Tuesday, May 31, 2005

Weird thing of the day 30 May 2005/21 'Iyyar 5765 (Day 36 of the `Omer/Memorial Day)

Greetings.

Yesterday I found out there were two cats in our shed, looked like kittens. Weird things happen to everybody, it seems. We have not decided what if anything to do about them yet. We very well may not have to do anything; I checked a few minutes ago, and they had left.

I celebrated(?) Memorial Day today by going to see Star Wars: Episode III—Revenge of the Sith. I have to note that Emperor Palpatine (who wrote a review for this blog) was substantially right. The story was salvageable, even though a lot of the dialog needs to be rewritten from scratch, especially the material of a romantic nature. I am not certain that Palpatine’s proposed ending is the best possible one given the parameters for this movie, though I will not publicly reveal an alternate idea I have for the moment.

Today’s weird thing is my inspiration of what to do about the botching of the Star Wars prequel trilogy: The Phantom Edit. Many were disappointed with the quality of Star Wars: Episode I—The Phantom Menace, but one person did something about it, namely edit a copy of the movie to remove some of the flaws, hence the nickname of this illicitly distributed version, The Phantom Edit. (Note that the link I gave was just to a description of it, not the actual movie footage.)

Now for what to do about Star Wars: The Phantom Edit is suboptimal because while the Phantom Editor could remove offensive material (much of it having to do with the much-detested Jar Jar Binks) or rearrange pre-existing material, he could not create material from scratch (at least not material that would technically be up to Lucas quality). However, that limitation will virtually certainly be removed eventually. Computing power continues to decrease in cost, and the quality of computer animation continues to increase. Sooner or later it will be possible to animate scenes indistinguishable from live action, which will make possible something like The Phantom Edit, only with the ability to create new material. Since Star Wars will inevitably enter the public domain, I propose that in the meantime the fan community prepare by rewriting the scripts of the prequel trilogy up to a higher standard. When it becomes legal, it ought to be feasible for the fans to release edited versions which fully fix all the flaws of the originals.

In the meantime, get writing, Star Wars fans. It may well be a century before this project comes to fruition, but during that time there will be plenty of time to fine-tune every minor detail to perfection.

Aaron

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