I trust you didn’t watch the 2004 version of THX?
Other than the highway car shots, pretty much all the changes are improvements IMO.
Looks at name of forum, then your post, then at name of forum again and goes cross-eyed.
The Star Wars SEs have more questionable stuff in them than THX 2004 does IMO.
The effects are less dodgy, most of it doesn’t change the tone, and like the best SE changes, it makes the world feel less low budget. The THX working scenes feel a lot better with people out of focus in the background all toiling away too.It does so change the tone. The vast underground cityscapes take away from the claustropohic feel of the original. Lucas got the look he wanted by shooting real locations in Northern California. Things like the video screen above the complaint box are pointless, and the hands on the Robert Duvall stand in on the monitor aren’t even in the same position. And don’t get me started on those mangy CGI baboons that replaced some of the shell dwellers. The bigger crime is there’s no way for the average viewer to know they’re watching an altered version. There are no SE credits. There isn’t even a crappy non-anamorphic DVD of the original for people to choose to watch.
Many members of this site have dedicated years to preserving the original THX, so you’re barking up a very large non-cgi tree on this.
Eh, you say claustrophobia, I say “obvious lack of resources”. The only tone hurting change is the Hot Wheels scene IMO.
The 2004 version doesn’t change the freakyness of the society at all for me.
Also my third favorite shot is a digitally altered one- the lizard with wings.
I get preserving these things, but that doesn’t mean the altered version sucks.
Heck, I signed up mostly because of those film prints of TPM and AotC.