What Special Edition changes (if any) did people like? — Page 17

jcwillia1 said:

TheQuazz said:

What about: Don’t change the movies at all!

I certainly understand that point of view but for a Science Fiction film, certain scenes in the movie look really bad 40 years on. When the X-Wings split their S-foils approaching the Death Star in Star Wars, it looks almost comical.

https://vimeo.com/123533858#t=218s This shot?

I certainly think the GOUT version that we’re probably all used to seeing shows its age. A proper 4K restoration should look pretty damn good for its age. Not perfect, but all things age (including CGI done in 1997). Watching it loop on Mike’s video, the Death Star is probably the weakest part, but still fine and consistent enough with the many other times its shown in all versions of the film. The closest X-wings, where the eye is drawn to, look great in the restored version.

That shot I actually think is very well done for a 1970s movie. Yes movie effects do age overtime but that shot is far from comical.

First I’ll preface with saying the 1997 SEs were the first I saw of the OT. I was given it as a gift on VHS for the holidays when I was a child. I’ve only seen the PT in theaters.

I liked most of them but anything that changed a character such as Greedo shooting first I hated. I do believe strongly in preservation of the originals though.

Since I like most of them I’ll outline ones I hated besides:
The new CGI song and dance number. I skip past it always on rewatches. Analyzing it from a non-comparison point of view even, it is complete filler and adds nothing to the plot and only pads the runtime. If featured at all it should’ve been featured as background during dialogue.
The whole stepping on Jabba’s tail. Totally unnecessary and wasn’t done well.

With all the edits they did I was surprised at how they didn’t seem to update the lightsaber effects in many scenes. I don’t know much about video production but I’d think that would’ve been one of the more easy things to revise.

And though this thread refers to the SEs and thus the 1997 revisions, I’ll add that the rocks added in front of R2 in a later revision was immersion breaking as it would be physically impossible for him to have squeezed in there unless he can turn into liquid or something.

Not sure if it’s been mentioned yet but the colour correction for the snow on Hoth was a good addition, it actually looks like snow now.

Snow is blue?

Ryan’s ranking of snow colors:

1. Blue
2. Green
3. Yellow
4. White

Different rods and cones in this thread.

Cool.

The only change that I like in any of the Special Editions

I’m making my own custon set right now and so far I finished Star Wars with only the following SE changes:

1. Alderaan explosion
2. X-wing shots taking off from Yavin 4
3. X-wing shots during the battle
4. Death Star explosion
5. Cut-outs replaced with actors during the award ceremony

I’m working on Empire right now and this is what I’ve got through the first third of the film:

1. Han’s tauntaun riding into the base
2. Some of the speeder shots when they are looking for Han and Luke
3. First transport when it takes off at the beginning of the battle
4. Speeder shots at the start of the battle
5. Walker explosion
6. Shield generator explosion
7. Wide shot of various ships preparing for takeoff right before Luke departs Hoth

Basically anything where the vfx of existing shots can be upgraded, I’m all for it. Just no new additions and wherever the vfx still look good I’m ok with leaving them in.

Should go without saying that additional scenes or radical changes are completely verboten.

Alderaan said:

completely verboten.

Jawohl, Herr Alderaan!

The trivia section on imdb for ANH mentions that Greedo shooting first was done so Lucas could keep his PG rating. Is this imdb being false as they tend to do from time to time or is there evidence to support this?? Never heard this claim until now.

The trivia section of IMDb might as well be run by Infowars.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Also, since when do they rerate movies post release? All those Sean Cannery sec scenes are still PG.

The SEs were actually because of the theatrical release.

I already posted this in the fan edit section but here goes:

If I had the editing know-how, I’d much rather look at the CGI exterior wall of Yavin base than the blank grey one.

In ESB, I’d switch in the SE Emperor hologram since the monkey face doesn’t really appeal to me.

Those are the only changes I’d make to Despecialized if I had the knowledge and patience to tweak my own versions.

JEDIT: …and yeah… maybe the planet explosions. Not THAT important for me though.

ANH:
Changes I Liked:
Basically everything on-board the Death Star
Adding the Millennium Falcon to the landing shot on Yavin IV
CGI shot of Rebel fighters taking off
The Luke-Biggs reunion scene

Changes I Hated:
All CGI additions to the Tatooine scenes
The horrible new Krayt dragon scream
Greedo shooting first

ESB
Changes I Liked:
Correcting the uniform pips on some of the Imperial officers

Changes I Hated:
"You were lucky to get out of there"
Altering the dialogue between Vader and the Emperor
Almost all of the Cloud City changes (the Tibanna gas mine in an establishing shot doesn’t bother me)
Changing Boba Fett’s voice
Vader’s shuttle to the star destroyer

ROTJ
Changes I Liked:
Adding ropes to Han’s ankles
New ending music
Short deleted scene of Luke hugging Wedge during the celebration

Changes I Hated:
Hayden Christiansen
Jedi Rocks
All CGI additions for the scenes on Tatooine
CGI celebration scenes
"NOOOOO!!!"

I feel pretty neutral about the rest of the changes (Wampa, extra stars added to the sky as R2 is taken to the sandcrawler, extra detail on the Yavin base, etc)

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

What’s with all this love for the redone explosions? What’s that blast ring even supposed to be?

This. They look stupid.

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

What’s with all this love for the redone explosions? What’s that blast ring even supposed to be?

It’s called the Praxis Effect. According to Wikipedia, astronomer Phillip Plait says that the Special Edition version of the Death Star explosion in Star Wars is physically the most realistic, although the orientation of the shock wave and the trench are not at the correct angle. In Return of the Jedi Special Edition, the angles are correctly aligned.

Apparently the shock wave from the Alderaan explosion would radiate outward in a more spherical manner, but either way I think the new explosion effects look aesthetically better than the old ones.