{"id":2899,"date":"2005-04-06T23:57:00","date_gmt":"2005-04-06T23:57:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/04\/star-wars-why-bother-waiting\/"},"modified":"2005-04-06T23:57:00","modified_gmt":"2005-04-06T23:57:00","slug":"star-wars-why-bother-waiting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/04\/star-wars-why-bother-waiting.html","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars — why bother waiting?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jeff Overstreet<\/a> beat me to it, but yeah, like he says:<\/span><\/p>\n

Doesn\u2019t it take some of the fun out of OPENING DAY to know that the novelization<\/a> of Star Wars, Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith<\/a><\/i> is already available at your local bookstore?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jeff asks rhetorically whether the Academy will honour the climax of Lucas\u2019s trilogy after snubbing the first two films, the same way they honoured the climax of Peter Jackson\u2019s <\/span>Lord of the Rings<\/i> after doing the same to <\/span>his<\/i> first two films. Except the parallel there isn\u2019t all that exact, really. The Academy did, in fact, honour Jackson\u2019s first two films with Oscars for cinematography, music, makeup, sound editing and \u2014 of course \u2014 visual effects, before they finally decided to bestow even more awards on the third film. And then there were all the other nominations that never turned into actual awards, such as the acting nod for Sir Ian McKellen.<\/span><\/p>\n

In contrast, <\/span>The Phantom Menace<\/i> (1999) and <\/span>Attack of the Clones<\/i> (2002) had only four nominations between them, all of which were in the sound or visual effects departments, and they lost three of those to <\/span>The Matrix<\/i> (1999) \u2014 gosh it feels so long since that film was considered the cutting-edge mythology of a new generation, doesn\u2019t it? \u2014 while the other one went to <\/span>The Two Towers<\/i> (2002). (FWIW, I have always been disappointed that the <\/span>Matrix<\/i> sequels, which came out the same year as <\/span>The Return of the King<\/i>, were never even <\/span>eligible<\/i> for the visual effects awards; I was hoping to see a showdown between the two trilogies that had beat George Lucas at his own game, but alas, it was not to be.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Of course, with the <\/span>Matrix<\/i> and <\/span>Lord of the Rings<\/i> trilogies out of the way, and with the <\/span>Spider-Man<\/i> trilogy on hiatus (the second film won the Oscar for visual effects in 2004), the way <\/span>could<\/i> be clear for <\/span>Revenge of the Sith<\/i> to claim the prize that has eluded Lucas\u2019s earlier prequels. But it would be very interesting indeed if Lucas were snubbed yet again.<\/span><\/p>\n

Incidentally, I saw the <\/span>Sith<\/i> trailer on the big screen for the first time on Monday, and didn\u2019t like the look of it. As a download, it\u2019s fine, but on the big screen, you can really, really tell that it was shot on video \u2014 and call me a film snob, but I think the video look sucks. I actually have nothing against digital video when it\u2019s done right \u2014 Robert LePage\u2019s <\/span>The Far Side of the Moon<\/a><\/i> is an especially bee-yoo-tee-ful example of what can be done in this regard \u2014 but these <\/span>Star Wars<\/i> prequels just don\u2019t look right. Maybe it\u2019s just another sign of how they suffer from over-tweaking.<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, and check out <\/span>this Variety<\/i> story<\/a> on how certain <\/span>Star Wars<\/i> fans are insisting on lining up outside Grauman\u2019s Chinese Theatre even though <\/span>Sith<\/i> appears to be the first of the six <\/span>Star Wars<\/i> films that will be opening at some <\/span>other<\/i> theatre. The emperor has moved his capitol to Constantinople, and the true believers still insist that Rome is the centre of the universe. It is especially interesting how some fans \u201chave discovered that standing in a \u2018Star Wars\u2019 line is actually more important than seeing a \u2018Star Wars\u2019 film.\u201d There\u2019s some comment to be made here about the parallels between cult followings and certain religious trends, but I haven\u2019t got the time to come up with something appropriately clever.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeff Overstreet beat me to it, but yeah, like he says: Doesn\u2019t it take some of the fun out of OPENING DAY to know that the novelization of Star Wars, Episode Three: Revenge of the Sith is already available at your local bookstore? Jeff asks rhetorically whether the Academy will honour the climax of Lucas\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1116,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nStar Wars -- why bother waiting?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Jeff Overstreet beat me to it, but yeah, like he says:Doesn't it take some of the fun out of OPENING DAY to know that the novelization of Star Wars,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/04\/star-wars-why-bother-waiting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Star Wars -- why bother waiting?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Jeff Overstreet beat me to it, but yeah, like he says:Doesn't it take some of the fun out of OPENING DAY to know that the novelization of Star Wars,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/filmchat\/2005\/04\/star-wars-why-bother-waiting.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FilmChat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2005-04-06T23:57:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter T. 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