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 Flashman wrote:
the Pod race was one of the Phantom Menace's few redeeming sequences

Disagree. As a plot device, it established Anakin as a Mary Sue. As spectacle, it was a lot of the same images and shots again and again. The N64 pod racing game was prettier.

 Medium of Death wrote:
I'm getting horrible Phantom Menace flashbacks seeing that market.

Same here! Hopefully this is misdirection.

 d-usa wrote:
You just like Ben Hur because you were an extra...

Playing himself no less. Or did we already do a Frazzled is old joke?

The pod racing sequence was easily twice as long as it needed to be. But then Lucas and shiny special effects.


Since the EU has been dumped on its posterior, maybe the Jedi Academy will be on Tatooine?

Luke is entering the crabby old'man stage and has all new younglings endure a decade of tortuous existence as moisture farmers.

One of them resents this and finds an ancient sith artifact on the planet and falls to the darkside and becomes the big bad guy.

Of course there will be practical FX. JJ is an old-school director who actually LIKES and prefers physical props and sets to digital.

They've put out calls for modelmakers and FX people at pinewood (where the movies are being shot).

The podrace was there because George likes to put a "car chase" into every one of his movies.

I'm just waiting to see where the 1138 meme crops up again (usually a droid, these days).

Lupita Nyong'o and Gwedoline Christie added to the cast...

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/lupita-nyong-o-gwendoline-christie-cast-in-star-wars-episode-vii

Better known for...

Regarding Armor in Star Wars.

During the Clone Wars cgi series, several times clones get shot and not killed thanks to their armor. Mos tof the time, they aren;t even central clones.

However, their are many more times they get shot and die/put out of action.

Does a blaster shot have a kinetic impact?

 Easy E wrote:
Regarding Armor in Star Wars.

Looking for consistency or realism in Star Wars is a losing battle.

 kronk wrote:
Are Sandpeople Humans? Ab-Humans? Aliens?

According to the EU they are not human.

 Flashman wrote:
Lupita Nyong'o and Gwedoline Christie added to the cast...

http://www.totalfilm.com/news/lupita-nyong-o-gwendoline-christie-cast-in-star-wars-episode-vii

Better known for...

Dangit, you ninjaed me. I was just getting ready to post this news up.
I'm pretty excited to see what Gwendoline Christie and Lupita Nyong'o will bring to the screen. Maybe Gwendoline will be cast as an antagonist? She can be quite imposing as Brienne.

~Tim?

 Easy E wrote:


Does a blaster shot have a kinetic impact?

According to the EU they did.

How does that work? Light has momentum (and thus mass), but it does not have rest mass, and would be much too small in any case (photons are smaller than electrons).

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
How does that work? Light has momentum (and thus mass), but it does not have rest mass, and would be much too small in any case (photons are smaller than electrons).

My own personal explanation of this (backed up in some places of the fluff, which we all know is inconsistent) is that 'laser' is simply a catch-all term for energy weapon, and most 'lasers' are actually 'plasma' weapons.

Clone Trooper DC-15/DC-17 rifles are explicitly stated in some sources to fire plasma, which makes sense given that the 'laser' bolt is neither a consistent beam nor flies at anywhere near the speed of light, so I figure that if it is plasma, not laser, then that's unbonded protons and electons rather than photons, which might explain it.

Lasers would be the things like the ball turrets on LAAT gunships and IFX/T tanks, a continuous beam that connects almost instantly to the naked eye.

That said, this is a franchise where FTL travel is used to fly across interstellar distances to hit people with swords. I wouldn't over-analyse anything too much.

 Paradigm wrote:

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
How does that work? Light has momentum (and thus mass), but it does not have rest mass, and would be much too small in any case (photons are smaller than electrons).

My own personal explanation of this (backed up in some places of the fluff, which we all know is inconsistent) is that 'laser' is simply a catch-all term for energy weapon, and most 'lasers' are actually 'plasma' weapons.

Clone Trooper DC-15/DC-17 rifles are explicitly stated in some sources to fire plasma, which makes sense given that the 'laser' bolt is neither a consistent beam nor flies at anywhere near the speed of light, so I figure that if it is plasma, not laser, then that's unbonded protons and electons rather than photons, which might explain it.

Lasers would be the things like the ball turrets on LAAT gunships and IFX/T tanks, a continuous beam that connects almost instantly to the naked eye.

That said, this is a franchise where FTL travel is used to fly across interstellar distances to hit people with swords. I wouldn't over-analyse anything too much.

I guess that makes sense. I have always been irritated by people dodging lasers.

Your last sentence can fit for 40k as well.

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
Your last sentence can fit for 40k as well.

Or any other sci-fantasy setting, to be honest. That said, I won't complain.

I really hope that Lupita Nyong'o is used well, she is a pretty ace actress and I could easily see her fitting a number of major roles.

Interesting casting choices there, curious to see how the story develops.

Has this been posted:

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/06/03/millennium-falcon-revealed-in-latest-star-wars-episode-vii-set-photos/

 Co'tor Shas wrote:
How does that work? Light has momentum (and thus mass), but it does not have rest mass, and would be much too small in any case (photons are smaller than electrons).

Because Blasters are not laser weapons. They fire bolts of plasma(which does have mass)

And even if they didn't, the localized explosion caused by the heat vaporizing the area it hit would still cause the application of some kinetic force. the same reason an egg explodes if you microwave it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:

 d-usa wrote:
Has this been posted:

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/06/03/millennium-falcon-revealed-in-latest-star-wars-episode-vii-set-photos/

Can't say I'm surprised, so much as pleased they are building actual sets.

Did anyone think they were NOT going to have the Falcon make an appearance?

 d-usa wrote:
Has this been posted:

http://spinoff.comicbookresources.com/2014/06/03/millennium-falcon-revealed-in-latest-star-wars-episode-vii-set-photos/

Actually this lowers my appreciation for the film. The Falcon and Xwings? Are they moving forward or doing another stupid revision?

It is definitely moving forward, its to be set 30 odd years on from ROTJ. The xwing I have seen looks sharper at the front, I wonder if its supposed to be a newer model, or it could be luke's personal X-wing he has kept.

The Falcon was obviously going to appear as it features the Solo's, Han and The Falcon are like Han and Chewie, they come as a package. I get the feeling people are getting too worked up about it being a re-boot when its in fact just the new kids having their own adventures but the old gand still have their old 'cars' Like a dad with a classic he kept for ever.

Stoked about real sets being made in the soundstages.

That's not an X-Wing, Frazz. The nose is too short, and X-wings have intakes on both of their wings, not one large intake. It looks like someone took an X-wing and advanced it. Their wings also meet flush not the one blaster in front, one behind overlap that this ship displays.

Good catch! I didn't look too closely until you said something. That is very big news indeed, much larger than the Ubiquitous Falcon!

 Gitzbitah wrote:
That's not an X-Wing, Frazz. The nose is too short, and X-wings have intakes on both of their wings, not one large intake. It looks like someone took an X-wing and advanced it. Their wings also meet flush not the one blaster in front, one behind overlap that this ship displays.

That new ship (the X-Wing Mk.II?) looks pretty cool actually, it follows the same lines as the X-Wing whilst being notably more advanced.

 Gitzbitah wrote:
That's not an X-Wing, Frazz. The nose is too short, and X-wings have intakes on both of their wings, not one large intake. It looks like someone took an X-wing and advanced it. Their wings also meet flush not the one blaster in front, one behind overlap that this ship displays.

Good catch! I didn't look too closely until you said something. That is very big news indeed, much larger than the Ubiquitous Falcon!

X wings had one round intake that split when the wings split. Its an X wing. It may not be 1976 X Wing but its an X wing.
However, as you note it may be X Wing 2.0 or someone's old jallopy brought out (I like that idea, the old guys keep their old cool rides). I hope you're right.

I know the EU is not super-canon, but Luke kept his own X-Wing so if he and Han are doing some flying it would make sense to have both.

I am a fan of the sound stages. Going back to real actors acting in real places with real props is a nice "anti-George" step in the right direction.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
http://starwars.com/news/josh-trank-to-direct-stand-alone-star-wars-film.html

In addition to the episodes of a new Star Wars trilogy, Lucasfilm and Disney continue development of multiple stand-alone movies that will offer new stories beyond the core Saga. The newest director to come on board is Josh Trank.

"We're thrilled to welcome Josh into the family," says Lucasfilm president Kathleen Kennedy. "He is such an incredible talent and has a great imagination and sense of innovation. That makes him perfectly suited to Star Wars, and for this new slate of movies that reach beyond the core characters and storylines of Episodes I through IX."

Trank states, "The magic of the Star Wars Universe defined my entire childhood. The opportunity to expand on that experience for future generations is the most incredible dream of all time."

Trank captured imaginations worldwide with his critically lauded directorial debut Chronicle, a fresh and engaging take on the superhero genre. Trank is currently at work on The Fantastic Four for 20th Century Fox.

 Frazzled wrote:

 Gitzbitah wrote:
That's not an X-Wing, Frazz. The nose is too short, and X-wings have intakes on both of their wings, not one large intake. It looks like someone took an X-wing and advanced it. Their wings also meet flush not the one blaster in front, one behind overlap that this ship displays.

Good catch! I didn't look too closely until you said something. That is very big news indeed, much larger than the Ubiquitous Falcon!

X wings had one round intake that split when the wings split. Its an X wing. It may not be 1976 X Wing but its an X wing.
However, as you note it may be X Wing 2.0 or someone's old jallopy brought out (I like that idea, the old guys keep their old cool rides). I hope you're right.

Xwings had an intake on each wing. The pre-production artwork by Ralph McQuarrie showed one intake which split in two, but the actual models had two seperate intakes on each side. The pre-production artwork has since been retconned into the Z-95 Headhunter, which is the precursor ship to the X-wing in the SW universe. So this prop they've worked up looks like a Z-95 (engine intakes, short nose length) had sex with an X-wing (canopy window shape, design of the guns) and this was the result.

Just checked google images. You're right!

 Morathi's Darkest Sin wrote:

Is that the dejarik table?

Aye.

I enjoyed the two Star Trek films, so I had no issue with Abrams being on this film anyway, but its also nice to see he has a sense of humour about the leaks and not shutting it all down, getting angsty with the fans.