- Time
- Post link
I took it upon myself to reclaim some of my childhood somewhat by getting back the specific versions of the original two Star Wars trilogies I used to watch again and again on VHS and some DVD. Though finding them myself online in any measure of good quality always seemed to be very difficult, so I admittedly had a bit of a Thanos moment and said “Fine, I’ll do it myself”.
I saw ‘The Phantom Menace’ in the cinema when I was nearly 5 years old (I still remember the weird “Midichlorian count” line visual glitch) and used to watch it on its VHS release, ‘Attack of the Clones’ on VHS and DVD shortly afterwards, ‘Revenge of the Sith’ in cinema and DVD, and the Original Trilogy in the 1997 special edition VHS tapes in the special gold and black box.
.
.
.
I did this because I’ve viewed all the subsequent releases as kind of the same: some of the changes were better than others, and others did feel more warranted than others in all fairness. But, despite that, I always found myself barely watching them on DVD or Blu-Ray because it just wasn’t the same, and they just weren’t clicking in my head the same way as before when I used to watch and really enjoy them when I was younger.
I used the Blu-Ray as a source for the prequels, and the ‘Despecialized’ editions for the Originals. These were opposite ends of the spectrum; the Blu-Ray had changes added to it from itself and carried over from the DVD before so I had a lot of things to take away to get it right – and the Despecialized’s had no changes at all post-1983, so I had a lot of things to add to get it right.
.
.
July/August 2022 – Episode 1: 2hrs13mins. The droideka encounter screen with the Viceroy and ‘Force-Speed’ effects are in their old state, the podrace and starting grid sequence is shortened to its original length, I took away the air taxi on Coruscant so it’s back to the original skyscraper transition from the landing platform to Palpatine’s apartment, puppet Yoda returns in the temple and Naboo, the chants of “Vote Now!” in the senate after Padmé moves for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Valorum.
.
.
January 2023 – Episode 2: 2hrs23mins. I rearranged the scene through the power couplings during the Zam Wessell chase on Coruscant, took Shmi’s lines out of Anakin’s nightmare (actually a shame, it does feel like it adds things and makes it better), and corrected the drawn out scenes on Geonosis with Dooku escaping – both visually and in that scene’s music.
.
.
January 2023 – Episode 3: 2hrs20mins. Thankfully very few changes this time. I changed the transition from Obi-Wan pensive after Mustafar to Anakin’s remaining hand clawing himself up on the lava shore and knew I needed to change the appearance of the hut structure on Kashyyyk where Yoda has his long-range briefing with the Jedi Council about General Grievous on Utapau. But finding a high-res clip of the structure as it appeared before the Blu-Ray was very difficult, so I kind of had to leave the DVD clip in – it’s not perfect but thankfully it only lasts a few seconds, so it’s a good placeholder until a better-quality clip of the same hut scene emerges and I can insert that later.
.
.
December 2022 – Episode 4: 2hrs5mins. Using the despecialised version of the film as the base, I added special effects from the Blu-Ray that were in the 1997 editions (mostly the scenes with lots of VFX throughout, like those in space), but not all of them to make sure I omitted the ones from the 2004 special edition DVD and the Blu-Ray ones that most people felt were just unnecessary. Greedo shoots first (sorry), ugly Jabba appears (sorry), audio is updated from the Blu-Ray version and imposed over the despecialised footage in some places like the Tusken attack, Obi-Wan’s dragon call, movement in the trash compactor etc.
.
.
Episode 5: 2hrs7mins. I didn’t do anything with this as this is not mine – this is actually the fan restoration that was completed by the editor “Adywan” that I was lucky enough to find Spring last year, so all credit there goes to them and not me as it’s all their good work.
.
.
December 2022 – Episode 6: 2hrs15mins. Principle of this was the same as the ‘New Hope’ project with it having the despecialised version as the base and the cutting and pasting different sources in certain scenes, usually in the VFX-heavy space scenes. The Sarlaac has a beak again, the lightsaber blades cross into each other when Luke tries to kill the Emperor, the ending celebration doesn’t include Theed or the old Jedi Temple or Senate Office Building on Coruscant, Sebastian Shaw’s Anakin ghost appears.
.
.
.
.
.
.
As with my work on ‘Andor’ season 1, the size and source quality of the original files means the file size of each of my exports are all on the larger side. Especially with the despecialised versions of the original films being around 20GB each in their own right, each film I’ve put out here is around 10-18GB – just to consider before you download.
.
It’s a Mega link like the rest again
.
Footnote: I am in no capacity a professional editor or VFX artist, so some areas are visibly mostly good as I have to be realistic with the footage in front of me and what I can do with it. If you do have any particular notes and feedback, feel free to give me your thoughts, but please be constructive and don’t be an ass about it.
