Anchorhead

Hoth-Nudist said:

He had PLENTY of time to come up with something, anything, better than what we got.

Ultimately though, isn't that really telling of who he is as a creator?  Which, in my opinion, is not a talented one.  He had decades to come up with new stories that could have existed within the Star Wars universe, but he couldn't do it. Instead, he stayed married to that same film from 1977 and tried to expand it into five more movies.  He just isn't a great writer. After Star Wars became a phenomenon, he decided to make a sequel. So, he hired two people to write sequels - Brackett and Foster.  He had no ideas left.  Too bad he didn't use either of them.  It might have kept him from shrinking the universe into a bed time story. To me, Brackett's original story was much more in keeping with the mystery and far away feel of Star Wars.

As I've said before on this board and on an Indy board; He's a great idea man, but he really struggles to flesh them out.  American Graffiti, Star Wars, & Raiders Of The Lost Ark are fantastic films, all from his ideas.  They're three of my favorite movies.  However, he had to have help in all three to get them right. Without Marcia, Kurtz, Spielberg, & Ford (and many others) - his films most likely wouldn't have been as successful.  Reading interviews from years past, some of them were close to not being released at all had other people not come to his rescue - Marcia with American Graffiti.

If you guys have read any of his early drafts for Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull, it's as ridiculous & out of place in the Indy world as the prequels are in the Star Wars world.
A squadron of flying saucers chasing Indy across the desert while firing lasers at him?!!.........

Thank God he's only a third of the Indiana Jones team. I honestly believe that's why the Indiana Jones franchise is consistent in tone and quality throughout - there are checks & balances (Spielberg & Ford) that don't exist in the Star Wars franchise, at least not after 1980. Which is exactly the time that franchise went to shit.

My point with all this blathering is that it doesn't matter how much time he has.  If George is the sole voice of a story, it's likely to be a bad one.

I saw Phantom in the theater in 1999. I remember almost nothing about it. That is my sole involvement with anything Star Wars post-1983

I don't hate the prequels because I have no emotional involvement with any part of them. I've only seen Phantom once and from what little I actually remember, it was bad on every level.

Story - Weak, cobbled together, and directionless.

Acting - Elementary school terrible.

Visually - Too much going on at once, too distracting from the already poorly-written story.

Characters - No emotional connection what so ever.  Several were nothing more than marketing tie-ins for toys and Halloween costumes, while the rest were just cartoons aimed at children.

I never bothered with the last two films, so I have no thoughts one way or the other.   

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

The truth is, I really don't care if there are people who actually prefer the prequels...

That's where I've always been too.  Fact is, I never give it a moment's thought.

As has already been mentioned; these six people were picked by Lucas specifically to gush over the prequels - the three Star Wars films that always have people apologizing for them and\or defending them. 

The prequels don't speak for the franchise.  They're just a revisit that, while they made tons of money, failed artistically and were panned mercilessly by critics.  The most attention they received was for the software that created them - not for their influence on culture or film, which is none. 

That "panel" of Lucas employees gushers is nothing more than marketing. 

The fact that Lucas is still trying to spin the prequels speaks volumes.

I never considered Empire superior to Star Wars.  I did like it when it was first released and even had a laserdisc of it a few years after that.  After a while, the things that I had never liked about it (Vader as father, Yoda, 3PO silliness) ended up becoming the things that caused me to lose interest.  To me, it felt small and stylized compared to Star Wars.  It was too slick, too formula.  I very much prefer the vast unknown, far away adventure of Star Wars.

TV's Frink said:

From all the descriptions and screen grabs I'm probably better off leaving it unseen.

Alright, I have to jump in here and I don't mean this to be humorous.

When I first heard that Lucas had altered and added scenes to Star Wars for the "SE", I knew better than to allow him to put those images in my head.  The same for the SEs that followed.  I'd seen a few screencaps in magazine articles at the time, so I had an idea of how he'd jacked it up.

I made a matter-of-fact decision not to allow Lucas to gaslight me.  In my world, Star Wars - as it has existed since I first saw it in 1977 - is completely unchanged.

I saw the Holiday Special when it aired.  It's shockingly bad.  I mean actual head-shaking, eye-rubbing, "who the FUCK thought this was a good idea?!!!" bad.   As someone has already mentioned, not "so bad it's good" - just cringe inducing on every level.

Do yourself a favor, man.  Pass on the thing.  In the truest sense of the phrase - you aren't missing anything. 

msycamore said:

It's a fantastic set but it's sad they didn't get the archival versions exactly right in how they're supposed to look, here is some of the worst examples.

'97 transfer

'06 transfer

'97 transfer

'06 transfer

 

Glad I got my 1997 DVD when it was first released.  It's interesting how many movies have been misrepresented from their theatrical releases - all in the name of marketing and technology-testing.

At this point, I'm going to always go to screen capture comparison sites prior to making any new purchases. Fortunately, I already have most everything I'm interested in watching.  With current and future films, my only choice may be  buy or not buy.  At least with films from the 60s, 70s, and 80s I can buy early DVDs that hadn't been improved yet. Same with over-compressed music CDs and the loudness wars.

Might be time for me to start hitting ebay & Amazon for extra copies of the ones I'm happy with.

avoidz said:

Possible typo correction on the 'Special Edition Changes' section:

These only list the visual changes. By my counting, Star Wars alone has approximately 120 new or altered shots--commulatively, quite a different experience watching the film.

Did you mean cummulatively?

Cheers!

I think the word you guys are looking for is cumulatively. That's a weird spot in a sentence to put an adverb, by the way.

Perhaps this might sound better;

By my counting, Star Wars alone now has approximately 120 new or altered shots, quite a different experience watching the film.

Ugnaught said:

I also believe that the universe became smaller with Empire, but I like the film to much to dismiss it.

I liked it when it first came out. Not nearly as much as Star Wars, but I thought it was ok.  I saw it a few times and even had a laserdisc of it for a while.  Eventually though,  it just didn't hold my interest.  Return stopped holding my interest about 30 minutes after the opening crawl.

;-)

Bingowings said:

...on the whole this is one of the most creative and supportive sites on the web and nothing like what threads like this one or the off topic section in general could lead people to believe.

I agree.  The help I've received over the years where film audio is concerned has been a Godsend. 

And while I'm at it, I can't imagine another site where I - a Star Wars 1977 Only Fan, Who Actually Prefers The NPR Radio Version - would be welcome. The occasional weird\overly silly\sometimes angry threads are just part of what makes this site unique. And we even have a fantasy baseball league.

;-)

Thanks, Bingo.  I should have been more clear though.  I'm not really interested in restoring them to original, with original parts.  I was interested in where you guys would buy parts if you were building a set of speakers with new parts - someone you've ordered from and would order from again.

I recently replaced the main speakers in my living room\sound room.  The old speakers are JBLs that are about 15 years old.  The woofer on one of them needs to be re-foamed.

Because I'm about to room-finish my garage, I figured I'd use them out there for a small system I'm going to install.  Just a receiver for baseball games and music for motorcycle maintenance days.

I have no interest in re-foaming the woofers. I do, however, really like the sound of these old speakers.  Does anyone have any suggestions on a reputable online seller of replacement speaker parts?

Thanks in advance.

Ugnaught said:

(with all due respect to Anchorhead, who I believe used to post on theforce.net forums under a different name.)

 

This is the only Star Wars board I've ever been a member of.

Q: Is the 2006 DVD better than any bootleg DVD? And if not, which ones are best?

I wouldn't call out specific bootlegs by name.  Maybe just mention that several bootlegs are better than the official 2006 Bonus Disc version, but are not good for long-term use & archiving because they aren't pressed DVDs.  Maybe include a link to an article about the differences between pressed and DVD-R for longevity.

Erikstormtrooper said:

zombie, I don't think posting full audio mixes is a good idea. I recommend just clips that show the differences.

I'm with Eric on this one.  Full audio rips might be a little too much. A few clips to show the more glaring differences are all that should be necessary.

TV's Frink said:

skyjedi2005 said:

Like i said i have ceased to care anymore.

This thread would like a word with you.

;-)

xhonzi said:

Okay, your math checks out...  just don't leave town.

bkev said:

Welcome to OT.com, sir!.....  Stick around... please? We need sanity, as you can tell.

Damn,  I think the kid just threw us all under the bus - after all we've done for him over the years.

;-)

skyjedi2005 said:

Maybe i should be thanking Lucas for destroying film history.

Lucas isn't that powerful.

^
Typical Lucas.  Lies to us and then he gives us the finger.

I found a few of the gold ones on ebay.  I'll go that route for now.  Thanks, fellas.