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Mods, if you think this thread is overkill or anything, please move me to the "theatrical cut is different" thread, as some of the discussion in there inspired it. I just felt we needed a thread for reactions to the DVD that weren't related to the deleted scenes.

I'll start it off - random food for thought -

- According to Within A Minute, Spielberg (the "guest" director) came up with the whole structure falling into the lava sequence. I really think that was the best part of the duel, what a great idea, and so different from anything else in the duels we've seen in Star Wars. I'm glad GL reached to him for some advice, as that was a really inventive sequence.

- McDiarmid had to learn all his saber moves on the day of the shoot? No wonder the Sidous-Mace fight always looked a little odd to me...

- The Chosen One is great - seeing Lucas actually direct is a lot of fun. He clearly got into the minds of the characters far more in EIII than in the previous two episodes. It's unfortunate the Chosen One wasn't longer, b/c seeing moments on the set seen in this doc are my favorite parts of all the Docs.


Anyone else have thoughts?

I liked that Lucas opted to use Ian McDiarmid for the Mace fight over a stunt double. He says in "It's All For Real" featurette, "You can't change Ian, you gotta change the fight." That's how it always should be. AOTC's duel never felt right at all because you could clearly tell it wasn't Christopher Lee fighting most of the time (granted, the ROTS fight was slightly better). It took you out of the moment, much more than the minimal doubling in the Mace/Palpatine duel.

I mentioned in another topic how much Ben Burtt pissed me off in "Within A Minute" when he drowned out the music in the duel with sound fx. Even Lucas was saying to bring down the fx before Ken Wannberg got pissed. Burtt just seemed like much more of a prick that I've ever taken him for.

Def agree with the latter as I said in the other thread.

I agree that the Dooku fight suffered b/c of face replacement. But they could've had Ian learn the moves ahead of time - although, he didn't look too nimble. Just another reason to love Ian is his willingness to step in there and do it without complaining, you could really sense his nervousness in that documentary, and how he was trying real hard, but couldn't get it. In the end, I think he did pretty good. I guess I blame the cutting mainly for my problems with the Palpy Mace fight, it just seems a little clunky at the getgo.

I enjoyed all the docs, the two shorter ones probably moreso. The Stunts doc is my favorite, I love seeing Nick Gillard work with the actors on all the fight choreography and then see the bts stuff of them actually shooting it on the sets. I still wish there had been a doc on the AOTC dvd covering its duels.

The Chosen One was better than I was expecting. Between this and the commentary there was a lot of nice insights from Lucas on Anakin, the story of ROTS and the saga as a whole.

Within A Minute was cool but is very dense so repeat viewings maybe a bit tedious. Still it was very informative and has a ton of great bts footage as well as deleted saber footage for cut scenes fans like myself. I'll be sorting through that for a while.

For those that haven't tried it yet, the In-depth commentary on dvd.starwars.com is pretty good. Pointed out a few things I hadn't noticed before. One bad thing is that it describes a bunch a gag-sequences that ILM rendered (like for the blooper reels in the TPM and AOTC dvd's) which we didn't get to see!

I quite liked the extra features, my only quim is that I thought there was too many "[insert some digital feature] was like so hard to make....." followed by a detailed recount and "OMG Look it's a matte paining!!! And I know the guy who made it/I made it" parts of the commentary (I like commentaries) The highlights were definately the few times Lucas was allowed to speak. This is why I'd like a seperate technical commentary track because I like to hear the filmmaking process from both the "directorial"/plot/cinematography side and the effects/art departments but there's just way too much info on both sides to this IMHO for one track only and I felt that Lucas's very insightful contributions were cut way too short.



Best example is during some of the more intense parts of the Vader vs. Obi-Wan battle Lucas is giving his view on how he envioned this and inspirations etc. which cuts into this "OMG OMG There's lava/magma/ember/vulcano spray from Mount Edna!!" and some other mindless drivel about shit that has nothing to do with what's happening on the screen.

other than that it's a perfectly alright dvd release.

For the last part of the Saga, you really think GL would go full out and explain everything...instead he remains very quiet on the whole subject (yawn).

Definitely agree, and I think it explains what Ternian says in the next post.

I hope that there is a Mythology of Star Wars: Prequels, to really explain what GL was thinking when he wrote all these. The guy puts a lot of effort into writing and researching, but how often does he talk about it? Every five years or so he does an interview with PBS that is related to Joe Campbell or Myth, but other than that, those of us who like Star Wars for its story aspects versus its effect aspects are given the shaft. Hell, if no one writes a Prequels Mythology book within a few years, I'll write one myself.

Its by far what interests me most about Star Wars. It's what separates it from Star Trek or any other sci-fi/science fantasy. As 6 movies, it's the best piece of modern myth we have in our society, LOTR is the only thing I can think of that even stacks up.

It seems to be somewhat well known that GL has a penchant for being vague. He is possibly so quiet on story aspects, etc concerning the saga because he wants the viewer to have his/her own take on the transpiring events. I know from experience when an author or director explicitly points out what, how, and why something was done, it ruins that aspect of personal discovery.

Then again, that experience of being able to see inside the head of the author or director also allows me to see new angles to the piece that I wasn't possible for me to see. Hmmmm.

Anyway, Manny, if you wrote that book I would definately read it. Your posts are a joy to read.

That's definitely true. But at the same time, I feel people assume that there isn't much going on behind GL's thought process because he is so vague. The average viewer doesn't know him like we do. And since he's wrapping these movies into the package of a serial sci-fantasy movie, it's only natural to assume that the movies are superficial and just for enjoyment. But I think we all know that isn't the case.

Within a Minute just dragged on and on with very little information.

why does Rick McNugget feel he has to act like a salesman throughout his entire commentary, we are watching the extras, we obviously liked the film. producers can be some of the most boring people.

I may record my own commentary for the film and post it on MP3 format.

Word, I don't know if you're serious or not, but I'd def listen to it.

There should be an MF commentary. And I guarantee it'd be more insightful than the likes of Ben Burtt and Rob Coleman (I exclude Knoll from this list cuz he's cool).

I'd listen to it as well. In fact, an MF ROTS commentary sounds like a really great idea.

I attempted a (very sad) sample fan commentary and realized I completely suck at it. If one ever is done like this, I really think it would kick ass. But not by me.

http://www.megaupload.com/?d=9RSQ5BLE

Another First!

There was a site that hosted/linked to fan made commentaries for movies on dvd.

http://www.listology.com/content_show.c ... t_id.17002

Not the link I remember but that's what Google shows now.


A fan commentary on ep3 would be interesting.

seriously, he's WAY off.

what does he know anyway? he just created the film

GL's commentary is great, but he's cut off too much, especially by Coleman, man that guy rubs me the wrong way. At least Burtt's not on it this time around.

Still, there is a lot that goes unsaid.

It kills me that they can't get the actors to do commentary, even for this one, you'd think it being the last and having some of the best and most dramatic acting in the saga, that we'd hear from the actors. I would love to hear from Hayden, Ewan, Ian, Christopher Lee, Sam Jackson (I know Natalie would never do it). It is a huge disappointment everytime they release a DVD and the actors aren't on the commentary.

HEre's hoping we get a actors' commentary on future releases of the Saga. I don't think it is ever going to happen but who knows...

I suggest if anyone has a DVDROM drive, check out the in depth commentary. I was only able to get through about 20 minutes of it but it's very informative.

One example: After Padme tells Anakin she's pregnant and Anakin goes "This is a happy moment...", it's a shot of Natalie with Hayden's hand caresses her neck/cheek. In the next shot we got Hayden's closeup and his hand is there. Well, on the previous shot, GL liked Natalie's take but Hayden forget to raise his hand to her neck. So, ILM digitally put one there to match the next shot. Now, I've watched that scene numerous times, I still can't tell.

The genius that is ILM.

They did get Carrie to do the OT commentaries, so hopefully they'll get some of the PT actors for the inevitable box set.

I seriously doubt Lucas edits the individual commentaries together himself. It's probably more like an AOL chat with a celebrity where a moderator feeds the guest questions they think people are most interested in... which is why hardcore fans of ANYthing are always bored out of their fucking mind in those chats. Same deal is probably true of DVD commentaries. The commentary editor says "people sure like CGI, so we can ignore the boring stuff like plot and character".

So, in summary, the commentary editor really needs to commit suicide immediately. It's the only way...

He doesn't edit the commentaries.

It's done by a professional who takes the best of numerous commentaries and edits them together. He was highlighted on the OS a month or so ago...forgot his name.

The feature CoGro is referring to is on Gary Leva, commentary producer/editor.

The feature is hyperspace though:
http://www.starwars.com/hyperspace/memb ... index.html


Linked from http://www.starwars.com/episode-iii/rel ... index.html

I think this guy does a piss poor job. They need two commentaries, we should be allowed to hear Lucas out in full. Hell, even McCallum was providing much worthier commentary then the effects guys.

"I take the same road to work as George every day and I just don't know where he comes up with this stuff".
"I thought we should've cut out the fun R2 stuff from the beginning of the movie, BOY WAS I WRONG!!!"
"What an amazing... and bold... IDEA... to put in a movie. Ya know?"

Woo hoo, sign me up!

I'd rather hear Coleman go on about having to dig up the old Boss Nass model from TPM and worrying about if it would be up to snuff than that.

You forgot "Absolutely brilliant."

Frankly, I'd rather hear dead silence than Coleman. The guy's a toolbox. And I'm sick of hearing about the effects. Nothing has really changed from Episode 1, and even back then, it's not that interesting, a good majority of the time it's just a bunch of nerds doing something on a computer.

McCallum at least focuses on what's important, the story, even if he's a stupid gushing loser, it's more relevant than the effects people. I'm used to his stupid unnecessary superlatives by now.

(On a side note, I don't really think he was wrong about the R2 stuff...does anyone else think that elevator scene is the one expendable scene in the movie??)

I can't think of any other expendable scenes in the film. It really is the one that could stand to go. All the R2 antics felt a little out of place. I know Lucas is in love with him or whatever, but did we really need a droid boxing match and comic relief with the Emperor? Probably not.

On a side note.

I looked through Knoll's book about the FX of the saga today and he confirms that the Qui-Gon scene was IN until very late in post...throws all the shit Rick was saying about a 'thoughtette' right out the window.

I know we all knew this, but it's nice to have some official confirmation from someone in charge of building the picture. I really have a feeling this will make it back in on some future release. It's way too important a scene to leave out. George knows it and thats why he wants it back so badly...I liken this scene to Jabba's encounter with Han in ANH...and the Qui-Gon scene is about 10000000x more significant.

Knoll is the one effects guy I do very much enjoy listening to. He always seems to have something worthwhile to say. Unlike Burtt or Coleman. Thank God Burtt wasn't on this one.

I disagree with you about the Qui-Gon scene. For one, I'd rather have the whole becoming one with the force thingy remain a mystery, and probably more importantly, we don't want ROTS to end like Return of the King, where it just drags on and on.

am I the only one who never listens to DVD commentary tracks?

sounds like a great idea..... would be interested to hear commentary from a fans perspective instead of someone so close to the film.

I generally dont listen to them either... however.... i have listened to most of the commentaries on the DVDs of the entire saga

hear hear!

Dennis Muren ain't bad. He's been at ILM since the old days and he seems to know how to put things in a context that even the non-nerds can get it. I don't see why everyone hates Coleman. He always compares his digital Yoda to the puppet, talks about seeking interactions between CG and real creatures/environments, etc. A LOT more lively than Scott Squires.


Lucas made an issue out of that, not the fans. He should've followed up on it. Besides, the scene would be maybe one minute long. No big deal.

Lucas wants it back as much as anybody.

That scene deepens the saga significantly. Anakin's redemption gets a bigger payoff. If it's not important, they should also remove the tacky Yoda/Obi-wan conversation on the Tantive.

It will be back one day.

PS: When I get a chance I'm going to record a commentary track.

Agreed. The scene adequently works in the context of the saga, but, there is feeling (at least for me) of bewilderment during that scene between Yoda and Obi-wan. I feel that I missed an earlier scene in the movie and now I'm just getting the punchline without the set-up.

Settling for 2nd best as George did doesn't ruin the movie experience, it just feels like there is something intangible missing from the overall whole.

midiclorians ruined any mystery there was...and that obi-wan yoda conversation just felt strung out...

revenge of the sith just had too much ground to cover since attack of the clones was basically a time filler.

lucky for the sith most of the jedi died in a dusty arena a few years earlier...jedi have since then sucked.

i really dont understand the scene where Anakin and Grievous first exchange words. wth is going on here? was " i would expect someone with your reputaion to be a little...older" an insult??...sounded like a compliment that was delivered as an insult. then Anakin's retort - "general grievous...your a bit shorter than i expected." was that supposed to be an insult too? then,wtfh, grievous gets pissed. worst dialog in the whole movie. "practice his wit"? yeah right.

yep the Jedi still suck. all but 4.

and why cant anyone in this galaxy have any battle strategy other than standing in the open and charging into gun fire. trench warfare strategy is so primitive not to mention stupid.

and 90% of the second, extras cd is boring. screw you Rick. screw you to jedi hell.

fan commentary tracks = gay as hell.

The line works better for Princess Leia:

LEIA
General Grievous...your a lot shorter than i expected.

aka

"I could smell you foul stench..." etc.


Anakin's a little too whimpy in this one.

He's too monotone.

I liked grievous’ delivery here, but hayden could have done his a little different for my liking.

lea’s to vader was truly a well delivered insult that established her as a gutsy character cause who would say that to vader. He’s the kind of guy that if you knew of him it might be in the context of a conversation speaking of murder, death, torture ect. Most people would be looking for a more diplomatic solution to exit that situation.

I was watching a movie with Gary Oldman in it and I was having ideas of what he could have done with General Grievous. I have a strange feeling that the current perception of Grievous (good, bad, whatever) would be quite different with Oldman at the helm. Plus, Grievous' accent (Romanian?) would've been more accurate, IMO.