Density

Perhaps so, but you’re still a Star Wars fan of some kind. My point is you don’t have to like everything, or even most things, with the Star Wars name on it to be a Star Wars fan. Just like I don’t have to agree with everything America does to call myself an American.

Besides, I don’t think that applies to most members of this site. We call it Original Trilogy, not Original Movie, you know.

You wanna know what the craziest way to do it is? Just watch the Despecialized Editions and ignore any further releases of the SEs, waiting to see if and when Disney puts out an official restoration. If they don’t, oh well, you have Despecialized. If they do, great, then you get to have it without making a fool of yourself.

Don’t blame the buyers who got suckered into paying for something that they shouldn’t pay for, blame the sellers.

Oh come on, no one on this site is not a Star Wars fan, whether you call yourself one or not. If you weren’t a fan you wouldn’t even care about practically anything discussed here. You might not be a fanboy, but you’re a fan.

Yep, before it was a choice between watching Star Wars in acceptable modern quality on DVD or Blu-ray, or digging out my old VHS tapes. (I wasn’t even aware of the GOUT.) So I would bite the bullet and watch the SE. But in truth for a long time, thanks to my disillusionment with the SE and the prequels, I basically stopped being a Star Wars fan. I wasn’t happy about it, and it wasn’t even something I consciously did, my enthusiasm for the series just kind of faded away. I hadn’t seen the movies in years until TFA and my discovery of this site re-ignited it. The Despecialized Editions were one hell of a treat.

I know I’m probably preaching to the choir here, but of all the prequels’ many failings, this is perhaps the most baffling. It directly contradicts the OT on multiple levels. Yoda is established as a wise sage for whom “size matters not” who believes “wars not make one great” and claims “a Jedi uses the force for knowledge and defense, never for attack.” Yet in the prequels he flips around all over the place with a lightsaber and has no qualms about charging into battle with it.

But for Palpatine it’s even more baffling. While you could make a (flimsy) case that it’s technically never directly contradicted that Yoda might have at one time used a lightsaber, which is true despite it being thematically obvious that Yoda should not use one, you can’t for Palpatine. The guy treats Luke’s saber with snide scorn, condescendingly referring to it as a “Jedi weapon” and says it is “much like your father’s.” Implying the only reason Vader even had a lightsaber is because he used to be a Jedi, and the Sith otherwise don’t bother with them.

So why the hell do we not only see these two characters fight with lightsabers in the prequels, we even see them fight each other? That might make that sequence the most ridiculous scene in the entire saga. It simply never should have happened.

At this point I’ve just accepted that it’ll happen when it happens or it will never happen. Either way, thanks to Harmy and the ongoing efforts by people here to restore the OT from 35mm prints, I’ll be more than satisfied. I already have HD versions of the movies I grew up loving restored with 100% care and passion rather than as any kind of cash grab. I hope that isn’t what an OT release ends up being, but there’s a chance of it. There’s a chance they’ll screw it up so much it won’t even be as good as Despecialized, because of colors or audio or a botched transfer or whatever. In an ideal world they’ll give it the proper restoration treatment that films of this stature and cultural importance deserve, but it’s not like they have to in order to keep making money off Star Wars. So I’m just gonna roll with it and hope for the best.

Here’s my script for Episode 8:

[Begin scene with slow zoom-in to Coruscant, into bustling TV studio. A lounge band is on stage playing the “Star Wars” theme.]

BILL MURRAY
[singing]
Ah… Star Wars! Nothing but Star Wars! Gimme those Star Wars… don’t let them end! Ah… Star Wars! If they should bar wars… please let these Star Wars stay-ay! And, hey! How about that nutty Star Wars bar? Can you forget all those creatures in there? And, hey! Darth Vader in that black and evil mask - did he scare you as much as he scared me-e-e-e? Star Wars-s-s-s!

[Audience erupts into applause, camera zooms in onto Bill Murray. He looks deadpan into the camera before suddenly shouting:]
LIVE FROM NEW YORK, IT’S SATURDAY NIGHT!

END.

I had zero problems of any kind muxing the DE audio into 1.6. I didn’t trim or alter the audio in any way and it syncs perfectly. I think it just ignores any silent audio after the runtime is up.

…The same reason Blade Runner wasn’t only released as a deluxe box? For the exact reasons that I explained, that some people who would have no interest in buying a deluxe box would buy the OUT? And Disney likes money so they don’t want to limit their target demographics?

If you mean why they wouldn’t release the SE as a standalone, because the market for that is very small (most anyone who wants to see the various SEs would also want the OUT, and if you’re a diehard Lucas fanboy you already have the 2011 release, and if you’re a casual fan you don’t care either way) and to avoid consumer confusion. Make one cut the standard, canonical cut (that would be the OUT), and the others curiosities. You don’t want to saturate the market with five different Star Wars cuts. That would just confuse people. They wouldn’t know what to buy. Make it so that if Grandma wants to buy Star Wars as a Christmas present for her grandson, she doesn’t have to bother the Geek Squad at Best Buy or call her son for help. Make it nice and easy for her so that the next generation ends up with the OUT.

In an ideal world, they should release the OUT as a standalone for those who just want that, and a deluxe box with the various SE cuts as extras for the mega fans. The former has appeal even to those who aren’t mega fans, as the OUT cuts were the ones that were absorbed into pop culture and that most people saw first. Not to mention most agree they’re just plain better. So somewhat ironically, the SE would now be the niche “bonus” release in this ideal world of mine, with the OUT being standardized as it should be. Since in this ideal world all of this would be from new 4K transfers anyway, the old Lucas approved Blu-rays should die out of print and that cut should only be available in the deluxe box. And every digital download site, streaming service, theatrical screening, cable airing, etc. would show the OUT.

Sorcerer’s Stone, limey. Us 'Murricans are too smart to waste our time philosophizing like fruitcakes.

TROLL IN THE DUNGEON

You’re better off publishing it to a fanfiction site if you want a serious evaluation. You sure as hell aren’t gonna get one from Frink.

yhwx said:

Density said:

yhwx said:

Then why is Luke getting tortured by the Emperor’s lightning hands a big deal?

Because he is torturing him to death? I mean, he did survive it you know. But the Emperor was deliberately killing him in the slowest and most painful way possible. So I don’t think the fact that Mace got a comparatively much shorter blast of lightning proves he’s dead.

To me they are equivalent.

So… In that case you agree then that Mace is alive? Because otherwise Luke would be dead. I don’t think you exactly thought this logic through.

yhwx said:

Then why is Luke getting tortured by the Emperor’s lightning hands a big deal?

Because he is torturing him to death? I mean, he did survive it you know. But the Emperor was deliberately killing him in the slowest and most painful way possible. So I don’t think the fact that Mace got a comparatively much shorter blast of lightning proves he’s dead.

If Darth Maul can survive getting sliced in half and falling down a bottomless pit (which I think is dumb, mind you, but like it or not it is canon), if Anakin can survive getting all his limbs cut off and third degree burns over 100% of his body, if Boba Fett can survive getting digested by a sand monster, I think Mace can survive getting his hand cut off and getting tossed out a window. Considering that is pretty much exactly what happened to Luke in ESB. And considering he is a powerful Jedi and I don’t find it that hard to believe he could use the force to grab onto a ledge or land on some speeder flying by below. I wasn’t convinced he was dead seeing the scene for the first time.

Not been keeping up with the news lately? According to George and Bad Motherfucking Samuel, Mace Windu is alive and well.

I actually do think, if his performance in Hateful Eight is any indication, Jackson could pull off an old, jaded badass Mace Windu quite well. The problem with the character in the prequels was the material he was given and Lucas’s direction, it wasn’t his fault. That said, I think this would fit better in an anthology film (especially a Boba Fett anthology film, seeing as Mace killed his dad) than in the ST. In fact, I think that could work quite well. Set it between trilogies and it’s plausible Mace would still be alive (set it after the OT and he would be pretty damn old), and it would also help explain his absence from the OT. (If Boba kills him…)

In the ST, yes, I agree Coruscant is likely to appear and I wouldn’t have a problem with that at all either. Honestly, I didn’t have a problem with any of the locations in the prequels - Naboo, Kamino, it’s all good. The creative and visually striking environments were some of their few redeeming qualities.

As far as characters go… Well, uh, most everybody is either dead or was in the OT anyway so I don’t really know how to answer that.

Putting on my serious face for a second, I have actually seen no anime, except maybe a couple episodes of Pokemon years ago if that counts. But I have less than zero interest in it, so… Knock yourselves out if you like it.

moviefreakedmind said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

Unless they’re planning a wider, home media release of the '97 (which I doubt)

This will never happen. I’d bet my entire savings that it will never happen, ever. Even if it does, I’m not out anything because I’d probably die of shock.

They certainly won’t do a standalone release of the 97, but I don’t think it’s out of the question at all that it’s included as part of a Blade Runner-esque box of all cuts of the OT.

BillionaireHobo287 said:

TV’s Frink said:

I’ve seen all of it. It’s all objectively bad.

Are you joking, or did you just not enjoy them because of overhype or cultural differences?

I too have seen all of them. I didn’t enjoy them, but not because they were overhyped or cultural differences. As a matter of fact, I wish American culture was more like Japanese culture as I wish it was socially acceptable to watch cartoon schoolgirls get molested by tentacles. I also like stuff that is overhyped because I like to be a contrarian to contrarians. So that wasn’t the problem.

No, I just didn’t think it was clear enough when anime characters were expressing emotions. I found the whole thing far too subtle and found it difficult to understand character motivations. It needed more ridiculously exaggerated character animation and more characters screaming things obnoxiously that no human would ever say. Plus, the acting wasn’t nearly bad enough for my tastes.

TFA was good in the same way that the prequels were bad.

Both are true statements.

You almost certainly were just conflating Obi-Wan guiding Luke through the force in the first movie and the scene right after the Wampa scene where he appears to Luke in your mind. Memory playing tricks on you is all.

I found that one scene where a talking pizza roll comes out of the screen and tells me to kill my wife to be really out of place.

God it’s a dumb theory. If that happens I’m gonna be pissed. For one thing, we’ve already seen what happened to Anakin after he died: He became a ghost. He didn’t get reincarnated. Same reason the “Snoke is Darth Vader” theory is extremely stupid. For another thing, it’s just plain dumb. “It’s like poetry so it rhymes” taken to the most obnoxious extreme possible. Why can’t Rey just be her own unique character?