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What Special Edition changes (if any) did people like? — Page 4

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Easterhay said:

Sorry, Chewtobacca - my caffeine intake must have been off the chart the night I posted this.

No problem! :-) What you want from the Empire Strikes Back is actually achievable, so an editor who likes the Cloud City additions might do that at some point.  I take it you prefer Clive Revill as the emperor too.

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Easterhay said:

Whilst I dearly want my precious "bring my shuttle" back in the film, I also like the additions to Cloud City.  If I could find a version that only has the extra stuff from near the end of the film removed, I'd be happier.

Erikstormtrooper said:

You mean, like a fan edit?

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k300/PartTimeNinja/house-ohsnap.gif

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 (Edited)

ANH:

- The new canyon matte and the darkening of the scene
- New sandcrawler shot
- 2004 binary sunset fix
- Mos Eisley matte
- 1997 landspeeder approach
- Wolfman replacements in the cantina
- New Falcon departure from Mos Eisley
- 2004 static when Luke taps his stormtrooper helmet
- 2004 cell block perspective fix
- Improved Death Star chasm echo
- "Close the blast doors!" (admittedly not really a change)
- 2004 tractor beam lettering replacement
- 2004 rotoscoping of Vader's saber while the blast door closes
- Actually seeing the Falcon landing on Yavin IV
- The Biggs scene
- New X-wing takeoff
- Some CG in the Battle of Yavin (but not all of it)

ESB:

- Added shot of Slave I following the Falcon
- Some (but not all) of the expanded Cloud City exteriors (I don't like the new interior windows)
- Restored music cue when Slave I takes off
- Adding the second hatch door to the Falcon
- 2004 fix to backwards Imperial rank insignias

ROTJ:

- Sail barge shadow fixes
- Ropes around Han's feet while he's trying to save Lando
- Removal of Anakin's eyebrows
- Luke congratulating Wedge at the end

And yeah, that's about it.  I guess I like a lot more of the changes in ANH than I thought I did.

Oh, and while I agree with the idea of replacing the Emperor's hologram in ESB, the execution was atrocious.

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Chewtobacca said:

Easterhay said:

Sorry, Chewtobacca - my caffeine intake must have been off the chart the night I posted this.

No problem! :-) What you want from the Empire Strikes Back is actually achievable, so an editor who likes the Cloud City additions might do that at some point.  I take it you prefer Clive Revill as the emperor too.

 

I think, for continuity reasons it was fine to replace Clive Revill (although he had a great voice for that scene) and I think, in the context of the revelation at the end of the film, the changes to the dialogue aren't so troubling either; it just hammers home that Vader wanted to overthrow the Emperor with his son by his side. 

 

However, Ian McDiarmid seems to have no animation to his face at all in that scene.  It's quite odd to watch.

That's some bad hat, Harry
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ChainsawAsh said:

- Luke congratulating Wedge at the end

That is one of the few SE additions that I have always really liked.  I like the character of Wedge, and if ROTJ has to end in a big celebration it seems fitting that he is there.  I like the Biggs scene too, especially with Adywan's fix to it.

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Chewtobacca said:

ChainsawAsh said:

- Luke congratulating Wedge at the end

That is one of the few SE additions that I have always really liked.  I like the character of Wedge, and if ROTJ has to end in a big celebration it seems fitting that he is there.  I like the Biggs scene too, especially with Adywan's fix to it.

 

It looks improvised, too.  Denis Lawson seems genuinely surprised when Luke congratulates him.  Whether it was rehearsed or not, though, it is a beautiful touch (and the only time we see Wedge on his feet!).

That's some bad hat, Harry
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That part seems so natural to the film I forgot it wasn't in the original. I guess Wedge's popularity really shot off in the 90s, whereas in 83 they hadn't realized what a cult character he would become (same with Boba Fett, disposed of as comic fodder earlier in the film).

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The only change I like is the restored music in Empire, when Slave I takes off. All other changes are crap.

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Oh yeah, forgot about that one.  Added it to my list.

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Diego said:

The only change I like is the restored music in Empire, when Slave I takes off. All other changes are If it's not Scottish, it's crap.

:p

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 (Edited)

Looking back on it, a big problem with a lot of the SE revisions is that most of them feel like they were done on the cheap, as half-assed as possible.

In ESB when Leia and the rest chase Boba to the landing platform, the music is completely jacked up and out of sync compared to how Williams originally scored it. Williams could've rescored this (and similarly messed up scenes)... but that'd cost too much.

In ANH, the restored scene with Biggs is so choppy and off-kilter that I have to wonder why Lucas even bothered. If he shot no close ups of the actors to work around the cuts he'd need to use, surely he could've modifed shots from other scenes to make it all work... but that'd cost too much.

In the '97 ANH, there's just no frickin way that CGI Jabba should've passed ANYbody's QC check. But it wasn't redone... it'd cost too much.

In ESB, yeah, we've got the "corrected" Emperor scene with McDiarmid but his make up doesn't look like a good match with ROTJ.

With ROTJ, you've got the "corrected" Anakin ghost with Hayden's head. But it's just Hayden's head. Would it have really killed Lucas to insert Hayden in there properly? Putting aside how unnecessary this change ever was, it looks like a weak Photoshop job. It could've been fixed... but that'd cost too much, I guess.

There are also mattes boxes around a lot of ships, even now. We've got some fairly impressive CGI in some shots... and garbage mattes in others?! Does that make sense to ANYONE?!

There are probably a billion other examples but you get the point.

I mean, bad enough that all this crap ever happened but when it's done so cheap, it adds insult to injury. I realize this stuff costs a lot of money but so do the DVD's. (A) LFL will make their money back and (B) there is such a thing as "the cost of doing business". Certain things cost money in life; do 'em right or get out.

If all of the changes Lucas has introduced could be done in a non-amateurish way and if the original (theatrical) cuts were respected and preserved, I'd honestly have no complaints.

EDIT- And this isn't just the OT. The prequels suffer from this to varying degrees. The theatrical cut of The Phantom Menace had awesome effects in terms of lighting/shadow, textures and so forth. But when Lucas restored parts of the podrace, you go from basically perfect effects in many shots to a couple of shots that had that "slick as snot" quality that everyone associates with CG images.

All I really want is each film as it was originally seen and heard in theaters; no fixes, corrections, "improvements" or modifications necessary.

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Only three do I hate:

  1. Greedo shooting at all (obviously)
  2. Jabba's disco scene
  3. Hayden Ghost

 

The rest don't really bother me.

Since they're like poetry, what with the rhyming and all, I find that I only need to watch three out of the six films.

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ChainsawAsh said:

ANH:

- The new canyon matte and the darkening of the scene
- New sandcrawler shot
- 2004 binary sunset fix
- Mos Eisley matte
- 1997 landspeeder approach
- Wolfman replacements in the cantina
- New Falcon departure from Mos Eisley
- 2004 static when Luke taps his stormtrooper helmet
- 2004 cell block perspective fix
- Improved Death Star chasm echo
- "Close the blast doors!" (admittedly not really a change)
- 2004 tractor beam lettering replacement
- 2004 rotoscoping of Vader's saber while the blast door closes
- Actually seeing the Falcon landing on Yavin IV
- The Biggs scene
- New X-wing takeoff
- Some CG in the Battle of Yavin (but not all of it)

ESB:

- Added shot of Slave I following the Falcon
- Some (but not all) of the expanded Cloud City exteriors (I don't like the new interior windows)
- Restored music cue when Slave I takes off
- Adding the second hatch door to the Falcon
- 2004 fix to backwards Imperial rank insignias

ROTJ:

- Sail barge shadow fixes
- Ropes around Han's feet while he's trying to save Lando
- Removal of Anakin's eyebrows
- Luke congratulating Wedge at the end

I agree with this list. Guess I like more of the changes than I thought.

But what is the "2004 tractor beam lettering replacement"?

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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It's changed to Aurabesh instead of English.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Wrong question.  I actually enjoyed many of the changes... maybe if I went through them one by one, I might discover that I "liked" most of them.  The changes in the SE are all fine... but the changes in the SE as permanent replacements for the original corresponding scenes in the OT are absolutely unacceptable, whether I like them or not... every single one of them. You can't change history because you like the revised version better.

"Close the blast doors!"
Puggo’s website | Rescuing Star Wars

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ray_afraid said:


Well, I remembered what the deal is. It's on the thing Obi-Wan shuts down, right?

Yep.

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Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Wrong question.  I actually enjoyed many of the changes... maybe if I went through them one by one, I might discover that I "liked" most of them.  The changes in the SE are all fine... but the changes in the SE as permanent replacements for the original corresponding scenes in the OT are absolutely unacceptable, whether I like them or not... every single one of them. You can't change history because you like the revised version better.

Yeah, I think most (hopefully all) of us would agree. That's what brought me here in the first place.

Ray’s Lounge
Biggs in ANH edit idea
ROTJ opening edit idea

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I came for the women....

...

...

...

...

...

...so...

...

...

...where are they?

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Actually i was thinking about a change that hasn't been made: the first time we see the Falcon in SW, it's obvious only half of the ship as been built, you don't see the antenna dish on the top of the Falcon. GL has time and money to make the ewoks blink, putting the rock before R2, etc... but this no?

(I know... i know...  it's GL. What did i expect?)

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I prefer the 1997 ending of RoTJ over the original.

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I liked that appropriate credit was given to James Earl Jones.

Nothing else.

Project Threepio (Star Wars OOT subtitles)