Originally posted by: Mike O
To a lot of people, OOT are the trilogy and the SEs are sort of a novelty. George, or course, disagrees.

I believe the majority of fans over the age of thirty consider the original theatrical versions the real movies. I'd hope that the majority of people around my age (twenty-six) would agree with that assesment simply because we grew up loving those versions on tv and on VHS. But, even if the majorityt of Star Wars fans preffer the special editions, I believe the vast majority would love to own the original theatrical releases. That's why they should be given the proper treatment.

At one time I thought the special editions were a good idea. I loved seeing them in the theaters. Yet I would have never seriously believed at that time that Lucas was actually going to try using all of his power to completely erase and replace the original versions with his revised edits. All of the inventive and artistic genius that made those films the historic achivements they were is now to be casually thrown out the window because George Lucas feels like it?! Well, I've since come to learn that George would love nothing more than to do that very thing and hell if I'm going to be happy about that. Since then, I've also come to hate the special editions despite thinking they were okay.

As movies the special editions are watchable and they are still ery good movies. In fact, I love a lot of the additions. Unfortunatey, some of what was added went way overboard and served no purpose other than lowering the dramatic pacing and emotional impact of the films. (Like Greedo shooting first. Or Jabba letting Han step on his tail as he yelped in cartoony fashion. Or having Bobba Fette in episode IV before he had even brought Han to Jabba yet. Or all of the unnatural looking windows and lighting digitally added to sky city. Or Darth Vader saying "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival" in a pathetic sounding voice instead of his old line which stated, "Prepare my shuttle" and just dripped with anger and frustration. Or the incredibly intense and moving escape to hyperspace sequence completely ruined by a completely useless scene of Darth Vader landing on his Star Destroyer?!) I'd rather have my original versions even without the added coolness than ever bring mysefl to watch that crap. I'm sorry.