Star Wars mini rant...

[Vince Twelve]

OK.  This is not your usual "George Lucas broke my Star Wars" rant.

I knew that Star Wars was supposed to come out in the U.S. on May 19th.  I live in Japan, and being a Star Wars fan since I was just a little Vince, I decided to check out the IMDB site to see when it would hit theaters here.  These days, the really big films usually have simultaneous worldwide releases, so I wasn't too worried.

I did the IMDB search, found this page, and everything was looking good as I started scrolling down...

See if you can find anything strange about that page...

[Haddas]

Woah. What's up with that? Japan has to wait several weeks before it gets there!

[auhsor]

Man thats pretty annoying for you . Here in Australia we usually get things late as well.

[HillBilly]

Belgium, you spoiled bastards.


I'm not much of a SW fan myself, but if I were in your shoes, I'd be pretty annoyed myself.

[TheYak]

Considering that the employee premier of the film is on May 7th, and the beginnings of the new Lucasfilm - Singapore collaboration, seems strange it'd be delayed for a month.  My sympathies.

[Las Naranjas]

I thought the internet had all but destroyed staggered movie release times.

On one point because piracy dents sales if you release in one place first, and more importantly, the internet allows shit films to be exposed as such, so the bad reviews flowing out of the US can kill a film elsewhere.

Not that all the bad reviews in the world can stop the fanboys from going to this, even when they write the worst reviews.

[SpacePirateCaine]

I'm not exactly sure how it works in the rest of the countries of the world, but I've noticed that in Japan, movies usually are released late because they actually show both subtitled and dubbed versions of the movies simultaneously in the theatres (It was that way for the third Harry Potter movie, at least, when I went to see it - pretty sure the same applied to Spider Man 2).

I imagine that the larger movies cater more to the 'I don't want to read subtitles' crowd in that respect, so the extra month probably has something to do with the voice over work.

[Vince Twelve]

Good point about the dubbed version.  I don't go to the movies here much (upwards of 1600 yen for an assigned seat on the far side of the front row?  pass...) so I forgot about that fact.  It's strange that this country is so important that it gets its own dubbed version, but not important enough to get it on time.

I'm not sure how I'm going to stay spoiler free for over a month unless I do all my net surfing whilst blindfolded.  ("What?! Anakin is Darth Vader??!?!") I suppose I could just join the crowd and download...

[BerserkerTails]

The thing that's been weirding me out this whole time, is that the "Star Wars: Lego" videogame came out this week (Or is it coming out next week? One of the two), which follows the events of Episodes I-III. I never saw George Lucas as the kind of person who would allow this game to come out a month and a half before Star Wars Episode III, knowing full well that it'll spoil sections of the movie.

Oh well, as fun as it was (I played the demo), I'll hold off until after seeing the third movie.

[Scummbuddy]

The Episode 3 game comes out before the movie as well... He said he didnt care.

[Vince Twelve]

The novelizations usually come out a week or so before the films too.  I guess the games and novels tend to sell better when they can draw in the rabid fans who just can't wait for new Star Wars stuff. 

[Scummbuddy]

what a brilliant point and marketing idea. they know they are going to see the movie... so yeah.

[Kinoko]

I couldn't give less of a crap about the new movies (I do sympathise with your situations though, Vince), but Lego Star Wars! Man, I'm so excited ^_^ It looks fantastic! When I heard about it, I thought, "Wouldn't it be great if when you destroyed things, they shattered into their individual lego blocks?" and "Wouldn't it be great if..." and more - and all the things I wanted are included in the game! 'Course, I'd prefer the game were based around the original trilogy but maybe if this game's a success...

[BerserkerTails]

Kinoko, it *IS* awesome. I played the demo for PC, and was giggling and enjoying myself the whole time. It's very rudementary action, kinda reminds me of the Super Star Wars games for SNES, if they were redone in 3d... And with Lego... But it's very charming.

I would suggest playing it on a console though. This game cries out for a controller, and the abilitie to play the entire game co-op looks addictive.

[Kinoko]

Oh, I wouldn't dream of playing it anything but a console. In fact, I didn't even know there was a non-console version

[TheYak]

Well, saw Episode III this morning.  Overall, pretty good.  I liked it a healthy amount better than the previous two.  A good movie to see in theaters as well for some of the niftier scenes and the sound was top-notch (at least where I saw it).
Very vague spoilers:

Spoiler

If you're looking for answers to complex questions or a very deep plotline, just ready yourself to enjoy a fun movie.  As much as you know about the plot from the hype is about all the movie contains.  It had some good lead-ups to moral quandries and touching on deeper subjects but didn't really dig very far.  It also took small steps towards subtlety then took a running leap to the end result.  The dialogue? Ugh.. not great. In some scenes, it's 'B' movie quality.

[close]

Wasn't the awesome-fest I was hoping for but a more worthy Star Wars movie than the previous (IMO). All in all, I dug it.

[Privateer Puddin']

Spoiler

it always was B movie quality..

[close]

[Darth Mandarb]

Well, saw Episode III this morning.

Argh!!

I'm so ready to see this movie.  I keep hearing about people who've already seen it.  My brother and I are going to see it Wednesday night at midnight.

I have my fingers crossed that I will like it.

[PaulSC]

I'm probably one of the few non-hardcore Star Wars fans on the internet who'll admit this, but I still find the first two pretty enjoyable despite their lapses into awfulness, and I think they're more interesting and creative then they're usually given credit for (to shatter my 'net cred' even more: I reckon Empire is overrated and like Return Of The Jedi best out of the first three), so I fully expect to enjoy the crap out of the third one. I doubt it'll blow my mind or anything, but I'll be amazed if I don't enjoy it a lot.

I get the feeling a lot of it comes from being so damn sick of seeing people's bitter whinings about the prequels all over the internet that I end up wanting to like them.

[Darth Mandarb]

I get the feeling a lot of it comes from being so damn sick of seeing people's bitter whinings about the prequels all over the internet that I end up wanting to like them.

Yeah, I feel the same way.  I'm sick of it too.  But everybody is entitled to their opinion I guess

Kevin Smith said, "This is the 'Star Wars' prequel the haters have been bitching for since 'Menace' came out, and if they don't cop to that when they finally see it, they're lying"

(Read the FULL ARTICLE here - WARNING: Contains many spoilers)

Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think there's ever been a series of movies that told the end first, then went back and told the beginning.  At least, not on the same level of popularity that Star Wars has.

I have a feeling that when, seen as a whole, the saga will feel much more complete.  I think a lot of these "haters" forgot the fact that it's not complete yet!  Once they jumped on the 'prequel hating' bandwagon they just couldn't get off of it.

Now please, hit me with all the, "There's no bandwagon, the prequels just suck" and "Say what you want, the movies are crap" lines