Star Wars Bits: JJ Abrams Talks Trek Comparisons, LEGO Recalls A Playset, And Peter Jackson Makes A Joke

Disney shutting down Lucasarts is certainly the biggest Star Wars news of the day, but there's plenty more where that came from. After the jump read about the following:

J.J. Abrams talks about the comparisons between his 2009 Star Trek and Star Wars.

Read Eli Roth's scathing review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, written in 1999.

Lego recalls a potentially offensive Star Wars set.

Oscar-winning Star Wars Art director Roger Christian doesn't plan to return for Star Wars Episode VII.

Peter Jackson dropped in a little Star Wars April Fools joke into his recent video.

So too did Star Trek alum George Takai.

Thanks to Deviant Artist Rhyme Syndicate for the awesome header piece. Head to this link to see it in full. On to the bits.

Talking to SFX Magazine about Star Trek Into Darkness, J.J. Abrams discussed the common comparison that his original Star Trek film is so similar to Star Wars:

I wouldn't say that the first movie is an absolute Star Wars derivation. The irony of course being that Star Trek came out before Star Wars. We're inheriting Star Trek, so we're allowed to do space stuff. Of course when Star Wars came out, people referred to Star Trek, because it was spaceships. Everything is sort of a derivation of everything else. Just the way Star Wars was of Flash Gordon and of dogfight war films in the TIE Fighter sequences. Everything has something it borrows from.

Back in 1999, an young whippersnapper named Eli Roth wrote an interview review of Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace. At the time, not many people knew who Mr. Roth was, but they do now. The Huffington Post has unearthed the incredibly negative and hilarious review. Head to that link to read Roth's recent reaction to the review being found, as well as the rest of it, but here's how it starts:

Few films in history have had greater anticipation than The Phantom Menace. People have been waiting on line for over a month to get tickets. I know I have been waiting since 5th grade, following every rumor in "Starlog" and on the Internet. So here's the kicker: IT SUCKS. I'm sorry, it does. I know it's sacrilege to criticize George Lucas or the Holy Grail of movie trilogies, but after waiting 16 years I can honestly tell you this film is an unbelievable disappointment. People may say that waiting 16 years for anything will be a disappointment, but I waited 16 years to get laid and that really lived up to all my expectations. Okay, I'm lying, I didn't get laid until I was 18, but you get my point.

Let's start with the first problem of the movie, the title. What does it mean? I have no idea. Having seen the film, I still have no idea. I'm guessing it's a reference to Anakin Skywalker, but your guess is as good as mine. There are so many other glaring problems with this film that I don't even know where to begin. You should understand when you go to see it that this is truly a movie for kids. I remember suffering through Hook thinking, "Man, Spielberg's really lost it. He had kids, and it completely fucked him up. He's afraid to kill anybody–bad guys included." I think Lucas is going through something similar right now, having kids of his own. Somebody should kidnap his children or put him through another rocky divorce so he will take out suffering on his characters and not make everything so goddamn cutesy.

Here's some interesting controversy in the world of Star Wars Legos. Apparently, some Middle Eastern groups found the Lego version of Jabba's Palace from Return of the Jedi to be racially insensitive, as it resembled famous mosques. Now, Time.com reports Lego is recalling the set... but not because of the controversy. It has just "reached the end of its run." Read more at the link, and here's the image.

Roger Christian, who won an Oscar for his work on the original 1977 Star Wars and was a second unit director on Return of the Jedi, spoke to The Star and said he doesn't expect to return for Episode VII under J.J. Abrams:

The franchise is in a whole new world now. It's Disney's now. George (Lucas) and I became great friends and struggled to make the first Star Wars. But it's gone into a different world.

On April Fools Day, Peter Jackson released a Q&A he did discussing the second Hobbit film, The Desolation of Smaug. In it, he hid a few Easter Eggs, including this one found by First Showing. Yes, that's a script for Star Wars Episode VIII.

Finally, one former Star Trek star pulled a Star Wars related April Fools Day stunt himself. Here it is thanks to GeekSmash.