Star Wars week

My agenda when I got home from purchasing the Star Wars Trilogy on DVD consisted of mainly one item: to make myself a liar. I wanted to believe in my heart of fanboy hearts that there is no way Uncle George would ever go through with modifying the Original Trilogy to suit his needs of justifying the Prequel Trilogy. But there it was, Luke staring knowingly into the darkness of the Ewok village outskirts, looking upon the ghosts of his former masters: Obi-Wan, Yoda and his father...Hayden Christiansen. I guess it's not like Sebastian Shaw can put up a fight, him being dead and all, but was it really necessary?

After The Wife picked me up off the floor, tears streaming down my cheeks, I skimmed briefly through the discs checking over some of the key scenes that I had heard received a bit of a touch up. I half expected to see Jabba re-replaced with Declan McCullaugh in A New Hope, but instead I saw a more freckly Jabba that had obviously been remodelled to look less like inserted CG than it did in 1997. Fair enough. All of the lightsabers look a lot brighter, and I was really suprised at how clean the film-to-DVD transfer was. In an even longer celebration sequence at the end of Return of the Jedi was a brief shot of the celebration on Naboo, which I suppose was inevitable now that we know it's part of the Alliance.

I kept looking at the DVD covers with a sneer on my face, thinking about how Lucasfilm took extra special care in trying to awkwardly place clearly old pictures to mimic the covers from the Prequel Trilogy. I decided to toss in the Bonus Materials disc, not defeated, but definitely feeling a bit demoralized. I watched the exclusive preview for Episode III, and I was a jellyfish again.

The Duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin, the fight this entire Prequel trilogy has been cultivating, will be the mantlepiece for the entire film. Watching McGregor and Christiansen rehearse against the blue screen, you can only imagine what environment is around them. Observing the extremely talented artists in Lucasfilm's costume studio create a more "modern looking" Vader suit, I got goosebumps. It wasn't until one of the sculptors working on Vader's facemask said something that made you realize just how 70s the original Vader helmet looks. It's not like they gave him glowing eyes or a platinum grill or anything, they just made some subtle changes to the entire outfit so it would seem appropriate on Christiansen's obviously smaller frame. When he walked on set in it for the first time, the entire crew cheered - fuck, I cheered - and I was ready to jump up and wait in line for this stupid movie.

There are also three featurettes on the disc, one of them being about the evolution of the Lightsaber. I mean everyone knows the story about sound man Ben Burtt's quest to search for what would be come one of the most famous sound effects in movie history, but there was a playful, even mythical quality to the whole thing that made you look at the Lightsaber as not just a prop or special effect, but a cornerstone of the entire series. I really doubt Star Wars would have gone anywhere if the effects crew decided to keep the rods wrapped in highly reflective tape.

The highlight of the bonus disc though is the amazingly detailed two and a half hour documentary that shows everything from Star Wars the concept and Lucas' merchandising foresight, to the fan reaction at the release of the prequels. Anyone that's seen From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga knows that it was more of a promotional tool for Jedi's theatrical release. Empire of Dreams is the story behind the Star Wars saga proper, something desperately needed to ground everyone's expectations about this series. Indeed, things have gotten a bit out of hand with people like me acting as if Lucas himself pillaged our childhood memories, but the series still remains a great concept and a monumental influence on modern Hollywood cinema, despite Lucas' efforts to distance himself from the Hollywood machine. The whole thing had a very VH1-feel to it, but I suppose we're better off without Mark Hamill's narration and the talking puppets in Star Wars to Jedi.

The release of Star Wars: Battlefront this week was met with average reviews, and much to my disappointment the demo released with the DVD set is for XBox only (and apparently overwrites your dashboard - modders beware!). Fortunately, my local electronics superstore had an outright buffet of Star Wars media to consume, the foremost being a tricked out PC with Battlefront on it. Pandemic's engine looked very hazy and surreal, apparently sharing this behaviour with Full Spectrum Warrior. The Naboo battlefield was presented quite nicely, and this haziness served as a kind of fog that wouldn't be out of place on this planet. The controls were standard, as were the basic gameplay objectives. I didn't play it long enough to justify an instant buy; then again, I also can't name too many people that wouldn't want to aim a blaster rifle at a Gungan's head.

I also checked out Apprentice of the Force, something I thought would end up as a "Star Wars" emblazoned turd. The animations are suprisingly smooth, and reminiscent of the acrobatics found in The Sands of Time (GBA). However the sprites remain undetailed, the backgrounds lack substance and are overall presented quite shabbily - right down to the pixellated movieframe cutscenes. You traverse the entire trilogy, faced with battles along the way for the most menial of tasks. I don't remember Luke having to fend off a legion of Stormtroopers just to sell his damnable landspeeder, but I guess you have to gain experience for your future Force abilities somehow. The level design is uninspired and excruciatingly repetitive, and incredibly easy to play through. It's a decent action game for serious SW fans only. And when I say serious, I'm talking about the same kind that shelled out $60 CDN on Tuesday for Hayden Christiansen's ghost. But I'm not bitter or anything.

another slow train to the coast