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Since I'm new around here I thought I'd sum up my feelings on the changes to the films at the outset. Now, I don't mind the idea of changing the films, as long as the originals are always available as well. As many have said, they're Lucas's films and he can do what he wants to them, he is free to have Ahmed Best redo Vader's voice and paint the Emperor in clown make-up for all I care, just as long as the originals are preserved too. So, without further ado, here is my change-by-change breakdown:
Star Wars
1. Dewbacks on Tatooine
I don’t see the point in this. The CGI creature is just an attention-grabber, and pulls you out of the film.
2. Entering Mos Eisley
Whilst I can understand Lucas’s motivation for changing this scene, I don’t think it was pulled off too well. Too much comedy, and again, too many attention-grabbing additions. Also, am I the only one who thinks that the landspeeder actually looked more realistic before the “vaseline force field” was removed from underneath it? The CG’d version just doesn’t look right… I don’t like the hacked and tracked music either.
3. Greedo shoots first
Why, oh why…
If Lucas had always intended to have Greedo shoot first, what was stopping him from shooting it that way in the first place?
4. Jabba the Hutt
I just don’t see the point in this scene at all. Considering that all the info it gives you was previously shared in the Greedo scene, it is utterly redundant. More hacked and tracked music as well, big no-no for me.
5. Escaping from Mos Eisley
I don’t think I would mind changes like this, if it weren’t for the fact that it makes a lot of the other shots look inconsistent.
6. Alderaan
I’m still trying to figure out why Lucas wants Star Wars to look like Star Trek… It’s a pointless change.
7. Stormtrooper multiplication
The scene looks unnatural now, when it was fine the way it was before. If it ain’t broke…
8. Falcon approaches the rebel base
See No. 4
9. Biggs
I don’t mind this one.
10. Battle of Yavin
See No. 4
11. Death Star explosion
See No. 6
The Empire Strikes Back
1. Wampa cave
Hmmm… Let’s see if we can find a way to totally remove all suspense from a scene! Great idea George! This is one of my most despised changes.
2. Removal of matte lines during Hoth battle
I have no problem at all with this one. Changes under the heading of “small fixes” I have no problem with at all.
3. Various small musical changes
I counted three places where Williams’s music was restored to the way it was originally intended – You won’t get any argument from me on those. Good calls.
4. Slave 1 pursues the Falcon
See Star Wars No. 4
5. Arrival at Cloud City
Fairly nice change, but again, inconsistent with other effects shots.
6. Manic cloud-car shot.
There was no reason to follow a cloud-car on it’s journey, other than to show off what could be done effects-wise. Yet another attention-grabber that pulls me out of the film.
7. Cloud city interiors changed
One of the few changes I actually like.
8. Luke’s scream
It worked before the change. But if you are absolutely going to change it, why oh why make it so that Luke borrows the Emperor’s voice? This was so half-assed it’s hard to believe.
9. Vader returns to the Star Destroyer
Jarring musical edits, bad pace, removal of the great “Bring my shuttle!” line, reused footage from Jedi, why oh why???
Return of the Jedi
1. Jedi Rocks
As much as the original scene sucked, at least it was mercifully brief and didn’t try to bring attention to itself. This is just plain terrible. The music is wrong, once again the CG additions are nothing more than attention-grabbers, I detest this scene. Oola falling into the Rancor pit is fairly well executed, but again I have to ask, if Lucas is trying to make the films closer to what he originally intended, why didn’t he just shoot it this way in ’83?
2. The Rancor
I realise that there wasn’t a change here. I just had to point out how silly it seems to change so many things, and yet leave the worst effects shots from the trilogy intact. If you are going to mess around with the classics, the least you can do is turn out something less half-assed than the SE’s.
3. Bantha herd
Meh. No opinion one way or the other.
4. Beak on the Sarlaac
It looks like a sock puppet!
5. Death Star explosion.
I don’t mind the shockwave effect here. It actually looks quite cool with the Falcon escaping in the foreground.
6. The new ending
I was never in love with the ending of Jedi, so I really don’t mind this change too much. While the music still isn’t that great, it’s better than the Ewok “Yub-yub” chorus.
That's just my twopence worth anyways. I'm sure I probably forgot some, but you get the idea.
Great forums btw!