The length of the film

I give up

Frank: Hydronium is right. Stuff like "the conversion of clone troopers to stormtroopers" won't even be one specific event(it's not like they will change their armor or anything). The clones will just turn on the Jedi around the same time as Palpatine becomes Emperor and simultaneously, the Republic will become an Empire.
Easy as that.

 

The list that hydronium created includes a lot of the stuff that we found out only AFTER we saw the movie. Keep in mind that we haven't even seen ROTS yet. The list that I made in the previous post is just a list of what definitely HAS to happen in the movie.

Plus, if you wanted the previous list to be more specific, there will be even more elements added. For example, if you're talking about Anakin's transformation into Vader you'll have to include and explain:

- Anakin's conflicting relationship with Obi-Wan
- Palpatine's plan to lure Anakin
- THE turning point when Anakin completely falls to the Dark Side
- Anakin's fall into the lava pit
- How Palpatine rescued Anakin from the lava

 

Much of this is pure speculation, though, and most of it can(and will, I have no doubt) be stuffed together, like this:

- the conversion of the Old Republic into the Empire
- Palpatine's rise to Emperor
- the conversion of clone troopers to stormtroopers

- the transformation of Anakin to Vader
- the continued forbidden marriage between Anakin and Padme
- Anakin's conflicting relationship with Obi-Wan
- Palpatine's plan to lure Anakin
- the death of Count Dooku
- the lava duel between Anakin and Obi-Wan
- THE turning point when Anakin completely falls to the Dark Side
- Anakin's fall into the lava pit
- How Palpatine rescued Anakin from the lava

- the death of Padme
- the birth of the twins
- the hiding of the twins
- Yoda and Obi-Wan's retreat to hiding

- the deaths of countless Jedi
- the death of Mace Windu

- the significance of General Grievious and his role in the war

I'm also speculating, of course, when it comes to which events will be connected to eachother. I know, though(from watching the other episodes), that this is how Lucas works.
No need to make things more complicated than they have to be.

 

If you wanted to, you can categorize almost anything. What I'm saying is that ROTS will be the most story-packed movie of all the films.

 

I think that ROTS really has to be the longest SW film yet - at least how I'm seeing it.

We have the opening space battle and the adventures aboard the TF Cruiser, which should last what, 20 or so minutes. Then some transitory scenes, and then the break up into the three storylines (as I think Pablo mentioned). I assume they'll be:

1) Everything with Obi-Wan, Grievous, Medon, etc.

2) Yoda and the Wookies on Kashyyyk.

3) Everything on Coruscant, involving Anakin, Padme, Palpatine, Mace, Bail Organa, the list goes on...

That seems to be enough material, given GL's style, for a solid, 2-hour SW movie. But then, a lot more has to happen (namely, The Duel, and possibly some side adventures with Yoda and Sidious). The three main stories need to end and reconvene back together for that to go down. If one sees the climax (don't think movies, think more of plays and the like) of ROTS as Anakin turning, then a lot more has to happen after that point. Obi-Wan goes after Anakin to turn him back to the good side, remember. The Duel does not equal Anakin's fall.

Not to mention things like Grievous and how he will be introduced. It takes some time to set up a new villain this late in the series. You need a scene introducing the character to the audience, a scene showing him doing something rather evil, a scene where the heroes learn about/encounter him, etc. With Dooku, his appearance was more mysterious and was worked into the background. But with a character so downright evil and maniacal as Grievous, he needs some significant time to "ham it up," so to speak.

So anyway...can the film, judging from what we know about the general outline of the plot, be your average SW length? Sure. But I don't see how.

Any thoughts?

 

What I'm saying is that ROTS will be the most story-packed movie of all the films.

But amount of story is not proportional to amount of screen time. Consider that one of the most important events in the prequels, Palpatine getting emergency powers, was two scenes that lasted only a couple minutes - and yet they still conveyed the import of what was taking place. The Senate being dissolved, an incredibly important event since it signals the final death of the Republic, is actually offscreen, and dealt with in a couple of lines. Palpatine's election to Supreme Chancellor is again offscreen. Things like the Republic becoming the Empire are not single events, they're processes that start in AOTC and take place over the entire movie. Ditto with Anakin falling to the Dark Side. Sometimes major events get major screen time, sometimes they take place very quickly. Sometimes minor events (like the Battle of Hoth) take up good chunks of the movie.

We have the opening space battle and the adventures aboard the TF Cruiser, which should last what, 20 or so minutes. Then some transitory scenes, and then the break up into the three storylines (as I think Pablo mentioned). I assume they'll be:

1) Everything with Obi-Wan, Grievous, Medon, etc.

2) Yoda and the Wookies on Kashyyyk.

3) Everything on Coruscant, involving Anakin, Padme, Palpatine, Mace, Bail Organa, the list goes on...

That seems to be enough material, given GL's style, for a solid, 2-hour SW movie. But then, a lot more has to happen (namely, The Duel, and possibly some side adventures with Yoda and Sidious).

Incidentally about the same structure and number of concurrent plotlines as AOTC - intro scenes, plotline split, then reconvene for the grand finale (in terms of how much time the plotlines will be given, I'm assuming Obi-Wan's and Anakin's the same as in AOTC, and Yoda's the same, or probably a bit more, than the Coruscant scenes in AOTC). And AOTC had no problem fitting that in. Although in this case the big battle is in the beginning, occupying most of the time there rather than at the end.

Not to mention things like Grievous and how he will be introduced. It takes some time to set up a new villain this late in the series. You need a scene introducing the character to the audience, a scene showing him doing something rather evil, a scene where the heroes learn about/encounter him, etc.

But that's not mutually exclusive with the rest of the plot. Consider introducing Jabba in ROTJ - just the establishing shots of his throne rooms tell us most of what we need to know - he's a filthy, hedonistic, extravagant crime lord surrounded by low-life cronies. The actions he takes as the plot goes alone tell us the rest. Grievous, for example, is a very archetypal character - we don't need to be told he's evil, he revels in old-school villainry so much that we'll no doubt know he's evil just in his introduction. Lucas doesn't spend a lot of time on character introductions, you'll notice. We don't learn about them through exposition, or a special scene, we learn in the context of the story. Luke, Vader, Leia, Obi-Wan, Palpatine (in the PT), Qui-Gon, Anakin, Padme, the droids - all of them are simply slipped into the plot at the appropriate time. I can only think of two true intro scenes - Palpatine in ROTJ and Han (actually, the droids in the PT get their own scenes too, now that I think about it). Only in those cases does the story actually seem to stop to introduce them. The rest of the time, characters just appear naturally, and their actions and interactions with other characters give us all the introduction we need.

The point I'm trying to make here is that the amount of story is not related to how much time is dedicated to it. Not every plot point is a scene, not every storyline is onscreen, not every story is a single event, not every scene only contains one plotline. Movies are structurally a lot more complex than a series of plot points in a row.

 

I agree 100%. It just occurred to me after I posted how similar AOTC and ROTS are, in terms of the "splitting up" factor.

On a side note, is the Battle of Coruscant (cool name BTW) the only battle in this film? All the films have just one, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get some landbased battle later on. And that would significantly lengthen the running time.

Also, how long is the Battle of Coruscant? Are we talking AOTC's Coruscant Chase, or Jabba's Palace sequence? I lean towards the latter, with all the action on the Cruiser, the duel with Dooku, the first we see of Grievous, etc.

 

On a side note, is the Battle of Coruscant (cool name BTW) the only battle in this film? All the films have just one, but I wouldn't be surprised if we get some landbased battle later on. And that would significantly lengthen the running time.

The Battle of Kashyyyk and the Battle of Utapau. The latter from one of the Q&A drop boxes (described as a "major battle"). Although, technically, Pablo says he thinks of those as more personal engagements, and not "a historic 'Battle of' Such and Such", but "the Battle of Utapau" just looked so cool.

Also, how long is the Battle of Coruscant? Are we talking AOTC's Coruscant Chase, or Jabba's Palace sequence? I lean towards the latter, with all the action on the Cruiser, the duel with Dooku, the first we see of Grievous, etc.

Jabba, though, was finishing off an entire plotline from the previous movie, so that's probably an overestimate. It's probably more analogous to Hoth, but I don't remember how long that was. Not all the character exposition and Wampa stuff, but the battle and its setup. But in general terms, yeah, it sounds a lot more like a mini-storyline than just an action piece.

 

Ep3 is really three stories running at the same time. One's much more dark than the others. -PH

The story will move much quicker than the previous films. - RM

Bottom line is guys, the movie needs to be long enough to tell these three main stories, everything else is periphery. AOTC had two main stories and a sub story. At this point we have absolutely no idea how much time will be spent on every little thing that needs to happen. It's kind of pointless to argue about it. Unlike AOTC there will be little need for exposition, we'll just jump right into the action. As Rick says, the story moves quite fast. The plot lines are tumbling rapidly out of control, we've known that was coming. I doubt much time will be spent lingering on peripherial stories and characters, they will just slide into the story, or out of it. I seriously doubt Lucas will cut necessary scenes just for the sake of a shorter movie. What was cut out of AOTC was less about time and more about pacing. What needs to happen, will happen, in the appropriate amount of time.


edit: about land battles:

We will see many land battles and at least one is of the continuing Clone Wars. Ryan thinks it looks cool. -RC

 

The Battle of Utapau? Really? That sounds excellent.

I was under the impression that it would just be Ben vs. Grievous and his bodyguards, yet Pablo seems to suggest more.

Curious.

And, I agree RS. I think ROTS wll be lightning fast, all the way through.

 

I seriously doubt Lucas will cut necessary scenes just for the sake of a shorter movie.

Yeah, that's the thing: Lucas isn't aiming for some particular time. 3-hour films aren't the anthema they used to be, and people would see a 3-hour Star Wars movie just as much as a 2-hour and something-minute one (theaters wouldn't be as happy, since they don't get as many showings and tickets still cost the same, but no theater would turn down a Star Wars movie just because of that). If the movie is shorter than people expect, it's not because Lucas had to trim down important points or cram a lot into a short time due to some arbitrary time limit, it's because the movie quite simply doesn't need 45 extra minutes to show everything properly.

I was under the impression that it would just be Ben vs. Grievous and his bodyguards, yet Pablo seems to suggest more.

From the action figures and Reversal of Fortune, we know that there's a hidden Separatist presence there. My theory: Obi-Wan follows Grievous to Utapau, discovers the Separatists, and calls in the Republic military to take care of them while he goes after Grievous himself.

 

The mystery of Sifo-Dyas
Force disappearing/Force Ghosts

"The Clone Wars would end at the beginning of the film, and it would then become very small and personal." -GL

The timespan covered over the course of Ep3 is similar to that of the other films. -PH

Ep3 will provide the answers the fans have been waiting for, but may also pose some new questions. - RM

"There are a few scenes you will go nuts over." - GB

The space battle covers the first 20 minutes of the film. -RB

The first 20 minutes is not all space battle. But the battle does kick off the first 20 minutes before moving into further action-packed territory. -PH

The story will move much quicker than the previous films. - RM

Ep3 is a "2-hour turn to the dark side". - RM

 

The length seems absolutely perfect for me. It fits to me, and what plotpoints seem to be apparent. Who knows when Padme might die though...cause Leia was very young but still remembers her.


And as each day passes by, I get more and more and more excited. I'll probably be in an asylum by the time ROTS comes out...