Official STAR WARS Saga Discussion Thread: Part 5 (1 Viewer)

[Osato]

Wow!!!

 

[B-ROLL]

Um ...

Celebrate responsibly with not too many Fifths !

 

[Osato]

Phantom menace screening was great! It was great to see it on a theater screen one more time.
Happy Star Wars day!

 

[Wayne_j]

On my way home from work tonight one of the road signs that usually gives traffic advisories said something like "Leave Hyperspace to Han Solo."

I will probably see TPM on Tuesday as I am planning on seeing The Fall Guy tomorrow and I am busy on Monday.

 

[Alex...]

Update

 

[TravisR]

Update

I guess we'll be seeing either Revenge Of The Sith (for its 20th anniversary) or maybe The Empire Strikes Back (45th anniversary) next May. I wouldn't be surprised if a slow weekend this August or September gets Attack Of The Clones.

 

[Osato]

I remember how I felt in 1999 so thrilled to get another Star Wars film. I took the day off to see it. I did have to stand in line for quite a while for the showing as it was first come first serve for seats!

 

[Josh Steinberg]

The Star Wars films in general haven’t been made available for repertory theaters for a long time - going back to when Lucasfilm was still an independent company and Fox was still its own studio.

I remember the Film Forum in NYC had to jump through a massive amount of hoops to get permission to show Star Wars (A New Hope) during a major Alec Guinness retrospective they were doing, and were only granted permission to do so under the conditions that a) it was the Special Edition version, b) that it was one screening only of the original film and none of the others that Guinness appeared in, and c) that it couldn’t be promoted independently and could only be advertised as part of the retrospective (i.e. no signs or emails saying “Showing Today! Star Wars!”). When the screening sold out instantly, they were not granted permission to add an extra one. That was about a decade ago, maybe more.

There’s a lot of pent-up demand for people to see any of these films on the big screen again and the years of not allowing virtually any screenings have put the studio in a position now where they can schedule one of these films and pull in a crowd.

By contrast, a film like Alien has historically been readily available for repertory bookings and is frequently shown as such so that can explain part of the disparity between Alien’s numbers last week and Phantom Menace’s this week.

 

[Sam Favate]

The kids and I went to see TPM today, since they’d never seen it on the big screen (our 108” screen apparently doesn’t count). It was a big hit with them, they both said they saw things they never noticed before and they loved the sound.

I’ve seen TPM so many times, but it was nice to see it on the big screen again. It was the last Star Wars movie filmed with film (not digital) and I think it shows. Of course, I’ve had 25 years to think of everything I’d change in the film, and there’s plenty, but it was fun to remember the thrill of seeing Star Wars again after 16 long years back in 1999. (By contrast, the whole of the MCU is 16 years old.)

The movie’s success this weekend shows that audiences are hungry for more Star Wars on the big screen.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

It was the last Star Wars movie filmed with film (not digital) and I think it shows.

The sequel trilogy was shot on 35mm film (with one sequence in Force Awakens shot on 15/70 IMAX) but the point is certainly well taken. The quality of the imagery in Phantom in many ways surpasses what’s seen in the other prequels.

I remember when the latter two prequels came out that there were both film and digital screenings and I thought the film versions look better. Being printed and going through a photochemical film process gave them a bit of texture and perceived depth to the imagery whereas the digital versions seem a little flat by comparison, with the blue screen process appearing a little too obvious. The generational loss provided by releasing them on film hid a lot of seams.

 

[TravisR]

Josh, how many of the nine movies did you get through? Just the prequels?

 

[Wayne_j]

The marathon wasn't playing anywhere near me and I probably wouldn't have gone anyway since the episodes 1 - 7 marathon messed me up for a week in 2015.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

Josh, how many of the nine movies did you get through? Just the prequels?

More or less!

Great crowd, for the most part. Had a pretty perfect seat and then 2 minutes before it begins, this lady who looks not old enough to have been around when Phantom first came out sits down next to me and starts shouting insults at the movie like it’s Rocky Horror or MST3K, but before she opens her mouth each time, she first aims her camera phone at the screen and films the movie as she’s shouting. Then she posts each video of her comment and then looks at her post. I guess she was trying to go viral? None of her stuff was funny and the crowd mostly ignored her. But I definitely switched seats after the first movie. The “womp womp” when Qui-Gon died being shouted into my eardrum was my breaking point on that lol.

I started getting tired during Revenge of the Sith, couldn’t stay awake through A New Hope, so I wound up bailing during Empire.

Apparently my new seat was a row in front of ManW but sadly I didn’t see his message until I was on the train home.

It was a lot of fun to see the prequels on the big screen again and I feel like I got my money’s worth even with the incomplete stay. The people running the theater did a nice job making sure the audience was comfortable and taken care of, and there were a lot of costumed volunteers making it feel like a real event. I’d be glad to do this again.

On a technical note, I’m just not impressed with these new 4K remasters (same source as the discs and Disney+ streams) on the big screen. They look great at home but to me they don’t really hold up on larger cinema screens.

The original color grading on the prequels was very bright and almost garish (in a way that suited the film) but the 4K remasters tone that down - too much in my opinion - so that they look a bit dim and flat. I honestly think the original 2K DCP being played directly on the projectors would look better than the 4K upscale the studio did. And if you saw Return of the Jedi last year on the reissue, that should give you an idea of how A New Hope and Empire look. Some shots look perfectly fine but in others, they’ve gone heavy handed on the DNR to remove the inconsistent film grain that was always part of these movies from the layers of opticals, and it’s slightly jarring going from a normal looking shot to a highly processed looking one. But honestly, 99.9% of viewers will likely never notice and the fun of seeing these movies on the big screen outweighs any imperfections detected.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

This morning I got to take one of my twins to see Phantom Menace at the local theater and we had a wonderful time. I didn’t know if all of the fighting or aliens would scare him or not (he’s 4 1/2) but he seemed to love it, especially when Anakin takes off in the yellow ship at the end and winds up destroying the droid control ship.

 

[TravisR]

The marathon wasn't playing anywhere near me and I probably wouldn't have gone anyway since the episodes 1 - 7 marathon messed me up for a week in 2015.

Yeah, I went to that one and had to alter my sleep schedule like a week before it due to it starting at 4:30 AM. I started going to bed earlier and earlier each night until I went to bed at 6 PM the night before and woke up at midnight to get there early enough to get good seats.

 

[TravisR]

More or less!

Great crowd, for the most part. Had a pretty perfect seat and then 2 minutes before it begins, this lady who looks not old enough to have been around when Phantom first came out sits down next to me and starts shouting insults at the movie like it’s Rocky Horror or MST3K, but before she opens her mouth each time, she first aims her camera phone at the screen and films the movie as she’s shouting. Then she posts each video of her comment and then looks at her post. I guess she was trying to go viral? None of her stuff was funny and the crowd mostly ignored her. But I definitely switched seats after the first movie. The “womp womp” when Qui-Gon died being shouted into my eardrum was my breaking point on that lol.

I can take some nonsense like that for a while but at a certain point, I'd have said something that would have hurt her feelings.

I saw The Phantom Menace on Friday night with a shockingly crowded theater and the only line that I heard elicit sarcastic chuckles was "Are you an angel?" Even Jar Jar seemed to do OK.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I can take some nonsense like that for a while but at a certain point, I'd have said something that would have hurt her feelings.

I kept looking back from my new seat and seeing more and more people moving away from her as the night went on. I’m normally not shy about asking someone to put their phone away or whatever but I figured if I’m potentially here for 9 movies and she’s filming everything, the last thing I needed was to be her viral moment.

The great thing was, between movies I asked the theater staff which seats were actually open so I could move without disrupting anyone cause I was next to womp womp girl, and no less than three other fans heard me say that and rushed up to say they had empty seats next to them if I wanted. You had people there of all ages and all walks of life and of varying degrees of fandom and everyone was just being so nice and kind to each other. It was nice to be apart of a crowd like that.

If this is gonna be a yearly thing from Disney I’d really be glad to go again. It was nice that I had let myself off the hook beforehand so instead of feeling like a quitter walking out, I felt happy that I had gotten what I needed out of it. And being able to follow that up with the Tales of the Empire thing on Disney+ after I got home and napped, and then the next day to take my son to his very first Star Wars thing, I mean, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer or more relaxed weekend.

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

I kept looking back from my new seat and seeing more and more people moving away from her as the night went on. I’m normally not shy about asking someone to put their phone away or whatever but I figured if I’m potentially here for 9 movies and she’s filming everything, the last thing I needed was to be her viral moment.

The great thing was, between movies I asked the theater staff which seats were actually open so I could move without disrupting anyone cause I was next to womp womp girl, and no less than three other fans heard me say that and rushed up to say they had empty seats next to them if I wanted. You had people there of all ages and all walks of life and of varying degrees of fandom and everyone was just being so nice and kind to each other. It was nice to be apart of a crowd like that.

If this is gonna be a yearly thing from Disney I’d really be glad to go again. It was nice that I had let myself off the hook beforehand so instead of feeling like a quitter walking out, I felt happy that I had gotten what I needed out of it. And being able to follow that up with the Tales of the Empire thing on Disney+ after I got home and napped, and then the next day to take my son to his very first Star Wars thing, I mean, I couldn’t have asked for a nicer or more relaxed weekend.

Someone (or two?) apparently canceled for the seat(s) next to mine, so I had empty seat buffer flanking me on both sides, which was good since my neighbors on both sides had merchs (and one was also fully dressed up w/ lightsaber, etc) -- I was somewhat tempted to dress up and bring a lightsaber too, but gave up on the idea, heh. Oddly, a couple neighbors (including the fully dressed up guy) on one side left after just TPM, so there were quite a few great seats empty in my row when you moved (and my row was down to maybe just 4 or 5 of us by the sequel trilogy).

I made it thru all 9, but did doze/drift off for maybe 5-10min moments once or twice during each movie after the prequel trilogy.

Ended up not getting coffee and just relying on some Mellow Yellow for small doses of caffeine, heh -- I also didn't wanna drink too much and have to leave for bathroom during each movie... though I did end up doing that once during the sequel trilogy.

I actually wasn't annoyed w/ the one (or two?) ladies making sporadic remarks and actually found them humorous enough, but of course, I also wasn't near her/them.

Yeah, I went to that one and had to alter my sleep schedule like a week before it due to it starting at 4:30 AM. I started going to bed earlier and earlier each night until I went to bed at 6 PM the night before and woke up at midnight to get there early enough to get good seats.

Since I only realized and decided to go the day before, didn't have much time to prep... but I happened to already have my sleep schedule out-of-whack and close enough to make just one more workable tweak/shift. However, my plan didn't work out quite right as I just couldn't stay asleep for my planned 7-8-hour stretch to wake up ~3 hours before showtime (to also allow me to have a quick dinner) -- I ended up only sleeping ~4-5 hours during that stretch.

And being the glutton that I apparently am, I still attended the student concert I had long planned up at Julliard and actually stayed awake for it... and yes, heard a little more Star Wars music for their encore as expected, haha. And then, when I finally got home around 11pm, I actually stayed up some more to eat a little something (since I missed dinner) and watched 1/2 of this French film, Love unto Death (1984), on The Criterion Channel -- it was actually supposed to have left the service back on 4/30, but I still had (unofficial) access on my ATV4K (using a trick I learned a long while back ) -- and a little Gilmore Girls on NF -- yeah, I finally got around to trying and binging on that show lately, LOL... Didn't wanna rush to bed too soon after eating... even though it wasn't much and I was tired (and still planned on going to church mid-morning on Sunday), heh...


Glad to have done this, especially w/ my perfect seating on that good size screen, but probably won't wanna complete another big marathon quite like this. I'd gladly do just the OT (plus maybe Rogue One and Solo) in the future, but don't really need to see the prequel trilogy and probably also sequel trilogy again in a theater...

_Man_

 

[ManW_TheUncool]

BTW, as I just mentioned in the rewards thread, they gave out a surprisingly high quality, heavy card stock w/ nicely embossed gold lettering, wide version of the TPM anniversary poster specifically for the marathon (w/ the marathon indicated/listed across the dark/black bottom area). It measures 22x28" w/ ships (in the sky/space) and racing pods (at ground level) along the expanded sides.

I'm no fan of TPM, but that wide version poster is certainly quite nice (though wish it's actually for the OT instead, heh). They also gave out a more typical 13x19" poster of Outlaws at the marathon.

_Man_

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I forgot to pick up my poster on my way out, doh! (Although let’s be honest, there’s no place for me to put it anyway.)