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For the love of happy meals and subway sandwiches, put unrelated-to-the-film-Seven spoilers in the

Spoiler

tags otherwise people will find themselves being attacked with pointy sticks and flowerpots!

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Mark, is Friday going to be your designated 'drive around Staines and pick people up' day? Much love if you could collect me from that bus station at around 2:10 if you're simeltaniously heading back to Laleham with a spare seat - otherwise I'll grudingly catch the bus and drag anyone else who happens to be there with me.

Just as a follow up to this, we booked with expedia.co.uk and we'll be spending a day at Athens airport unless we can arrange to stay at the campsite earlier. It was the cheapest deal we could get and flying a day early means that we wont be too buggered if there are any delays.

If anyone wants to meetup on the Sunday we could probably find storage lockers for luggage and have a brief Athens visit, or just hang around the airport and have our own mini-mittens for 12 hours before we head onto the campsite. Or perhaps we can arrange to be at the site a day early?

I'd just like to point out again that now the dates are set anyone travelling from London wanting to catch the same flight should be prepared to co-ordinate and agree on which flight we should book tomorrow. The prices are going up and up every day and I personally want to book as soon as possible to save much-needed funds!

Edit: Looking at prices this is going to be very, very difficult to organise. We really need to be there in the afternoon if setting up tents and stuff and getting down to the campsite, and all the cheaper flights seem to require spending a day in another airport somewhere.

Edit 2: It looks like the best bet is to fly on the Sunday, changing in Geneva or Zurich or something and arriving in Athens at 3 pm. We'd have to hang at the airport until Monday morning I guess but it'd be better than missing a day of Mittens!

http://www.ebookers.com/afo/flights/step2.html?SID=QqdxIMCoyWcAACUBUGU < expedia.co.uk is cheaper, but it's the same deal. CJ and me are ready to book tomorrow and scotch is up for it too, so if someone can find a better deal by tomorrow evening please let us know!

Hello people from England and Grundislav!!! Let us book flights before the prices skyrocket!! 15th to the 22nd, yeah?!

Perhaps final resting proof that Lucas is completely bonkers, I present to you...

Lifeday - The Star Wars Holiday Special.

Warning: This may be the worst thing you'll ever watch.

End this nonsense! You're _all_ coming to Brittens!

I think from now on i'll let The Guardian argue for me:

http://film.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1477031,00.html

I also vouch that a week today all us Brits co-ordiante with Grundy on which flight to book and do so - the prices scotch quoted will continue to rise until they are very expensive.

I think Grundislav's planning to co-ordinate with the brits and fly first to the UK then onwards to Athens with us. I'm not sure of the specifics though.

I'll be at Staines at around 2pm, so if Mods is busy and can't pick up I'll happily direct anyone who happens to also be there towards the happy bus of magic that takes us almost directly outside the campsite.

I have the money, I have the technology, I have a tent and a bottle of sun lotion. I'll be there!

I honestly don't mind what week we go, but I would sway towards the cheaper option.

I should definatly be at Brittens now, just gotta work out my journey. The last time I did the trip it took me about 12 hours... I plan to do it in a third of the time this time around. The tent I have claims to be a two-man tent but it's rather too, er, cozy for two non-lovers to share - sorry!

I'd better make sure I have all the bits and pieces to it and didn't leave anything important im Cornwall now I come to think about it. I hate tents and I hate camping but it looks like I'm going to do it twice this year!

I'll make sure I'll bring the areobee too (like a regular Frizbee but goes further and is easier to get stuck up a tree), and maybe a trailer or some stuff on the game we're working on.

Hello. The story arc of the prequals were concieved 20/30/whatever years ago but not actually written until recently. It's pretty obvious that Georgie has been inspired by recent political shenanigans... well, obvious if you aren't looking in the other direction.

Stick me on the reserve list - i'll more than likely be there.

["You're either with me or my enemy"]

It wasn't anti-Bush.  It was anti-Vietnam.

Hello hello? "You're either with me or my enemy", I'm very sure that's a paraphrase of the way America's government thinks, I think Bush even said something similar. There's a lot of criticism towards the political environment in the US in Ep. 3, although I guess it's easier to see when looking in from the outside.

Honestly guys, I think you were all expecting FAR too much.

Really? I knew when I was munching my popcorn watching the trailer for Batman Begins that what I was about to see would be "blah" at best judging on the previous two films Lucas has made. It turns out that if I'd stayed at home and had someone wiggle their fingers infront of my eyes while turning the lights on and off and going "Blam! Kerpow! Rumble rumble WHUM WHUM" in my ears for two hours then holding up a bit of cardboard with "Padme dies, Anakin goes bad" I would have probably gotten roughly the same level of enjoyment. 

And besides, are we supposed to lower our expectations of what a good movie should be just because Lucas couldn't write or direct his way out of a paper bag?

Ep IV - Ep VI's special effects were top-of-the-line back in 77-83 and Ep I - Ep III's are top of the line now.

And I think this was the problem with the new Episodes. In the original trilogy the effects were there to help immerse you in this alternate galaxy while your onscreen buddies go on an adventurous romp, to help suspend your disbelief. The new trilogy is nothing BUT special effects, everything is founded inside the computer where suddenly it becomes so unbelieveable that it's quite blatant everything you see is just an elaborate set-piece done in Maya and you stop caring for anything that's going on. When Darth Vader and Obi-Wan duel in Episode 4 it's much more exciting as although it's not as acrobatically 'impressive' as their "hi-we're-keyframed-computer-models-moving-too-fast-to-concentrate-on" battle in 'Sith', it actually _feels_ like two guys fighting with lightsabres - you become totally engrossed in the tension created by the wise bearded hermit taking on the face of evil. Anakin and Obi-Wan swinging their things around on a platform about to plunge into molten rock? It's ok, they're just zeros and ones hanging over more zeros and ones. My disbelief is not suspended no matter how many hours it took to render that frame.

It's the same problems that the two Matrix sequals had, too much dependance on what can be done on a computer then overloading your senses with it. The focus shifts from making an entertaining film to cramming as much crap on one frame, and so instead of being inspired by what I see on screen I'm just bored silly by it.

Could you elaborate on the plotholes?  What plotholes did you see?

Here's one for you - in 'Empire' Obi-Wan doesn't know that Leia is Luke's brother until Yoda tells him, yet he watched Padme giving birth!

Oh yes, how long does it take them to build the Death Star between Episode 3 and 4? Certainly a damnsite longer than it takes between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. Time, it makea no sense! Maybe it's the same reason in Episode 4 why one of Vader's cronies says something along the lines of "you don't scare me with your heebie-jeebie lah-de-dah ramblings of an ancient dead religion" shortly before being strangled by Darth's heebie jeebie lah de dah mind powers. It can't have been more than 30 years ago that Jedi's were everywhere dude, surely you can remember! They were all excecuted after plotting to overthrow the Chancellor, you  must have at least heared about it on the radio.

(Incidently this response isn't a personal attack on you Darth if it seems like it, it's just given me a good chance to elaborate on the feelings I had after watching Ep 3. )

So I saw episode three last night with my girlfriend, we both came out slightly bewildered. Visually impossible to follow as there's so much clutter on the screen during the action sequences and the lightsabre battles were unwatchable as it felt like someone was shining a powerful torch directly into your eyes twenty times a second. A bunch of stuff happened that didn't really matter because we all knew the outcome before going into the cinema. Woefully bad dialogue, stale acting (did everyone act like robots to blend with the emotionless computer graphics better?), epilepsy-inducing direction, plotholes aplenty, no reason to feel any empathy for any of these characters whatsoever - what was the point of this film? It was like watching very expensive glowing multicoloured laser paint dry for two hours.

The Anti-Bush stuff was good though. And watching Hayden Christensen burn.

Do we have to go in torrential rain again?

Wow. You're pulling our legs, right?

If not... well, good luck. It's an, er, interesting choice of project.

You can't call shotgun, you can't see Mark's car!