I really like them! Do a bit of tweaking and you’d be set. It’s a good way to “exclude” the prequels from any OT edits/accommodate any one of those three-in-one prequel fanedits.
I partially agree with Dre on this one. While the Hayden ghost has been the default for many people who watched the movies for the first time in the past fifteen years, one does not need to look far to know about the controversy on this one. From my browsing of the often toxic Star Wars reddit, a decent amount of people prefer Hayden as the ghost. They buy into the logic that George used (i.e., restored to where he was before he completely fell to the dark side). There’s also the fact that many fans grew up with the Prequels/the Clone Wars cartoon series, where the Hayden visage is how they “see” pre-fall Anakin. These fans will also admit that he should have been better incorporated into the scene, so it’s not that bad. Many fans, even young ones, prefer Shaw. This is why popular series of parodies either make fun of the change (Robot Chicken) or default to Shaw (How It Should Have Ended).
I’d be largely OK with Hayden. We’ve learned that Force ghosts can appear however the heck they want to appear/what’s relevant to their current goals. From Kylo’s perspective, Shaw wouldn’t really mean anything to him. Hayden, on the other hand, is how Anakin would have looked for in-universe media and the in-universe memory of the character. While Shaw may be relevant to Luke, Hayden/distortions of Vader would be relevant to Kylo. Of course, I only want the ghosts if they’re essential to the plot. If it’s an unnecessary cameo (the stoned Yoda puppet in TLJ was kind of necessary), I won’t like it.
Another SE style thing would be the ship combat scenes. The ST uses no practical scale ship models. (That I’m aware of.)
That’s just the forward march of special effects technology. Heck, the SE’s and bits of TPM used scale models for some material (e.g., the sandcrawler, several TPM ships, etc.).
There might be wiggle room on that as Yoda looks a tad younger in TLJ, or at least happier.
Luke probably didn’t know what young Anakin even looked like at the time, but Kylo worships his grandfather so either form could appear to him and make more sense than the SE change.
But seeing as Kylo is based on Hayden’s Anakin in many ways, having some kind of CG-Sebatsian-Shaw-voiced-by-Matt-Lanter monstrosity would be lame IMO.
Anakin could make a point about the life he could have lived had he not fallen, going from healthy Sebastian to Sebastian right after the helmet came off would emphasize that. Kylo may have ignored certain aspects of Anakin’s life soley focusing on the Vader aspect.
I remember how one of the original plans for TFA was to have Anakin’s ghost appear, phasing in and out of the Vader suit.
I could imagine something like that with some Shaw stock footage, Hayden, or a different actor. Granted, I’d only want it if the story and character arcs would benefit from it.
I’ve always liked the idea of chopping the episode numbers and titles off of the crawls and moving the movie titles to the place of the “STAR WARS” card. That way, we have Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi without calling to attention the need for prequels or anything like that.
I like what you’re presenting, what with the 4K77-styled grade/grain & damage overlay and the idea that Qui-Gon fathered Anakin. It adds some much-needed motivation for Qui-Gon’s pursuit of him beyond “he’s especially force-sensitive.” The Jar-Jar removal is also pretty seamless, which I didn’t think could be done that easily. Good work!
While I get what Criterion was going for here, it’s disappointingly bland. The digipak release had a much better “inner cover (a bit of photoshopping work to add Phoenix and Reeves would help):”
Hi Adywan, I’ve been following your projects for ages now. I love both ANH and ESB Revisited, and I can’t wait to see what you do with ANH:HD and ROTJ (your color grades on both thus far are fantastic, BTW). I just have a few questions regarding ANH:HD.
Is Obi-Wan still going to ignite his lightsaber first? That was one of my least favorite changes in ANH:R, as it doesn’t jive with the dynamic between the two characters. Vader with an already ignited saber fits more with how he’s waited for their confrontation. Obi-Wan doesn’t seem likely to leap to the defense that quickly.
Will the shot of Leia before Alderaan’s destruction be returning, like the shot of Tarkin before the Death Star’s destruction?