1/6 Hot Toys - MMS 279 - Star Wars Episode IV: 1/6th scale Darth Vader

[SNIKT1950]

From children, yes. It's a fairy tale, dude, come on. And yes you can have true drama in a sci-fi. I'd say Blade Runner comes closer than anything in Star Wars. "Gravity" is more dramatic; I'm sure "Interstellar" is too, but I doubt I could sit through it to find out. Don't get me wrong, I love Star Wars and can watch it many times over Blade Runner. I'm not saying SW needs high drama to be great. I'm just saying that there's not really any true high drama in SW. Star Wars was originally envisioned as good old fashioned pulp amusement, which it succeeds at. Drama, romance, comedy -- all secondary elements.

Dude, I'm not a kid and I can absorb as much drama from a Star Wars movie as I did from movies like The Imitation Game and Foxcatcher. I don't think there's anything childish about the conflict(s) in Star Wars. Thematically Lucas nails it. The execution just lacked in the majority of the prequels. Fathers and sons, the inequities we inherit and live with, destiny and legacy...serious themes that make for great drama.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

It was all downhill from 1980 on..

 

[Wor-Gar]

I can absorb as much drama from a Star Wars movie as I did from movies like The Imitation Game and Foxcatcher.

That's unusual.

 

[CriterionCollector]

Example of entitlement.

Also, watches WWE. Please grow up.

Millenials, Man, Millenials!

The highest drama Star Wars has is a few bumper-sticker sayings. I mean come on, don't tell me Darth telling Luke he's his father is "high drama."
That scene is corny as ****.
First, Darth Vader talks like a pirate, "You know it be true, Luke. Arrgggh!"
Second, Luke's stupid 8-year old temper tantrum face.

 

[SNIKT1950]

Millenials, Man, Millenials!

The highest drama Star Wars has is a few bumper-sticker sayings. I mean come on, don't tell me Darth telling Luke he's his father is "high drama."
That scene is corny as ****.
First, Darth Vader talks like a pirate, "You know it be true, Luke. Arrgggh!"
Second, Luke's stupid 8-year old temper tantrum face.

Do you even like Star Wars?

 

[WWEJedi]

Example of entitlement.

Also, watches WWE. Please grow up.

LOL.

I will take this as a joke Mr. 30000 posts.

 

[eczamurai]

Star Wars has drama. But it's like others said. Not quite tear dropping. But for a Sci Fi it's pretty heavy. Just not delivered as such. I'm pretty sure Lucas based his films on the ancient Greek mythology, which is the base of drama. Drama at it's finest.

 

[CriterionCollector]

Do you even like Star Wars?

I love Star Wars. I was born in 1977. Star Wars were the first action figures I played with. I saw Jedi when it was in theater and I remember waiting to go see it. That being said I don't attribute more to it than what it is: An entertaining popcorn movie.

 

[CriterionCollector]

Star Wars has drama. But it's like others said. Not quite tear dropping. But for a Sci Fi it's pretty heavy. Just not delivered as such. I'm pretty sure Lucas based his films on the ancient Greek mythology, which is the base of drama. Drama at it's finest.

Lucas pulled a lot of the stuff from Joseph Campbell's analysis of classical Greek narratives in his book, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, like character archetypes and the hero's journey.

 

[CriterionCollector]

And let's not give Lucas a ton of credit for how the OT turned out. I think he had quite a few folks around him that reigned him in. I've read that his original ideas for SW were not that great like portraying C3-PO as a greasy car salesman type character. I also read that the editing team behind the movie did a lot of clean up duty cutting the film and making it as enjoyable as it is. With Empire I would give a lot of credit to Irvin Kershner who had quite a bit of experience under his belt.

The PT is what happens when you don't have anyone to call Lucas on his ******** ideas.

 

[bransen2099]

LOL.

I will take this as a joke Mr. 30000 posts.

I don't see how post count is relevant...

 

[Lejuan]

I don't see how post count is relevant...

...except when you waltz into a forum and try to dictate how and what more established members should be posting.

 

[bransen2099]

...except when you waltz into a forum and try to dictate how and what more established members should be posting.

I guess so

I just saw that as a cheap comeback

 

[Lejuan]

I guess so

I just saw that as a cheap comeback

It was

 

[Captain Britain]

And let's not give Lucas a ton of credit for how the OT turned out. I think he had quite a few folks around him that reigned him in. I've read that his original ideas for SW were not that great like portraying C3-PO as a greasy car salesman type character. I also read that the editing team behind the movie did a lot of clean up duty cutting the film and making it as enjoyable as it is. With Empire I would give a lot of credit to Irvin Kershner who had quite a bit of experience under his belt.

The PT is what happens when you don't have anyone to call Lucas on his ******** ideas.

I agree that when Lucas is collaborating he's at his best and he hasn't had to collaborate in a meaningful way since Empire (Raiders was largely written before Empire). But it's a more complicated picture than that - no one told him to read Bruno Bettelheim and the purity of Star Wars as a fairy tale is all Lucas, although he had one great collaborator on that picture that he's never had since - a studio that put him under pressure and a low budget.

Sorry if that makes me sound like a scholar

 

[Wor-Gar]

Star Wars has drama. But it's like others said. Not quite tear dropping. But for a Sci Fi it's pretty heavy. Just not delivered as such. I'm pretty sure Lucas based his films on the ancient Greek mythology, which is the base of drama. Drama at it's finest.

I agree. Lucas borrowed from everything; Greek myth, Arthurian legends, on and on. It was meant to be "mythic" of course. And he did a great job at capturing those stories and themes -- but as you said not always a great job delivering those stories. In many ways, like his fleeting images of gunslingers and pirates and roman emperors, his themes and stories were merely glanced; not truly developed beyond the "one scene" where we're supposed to understand it on the level of storytelling in general.

But not every story in Greek mythology had high drama. And I would say "drama of its time" -- given great gravitas now because it is the basis for all other stories. I'm not sure that makes it the highly dramatic, or drama, for our time.

A lot of Greek myth stories felt more gossipy than they did dramatic; always who was sleeping with who (usually Zeus) and who's child was coming to kill him.

 

[Wor-Gar]

He drew structure from Campbell, yes. Isn't that the "Hero of a Thousand Faces"? The commonalities in myths. But it really wasn't until Chris Vogler wrote it down in a simple formulaic 12-step outline "The Hero's Journey" in '84 that the concept really took off and everyone discovered that you could apply this structure to almost every heroic story -- past, present or future. That's what everyone here is referencing when they say "Campbell", right? The structure of myth and general heroic storytelling.


Anyway, more importantly, have they improved this Vader yet?

 

[CriterionCollector]

He drew structure from Campbell, yes. Isn't that the "Hero of a Thousand Faces"? The commonalities in myths. But it really wasn't until Chris Vogler wrote it down in a simple formulaic 12-step outline "The Hero's Journey" in '84 that the concept really took off and everyone discovered that you could apply this structure to almost every heroic story -- past, present or future. That's what everyone here is referencing when they say "Campbell", right? The structure of myth and general heroic storytelling.

I don't know much about the backstory and I lent my copy to our 8th Grade LA teacher. My Dad knows a lot more about this than me. Actually, it was my Dad who told me about Campbell and Star Wars before I ever saw any confirmation of that from Lucas.

 

[eczamurai]

I agree. Lucas borrowed from everything; Greek myth, Arthurian legends, on and on. It was meant to be "mythic" of course. And he did a great job at capturing those stories and themes -- but as you said not always a great job delivering those stories. In many ways, like his fleeting images of gunslingers and pirates and roman emperors, his themes and stories were merely glanced; not truly developed beyond the "one scene" where we're supposed to understand it on the level of storytelling in general.

But not every story in Greek mythology had high drama. And I would say "drama of its time" -- given great gravitas now because it is the basis for all other stories. I'm not sure that makes it the highly dramatic, or drama, for our time.

A lot of Greek myth stories felt more gossipy than they did dramatic; always who was sleeping with who (usually Zeus) and who's child was coming to kill him.

Well sure there are the better and lesser stories. I think the ones involving unknown cannibalism are pretty intens. But yea I agree with your points. And let's not forget life is pretty much about sex and war so the Greeks were right pretty much.

 

[CriterionCollector]

Well sure there are the better and lesser stories. I think the ones involving unknown cannibalism are pretty intens. But yea I agree with your points. And let's not forget life is pretty much about sex and war so the Greeks were right pretty much.

Well we can definitely tell Lucas borrowed from Greek stories especially with that whole incest angle if anyone has ever read Oedipus Rex!