wolfebane

Saw the Clones on Imax today. Lucas cut approx 25 minutes from the theatrical version. Does anyone know if this shorter version or the original release is going to be the one available on DVD.
Gotta admit, it was a tighter and quicker paced movie. A lot of the romantic storyline was removed, as well as a few minor scenes that added more detail to the main storyline.
I'd still prefer the original version, but a supplementary version with this edited version would be great if included.

Kal-El

[Mod impression]Moving to Movie Talk[/Mod impression]

Terrell

No, the IMAX cut won't be on the DVD. My brother saw it on IMAX and he says they absolutely butchered the film. He hated all of the cuts they made to fit this on an IMAX reel. So I definitely have no interest in it after hearing that.

cooper2000

After Lucas recuts the whole movie and adds extra special effects and puts Jar Jar in more scenes it will be released on DVD with a commentary from Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill and Peter Mayhew

Numanoid

Why did they need to cut it for IMAX? I saw 2001 on IMAX a few years ago and that's considerably longer than ATOC.

vegasbaby

The love scenes in 'Clowns' err 'Clones' would have burned right thru the Imax film.

Thats the only thing I can think of why it was trimmed.

Giles

the scenes that seemed essential (but nonetheless cut for the IMAX version) were the introduction to Lars/Bereau, and Jimmy Smits character who was reduced to a couple of non-speaking scenes.

Aaron Amos

The DVD that my employer has for rent is the orginal version. We have been playing all day for about 2 weeks now. Too bad the rental copies we have are pan and scan. . This movie is pathetic in this format(pan and scan) !

Terrell

Because IMAX can only handle 120 minutes of film reel. That's the simple reason why.

Jackskeleton

It was a quick edit job by lucas. Doubt it will make it to this dvd. expect to see it on one of the many many other re-releases on dvd that star wars will have.

JediMaster826

Where I work we received an "early" copy to play in the store, well my manager allowed me to take it home tonight to look through the extras. It is not the IMAX cut, so don't worry. The extra features are excellent just like EP1. The 1138 easter egg also works in the options just like on EP1, not nearly as funny though. Hope this helps you guys out.

mzupeman2

Yeah, no reason it would be on the DVD. The one and only reason why he cut it, was to make the movie long enough to fit on an IMAX reel.....that and the fact that Natalie Portmans nipons would be the size of your whole body on a screen that big, lol

Static Cling

Edited thread title and moving to Movie Talk.

caligulathegod

You saw 2001 on an IMAX screen but you didn't see an IMAX 2001. IMAX 70mm film is 15 perf and is run sideways through the projector making it 10 times the size of regular 35mm film and 3 times the size of regular 70mm film. A normal 40 minute IMAX feature runs at 5.6 feet a second. It is 2.5 miles of film and weighs 200 lbs. That works out to 7.5 miles of film and 600 lbs for a 2 hour feature. Or 8.75+ miles and 700 lbs for a 2 hour 20 minute film.

Mr. Cornell

So basically Luca$ butchered his own film in order to put it on IMAX and make more money? No surprise here...

RichC2

I may be missing something here, but didn't Lucas already do that when he released this movie? It's hard to butcher it much more than it already was.

Bad movie being made shorter generally == better movie. (and for those that actually liked this flick, at least you got a cool yoda poster out of the deal )

JM1

Re the 2001 query - another possibility is that this movie was designed with an intermission anyway, so this would give them time to change reels.

Seems to be an awful lot of confusion in this thread...

Lets make this clear - Lucas decided to strike an IMAX

JM1

Sorry, slip of the finger on that last post - the problems of trying to type while balancing a laptop on your knee...

As I was saying, an official IMAX print has been struck from the original negative to be shown exclusively in IMAX theatres only.

Now, this is not the same as just taking an ordinary copy of the movie and showing it on an IMAX screen, which can be done, and indeed has been done. However, you cannot show an IMAX print in an ordinary theatre. Clear?

So, I think we have already established that being an official IMAX struck copy of the movie, it is known that these reels can only be 2 hours max in length. Therefore, Lucas decided to re edit the movie for a 2 hour length.

OK, I can understand why some people will be unhappy with this, but I really don't see where the greed angle comes in to play here. Sure, you can level an awful lot of critiscism at Lucas for many things, but at least here he is trying to give the public something a little different, and experiementing with new film formats. OK, there is a compromise, sure. B

caligulathegod

Hate to look like a shill for IMAX, but there seems to be some confusion, so here's some info from the IMAX site (with my annotations).

Now the extraordinary visual clarity and sound quality of IMAX presentations does transform 35mm live action films through digital re-mastering using IMAX's new patented proprietary software IMAX DMR.


IMAX digital re-mastering starts by converting a 35mm frame(or original digital production as in the case of AOTC) into digital form at very high resolution, capturing all the detail from the original. Our proprietary software mathematically analyses and extracts the important image elements in each frame from the original grainy structure to create a pristine form of the original photography. This is the most complex step in IMAX digital re-mastering.


The image on a 35mm film frame is comprised of a fine grain structure like that of all photographic images. This grain when projected on to the IMAX screen looks like a TV channel that isn't quite tuned to the station. Removing this grain while preserving the quality of the underlying image is the basis of IMAX DMR.


To create the brightness and clarity that audiences have come to expect from The IMAX ExperienceŽ, IMAX uses a proprietary computer program to make the images sharper than they were originally, while colors are adjusted for the unique technically superior characteristics of the IMAX screen. The completed re-mastered film is then transferred onto the world's largest film format, 15-perforations 70mm.

Dave St Hubbins

2 1/2 hours of AOTC was not enough for me.

C-Mart

The only thing that I really liked about the IMAX version was the last 20 minutes or so of the movie. The movie absolutely sucks in the 'almost' full-frame format, and being so big you can see every detail/mistake. For example at the beginning when Corde (sp?) dies, they show close ups of her face, and you can totally see her eyes moving behind the closed lids. Any scene where Yoda is close-up he looks like he is made of plastic. They cut a couple of scenes that I thought were crucial to the film, ie. Palpatine and the others tricking Jar Jar into calling for the 'emergency powers.' Which shows that Jar Jar is gullible, in this cut they make him seem like an ass for calling for the vote. (I know, I know, most people would actually like that interpretation, but it is just as bad as making Greedo shoot first, it just changes the perception of the character.) I have to admit, Yoda standing, like, 20 feet tall, is frickin' awesome!

-CM-

caligulathegod

Just got back from seeing it. Color me impressed. It really did look great. Other than shadows having little detail (tended to be just flat black), it looked like it had been shot in IMAX. You could see every pore and zit on the actors faces. It really made Jar Jar (especially), Watto and Yoda look phonier but otherwise they actually did it. Considering that the original was glorified HD TV resolution, to bring it up to IMAX specs was truly impressive.

As far as the cuts, it did seem a bit rushed and a few scenes were missed, but it actually tightened things up, especially the interminable first hour. This was not a definitive cut, but it shows that the film really could have been improved by trimming maybe 10 minutes from it.

GuessWho

The Cut List (copy/pasted from theforce.net):

* The first scene with Amidala, Organa, Yoda et al in Palpy's office is gone.
* The portion where Jar Jar greets Obi and Anakin at the elevator up through the "awkward reintroduction" of Anakin to Padme was removed. The scene starts with Obi/Ani talking about how they're going to find the person responsible, etc.

* After Anakin makes kouhoun sushi and Obi leaps out the window, the end of the scene where Dorme' asks Padme if she's alright was trimmed off.

* A minor trim: the part where the assasin droid (to which Obi-Wan is clinging) tries to scrape Obi against the building was removed.

* The rest of the Coruscant chase remains intact, and WOW - it is simply breathtaking (if not a little dizzying on an 8-story screen)! This is a scene almost tailor-made for IMAX.

* In Padme's quarters, a minor trim of Anakin playing with the floating ball and (I think) the part where he says he's ready for the trials.

* The discussion between Obi-Wan, Mace and the floaty Yoda was removed.

* On the train, the tearful goodbye of Dorme was trimmed out of the rest of the scene (since I am a HUGE Dorme fan, I wasn't so happy about this).

* The library scene was completely removed.

* The very end of the arrival on Naboo (where they are walking down the long curved columned pathway was trimmed, as was the entire meeting with Queen Jamilla.

* When Anakin and Padme arrive at the Naboo Spa and Resort Island, there are quite a few minor trims - the part about "here, everything is soft and smooth" to the hand touch and back rub was clipped out.

* As far as the rest of the Naboo scenes go, the only ones that were left in were the dinner table scene (with some beautifully crafted digital pans to account for the reduced aspect ratios - it was 100% smooth and natural. At least we *think* that's what they did!) and a much abbreviated but significantly smoother fireplace scene. The "I'm haunted by the kiss you never should have given me" is one of the exorcised lines. No "sound of music", no picnic and no Shaak-riding.

* On Kamino, the portion of the scene where he heads back out to his ship to have R4 send a message back to Coruscant was trimmed out.

* Boba's firing of the Slave I cannons was trimmed out of the fight, but we didn't realize it after the scene was over!

* The Anakin "a sheet, a dream, a moan" - scene is gone. It goes straight to Anakin in his meditative "Vader-esque" pose on the balcony.

* On Tatooine, 3POs introduction of Anakin/Padme to Owen/Beru was cut (taking with it Beru's one and only line - sorry, Beru fans!)

* In the Confession scene, the beginning part in which Anakin comments about "the shifter broke. Life seems so much simpler when you're fixing things," was cut. NOTE: The ending of the Confession scene is the original ending (ie. without Padme's "...is to be human" line).

* Dooku's entrance into Obi-Wan's floating cell was trimmed off, as was the end portion about "it might be difficult to secure your release".

* The scene in Palpy's ofc where he manipulates Jar Jar to consider making the "emergency powers" motion in the Senate was removed completely.

* Yoda and Mace's conversation where Mace states that their abilities to use the Force are diminished was cut out.

* On Geonosis, there is portion of the scene after Ani/Padme exit the ship, and R2 wants to do the same. The part where C3PO and R2 argue, and 3PO says that he knows all about humans was trimmed off.

* The factory scene was shortened by numerous quick cuts and edits. A couple of the cuts we caught were the shots where C3PO hanging by his fingertips and the 1st "teaser" of molten metal where you see the cannister iris open and drop a load, only to find out that it wasn't Padme's container.

* The final battle, as far as we could tell, is completely intact and completely freakin' amazing now that you can actually see the battle going on in the background!

* A note: not a cut, but a switch: after Padme falls out of the transport and the trooper arrives to help her, it is the version where she grunts and just says "Uh-huh," when he asks her if she's alright.

cdollaz

That's not an accurate list, as a couple of those scenes were in the IMAX cut I saw over the weekend.

Josh H

The cut on the DVD will be the original theatrical cut with a few minor dialogue changes, and a slightly different scene of padme getting up on the sand dune after falling out of the ship. She'll get up slower now, and kind of moan when asked if she's ok, instead of popping right up and saying yes.