msycamore said:
The '97 Special Edition was often marketed "The way Lucas originally envisioned it". The simple truth is that most of it was research & development done for the upcoming prequels all paid for by Fox. That's why most of the updates are so random and out of place. If the new additions hurt the story or pacing never was a question it seems. And with this R&D approach you simply don't get a nice finished product, you cannot add or update one effect to state of the art of '97 and leave other effects state of the art of '77 untouched. So even the more nice looking CGI effects like the added sequence of the Falcon taking off from Mos Eisley feels largely out of place, not only does it hurt the pacing, make some earlier and subsequent effect shots look weak, the way it is shot simply don't mesh with the filmmaking style of the original film. In short, a Frankenstein monster...
Besides using these old classics as a vehicle for his R&D, you also have Lucas modern sensibilities for filmmaking that just boggles the mind; Greedo missing Han at point blank range, censoring of Imperials getting hit by laser fire, Luke screaming like a bitch (audio lifted from ROTJ) in his act of self-sacrifice in Cloud City, showing the audience exactly how Vader ends up on the Executor even though we all assumed he didn't use teleportation or flew from Cloud City like Superman, and on and on... often over-explaining to make sure we all see and hear what's going on, the wampa sequence is another. Except for the censoring, this is simply bad filmmaking, nothing left to your imagination, no subtlety allowed.
Yep. The one exception I might've been willing to make is the wampa cave sequence. If stuff like that informed all the changes that were made and they only fixed shit they never got working right to begin with (bad matte lines, two or three bad matte painting jobs, etc)... well, I'd probably still prefer the originals but I could at least see where Lucas is coming from.
The other thing though is that the changes alter the tone. Mos Eisley was originally a rough, barren, inhospitable town full of cut throats. Now it's a densely packed (by Tatooine standards) space port that has a few rough elements. Why would someone on the lam want to go to such a major, visible hub of travel? Wouldn't they prefer some place a little more out of the way and low key? The new Mos Eisley may look "better" (by some standards) but that doesn't mean it's improved.
Worst of all though, a lot of the changes have been done on the cheap. Bad enough to have unnecessary CGI and whatnot but when it's all done so poorly, it's adding insult to injury. "We can't be bothered to fix lightsaber problems that any idiot can see but, hey, look at this new song and dance sequence in Return of the Jedi!"