[Esco]

I know, I know... you're gonna say that 30 yrs past between episodes II and V.
But honestly, I think he looks nothing alike. And I'm not alone.
My wife(who's only seen episode II), caught me watching Empire and she said
"is that guy supposed to be yoda, that cant be yoda?".
He's a diffent color, has different facial structure, basically totally different.
They should have stuck to the puppet, then thrown in the digital when he fought.
whatcha think?

the old

[Chefelf]

It's due to the "wonder" of crappy CGI.

Damn muppets were more believable.

And 30 years in the lifespan of a 900 year old creature shouldn't make a lick of difference.

[Esco]

the new

[Esco]

agreed. I was thinking the same thing.
900 yrs old and he's like a young buck,
the 930 comes around, and he cant stand straight? What?!
I guess 929 must be the magic number or something?

[civilian_number_two]

One of the many reasons I didn't like JEDI was that Yoda was suddenly dying, apparently of old age. Like, how much time had passed since the last film, in years? Because it seemed, to me, to have been about .1 years. Like five weeks at best. EMPIRE ends, Lando and Chewie are on their way to Tatooine. the all that stuff happens, and it's like a few weeks at best before the Emperor is dead and all the fireworks and the hoo-ha.

"Luke, hurry you must to train - be complete -ing. Old get - I am - ing, and be soon will dying, me. Notice words how in funny order I speaking am? Senility of it is sure sign, sure it you of be can."

So yeah, Yoda appearing lithe and limber 30 years earlier doesn't surprise me at all. This is the thing: Yoda's species actually lives about 40 years. When he told Luke he'd been training Jedi for 900 years, it was bullshit. But, he hates the job so much, and is always trying to turn down students ("Hmm, these sperm hardly motile at all. Too old to begin the training, fear I. Also, anger and shit, and I am weak in Force, and hey is that a cheeseburger?"). So to him it seemed like 900 years, and hence his statement was true "from a certain point of view."

PS: I saw JEDI on opening day, and in Vancouver it opened in only one theatre. So all the most rabid STAR WARS fans in the city (and neighbouring small towns not fortunate enough to have a print) were lined up for that first screening. And that line got booed when Ben said it. Because let's face it; JEDI sucked. Not like the PT, but it was sure no EMPIRE.

[Chefelf]

I don't know if I'd go as far as to say that Jedi "sucked" but it was certainly the lowest quality of the original three. While there are some pretty lame parts in the movie, to me it is saved by the duel bewteen Luke and Vader and the rebel fleet's assault of the Death Star. Hearing John Williams's "Into the Trap" and seeing that massive space battle still gets me excited, the same way that I gasp at James Earl Jones's delivery of "No, I am your father" line. Every damn time!

Jedi: Special Edition, on the other hand, sucked. Really, really bad.

[Despondent]

So to him it seemed like 900 years, and hence his statement was true "from a certain point of view."

I agree. everything was moving real fast to tie up loose ends. "(Oh yeah. by the way,) yoda said there was another..." made this quite obvious. like, why not wait around for ghostly yoda to show up and ask him yourself? given the filler content they have to deal with now, methinks it'll be as rapid as plugging in the last 6 pieces of a jigsaw puzzle. with none of the reward of completing a puzzle from the beginning.

btw, I believe a lot of it is emotional. Yoda's looks are judged by the quality of the film in which he appears.

[Jordan]

Why does Yoda even need a walking stick in the prequels? Lets say we're all retarded for the sake of argument, 30 years compared to the last 900 is not a big difference.

If he is so young and vibrant at 900 (or 870), then why does he need a walking stick?

The fight he put up against Dooku was beyond anything I've ever seen before. It was even more fast paced than the matrix fight scenes. But to perform everyday functions, Yoda needs a walking cane or floating device. Nothing adds up.

Lucas made him look young, but gave him the same frail characteristics.

Regarding those two photos you have: The old school Yoda looks much more wise and kind. I was sad the first time I saw him die. The new one......I could care less, I have no emotional attachment to him at all. I've said this before, I do not make the connection with the OT and prequels. They are seperate trilogies in my eyes that tell completely different stories. The prequel is a parallel universe or something of that nature.

[Vwing]

First of all, JEDI takes place one year after EMPIRE. Second of all, it was Yoda's time to die. The Force determined that he was not useful anymore, you could say, since he could teach Luke nothing more. Because of the Force, his life had already been maintained to longer than most people, even of his species, can live, and it's not so hard to believe that because he was so old, he could catch a sudden illness and die. Third of all, JEDI is a great movie, and my favorite. I will admit that EMPIRE was better-made technically, but JEDI is just one of the most entertaining movies I have seen, is by no means a slouch in terms of how it was made, and I love it. Every battle is exciting (even the Ewok battle if you accept the premise), the space battle is probably the best space battle ever filmed, the Emperor-Luke-Vader scenes have an emotional impact that rival, if not pass, the Luke-Vader scene in EMPIRE, and the same goes for the final duel between Luke and Vader (also great seeing the parallels between Luke in JEDI and Vader in EMPIRE, both are swinging wildly, hitting the rails and setting sparks because of their rage). The music is just as good as any of the others, and Mark Hamill gives us his best performance of the trilogy, making us appreciate him much more, going from a whiny farmboy to a calm, collected, disciplined Jedi. The last 30-45 minutes is some of the most action- and emotion-packed moviemaking I've seen, alternating between the three battles, and Jabba's palace just exudes a really engrossing eeriness. It by no means "sucks", it by no means is the outright worst of the trilogy, and by all means, it is right up there with EMPIRE and the original. It's not perfect obviously (Fett dies like a pussy, 2 burb jokes, and 1 lame Ewok scene where the ewok steals the speeder, as well as some mediocre battle moments on Endor where it really does become hard to accept how the Ewoks are doing so much against the empire, despite the theme of nature beating technology), but it's still great storytelling and a great movie.

[Vwing]

Also, what's so bad with from a certain point of view? What else is he going to say? "Yeah I lied to you, deal with it and kill your goddam father" ? He had to say something to get Luke to be able to differentiate between his father and Vader, since in Ben's mind, they really weren't the same person, and Vader had to be killed. Luke couldn't kill him if he believed Vader and Anakin were the same person. Ben wanted to make him look like 2 separate people for this reason, and Luke had to accept this point of view if he were to win. There's nothing wrong with that. Also, Yoda is 899 in Empire, and dies at the ripe old age of 900 in Jedi, and has taught Jedi for 800 years.

[Jordan]

Are you debating these topics or just telling us your take on the film?

[Despondent]

finally, another reason to do the SEQUELS. besides the fact everybody gets to reintroduce themselves (and that festering star wars nerd who sat near me last time can blow his wad with giggling glee,) we can get to see old yoda again. And Prequel haters can pick up where they left off on Endor. Hey, it's Ghost Yoda! How's it goin?

[civilian_number_two]

Also, what's so bad with from a certain point of view? What else is he going to say? "Yeah I lied to you, deal with it and kill your goddam father" ? He had to say something to get Luke to be able to differentiate between his father and Vader, since in Ben's mind, they really weren't the same person, and Vader had to be killed. Luke couldn't kill him if he believed Vader and Anakin were the same person. Ben wanted to make him look like 2 separate people for this reason, and Luke had to accept this point of view if he were to win. There's nothing wrong with that. Also, Yoda is 899 in Empire, and dies at the ripe old age of 900 in Jedi, and has taught Jedi for 800 years.

Nearly everything about "From a certain point of view" is wrong. Here are a few things that spring to mind:

1) By saying that to Luke, Ben is telling him that he lied openly to him, and isn't the least bit remorseful.
2) He is also telling Luke that this is as good an answer as he's going to give him, which makes me think Ben doesn't think much of Luke.
3) When Ben lies to Luke, and lets the lie stand even while knowing that Luke will confront Vader, he is deliverately putting Luke in a terrible spot. Apparently Ben thought it ok to send Luke off to commit patricide, knowing that if he succeeded he's probably go a bit dark forcey when he found out he'd killed his own father and Ben and Yoda had tricked him into doing it. And if he failed, well, that would have been bad as well.
4) The actual line doesn't have any of the depth you suggest, nor any of the depth I allow it in my previous three complaints. It is as awful a line as Spock's FINAL FRONTIER reply to why he'd never told anyone he had a brother ("You never asked). It stinks of bad writing, of the making-this-up-as-I-go variety.
5) It undermines the seriousness of the situation. The line was booed in the theatre I attended, and with good reason. Everyone felt cheated. Here was an opportunity for Ben to break down and admit that he was not perfect, and that Luke's unique situation overwhelmed him. Instead, he drops an old Stan Laurel line amd drags the thing down to the level of cheap comedy.
6) It's in the same scene where we learn that Leia is Luke's sister. Fortunately, it's not also in the scene where we learn that Darth Vader built R2D2, that Anikin killed Boba Fett's father, or that Anikin was the result of some sort of Force-enacted parthenogenesis. So it's not as bad as some of that stuff, but damn, it's not good.

[civilian_number_two]

First of all, JEDI takes place one year after EMPIRE.

Where are you getting this? Because if it's in the novelization, that doesn't make it in the movie. Frankly, if we need novelizations to clear up details of movies, then we're looking at some bad screenwriting. EMPIRE ended with Luke saying to Lando "I'll see you at the rendezvous point on Tatooine." Then, what? They waited a year to go save Han Solo? that doesn't make any sense. Luke didn't go back to his training with Yoda, so what dd he do for a year? The plan he had for saving Han mihgt have taken a few days to put together, at best (and franly, it suffered from overelaboration. Luke would have fared better had he taken sixty or seventy well-armed rebel troops, maybe a few X-Wings, and killed every man, woman and creature in Jabba's palace to get Han back. I mean, what's he care?

Second of all, it was Yoda's time to die. The Force determined that he was not useful anymore, you could say, since he could teach Luke nothing more. Because of the Force, his life had already been maintained to longer than most people, even of his species, can live, and it's not so hard to believe that because he was so old, he could catch a sudden illness and die.

Again. Where are you getting this? And yes, it is hard to accept that he caught a sudden illness and died, since he died within minutes of Luke getting there. How the hell do people in the movies have this ability to die on cue? (Note that Shmee dies in Anikin's arms, after having lingered for weeks) Yoda's death in JEDI really smacked of "we need a sad scene now, to balance out all the comedy." It was pointless and stupid.

It by no means "sucks", it by no means is the outright worst of the trilogy, and by all means, it is right up there with EMPIRE and the original.

It does. It sucks like TEMPLE OF DOOM. It's just pointless repetition of element and characters from the previous two films. There's a new Death Star! The Emperor tries to seduce Luke, like Vader did in EMPIRE! There's a lightsaber duel! You were shocked to hear about Luke and Darth? WEll, what about Luke and Leia?