Originally posted by: CO
I love the O-OT and will always watch it above the SE, but if Lucas only changed certain effects, none of this debate would exist.
These changes I don't mind:
-The ring around the deathstar
-The new Jawa Sandcrawler
-The new ObiWan Hut
-The expansion of MosEisley without the stupid jawa swinging and making sounds
-The new detailed X-Wings leaving Yavin
-Some new shots in the attack on the death star
Thats it, ESB & ROTJ should have been left alone. Originally Lucas was only going to do Star Wars, he even says it on the laserdisk, but he figured why not make money on all 3 in the theaters? Lucas couldn't do certain things in 1977, and by changing little stuff like this, I wouldn't be complaining of no O-OT.
But of course, he sticks in a bad CG Jabba, changes the Greedo/Han scene, puts in an awful new song in Jabbas Palace, and then puts in Hayden in ROTJ!!!!!!! All changes that had nothing to do with technology back then, just Lucas going crazy trying to change more than he needs.
I completely agree with you about ESB & ROTJ, and I also agree with ADigitalMan that a hybrid version of ANH is probably the best way to go, because certain things about the 2004 release I really like and certain things I really don't like.
I like:
- The more vivid sunset that Artoo rolls toward as he leaves Threepio
- The beautiful purplish-tinted night shot of the sandcrawler sitting still in the desert
- The sandtroopers and all the dewbacks really work for me
- The cleaned-up landspeeder effects look good
- The Falcon blasting out of Mos Eisley looks great
- Some ships just visible trailing through the sky above Mos Eisley
- The new CG X-Wings leaving Yavin IV, and seeing the pilots' heads moving once in space
- Overall, the cleaned up transfer looks great
But...I don't like:
- The extraneous stuff in Mos Eisley: the Ronto throwing the Jawa; that slow, screen-filling close-up of the beast (also a Ronto?) walking in front of Luke's landspeeder just as they're being stopped and questioned. Man, that is so out of place.
- The extra stormtroopers on the Death Star as Han rounds the corner
- The shockwave ring around the Death Star; the original explosion effect worked just fine. I know it looks impressionistic, rather slo-mo and fuzzy, but at that point cinematically and emotionally, it just works. Making it more 'real' is not a good payoff at that point, y'know?
- The inclusion of Jabba--at all--in ANH. Despite the fact that, yes, this Jabba looks and sounds better than any other, and sometimes I waver in my opinion that he's okay showing up there, I always wake up and realize that seeing Jabba at this point is a huge pacing mistake as far as the movie is concerned, and it kills the suspense of the 'price on my head' sub-plot that paid off in ROTJ when we finally get to see Jabba. (The resolution of that plotline was actually one of the more enjoyable things about that movie; well, that and the speeder-bikes.)
- The cheesy 'Han and Greedo shoot simultaneously' scene. The original version is superior in so many ways that I could complain for days about it, but here's the short version: cinematically, it just plays better in terms of the whole scene; and it made so much more sense as far as Han's characterization. Lastly, Han jerking his head unnaturally to the side and avoiding being shot in the face is so friggin' stupid that I can't believe it's now the de facto version of events, at least as far as Lucas is concerned. 
I'll stop there, but I'm sure there's a few more points I wanted to include. I'll think of 'em eventually...