[ernesttomlinson]

BATMAN was not dark. How can a movie full of primary colours and with frickin' Prince on the soundtrack be called dark?

(I'll spare you my rant about how only "dark" as you use the word seems to apply only to comic-booky action movies and not, say, TAXI DRIVER.)

Danny Elfman's music might be OK listening as a separate album and you can't complain about the theme itself, but in the movie it is loud and obnoxious. And as long as we're talking about "dark", it's hard to maintain darkness with a full orchestra cracking and booming through every scene.

The Joker is not interesting. Now I'm not expecting characterisation on the level of, say, "The Killing Joke" here (not that I like that book much) but I do expect more than just cackling. It's just an extension of Nicholson's sarcastic wig-out persona that we've seen since FIVE EASY PIECES; what was, there, one impressive scene is now very nearly the whole performance, in clown makeup.

Does Kim Basinger do anything else in the movie but get in trouble and scream? a lot?

For more criticism of the movie and many valid points, see the review at And You Call Yourself A Scientist!.

[Giff]

Lots not get TOO off topic here...after all, we hate George Lucas...Not Tim Burton ;-)

[Otal Nimrodi]

If you say so.

[Giff]

Still upset.

[Revan-47]

BAtman was the only great batman film(until begins).

[Giff]

no argument from me there.

however I was able to put up with Returns and Forever, while even as a kid I was unable to bear watching B & R

[Revan-47]

good points of returns:
-michelle phifer in the cat suit
-when the batmobile goes all skinny

good points of forever:
-jim carry as riddler(awsome)
-the riddle thing was kool
-val kilmer rocked

good points of batman and robin
-AHNOLD WAS IN IT!
-and yes, uma thurman was very sexy(bain was hella gay)

[Giff]

i agree and disagree with you, Revan...but lets try and see if you and I, and anyone else for that matter, can try to keep it star wars related, so this thread doesnt get locked or anything of that nature.

because i could talk about batman all day, but i could talk about star wars all year

[Revan-47]

well, should i start a batman thread?

[Giff]

naw...i'm straight.

[Revan-47]

good call.

[Gerhard]

Lots not get TOO off topic here...after all, we hate George Lucas...Not Tim Burton ;-)

I personally don't like Tim Burton movies. Planet of the Apes (2001) is an aberration - when I saw humans (in the planet) talking the movie went down the drain, not to mention the stupid ending.

The other movies are too much fantasy for my taste. Apart from Mars Attacks which is enjoyable.

[Despondent]

Anyways, does anybody have any input? Anyone know whats going on? Anybody else remember those scenes? Anyone think that I an NOT insane?

I used to think the same thing about TV commercials in general, Giff. I'd point out "look! they changed the inflection of that line!" or some other difference in version. Of course they thought I was just rambling.

[KurganX]

Ok, I have thought about this before, and I am somewhat confused.

I remember seeing things in the movie theater while watching The Phantom Menace back in 1999, and some of the scenes are not on the VHS or DVD.

The ones I know FOR A FACT that I saw are Anakin fighting the little Rodian and Qui-Gon attacking the Sith probe droid. Both of which are mentioned on THIS website.

In addition, I also remember a scene on Naboo, shortly after the Jedi reunite after arriving on the planet for the first time, where Obi Wan couldnt use his lightsaber because it was activated while in the water and it was essentially "fried".

There was like 3 or 4 lines of dialogue that accompanied it.

OW: "Sorry master, I fried my lightsaber"
QG: "You forgot to shut your power off"

....etc etc. Thats not WORD for WORD, but its something along those lines...cut me some slack, I'm working off of the memory of someone who was a sixth grader at the time.

Is it possible that George Lucas cut some stuff out of the movie while it was in limbo before releasing it on VHS a year after its theatrical release?

I know that the DVD of The Phantom Menance included the "Coruscant Sky Taxi" scene (as seen on the link above) that was originally deleted. At first when I saw that I was confused because I didnt remember it. I went back and listened to the commentary and Lucas himself said that they put it in the DVD even though it was not originally in the movie.

There could essentially be a non-directors cut in existence somewhere out there with all these scenes that in them. Hell, if its good enough for the movie theaters, why isnt it good enough for the home movie crowd?

Anyways, does anybody have any input? Anyone know whats going on? Anybody else remember those scenes? Anyone think that I an NOT insane?

EDIT: I would be very interested in getting Chefelfs input on this.

Yes, you are imagining things. I saw the movie twice in the theaters close together (when I was 21) and I never saw such scenes. You're probably inserting them in your mind via the Episode I Insider's Guide and other places you've seen those stills and descriptions posted. The widescreen Region 1 DVD (which I bought used in late 2001/early 2002) includes the Greedo scene in the deleted scenes section, but it was never in the theatrical version shown to the public. Either scene probably could have been done without blue-screening so I don't doubt that they were ever filmed, just not released to the home market and certainly not shown to the public, except in terms of screenplay/novel entries and publicity stills.

And, I hate to admit this, but I also saw a bootleg VCD of TPM back before the official DVD came out (it didn't come to DVD until 2001), from the theatrical showing (I think it was opening night as there's cheering and stuff during the opening crawl) that a friend showed me back in the day, and none of those "deleted scenes" were featured anywhere in it, and the camera only cut once when the guy changed batteries/tapes halfway through the movie (it wouldn't have missed either scene).

Were you at some early test screening for LucasFilm? Unless you were, I'd chalk this up to over-active imagination, just like the people who think they saw Biggs and Luke talking at Tosche Station in the theater in 1977. Sorry!

[Giff]

All I ever saw was it once in theaters and many times on VHS when it was first released.

I never read any books or visual dictionaries or anything.

I was never exposed to any of these other things.