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Things you LIKED about the Special Editions?

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Inspired by the prequel thread.

If you hate everything about the Special Edition and hate how "George Lucas raped your childhood", this thread is not for you.

-I like the last revised Dewback shot and the Dewback outside the Cantina. The dewbacks look great as far as I'm concerned, but the new shots feel have a "LOOK AT ME" feel to them.
-The new Sandcrawler shot looks great.
-The new Mos Eisley shot from a distance looks much better than the original.
-I like how they removed that orange blob from under the landspeeder on the way to the Cantina.
-The revised Yavin base looks really nice.
-Ewok song at the end of Jedi is infinitely better than the godawful Nub Nub song in the original. Jedi's ending finally has an air of respectibility it never had before.
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i liked the original Biggs scene inserted into the end of ANH

and whats with you fan boys constantly saying "George Lucas raped your childhood"
dude give it up and just create a thread without being an ass in it...
"Never. I'll never turn to the darkside. You've failed your highness. I am a jedi, like my father before me."
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Loved

Seeing the films in theatres.
Much improved picture quality.

Tolaterated(i.e. didn't bother me)

Landspeeder
New Yavin Temple shot.
Bantha herd.
Biggs.
Matt cleanup.
Threepio's line for the tractor beam, as it's on my 92 tapes, but not my new bootlegs.
New docking bay 327(i didn't notice it)
Sandcrawler shot.

Loathed

Everything else, including, but not limited to(major irks in CAPS):

ANH JABBA
GREEDO
MOS EISLEY
wampa(though slightly indifferent)
Alderaan
BATTLE OF YAVIN FROM TAKEOFF TO FINISH
VADER'S SHUTTLE
JEDI ROCKS
CELEBRATION OF PLANETS
MESSING WITH THE SOUND EFFECTS(Leia' and Chewie's guns, etc.)
Sarlaac
BESPIN et all

and all the 04 stuff minus the sabers(at least, the ones actually fixed).


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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Alderaan? what did they change about Alderaan?


And how could you not like the improved Yavin battle? Most of the post-flyby shots are still the original Models for crying out loud.

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I love the Biggs stuff being reinserted as well. I just want to see all his scenes in there.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
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If you're referring to the new DVDs, the new Dianoga is a vast improvement on the original, it fits a lot nicer in with the lighting of the original scene and doesn't look like badly inserted stock footage, and the Rancor looks 98% better, although the improved sharpness and clarity aren't so forgiving on a few frames.
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I liked the Death Star explosions with their concussive wave rings.

Also the new Celebration music that replaces Yub Nub.

Clean-ups and matteline/box removals, flopped images and whatnot are all fine.

I would probably include only these new elements in a composite edition.

I used to like the Cloud City exteriors but they're not needed.

I also used to think that the Jabba's palace scenes were an improvement until I had a chjance to rewatch the Originals and I prefer the low-key opium-den song and non-flirty Boba Fett.

I have no problem with the digital Dewbacks but I prefer the mechanical ones.

To me the Special Edition Trilogy is Special in that it has a drool-bib and wears a helmet.

Lucas has dropped his baby on the head, repeatedly. Aren't there laws against this kind of thing?
"The people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country." - Goering.

"If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it." - Goebbels.

"In times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act." - Orwell.
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i never really minded any of the cleaning up/remastering of the films i.e. taking out matte lines, improving image/sound quality, liht sabre quality improvement. Heck i think that i will enjoy the eye being updated and the language changed. Further more i didnt really mind biggs or the addition of further wampa footage in ESB. BUT that would be about it. Most of the content changes drive me insane...

"Jedi Rocks" might be the worst idea ever...
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Maybe it is....

But I have said from the first time I learned that there were people who hated the SE: Yes, some of the changes are unessisarry, but NONE of them "ruin" the movie.

The changes that I like.

The pan back to see Mos Eisly.
Han stepping on Jabba's tail. It almost makes up for Greedo shooting first. Almost...
The new shots for the Battle of Yavin. Then again, the old one may be better. I've never seen it.
The cleaned up speeder fight on Hoth
I liked the Bespin Exterior shots, but some of them aren't good, like Leia in the window.

General cleaning up of the ancient effects. I doubt I could watch the original version without be distracted by how fake the space battles looked compariatively.

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Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
Alderaan? what did they change about Alderaan?


And how could you not like the improved Yavin battle? Most of the post-flyby shots are still the original Models for crying out loud.


They changed the explosion completely. Not something I'm fully against(hence no caps), but I can't imagine a planet looking like a supernova.

Yavin was one of the things that fully turned me against the SEs. While the movement is somewhat improved, the cgi itself looks bad. In the original flyup, look at the X-wings. Each one is unique, with different wing stripes, rust patterns, and droids. Look at the new. Each X-wing was captured from the exact same model. The stripes are the same, the rust and droids are all the same. The contrast is also different. The ships are too bright against space, giving a grey look to things that should be black. They're also oversaturated. The grey metal looks brownish. It gives it a near cartoonish look that makes any new shot obvious. I hate the flyup itself. The way the camera moves makes the fighters look near stationary, giving the impression that the Death Star has a clear shot at the moon. Only some shots and the trench are the same. The whole thing doesn't mesh, and one of my favorite shots, Luke looking over at Red Leader starting his run, is ruined. The old shot looked like it was from Luke's POV to me. The new shot doesn't.

The takeoff stinks because it looks like the same day. Gone is the morning mist. Gone is the idea that we're watching these ships take off from the temple in the distance. Now they lift off right next to an outpost. Stranger still, the guy doesn't even react to what should be deafening noise. He must have some damn good earplugs.

All in all, the old Battle of Yavin was a marvel, full of character and a wonder when you realize that it was done by amatuers that were using new ideas, techniques, models built from scratch, and a limited budget and time frame. Add in the fact that they wasted most of said budget and time slacking off, and it's even more awesome. The new Yavin isn't impressive at all. Here you have seasoned professionals, using tried and true methods, and pre-existing reference material, models and an unlimited budget and time frame. What did they do? They slacked off even more, using the same model for the work of a dozen and not even having it look as good. They have every major explosion look like Star Trek VI. Now, instead of the unique, "camera in space" look of the old, we get a space battle that looks exactly like every single sci-fi movie since. This is not the quality I know ILM is capable of. I wouldn't even expect this from Digital domain. I also hate the fact that they used these films as testbeds for the prequels.

Besides, how can you even ask me how can I hate the "improvements" when you haven't even seen what they're "improving". I don't want to start an arguement, but I believe I've detailed why I don't like it. This is supposed to be what we liked in the SEs. I can't believe I have to repeat myself yet again.


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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There are a few things that I like about the SEs, but even the things I like appear misplaced in the film. It's a case of: "X looks good, but doesn't match the rest of the film."

I like:

New sandcrawler shots
Cleaned up landspeeder shots
Mos Eisley establishing pullback (but no other shots)
Han running into landing bay full of stormtroopers.
Yavin base temple exterior
Ships landing/leaving Yavin
New Ewok song (I loathed the yub nub crap).


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I only liked seeing the films in theaters with remastered video and sound. That's it.

Patrick
"When you have to shoot, shoot. Don't talk." - Tuco from The Good, The Bad And The Ugly
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why does everyone hate the yub nub song? not that the new one isn't a great composition.. but come on! it's a GOOD song! it's catchy and gets stuck in your head and if you're going to have muppets anyway, why not have a muppets song?

anyone remember the rap song based on the yub nub song?
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Most of the changes I didn't like, but I didn't really care about. Like, I don't care if they are there or not, y'know? The only changes I really disliked are:
-Greedo Shooting first (duh)
-The Jabba Scene just seems to out of place.
-The Sarlacc having a beak made it seem corny.

But as for everything else, I really didn't mind it.
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Luckily for me, I'm not a purist. Let's call me a smartist I have no problem with cosmetic changes, or even additions to the trilogy, so long as they aren't stupid. As such, a list of what I liked:

The Trilogy as a whole:
Picture Quality
Cleaning up of Mattes

ANH
1.) The new Transistions (The Jawa Canyon, The Sand Crawler, Ben's Homestead) Were very nice and a definite improvement over the originals.

2.) Cleaning up the effects on the landspeeder, good idea.

3.) Some, but not all, of the new Mos Eisley shots. I agree it needed to be expanded. The way it was done though leaves much to be desired. With some judicious editing, the new Mos Eisley arrival is nice.

4.) Some of the New Falcon shots. The take off from Mos Eisley is cool, as is the new appraoch to Yavin. Only issue, the CG falcon is too thin, when seen in profile it's just not as thick as the Model is.

5.) New Biggs scene. I love this addition. It finally brings weight and resonance to the death of Biggs. It gives us everything we need to let us know that Biggs and Luke are friends, and drive home that his death could seriously effect Luke at a critical point during the death star attack.

6.) New dog fights. As much as I love the originals, they were brand new effects at the time and 27 years later it really shows. Some of the movements are so slow that you have to wonder how the ties aren't blowing the rebels out of the sky. The new dog fights are much nicer. That being said, I'd like for them to go back and re work the cg a bit, the models are still very 97 CG, which looks a little on the cartoony side. They need new texture maps and such to make them look more realistic. (New Dog Fights does not include the new approach to or escape from the deathstar, those shots were botched royal)

ESB
1.) Opening up cloud city. This is a change I hated on the big screen, because I felt it made the frame to "busy" but on my tv, I love it. I think it really opens up Cloud city, makes it much less claustraphobic.

2.) The 2nd CG hatch added to the Falcon when Lando goes up to rescue Luke. An easy little addition that explains where the bright light came from, it looks great, and it's unintrusive.

3.) The shot of the Imperial shuttle leaving Bespin heading to the Star Destroyer is pretty, cut the crap surrounding it and it can stay.

ROTJ
1.) New Oola scene in the rancor pit. jedi Rocks blows hard, but this scene which comes right after is solid gold. It really adds to the suspense and tension of what exactly is down there. Seeing her reaction to the Rancor but not seeing the rancor itself is great.

2.) Eyebrow removal on Anakin. It makes him look a lot more creepy and mournful I think, the effect is very nice.


Sadly, that's it. The changes that I hate outweight the changes I like by a lot.

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More people should do what Pags did: give an intelligent assessment without spouting about how much they hate Lucas.

Hate is just as much of the Dark Side as stupidity.

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Originally posted by: Darth Chaltab
More people should do what Pags did: give an intelligent assessment without spouting about how much they hate Lucas.

Hate is just as much of the Dark Side as stupidity.


I don't see any mention of anyone hating Lucas in this thread. The only reason I detailing my loathing of the Yavin battle is because you asked. This has been a rather civil thread.


Made for IE Forum's Episode III theme month - May 2005.

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I guess you're right. But I had other threads and users on my mind.

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I like nothing about the SE's or the new DVD's PERIOD! I love the matte lines! I love all the effects that look outdated....that was how they were made and that is how they should stay...Star Wars was a 1970's movie and was part of pop culture from the time...and the same goes for ESB AND Jedi in the early 80s...
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Originally posted by: Wet Willy
I like nothing about the SE's or the new DVD's PERIOD! I love the matte lines! I love all the effects that look outdated....that was how they were made and that is how they should stay...Star Wars was a 1970's movie and was part of pop culture from the time...and the same goes for ESB AND Jedi in the early 80s...


Amen brother! That's why I love my original VHS so much.
"You fell victim to one of the classic blunders, the most famous of which is 'Never get involved in a land war in Asia'."
--Vizzini (Wallace Shawn), The Princess Bride
-------------------------
Kevin A
Webmaster/Primary Cynic
kapgar.typepad.com
kapgar.com
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And yet if those who grew up on the SEs were to go back and watch the old versions, they would look distractingly out dated. I don't fault Lucas for being a perfectionist. I fault him for using his utter control over starwars to get his every ididotic whim put to film. Jedi Rocks, Jar Jar Bindks, ect.

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