I just took a look at it after reading your comment above, and I agree the 720p upscale does look quite good.
I must be bored tonight because after reading a couple pages back on all the many issues }{eywood had with the edit, I felt like adding my own thoughts:
Why does 3POs chest have restraining bolt marks on it while on the Tantive IV? Those marks on his chest and the dripping corrosion below them should be removed until after the Jawas get to him. But later in Mos Eisley the marks are gone when they should be there.
Likely a continuity error, but easily explainable as just saying maybe 3PO had previous restraining bolts in the past.
When Luke and family are eating and addressing the issue of R2, Luke says "I thought he might've meant old Ben". In the middle of this line the shot cuts from Owen to Luke, and at this edit there's a break in the dialogue that sounds like two takes spliced together, or a split second missing from the audio.
I have no idea how you ever spotted this. After listening to it closely, I could detect what you are referring to. But I suspect that this is not uncommon in films in general, considering all the editing, multiple cameras and post-dubbing that happens during filming.
Why are 3POs eyes not lit when his arm is missing? Is this on purpose?
Quite possibly they forgot to light them for the scence, though it is also possible, and easily explainable, that 3PO's eyes just malfunctioned after the fall he took. He could still see, but the lights themselves could have been jolted loose.
The little comedy moments added to the SE at the beginning of the Mos Eisley scene (the probe droid getting hit by the landspeeder and the Jawa falling off the Ronto) really shouldn't have been removed. If the fims were meant to be that dry then the mouse droid scene on the Death Star should have been cut as well.
This one I cannot agree with. That was goofy slapstick humor and nothing more. It was special-edition nonsense and myself I would have been very sad if Adywan had left that in there.
The bartender's lip sync could be fixed when he says "we don't serve their kind here. Your droids. They'll have to wait outside".
I agree the dubbing was very bad there. Maybe it was not possible for Adywan to fix that. Many films have a lot of post dubbing. Live Free or Die Hard had so much bad dubbing that a fan edit sought to correct much of it.
And I honestly think someone somewhere should do something about Leia's British accent when she meets Tarkin. What's all that about?
As was mentioned, I think it was just down to the way Carrie delivered some of those lines. I don't think it was intentional that there was an accent.
The line "You mean it controls your actions?" when Luke is practicing with his lightsaber is recorded very badly. Compared with all the other dialogue it sounds very dull. Isn't this line in the radio drama? If so it could be lifted from that and used to replace the one in the film. Kind of retro looping
Again, blame it on Lucasfilm's audio dubbing dept. - I think if Adywan used the line from the radio drama it would stick out just as bad or worse, just in a different way.
And for Christ's sake, someone needs to make the TIE fighter that they follow to the Death Star move around a bit. The thing just hangs there in the window of the Falcon. This has bothered me since I was a little kid. Wouldn't it dodge, or maneuver in some way? The thing practically looks like its painted on the window.
The fighter is not being attacked, so it is just following it's course. If you look, it is indeed actually moving around a tad bit - just following a steady course.
Vader's respirator should be re-dubbed so that it goes around his dialogue. How can he breathe and talk at the same time? This is particularly noticeable in the scene where he senses Obi-Wan in the newly captured Falcon. Also, when he walks away, his breathing sound moves to the left as he walks out of the frame, but it gets louder after he's offscreen, rather than recede as he does.
That used to trouble me - how can he talk while he is taking in breaths at the same time? But I've learned to accept that that is how his respirator system works, so who knows how their technology would affect his breathing? I would not want to see that changed. It would have to be done throughout all the films and it would not be the same movies anymore. Plus, how would Ady possibly do all that for all his dialog? That sounds more like a gripe with how the designers actually decided to do it as opposed to something with this edit.
When Leia shoots a hole in the Death Star corridor to escape, she then tells Han "Into the garbage chute, flyboy". How did she know what it was? She didn't even look at the hole, and even if she did there was too much smoke obscuring the contents.
Not something I ever had a problem with. Maybe as she was being led to her cell at one point she saw somebody dumping something into the chute, or making a reference to it? Or maybe just walking by it you can smell it? Not a problem.
Once they are in the trash compactor, why doesn't anyone investigate to see where the people they were just shooting so fervently at go? Maybe adding a shot and a line from a stormtrooper telling someone to activate the compactor would fix this continuity error.
I agree you would think that the stormtroopers would investigate, but what are they supposed to do - jump down there with them? Only a few moments later they start up the compactor, so maybe they started it up knowing they are down there, or maybe it started automatically on a timer, who knows.
Luke tells Han "Will you forget it! I already tried that. Its magnetically sealed" when Han shoots the compactor door. When did he find the time to do that? There was about 4 seconds between when Luke jumped in and when Han did. Do you mean to tell me that he recovered from the landing, figured out where they were AND took a shot at the door in 4 seconds?
I agree, there was indeed only a few short seconds, and it does seem questionable that he was able to stand up out of the muck, take a look around, and fire his gun, all in 3-4 seconds. But, that's Hollywodd for you - how many times do you see a timer for a bomb counting down and it's set to 5 minutes but the scene takes like 10 minutes instead? Lucas should have given him like 30 seconds, but that's just how it is.
The Dianoga sure makes a lot of interesting dinosaur type noises, considering that its underwater the whole time.
Again, you have to allow for some wiggle room when discussing Hollywood films. Yes, it should technically be muted by the water, or at least sound all "watery", but how can you complain about that but be okay with the sounds of ships and explosions in space? I sure wouldn't want that changed though. Silence in space is fine for 2001, not for Sar Wars.
I love the new enhancement on the tractor beam matte shot. It no longer looks like a big painting on the bottom half of the shot. But why are all the wall lights green? They're not that way in any of the corridors. It really throws me when they're green in only that one place in the whole Death Star.
Not a big deal at all for me. Why can't they have different lighting for various sections? We certainly didn't see every room in the Death Star. We saw only a few areas. Some people complain about the red wall during the scene where Luke and Han discuss their plans, but really, I loved that room, and again, the Death Star is HUGE - how do we know how different places are designed in there?
Just a little continuity question here. How long was Leia being held on the Death Star? At least a few days, and probably longer if the original story premise of Luke seeing the Tantive IV battle through his macros in the sky of Tatooine is correct. Did they let this chick bathe? Maybe offer her a change of clothes? It seems funny that she keeps her white gown on the whole time. At least they let her keep her lipstick, which is quite fresh when she comes out of the trash compactor.
I'm not completely shocked that the Empire wasn't completely concerned with providing their prisoner with a nice change of clothes. As far as the lipstick, if you complained about every film that has the stars having nice hair/makeup after a chase scene, you would be complaining about a lot of films. Standard Hollywood for you. Maybe she was not given the opportunity to wash up. She was a prisoner after all.
Perhaps repositioning the stormtroopers heads as they look toward the imaginary noise thrown by Ben for a little longer might be a good idea. They turn back to their original positions when he is practically right in front of them and yet don't notice him. I guess you really can't see a thing in those helmets.
They are looking at each other and he is way off to the side, just about to take the corner. I'm sure their line of sight is somewhat limited in those helmets as well. Certainly not something that needs to be fixed.
The explosion of the last of the four pursuing TIE fighters after the escape from the Death Star is far too dramatic. Its better than the Death Star explosion. This should be redone to be not so huge.
It certainly was spectacular, and I would not want to see that changed for anything. Yes it was possibly over-dramatic, but who knows - maybe that particular ship got hit just right to start up a chain reaction - if you want it to be scientifically accurate, none of the ships should be exploding into flames in space anyways. And it was meant to be the finale to an exciting scene, so they went for a big finale. I would not say it is better than the Death Star explosion, just different.
Does anyone know how the Death Star propels itself? it has no engine ports anywhere, yet it seems to go where they want it to. Maybe some propulsion exhaust effects somewhere as it pulls up to Yavin?
Do we really need that explained to us? Would fake science make it more believable? It certainly doesn't need to be mentioned in the film.
I love the addition of the Imperial March throughout the movie, especially in the new Death Star reveal shot and when the TIEs appear at Yavin, but there is a big section of the trench battle with no music. That is where Vader comes into the foray, yet his theme is not there.
As was mentioned, some scenes are indeed better without music. There is already lots of music during the final battle. I like that some of the battle is without music. It works well as it is.
When Red Leader says "hold up here and wait for my signal to start your run" there is a long pause between "signal" and "to" that accompanies the change in the shot. It sounds unnatural and should be clipped a little closer.
Wow, talk about nit-picking. How is this an error? That's just how he delivered his line. Do you dliver every line you say in perfect harmony? He is in the middle of a space battle, you know. Maybe he was briefly distracted by another ship when he paused briefly.
as far as "you can now see Red Leader's ship hitting the surface" of the Death Star, uh, where? I see no such thing
I have no idea what this is referring to. Do you mean when his X-Wing crashes after his engine is hit and Luke looks in time to see the explosion? True, you didn't see the ship crash. That's just how it was filmed. I've seen many older action films where missiles are fired at buildings and they blow up but you never actually see the missiles hit, just the explosion.
After Luke says "Artoo, that stabilizer's broken loose again. See if you can't lock it down" there is a shot of the turret guns that has very bad black matte lines around the guns.
I don't think it looks that bad at all. I would never have noticed that.
Luke's reaction to Biggs' death was added from the radio drama, but it doesn't have that flangey weird short wave radio sound that all the other rebel communications have.
It was probably not possible for Adywan to get the sound matching perfect as it was taken from the radio drama. Still a very nice improvement.
When Luke switches off his targeting computer the button he presses turns from red to green. Wouldn't that be on? Maybe reversing the colors of those buttons might help
Could be a continuity problem, or maybe the X-Wings don't use the conventional Earth-bound red=off/green=on system that we are used to.
The Death Star explosion is puny compared to the one of the aforementioned TIE fighter. Swapping them might help. The TIE keep on exploding, like something big with a reactor. In comparison the DS is a little pop.
It is obviously meant to portray a colossal explosion. At least the damn Praxis ring is not there now. I really despise that effect in films. To be honest, I really liked the original explosion better, the way it was originally done. Now that was a huge explosion.
Luke stills yells "Carrie!" when he first sees her upon his return
He yells "Hey!"
Wow that was a lot of thought. Don't take it as me picking on you. You just had a lot of gripes and I wanted to add some personal thoughts. Personally I feel most of your complaints are not something that would bother most people, even die-hard fans. Some things you just don't want to see changed. I guess everybody has certain issues over certain films, but I don't think that films need to explain every little detail. Some things can be left for the viewer to fill in for themselves. Anyways, that's all the Star Wars thinking I want to do for tonight.