The Opening Crawl revealed on OS!

Edit: It's growing on me already.

 

Personally I LOVE it...

At FIRST look, I was like ...???

but then I got into it. It really gives the sense of URGENCY - really sets the MOOD for this WHOLE film!

 

Yeah exactly. I just dislike the "War!" interjection now. But it sets up the frenzy that Episode III is supposed to be.

 

I really like the scroll. The "War!" part is cheesy, but I love it. It reminds me of one of those old news reels you would see about WWI or WWII.

 

And if you read Labyrinth of Evil (see the thread), you'll better understand the crawl.

 

Without reading this thread, what's the general vibe?

I'm HCSF y'see.

 

what's the general vibe?

Mixed, at best. Many have shown disdain for the opening crawl, myself included to a certain extent. Others don't mind it, while some would profess that they think it's great. What is of primary importance is that all of this will ultimately become superfluous if "Revenge of the Sith" is awesome.

 

It is a great opening crawl. All Star Wars opening crawls are. This one, along with the one in ANH, is the most dramatic, I think.



Star Wars is a saga
Watch and believe
/LM

 

Well, the opening crawl is certainly consistent with the 30s and 40s film references that Lucas likes to employ in the saga; as Lars_Muul has stated, it is dramatic in a way which suggests the boldness of a Welles or Olivier (different sorts of filmmakers, I know, but you get the point). My reaction is still somewhat mixed, but I am sure that in time, the opening crawl will begin to grow on me.

Lars_Muul - How would you rank the respective opening crawls of each "Star Wars" film (most impressive to least impressive)?

 

Impossible to say. The one in ROTJ doesn't follow the formula of the others, where the first part always describes the general situation in the galaxy, so I guess that's my least favorite.
My favorites are probably the ones in ROTS and ANH, since the middle of the saga is my favorite part and what the text scrolls say is very exciting. I happen to like the one in TPM very much, though. Something about the end of it makes it really cool.
They're all well written, IMO, but as I said, those in the middle episodes are my favorites.



Star Wars is six, two and one
/LM

 

If I was to analyse the text scrolls though, to see which ones that have the best flow, I might put them in this order(hope I don't get banned for this ). Best to least good:


THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK

It is a dark time for the
Rebellion. Although the Death
Star has been destroyed,
Imperial troops have driven the
Rebel forces from their hidden
base and pursued them across
the galaxy.

Evading the dreaded
Imperial Starfleet, a group of
freedom fighters led by Luke
Skywalker has established a
new secret base on the remote
ice world of Hoth.

The evil lord Darth Vader,
obsessed with finding young
Skywalker, has dispatched
thousands of remote probes into
the far reaches of space....


A NEW HOPE

It is a period of civil war.
Rebel spaceships, striking
from a hidden base, have won
their first victory against
the evil Galactic Empire.

During the battle, Rebel
spies managed to steal secret
plans to the Empire's
ultimate weapon, the DEATH
STAR, an armored space
station with enough power to
destroy an entire planet.

Pursued by the Empire's
sinister agents, Princess
Leia races home aboard her
starship, custodian of the
stolen plans that can save
her people and restore
freedom to the galaxy....


ATTACK OF THE CLONES

There is unrest in the Galactic
Senate. Several thousand solar
systems have declared their
intentions to leave the Republic.

This separatist movement,
under the leadership of the
mysterious Count Dooku, has
made it difficult for the limited
number of Jedi Knights to
maintain peace and order in
the galaxy.

Senator Amidala, the former
Queen of Naboo, is returning
to the Galactic Senate to vote
on the critical issue of creating
an ARMY OF THE REPUBLIC
to assist the overwhelmed
Jedi....


THE PHANTOM MENACE

Turmoil has engulfed the
Galactic Republic. The taxation
of trade routes to outlying star
systems is in dispute.

Hoping to resolve the matter
with a blockade of deadly
battleships, the greedy Trade
Federation has stopped all
shipping to the small planet
of Naboo.

While the Congress of the
Republic endlessly debates
this alarming chain of events,
the Supreme Chancellor has
secretly dispatched two Jedi
Knights, the guardians of
peace and justice in the
galaxy, to settle the conflict....


RETURN OF THE JEDI

Luke Skywalker has returned to
his home planet of Tatooine in
an attempt to rescue his
friend Han Solo from the
clutches of the vile gangster
Jabba the Hutt.

Little does Luke know that the
GALACTIC EMPIRE has secretly
begun construction on a new
armored space station even
more powerful than the first
dreaded Death Star.

When completed, this ultimate
weapon will spell certain doom
for the small band of Rebels
struggling to restore freedom
to the galaxy...


REVENGE OF THE SITH

War! The Republic is crumbling
under attacks by the ruthless
Sith Lord, Count Dooku.
There are heroes on both sides.
Evil is everywhere.

In a stunning move, the
fiendish droid leader, General
Grievous, has swept into the
Republic capital and kidnapped
Chancellor Palpatine, leader of
the Galactic Senate.

As the Separatist Droid Army
attempts to flee the besieged
capital with their valuable
hostage, two Jedi Knights lead a
desperate mission to rescue the
captive Chancellor....


The differences aren't big, though. As I said earlier, I think they're all very good. Therefore, it's difficult to put them in the right order.



Star Wars is six, two and one
/LM

 

Not a bad order.

ROTS has to get points for using the word "fiendish".

 

Oh yes, fiendish is a wonderful word....
You know what? When I've tried to figure out what the opening crawl for ROTS would be(before the real one was revealed), I've been very keen on using the word "ruthless" to describe Grievous in it. So, I'm quite happy that the word is at least in it!

Greedy, mysterious, ruthless, fiendish, evil, sinister, vile... Lucas sure knows how to bring variation to his openings



Personality is the key to art
/LM

 

Hmm. I wasn't too sure at first... Then it grew on me a little.

Now, I like it! Especially the final sentence: "two Jedi Knights lead a desperate mission to rescue the captive Chancellor..." The phrasing here radiates classic Star Wars, and makes me feel warm inside! ;-)

 

After reading it again (and again, and...), I think it's Star Wars--all over again!

Yes--it definitely thrusts us right into the action.

It's definitely going to do it for me...



Ep3---yeah, you know it's going to ROCK ...

 

A Belgian SW fanclub site posted what it might look like:

Possible look of the ROTS title scroll

I know it would break the rule of the title scoll but wouldn't it be thrilling if there are explosions and laser blasts appearing just as the title scroll is about to disappear? It would be a shock element which would pull you into it from the first second. Then again, so it does without this added.

 

So I was watching the beginning of the Chinese film Hero and there's text at the beginning explaining about a particular war, and it's very similar in content to the ROTS crawl (but, of course, far more eloquent). And the last line of it is:

"In any war there are heros on both sides."

Lucas isn't just making this stuff up... it's a common and universal statment about the ambiguity of war. And there's certainly ambiguity in the Clone Wars, since the Republic will turn into the Empire.

 

Strange that for an episode about Anakin becoming Vader, not much is mentioned about Anakin at all in this crawl. However, General Grievous is mentioned, and we haven't even seen any footages of him in the teaser trailer. I know he requires heavy CGI work, but when will we see a footage on him? And, is he going to be in the movie for a long time?

I suppose they just want to introduce the whole story of the movie without going personal yet.

Very interesting that Palpatine got kidnapped, knowing that he is the sith lord himself. I bet this is a clever trap set by him, to make himself look innocent to the Jedi. Then, after he gets rescued, the Jedi don't think he is a Sith anymore and focuses on something else. He lures Anakin slowly to the dark side, training him secretly without the Jedi's knowledge. Do you think I am right?

I think the two Jedi Knights are Anakin, and Obi-wan, am I right? I wonder why this crawl didn't make it any more specific.

 

Because people will be wondering who the two Jedi Knights are.

Every crawl focuses immediately on what the current situation is in media res, and what is about to happen.

Naming Dooku, Grievous and Palpatine is to help people remember who they are, and everyone will recognize the 2 Jedi Knights.

Naming Coruscant immediately places a location - oh yeah, it's the city planet!

The crawl isn't for hardcore fans as much as the average moviegoer.

 

Yeah, I understand.

Hey can you reopen the Official Darth Vader thread?

I want to ask how long is the suited Vader going to appear in this movie. Do you know?

http://boards.theforce.net/message.asp?topic=8478359&replies=15

 

As far as I recall, suited Vader has "minutes" of screentime. As in the single digits.

 

Alright, what do you think now?

http://bobcavic.tripod.com/starwars/index.album?i=0&s=1

Does that change your mind?

 

Well, despite my sworn vow to being as HCSF as I can, it sure didn't take long for me to crack and read the scroll for Episode III.(Palpatine's kidnapping isn't really a surprise for me--I actually knew that for some time now)

My reaction? I LOVE IT.

"War!" is pure, genuine Star Wars, and the rest of the first paragraph outrightly confirms what the PT supporters have been harping from the very beginning: the new movies are far more complicated and deep than the old ones.

Oh man, I'm incredibly giddy right as I speak... I seriously hope that the "inpromptu" laser blasts rumor is true.

 

I like it, and think it's completely consistent with the other opening crawls. At first I thought it was shorter than usual, but now that I see it rearranged in Lars_Muul's post above, I can see that my first impression was wrong. Looks like pure Star Wars to me!

 

Why has the opening crawl been released already? I don't remember them ever releasing that kind of info before a movie comes out.

My apologies if this question has already been addressed in this thread, but I really have no desire to see the opening crawl at this time and I don't want to risk getting spoiled by reading through it.