Disney Buys Lucasfilm, Announces New "Star Wars" Movie For 2015

[Simbob4000]

To establish that the droid realizes something is wrong, has stopped it's original task, and is going to start moving up the lava flow. Because if he didn't do that the complaints would've been about how the droid didn't react and so there was no reason for it to stop what it was doing and move up the lava flow with Anakin on its back.

That's ridiculous, you don't need to establish some random thing realizes somethings standing on it. Those things are meant to be funny, and those robots have faces to sell the bit, they could just as easily not have given random machinery faces and and have them react to crap and no one would wonder anything about them; we didn't need some reaction shot of the thing Obi-Wan was standing on.

[J. Robb]

I think we're going for the world record in Multiple Page Discussion of Inconsequential Minutiae.

[The Batman]

That's ridiculous, you don't need to establish some random thing realizes somethings standing on it. Those things are meant to be funny, and those robots have faces to sell the bit, they could just as easily not have given random machinery faces and and have them react to crap and no one would wonder anything about them; we didn't need some reaction shot of the thing Obi-Wan was standing on.

When the thing in question is a droid engaged in a task, you do need to establish that it's going to stop what it's doing to do something else. It's a second or two of screen time with the robot dropping the lava it was carrying, adjusting to Anakin's weight, and changing direction to move up the lava flow. There's no exaggerated flailing or anything of the sort. It's all really straightforward and meant to establish what's going on. The cartoony face you're so worried about is two blue lights and hardly emotive or capable of the kind of comical exaggeration you're suggesting happened. We don't see a response from the platform Obi-Wan lands on because it's not a droid, it's just a platform.

We get comedy from the droids at the beginning of the movie. It's there and it's obvious. What the lava droids do isn't comedy and isn't meant to be comedy.

Yoda quickly dispatching the Emperor's guards on the other hand.....

[Simbob4000]

When the thing in question is a droid engaged in a task, you do need to establish that it's going to stop what it's doing to do something else. It's a second or two of screen time with the robot dropping the lava it was carrying, adjusting to Anakin's weight, and changing direction to move up the lava flow. There's no exaggerated flailing or anything of the sort. It's all really straightforward and meant to establish what's going on. The cartoony face you're so worried about is two blue lights and hardly emotive or capable of the kind of comical exaggeration you're suggesting happened. We don't see a response from the platform Obi-Wan lands on because it's not a droid, it's just a platform.

We get comedy from the droids at the beginning of the movie. It's there and it's obvious. What the lava droids do isn't comedy and isn't meant to be comedy.

Yoda quickly dispatching the Emperor's guards on the other hand.....

You understand that this is a movie, that those didn't have to be droids, that everything we're seeing was put there for a reason? I almost put something about the platform not being a droid in my last post because I just knew you or Mat001 would say something like that; the droid Anakin lands on...didn't have to be a droid, and the droids didn't have to look like they had big goofy eyes, these things were chosen for a reason...and the reason isn't because lava needed collecting.

We get "comedy" for droids at the end of the movie too, and I can't put enough quotation marks around the word comedy.

[The Batman]

You understand that this is a movie, that those didn't have to be droids, that everything we're seeing was put there for a reason? I almost put something about the platform not being a droid in my last post because I just knew you or Mat001 would say something like that; the droid Anakin lands on...didn't have to be a droid, and the droids didn't have to look like they had big goofy eyes, these things were chosen for a reason...and the reason isn't because lava needed collecting.

If you knew it was a platform then why'd you wonder why we didn't see the platform reacting like the droid did? That question just doesn't make sense if you know it's a platform and not a droid.

Yes, obviously these are choices being made. The point is they're just not made for the reasons you're suggesting. It's to stage the fight, not to stage a comedy bit. Those supposed big goofy eyes that are actually just two bright blue lights are they to help make the droids more visible against the blacks, reds, and oranges of the Mustafar background. They served the same purpose, visually, that Anakin's and Obi-Wan's lightsabers do. It's like those supposed cartoony noises you were complaining about before that were actually just the sounds of the high tension cables snapping and metal buckling meant to cue the viewer in aurally that the collector arm was going to collapse.

And the weirdest thing is that you're so upset about mining droids that aren't acting silly that you're missing that it's Obi-Wan's stray platform that's the odd, story convenient bit there. You'd expect that on a lava mining rig in the Star Wars universe there'd be mining droid around, but why is this one stray, unmanned platform just floating around out there? Do they just leave these platforms floating around in case a random laser sword fight breaks out? I'm sure Obi-Wan appreciated that, but it seems an odd, and wasteful, use of resources. But, I digress.... Obviously it's there because it's larger and as the fight advances Anakin can move forward from his droid onto Obi-Wan's platform as he pushes Obi-Wan back. It let's the fight have some space for back and forth movement. It's a choice made for the sake of telling a story, world logic be damned.

We get "comedy" for droids at the end of the movie too, and I can't put enough quotation marks around the word comedy.

No we don't.

At the beginning of the picture we get R2 running into frame full tilt, screaming and bouncing off of bulkheads, the super battle droids slip-sliding around in oil, the electric shock and then R2 getting kicked. It's all big, broad physical comedy. And you want to compare that to a droid who adjusts to Anakin's weight, drops his panning bucket, and navigates its way up the lavaflow? Where is the exaggerated flailing? Why doesn't the comedy bit continue when Anakin leaps off the droid and it flies away. No elaborate and exaggerated sigh of relief or anything? If the decision to have these droids there was for comedy why doesn't that happen while the droid is leaving screen?

The comparison just doesn't work. The earlier is intended to be comedy, the later stuff isn't.

[Simbob4000]

If you knew it was a platform then why'd you wonder why we didn't see the platform reacting like the droid did? That question just doesn't make sense if you know it's a platform and not a droid.

I didn't, never said I did. If the reason for the close-up was what you think it's for, like they were worried people would be questioning why some random robot wasn't looking all over the place because someone landed on it head...well, they could have just made the robot something else, they could have had the lava collectors not be droids, they could have designed them so it didn't look like they had faces, they could be just like the platform Obi-Wan was standing on.

Yes, obviously these are choices being made. The point is they're just not made for the reasons you're suggesting. It's to stage the fight, not to stage a comedy bit. Those supposed big goofy eyes that are actually just two bright blue lights are they to help make the droids more visible against the blacks, reds, and oranges of the Mustafar background. They served the same purpose, visually, that Anakin's and Obi-Wan's lightsabers do. It's like those supposed cartoony noises you were complaining about before that were actually just the sounds of the high tension cables snapping and metal buckling meant to cue the viewer in aurally that the collector arm was going to collapse.

It's to stage a fight with funny bits sprinkled about. I know that the eyes are light, but anyone with eyes can see those two lights are meant to look like two big eyes and give the robot the appearance of a face...they are eyes, but they aren't "eyes". There isn't any reason those droids have those lights for eyes other than to sell to you the viewer they've got a face, the only reason to sell they have a face is for the little comedy things they're using them for; it isn't so you can see the robot in the fight...for one thing even without the lights it wouldn't be hard to see them, for another the fight isn't about the robots.

And the weirdest thing is that you're so upset about mining droids that aren't acting silly that you're missing that it's Obi-Wan's stray platform that's the odd, story convenient bit there. You'd expect that on a lava mining rig in the Star Wars universe there'd be mining droid around, but why is this one stray, unmanned platform just floating around out there? Do they just leave these platforms floating around in case a random laser sword fight breaks out? I'm sure Obi-Wan appreciated that, but it seems an odd, and wasteful, use of resources. But, I digress.... Obviously it's there because it's larger and as the fight advances Anakin can move forward from his droid onto Obi-Wan's platform as he pushes Obi-Wan back. It let's the fight have some space for back and forth movement. It's a choice made for the sake of telling a story, world logic be damned.

I'm not upset about the droids, I think they're dumb and stick out like a sore thumb, but there's a lot more that's wrong than some stupid looking robots that are meant to be funny.

No we don't.

At the beginning of the picture we get R2 running into frame full tilt, screaming and bouncing off of bulkheads, the super battle droids slip-sliding around in oil, the electric shock and then R2 getting kicked. It's all big, broad physical comedy. And you want to compare that to a droid who adjusts to Anakin's weight, drops his panning bucket, and navigates its way up the lavaflow? Where is the exaggerated flailing? Why doesn't the comedy bit continue when Anakin leaps off the droid and it flies away. No elaborate and exaggerated sigh of relief or anything? If the decision to have these droids there was for comedy why doesn't that happen while the droid is leaving screen?

The comparison just doesn't work. The earlier is intended to be comedy, the later stuff isn't.

I wasn't comparing them, but we do get a close-up of a random robots darting it's head back and forth after someone fell out of the sky and landed on what looks like the robots huge hat...that's pretty fucking over the top, and the movie just stops for a bit to shop us this

Why doesn't the movie stop again to show us a reaction of the robot doing another bit? No time I would guess, we're reaching the very end of the fight by that point and it flys away right as they start fighting and it's meant to be tense or something. Maybe he saw he couldn't drop one more bit of comedy down the line, or that funny noises didn't work there because they were distracting from what he wanted you to feel from that point forward? The robot does talk to those two aliens they pass working in the lava. Just because they didn't try more with the robot doesn't mean the other stuff isn't meant to be funny

[Alex]

It isn't as if there weren't any other screen wipes in the series. This is a pretty minor and nit-picky complaint.

There were, but they didn't generaly follow a guy murdering an entire village of people.
It's always stuck out to me. I actually just watched Phantom menance an hour ago, since i'd been reading this thread, and a lot of what lucas does is odd...like you have your big climatic battle, and you have the rather series lightsabre fight with darth maul, then you cut to jar jar bad comedy, then you cut to kid anakin being an annoying shit. It doesn't add to the film, it takes away from any sort of drama.
The other reason it stuck out to me, is i saw that movie in theatres, and when they did the screen wipe, people in the threatre laughed.

[The Batman]

I didn't, never said I did. If the reason for the close-up was what you think it's for, like they were worried people would be questioning why some random robot wasn't looking all over the place because someone landed on it head...well, they could have just made the robot something else, they could have had the lava collectors not be droids, they could have designed them so it didn't look like they had faces, they could be just like the platform Obi-Wan was standing on.

So you didn't point out that "we didn't need some reaction shot of the thing Obi-Wan was standing on"? Because it sure seems like you did a couple of posts up. And the reaction is there to make things feel more naturalistic. It's the same as a horse in a Western responding when a someone jumps on its back from the roof of a saloon. But there's plenty of space between a reaction and a reaction intended for laughs.

It's to stage a fight with funny bits sprinkled about. I know that the eyes are light, but anyone with eyes can see those two lights are meant to look like two big eyes and give the robot the appearance of a face...they are eyes, but they aren't "eyes". There isn't any reason those droids have those lights for eyes other than to sell to you the viewer they've got a face, the only reason to sell they have a face is for the little comedy things they're using them for; it isn't so you can see the robot in the fight...for one thing even without the lights it wouldn't be hard to see them, for another the fight isn't about the robots.

No one is disputing that the lights are meant to look like eyes, they ARE eyes for the droid for all intents and purposes after all. But anthropomorphic design is fairly common, happens unconsciously, and isn't just don't for comedic effect. Look at the front of your car and you're likely able to see a human face. Some of the best car designs are also the most human. Does that mean your car was designed for laughs? Probably not. More likely it's just further evidence that humans tend to respond more favourably to designs that we see ourselves in.

So just that giving the droid eyes doesn't mean that the droid is there for comedy and since it doesn't actually do anything exaggerated or comical I'm really not understanding why you'd think it was put there for laughs?

I'm not upset about the droids, I think they're dumb and stick out like a sore thumb, but there's a lot more that's wrong than some stupid looking robots that are meant to be funny.

Except they're not. I might think Bale's Batman voice is ridiculous and over the top, but I'm not going to point to it as an example of Chris Nolan trying to inject comedy into his Batman movies or include some laughs into that final confrontation with Two-Face. There's space between your reaction, or mine, and what the filmmaker thought or intended.

There's nothing here to suggest that Lucas intended these droids to be comic relief.

I wasn't comparing them, but we do get a close-up of a random robots darting it's head back and forth after someone fell out of the sky and landed on what looks like the robots huge hat...that's pretty fucking over the top, and the movie just stops for a bit to shop us this

Well, when you talk about droid comedy at the beginning of the film and the end of it, you're kinda comparing them actually. And the comparison doesn't work because there's not of the big, broad comedy at the end that there is at the beginning.

[Simbob4000]

So you didn't point out that "we didn't need some reaction shot of the thing Obi-Wan was standing on"? Because it sure seems like you did a couple of posts up. And the reaction is there to make things feel more naturalistic. It's the same as a horse in a Western responding when a someone jumps on its back from the roof of a saloon. But there's plenty of space between a reaction and a reaction intended for laughs.

You said that the reason for the close-up of the droid was because people would be wondering why the droid wasn't reacting to someone jumping on it's head. I said, if that's the reason for the close-up, (it isn't) than there would be easier solutions to this problem that wouldn't stop the movie; they could have just made the droid some random machinery like what Obi-Wan landed on, because no one was wondering why Obi-Wan's platform wasn't reacting.

It isn't really the same as a horse in a western because a horse is a living thing, but if you're watching some western and some guy jumps out of a window and they cut to a close-up of the horse looking around like it can't believe what just happened, chances are...it's maybe meant to be funny.

No one is disputing that the lights are meant to look like eyes, they ARE eyes for the droid for all intents and purposes after all. But anthropomorphic design is fairly common, happens unconsciously, and isn't just don't for comedic effect. Look at the front of your car and you're likely able to see a human face. Some of the best car designs are also the most human. Does that mean your car was designed for laughs? Probably not. More likely it's just further evidence that humans tend to respond more favourably to designs that we see ourselves in.

So just that giving the droid eyes doesn't mean that the droid is there for comedy and since it doesn't actually do anything exaggerated or comical I'm really not understanding why you'd think it was put there for laughs?

No, a droid just having eyes doesn't mean they're for comedy. But when they've got faces, you can damn well bet it's for a reason, and when they've got big round cartoonish eyes, look goofy, and they're doing things that are obviously meant to be humorous; it's safe to say those things weren't some kind of accident. You see, those big eyes are there so you can tell what it's looking at; when it sees two Jedi while just going about it's work, looks at one with a big broad movement and then looks at the other before "running" off (all while making little robot noises)...that's meant to be funny.

Except they're not. I might think Bale's Batman voice is ridiculous and over the top, but I'm not going to point to it as an example of Chris Nolan trying to inject comedy into his Batman movies or include some laughs into that final confrontation with Two-Face. There's space between your reaction, or mine, and what the filmmaker thought or intended.

There's nothing here to suggest that Lucas intended these droids to be comic relief.

Except they're not what? Not dumb, yeah, they're dumb; their look is overly cartoonish, and they're distracting from what's going on. What's going on isn't very good, but they aren't helping anything.

There's nothing to suggest Lucas intended them as comic relief...besides the way they look, and what they're doing when they're clearly visible in the scene.

Well, when you talk about droid comedy at the beginning of the film and the end of it, you're kinda comparing them actually. And the comparison doesn't work because there's not of the big, broad comedy at the end that there is at the beginning.

No, not really saying they're also bits of comedy at the end of the film isn't comparing the two. All I said is there's comedy at the end as well, just because they aren't equally as stupid doesn't mean the shit at the end isn't meant to be funny. That being said, the stuff at the end is pretty broad.

[The Batman]

In the context of the Star Wars movies, a droid, most droids at any rate, are about as alive as a horse is. Certainly they're as responsive, independent, and mobile as they are. If we'd expect a horse should react then we should expect a droid would too. And the reaction of the droid isn't "looking around like it can't believe what happened" because the droid can't do that. It's "face" is two blue lights and a wedge of metal. It's not articulated, it can't emote, or convey exasperation like it can't believe what happened or anything like that. The big cartoony eyes that are neither that big nor that cartoony don't change in brightness or shape or adjust to emote in anyway. Even the droid noises are the standard droid noises and not the more emotive variety that we've seen Ben Burtt put together for R2 D2 and some of the other Astromechs.

So either it's a fantastic example of anthropomorphic design and pantomime that George Lucas has put together or you're projecting this emotional content onto a droid who's doing nothing more than what a horse does when a rider jumps on it in a movie. And that's all well and good, but your projections aren't the same thing as a filmmaker's intentions.

[Mat001]

It's a bit, this isn't the first movie to do it, it's meant to be funny. Stuff like the Super Battle Droid hitting the regular Battle Droid is meant to be funny too. Why do you think that stuff is there, what do you think it's meant to be?

The Super Battle Droid stuff was meant to be funny. The DLC-13, not so much.

Not the same kind of face, it doesn't have an obvious face, that DLC-13 robot has big eyes on a thin "face" making the eyes look even bigger; these things were obviously chosen to sell the little bits Lucas was using them for in that final fight.

No, it's not the exact same face. But the GNK has a face. All droids have a face of some sort. In the DLC-13's case, the eyes are large because of the environment.

You know this is a movie right, were all the things we're seeing were chosen for a reason? He didn't have to have the robot look around after someone landed on it's head, he didn't have to give the robot huge eyes so we can tell it's meant to be looking around...but he did, and it's meant to be funny. Hell, I can't see how anyone can't see it's meant to be funny; why would anyone think Lucas would cut to a close-up of just the robots face looking around after Anakin jumped on it? Do you think it's for drama, do you think it's to add tension...do you think that for no reason at all Lucas just wanted to show a close-up of a random robot looking around after someone jumped on what looks like the robots huge hat?

To establish that the droid realizes something is wrong, has stopped it's original task, and is going to start moving up the lava flow. Because if he didn't do that the complaints would've been about how the droid didn't react and so there was no reason for it to stop what it was doing and move up the lava flow with Anakin on its back.

What he said. All droids react to the action around them and in this case, on top of them. It's not about humor. If you got that there is humor, that's just your interpretation of the scene.

No, that robot looks like a walking trash can.

...To be fair...

So does Artoo and all other Astromech droids.

You understand that this is a movie, that those didn't have to be droids, that everything we're seeing was put there for a reason? I almost put something about the platform not being a droid in my last post because I just knew you or Mat001 would say something like that; the droid Anakin lands on...didn't have to be a droid, and the droids didn't have to look like they had big goofy eyes, these things were chosen for a reason...and the reason isn't because lava needed collecting.

We get "comedy" for droids at the end of the movie too, and I can't put enough quotation marks around the word comedy.

No, it was chosen because the DLC-13 is faster and smaller than the platform that Obi-wan was on. It wasn't because of comedy on the part of Lucas, it's because Lucas is marking the difference between Anakin and Obi-wan, young versus old. As well as showing how dangerously close Anakin is to being burned.

The droid humor at the end is appropriate because the battles are over and we're now coming to the end. For the first time in the film, Threepio acts like Threepio normally does and for Artoo, the first since the end of act one, acting like he normally does.

[The Batman]

I think we're going for the world record in Multiple Page Discussion of Inconsequential Minutiae.

Can we get in touch with the Guinness people? I missed the polenta record, I don't want to miss this.

[Legato]

BTW I really hope Disney re-release the original Star Wars Trilogy in it's unedited format.

[Phil Clark]

BTW I really hope Disney re-release the original Star Wars Trilogy in it's unedited format.

Not likely to happen, particularly since 20th Century Fox still owns the distribution rights to those films. And complete set of all nine films is going to be a major negotiation feat to make happen.

[The Batman]

No, it was chosen because the DLC-13 is faster and smaller than the platform that Obi-wan was on. It wasn't because of comedy on the part of Lucas, it's because Lucas is marking the difference between Anakin and Obi-wan, young versus old. As well as showing how dangerously close Anakin is to being burned.

That's another thing, the whole final battle has built into it our expectation that Anakin will end up burned and broken. Having Anakin almost go over the lava falls with the collector arm, only to jump free and onto the droid teases at that expectation. Sure Anakin could've jumped onto a lot of things, but the top of a tiny mining droid is the most desperate and dangerous option available that would still allow for the mobility to keep the fight going.