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'97 vs. '04 (and '11) - Your preference? — Page 8

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DuracellEnergizer said:

yotsuya said:

I thought redoing the Emperor was a must as I always hated the original TESB Emperor. Though I don’t like how they did it, it is an improvement.

As someone who likes the Clive Revill Palpatine more-and-more and the Ian McDiarmid Palpatine less-and-less as time goes by, I find this opinion increasingly unfathomable.

Same here. I think I may have actually preferred the SE one earlier in my life but I slowly have come to like the original far better.

Return of the Jedi: Remastered

Lord of the Rings: The Darth Rush Definitives

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 (Edited)

JFTR, I’m not just referring to McDiarmid in TESB; I’m referring to him in ROTJ, too. Honestly, I detest Palpatine in ROTJ; he’s 1-dimensional, unsubtle, and he’s incapable of making a good argument for why anyone should turn to the dark side. He’s a live-action version of a Saturday morning cartoon supervillain – an incompetent cornball who sits around his secret lair cackling to his underlings – a far cry from the low-key Palpatine Revill played.

Of course, I don’t pin the blame on McDiarmid himself; he’s a good actor, and as even the PT’s shown, he’s capable of conveying subtlety. I blame the shoddy writing and direction of ROTJ.

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The Emperor actually does cackle when he’s walking through the hangar with Vader and Jerjerrod.

While I like the Emperor in ROTJ, because he contrasts nicely against the emotional complexity of Vader, and his level of villainy matches the tone of the rest of the film, I definitely see the merit to Duracell’s point.

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I don’t love return of the Jedi, bit i love the emperor in it.

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Ryan-SWI said:
I was mainly referring to Coruscant, which is debatable, and CGI Jabba, which I believe was a test for CG Jabba in TPM (I’m sure I remember seeing a quote from Lucas about it, I could be mistaken though). They’re not direct PT links but I suppose you could make a case for some of the changes only being there because of the PT. It doesn’t really matter though, PT or not most of the stand-out visual changes are garbage.

Unless I’m mistaken, the entire 1997 SE was a test for the prequel trilogy.
Ah, yes…here it is (via Rick McCallum’s page on Wikipedia, emphasis mine):

“When Young Indiana Jones ended, McCallum produced Radioland Murders (1994), for which Lucas served as executive producer. During its production, Lucas confided to McCallum the plans for three new Star Wars movies. To TEST the nascent digital technology just then becoming available, McCallum produced revised versions of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi – released in 1997 as the Special Editions.”

The SE looks like people messing around with CGI because it WAS people messing around with CGI. Once they saw it, they just probably said, “oh hey, we’ve put 1990s special effects in these 80s movies! Why not release it, and claim it’s some sort of ‘modernized’ version?”

The goal was never to ‘update’ the films. The goal was to have a sandbox for the Prequel Trilogy.

Do they not see the birds controlled in the atmosphere of the sky? none holds them up except Allah. Indeed in that are signs for a people who believe. – Quran (16:79)

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Biggest changes about 2004 is the new Emperor which I do like (Adywan`s emperor being perfect), and also Anakins ghost which I dislike.
That said I love Special Editions, even its flawed Jabba.

Assimilate THIS!

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 (Edited)

My favorite here would be clearly the '97 version. I grew up watching them on VHS and know exactly how I first watched them together with my dad. It’s just the nostalgia watching these versions, even though the Despecialized Editions are nowadays a bit up front. (A “mix” between them would be great, I guess).

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I saw the ‘95 “Faces” tapes as a kid an those will forever remain my go-to version but the 97’ SE is the version I watched “on the big screen” to quote the trailer so I have a soft spot for those versions and in retrospect, has the least damaging amount of changes and still for the most part hems close to the original version.

So yeah, if I HAD to choose 1 version to watch it would be the 97’ SE every time.

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The 1997 version had less damage done to it than the two later revisions.

I haven’t seen the 1997 SE since I binned the VHS tapes years ago, but I remember liking Boba’s new voice, which had a microphone sound effect added to it for EMPIRE.

These SE’s got worse with each revision.

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DuracellEnergizer said:

JFTR, I’m not just referring to McDiarmid in TESB; I’m referring to him in ROTJ, too. Honestly, I detest Palpatine in ROTJ; he’s 1-dimensional, unsubtle, and he’s incapable of making a good argument for why anyone should turn to the dark side. He’s a live-action version of a Saturday morning cartoon supervillain – an incompetent cornball who sits around his secret lair cackling to his underlings – a far cry from the low-key Palpatine Revill played.

Of course, I don’t pin the blame on McDiarmid himself; he’s a good actor, and as even the PT’s shown, he’s capable of conveying subtlety. I blame the shoddy writing and direction of ROTJ.

I never liked the Emperor. I still don’t. I disliked the fake, put-upon voice. It just sounded like he was trying too hard to be/sound evil. I don’t know whether this was an acting choice or the direction he was given, but I think it was a mistake.

Unbelievably he was even more over-the-top in the prequels.