The length of the film

The latest Insider interview with Rick McCallum says that the goal is for the movie to be 2 hours and 15 minutes. Good news, not too short!

 

WELL, if you think about it, the film CANT be short, cos just think about ALL the things it will HAVE to include!! Mcallum said the film is about 60% action-at only 2 hrs. 15 minutes, I am surprised it's ONLY 60%!!!

BUT I think it'd be SOOO awesome if the FINAL Star Wars Episode, the BIG turning point in the Saga, would be an epic 3 hours long!!! What a fulfilling way to end it all!!

BUT 2:15 will be good enough I guess!! I think that's at least the longest of all the SW films anyways, rite????

 

I would say it's about average.

I'll check.

ANH - 123 Minutes
ESB - 129
ROTJ - 136

TPM - 131
AOTC - 142

ROTS projected - 135 minutes

From what I've heard, it's going to be a roller-coaster ride, with the most action of any SW movie.

 

2 something hrs wont be sufficient. If Lucasfilm really want to end things with a bang, they'd go for 3 something hrs. But apparently they don't.

 

If Lucasfilm really want to end things with a bang, they'd go for 3 something hrs. But apparently they don't.

ROTS doesn't end things though, its the middle act of the saga and it would be strange if it were the odd one out compared to all the others. A precedent has been set and I'm glad they're going to stick to it.

 

Yes, I agree.

Though I would be happy if the PT DVD's had extended editions.

 

It is the last movie of the saga. In my opinion, it is the most important movie - because it ties everything together. There's gonna be a hell lot of stuff they need to put in the movie and I just don't understand how they can do that in 2 hrs and 15 minutes.

 

Though I would be happy if the PT DVD's had extended editions.

...are we forgetting the additional footage added back to the Episode I DVD? Mmmmm

And I think 135 minutes, with 60% of it being action, is appropiate. IMO, ROTS will be more of "The Payoff" than "The Setup".

 

AOTC is not 142 minutes. It's 137 with end credits. The other episodes are not correct either, they're all shorter than that, GARTH.

Frankly, I'll be very interested to see how they will fill 135 minutes, because it's not all that much left to tell. AOTC is the most story-packed episode yet and I think it will remain so.

 

GARTH took those times right off the back of the DVDs.

If Rick says 2 hr. 15 min. then that probably means without the credits, which would make it about as long as AOTC... which does seem a bit short, but then again I could sit in the theatre all day long. I have no doubt however, that in the end, it will be longer than any of the others... which is a realistic hope for us.

 

I realise that, but the DVD covers are wrong. I checked the display on my DVD player and AOTC is about 132 without end credits. It's also the longest episode yet, which makes ROTS the longest if it's 135 without end credits.

 

Return of the Jedi just barely broke the two hour mark. I remember three years ago I was debating with some friends of mine who were worried about the quality of Episode II simply because Lucas was trying to get it down to 2 hours. One of them stated this rule that, if the first cut was two and a half hours, you simply do not, as a matter of principle, cut further. I found that simply absurd, and still maintain that one cannot call a film too short, sight unseen. Episode III will be fine.

 

Lars_Muul: Yours are probably PAL, so they'd be shorter due to the different framerates.

 

Why would PAL be shorter? They don't make different cuts for different countries(and framerates have nothing to do with it). I have the Swedish PAL versions with Swedish covers and those covers also say that the films are too long. They just got it wrong, that's all.

Obi-Ewan: I agree. If one thinks that AOTC is bad when it's "only" 132 minutes long, one wouldn't think it better if it was 150 minutes. In fact, I think they would like it even less, because all those slow scenes would drag the movie down.
Lucas knows how to make a movie, fear not.

 

Why would PAL be shorter?

Film runs at 24 FPS.

NTSC runs at 29.97 FPS, which is done with 3:2 pulldown, which makes NTSC run at the same rate as film.

PAL runs at 25 FPS, which is done by simply speeding up the film. So a PAL transfer is 96% the length of the original film. Therefore, a 142 minute movie on film or in NTSC runs at 137 minutes in PAL.

Here's IMDB's details on the DVDs. You can see the different runtimes for each region.

 

Before I go on: My AOTC DVD says 2:17 on the back(so I was wrong there).
However: You're implying that everything in my version moves faster and that people talk faster. I don't believe that. I mean, that would also mean that the pitch of the sound would be slightly higher. Voices, music and sound effects would all sound a little different. I know that they do not, though, because I've listened to the soundtracks countless times(and the standard for CD is the same all over the world, as you know), so I would tell the difference if it was there.

 

There will be no change in sound or anything like that, it's just a very subtle difference. But the fact remains when you're seeing 25 fps instead of 30 fps the picture is going to go by a tiny bit faster, you'll never physically be conscious of it. Your eye won't notice there's five less frames in that second. Actually PAL is of a greater image quality than NTSC, because it uses progressive scanning. Interlaced scanning, which is what normal NTSC uses, takes something like twice as long to scan the image as PAL. That may have something to do with the time as well. But we're talking fractions of a second here. I'd just be glad that with PAL you've automatically got a better image quality.

 

I am glad
It just doesn't seem logical that 25 fps would be faster than 30 fps. I don't buy it, cuz it should be the other way around.

 

ha ha ha, you are all most impressive.

I just think the AOTC DVD looks great.

 

Then I guess mine looks super-great

 

Indeed it does, stupid America.

 

Huh?

 

PAL format is higher quality that NTSC, so it kind of sucks to be us.

 

"Frankly, I'll be very interested to see how they will fill 135 minutes, because it's not all that much left to tell. AOTC is the most story-packed episode yet and I think it will remain so."

AOTC as the most story-packed movie of Star Wars? I beg to differ.

As far as what EP3 has to cover, here is just a make-shift list:

- the conversion of the Old Republic into the Empire
- the transformation of Anakin to Vader
- the continued forbidden marriage between Anakin and Padme
- the birth of the twins
- the hiding of the twins
- Palpatine's rise to Emperor
- the lava duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan
- the deaths of countless Jedi
- the death of Mace Windu
- the death of Count Dooku
- the death of Padme
- the conversion of clone troopers to stormtroopers
- the significance of General Grievious and his role in the war
- Yoda and Obi-Wan's retreat to hiding

Plus, there's a hell lot more stuff to add in, but I'm too lazy to do so now.

 

It just doesn't seem logical that 25 fps would be faster than 30 fps. I don't buy it, cuz it should be the other way around.

If it were just a straight transfer in both cases, it wouldn't be. However, NTSC doesn't do that. In order to get the extra six frames necessary, it interpolates, making those 30 frames cover the exact same time and amount of the movie as the 24 frames of film do.

I mean, that would also mean that the pitch of the sound would be slightly higher.

Often, the sound is pitch-adjusted either on the DVD, or by the player to compensate. But you're right, left alone it would be slightly higher (I don't know if anyone could detect a 104% higher pitch, though). In fact, my software DVD player specifically has an option you can turn on to adjust the pitch back for PAL DVDs.

As far as what EP3 has to cover, here is just a make-shift list:

But it's not like every event listed there takes the same amount of time or occurs individually. I'm sure if you listed every individual plot point of all the other movies, they'd look like a lot too.

Let me try it with AOTC:
- The formation of the Grand Army of the Republic
- The attempted assassination of Padme
- Granting emergency powers to Palpatine
- The discovery of the clone troopers
- The introduction of Dooku
- The duel between Dooku, Anakin, and Obi-Wan
- Anakin losing his arm
- Yoda dueling
- The death of Shmi
- Anakin's first steps to the Dark Side
- Introducing Owen and Beru
- Anakin and Padme falling in love
- The start of the Clone Wars
- Anakin and Padme getting married
- The Jedi discovering the existence of Darth Sidious

Looks like a lot, but when you get down to it, a lot of those are descriptions of broad processes, very short scenes, or redundant items. It's not like there are five minutes of the GAR being formed, five minutes of Padme being attacked, and so forth. Every plot point is not an individual scene.