C3PX said:as for why people revisit things they've done,
why not, it worked in a financial way, and brought
a huge new audience back to the theater that paved
the way for the huge success of the prequels..
It wasn't that the SEs paved the way for the prequels. People had been eagerly awaiting the prequels long before the idea of the SEs were announced. The theatrical rerelease of the original trilogy in 1997 would have been a success regardless of changes. In fact, the TV commercials advertised it as if it were a well loved movie revisiting theaters to be seen on the big screen once again after being confined to tiny television sets for so many years. Why would the ads make the asumption that peopel would be interested in seeing this tired old film on the big screen once again? I knew a lot of people who went to see the films in theaters again and were surprised to see the changes, so obviously they didn't go because of the changes. The changes didn't have to happen, and I even thought they were kind of cool, until we were denied the originals for the sake of the SEs.
well you make some good points,
but the SE versions WERE a great idea to try out things that were used later on,
especially from a technology point of view... the use of CG, and compositing were
very good ideas to try out, so WHY NOT try them out with the originals?
besides, most people don't retroactively criticize something after the point,
like we're doing now... you said it yourself, most people didn't mind the changes
then, but only now they don't seem to be needed..
Also the "the changes brought in more dough" argument holds no water in regards to the fresh batch of changes made for the 2004 DVDs, why more changes then? Everybody was eagerly waiting for a DVD release pretty much since the invention of the DVD player, a lot of people didn't care what version they were, they just wanted Star Wars, and a lot of others DIDN'T buy them specifically because they had changes. Even if they had been the 1997s SE I would have been quicker to by them. In fact, I remember I set money aside to go out and buy them the day they were released even though I knew they were only the special editions and not the originals, I was still excited about them. It was when I heard the rumors that they were completely changed once again, including things like Anakin's face and Gungans that I immediately changed my mind about perchasing them. After hearing about how many errors were made in coloring and audio, I realized I made the right choice.
Don't you think a decent quality release should have been a better grab for the hesitant consumer than "oh goody, more changes!"? Can't believe some of you people still defend this crap with such zeal.
well, i don't know the answer to that, because HISTORY has proven the SE releases
were a HUGE success, i don't have hard numbers, but i guess we could do some
research to see how well the new limited editions of star wars (with the originals)
sold compared to the SE versions without them.....
my guess is the limited versions didn't sell as much....
does anyone know? it would be interesting to compare the sales numbers...to
get an idea..
i doubt that if he just restored the films, and released them
without any changes, there would barely have been any interest..
or maybe not as much..
later
-1
Ah, so that is why there is not a single old movie released on DVD without severe and drastic changes being made to it. Now I get it. I think you are right, I do not think I would have bought that copy of Citizen Kane on DVD had the CG changes no been made to it, effectively changing Rosebud from the name of the sled to the name of a UFO he found crash landed in his backyard as a child. That change vastly improved the film.
Kind of ignorant for someone to come around and say one of the top selling trilogy of movies of all time would have barely had any interest in them had it not been for a bunch of meaningless changes. Complete and utter ignorance...
i was actually referring to rereleasing a restored version of the movies in JUST the THEATER,
compared to releasing the SE versions,..... but in the case of most movies with special
effects, sure , why not change things if you have the intent/power to do so (ie. star trek,
blade runner, etc, etc)......
and i stand by my speculation that there would have hardly been any interest in just
watching or buying only the original trilogy by itself, compared to the gimmick of using
the changes made for the SE versions to bring the trilogy up-to-date visually with what
Lucas originally envisioned...
HISTORY has proven that the SE's were a brilliant marketing ploy that succeded on
all financial levels... hard to argue against that.. (but we can try, right?)..
later
-1