First (and probably longest) post from me!
First of all, even though the thanks are flying all over the place, I have to give a massive thank you to Harmy and everyone involved in this. I know there are a lot of you, so I won’t even try to list you all out of fear that I’ll leave someone out!
These Despecialized Editions have been absolutely wonderful. I never thought of myself as a purist when it comes to any film until I discovered these.
In my entire 28 years of life, I had never seen a Star Wars film (except TPM in the cinema when I was 12) until new years eve 2015 when I watched a gifted version of ANH.
I thoroughly enjoyed it but the CGI just felt off, and that Jabba scene really took me out of it. That’s when I went searching for the Despecialized Editions I’d read so much about on various sites I frequent.
My wife (also unintiated) and I proceeded to watch Harmy’s versions of ESB & RotJ (both v1.0) forward. Amazing! They actually felt better to watch! What a fantastic time to be discovering these movies for the first time. The almost 3 decade long wait was worth it!
Yesterday, we had some friends around and we all watched v2.5 of SW (no longer ANH in my mind). They had never heard of these despite being fans, and couldn’t believe the increase in quality of the movie in general.
We’ll be sure to watch v2.5 of RotJ as soon as we get the chance, and will be waiting ever so patiently for v2.5 of ESB.
Anyway, I’ll end my gushing incoherent rambling with yet another thank you to all involved. You have truly created a couple of Star Wars fans in two people who otherwise would not have seen what the big deal was.