Special Editions: Yea Or Nay?

No I am just pointing out the fact that most people don't like to accept, restoration isn't at all accurate. Unless you time travel back to

Yeah sorry, I think the original emperor looked better.

I'm not going to answer your last statement because it seems you are just wanting to insult/fight with others.

 

The orginals are the great art. The SEs are like if you took the most influencial oil painting out there and made "corrections" to it with acrylic.

 

First of all, there are still prints of the original that can be referenced, and there are also pre-restoration VHS and laser disc copies to compare with. The notion that they have no way of matching the restored color with the original just isn't true. They did an automated color restoration because it was cheaper and easier ("more seductive...")

Hell, I think they need to go back to the original prints and recreate the gauze filters that Lucas went to so much trouble to use (I believe to the point where he pissed off his cinematographer a bit in the process.)

But no, I don't agree that the crappy automated color restoration that's been done to ANH is the best we should expect.

As for adding Ian's Emperor to ESB, I agree with the concept. I just think the execution left a lot to be desired. The dialogue did not need to be changed, for one thing, and the performance itself isn't one of Ian's best. For another, the heavy rubber mask they put Ian in for ROTS and this ESB scene looks awful, especially on his lower face. It doesn't match the thin, crepe-like makeup they used on him in ROTJ, and the whole thing looks way too much like a cheap Don Post latex mask.

 

The thing is, classics don't decay. You don't see people clamoring for CGI additions to The Godfather. Maybe restoration in the sense of color corrections, but not scene changes.

Look a the Blade Runner Blu Ray, you have 5 different versions of the film to completely please each type of fan.

 

I say yes.

Yes, there are things I really hate that were added and/or changed, but in the end I feel the good outweighs the bad, and sometimes I can skip forward if absolutely necessary (I'm thinking Jabba's Palace music number scene)...

 

Those can be inaccurate too though, back then other prints, videos and laser discs weren't as accurate as the original negatives in terms of colour, sound and quality.

 

I don't mind restoring it, hell I don't even mind that Lucas wanted to add more scenes. But I whole heatedly agree that they should have all the versions on the Blu ray releases. I think as long as fans can watch the originals they would be okay

 

Every single change in the Special Editions was either totally unnecessary or ruined something great about the theatrical version.

Unfortunately, I never saw the theatrical Original Trilogy, I grew up on the 2004 Special Edition, so my perspective maybe isn't as pure as somebody who was actually there. But simply watching the Special Editions and you can tell what is Original, and what is not, besides the tiny changes that fix like "errors" and things, but you wouldn't notice those "errors" watching thru it anyway, its the film that matters.

A classically hated change is the addition of Jabba the Hutt in Star Wars. Oh the ways this change sucked. Again, these are the movies I saw, but I can imagine myself in 1977 hearing about him and wondering what kind of mean crime boss Jabba must be, and then in 1983 seeing him for the first time and he's a gross ugly hedonist slug! But in 2004, I got a stupid CGI Jabba ruining the surprise, ruining the reveal of the Millenium Falcon, and giving us no information that the Greedo scene (which came right before it!) didn't already give us.

Oh yeah. The Greedo scene. Do I have to say more?

Alot of the changes in Star Wars basically just amounted to shoving more crap in your face. And I don't just mean the spaceport scene, the scene with the Stormtroopers are looking for the escape pod had it, the sandcrawler shots, the X wings taking off, and those god-forsaken explosion rings. I hate those.

Every change to the Death Star attack sequence is terrible. The whole sequence in the theatrical release, from X-wing launch to big explosion is just PERFECT. Not to mention that in the Special Editions, they only made one CGI X wing model, and copy pasted it thirty times. So the markings designate that apparantly every single rebel pilot is Red Five.

When I was a kid, I always assumed Boba Fett was supposed to be a comical character. Darth Vader had to chastise him, then all he did was follow Han Solo, and then a blind Han Solo accidentally bumped him into the maw of the All Powerful Sarlac (which looks a billion times better without the beak and junk). But that's with Temeura Morrison's clunkily-delivered dialogue. After watching all the Boba Fett scenes with the original, like dry metallic-sounding voice, he didn't seem comical at all, just a way to bridge the gap between The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi. And he needed to be killed to tie up loose ends, so they did it in a funny way to liven up a fun action sequence. That's just one example of how the Special Editions really did fundamentally alter the experience of watching the movies.

They shouldn't of added the extra wampa shots it was way scarier without it, they shoudn't of added the CGI Cloud City shots they looked really bad, they shouldn't of made Luke scream when he fell, or replaced the hologram Emperor, with the monster-looking guy who played him in...you know the "movie". I always assumed the Emperor was just really old.

The new song sucks in Jedi. It just does, the song itself is bad, and the CGI, like always, looks completely out of place.

One reason I am glad I saw the 2004 Special Edition, is that it didn't include Vader's "NOOOOO!". It ruins everything about that powerful, amazing scene, and might just be the worst of all the changes.

Anakin's ghost. Seriously, I would assume the ghosts look how Luke remembered them. How is Luke supposed to know who this creepy-looking guy is?

I hate the celebrations. They're out of place, they look like the *gulp* prequels, and it doesn't make sense that immediately after the Death Star is blowed up, everybody just goes around cheering and shouting "WEESA FREE!". Star Wars Original Trilogy was never about looking at the big picture of the Galactic Empire. You always got to see a tiny bit at a time, and some subtle hints about what was going on everywhere else.

There is actually exactly one change that I would keep. When Lando was caught by a tentacle, and Han is pointing a gun to shoot the tentacle off, Lando is like "Wait, I thought you were blind!" and Han says "It's alright, I can see alot better!". That is pretty funny, funnier than what he said in the theatrical release.

 

Great post. Couldn't agree more with all your points. Nicely done!

 

Unfortunately there's no option for 80% cool with it. I'm stoked about all the technical improvements to the quality of the movies and all the things George added to compensate for the low budget in ANH but I'd like a version that didn't do any narrative changes like Han and Greedo and the like.

To clarify an oops by the OP (though I agree with the sentiment), Vader's, "Noooooo," isn't in the Special Edition...I think that's the Blue Ray version. My SE is complete with silent Vader.

 

Which things are these? Many of the changes in special effects in the original trilogy, especially in Star Wars didn't appear to replace things due to low budget, they just were different. Like the X wings flying by the screen past the big red (brown dwarf? gas giant?) planet. The version from the theatrical release, and from the special editions looked pretty much technically equal, its just that one was with models and one was with CGI. I prefer the models, especially because of errors with the markings on the CGI X-Wings, and the wierd way they move instead of going in straight lines.

 

I have to agree. As I said on my original post, I enjoy many of the changes, and then go very soft on the ones I don't like, but THAT particular change is just plain out AWFUL. It really destroyed the power of that scene.

Ever since then, I've been hoping for SOMEONE in Disney to get around the special editions, take off what sucks and just leave a couple good things on, but at this rate I feel I'll eventually go, download a bunch of versions, and edit my own version with the things I like.

I'm a bit jealous of people who are 100% purist and just enjoy the theatrical versions, because in my case, there are things I like about the special editions, but others that I don't. So where they have their perfect Star Wars experience, I always feel in between worlds.

But yeah, that "NOOOO" in Jedi is a sin and a crime, no exageration.

 

No kidding! IMHO the worst of the lot is the new shot of Luke's X-wing as it flies through that fireball. ("I got a little cooked, but I'm okay.") It looks almost like it's just hovering there and pitching its nose around rather than hauling ass across the surface of the Death Star like it's supposed to be.

And actually, that's the big problem with most of the CGI starfighters in that scene. They often don't look like they're going nearly as fast as they need to be.

 

I liked watching them in HD. It made them feel current and like the movie was made within the last 5 years rather than in the 70's. As for the dumb stuff was adding Vader saying, "No." in JEDI and replacing an aged Anakin with Hayden Christiansen. I see why he did it , linking the OT with the PT but I feel like the actor who portrayed Anakin back in the day got screwed. Adding in PT aliens in Jabba's palace was cool but the "Weesa free!" from Jar Jar was unnessary but once again, I see why they did it.

 

Well, I don't need to see every last pore on Alec Guinness' nose badly enough to make me want to suffer through all of the SE crap.

 

No it doesn't. Having Hayden in there doesn't make any sense. Lucas said that Anakin appears as a force ghost in the form where he was last good. The last time he was good was right before he died. So it should be an older Anakin. I mean, Why doesn't Obi One get to appear young? Why doesn't Yoda? Oh, because it doesn't make sense.

For every one change I do like, there are probably 5 I don't like so... Down with the special editions.

 

I promise you that, regardless if Lucas says it's because of when he was "good," it's for long term continuity.

I mentioned in another thread that I taught a film studies class and many of the students asked me if the old guy at the end of ROTJ was Uncle Owen because to them he certainly didn't make them think Anakin Skywalker. Those who watched it before the PT understood what was implied but I can see the confusion.

Oddly...Hayden is only ten years away from being the age that Anakin would have been when he died. I fully expect another special edition with an age appropriate Hayden.

 

Seriously? Film students couldn't make the connection between Anakin's older-looking Force ghost and the guy they'd seen under Darth Vader's mask not five minutes before?

 

I saw RotJ when I was about five-years-old and had no problem understanding. Lucas is a chronic tinkerer, that's all there is to it. If he hadn't sold it, he would already be adding more stuff.

"Fixing" Star Wars is like tatoos or Lays potato chips or heroin: You can never have enough.

 

Missing the point. They had grown up with the prequels, they had an idea of what Anakin looked like.

The pale, disfigured, hairless man under the mask doesn't REALLY look like Shaw's Force Ghost either.

So, while those who grew up without the prequels, it was the first logical conclusion, but for many others who grew up with the prequals, that logical leap wasn't made because it didn't line up with the already established Anakin.

I think that's exactly why George did it. And I don't blame him in principle.