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That's unsettling. I thought he'd died today and it was only when I got to Floyd's "Necro-post" bit that I realised it was a year ago.

Huzzah!

Cheers Max

Can I get this please.http://www.thestatebroadcasters.com/assets/images/Pantani_Avit.jpg">

And I never did get around to advertising the second graphic novel collection (there was one, right?)

Well, I've never seen it in a shop.

'ere. What's all this then. Hours of happy surfing for all.

However, I detect a flaw in your list.

The original, way up at the top, had Simon Harrison on it, but the latest one doesn't, even though he's still not on the Wiki. He's been omitted from the omission list!

I don't know anything about the lad other than that I love his mental style, but surely somebody does?

Sorry, but I don't know anything about the rest of that lot either.

I completely give up. My judgement is clearly out of alignment.

Not completely. I absolutely loathed Sin City. Visually arresting for about ten minutes and completely devoid of any content beyond a shrivelled little man's wank fantasies.

Has everyone turned to the dark side or does anyone still think those films were any good?

Well, I'm not going to say they're brilliant but I do think there are good things about them.

I enjoyed Phantom Menace the first time I saw it and have watched it a few times since. Yes the chirpy little kid is irritating. Yes Jar Jar needs to die. Yes the second half as pretty much the same structure as Return of the Jedi. It's still got the best light-sabre fight of the six films and the scene where Qui Gonn sits meditating while Darth Maul paces up and down on the other side of the forcefield is fantastic.

I distinctly remember being gobsmacked by the special effects when we first see the city of Naboo(or whatever it's called) and that's something that shows it's age now, but that's computers for you. I think I was more appreciative of it than others because I'd deliberately set out to know as little about as possible before seeing it, so most of it was fresh. This included the rather childish measure of shutting my eyes and sticking my fingers in my ears whenever the trailer came on. I remember my mate bought the soundtrack before the film was released and he was really pissed off to see that Track 17 was called "The Death of Qui-Gonn Jinn."

Attack of the Clones is unmitigated shite. Where TPM has elements that nod to the originals, AOTC just piles them up and asks you to accept that in place of a story: speeder bikes, robot hands, cities that looks eerily like Bespin, Boba fucking Fett? The only worthwhile bit of the whole film (well, apart from Amidala running around with her tight-fitting suit cut in half) is when Anakin slaughters the sandpeople. Surely that is when he turns to the dark side - having given in to his hate - but then we have to endure the cringeworthy love scenes. And Yoda fighting is the worst idea ever.

As for ROTS: It's miles better than the previous two, but still not exactly brilliant.

The first half hour or so is great, but then it comes back down to Earth with a bang. Hayden Christensen is so much better than he was in AOTS it's hard to believe it's the same guy, but he'll never be an actor. The whole process of him turning to the dark side while Amidala bangs on about "democracy" and "freedom" and the like could have been great if they'd got proper actors and a decent script. As it is, it's still pretty good and there are some excellent sequences but I still can't get past the petulant teenager factor: he became the most evil man in the universe, because his mum made him tidy his room!

Ewan McGregor is also a terrible actor (maybe an unpopular view, but I can't think of a decent film he's made) and Christopher Lee's brief appearance shows exactly why. He's desperately trying to evoke the old English stage presence of Alec Guinness but can't because he's clearly never been trained in that type of acting or, more importantly, projection. Compare that to Christopher Lee opposite Ian Mckellen in Lord of the Rings, or McKellen opposite Patrick Stewart in X-Men and you can easily see how gravitas can be brought to even the biggest load of nonsense. Every review I've seen says Palpatine steals the show and I'd have to agree.

There aren't enough Wookies for my likings either. They made such a song and dance about them and they're in it for about three minutes.

Basically, every aspect of it is superior to 1 & 2, but it still contains all the elements which made them lame in the first place. There are a few great bits in it and a couple of really rubbish bits ("NOOOOOO!")

I suppose what this all boils down to is that I still have a residual affection for Star Wars and I've been willing to try and see what's good in the films. There are a couple of different fan edits of the films available out there in internet-land which are worth a look if you can stand it. In particular, there's a version of TPM called Balance of the Force which performs the unimaginable feat of turning Jar Jar into a good and useful character.

Midichlorians, however, are still shite.

And another thing. I've always pronounced it Con-stan-tyne, like the river, not -teen like the agers. I'm prepared to accept I might be the one who's wrong there.

Finally watched this tonight and thought it was total gash apart from 15 minutes at the end with Tilda Swinton and the Devil. The cgi veered erratically from quite cool to totally laughable while plot threads seemed to appear and incomprehensibly disappear at a bewildering rate. The same effect could be achieved by getting high on a cocktail of cocaine and Ribena and reading half a dozen assorted issues from Ennis's run on Hellblazer in the wrong order whilst riding the waltzers.

The one good thing I can say about it is that at least it glamourised smoking.

Necro(monger)post!

I just watched this on telly and was surprised how entertaining it was. I must admit to not paying 100% attention to it, so the random jumping around to different planets all the time seemed a bit pointless. However the general big budget (I could be wrong, but it looked like they even used models rather than CGI at some bits) sci-fi ness and deep-voiced arse kicking was highly enjoyable.

Although giving Riddick someone to care about rather undermined what made him a good character in the first place.

Incidentally, I also like Waterworld.

Sorry I started all this but where is the messageboard link? Am I the only one who's bothered about this?

Don't really know what you're on about.
Wherever I go on the site, the Fan Zone menu on the left is always exploded and "Message Board" is the first option, just like it's always been.

I have a pile of old White Dwarfs at my parents' house. If you can tell me what issues it was in (and wait until I'm next back there) I'll have a look for you.

Find out how common or uncommon your surname or surnames are in the uk.

HA! "Sorry, your search didn't return any results because we don't have enough data for this surname (nonexistent or less than 1300 records).

Please search again"

Number 42 is really pissing on my chips.

The Empire's worst engineer.

Link: http://www.somethingawful.com/d/news/nardo-design-empire.php" target="_blank">e-mail Nardo Pace