Whills

    Ancient Whills Force Ghost star 6

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    Jun 12, 2011
    Also shape-shifting is a thing.
     
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  16. wobbits

    wobbits Force Ghost star 4

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    Apr 12, 2017
    R2D2 starting oil fires and flying!
     
  17. Daxon101

    Daxon101 Force Ghost star 6

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    Jan 7, 2016
    I dunno whether R2D2 flying has really done anything for the franchise since many don't seem to like him flying for some reason.

    Presumably because it just asks why he never flew in the OT
     
  18. fastcooljosh

    fastcooljosh Jedi Master star 2

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    Mar 15, 2017
    things that make the star wars universe bigger and not smaller, looking at you TFA
     
  19. Seeker Of The Whills

    Seeker Of The Whills Jedi Master star 4

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    Jan 20, 2015
    TPM is "wall-to-wall CGI" and "wall-to-wall Jar Jar"? :oops:
    Jar Jar stepping in "icky-icky goo" or him smelling the eopie passing gas is exactly in the same realm of comedy as the two burp gags in RotJ. Perhaps taken a bit further, but it's definitely a continuation of the same type of humor that caters to children, the primary audience of these films. You're using very subjective explanations to justify your view that the burp gags are somehow better than the Jar Jar gags. The random frog burping is by your reading somehow "giving us an enhanced view of the hostile nature of Tatooine and demonstrate the expertise of the model and creature department, one of Lucas's main aims with the movie and the Tatooine sequence". :confused: What? Where did you get all that from? Did you personally ask Lucas about his intentions for this particular scene? And how is Jar Jar not demonstrating the expertise of ILM, especially when it was the very first fully CG animated character in a film capable of showcasing a full range of emotions and actions in its performance, and pioneered the way for Gollum, Avatar, etc.? By any measure, Jar Jar was a far more significant achievement technically and a better show of expertise than a random puppet seen on-screen for a split second. I think your bias against CGI and the PT is simply glaring through your arguments.
     
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  20. {Quantum/MIDI}

    {Quantum/MIDI} Force Ghost star 5

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    Dec 21, 2015
  21. Padema

    Padema Jedi Master star 1

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    Mar 11, 2007
    The love theme from Attack of the Clones. I think it's a beautiful piece of music.
     
  22. The Jedi Order and the Republic Millions of planets that became iconic new lightsaber colors and much more
    You can say what you want from the prequels but you have to admit that they were the ones that innovated the saga at unsuspected levels

    The prequels are my second favorite era of Star Wars the first is the era of the Old Republic
     
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  23. Sith Lord 2015

    Sith Lord 2015 Jedi Master star 4

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    Oct 30, 2015
    Unique new spaceship designs. There was nothing even close to those shiny silvery Naboo ships in all the OT. Not a criticism of the OT, on the contrary, just another example of how the PT expands the SW universe. On the one hand we have that used-universe look and ancient spaceships that don't work half the time, on the other hand we have this brand new sleek type of ship from an advanced and civilized society. A very nice addition visually. Those totally different approaches harmoniously co-exist and complement each other nicely. That AOTC opening is a fresh one, for once we don't see a battle or Imperial ships, not the least sign of conflict, but the elegant royal cruiser simply gliding through the clouds and landing. I found that a nice touch, it looks so peaceful. Of course a few minutes later we find out that peaceful feeling is deceptive, and there is treachery involved even in that short peaceful moment. Of course I also love the ROTS opening, right into a major space battle. But the AOTC opening is somehow unique in its elegance, the only time an episode doesn't open with a warlike or military operation. TPM has Jedi flying right to an "enemy" ship, prepared for conflict, ROTS of course has an epic battle, ANH as well, ESB a star destroyer in the process of hunting down the Rebels, ROTJ opens right onto the next ultimate weapon of mass destruction...
    Again, something completely missing in TFA - I mean unique ship designs. The PT even introduced submarines into the saga. Also, I couldn't help noticing another mirroring between AOTC and ESB, ships flying through fog/rain/clouds: Coruscant, Kamino - Dagobah, Bespin.
     
  24. xezene

    xezene Jedi Grand Master star 4

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    Jan 6, 2016
    The prequels are a huge addition -- I see them as half the saga, so crucially important.

    But if I had to name one thing, it would be in relation to Anakin's background and his motivations. If I had to choose specifically, I'd say making the child Darth Vader a slave. Such a stroke of genius. Never even hinted at overtly in the OT. But it really brings out the motifs Lucas is shooting for.

    There's so much to choose from but that's one bit I wanted to mention.
     
  25. Martoto77

    Martoto77 Jedi Master star 5

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    Aug 6, 2016
    You're assuming that's a dig at TPM? Jar Jar is a main character in the movie how does plenty more interesting things and achieves far, far greater things as a CGI character throughout the movie than the scene in question.



    The realm that the humour in these shots inhabits is not the defining factor of their worth. If Jar Jar broke the fourth wall and winked at the audience as he squeezed his hand under his armpit or asked Padme to pull his finger, it would be in the same realm of humour.


    Not really.


    The Complete Saga blu ray boxed set has a little featurette on the bonus discs goes BTS with the combination of a miniature set, matte painted nighttime background, foreground miniature, hand puppetry, articulation and environment effects.. The shot is designed to establish the location and time of the scene in a way that reminds the audience of the outlandish nature of the setting and the scenario. It happens to employ a certain type of humour.


    You seem to think I'm criticizing Jar Jar and CGI. I'm saying that it does nothing to enhance the achievement of Jar Jar and isn't justified because it's in the same realm of humour done far less incongruously in almost all of the other star wars films.

    These shots do not showcase Jar-Jar or typify any specific achievement in CGI or set of techniques developed for the movie. Or anything else for that matter.

    [​IMG][​IMG][​IMG]
     
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