What did you like.......about the '97 Special Editions?

I guess I'd add the exterior shots at the rebel base in ANH.
It was kinda foggy and boring in the original, and a few sparks in the background were supposed to be the "leaving ships". That was kinda dodgy, and the new footage fit well into the context.

What else? I doubt there was anything. The Wampa annoyed me, because it looked kinda funny, and seeing it sucked out all the horror out of the original version.

That's it, I think. I liked the added Jabba scene, but it only works as a deleted scene.
The ROTJ ending could've done with the changed music alone - I'd suppose it'd take a bit more time for the entire galaxy to burst out in celebration as soon as the death star asploded? And cut out Jar Jar, please.

Nothing. The changes made to the OT are far more reprehensible than the existence of the prequels for me. This is where my anti-George sentiment comes from and I would rather watch unedited versions of the prequels a thousand times before seeing them again.

In 1997 I liked EVERYTHING about the special editions, with the notable exception of the new ending music (I love Yub Nub and hate Andean pipe music).

It wasn't until later, when George Lucas started the "No OT for you!" thing that I started to dislike and resent aspects of the SEs.

Naboo wasn't in the 97 SEs.

I liked some of the alterations to Tatooine at the beginning but not so much Mos Eisley and the Jawa Ronto/ Droid on Droid nonsense.

I rather liked the Rontos when they were out of focus though.

Some of the new Death Star attack shots were good.

I liked seeing the big hot air balloon things on Bespin and some of the windows etc opened up the city.

I actually liked adding the beak to the Sarlacc (I would have done it a bit differently but the thing needs some added movement and life to it).

They main thing I enjoyed was seeing them in a theatre with my niece who was young enough to get caught up in it all.

I found the motionless sarlacc scarier, actually.

Minus the Mos Eisley sequences and all those look-at-me I'm new droids and rontos, the SE of ANH has some decent sequences and brilliant color timing. I thought that some of the Death Star battle changes updated things relatively nicely as well as that Biggs scene. All the Millennium Falcon's sequences looked fantastic, so I was happy. My beef is mainly with the errors of the 2004 transfer, as well as Lucas's unwillingness to release the original.

As for ESB, I didn't mind most of the changes. Yes, the wampa is probably better left unseen, but the snow battle does look better. The Cloud City windows could have been nicer and grander, but, considering it was the 1990's, I can appreciate at the scope they were hinting at. Luke's scream does admittedly make me laugh. Didn't particularly like how the more vivid transfer revealed the theatrically-seen bluer Hoth. Despite the fact that it's not as intended, I like my Hoth white.

As for the ROTJ SE, THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NOTHING GOOD ABOUT IT, COMPLETELY RUINS THE EXPERIENCE...

hmm... this is my 666th post...

Most of the stuff you wouldn't notice right off the bat, like the Falcon's extended descent to Cloud City, the opened up Cloud City interior, stuff like that.

I also kinda like the new Wampa, though I don't think the face look's like the face of the original Wampa, and I'm alright with the Sarlacc beak.

SilverWook said:

And we all know the stormtroopers eventually moved in on the crowds celebrating on Coruscant. ;)

It's interesting to separate the crap from the handful of shots they ACTUALLY might have done in '77.  I'll never believe Lucas spent too much time pining away for huge dinosaurs and stuff that nobody could do, he's not that dumb. I would hope he'd be be thinking about real, feasible do-overs that he'd get if Fox moved the release to July and gave him some extra money:

Some of that landspeeder stuff could have been painted out the old, painstakingly slow method, like Superman's wires. There's about 8 shots in the death star battle that actually look like a model shot, but merely with a better pass at the camera. And I bet he would have done some kind of re-take of the Alderaan explosion. So, maybe 12 shots?

What I did like, was, that I was able to see the films in a movie theater for the first time. And I kind of liked the changes back in 1997, except the musical ones in ROTJ.

TheBoost said:

It wasn't until later, when George Lucas started the "No OT for you!" thing that I started to dislike and resent aspects of the SEs.

Alexrd said:

TK-949 said:

TheBoost said:

It wasn't until later, when George Lucas started the "No OT for you!" thing that I started to dislike and resent aspects of the SEs.

^This

 

I don't understand that. I dislike Lucas' attitude of not releasing the OOT, but that doesn't stop me from liking some changes of the SE.

What's not to understand?

When something is a special edition, an alternate take, it can be an interesting curio and if you don't like how it changes your experience of the film you can retreat to the original version.

If it's the default version and the only version maintained and distributed you are bound to resent those changes, even the ones you like, because it's stopped being an alternate take, it's now the only take.

I liked the intent to restore the original degraded negatives and clean up messy matte lines and such. I loved going to the cinema to see Star Wars movies again.

I like the bits of the SE that I don't notice compared to my memories of the OT.