Quote
Originally posted by: Luke Skywalker
i agree with Pagz completely...
except for the new song at the end...
my take on that end song was not so much to end the trilogy... but it was actual music the ewoks were playing...
i mean you see them with drums and all this other crap...
so i always envisioned that as a celebration song that the ewoks were playing in respect to celebrating...
unless they had an orchestra tucked away in one of the huts we didnt see... i still prefer "yub yub"
i feel it suited the scene much better...
Finally! I thought I was the only one that preferred "Ewok Celebration". By the way, Buddy-X-Wing, I don't know what animes you're referring to, but the new music sounds in no way japanese to my ears. I have noticed the William's latest stuff has been lacking.
As for the changes, I agree mostly with Pagz. Your statements on Jabba being changed to Heater are exactly my own. It makes no sense that Jabba, a powerful crime lord with many enemies, would be out and about on Tatooine. He had other deal for him so much, that some though Heater and the like were Jabba the Hutt. I agree completely and for the same reasons on the Galaxy Celebration. My cousin and I eventually rationalized that we were seeing celebrations at later date. This would hold with the EU idea that most communications were rather slow and that only the Empire could afford moment to moment broadcasts. Otherwise, it makes no sense that Tatooine, a planet thats far from Endor and the war, would know about, much less celebrate, the death of Palpatine, when Bakura, a planet right next to Endor, doesn't know until the Rebels show up on their doorstep. Sadly the X-wing saga has made Coruscant's celebrating cannon, where before, in the same series pre-SE, they'd said that except for the alien sectors, such thing weren't an issue on Imperial Centre. Fortunately, the novel version is more brutal, sensical, and used to show how barbaric and oppressive the Empire could be.
Where I don't agree is on the Yavin and Cloud City changes. Any one else notice that CGI tend to be more colorful than actuality? That fact is what give CGI away to me every time. The X-wings all look redder, while the remaining model effects don't. I also loathed the execution. Take the liftoff sequence. Instead of the overcast that was there before, it's now a cloudy day. This gives the impression that the Falcon shows up, they anylize the plans, then battle the Death Star with in hours of each other. Did the plans have some "weak point here" label on them? According to the novel, the DS didn't arrive until the next day, having such a slow hyperdrive. Also, why is there an outpost now right next to the hanger? The Falcon landing on Yavin I can approve of, since it explains the man's tracking arm. Same goes for the temple extension. It's not neccessary, but its at least well done to the point that I never noticed it. Same thing goes for the CGI make over of DS bay 327, I never noticed. But that could be due to dad buying a P&S copy.
The battle itself was pretty much dreck. Gone are the districtive shot, and now SW looks like any other summer film. I'm more impressed by a realistic looking model flying straight that a cartoonish piece of CGI doing barrel rolls. Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti-CGI in SFX, but I am against showing off with out substance. Models and CGI can be combined to great effect. Sadly, this is nothing but a software dry run for the PT, which they admitted to.
Red 2 used for every model, with little in changes except for the side paint and the R2 unit? The new pan from Yavin 4 to the DS makes it look like the DS is right in front of the moon. I know ILM is better than this. Most of the new shots don't match up to William's score either. One of my favorite shots was replaced as well. Red leader's group starting their run. I always looked at the original shot as though it were from Luke's POV, which is impossible on the new one. About the only shot that actually looks better to me is Biggs trying to shake a TIE. The original had him do an arc, and that's it. The new has him zig-zagging. It fits better with his line "Got me tight, I can't shake him." Honestly, if they had just cleaned up the matt lines like they did for the explosions, it would have been great. Shame that whenever I play Rogue Squadron I've shown that stupid ring.
Bespin was another example of half-assed jobs. The new windows aren't only distracting but they aren't even finished! The approach is another example of the CG being over saturated. Don't get me started on the shuttle scene. The balcony the Leia and crew run on was bad. While they did a good job on adding the reflection of the railing, they apparently couldn't remove the reflection of the wall they took out. If I had to pick a good addition on Bespin, it would probably be the one window that show the Slave one, kind of a reminder of the destination. But even that's not all that needed. All in all, the windows made the place seem smaller to me. Those towers seemed huge, now they feel thin and tiny.It seems the designers of Rebel Strike agree, since the Bespin level had none of the SE windows.
Basically, I hated about 99 percent of the major changes. Most were either worthless establishing shots, half-assed CGI, or just plain stupid. There were too many things not fixed - matt lines, the DS plans, some, not all of R2's space shots recolored(personally, I figured it as the paint made him look black in space). If they had just spruced up the existing effects, cleaned up the picture, and not screwed with the sound, I might have liked it.