response 150 of 304:

May 19 20:30 UTC 2002

I agree with other on that. It bugs me when folks try to clap and cheer 
throughout an entire movie. If I wanted clapping and cheering, I would 
go to a sports event or something. I guess applause at the end of a 
movie wouldnt annoy me but it would seem kind of pointless. 

response 152 of 304:

May 19 22:37 UTC 2002

A steel blade has weight. A lightsaber 'blade' need not necessarily. How would
lack of weight in the blade affect the combat?

FWIW: I would have liked for the writers of such movies as Star Wars et al
to have learned something about things like astronomy, physics, spacecraft,
and other such things before writing the scripts.

response 154 of 304:

May 19 23:39 UTC 2002

The ships are capable of moving faster than light.

Good hard sci-fi needs some scientific origins for its technology, but Star
Wars is really a fantasy that happens to be based in a realm typically
reserved for sci-fi.  I'd consider it closer to Tolkien than Azimov, though.

response 156 of 304:

May 19 23:50 UTC 2002

like deploying a black lightsael and exceeding the speed of light? That is
bad science, butmay be acceptable in their universe, if their universe uses
different science.

Unfortunately, we don KNOW WHAT their science is.  SO we have to relate it
to our science, and it does not compute.

Light sabers have to be more than laser beams or they wuld just pass thru each
other, so they must be field enclosed lasers, passing thru anything except
another field encloseeed laser.  This would also account for them being able
to deflect blaster beams.  But it does not fit in our science.

Just sit back and accept that what we have here is a fantasy.

response 158 of 304:

May 20 00:40 UTC 2002

Re #152: Real physics would make for pretty boring space combat scenes.
It'd be like old-time sailboat combat, hours (or days, weeks, months...) 
of positioning followed by a short, brutal attack.

Actually, about the only kind of action movie you could make with 'real'
physics is something like _Apollo 13_, and there's only so much you can do
with that concept.  Even _2001: A Space Oddyssey_ took a lot of liberties,
and it's probably the closest to real physics we've seen in a fictional
movie.

response 162 of 304:

May 20 01:34 UTC 2002

I think watching a movie with an audience willing to emote adds to the
pleasure of watching the movie.

I mean, why do you prefer to go to a movie with a friend?  Maybe you're
planning on doing some smooching in the dark, but otherwise it dpesn't
exactly appear to be an opportunity for social interaction.  But not
that many people go to movies alone.  People like to share the
experience.  They like to be able to talk about it afterwards.  One of
the reasons people go to see Star Wars II is so they can participate in
all the talk about it.  This is a communal social occasion.

Clapping after a movie is a different form of the same thing.  You're
sharing your opinion of the movie with a mess of people.  Tim applauds
Elfman, nobody joins.  Well, Tim knows he's not surrounded by Elfman
fans - kind of a disappointment.  Tim applauds the movie, others join,
that's better.  Kind of like entering a review of it hear and having
other people agree.  If it makes no sense to applaud a movie when the
director isn't there, then why does it make sense to discuss the movie
with a lot of people who've already seen it and had nothing to do with
making it?

Applauding a movie is no different than discussing it on Grex.  Applause
isn't just a reward for the makers.  It's a communal event, a bunch of
independent people temporarily becoming one great wave of applause.  
Applause for the applauders as well as for the performers.

response 164 of 304:

May 20 03:53 UTC 2002

The Jedi have used lightsabers for several thousand years.  A more elegant
weapon from a more elegant time.  sometimes technologyreaches an optimal level
that just cannot be improved upon.

Lightsabers are the perfect balance of a variaty of things. They are also
susceptable to the jedi himself.  What kind of power plant is required to use
a light saber?  Do they draw their power from the mitachondrials of the Jedi?
In the hands of an ordinary human, do they have the power to cut thru steel,
or the power of a flashlight?  Why do the good jedi use blue/white, lavender,
or green/white light and the Dark force have only red?

Why is a Jedi required to create his own lightsaber ratehr than drawing one
from a pool made by expert craftsman in a factory of degobah?

This is not a technology that is subject to vast improvment in a few short
years, or even centuries.

response 168 of 304:

May 20 05:04 UTC 2002

#166: The evidence is mostly in non-canon literature which discusses 
how construction a lightsaber is part of every jedi's training. 

You're being silly, Rane.  Why not just come out and say that you don't 
have much use for this particular fantasy, rather than ask absurd 
questions about the logic of the author?  That's like asking "Why 
doesn't Shakespeare just have Hamlet KILL Claudius when Claudius is 
confessing?"  Have the maturity to come out with it, Rane.

If you really want an explanation that meets even YOUR hefty standards 
of logic as it applies to movies that already defy most laws of 
physics, it should be noted that the Jedi will be almost entirely wiped 
out in Episode III, which means that there is nobody to develop 
lightsaber technology before Luke picks up his father's old one in 
Episode IV.  Good enough for you, or do you want scientific basis?

Star Wars is a fictional series of movies dealing with fantastical 
events that are not possible in real life.  Do you have difficulties 
reading fiction, Rane?  Do you walk out of theaters when you're 
watching implausible movies like "You've Got Mail" because they violate 
your sense of realism?  Have you trashed "Much Ado About Nothing" 
because only a complete dolt wouldn't be able to recognize all these 
people in masks?  Fiction is not real, and often pushes the boundaries 
of what we know to be realistic.  I know that you've said that you are 
quite capable of enjoying fiction, but I wonder sometimes.

response 170 of 304:

May 20 10:12 UTC 2002

There are artsy-fartsy people.  But I'll admit I haven't seen a 
scientist counterpart quite like this.  It's almost curmudgeony.

However, I'm not completely sure (based on what I read here) that 
folks have read all non-canonical material.  Some of the comic book 
material that covered some expanded history in a very ancient time 
showed a lightsabers that were connected by cords to chargers on the 
Jedi's belt.  The artists used Egyptian motifs.  So while Lucas 
changed the technology of the lightsaber fairly little, other folks 
have, and he oversees extended material.

resp:168 I haven't read the reference, but they are likely extensions 
of Emperor Palpatine's remarks upon examing Luke's lightsaber in 
_Return of The Jedi_.  Julie tells me the movie originally featured a 
scene of Luke's hands making the final steps of construction while R2-
D2 looked on.

But yes, holy shit-- this is just a space drama.  It really needs not 
be analyzed to death.  I would imagine Rane finds hard sci-fi much 
more satisfying to his scientific sensibilities than fantasy that 
leans towards soft sci-fi.

response 172 of 304:

May 20 13:11 UTC 2002

I have never seen the scene in question, since it was cut from all
post-theatrical releases.  Curious.