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Which version/release of the Star Wars movies do you watch and why? — Page 10

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Windows7Guy100 said:

You should try Frink’s, his edits are nothing but nonsense.

I’ve enjoyed the excerpts I’ve seen, but there’s a difference between aiming to be funny and trying to be taken seriously and failing so fantastically that it ends up funny. Those are different itches that need to be scratched in different ways.

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joefavs said:

I’ve stayed away from prequel edits for two reasons:

  1. I don’t feel strongly enough about them as stories to sift through the many different options to find the ones that work best for me. I decided to experiment four or five months ago and watched HAL’s TPM, but I haven’t cared enough yet to watch the other two, partly because I know once I’ve seen all of those there’s four or five other versions I need to see to make an informed decision and I just find that daunting.

  2. Most of the entertainment value I get from the prequels comes from their very badness. The only times they’re ever any fun to watch is when you’re with a room full of people making fun of them, and any edit that aims to salvage them as sincerely good films that isn’t a complete failure necessarily sacrifices much of that so-bad-it’s-good value.

I don’t think the prequels really are “so bad it’s good” quality though. I think they’re just mediocre, boring films. And that’s the greatest sin you can commit as a Star Wars film: Put you to sleep. They simply don’t have much camp value beyond a few moments here and there. Most of the rest of the time it’s just wooden acting and bullshit dialogue about things like “midichlorians.” That’s not funny, not even unintentionally funny, it’s just boring and stupid. Like what the fuck, I’m trying to watch Star Wars, not a shitty episode of a latter-day Star Trek series. Somewhere between 1977 and 1999, Lucas changed drastically from a guy who wanted to create fun space adventure movies he was perfectly suited for to a guy who wanted to tell some kind of Shakespearean sci-fi opus who didn’t have anywhere near the skill needed to pull it off. The fact that he added clumsy childish shit like Jar Jar on top of it once he realized how fucking boring the movies were just made it an even bigger mess because of the wildly inconsistent tone. If you want to have a fun movie for kids, make one. If you want to have some kind of serious political drama, make one. Neither is my preference for Star Wars, but it is at least possible to make decent films of those genres if you stick to the right tone. Lucas didn’t do that though. He tried to appeal to everyone and in the process ended up appealing to almost no one.

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For me personally, it depends on the film. For a new hope, the original gout or despecialized editions are best. It shows the original Star Wars film how it was originally intended to be. For empire, I prefer the blue ray 2011 release. I think most of the changes and edits that have been made to empire were mostly understandable and didn’t really change the film too much, so in this case, I watch empire in whichever edit has the best resolution. For return of the Jedi, I usually watch the original gout or despecialized. I wasn’t a fan of the edits that came with the re-releases (retarded sarlaac, darth Vaders “noo”) so for rotj, I take the same approach as a new hope.

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oliver.abbott said:

For me personally, it depends on the film. For a new hope, the original gout or despecialized editions are best. It shows the original Star Wars film how it was originally intended to be. For empire, I prefer the blue ray 2011 release. I think most of the changes and edits that have been made to empire were mostly understandable and didn’t really change the film too much, so in this case, I watch empire in whichever edit has the best resolution. For return of the Jedi, I usually watch the original gout or despecialized. I wasn’t a fan of the edits that came with the re-releases (retarded sarlaac, darth Vaders “noo”) so for rotj, I take the same approach as a new hope.

I wouldn’t recommend using the word “retarded” around here.

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I: Fall of the Jedi Fanedit – As this is the only one of the prequels where I really can’t stand the childish stuff and FOTJ does a good job of chopping that out.
II: Official 2011 BD
III: Official 2011 BD
IV: Depends. Sometimes 2011 BD, sometimes whatever the latest “best” is of the unaltered versions. I actually don’t mind most of the changes but I like to see the original cinematography and so forth from time to time and so I watch the best unofficial of the unaltered originals (lately TN Silver Screen transfers).
V: Harmy despecialized and 2011 BD depending - Same reasons as above
VI: 2011 BD and Grindhouse 35mm - Same as above
VII: 2D BD; I may prefer a fanedit in the future if someone decides to throw together a fanedit with deleted scenes intelligently inserted for an unofficial “Extended Edition”

Rogue One: N/A - Have not seen yet (I no longer go to theaters) but I intend to watch 2D BD once available.

I don’t care for 3D, so if any 3D versions exist of the above I am referring to 2D if not stated.

My preferences are based solely on visual aspects as I cannot really compare the auditory differences – I only own a 2.0 sound system.

When I own a 4K display some day and when these are all re-released on UHD-BD (“4K Blu-ray”) then I’ll certainly check those out if and only if reviews state that they have more detail over the BD versions. As 4K versions do not necessarily have more detail due to a botched transfer and/or poor source media. There’s also other issues such as bitrate starvation that sometimes makes lower resolution mass media versions superior if using a decent scaler to rescale the output to your display’s native resolution (such as an HTPC with madVR’s various scalers). Oh and of course, for the PT many of the CGI models would likely need to be redone to be appropriate for 2160p/4K unless they intend to hawk out an “upscale” (like many early BD releases of movies were just upscales of existing 480-720p transfers to digital).

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I’m using Harmy’s Despecialized editions as a default for making my own custom set.

So far I’ve completed Star Wars, with the following SE alterations:

  1. Alderaan explosion
  2. X-Wing shots taking off from Yavin 4
  3. X-Wing shots during the battle of Yavin
  4. Death Star explosion
  5. Updated Millenium Falcon graphics
  6. Actors replacing mattes during throne room scene

I’ve debated replacing the shot of the Falcon taking off from Tatooine too, but so far I haven’t done it. The increased speed and maneuverability makes the moment more dynamic and modern if you will, but I can’t get past the terribly artificial colors.

Right now I’m working on Empire, and so far I’ve noticed some matte shots on Hoth and from the Falcon cockpit over the asteroid that look pretty bad, similar to the sand barge backgrounds in Return of the Jedi. There are a lot of smaller corrections needed in this film though like Luke’s “this is it” right before he crashes, and 3PO’s dialogue getting drowned out on the original mix when the gang enters the carbon freezing chamber.

Also debating if I should replace the original Emperor hologram with Adywan’s, and how much of the SE alterations I should include from Cloud City. I hate the two SE shots that were screwed in right after Lando gives the evacuation order, and will definitely leave those OOT, but not sure about the rest.

Oh and finally, the “bring my shuttle sequence”. The one SE addition I really love was the added shot of Vader’s shuttle en route to the Executor. Everything else, including Vadar’s new dialogue, Vader boarding the shuttle, all of that is junk. But that quick shot of the shuttle in route while the music is really moving just adds to the emotion and pace. I think I saw on Adywan’s version he got it really right.

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ANH, ESB, ROTJ: The 2006 GOUT DVDs, color corrected to match the 2011 BluRays

TPM: Pan-n-scan VHS that’s been run over by a car
AOTC: Theatrical bootleg recording on VCD
ROTS: Theater bootleg with Backstroke of the West subtitles

TFA: A flipbook I made depicting the plot highlights in 32 tiny drawings, while humming Rey’s theme out of tune

My stance on revising fan edits.

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I was just watching an “Escape from Cloud City” comparison video.

Unlike the wampa cave, for instance, where TN1’s Grindhouse version looks far superior to Harmy’s 2.0, I would go the other direction here and say that Harmy’s 2.0 looks way better in Cloud City. But then you have the Bluray where Lucasfilm was able to make the longshot of Boba Fett boarding Slave I look so much better than anything anyone else has done.

Would love to see Disney use their resources to get some of those difficult shots up to date but retain the superior scene and color layouts of the despecialized versions.

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But yeah in general I can’t wait to see how good Harmy’s 2.5 is going to look when the blue is gone.

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If I am in the mood for the OT unadorned as it originally was shown in theatres, I’ll get out my Harmy Despecialized or Negative1 scans. If I feel like watching the entire saga, I’ll go for Blu-ray.

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I had only ever known the SE of Jedi, and all the added parts were painfully obvious. The DSE was so nice and the film grain worked really well and I now a movie I used to just like I now love.

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I - widescreen VHS since I lost the DVD somehow. Also Frink’s edit.
II - shitty pan & scan DVD. Also Frink’s edit, again.
III - normal DVD. I should probably pick up the prequel trilogy Bluray set some day, but I just don’t care enough. Oh, and Frink’s edit. Genuinely best way to watch these three.

IV - Despecialized 2.7 if I want it simple, Silver Screen if I feel like shooting myself in the foot getting it to work, wrecked '95 faces VHS if I’m feeling nostalgic.
V - Despecialized 2.0 again, or a patchwork of Poita’s scans with the Despecialized filling in the gaps because damn it, they look so good.
VI - Despecialized 2.5 because besides the blu and 2004 DVDs, it’s the only watchable version I have. '95 faces VHS is beyond wrecked at this point, and I refuse to watch the SE…unless I get my hands on the '97 laserdiscs.

What, a man builds a giant mound of dirt in his house and you aren’t entertained?

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SwissArmyTin said:

I - widescreen VHS since I lost the DVD somehow. Also Frink’s edit.
II - shitty pan & scan DVD. Also Frink’s edit, again.
III - normal DVD. I should probably pick up the prequel trilogy Bluray set some day, but I just don’t care enough. Oh, and Frink’s edit. Genuinely best way to watch these three.

Hey thanks!

Although I’m not sure what version of III you’re watching, since I’m not done yet…

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TV’s Frink said:

Although I’m not sure what version of III you’re watching, since I’m not done yet…

f

The answer is: INSTANT CASSETTES

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

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TV’s Frink said:

Haarspalter said:

The answer is: INSTANT CASSETTES

ROTR Spoiler:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCFJR0_phJA

LMAO 😃

Rogue One is redundant. Just play the first mission of DARK FORCES.
The hallmark of a corrupt leader: Being surrounded by yes men.
‘The best visual effects in the world will not compensate for a story told badly.’ - V.E.S.
‘Star Wars is a buffet, enjoy the stuff you want, and leave the rest.’ - SilverWook

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Does this mean the Frink edit of Rogue 1 isn’t far behind??

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Despecialized for the original trilogy, official blu for all others. I have always been intrigued by fan edits, but I am not sure where to start.

I decided to add a signature

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crissrudd4554 said:

Does this mean the Frink edit of Rogue 1 isn’t far behind??

I flirted with that chick for a few seconds but my heart is pledged to the ROT. It will be more fun to do.

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When watching the Prequels, I use the 2011 BluRay Complete Collection. It’s quick and easy to pop in the Disks.
I’m currently streaming TV’s Frink’s Episode 1 Fan Edit. It’s quite funny, especially with Bender as one of the droids & the Superfriends reference.

However, when it comes to the Original Trilogy, I use Harmy’s DeSpecialized Editions. Though, I recently got Negative 1’s 35MM Restored V1.6 edition. So I’ll have to check that out soon.

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i’ve been watching de semi-specialised editions of the original trilogy and I love them
i just got back into star wars a year or so ago and at that time decided to watch those and I love them
i know the are different from the actual original ones or harmy’s versions but i probably care less about those differences than most of you here 😃

is there really a reason i should watch harmy’s instead of SSE ?

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Basically, to see the movie how it was originally released, before all the changes. You may actually change your opinion of the Original Trilogy.

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but as far as i read it, the changes of the SSE version are beneficial and don’t actually change the movie as such besides keeping some of the better (visual) changes ?