Star Wars: The Force Awakens (Pre-release)

Yeah I wonder if we'll see new Mon Cal cruisers or something else. Not capital ships but I'm also hoping we'll see some version of the A- and B-wings.

That would be cool, but I hope they also have some others in there. That was one thing I didn't like in the old EU that most of the Rebel Fleet was Mon Cal ships. I think it was like that in ROTJ because those were all the forces they could get together for the Death Star attack. That didn't represent all of the Rebel fleet.

Maybe there's still some fraction of Emprials who only have older equipment? the "Empire" could still be fractured all to hell.

That is one EU thing I hope they keep, that there are all kinds of Imperial warlords and moffs vying for control or carving out their own little empires.
 
Who? The Rebels or LucasFilm?
Lucasfilm.

As far as I know, the whole thing was filmed in California. No longer England, or Tunisia, or Norway. There were more matte paintings instead of sets, (tell me that shot of lando walking toward the falcon on home one doesn't make you cringe) and they didn't really expand their star ship models that much. As we touched on this in another thread, seeing those medical frigates and rebel transports in the attack on the death star felt a tad cheap

Remember how cool vaders shuttle was? Was it as cool when we saw the same ship used by a maintenance crew going to endor?
 
Since none of you appears to have read article in the link Vivek posted...

New 'Star Wars' Images Find a Clever Way to Pass the Torch to a New Generation | Movies.com
Little different perspective on the creative decision of those covers.

...here's a quote that explains those covers: "Star Wars obsessives may notice that the right side of both images contain old designs. The Millennium Falcon and the Stormtrooper suits are both from the original trilogy; they are not the modified designs already seen in The Force Awakens. And so in both versions we get the new cast emerging out of the old universe. It's certainly subtle, but it's a smart way of expressing how The Force Awakens may look like the Star Wars everyone grew up with on the surface, but there's new blood pumping through its Midiichlorian-filled veins."
 
As far as I know, the whole thing was filmed in California. No longer England, or Tunisia, or Norway. There were more matte paintings instead of sets, (tell me that shot of lando walking toward the falcon on home one doesn't make you cringe) and they didn't really expand their star ship models that much. As we touched on this in another thread, seeing those medical frigates and rebel transports in the attack on the death star felt a tad cheap

Remember how cool vaders shuttle was? Was it as cool when we saw the same ship used by a maintenance crew going to endor?

In rough order... They did studio shooting in England first, then location shooting in Arizona and California, before retreating to ILM for pickups and the rest of the model work (which had been going on since the beginning of shooting). They spent a lot of time on props and costumes that I think shouldn't have gotten quite that much. I felt they ought to have kept the same design motif of Yavin and Hoth for the regular uniforms. I like the A-wing flight suits, think the Y-wing helmets work better for the B-wings, and the B-wing helmets need to go away. Keep the good old orange flight suits and APH-6B-derived helmets for both the X- and Y-wings.

When it comes to miniatures... They had a new Death Star to build, Jabba's barge and the skiffs, the speeder bikes, the AT-STs and the one AT-AT, the new shuttle, the A-wings and B-Wings, the two big Mon Cal cruisers, the TIE Interceptors... I can blame a lack of planning -- the fact that they didn't know far enough in advance they were having a big space battle so they could figure out how many of what sizes and from what planets they needed, so they could get started on designing and building. As it was, they were wearing themselves to the bone just getting those relatively few ships all into shot. Who knows what they might have accomplished if they'd had another six months of lead time. For the Imperial fleet, you can just use the one existing Star Destroyer miniature a hundred times to make a massive fleet. The individuality and diversity of the Rebel fleet would dictate a much wider range of sizes and designs that they just didn't have time for.

Also...

seeing those medical frigates

Quit with the plural. We know one of the Nebulon-B's was "the medical frigate", but we have no reason to think any of the others were anything other than fighting ships. "Frigates" is just fine.

--Jonah
 
Since none of you appears to have read article in the link Vivek posted...

...here's a quote that explains those covers: "Star Wars obsessives may notice that the right side of both images contain old designs. The Millennium Falcon and the Stormtrooper suits are both from the original trilogy; they are not the modified designs already seen in The Force Awakens. And so in both versions we get the new cast emerging out of the old universe. It's certainly subtle, but it's a smart way of expressing how The Force Awakens may look like the Star Wars everyone grew up with on the surface, but there's new blood pumping through its Midiichlorian-filled veins."

Oh I've read it but that's just a pretty weak interpretation from movies.com, imo...


Honestly? I think that there weren't any rebel capital ships in Jedi because they cheaped out.

But the Rebels did have capital ships in Jedi?
 
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Not to sure that is Simon Pegg, the behind the scenes video showed another chap being helped in the costume!

when simon is talking it looks like he's wearing that aliens upper shirt with padding... i just watch the behind the scenes again and your exactly right. there is another guy in the suit, i am going to have to be on the look out still. i thought it was little nod to simon having his alien with a "peg leg"
 
Oh and here's the budget breakdown for all 3

Star Wars $11mil
Empire $18-33mil
Jedi $32.5-42.7mil

Those figures are from Wikipedia.
Also think about how many more Stormtroopers and other imperials were made for scenes compared to EPIV and EPV. Then you have the full size sail barge. The full size falcon that never made it to screen.All the puppets for Jabbas Palace. I could go on and on but you get the picture.


Ben
 
when simon is talking it looks like he's wearing that aliens upper shirt with padding... i just watch the behind the scenes again and your exactly right. there is another guy in the suit, i am going to have to be on the look out still. i thought it was little nod to simon having his alien with a "Pegg leg"
Fixed that for ya'. :D
 
Oh and here's the budget breakdown for all 3

Star Wars $11mil
Empire $18-33mil
Jedi $32.5-42.7mil

Those figures are from Wikipedia.
Also think about how many more Stormtroopers and other imperials were made for scenes compared to EPIV and EPV. Then you have the full size sail barge. The full size falcon that never made it to screen.All the puppets for Jabbas Palace. I could go on and on but you get the picture.


Ben
It is no surprise that it cost more. That's the business of Hollywood. Those 7 years were pretty big when it comes to rising costs.

But the film feels cheaper.

Maybe it's the repurposed imperial shuttle, or the fact that California doesn't feel like Tunisia. Maybe it's the awful matte paintings for home one or the bad blue screen for the rancor. Or the "entire legion of my best troops", that was really like, 10 stormtroopers who still can't shoot. It comes across as a lazy 3rd album of a massive rock band.

First album = influential and authentic. Made with little resources

Second album = the album they always wanted to do. They finally have the resources they always wished they had. Riding the success of the first album

Third album = tapped out creatively. Bloated. Less to prove

And I realize that there were two capital ships in the battle. But the Mon calimari always felt like guests with the rebel allience. They were the "allience" part.

I know we keep saying that those frigates weren't all medical frigates, but let's look at them. They aren't designed as war ships by any means. They have the world's most prominent weak spot. They look like the type of ship that would need a ton of protecting. Are there even any guns on the studio model? It looks repurposed.

Maybe I'm expecting perfection.

But look at the two movies that it follows.


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Couldn't disagree more. There were so many new elements added to Jedi, A-Wings, B-Wings, TIE Interceptors. They made huge efforts to put a lot of eye candy on the screen.
 
Couldn't disagree more. There were so many new elements added to Jedi, A-Wings, B-Wings, TIE Interceptors. They made huge efforts to put a lot of eye candy on the screen.

And not just vehicles either. The first two films were always shown from the view point of humans fighting other humans that you'd swear there was nothing at stake going on for the other races of the galaxy. In ROTJ we finally see the scope of this galactic struggle with the rebellion consisting of many different alien species where as the Empire is still exclusively human. Usually when action stories feature humans and aliens in them, it tends to always be the good guy humans vs the bad guy aliens. ROTJ flipped that around in a way I quite liked.
 
when simon is talking it looks like he's wearing that aliens upper shirt with padding... i just watch the behind the scenes again and your exactly right. there is another guy in the suit, i am going to have to be on the look out still. i thought it was little nod to simon having his alien with a "peg leg"

Maybe it was your mind playing subliminal tricks on you. The guy next to him with the blue beard looks a lot like Deep Roy (to me) so your brain just assumes that's Scotty next to him. :lol
 
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