On Fri, 2011-02-18 at 17:52 -0800, Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> On Friday, February 18, 2011 17:39:34 Walter Bright wrote:
> > Jonathan M Davis wrote:
> > > The prequel movies definitely have some inconsistencies with the originals, but for the most part, they weren't huge. I suspect that the real trouble comes in when you read the books (which I haven't).
> > 
> > Huge? How about it never occurs to Vader to search for Luke at the most obvious location in the universe - his nearest living relatives (Uncle Owen)? That's just the start of the ludicrousness.

The wikipedia article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Star_Wars is quite interesting, and indicates why there are lots of little inconsistencies as well as quite a few big ones.  As to the veracity of the material, who knows, it's the Web, lies have the exact same status as truth.

> > Ok, I have no right to be annoyed, but what an opportunity (to make a truly
> > great movie) squandered.
> 
> Well, that's not really an inconsistency so much as not properly taking everything into account in the plot (though to be fair, IIRC, Vader had no clue that he even _had_ kids, so it's not like he would have gone looking in the first place). Regardless, I don't think that there's much question that those films could have been much better.

I think there has been a loss of historical context here, leading to anti-rose coloured (colored?) spectacles.  in 1977, Star Wars was a watershed film.  Simple fairy tale storyline, space opera on film instead of book.  It's impact was greater than 2001: A Space Odyssey which had analogous impact albeit to a smaller audience in 1968.  I am sure there are films from the 1940s and 1950s that deserve similar status but television changed the nature of film impact, making 2001 and Star Wars more influential -- again historical context is important.  I think Return of the Jedi is quite fun and that the rest of the Star Wars films lost the simplicity and brilliance of Star Wars, pandering to the need for huge budget special effects, essentially driving us to the computer generated, poor storyline, stuff that gets churned out today. With the exception of The Lord of The Rings.

Sadly all the effects companies are using C++ and Python, can D get traction as the language of choice for the post-production companies?

Crikey, this thread has drifted a good few light years from the original title.

-- 
Russel. ============================================================================= Dr Russel Winder      t: +44 20 7585 2200   voip: sip:russel.winder@ekiga.net 41 Buckmaster Road    m: +44 7770 465 077   xmpp: russel@russel.org.uk London SW11 1EN, UK   w: www.russel.org.uk  skype: russel_winder

On 02/19/2011 07:39 AM, Walter Bright wrote:
> Jonathan M Davis wrote:
>> Vader had no clue
>
> So much for his force!

How can one expect consistency from a fairytale?

On 02/18/2011 08:39 PM, Walter Bright wrote:
>
> Huge? How about it never occurs to Vader to search for Luke at the most
> obvious location in the universe - his nearest living relatives (Uncle
> Owen)? That's just the start of the ludicrousness.
>
> Ok, I have no right to be annoyed, but what an opportunity (to make a
> truly great movie) squandered.

Lighten up, Francis. It was a truly great movie, for it's time.

"Russel Winder" <russel@russel.org.uk> wrote in message news:mailman.1784.1298102229.4748.digitalmars-d@puremagic.com...
>
> Sadly all the effects companies are using C++ and Python, can D get
traction as the language of choice for the post-production companies?

IIRC, Someone here said that they had written one of the effects tools used for Surrogates and that they wrote it in D.