Let the Best of 2009 lists continue!  I hope you all enjoyed my list of the Top 10 TV Episodes of 2009.

Now let’s dive into my list of the Top 10 DVDs (or Blu-Rays) released in 2009!

First, I’d like to give Honorable Mentions to the complete series sets of three amazing TV shows that I had just about given up all hope of ever seeing on DVD: It’s Garry Shandling’s Show, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, and Andy Barker, P.I. So why aren’t these shows on my list?  Because I can’t put anything on this list that I haven’t actually watched, and I’ve been way, way too busy to get through any of these sets.  Of the three, the only one I own is Andy Richter Controls the Universe.  (That one came out first, and I’m not going to purchase the other two sets until I actually have time to watch them.)  But I take great delight in knowing that these three DVD sets exist here on planet Earth, and I know that I’ll get to them all in good time.

10. Watchmen: The Ultimate Cut (Blu-ray) — I’ve seen Watchmen quite a few times since it was released early in 2009, and while the film certainly has some weaknesses, I remain overwhelmed by the enormity of its successes.  It’s hard to believe that Zach Snyder brought this seminal graphic novel by Alan Moore & Dave Gibbons, which long had been considered unadaptable, to life.  It thrills me to see such a faithful take on the material and that the filmmakers had the confidence to craft a super-hero film that was aimed squarely at adults.  The Ultimate Cut of the film is Zach Snyder’s longest version, stitching together his Director’s Cut with the animated Tales of the Black Freighter sequences.  It’s pretty astounding.  This Blu-Ray set would be much higher on this list were it not for the paltry special features.  Not only are the special features lame (this is a movie that cries out for a full-fledged making-of documentary), but this set just reproduces the special features that were already released on the Director’s Cut set.  (I guess I’ve been spoiled by the amazing extended editions of the Lord of the Rings films, which came not just with phenomenal extended versions of the films but with extraordinarily elaborate making-of documentaries that didn’t duplicate the special features on the theatrical version DVDs.)  (Read my review of the theatrical version of Watchmen here, and of the Director’s Cut here.)

9. Contact (Blu-Ray) — A beautiful film that manages to combine a serious, cerebral sci-fi tale with an effecting story of the personal journey of scientist Dr. Ellie Arroway (Jodie Foster).  This is director Robert Zemeckis (Back to the Future, Who Framed Roger Rabbit?) working at the top of his game.  The special effects are elaborate but never come close to overwhelming the story.  It’s a terrific special edition, chock full of special features, and the film looks positively STUNNING on Blu-Ray.  (Read my full review here.)

8. Homicide: The Criterion Collection — Another film that I have been waiting a long, long time to be released on DVD.  David Mamet’s 1991 film follows detective Bobby Gold (Joe Mantegna) and his investigation of the murder of an elderly Jewish shop owner.  What follows is a great, twisty Mamet tale, filled with tough guys and double-crosses.  But what gives the film its weight is the way the investigation story-line is wrapped in a deeper story of Bobby’s struggles with his Jewish identity.  The fine folks at Criterion hit another one out of the park with this beautiful new edition.  (My full review of Homicide is coming soon, but click here for my thoughts on a variety of other films by David Mamet.)

7. Eddie Izzard: Live From Wembley — It’s been a long, long wait since Eddie Izzard’s last stand-up DVD.  (That would be Circle, released back in 2002).  Live From Wembley isn’t exactly the freshest material — the footage is from Eddie’s Sexie tour, from several years back.  And the camera-work is surprisingly amateurish in places (quite a few shots are rather blurry, and there are several instances where Eddie isn’t properly framed on-screen).  But forget all that — it’s new Eddie Izzard stand-up material, and the performance (while not reaching the heights of Dress to Kill), is superb and very, very funny.  There’s also a terrific special feature on the disc: 40 minutes of Eddie’s stand-up from long before Live From Wembley, in which we can see him beginning to work out some of the material that would eventually be included in his Sexie show.  It’s a funny performance, and a neat look into his process.

6. Futurama: Into the Wild Green Yonder – The fourth and final installment in the series of Futurama direct-to-DVD films.  In this one, Fry gets inducted into a secret organization of telepaths (that have been popping up in the background of the show since its very beginning).  The film’s wide-reaching story also deals with Leela’s involvement with a group of eco-terrorists, Bender’s affair with the wife of a robot mobster, and a lot of other zaniness.  At the time, it looked like this was the end of Futurama, and the film’s final scene provided a wonderful capstone to the series’ run.  Luckily, the show has once again risen from the grave, and new episodes are being produced to air on Cartoon Network.  Hooray!  (Read my full review here.)

5. Star Trek: The Motion Picture Collection (Blu-Ray) — Star Trek comes to Blu-Ray with this fabulous set containing nicely spruced-up editions of the first six Star Trek films.  The films themselves have never looked or sounded better, and there have been a number of new featurettes created for each film.  (The set also includes almost all of the special features from the previous DVD releases.)  I still wish that the featurettes had been edited together into a longer, more comprehensive documentary for each film, but I can live without that.  Extra props to the makers of this set for choosing to use the original theatrical versions of Star Trek II and Star Trek VI on these discs.  (The previous Special Edition DVDs of those two films used slightly re-edited versions, which I found to be rather inferior to the original versions.)  For a die-hard Trek fan like myself, this set is a treasure.  (Click here for my full review of the Blu-Ray release of Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.)

4. Will Ferrell: You’re Welcome, America — A recording of Will Ferrell’s stage show featuring him as Geroge W. Bush, looking back on his eight years as President.  I was a bit dubious, at first, as to whether Ferrell’s Bush impersonation could really sustain my interest for 90 minutes, but it unquestionably did.  The show is well-crafted — while the focus is on Ferrell’s monologues on Bush, there is also good fun to be had with short appearances by other characters, which keeps things interesting.  But all that would be moot if Ferrell’s Bush wasn’t so relentlessly entertaining.  My favorite moments of the show are when he dives fully into total insanity, such as his elaborate and manic story about being trapped in a mine shaft with his father.  We’re lucky that this live show has been captured for us all to enjoy.

3. Battlestar Galactica: The Plan — Ron Moore’s reinvention of Battlestar Galactica takes its final bow in this tour-de-force direct-to-DVD film.  Diving deep into the show’s mythology, The Plan winds the clock back to just before the events of the original Battlestar Galactica mini-series, and then shows us the events of the show’s first two seasons from the point of view of the Cylons.  Cleverly weaving in-and-around the events that we saw, The Plan connects events and characters into a complex and fascinating tapestry, bringing a whole new light to the show’s beginnings.  A terrific lead performance by Dean Stockwell (Quantum Leap) and mind-blowing special effects combine to give the show a far superior farewell than the actual finale episode.  I wish there were more of these direct-to-DVD BSG films being made!!  (Read my full review here.)

2. Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut) — This six-hour documentary traces the full history of Monty Python, from the group’s beginnings to their work on feature films The Holy Grail, The Life of Brian, and The Meaning of Life.  Told almost entirely through interviews with all five surviving Pythons as well as an enormous number of their key collaborators, this documentary is endlessly interesting and also quite a riot. It’s also filled with elaborate little touches that elevate it beyond the usual sort of behind-the-scenes documentaries, such as the creation of new songs introducing each of the six episodes, sung by the same woman who sung the classic Life of Brian introductory tune.  With a third disc containing clips from their best sketches, extended interviews, and lots of other fun stuff, this set is a winner through-and-through.

1. Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II — I loved the first Robot Chicken Star Wars Special, but things are taken to a whole new level in this second go-round.  Focusing on The Empire Strikes Back (with lots of screen time for Vader, The Emperor, Boba Fett, and the other bounty hunters), this special has more laughs-per-second than anything else I saw all year.  Hard-core Star Wars fans like myself will be bowled over by the attention to detail in the recreation of key scenes and the references to obscure characters and moments in the saga, while there is also plenty of silliness for a more casual fan to enjoy.  (Who wouldn’t laugh at the image of an Imperial officer putting a styrofoam cup over the little Vader hologram on his console?)  Just having the special on DVD would have been enough for me, but not only is this set absolutely overflowing with special features (commentary tracks, behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and so much more), but it also contains a newly extended (almost twice-as-long) version of the original special filled with a ton of new sketches.  Phenomenal.  I can’t wait for Episode III.  (Read my full review here.)

Coming on Monday:  My list of the 10 Best Movies of 2009!  See you there!

Did my run of Star Wars: Episode I cartoons last month (click here to see ‘em all) not fill your craving for  Episode I bashing?  Then take a look at this phenomenal fan look-back at The Phantom Menace that was posted over on CHUD.  Apparently they came across this seven-part video series from a tweet by Simon Pegg (Spaced, Shaun of the Dead, Hot Fuzz).  I guess I’m not the only die-hard Star Wars fan still scarred by the debacle that is Episode I.

I wrote about my experience seeing Episode I for the first time in a theatre here, and gave my thoughts on the film looking back a decade later here.  But this guy dives into the film quite a bit deeper than I did.  (That’s putting it mildly.)  I’m not sure I quite understand the almost psychotic mumbling fan-boy persona this guy puts on for these reviews, but it’s pretty damn funny (though also more than a little bizarre).

Take a gander at part one:

Pretty funny stuff.  Head back over to CHUD to see the rest.  Part two examines the story of the film, and kicks off with the comment: “it’s almost mind-boggling how complex the awfulness is.”  Couldn’t have said it any better myself!

I followed a link the other day to the 10 Most Insane, Child-Warping Moments of ’80s Cartoons.  Pretty funny stuff there.  I’d also like to direct your attention to this list of the 10 Star Wars Toys that Unintentionally Look Like Other Celebrities.  (It’s worth your while if only so that you, too, can be stunned by the resemblance of General Riekaan — from The Empire Strikes Back — to Senator John Kerry!!)

I’ve just discovered a phenomenal web-comic called Let’s Be Friends Again.  It’s mostly about comic books.  I love it to death, and it’s well worth your precious time, so check it out.

Have you seen this ten-minute fan-made live-action G.I. Joe film, Battle For the Serpent Stone?  I’m a big proponent of fan-films, and this one is of pretty high quality.  It’s quite an achievement — take a look.

Here’s a link to an terrific interview with IDW Comics editor Scott Dunbier, discussing his work in putting out the gorgeous new hardcover Bloom County: The Complete Library, Volume One (1980-1982), the first of five books that will collect every single strip (many of which have never before been collected) of Berkeley Breathed’s masterpiece comic strip.  I lust after this collection, and very much hope that Mr. Dunbier is able to move forward with collections of Outland and Opus as well.

This is a great story about an annoying movie theatre patron.  I wish there was a theatre like The Alamo Drafthouse here in Boston, because I would be more than happy to spend an enormous amount of money watching movies there and nowhere else.  I am sick to death of having my enjoyment of a movie interrupted by some jackass talking, texting, or some other such nonsense.

Harvard University is offering a class on The Wire??? Sign me up!!

I never believed it would happen, but filming on the two-film adaptation of The Hobbit is coming closer and closer to getting underway.  Click here for an interesting interview with director Guillermo del Toro with some updates on how things are progressing.

Despite my renewed appreciation for the final run of episodes of Battlestar Galactica, this hilarious evisceration of the plot points in the last 45 minutes of the finale is impossible to argue with.

Here’s a terrific list of one fellow’s Top 15 Episodes of Batman: The Animated Series.  It’s an interesting list.  I absolutely adore episodes such as “Over The Edge,” “Mad Love,” “Robin’s Reckoning,” and “Heart of Ice,” and I was also pleased to see some lesser-known gems like “The Ultimate Thrill” and “Growing Pains” make the cut.  (However, while “If You’re So Smart, Why Aren’t You Rich?” and “The Clock King” are solid episodes, I definitely wouldn’t count them among the series’ 15 best.)  I posted my own best-of episode list for Batman: The Animated Series last year, so click here to read my selections!

OK, so this is about the craziest thing I’ve ever heard of — Star Wars fans worldwide are uniting on a project to re-make the original film (A New Hope), 15 seconds at a time.  Fans can claim individual 15 second moments of the film, recreate them in whatever for they desire (re-enactments, animation, etc.), and then the whole thing will ultimately be strung together.  Wild.  Click here for all the details on Star Wars Uncut, or just watch this bizarre trailer below!

Star Wars: Uncut Trailer from Casey Pugh on Vimeo.

After watching Julie & Julia with my wife Steph recently (you can read my review of the film here)  I was interested in learning more about Julie Powell, so I tracked down her Julie/Julia Project blog and her current blog (since she ended the Julie/Julia Project blog in 2003, with only one additional post in 2004 after Julia Childs’ death).  Both blogs were  fun to read through after having seen the film.

Not a week goes by, it seems, that I don’t read about Ridley Scott being attached to yet another movie-in-development.  I’m not the only one who’s noticed, it seems.  Check out this helpful guide: Know Your Ridley Scott Projects That Will Probably Never Happen.

I am an enormous Beatles fanatic.  Thus it is really painful for me that I have not yet had an opportunity to sample the newly remastered versions of all of the Beatles albums that were released last month.  Scorekeeper from AICN’s detailed run-down of each Beatles album, and how the new versions match up against the original CD releases from 1987, has only further whetted my appetite.

CHUD (Cinematic Happenings Under Development) has been running a ridiculously entertaining series of posts entitled “Bad For Us, Worse For Them.”  What is it about?  Let me quote from their intro: This is a list of forty deaths in cinema, twenty of which that have a profound affect on the viewer whether by the sheer tragedy of it, how emotionally impactful it is, or how it is a catalyst for a real descent in the progression of the story. The other twenty are deaths that go beyond the call of duty, not because they’re cool or really well executed FX, but because they are just knee-capping in their immediacy, brutality, or simple visceral impact. Kills that will probably leave a mark.  The whole list is fantastic, but I was particularly pleased to see that Spock’s death in Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan merited inclusion.

Here’s a great piece from DVDActive.com (one of my favorite DVD/Blu-Ray web-sites) that calmly and methodically dissects everything wrong with X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  I will not be purchasing this film on DVD.  One viewing was more than enough for me, thank you very much.

I love the film scores of James Horner.  His score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan is one of my favorite scores of all time, so I was very excited to read this article from Movie Score Magazine that previews his work on James Cameron’s upcoming film Avatar!

Click here to check out a trailer for the new film from the director of Donnie Darko, called The Box. As I’ve commented here before, it looks just like a classic Twilight Zone story.  Can’t wait.

Speaking of trailers, the new full trailer for Toy Story 3 (that those of us who caught the Toy Story/Toy Story 2 3-D double feature got to see on the big screen) is now on-line.  Check it out:

Toy Story 3 Trailer in HD

Trailer Park | MySpace Videos

If that doesn’t put a smile on your face, then I don’t know what to tell you!

So, wow!  After the recent Comic-Con the web has been flooded with all sorts of teases about upcoming movies, TV shows, and other geeky goodness.  Here’s some of the best stuff that I’ve found:

After so many years of speculation and false starts, the sequel to Tron is finally, actually happening!!  Check out the STUNNING trailer here.  It’s going to be in IMAX 3-D??  I’m THERE.

I cannot believe they’re actually making a Jonah Hex movie.  (And with Josh Brolin, no less!)  Check out the poster.

The ending of Lost revealed?  Um, not quite.  Check out this video from the Lost panel!  Quite a lot of additional footage from that panel can be found here.  For some reason, Michael Emmerson’s fake audition for the role of Hurley isn’t included, but you can find that here.  Funny stuff.

Here’s a pretty bad-ass trailer for Season 2 of The Clone Wars.  I actually found the first season to be fairly watchable, and this glimpse at the next season looks pretty promising.

You know what it takes to sell real estate?  The same thing it takes to re-make one of the most brilliant TV shows of all time.  Well, AMC’s version of The Prisoner, starring Ian McKellan and Jim Caviezel, is nearly upon us.  Check out this lengthy trailer.  I must say, that looks pretty damn intriguing!

Amongst all of this glorious fun is the extraordinarily troubling continuing story about the newly-resurrected Futurama’s uncertain future.  This report from the Futurama panel at the con is grim indeed.  Can’t everybody just make nice already?!!

That’s all for now — have a great weekend everybody!!

Earlier this year I wrote about The Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I.  Michael Nichols was a fan of Star Wars who, like sane people world-wide, was tremendously disappointed with Episode I when it was released in 1999.  While the rest of us just whined to our friends, Mr. Nichols set out to see if some thoughtful re-editing of the material could shape a more successful film out of Episode I’s lengthy, bloated run-time.  As I discussed at length in my review, in my opinion Mr. Nichols succeeded wildly.  On the one hand, the film is still Episode I, and there’s only so much one can do with that story that, really didn’t need to be told.  On the other hand, by skillfully tightening up scenes, removing large swaths of dull and useless exposition, and cutting down much of the juvenile humor, Nichols was able to craft a much more dynamic narrative from the film.

When I read that he had also taken a pass at Episode II, I was ecstatic.  I was able to get my hands on his fan-edit last month, and as with his Phantom Edit of Episode I, I enjoyed it thoroughly!

Once again, Mr. Nichols demonstrates how a small trim (by removing just one line of dialogue) can really change the feeling of a scene for the better.  Let me give two examples.  In the opening sequence, after Amidala lands her ship on Coruscant, her bodyguard Captain Typho jogs up to her and says “We made it.  I guess I was wrong, there was no danger after all.”  Then, of course, Amidala’s ship explodes.  Typho’s dumb line takes all the air out of the scene — instead of it being a SHOCK when Amidala’s ship is destroyed, the audience is primed for something bad to happen by Typho’s ridiculous declaration.  So Nichols just snips out Typho’s line.  The queen lands her ship, steps onto the platform, and then BOOM.  Much more exciting moment.  Example number two takes place soon after, when Amidala enters Chancellor Palpatine’s office.  Yoda gives her a creepy greeting: “Seeing you alive brings warm feelings to my heart.”  OK, ew.  That bizarre line slams that scene to a halt, in my mind, as the audience tries to not think about what else of Yoda’s is warmed by seeing Natalie Portman.  So Nichols eliminates the line.  Amidala enters, and gets right down to business.  Much better.

As in his cut of Episode I, Nichols also removes most of the more juvenile and dumbed-down elements of the story.  Do you remember, with pain, all of the ridiculousness of C-3PO getting his head placed on the body of a battle droid, and then spouting all sorts of teeth-hurtingly bad puns?  Well, that’s gone completely!  Then there’s what could have been a cool moment, towards the end of the film, when we see that Count Dooku and the Geonosans have begun working on plans for the Death Star.  We see a display of the Death Star on a screen in the background, and eagle-eyed Star Wars fans sat up and said hey, cool!  But then Lucas proceeds to hit the audience over the head with this, showing the death-star graphic two more times as the Geonosan hands Dooku the plans.  What should have been a subtle nod to the Original Star Wars is turned into an obvious even-a-three-year-old-will-get-it moment.  So Nichols has eliminated the Death Star scenes except for that first moment, and he has even changed the subtitle translating the Geonosan’s dialogue to make the Death Star connection a little less obvious.  This is very clever, and I loved it.

In addition to small tweaks to scenes like those, Nichols also makes some bold changes to the overall structure of the narrative.  Once again, let me give two examples.  First, Nichols almost completely eliminates the story of Obi-Wan’s efforts to track down the bullet used to kill the shapeshifter assassin Zam (that eventually leads him to the clones on Kamino).  While this means some cool moments are lost (such as the scene with Yoda and the younglings, which gave us the type of glimpse of Jedi life and customs that I wish we’d seen a lot more of in the prequels), it really strengthens Obi-Wan’s character because, let’s face it, in the original version he demonstrates the investigative skills of a toddler (and in fact has to have a young kid tell him to go look for the missing planet — I mean, DUH!!).  Instead, Nichols tweaks Zam’s death scene to have her say “Kamino System,” thus sending Obi-Wan right to the planet of the Cloners, and preventing the audience from having to sit through the ridiculous scene with his American Graffiti diner-owing alien buddy.  (I should also point out that Nichols’ manipulation of Zam’s death scene and dialogue is so seamless that I had no idea anything had changed until a few minutes later when I realized that Obi-Wan knew exactly where to go to get some answers.)

Nichols also completely reworks the Anakin-Padme love story.  In theory this love-story should be the center-piece of the whole movie — the emotional through-line that gives weight to all the rest of the galactic goings-on.  But, as anyone who has actually seen the film knows, the love story falls flat because of the wooden acting and horrendous, horrendous dialogue.  When Padme declares, in the Geonosian arena, that she is “truly… deeply” in love with Anakin, it is a ludicrous moment to an audience that has witnessed almost two hours of his whiney, stalkerish behavior.  So how does Nichols address these problems?  First, he tries to shape moments to show us that Padme actually does care for Anakin way before they ever get to Geonosis.  Nichols adds in some deleted scenes (that were among the special features on the Episode II DVD) in which Padme brings Anakin to her parents’ home on Naboo.  Now, the scenes are pretty bad, but the idea is that these moments demonstrate that Padme does have some stirrings of feelings for Anakin (why else would she bring him to meet her parents?) without her having to actually DECLARE her feelings with bad Lucas dialogue.  

Then, Nichols totally re-works the scene where Anakin and Padme kiss by the lake on Naboo.  Nichols cuts almost all of Anakin’s terrible, terrible dialogue (you know, like his whole “I don’t like sand” monologue).  Now the scene is carried more on the weight of the silent looks between the two characters, the lush scenery, and John William’s beautiful score.  But I haven’t gotten to the biggest change.  In the original version of Episode II, they kiss, but Padme breaks it off and says they can’t continue.  (This is followed by several more tedious scenes in which the two of them discuss the impossibility of carrying on a love-affair in secret.)  But in Nichols’ version, he ends the scene with their kiss — WITHOUT PADME BREAKING THINGS OFF.  Then, he skips all the scenes that follow, and cuts right to the moment after Anakin’s nightmare (one of the biggest laugh-inducing moments in the movie because of Anakin’s over-wrought thrashing about, which has been thankfully excised in this version) when we see that it’s morning, and Anakin is standing on the balcony, and Padme comes out of the house in a nightgown and asks Anakin about the nightmare that she knows he had.  THE CLEAR IMPLICATION IS NOW THAT THE TWO OF THEM SPENT THE NIGHT TOGETHER!  And, for the rest of the movie, they are actually together as a couple!  This puts all of the events of the rest of the film in a different light — and now it makes sense for Padme to declare her love for Anakin in the arena, and it also makes sense for her not to abandon him after he admits to killing all the Sand People — because they’ve been intimate and have already established an emotional connection with one another.  Brilliant.

If there is any mis-step that Nichols makes, it is that I think he was too overzealous in trimming down the action sequences from the first half of the film.  The chase through Coruscant after the second assassination attempt on Padme is significantly cut down, and Obi-Wan’s fight with Jango Fett in the rain on Kamino, and their subsequent battle in an asteroid field, is completely eliminated.  In his commentary track, Nichols makes the case that these action sequences were repetitive and unnecessary, as they did not advance the plot in any way.  Well, that’s true, and that is a failing of the script.  In a truly great film, the action sequences should be inherent to moving the story forward, not just eye candy thrown in to keep the audience excited.  But, that being said, those two action sequences are truly great sequences, I think, and without them the first half of the movie becomes a lot duller.  I would have preferred to see Nichols keep the action, but just trim some of the stupid dialogue (like the silliness about power couplings in the Coruscant chase, and all of Obi-Wan’s complaining about flying from the asteroid field battle) the way he did for the rest of the film.

But, that being said, I still really enjoyed this fan-edit.  As with his re-working of Episode I, Mr. Nichols has done an incredibly professional job.  If you hadn’t seen this film before and I played you this version, you’d never suspect that this wasn’t the official version but instead a fan-edit created on someone’s computer.  Nichols has a keen eye for lifting all the bits that made adult Star Wars fans cringe when they first saw this film, and his savy editing decisions result in much improvement of the pace of the film and our emotional connections to the characters.  I had a great time watching this version, and I look forward to watching it again in the future.  If only there had been more people with the skills of Mr. Nichols actually working with George Lucas on his prequel trilogy!!

Good news, everybody!  Futurama lives!!

So Katee Sackhoff (Starbuck) is joining the cast of 24 next season?  Time for the Battlestar Galactica actors to learn what the members of the ensemble from The Wire have discovered: they’ll never again be in a TV show as good.

Did you see The Daily Show’s John Hodgman’s uproariously funny speech at the 2009 Radio and TV Correspondents’ Dinner?  Not to be missed.

A nice farewell to Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles can be found on Composer Bear McCreary’s excellent blog, as he lists his 15 favorite moments from the show.  (They are all excellent choices.)  This show had its flaws, to be sure, but I am really disappointed that we won’t be getting a third season.  (By the way, Bear was also the composer for the reinvented Battlestar Galactica throughout its run.)

Speaking of The Terminator, the fine folks over at filmschoolrejects.com have posted an interesting list of 20 Things We Didn’t Like and 10 Things We Did about Terminator: Salvation.

I don’t play videogames, but I must admit that this trailer for Lucasarts’ new Star Wars: The Old Republic trailer is ridiculously cool.  I wish we’d seen half that much bad-assery in the prequels…

Triumph the Insult Comic Dog has made his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien!  Watch him make fun of some hippies here.

Have a great weekend, everybody!  See you back here on Monday!

Big dumb summer movie trailer alert!  It’s the new trailer for Transformers 2, filled with lots of robot smashing action, and the new trailer for G.I. Joe, filled with Ninjas and, um, Eiffel Tower smashing action!  Sigh.  Hard to believe these two iconic and beloved cartoons of my youth are both now big-budget blockbuster movies coming out this summer.  Wouldn’t it be amazing if there were both really awesome?  Isn’t it sort of sad to know that they definitely won’t be?

For a peek at a movie that might actually be good, click here to check out District 9, the new sci-fi flick directed by Neill Blomkamp and executive produced by Peter Jackson (The Lord of The Rings).  Color me intrigued.

Keeping up with the trailers, here’s a glimpse at the new film from Francis Ford Coppola, Tetro.  I never saw his last film, the critically-demolished Youth Without Youth, but this looks really interesting.  It’s a new film from Francis Ford Coppola!  Of course it looks interesting!

Did you know that Robert Rodriguez is working on a new Predator film??  If it happens, it’ll be called Predators (in a clever nod to James Cameron’s sequel to Alien, entitled Aliens).  Check out the tantalizing details here.  I need to see this movie RIGHT NOW.

So it’s been ten years since The Phantom Menace, huh?  Here’s an interesting look back.  I agree with this fellow’s thoughts about the two Phantom Menace trailers (among the finest trailers ever crafted), but I certainly don’t think anywhere nearly as highly of that dreadful turd of a movie as he does.  (You can read my memories of first seeing Episode I in theatres here, and my thoughts on the movie looking back almost a decade later here.)

Did you not have enough Star Trek content here on the site for the past two weeks?  Then check out this great piece from the Onion A.V. Club: “Space Racism is Bad and 17 Other Not-So-Subtle Lessons Learned From Star Trek.”  If you’ve never seen it before, you MUST scroll down to the clip of William Shatner’s Kirk reading the Preamble to U.S. Constitution in selection #12, from the absurd Trek episode The Omega Glory.  ”WE… the… PEOPLE… not written for thekingsorthechiefsortherichorthepowerful but for ALLTHEPEOPLE!”  Classic Shatnerian magnificence. 

Since seeing J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek film, I’ve been enjoying reading all the different reactions on-line and in the press.  I always enjoy Alexandra DuPont’s film reviews when they appear (not often enough to suit me) on aintitcoolnews.com, and her take on the new film is well worth your time.  (I remember well — and agree with entirely — her spot-on evisceration of Star Trek: Nemesis, which she quotes at the start of her review.)  Star Trek author William Leisner (who wrote a terrific novella in Pocket Books’ recent Myriad Universes series, reviewed by yours truly here) has a terrific opposite take, giving a right-on-the-money account of all the problematic plot holes in the film.  Trek author Geoff Trowbridge (who also wrote an installment in Myriad Universes) has a similarly interesting take.  My own views (click here if you missed my full review) are somewhat in the middle.  I share a lot of Ms. DuPont’s love for the film, but my enjoyment was lessened by all the plot holes that Mr. Leisner and Mr. Trowbridge list.  

That’s all for today — See you back here tomorrow!

I have just seen the definitive version of Star Wars.

And it wasn’t created by George Lucas or anyone at ILM.  It was made by one fan.

For years I have been reading about the variety of “fan-edits” of the six Star Wars movies that have been floating around the internet.  Last month I finally got ahold of the famous Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I, which I wrote about last week.

I was so blown away by the high quality of that edit that I decided to check out some of the other fan-edits that are out there.  I am eager to watch the Phantom Editor’s take on Episode II (and I’ll certainly write about that here once I see it), but after perusing various sites such as fanedit.org and originaltrilogy.com, it became clear that people were very excited about a fellow called Adywan’s special edition re-edit of Star Wars: Episode IV, titled Star Wars: Revisited.  I decided to track it down and take a look.

Wow.

Let me say again: Wow.

This one fan has produced an astounding re-edit of Star Wars that is, in my mind, by far the best presentation this film has ever received on any home video format.

Before I go into detail about what Adywan has done, let me give you a brief history of the many versions of Star Wars.  Even in the earliest years of its existence, George Lucas had a habit of fiddling around with it (adding in the Episode IV: A New Hope subtitle, for instance, or the brief scene on the Death Star where Chewie growls at the little black droid).  In 1995, Lucas returned the original three Star Wars films to the big-screen with the Special Editions.  In addition to giving a whole new generation of folks (like me) a chance to enjoy the Star Wars films on the big screen, these versions contained a number of CGI enhancements.  Some of these changes were very cool (particularly many of the snazzy new space-ship shots, like the Millennium Falcon blasting out of Mos Eisley and some action-packed additions to the Death Star battle).  Some were controversial (the re-insertion of a scene between Han Solo and Jabba the Hut; the many new creatures added into the background of Mos Eisley).  Some were down-right stupid (Greedo shooting at Han and somehow missing at point-blank range, before Han shoots and kills him).  In 2004, the Star Wars Original Trilogy was finally released to DVD.  Sadly, it was a mess.  There were additional changes to the film that were not for the better (the Han-Greedo scene was further mucked with, with Han and Greedo now shooting at one another practically simultaneously), and all sorts of other things in the film just were, well, wrong.  In the opening crawl, the “Star Wars” title seemed to recede into the background at warp speed, way faster than in any of the other films.  There was some bizarre color-correction that resulted in shots where the lightsabers seemed to be the wrong color (with Luke’s blue saber looking green, and Vader’s red saber looking pink).  There were some instances where bits of dialogue had been replaced with alternative takes, and where John Williams’ score had mysteriously vanished.  (I am focusing on the changes made to A New Hope — I could rant on for days about the annoying changes made to Empire and Jedi…!)  Now, I am not a fan who is resistant to new versions of Star Wars!  I have been (and continue to be) excited about changes made to the films to correct errors and to enhance the visual effects.  It is when the changes seem foolish or careless that I get upset.

Which brings me (at last) to Star Wars: Revisited.  What Adywan has done is as follows:  he has taken the 2004 DVD version of A New Hope and a) corrected many of the problems of that version, bringing the visuals, the color-timing, and the audio in-line with the original version of the film while maintaining the high-quality of the DVD image, b) preserved the best of the changes made by Lucas and ILM for the 1995 Special Editions and the 2004 DVDs, while removing the foolish ones, and c) added in a whole host of new changes of his own, things that he (and many fans) had been HOPING to see in the Special Editions or the 2004 DVDs.

The result is nothing short of MAGNIFICENT.

I could go on for DAYS trying to list all of the changes that he has made.  Literally almost every scene has been tweaked in some way.  (For an exhaustive list, click here.)  And I wouldn’t want to spoil all of the fun surprises that Adywan has added in.  But let me note some of my favorite things:

The opening crawl has been fixed and Star Wars now recedes into the background at the proper speed.

You can see a wrecked Battle Droid in the Jawa transport with R2-D2 & C-3PO!

Threepio’s line “there’ll be no escape for the Princess this time” has been changed to “there’ll be no escape this time.”  This fixes a large continuity problem, since when R2 plays the “help me, Obi-Wan Kenobi” hologram, Threepio has no idea who she is, and is unclear who the special passengers on the Blockade Runner were.

There is an awesome new series of special effects shots that introduce the Death Star (showing it in orbit of a planet — very cool) that includes the Imperial March!  (True Star Wars fans know that this classic bad-guy theme has always been missing from A New Hope, since John Williams didn’t write it until he was scoring Empire!)  Also, in the scene on the Death Star that follows, when Tarkin is discussing the Emperor’s dissolution of the Senate, William’s Emperor theme (which was used a lot in Return of the Jedi and the Prequel Trilogy) plays softly in the background.

While a lot of the new creature effects added into the Mos Eisley sequence for the Special Editions have been preserved, they have been trimmed to cut out the juvenile humor (such as one droid punching another, or a Jawa falling off one of the large creatures).

When Obi-Wan slices off the arm of the creature menacing Luke in the Cantina (that’d be Ponda Baba.  Yes, I am a Star Wars geek), we see in the next shot that the arm actually looks cauterized (the way light-saber wounds look in all the other films) as opposed to bloody.

The moment where Han is surprised by Greedo was ruined in the 2004 DVDs because Greedo’s subtitles appear on screen too early, BEFORE Han sees Greedo.  This has been fixed.  Also, during the scene between Han and Greedo, Adywan has added some subtle facial articulation to Greedo’s face (his eyes blink, his mouth moves more), bringing the rubber mask to life.

HAN SHOOTS FIRST!!!

The effects shot of Alderaan being destroyed has been beautifully re-done, making this a much more powerful moment.

I don’t know how he did it, but somehow Adywan has totally re-worked the Vader/Obi-Wan duel to be both longer and much more fast-paced and intense.  In a really clever touch, he also added in music from Revenge of the Sith, specifically John Williams’ “Duel of the Fates” track that played behind the Anakin/Obi-Wan duel in that film.  The combination really elevates this scene, and connects the Original Trilogy to the Prequel Trilogy in a powerful way.  (He also used CGI to subtly touch up the moment when Vader actually strikes down Obi-Wan — we now see Vader’s saber burn through Obi-Wan’s cloak.  Very cool.)

The battle between the Falcon and the Tie Fighters after they escape from the Death Star has been greatly enhanced, so that it no longer seems as if the Falcon is sitting still while the Tie Fighters buzz around it.

When Han and Leia and then Han and Luke chat in the Falcon’s cockpit after the fight, the hyperspace effect has been added in to the cock-pit windows.  It was always ridiculous that there were un-moving stars in the cockpit during that scene, when they’re supposed to be racing to the rebel base!  

The graphics of the Death Star used during the rebels’ briefing have been nicely enhanced, and when Leia and the rebel leaders monitor the Death Star battle in their base, the huge circular panel that they gather around has been enhanced with a beautiful 3-D hologram of the Death Star and all the fighters.

Oh my lord the final Death Star battle has been tremendously enhanced.  There are a variety of entirely new shots that are just amazing — particularly a stunning shot of the fleet of TIE fighters engaging the rebel X-Wings (scored to the Imperial March, which has once again been inserted here).  There are a TON of tweaks to this whole sequence.  Almost every shot has had a lot of extra ships and explosions added in to the background, making the battle seem a whole lot more visceral and chaotic.  The big red planet Yavin has been added in to the background of many of the shots, emphasizing the Death Star’s increasing proximity to the Rebel Base.  When the X-Wings are being chased down the trench by Vader and his TIE fighters, you can now see the TIEs chasing behind the X-Wings in many of the shots.  (In all of the many versions of Star Wars, this has never been the case.  You’d always see a shot of the X-Wings and then cut to a shot of the TIE fighters.)

Chewie gets a medal at the end!  He’s no longer excluded!!

Wow, I listed more of the changes than I’d thought I would — but this should indicate how excited I was by all of the changes and updates!!  (And believe me when I say that there are literally hundreds of other changes, both large and small, that I have not mentioned at all.)  With only one or two tiny exceptions, all of the changes are amazingly seamless.  The new CGI enhancements are incredibly professional, ILM-quality work.  If you had never seen the film before, there is absolutely no way that you’d know that ANY of the many changes and additions were not done by Lucas’ team.

This is the version of Star Wars that I have always wanted to see.  I can’t wait to see it again.  And until and unless Lucas and his team step up to the plate, I truly believe that this will be the version of A New Hope that I’ll be watching from now on.  Amazing.

I have been reading, for years now, about the mysterious Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I.  Apparently, some time after Episode I was released, a fan who was as dissatisfied as all the rest of us were decided to take matters into his own hands and re-edit Episode I in an attempt to address some of its many flaws.  Word of this Phantom Edit spread, and it wasn’t long before I was reading about in on-line and even in some mainstream magazines.  (For example, here is an interesting piece on the Phantom Edit from Salon.com from back in November, 2001.)  Kevin Smith had to publicly deny being responsible for this re-edit.  (Eventually the Phantom Editor was revealed to be Mike J. Nichols from California.)

Finally, after many years and a little help from one of my friends (you know who you are — THANK YOU!) I have finally had a chance to watch the Phantom Edit of Star Wars: Episode I myself.

It is a revelation.

By lifting out lines of dialogue, re-arranging moments, and even deleting entire sequences, Mr. Nichols has worked to excavate the core of a decent story buried under the bloated two hour and twenty minute run-time of George Lucas’ original film.  (The Phantom Edit runs just a hair under an hour and fifty minutes.)  

So what has changed?

Nichols has removed many of the more juvenile (and, let’s say it, stupid) elements of the film.  The main focus of his deletions is, surprise surprise, on Jar Jar.  Now, Jar Jar is still in the movie, don’t get me wrong.  There is no way to have the story be coherent without his presence.  But Nichols has trimmed Jar Jar’s presence in the film WAY back.  No longer does he step in poodoo, or get his face numbed and start talking like Bill Cosby doing his dentist routine, etc.  Nichols has even, in many places, reduced the volume of Jar Jar’s dialogue, subtly shifting the viewers’ focus away from his antics in the background to the things we SHOULD be paying attention to that are going on in the foreground.

Nichols actually gives Jar Jar something of an “arc” in the film, mainly by cutting the scene during the end-battle on Naboo where Jar Jar surrenders to the battle droids.  On the commentary (yes, there is even a commentary, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how well-spoken Nichols was, and the straight-forward way in which he laid out his rationale for all the changes he made), Nichols argues quite persuasively about how ridiculous it was to have Jar Jar on the podium celebrating with everyone at the end of the movie.  Wouldn’t the other Gungans be pretty pissed at that, seeing as how Jar Jar abandoned the cause at a critical moment by surrendering to the droids!  By taking that surrender moment out, Jar Jar now actually has a little bit of a journey over the course of the film.  He’s still an idiot by the end, but perhaps he’s a bit more of a heroic idiot.  (Nichols has clearly thought a LOT more about Jar Jar Binks than I ever want to consider, but I was intrigued by his point on this issue!)

The character who got the second-most amount of attention from Mr. Nichols was Jake Lloyd’s performance as young Anakin Skywalker.  Nichols did something really fascinating in order to improve Lloyd’s performance — he simply removed a large amount of his dialogue.  No more “yippees!” or “oopses!” or any of that.  Now Anakin becomes more of a quiet, introspective character — this allows us to read a bit more into his internal life, adding layers to his character.  Now it seems as if there’s some depth there, as opposed to his just being a fun-loving kid without any hint of darkness whatsoever.  Nichols also corrected one of the things that bugged me the most about Anakin in Episode I –  his blowing up the droid command ship by ACCIDENT.  Since we’d spent the whole film getting beat over the head about what a savant the kid was when it comes to machines and piloting, I always thought it was a HUGE missed opportunity on Lucas’ part to not make Anakin more heroic at the end, using his knowledge and skills to figure out what needed to be done (instead of becoming, as Nichols points out on his commentary, essentially a mirror of Jar Jar who only accomplishes his heroic deeds by complete accident).  Well, by trimming a few of Anakin’s scenes during the climactic space battle, and by removing much of his dialogue, it now seems like Anakin knows EXACTLY what he’s doing when he flies into that command ship and blows it up.  That culmination of Anakin’s story now plays MUCH better.

Nichols has also removed almost all of the Battle Droids’ dialogue.  Gone are all the inspid “roger roger”s.  This seemingly simple change restores danger and menace to the droids.  Now they are a THREAT, rather than pathetic and ridiculous characters.  

In addition to trimming back on all of that juvenalia, Nichols also focused on improving the pacing of the film.  Episode I is a very, very talky film.  (You might have noticed!)  I have read writers refer to it as “a movie of many meetings.”  As Nichols mentions in his commentary, one of the first rules of editing is to jump in to a scene already in progress, and then get out before it’s done — this maintains the audience’s attention and interest.  So, in a number of places throughout the film, Nichols has cut the opening few lines and the closing few lines of various scenes.  This is particularly noticeable in the film’s first act, which now moves at a much more brisk pace than it did before, and feels much more action-packed.  Gone are a lot of the conversations between Queen Amidala and her advisors.  Gone are a lot of the dumb jokes.  Gone are most of the instances where one character tells another about events that we, the viewers, JUST SAW five minutes previously.  Now, you almost feel as if you’re watching a Star Wars film!

Let me mention a few other changes that I really enjoyed:  Gone is the yawn-inducing (and totally unnecessary) opening crawl.  Gone is the whole time-wasting journey through the core of Naboo.  Although there is still one moment in which Qui-Gon mentions the existence of midichlorians, gone are all the other scenes that explain them and try to ground the Force in science instead of mysticism.  (Nichols explained that he left that one moment in because, since Episodes II and III hadn’t yet been released when he created this edit, he thought the existence of Midicholrians would play a strong part in those later movies and so felt it appropriate to leave in at least one reference to them.)

This re-edit is a masterful job.  With only one or two exceptions, the edits are amazingly seamless.  Unless you know the film really well, you’d never know that things had been lifted out.  It looks completely professional.  The over-all result really elevates the quality of the film.

Now, let’s not kid ourselves, re-edited or not, Star Wars: Episode I is still not a great movie.  Ultimately, many of the flaws of Episode I lie in the very basis of the story, which Mr. Nichols couldn’t do anything about.  I just don’t care too much about Jar Jar or the rest of the Gungans or any of the goings-on on Naboo.  The middle hour on Tatooine is dreadfully boring and is really only there to hook Anakin up with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan.  Darth Maul has WAY too tiny a role in the movie.

I could go on.

Obviously, The Phantom Edit cannot address those concerns.  However, despite those limitations, Mr. Nichols worked wonders on the material.  His Phantom Edit is a fascinating study in film editing, and how judicious cutting can truly affect the viewer’s reaction to a film, for the better.  It powerfully illuminates the many places where Lucas’ cut of Episode I went very, very wrong.  

My hat is off to Mr. Nichols for the incredible amount of time and effort that clearly went in to this project.  It is quite a professional-looking piece of work.  The film still can’t hold a candle to any installment of the Original Trilogy, but I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed Star Wars: Episode I as much!

I’ve seen some very funny movies in the theatres lately, but let me tell you about the two best pieces of entertainment that I’ve seen this week:

Sold Out: A Threevening With Kevin Smith — Back in 2002, film-maker Kevin Smith (Clerks, Mallrats, Chasing Amy, etc…) released a two-DVD compilation of the best moments of five lengthy Q & A sessions he had held at various college campuses.  This little slice of comic genius was called An Evening With Kevin Smith.  It is a raucous, profane, and relentlessly entertaining four hours spent learning FAR more than you probably ever wanted to know about Kevin Smith’s life, career, show-biz interactions, and sexual habits.  The kids ask Smith questions on all sorts of topics, and he answers with surprising honesty and brilliant humor.  The man is a spectacular story-teller.  There are so many gems to be found on this DVD set (one of the most-watched in my large DVD collection), but my two favorites concern Smith’s experiences filming documentary footage for Prince (”Chaka mad?  Chaka real mad!”), and his lengthy tale of the year he spent, in the late 90’s, working on a Superman movie script for Warner Brothers.  In addition to being one of the funniest stories I have ever heard (as Smith goes into painful, hilarious detail of the ins and outs of trying to get the relaunch made in crazy Hollywoodland), that tale also serves to explain (to me, at least) why so many big-budget Hollywood movies wind up being so awful.  Oh, and the epilogue to the story, about Smith’s public fight with Tim Burton, is a classic as well.  Oh, OK, and I must also mention the tale of Smith’s first hook-up with the woman who would become his wife.  This story might sound innocuous, but it has to be heard to be believed.  (Remember what I wrote before about Smith’s honesty?  Let’s just say that it is on full display here.)

In 2006, Smith released An Evening With Kevin Smith 2: Evening Harder.  While bearing a phenomenal title, this set contained footage from just two Q & A shows, and as a result it was a bit weaker.  (There was less material to draw from.)  However, that’s not to say that there’s not a lot of fun to be had.  The discussion of Jason Mewes’ “half-half-whole” technique (which I will not explain any further here) in particular is a winner, and left me anticipating the hopeful future release of a third DVD set.

Which brings us to Threevening.  This double-DVD contains footage from just one show, but its a doozy: Kevin Smith’s celebration of his 37th birthday with an almost five-hour Q & A in his hometown of Red Bank, New Jersey.  In this installment, Smith tells stories about the making of Clerks II and his involvement in Die Hard with a Vengeance, but the highlight is a tale about jury duty and an anal fissure that is over an hour long, shockingly graphic, and also fall-on-the-floor hysterical.  

My only complaint: for some weird reason, a significant number of questions (mostly the questions that lead to a short answer from Smith) were edited out of the main feature, and instead placed as “special features” on the second disc.  Why was this done?  Why cut up the show?  (The edits are done smoothly — when watching the main feature I had no clue anything was missing.  But once I discovered it I was irritated, as I would have preferred to just have the whole show presented intact.)  There are a LOT of funny and interesting questions and answers in these “special features” scenes, so if you pick up this disc, be sure not to miss ‘em!

Robot Chicken: Star Wars Episode II — In the running for the best 23 minutes of television ever broadcast is last year’s Robot Chicken’s Star Wars Special.  That installment of Comedy Central’s stop-motion animated series mocked (with great love and also brutal, brutal honesty) George Lucas’ beloved series, and every moment of the very short run-time was pure gold.  My favorite bits included an ad for Admiral Ackbar Cereal (”Your tongues can’t repel flavor of this magnitude!”); a meeting of the Death Star officers deciding the best way to survive working with Darth Vader; Jar-Jar Binks’ reaction when he meets his beloved friend Ani, now Darth Vader; Boba Fett’s taunting monologue to a captured, Carbonite-encased Han Solo; and of course the opening sketch in which the Emperor on Coruscant receives a phone call from Vader, informing him of the destruction of the Death Star (”They blew it up?  Who’s THEY??  What the hell is an aluminum falcon??”)

Seeing as how I’ve watched my DVD of that first special about ten times, I was overjoyed to hear of a sequel, which aired on Comedy Central this past weekend.  I am pleased to report that great brilliance is once more on display.  The new sketches include a look inside Anakin Skywalker’s mind when he was massacring Jedi younglings in Episode III; Jar-Jar as a spokes-person for Gecko Auto Insurance; Storm-trooper Take Your Daughter to Work Day; what happened to Boba Fett after he was eaten by the Sarlacc; the reaction of Imperial officers after the end of Return of the Jedi (”What do you mean, the rebels won?  We still have tens of thousands of ships, and we control countless worlds!”); and of course another great Vader-Emperor phone call, this time a parody of their scene in Empire (”What is my bidding?  How about I bid you to stop ramming my ships into asteroid fields!!”).  If you love Star Wars then you owe it to yourself to catch a re-run of this (or to pick up the inevitable DVD release).  You won’t regret it.

After much debate, I decided to skip the animated Star Wars Clone Wars movie that was released to theaters in late August.  It is almost unimaginable to me that I wouldn’t rush out to see a new Star Wars ANYTHING on the big screen.  But as I read bad review after bad review, claiming that the Clone Wars movie was chock-full of all the worst aspects of the prequels — stupid, juvenile jokes, wooden characters, etc. — that, in short, it was a movie clearly made for KIDS and not adults, I decided to pass.  Why go see something that it was certain I’d hate?  

When the Clone Wars TV series began this past week, I again had a decision to make.  Should I tune in?  (You see, the Clone Wars movie was the first three episodes of this new show edited together.  It was really just a splashy launch for the new, half-hour weekly animated show.)  But this time, the decision was much easier.  These shows were on TV — it was free, after all, and if they stunk I could always turn them off.  

So I checked out the first two episodes, which Cartoon Network aired back-to-back.  Things started off strong with the first episode, “Ambush.”  Yoda and a group of clone troopers head to the planet Toyndaria (the species to which Watto of Episode I belongs) to negotiate for permission to construct a Republic military base.  Of course, Count Dooku and the separatists are interested in the planet as well, and Yoda and three clone troopers quickly find themselves on the run from a horde of Battle Droids.  This was a solid episode — very fast-paced, with a ton of great Yoda-vs-droid action, and surprisingly good characterization for Yoda, Dooku, and the clones and Toyndarians.  With almost no human characters to be found, this episode also showcased what the computer animation does best — droids, ships, and actions.  (As became apparent in the second episode, the animation of humans is rather weaker, displaying a lot of the same problems seen back in the first Toy Story movie — the humans wind up looking rubbery and weird.)

The second episode, “Rising Malevolence,” reintroduces us to many of our familiar characters — Anakin Skywalker is the focus, but we also see R2D2, Obi-Wan, Mace Windu, and others.  Anakin and his padawan apprentice Ahsoka (a young girl apparently introduced in the Clone War movie — and how young Anakin has a padawan of his own is a mystery to me) investigate a new ultimate weapon that Dooku and General Grievous are testing.  We also spend time with Jedi Knight Plo Koon (a character seen but not given much to do in the prequels), who has his task force destroyed by this weapon, and spends much of the episode trapped in an escape pod with a few clone troopers, trying to evade the battle droids who are looking to finish them off.  As opposed to the self-contained “Ambush,” this episode leaves quite a bit unresolved.  On the one hand, that’s sort of cool, as I like the idea of long-running storylines in this show.  However, it also makes this second episode feel much less complete, and therefore less enjoyable, than the first one.

“Rising Malevolence” also exposes a number of weaknesses that I hope won’t become characteristic of the show, but that I fear will.  First of all, I find both Anakin and Ahsoka to be rather annoying.  Not Jar-Jar level unwatchable, but annoying nonetheless.  I find Ahsoka to be completely unnecessary — she’s the “kid sidekick” of which George Lucas seems to be fond, but she doesn’t contribute anything to the plot.  Indeed, I think she subtracts from what I wish was a greater focus on Anakin.  But then again, since the Anakin character seen here is just as stiff and boring as his counterpart in the live-action films, maybe that wouldn’t be any better.  I was also struck by the similarity between the Jedi Master trapped with three clone troopers stories seen in both episodes, and I hope the remainder of the series isn’t as formulaic.  (For much of “Rising Malevolence,” I was wondering if the three clone troopers weren’t supposed to be the same three clones as were with Yoda in “Ambush,” which doesn’t say much for the character-development on display, or for the animation.)

Bottom line?  Not a home run, but not a strike-out either.  I’ll definitely stay tuned for a few more episodes at least.  If the series winds up being more like “Ambush,” then we might have something of interest here.  I just hope the show is able to follow in the footsteps of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars shorts that came out a few years ago.  Also set between Episodes II and III, these traditionally-animated shorts were wonderful, giving us so much great stuff that I wish we’d seen in the prequels — enormous action, such as a massive siege of Coruscant (the show depicted just how Chancellor Palpatine got captured, a situation we found him in at the opening of Episode III), as well as some wonderful exploration of the powers and traditions of the Jedi (we saw the world that produces the crystals used to make light sabers, we saw the ceremony in which Anakin became a full Jedi Knight, we saw Anakin go through his own test of the cave, as Luke did in The Empire Strikes Back, and lots more).  

When I was a kid and first heard Obi-Wan Kenobi talk about the Clone Wars in the original Star Wars, I had great dreams about that galactic conflict.  Here’s hoping this series is able to tap into all of our imaginations the way Star Wars used to, as opposed to settling for lowest common denominator, made-for-kids dreck.  There’s still something quite incredible about seeing Yoda flick on his lightsaber and leap into battle (even though wars not make one great).  Let’s see more of that, please, George!

There’s a weird phenomenon that affects me sometimes (and I know I’m not alone in this) where I so fall in love with a story, or a group of characters, that I will watch those characters even in something really really bad.

I know Star Trek V is a terrible movie.  Terrible.  The story is weak (A search for God?  Spock suddenly has a half-brother?), the special effects are terrible (the ending really suffers…and compare the Bird of Prey shots with the much superior effects in Star Trek III made several years earlier), and the beloved characters are treated very poorly (Uhura’s “fan dance,” Scotty knocking himself out in an Enterprise corridor, navigators Checkov and Sulu getting lost in the woods, and, oh yeah, Kirk, Spock, and Bones singing “row, row, row your boat”).  And yet I so love those characters, that every now and then I’ll watch Star Trek V, somehow hoping that this time I’ll find something I sort of like about it.

This is also what happens with me and Episode I.  I’ve probably seen the movie 6 or 7 times now.  (About every 2 or 3 years I’ll make my way through all the Star Wars movies, usually in the order they were made:  Episodes IV-VI, and then I-III.)  And always I sort of hope that maybe this time I’ll be able to focus on the positives about Star Wars: Episode I.  The visuals are, mostly, pretty sweet.  I like Watto.  Darth Maul is cool.  The climactic three-way lightsaber battle is pretty dynamite.

But its hard to get over just how boring the movie is.  For a movie called Star WARS, there’s not a heck of a lot of action to be had.  Just a lot of talking.  There’s a terrific assemblage of actors – a far stronger ensemble, I would argue, than in the OT.  Ewan McGreggor.  Qui-Gon Jin.  Natalie Portman.  Terrence Stamp.  Ian McDiarmid.  These are fine actors, and they are WASTED.  And that’s what’s most frustrating to me about Episode I (and, frankly, the entire prequel trilogy). It just seems like such a wasted opportunity.  I wanted to see more of the Jedi in their prime – kicking ass and taking names.  I wanted to learn more about the Sith.  (In one of Darth Maul’s few lines of dialogue, he speaks of having his revenge against the Jedi.  Revenge for what?  What happened between the Jedi and the Sith thousands of years ago?  How did the Sith now return?)  Most of all, I just wanted another fun, exciting chapter in the space adventure series that I grew up loving.

And it still sort of bums me out that that’s not what I got.

So.  Sigh.  The Star Wars Prequels.

Its interesting to me to look back now, some years distant, on Episodes I-III.

For someone like myself who grew up with the Original Trilogy but who has no memory of seeing those films released, it was an incredible thing to be able to experience the release of three new Star Wars films.  At the time, of course, the tremendous excitement of the build-up was also accompanied by the crushing disappointment of actually seeing the films.  Especially Episode I.  I don’t think I’ve ever been more disappointed sitting in a movie theatre.  Going in, it really never occurred to me that the film would be bad.  That notion just never crossed my mind.  And yet, only 5 minutes in, when suddenly those Japanese-sounding Trade Federation aliens in very fake-looking rubber masks came on screen, I have a distinct memory of starting to shift uncomfortably in my seat.  Then Qui-Gon and Ob-wan find themselves on Naboo, and they meet Jar-Jar…and then they go to the city of Jar-Jars…and then they travel through the planet’s core which is filled not with molten lava but with water…and then they’re attacked by a fish but a bigger fish eats that fish and Qui-Gon says “there’s always a bigger fish” and then two minutes later the exact same thing happens and oh my god we’re only 25 minutes into this movie and it is BRUTAL.

But, watching that film for the first time, I was still filled with hope that, OK, the introduction is slow, but maybe Lucas was thinking about the saga as a 12-hour, 6-movie saga, and so the opening of a 12-hour saga would be a little longer than the opening of a 2-hour movie, so I should relax and be patient.  No, I didn’t give up all hope until about an hour and a half into the movie, when our motley band of heroes visited Coruscant.  Finally, FINALLY we were getting to see Jedi in their prime – and not just ANY Jedi, but the Jedi Council.  And what happens?  They sit and talk.  And they are not just boring, but they are stupid.  I don’t mean stupid as in, “its silly to take grown men wearing lightsabers who talk about vergences in the Force seriously” kind of stupid.  No, I mean stupid as in I have been totally emotionally involved in the world of Star Wars and Jedi since I was a kid and here we finally meet the greatest of the great of the Jedi and they are so colossally stupid and inept that, after Qui-Gon reveals to them that he’s discovered the existence of the first known evil Sith Lord in thousands of years, what do they decide to do?  Do they send hundreds of their best Jedi to comb Naboo in order to confront and eliminate this new menace?  Nope!  They decide it’s a better idea to just send one rebellious Jedi, his apprentice (who, by the way, we’re told over and over again is reckless, but who spends the entire movie just saying “yes master” to Qui-Gon), the boy they just proclaimed too dangerous to train, and one spastic Gungan.  THAT kind of stupid.

And my mind was still trying to wrap my head around that when our heroes boarded a space-ship and Jar Jar shouted “weesa going home” and I turned to my buddy sitting next to me and said something like “hoo boy.”  And I’ve spent the subsequent 10 years of my life trying to figure out what exactly went wrong that resulted in the existence of this terrible movie.

So that was my experience of seeing Episode I in the theatres for the first time, in May of 1999.  Have my thoughts about that movie changed with 10 years’ distance?  Come back tomorrow and we’ll chat.

So…are you aware that there’s a new Star Wars movie being released in theatres this summer?

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/000639.html

It’s a computer animated film that takes place between Episodes II and III, during the Clone Wars. (Apparently there’s a Clone Wars TV series coming our way from Lucasfilm sometime next year.) I’d really really love it if this were super-cool, although its hard to muster too much hope.

Anyone one remember when the prospect of new Star Wars on the big screen was something to drive people crazy with anticipation?