Judge

George’s worst decision (or perhaps more accurately his biggest mistake) was allowing himself to get sucked into the merchandising machine. Most of the problems people have with the franchise as a whole can be traced back to this.

The development of RoTJ was basically entirely shaped by the toy companies; both Gary Kurtz and David Prowse have confirmed this independently. Rather than focusing on crafting a satisfying dramatic conclusion to the trilogy, the final chapter became little more than a glorified toy advert in George’s eyes.

This was of course followed by the constant re-releases of the trilogy in the late 80s and early 90s, the creation of the EU, the Shadows of the Empire project (which seemed cool at the time but looking back now was a clear exploitation of the fans while not providing anything of any real substance), and of course everything from 1997 onwards. All blatant cash grabs.

It seems to me that George was bored of Star Wars by 1980, but recognised its money making potential and so continued to squeeze as much out of it as possible, to the detriment of the actual story. I find his whole “woe is me” attitude in response to all the flak he got for the SEs and PT a bit rich when he’s done nothing but take advantage of the people who made him rich for the past 25 years.

So now finally those of us that grew up with the PT will experience the hope, the hype and the disappointment of waiting for a new Star Wars film.

Star Wars Purist said:

Keep in mind that the special editions still had the "Greedo shoots" change, all the terrible and pointless "Episode 1" flavored CGI added to Mos Eisley, and Jar Jar's voice at the end of ROTJ....Plus, there's the terrible scream from Luke in the SE version of TESB.

However, I will agree that they're "better" than the 2004 versions, but the 2004 versions of each film are "better" than the Blu Ray versions, and the Blu Ray versions of each film will be better than the 3D versions coming out in a few years. 

You know what's better than them all though? 

 

The ORIGINAL versions. 

Jar Jar's voice isn't at the end of the 1997 version of RoTJ, is it?

Don't forget about the IMAX version of AoTC. There's a version of it floating around somewhere.

GnomeansGno said:

I also think the rankings of Empire and SW is a generational thing.  I think older people who saw Star Wars when it came out in 1977 have an attachment to it that they don't to the other films, which is understandable.  That said, a younger man who watches them on DVD doesn't have any attachment to one over the other, so he judges them on strictly the film's merits, and doesn't let nostaglia cloud his judgement.

 

I think this is true to a point, as Empire was certainly my least favourite of the bunch when I was a kid, but since then my opinion has changed a lot. As I started to understand more about cinema (and to care about the more mature themes in Empire) it became my favourite.

Funny really, the editing in that duel was terrible anyway, and now they're making it even worse.

This sort of stuff does happen all the time in the real world, though. There are stories of long lost twins meeting, 'falling in love' so to speak and only realising they are related when they go to get married.

Still, Obi-Wan could have mentioned it.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-15710829

Actor James Earl Jones, best known as the voice of Darth Vader in Star Wars, has been given an honorary Oscar for lifetime achievement.

He has appeared in more than 50 films during his career and his other credits include Field of Dreams, Patriot Games and The Hunt for Red October.

About time too if you ask me.

He does an impression of Vader towards the end of the video there (although it sounds more like Mufasa to me), first time I've ever seen him do one.

I don't think anybody here knows where the clips in Empire of Dreams come from, but it's pretty much agreed on that it proves there is a higher quality source for the OOT than the LaserDisc master used for the GOUT.

I prefer the 1997 ending of RoTJ over the original.

I watched this quite recently, it was quite enjoyable although I thought the most interesting interviews (i.e. Kurtz and Prowse) weren't long enough and the least interesting ones (some dude dressed as Boba Fett? wut?) had way too much screen time.

Also it was cool to get the perspective from Indy fans, as most publications tend to focus entirely on George's relationship with Star Wars fans and neglect Indy fans completely. I'm sure the inevitable RLM review of Crystal Skull will fix that, though.

Are those models to be used for any motion shots, or are they for dioramas?

The green tint in FoTR is nowhere near as noticeable as the comparison videos would have you believe.

I think there are a few establishing shots in RoTS that consist of the camera zooming in on the Jedi temple - maybe reverse some of those?

Or, if you wanted to take the effect even further, start with Anakin's march on the temple as a closeup of his face that gradually zooms out to reveal all the stormtroopers.

Good editing, but the music all sounds very incidental. Why not cull some more thematic stuff from, say, the Shadows of the Empire soundtrack?

Heh, funny that Ebert mentions George planning six more Star Wars movies in the Return of the Jedi review.

Why do so many people insist on using Matt Sloan to voice Darth Vader these days? He sounds nothing like JEJ, in my opinion.

I like Shadows of the Empire, even if it would pave the way for the rampant commercialism that would characterise the prequels.

Very cool.

Is he the dude that shouts 'DIE, DICKHEAD!' at the end of RoTJ?

How about a RedLetterMedia Q&A?

I imagine Ady will be using the LD rips, simply because the blu-ray mix is based on the DVD mix, which is a complete mess.

I have the Ep2 featurette somewhere at home. I seem to remember a featurette on the TPM VHS (or maybe it was on one of my SE VHSes) that was an interview between George Lucas and some journalist about the then unfinished prequel trilogy.

Let's invite the RedLetterMedia team, Simon Pegg, and Rick McCallum.

Not sure if this has been suggested before, and I don't really want to dig through 234 pages of ideas, so here's mine.

What if we deleted The Phantom Menace altogether and, through reconstitution of deleted scenes (as well as little bits of TPM) make Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith into three films?

It makes sense imo, as TPM is basically completely inconsequential to the saga, but it would probably be pretty hard to execute.