Han Solo...

[Kodos]

... was almost played by Al Pacino. (Learned this on Jeopardy last night)

We dodged a bullet there! :eek:

[sabotai]

Get ready for the jump to lightspeed, WHO-AH!

[timmynausea]

That would've been lame.
Sean Connery was almost Gandalf. Al Pacino was almost in the Lord of the Rings as well, I believe. I forget which role.

[Blackadar]

Han Solo shot FIRST!

[Schmidty]

Al Pacino was almost in the Lord of the Rings as well, I believe. I forget which role.

Gandalf. *Pointing at Frodo* - "Say hello to my little friend!!!"

[Joe]

Han Solo shot FIRST!


tony montana always shoots first

[TazFTW]

... was almost played by Al Pacino. (Learned this on Jeopardy last night)

We dodged a bullet there! :eek:
Kurt Russell also. His (Russell's) audition is on the Star Wars DVD.


Lucas was also considering Toshiro Mifune for the part of Obi-Wan.

[Blackadar]

Kurt Russell would have been pretty good. Snake Plistin IS Han Solo. :)

[Kodos]

Kurt Russell also. His (Russell's) audition is on the Star Wars DVD.



I could imagine Russell doing a decent job with this, although not as good as Ford did. Pacino would have been horrific.

[timmynausea]

Kurt Russell was going for Luke, I think.

[TazFTW]

He auditioned for both roles.

[timmynausea]

The weirdest bit of Star Wars trivia to me is that David Lynch was the first choice to direct Return of the Jedi but turned it down to work on Dune.

[stevew]

Anyone else remember Kevin Spacey doing the Han Solo auditions on SNL(as Christopher Walken). Pure Comedy gold.

[Blackadar]

Kurt Russell was going for Luke, I think.

He'd have done a better job than Mark Hamil.

[Qwikshot]

Lucas was also considering Toshiro Mifune for the part of Obi-Wan.

That would have been interesting.


As for Pacino:

"First you get tha force, then you get the power, then you get the women."

[judicial clerk]

Han Solo being the same height as a jawa would have sucked.

On a compeltely unrelated note. Lucas really screwed up Episode 1 in a way that I have never seen mentioned before. All the Star Wars movies are cheesy, but they have some really cool scenes. "Luke, I am your father" probably at the top of the list. A scene that could have been about the third coolest was from Episode 1 when Liam Neeson and Obi Wan square off against Darth Mal. When Darth Mal assumes his fighting stance and activates the second blade of his double edged saber would have been a "HOLY SHIT!" cool moment, but dumbass Lucas gave it away by putting it in one of the fucking commercials for the movie. What a dumbass.

[Draft Dodger]

Han Solo being the same height as a jawa would have sucked.

On a compeltely unrelated note. Lucas really screwed up Episode 1 in a way that I have never seen mentioned before. All the Star Wars movies are cheesy, but they have some really cool scenes. "Luke, I am your father" probably at the top of the list. A scene that could have been about the third coolest was from Episode 1 when Liam Neeson and Obi Wan square off against Darth Mal. When Darth Mal assumes his fighting stance and activates the second blade of his double edged saber would have been a "HOLY SHIT!" cool moment, but dumbass Lucas gave it away by putting it in one of the fucking commercials for the movie. What a dumbass.

thank you 1999
(btw, they also put a song on the soundtrack called "The Death of Qui-Gon" revealing a pretty big spoiler for those dorks who bought the soundtrack first...)

[CHEMICAL SOLDIER]

The weirdest bit of Star Wars trivia to me is that David Lynch was the first choice to direct Return of the Jedi but turned it down to work on Dune.
Dodged another bullet there!

[sterlingice]

Han Solo being the same height as a jawa would have sucked.

On a compeltely unrelated note. Lucas really screwed up Episode 1 in a way that I have never seen mentioned before. All the Star Wars movies are cheesy, but they have some really cool scenes. "Luke, I am your father" probably at the top of the list. A scene that could have been about the third coolest was from Episode 1 when Liam Neeson and Obi Wan square off against Darth Mal. When Darth Mal assumes his fighting stance and activates the second blade of his double edged saber would have been a "HOLY SHIT!" cool moment, but dumbass Lucas gave it away by putting it in one of the fucking commercials for the movie. What a dumbass.
After rewatching Episode 2 a couple of weeks ago, I remember what I thought was a big missed chance on that one. They should have made Christopher Lee's character actually a good guy- a misguided good guy, but a good guy. After all, he's gathering a group who thinks the Republic is wrong and antiquated. So when the Jedi go in there and slaughter them, the beginning of the third movie becomes a matter of "whoops, don't we, the good Jedi, look bad- Palpatine is going out of control and we killed the only group who was trying to oppose him". Instead, we find out that Lee is just a plant and it's just two evil sides against each other.

SI

[BigJohn&TheLions]

...Instead, we find out that Lee is just a plant and it's just two evil sides against each other.

SI
What does Christopher Lee have to do with U.S. politics?

[Passacaglia]

It's not so weird. I know for a fact that Dustin Hoffman was in Star Wars.

[st.cronin]

Anyone else remember Kevin Spacey doing the Han Solo auditions on SNL(as Christopher Walken). Pure Comedy gold.

That might have been the funniest moment on SNL EVER.

[Kodos]

After rewatching Episode 2 a couple of weeks ago...

Good god, man! Why would you ever watch one of the first 2 episodes again? :eek:

[Desnudo]

Good god, man! Why would you ever watch one of the first 2 episodes again? :eek:

I can tolerate the seond one. Mainly because of the battle scenes at the end.

[timmynausea]

Episode 2 is way way better than Episode 1. Even though it's not that great.

[sabotai]

Episode 2 is actually not that bad....as long as you press the "fast forward" button anytime you see Anakin and Padme on the screen at the same time. :)

[TazFTW]

Good god, man! Why would you ever watch one of the first 2 episodes again? :eek:
I plan on watching the movies in order, the week Ep. 3 comes out. So TPM, AotC, and Star Wars: The Clone Wars will be getting watched before I go to see Revenge of the Sith (most likely Friday). This leaves the weekend to watch the original trilogy.

I would also repurchase The Phantom Menace if Lucas remastered the DVD. The video quality of that one is far below that of the others in the series (even the OT looks better than TPM).

[SackAttack]

Episode 2 is actually not that bad....as long as you press the "fast forward" button anytime you see Anakin . :)

fixed it for you! ;)

[sterlingice]

fixed it for you! ;)
Definitely. I know I'm in the minority but I actually find Episode 1 less offensive than Episode 2. Two just pains me any time there is some sort of attempt at acting. And I'm someone who likes bad action movies so you have to be really bad to grate on my actingwise in an action movie.

Still, to be fair, as bad as they were compared to the first 3, episodes 1 and 2 are still better than about 2/3rds of movies put out in a year. I think people lose that perspective because of expectation gaps.

SI

[st.cronin]

I'm sorry, I was a huge fan of the original trilogy, but George Lucas doesn't get another damn penny from me.

[timmynausea]

I'm sorry, I was a huge fan of the original trilogy, but George Lucas doesn't get another damn penny from me.
He might survive without your pennies.

[Desnudo]

Definitely. I know I'm in the minority but I actually find Episode 1 less offensive than Episode 2. Two just pains me any time there is some sort of attempt at acting. And I'm someone who likes bad action movies so you have to be really bad to grate on my actingwise in an action movie.

Still, to be fair, as bad as they were compared to the first 3, episodes 1 and 2 are still better than about 2/3rds of movies put out in a year. I think people lose that perspective because of expectation gaps.

SI

Yes, but at least 3/4 of the movies put out each year are garbage. And with the budget, and the actors he could have gotten, the movies should have been better than nearly anything else.

[Desnudo]

He might survive without your pennies.

The movie theater will also be glad not to have to deal with sorting his pennies.

[Blackadar]

After rewatching Episode 2 a couple of weeks ago, I remember what I thought was a big missed chance on that one. They should have made Christopher Lee's character actually a good guy- a misguided good guy, but a good guy. After all, he's gathering a group who thinks the Republic is wrong and antiquated. So when the Jedi go in there and slaughter them, the beginning of the third movie becomes a matter of "whoops, don't we, the good Jedi, look bad- Palpatine is going out of control and we killed the only group who was trying to oppose him". Instead, we find out that Lee is just a plant and it's just two evil sides against each other.

SI

Agreed. I really thought he was a good guy until the Jedi started getting slaughtered.

Ep 2 isn't that bad. It has it's share of horrid acting and awful dialog -

(as an aside, the "Perhaps with merely your presence, the mysteries surrounding this threat will be revealed. Now if you will excuse me I will retire." line from Padme ranks right up there as the worst dialog of all time)

- but the action from the last 45 minutes is pretty good. Christopher Lee about steals the movie. Yoda is good. Obi Wan is pretty decent. The jedi battle is fun to watch. Overall, it's decent.

Ep.1 however, is unwatchable in many places. The Gungans (and Jar-Jar in particular) are hideous. The sea monsters scene is absurd (Jedi can't sense a 500 ft. long sea monster?). Annie is a twerp. Darth Maul is horribly undeveloped. Never mind the midi-chlorians or whatever they were. It drags in many places. The podracer scene and the final Darth Maul scene are the only two good scenes in the entire movie.

[sterlingice]

Yes, but at least 3/4 of the movies put out each year are garbage. And with the budget, and the actors he could have gotten, the movies should have been better than nearly anything else.
Agreed. I just think that people proclaiming them the worst thing ever and something that's completely unwatchable are full of hyperbole or suffering from expectation gap theory.

SI

[Blackadar]

Dola...

With all that said and done, I guarantee I'll see Ep. 3 in the theatre. I'm a sucker for Star Wars and I have a feeling this one will be pretty damned good. Lucas was always better when he let his Dark Side take over.

[st.cronin]

100 years from now Empire will be the movie people remember - the rest will be like a footnote.

[sterlingice]

100 years from now Empire will be the movie people remember - the rest will be like a footnote.
See- that's the crazy purist mentality that always gets me. In my eyes, Empire has the least happen of any of the movies.

SI

[TazFTW]

Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings.

[sterlingice]

Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings.
If I wanted to see a down ending, I'll go watch the news. Not to say that you can't have a good movie without a downer ending but that's not a reason to really like it. I want to be entertained when I go to a theater. I guess the fact that I knew Vader was Luke's father killed that suspenseful point.

SI

[timmynausea]

I actually like the original (episode IV) better than Empire, althought they are close. I think the main reason Empire gets so much credit is because the ending is pretty dramatic.

[sterlingice]

I actually like the original (episode IV) better than Empire, althought they are close. I think the main reason Empire gets so much credit is because the ending is pretty dramatic.
I think the original is easily the best even with the visible strings for the ships, stormtrooper hitting his head, etc ;)

SI

[Draft Dodger]

Definitely. I know I'm in the minority but I actually find Episode 1 less offensive than Episode 2. Two just pains me any time there is some sort of attempt at acting. And I'm someone who likes bad action movies so you have to be really bad to grate on my actingwise in an action movie.

Still, to be fair, as bad as they were compared to the first 3, episodes 1 and 2 are still better than about 2/3rds of movies put out in a year. I think people lose that perspective because of expectation gaps.

SI

I'm in that same minority of liking 1 better than 2, although it's not really the acting that does 2 in for me...it's the ridiculous story. I have a lot of issues with Menace being too silly and far more complicated than it needs to be, but overall one can pretty much follow the story and the action was generally entertaining. Clones to me was just an exericise in seeing how many tie-ins to the original series they could work in. The pretty much lost me when it's revealed that Boba Fett's father is the DNA basis for all the clones. The story completely lost me about 3/4 of the way through...and then we came to that horrible robot factory scene (complete with FLYING R2!!1) and I was pretty much done. Even the final battle scene didn't save it for me.

and yes, I agree with your argument that they are better than about 2/3 of movies put out each year. Unfortunately, they are also about 3x worse than even Return of the Jedi (and don't even come close to the other two). They aren't bad...but they could have (and should have) been so much better.

[rafini]

Empire had the better ending. I mean, Luke gets his hand cut off, finds out Vader's his father, Han gets frozen and taken away by Boba Fett. It ends on such a down note. I mean, that's what life is, a series of down endings.

All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.

[st.cronin]

All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.

Actually, when I think of Jedi, all I can think of is Leia.

[Desnudo]

All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.

And good acting.

[TazFTW]

All Jedi had was a bunch of Muppets.
A gold star to you for recognizing and completing the quote.

[Bonegavel]

After rewatching Episode 2 a couple of weeks ago, I remember what I thought was a big missed chance on that one. They should have made Christopher Lee's character actually a good guy- a misguided good guy, but a good guy. After all, he's gathering a group who thinks the Republic is wrong and antiquated. So when the Jedi go in there and slaughter them, the beginning of the third movie becomes a matter of "whoops, don't we, the good Jedi, look bad- Palpatine is going out of control and we killed the only group who was trying to oppose him". Instead, we find out that Lee is just a plant and it's just two evil sides against each other.

SI
DAMN! Was thinking exactly the same thing.

How great would it have been to have the "good" guys standing in the way of deposing Palp?

Similar to the feeling of seeing Yoda leading Stormtroopers into battle, i suppose.