After saving it for a while until I could sit down in peace and quiet and go through all the pages of this book I was disappointed by the difference in tone and seriousness from James Luceno compared to the "Attack of the Clones" visual dictionary presented by Curtis Saxton. However, Saxton apparently did the "Revenge of the Sith" Incredible Cross-sections book, so I'm hoping that will undo some of the glib tabloidness of Luceno's book. Anyway, I'd like to raise a few points of this book that I thought where obscure, misinterpreted or downright wrong. I'm aware there may be details added in the book that were established in the ROTS novelization and merely seemed pulled-out-of-ass for those not having read the novelization, so if I mention one of those instances feel free to correct me. I won't go page-by-page and list all of the spelling errors, although there are one or two humorous lines that simply beg mention.
I've not read any of James Luceno's earlier work but I had hoped that as a professional and a hired help in the last Star Wars movie project (as far as we know) Luceno wouldn't warp this specialist-literature [b]dictionary[/i] with his own ideas, guesses and interpretations like a UK tabloid-writer. He does, though, and nowhere is it as cringefully obvious as in the numerous captions under the beautiful movie screencaps, for example one about clone troopers;
quote:Despite the fact that clone armor is frequently referred to as a "body bucket", troopers think of their plastoid shell as a portable shelter, which protects them against exploding laser cannons.
Oh, do they really call it that? I must've missed that. Why would their thinking of their armor as a portable shelter save them from explosions, though? Is it some sort of faith-thing, like with Moses and the ocean? What's more, has Luceno ever been in the armed forces? Does he know what would happen to a soldier if he were to refer to his tactical armor as a "body bucket"?
---- Chapter 1: Galactic War ---- Clone War Summary: The beginning of the book has a summary of the arenas and planets the movie takes place in, the part about Mustafar caught my eye as I at first thought that it was scribbled down by John Ashcroft's speech writer;
quote:On hellish Mustafar the final acts of the Sith plot will be played out, resulting in the deaths of enemies, the deaths of friends-and, ultimately, the death of love.
Let the eagles soar! My source in Ohio told me that Lucemo wanted to add a sad-face after "death of love" but was chloroformed by his Lucasfilm-issued supervisor and moved to an adjacent room for a few hours. You can't keep a good man down forever, though.
---- The Grievous-copout ---- Claiming and promising the unique "Behind the Mask!"-feature of General Grievous on webpages and dust-covers, only to show a pic of Griv with a palm-sized cutout on the top of his head that reveals a bit of brain with wires in it, that's false advertisement. Usually a helmet is interesting because it covers a face. *rolls royce*
There's also the disproportion of themes; two pages for Anakin, one page for Vader, six pages of Wookies!. From Wookie boating all the way down to Wookie peace pipes and dreadlocks. And they were on for ten minutes in total. Also, the large picture of Tarfful, the Wookie leader, has a caption that says "Tarfful is left-handed". By God, he is! According to the picture, at least! Unless they had, I don't know, mirrored the image to make the flow of the text look slightly better. But they wouldn't do that, would they!?
---- Assaj Ventress mixup? ---- On Kenobi's page it reads that he and Anakin attempted, but failed, to capture Ventress and that she remains at large. It also says that Anakin's facial scar is a "reminder of his encounter with Dooku-trained Assaj Ventress". But the scar first appeared in the middle of the "Clone Wars" series, three years after Anakin had defeated Ventress on the fourth moon of Yavin. Kenobi had no hand in that, quite the contrary, he tried to stop it. Does the dictionary refer to some EU-source?
---- C-3P0 curb-stomp ---- In "Clone Wars", 3P0 himself explained that his new finish was made of gold and that Amidala had sponsored it so he could best represent her. Now, apparently, it's "Bronzium" instead. Why must Luceno just make things up and hope it sounds enough "Star Warsy" to go under the radar of Lucasfilm?? While we're on the topic of sci-fi sounding names, Grievous' armor and that of his "MagnaGuards" (the ancestors to IG-88) is apparently made from "Duranium", if the book is to be believed. I have no problem with it, though for some reason the grimy faces of Gul Jasad and General Martok enter into my head. Also, a nugget section for C-3P0 claims that "After his memory wipe, C-3P0 believes that he first worked with binary load-lifter droids". Was that really necessary? He could very well have been working with load-lifters during the 19 years of Darkness and it would've felt like his first "real" job, on some Alderaan base or whatever. Claiming that C-3P0 has gotten false memories implanted, instead of just wiped, feels wrong in the same sense that it felt wrong to me when Harry Potter's red-haired friend bashed Kenneth Branagh's head in with a stone, while Branagh was tied up, lying down and was suffering from kidnap-victim's trauma. They tried to play it for a laugh but I thought it was awfully coarse.
---- Tantive IV filibuster ---- Yes, the noble Bail Organa has a page of his own, which I approve of since I like Smits' work. The legendary, hard-fighting, blockade-running Tantive IV gets its own section as well, which I also like. Some captions around the Tantive confuse me, though:
quote:In order to preserve its legace as a diplomatic vessel, Bail refuses to outfit the ship with ranged weapons.
Luceno apparently didn't have the prop designers on his side, though, as the Tantive IV, even in this early, "pacifist" part of its service life is visibly outfitted with no less than a double set of medium-range laser turrets. Not one to give up on his glorious post-construction ideas, Luceno adds text-blocks to detail the anatomy of Tantive IV. I can't paraphrase this, you have to see it for yourselves.
That's so beautiful! And noble! *sniff* Despite the fact that both Organa's aides and companions (Sheltay Reltac, Raymus Antilles) are armed to the teeth (as Tantive IV itself is 19 years later in ANH), their ship is now white and pure! So let me get this straight, they have attached two large gun turret decoys on their ship to "fool" the enemy. So when they are being attacked, any imperial/separatist/space pirate will think that the Tantive is armed and also their sensors will confirm it, but luckily the Tantive won't be able to sully its name by firing back! And to top it off, the section where Antilles' men have placed their primary escape pods will become the first-priority target! You are a very bright improvisationist, James Luceno! I smile and giggle at you, the same way Chris Walken tearfully smiled and giggled at Dennis Hopper in "True Romance", after Hopper's italian history lesson.
On the previous page there's a nice picture of Organa's shiny "Target Blaster" (sic), with a nice caption-arrow that says "Blaster fires incapacitating bolts only". Okay, so an Alderaanian Senator and key actor against Palpatine's agressive government buildup walks around the senate with a Tazer? This is all very disconcerting.
To sum up James Luceno's daredevil biography of Bail "Ironclad" Organa, here's the parting shot.
Now, I would sell my left cock to see that conversation.
All in all, the book is beautiful, the pictures and coverage is the best so far, the width of the content and locations is astounding, but the text...oh god the text. 50% of it is the rather mundane and self-explanatory stough that people who saw the movie will know, 20% is genuinely new info and nice tidbits and of course a great deal of unreleased footage and nice droid/ship/character beauty-shots. The remaining 30% is na�ve pulp fiction bullshit, jokes more tongue-in-cheek than a Laura Bush-speech and then the starry-eyed revisionist/pacifist propaganda.
Why do I bother writing this? Why, it's friday, you see! And after a grueling week of filthy spanish-class (spanish isn't filthy, the class is) I can finally focus on something completely unproductive and guilt-riddledly fun.
[ June 17, 2005, 04:22 PM: Message edited by: Nim' ]
Posted by Aban Rune (Member # 226) on :
So what would happen to a soldier if he called his tactical armor a body bucket?
Posted by Nim' (Member # 205) on :
Well, looking at my "Code Red Guant�namo book of tricks", the recipe seems to involve a blond perm wig, some superglue, eight bars of soap and ditto socks, someone has also scribbled "heInz bekd beinz" in the margin, I can't vouch for that. But anyway, I'm sure it varies depending on the gunny at the scene.
Now, to balance things out, I thought the pages on the Jedi were good, and although all the specialized Clone Trooper divisions and functions ill be outphased by ANH, save snowy and scouty, it was a nice touch to flesh them out.
I'm also amazed they went to such length to establish and develop "Coruscant Ground Crew and Fire Brigade", for something so corny and briefly seen, it was very detailed and the red/white ship looked superfine.
Despite my view on the Grievous-"pig in a poke", his section and info was fresh and the pictures sharp.
And who can forget Palpatine? They could practically talk for hours about that man. I was also surprised that the author and his sources was so out of phase and had such bad communication that the book manages to take both sides in the "Palpatine face" origin debate.
From page 60;
quote:Two Faces "Always two there are"-not only master and apprentice, but persona and true face. Unmasked by deflected lightning during his duel with Mace Windu, the Sith Lord's true face is revealed to the world. .../
And in the caption next to his face on page 60; Face deformed by Sith lightning
So is Shakespeare here being literal or metaphorical in his piece? I don't know, but if he is, it hurts the argument that he is actually an alien that assumed a human look and immigrated to Naboo hundreds of years earlier.
This seems to be supported by the "Data File" on Palpatine's page that says "Records of Palpatine's ancestry, immediate family members, and upbringing on Naboo have mysteriously vanished."
Also, as above, Luceno uses punctuation like an eighth-grader throughout the book. It really is a confidence boost to us ordinary mortals. He's like the greek gods of Wine and Wind(bag), amalgamated into one.
Anyway, fun story, Palpatine is shown already in EpIII with a creased, ribbed crown and a large splice in the center line of it. The contours around his eyes is notable as well. This wouldn't usually be an attention getter, had they not seen fit to add an image of a strange senator by the name of Veedaaz Awmetth at the "Senate" doublepage.
Posted by Marauth (Member # 1320) on :
Dunno about the other gaffs you refer to but on the subject of Assaj Ventress, she doesn't die in that ep. of Clone Wars you spoke of, falling into improbably deep chasms won't stop a sith-wannabe. I've not read any of the comics but I've seen some pictures of one she appears in, she has another spat with Anakin where she manages to graze his eyebrow with her sabre causing the scar we see in Ep. III, he then goes apesh*t over his ruined good looks I believe.
