Topic: Everything Star Wars discussion thread| How you doing, you old pirate?

If we're comparing the Star Wars films from the 70s to other action films with swords, please can we have actual examples from the same era ....? There's been a lot of action films since the original trilogy, for them to learn things about it all

There were a lot of practical effects in the prequel series. I do miss the authentic practical effects of the eighties though, it might have blunted the immersion somewhat

@BruceCM Well Star Wars itself drew inspiration from 50s Samurai films like the Seven Samurai if you’re looking for an example but I disagree with there’s been huge advancements in films besides the floppy CGI Yoda which GC mentioned. They have largely stayed the same since it’s a practical thing which relies on choreography and sword fighting itself has become less in vogue. I suppose you could argue more time has been spent on similar actions scenes in recent movies thanks to bigger budgets but Star Wars still has pokey lightsabers at each other which is more limited than the classic swashbuckling movies from the time 40s.

Ah, well, I haven't seen that film, @jump ..... Most films I've seen with good sword-fighting bits were 80s & then other action in the 90s & since I think there's been a lot of progress with the choreographing of action scenes in films over the years, though!

@BruceCM I think that’s more down to the movies you’ve watched than sword fights only got good after the 80s. Samurai films were a thing long before then and Seven Samurai in particular is a film that has heavily influenced a lot of movies ever since it was released.

In any case I doubt the advancements of choreography is to blame for Alex Guinness half heartedly playing pokey with a stick ;p

Maybe, @jump .... I don't remember Alec being that bad, either! Perhaps some people will have other examples, though

@BruceCM I wouldn't say they are bad (boring but functional is my more accurate in my opinion) but the impression it left on me was it doesn't live up to hype since lightsabers are such an iconic thing whilst the new films do deliver and don't get the credit for it.

Well, I do like the action in the pre-quels & haven't caught up with the latest few, @jump .... Perhaps it's too long since I saw the original 3?

@SM3DASislit Yeah, I'm positive nothing is stopping Ubi from developing Star Wars games, they just can't release it until the EA deal expires. I don't know, it doesn't seem that weird to me! It would be weird if they weren't allowed to start developing it until 2023, cause then you'd end up with a several year gap where no Star Wars game is ready in time.

@jump One big issue with the sword fighting was that the lightsabers they used were extremely fragile. They'd break constantly during filming, and they had to make a ton of replacements. The lightsabers never even made contact in episode 4, which explains the awkwardness of the Darth Vader fight. These days it's just a CGI sword over a plastic prop, so it's definitely easier to create flashy fight scenes.

@Octane
Yeah, that makes sense. I just always thought that only EA could develop and publish Star Wars games until 2023 (mainly to keep my expectations in check), but your reasoning makes complete sense. Once the Lucasfilm Games restructure was announced, I thought that (maybe) different developers could secretly develop Star Wars games, but couldn’t announce it until 2023. That being said, it wouldn’t surprise me (now) if there were, at least, a couple more Star Wars games announced with different developers involved, aside from Ubisoft and EA, that is.

@jump
Another main problem that the original trilogy (particularly Episode IV) had, is that basically all of the actors had no idea as to what the heck they were doing for Star Wars, especially for lightsaber duels. 🤔

the Mandalorian season 1 (Disney+)

A little late to getting to this, but I really enjoyed it. The last 2 episodes of the season in particular were cracking, but there were good moments peppered throughout, such as the episode that paid homage to "Seven Samurai". Of course the production values were absolutely top notch (genuinely felt movie quality), and I can see how "the child" took the internet by storm.

Content Guide:

Language (Average) - Typical PG-13 type fare.

Violence (Average) - tons of (laser blasting) gunfights & a bit of space ship combat, but it's mostly bloodless. Characters do die.

Nudity/Sex (None) - Dude won't even take his helmet off, lol.

According to Mark Hamill, George Lucas told them that lightsabers were hefty weapons and had to be wielded two-handed, hence you don't see all the fancy twirly-wurly spinny dancing you see in the prequels.

Pretty sure there's at least a couple sources on this, that in the first movie George Lucas insisted that they like heavy swords and for them to treat them as such.

the Mandalorian season 2 (Disney+) - After the events of last season the Mandalorian is tasked with returning the infant to it's people, but in order to get a lead he's going to have to track down his own, scattered across the galaxy after last season's big finale.

The show continues to be excellent, now with the inclusion of a few familiar faces from elsewhere in the franchise, and the same movie quality budget that brought the first season to life. Can't wait for the spin-off teased at the end of the season.

Dropping the "Content Guide" bit as I should be able to adequately discuss such things in the write-ups themselves.

Star Wars: the Clone Wars season 1 (Disney+) - with the Mandalorian & WandaVision behind me & the Falcon & Winter soldier not yet fully available I was looking for something on Disney+ to stream & gave this a shot after hearing some good things.

I always used to overlook this show back when it was airing on Cartoon Network due to the blocky character design & the fact that it usually displaced an anime in whatever action block was airing, but after giving it an honest to goodness shot I quite liked it.

The character design wasn't nearly as off putting as I had feared, and while it does feature some trappings of typical kids' action fare (though I can't blame the writers for having the big villains always escape at the last minute every time, due to the fact that their fates have been pre-determined in the preceding live action films), I was surprised at how much it felt like a genuine Star Wars adventure, just animated (while never bloody, it certainly never shied away from acknowledging & featuring death, for example).

My only real gripe is that the pacing was really odd in spots. For example in one episode they deal with a spy that endangers them to enemy attack, & while they catch the spy by episode's end, it's clearly setting up for a part two as it ends with them bracing for an all out attack with their own weapons reserves depleted thanks to the spy's actions, however upon the start of the next episode this plot is completely dropped and they're suddenly dealing with a virus on Naboo (ironically, while that storyline is seemingly tied up in a bow by episode's end, that's the one they decide to backtrack on & give a part two). There were a couple more moments like this, but nothing quite as jarring as that instance.

Still, it was a solid watch & I'll definitely watch further seasons whenever I find myself in this scenario again.

Every year in may to celebrate may the 4th be with you i do a chronological marathon of all the star wars episodes. Not all at once though. I would lose my mind watching star wars for that long! I just do one movie a day. I just started today with episode 1! Good times!

I can't wait for the new Obi-wan series! Who else is excited? I hear they started production this month so looking forward to the first teaser/trailer!

Not sure what to expect with Mando season 3 but as long as it still retains the quality of the first two seasons I'll be watching! I love that little baby yoda! Doesn't everybody?

On a last note i wonder when we can expect a trailer for the Rogue squadron movie they announced a while back? Man i hope it's great!

@Zeldafan79 They announced a bunch of things. I'm not really sure in what order they come out, but Book of Boba Fett is confirmed for late 2021, with Mando 3 ''soon after''. And yes, they also started filming the Obi-Wan and Andor series, so I expect we'll get all of them pretty much back to back in 2022. Just like how Marvel is going from Wandavision, to Falcon and the Winder Soldier, and Loki in June with little pause in between.

@Octane
I still need to check out falcon and the winter soldier. Is that like a prequel to the events of Captain america winter soldier?

@Zeldafan79 It's a sequel, it's set after the events of Endgame.