Juno Eclipse

Wow. I’ll look forward to that.

Emre1601 said:

😄, Juno.

We must all be a little crazy! I forgot to include this in my earlier post:

WookieeWarrior77 said:

Also of note, in this NY Times article from 25 years ago today, it reads,
“But the temptation will be to use effects because they can be used, to revel in technique rather than story. Mr. Lucas’s films have mostly avoided that temptation, but is it possible that with the tinkering in this ‘‘Special Edition,’’ he may have been slightly lured by the dark side of the Force (and its marketing potential)?”

Hmmm…

That is an impressive prophecy about that particular temptation. I found and read the full article:

https://www.nytimes.com/1997/01/31/movies/star-wars-salutes-a-brave-old-world.html

The author is strong with the Force. Lured by the dark side of the Force, Lucas was. “Let go”, he could not.

That was a pleasant flashback read, and obviously an insightful article. I did re-read your author line post in the voice of Yoda! I am surprised you didn’t include “Begun the unending Special Edition alterations, had”, or a similar line. 😃

I had some serious deja vu feels reading this, and I thought I’d already posted in here recently, but couldn’t find the post, or I was going a little crazy! I’d posted it in here instead, which says much of what of you guys did.

But I’ll say this part in here too: I do find it ironic that many 1997 Special Edition fans having to come here and look around for those preservation projects, especially given attitudes, insults, and actions of many of those early SE fans back in the day to fans of the theatrical cuts.

All a long time now ago now, yet still feels fresh in the memory.

That said, it would be great to see all the differing cuts of all the Star Wars films put up in HD quality on Disney+ in that “Vintage Star Wars” section, if nothing else.

Spartacus01 said:

G&G-Fan said:

Servii said:

I was expecting it to be the Plinkett reviews. Nope, it’s the opposite lol

it’s the Ego the Living Planet of Prequel defenders

Channel72 said:

The Prequels are awesome because they’re stylistically designed to be that way.

G&G-Fan said:

Channel72 said:

The Prequels are awesome because they’re stylistically designed to be that way.

The Prequels are good because they quote shots better movies.

Marooned Biker Scout said:

thxlogofan17 said:

it’s hard for me to explain, so this video explains it for me https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqnjzVX8EKA

Rick Worley?

You must be trolling? Or you would not have posted that the video was by him, and without saying it was by Rick Worley?

C;mon, your first post on an OT discussion forum is link to a video by Rick Worley

Can I be honest? Can I be truly, brutally honest?

The attitude of many members of this forum towards those who defend the Prequel Trilogy is reprehensible in my opinion. Okay, this is an OT discussion forum. So what? Does that mean that one can’t be free to defend the Prequel Trilogy? Does that mean that one must only talk badly about those movies? I myself have been the subject of similar criticism in the past, and even though I didn’t say it openly, I was very annoyed by this. Just because I said that the dialogue isn’t as bad as everyone says, I was treated with condescension, and it was very annoying for me.

thxlogofan17 isn’t defending the Prequels. They are just shitposting a bad faith argument video. Maybe thxlogofan17 thinks this is reddit or other social media platform where that kind of thing is accepted. Even a brief look around here and it is obvious such posts are not.

As Marooned says, there is no discussion to defend the PT, because thxlogofan17 doesn’t want to discuss that. Other than to post an awful 2+ hour video to try and prove some sort of point?

You all should stop acting like you have absolute truth, because it can be very irritating. Don’t get me wrong, to discuss and criticize other people’s arguments is absolutely okay. But to act like “Yeah bro, sure, you can continue to carry out your wrong opinions, but the rest of us, who are all superior, will continue to say things as they are” is very irritating.

Calling out people for shitposting videos, letting them know it is not acceptable, or the way things are done on here is no “absolute truth”. Nor is it a sign of people trying to be “superior” to others.

If you are irritated by that, perhaps it is something you should question yourself about? I mean this honestly and with respect.

You claim to be a friendly forum where everyone can express their opinions freely, and you even boast to have numerous Prequel fans on here. But paradoxically, every time that a Prequel fan who actually tries to defend the movies pops up, he gets overwhelmed with criticism and condescending, or he’s even accused of being a troll solely because he says things that are different from the common thought on here. It happened to me, it happened to Stardust1138, it happened to other people, and it’s going to happen over and over again, because this place has become an echo chamber.

Where is the boast that this site “has numerous Prequel fans on here”? Not that it matters, as there appears to be fans of every type of Star Wars release on here. That is pretty cool for a website whose main focus is on the Original Trilogy.

There was no discussion about the PT, let alone “defend” the PT, because thxlogofan17 doesn’t want to discuss that. Other than to post an awful 2+ hour video to demonstrate some sort of point or position? Or promote Rick Worley or similar agenda led videos. That’s what trolls do. If thxlogofan17 doesn’t want to be mistaken for a troll then they could start posting their own opinions and thoughts, not just link to some video that probably been posted a number of times on here before, and learn a little what this site is about, before posting.

I suggest you all to grow up and learn to respect other people’s opinions.

I’ve seen “Respect is earned, not given away” posted on this site many times before. It applies in this instance too. As others have already said, you don’t get respect by lazily posting videos as some sort of “defence” or “point”, while posting no other opinion or statement. Not in a discussion thread or on a website like this.

fmalover said:

Marooned Biker Scout said:

Juno Eclipse said:

Am I glad George sold Lucasfilm to Disney? Well he sold out his own “independent” and “anti-film corp” way of doing things with that decision. Though from the Charlie Rose “White Slavers” interview he didn’t seem to have a high opinion of them. Plus, Disney’s history on this seems to be “profit over risk, rinse and repeat”

At least we didn’t get to see George retcon his own stories further with his latest vision for the Sequel films that would have made Leia as being “The Chosen One” instead of Anakin. Instead we get Favreau and Filoni retconning the EU instead.

So, I am glad he sold up, just not to Disney.

I’m more or less with this. Realistically, I’d have preferred to have seen George sell to a more independent company, with a background in taking risks with their projects. As fmalover posted above, companies with more creative freedom.

Ideally, it would have been great to see how Lucasfilm would have done as a worker owned co-op. With Lucasfilm not having to answer, or compromise with, anyone else.

What you’re suggesting is pretty much what Francis Ford Coppola was trying to do with American Zoetrope.

Isn’t that more of a Coppola co-op (which is still cool), more than a general workers co-op?

Or has it changed or evolved to include more workers as part of the co-op?

“Force Grip” from the Jedi Knight video games is briefly seen in ROTS when Dooku and Obi-Wan fight:

 
or here at 1 minute 12 seconds into this “my powers have doubled since the last time we met” video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HLlf5bC1wxg

The idea of Grutchins from the New Jedi Order series were later used, and slightly adapted, to be “buzzdroids” in ROTS.

Sequels all the way. The will and effort was there to make them a continuation of the OT, and also try to tell their own story, even if they did drop the ball. The unnecessary jarring and disconnects in the Prequels to the Originals is just too much, with a whole bigger much ball being dropped.

Plus, the Prequels just are not fun films to watch. Slow, staid, pedestrian, flat. It is a challenge to even care about many of the characters, evolving nonsensical story, and stupidity of the their decisions. An actual chore to get through them. Sequels are far from being great, but at least they are fun, the stakes feel real, the characters are sort of relatable, and there’s is a decent story in there among the macguffins somewhere, just not executed very well. TROS obviously was that, yet actually as a finale, was more satisfying than the “tick boxing” and then underwhelming WTH turn of Anakin in seconds, in ROTS.
 

Edit: Is there an option for a poll on this thread? Seems like this could be suited to a poll? Plus reasons why one trilogy is preferred over the other in the posts.

Superweapon VII said:

I wish Lucas had released his IPs into the public domain and made an effort to convert Lucasfilm into a worker co-op.

☝️

I did think when George sold Lucasfilm we’d be experiencing many divergent views, interpretations and points of views in the Star Wars story sandbox. Instead, there is a reluctance, maybe even a fear, to go too far away from playing it safe. Or “George’s vision” or “playing with action figures” as the excuse has become.

TLJ, for its faults, tried. Visions and Andor is what many fans would like too have seen years ago, i think. Hopefully Acolyte and Dawn of the Jedi follow that independent “unbeholden to George” vibe.
 

Am I glad George sold Lucasfilm to Disney? Well he sold out his own “independent” and “anti-film corp” way of doing things with that decision. Though from the Charlie Rose “White Slavers” interview he didn’t seem to have a high opinion of them. Plus, Disney’s history on this seems to be “profit over risk, rinse and repeat”

At least we didn’t get to see George retcon his own stories further with his latest vision for the Sequel films that would have made Leia as being “The Chosen One” instead of Anakin. Instead we get Favreau and Filoni retconning the EU instead.

So, I am glad he sold up, just not to Disney.

Marooned Biker Scout said:

Those promo pics are kind of cool, but also a little WTF?! They certainly get the imagination flowing for possible story arcs, “what could have been”, or abandoned plot lines. Before settling back into them just being cool PR images.

Imagine that type of thing getting leaked today for the Disney+ Star Wars series? The meltdown of it all! 😃

😄

Marooned Biker Scout said:

Has any of the actors who played the Rebel soldiers on Endor been interviewed or spoke about it? Was there more footage of them in action filmed, but simply discarded in the editing room, and didn’t make the final cut?

Not that I know of. This could help in tracking down if anyone talked about more scenes in the Endor forest being shot:

^ there is another similar image of the rebel commandos with Luke on the Death Star too.
 

Emre1601 said:

These two threads are great for deleted scenes and storyboards for Return Of The Jedi, they do focus more on the space battles, but there is some also stuff on rebel soldiers in the Falcon from deleted scenes.

There may be something in there about the battle footage for the Forest on Endor scenes in the links or storyboards?:

Return Of The Jedi’s ‘Black Friday’ - 22nd November, 1982

Reconstructing the end of ROTJ with Storyboards

Like Juno, I thought we’d one day see more added footage with the Ewoks, Rebels and troopers in one of the Special Editions too.

An amazing amount of information in those two threads. timdiggerm’s https://macrobinoculars.wordpress.com/ is a beautiful project.
 

Channel72 said:

I know there’s deleted footage of Han, Leia and Chewie infiltrating the base on Endor, with some of the other Rebel soldiers in the background. This footage would require some work if it were to be incorporated into a fan edit, because it’s very raw (proper sound effects would need to be added). But at least it shows the other Rebel soldiers actually existing and doing things, if only very briefly.

https://youtu.be/gJqRPV19vKM?t=303

But this is inside the base, not in the forest. It’s also one of the few scenes on Endor that actually has a “military commando special-ops” vibe befitting an operation to take out an enemy shield generator. Hilariously, it also highlights the absurdity of Han Solo not wearing military camouflage gear like everyone else, because you know he’s way too cool for that.

I really enjoyed watching those scenes, the “military commando special-ops” vibe is great to see, a pity it wasn’t finished and didn’t make the final cut. Yarso ago there was a project on here (I think) to add certain scenes from the 2 Ewok movies, and from some high quality fan films to insert into a more adult-feeling “ROTJ: Longer Edition” edit. I hope it got finished and released.

Lol on Solo and the camouflage gear. I can easily picture him telling George: “I don’t care, I’m Han Solo and I am not wearing that!”

Channel72 said:

Mocata said:

Rushed isn’t the word I would choose considering how it drags in the middle. They should have just done something better there; both in terms of Yoda and Endor scenes.

Yeah, ironically the movie drags so badly once they get captured by the Ewoks. That’s when it’s time to change the channel.

Actually, I think a big problem is that the entire Endor ground team sequence is really just bland and visually uninspiring. It takes place in a boring forest in California that looks like a location where Star Wars fan-films are shot. Yeah, redwoods can be majestic and beautiful, but the cinematography never captures this. The whole sequence of meeting the Ewoks, going back to their village, etc. takes forever and barely anything interesting happens. And even after the battle begins, the small Imperial base with the shield generator is visually boring (something larger like that communications tower in Rogue One would be nicer). And throughout the entire battle, it always seems like Han, Leia and Chewie are the only Rebel Alliance fighters involved, because the camera almost never shows anyone else doing anything. It would help add some tension if we saw some of those other Rebel extras get killed, or at least participate. (Also, what were all those guys doing while the main trio was hanging out with Ewoks overnight?)

But the other two ending sequences (Luke vs. Vader and space battle above Endor) are so incredibly awesome that they compensate for the mediocrity of the ground battle. Also, the speeder bike chase is still pretty cool, as are the AT-STs (when they’re not tripping over logs).

Years ago I thought it would be something that George would address in one of his Special Edition releases. There has been many fan rumours of making the Ewoks more vicious, and that there may be some changes made to them, or more of them being added, being injured or killed (or lying still on the ground), although just blinking eyes was enough for George.

It wouldn’t have been an expensive or difficult thing to shoot: a few guys in Rebel uniforms and a few guys in stormtrooper outfits, a few Ewoks, an overall plan for an additional few minutes of footage, and a few days of filming. There are a number of cutaway scenes away from the main bunker, usually showing how the Ewoks took downs the AT-STs and troops. Any new scenes could have easily been cut into those.

Do we know at what point in production the ‘darker’ script with “Had Abbadon” (the Imperial City) was jettisoned for a ‘lighter’ script with re-use of the Death Star instead?

As Servii posted, it was the “more sensible option from a budget and special effects standpoint, as well as helping to streamline the 3rd act.” 100%.

And like Channel72 says, ROTJ does feel like two disconnected parts of a film. It doesn’t feel “rushed” to me, but given what we know about George not wanting to make a Sequel Trilogy anymore at the time, and wanting to wrap everything up in this, it does cram a lot in.

Irvin Kershner directing this? That is something to think on! I think we’d have seen more of aspects of the nature-based Ewoks defeating the tech-driven Empire in ROTJ if that had happened. Or I like to think it would. 😃

Emre1601 said:

Their thoughts on 005’s gif of the Death Star having a clear line of sight for Yavin IV, from as soon as it entered the system. Only from the 1997 Special Editions onwards, and think “why didn’t they fix that for any of the future Special Edition releases?” or “why didn’t it just blow up the Rebel base before the X-Wings started their assault?”:

They fix the awful Jabba from the 1997 Special Editions for the 2004SE release, they meddle with “Han vs Greedo” for every single release, but they don’t fix this? Maybe they don’t know? Or don’t care?

Channel72 said:

Or… why even do the trench run at all? Just align an X-wing at a 90 degree angle to the Death Star surface and fly directly towards the exhaust port. Then fire torpedoes in a straight line into the port. Fire multiple proton torpedoes in case some are intercepted by laser turret fire, or first target the laser turrets themselves. You could fire the torpedoes from a great distance away. A computer-guided torpedo could hit the small exhaust port without a human pilot having to fly anywhere near the Death Star. Even in the 21st century, drones are capable of hitting precise targets from a great distance, while also dealing with the added complexity of flying in an atmosphere and gravity well. Targeting something in a vacuum would be much easier. The Battle of Yavin takes place in a vacuum with no significant gravity well (the Death Star is enormous, but still only about 140 kilometers in diameter, thus the effect of its gravity would be negligible).

To me, if experience with space travel became widespread, the Battle of Yavin would fall into that “uncanny valley” where something ordinary is portrayed in a weirdly incorrect way that feels lame or out of touch, like a normal car moving sideways or a computer virus in a 1990s movie. I wonder if the Battle of Yavin could somehow be reimagined to work with an updated understanding of movement in space, while still keeping the general premise of pulling off this “impossible shot” at the last second using the Force.

Have any of the fan-made animations done something like this? Or even gifs or memes?

It would be cool to see. And people’s reactions to it as well.

Tantive3+1 said:

Unless you changed the ending to where his Force Ghost is Ewan McGregor standing next to Hayden Christensen, it doesn’t make sense.

I hope that never happens in Return of the Jedi. It is bad enough with the nonsensical decision to have Hayden in there from 2004.
 

I’d prefer to hear Alec Guinness’ voice as Kenobi too. But for years it seems Lucasfilm have often chosen the “quicker, easier more seductive” route. So Ewan’s voice it will be, even in content after the OT.

Harmy’s Despecialized Editions for me too.

The 2006 GOUT sits proudly on my DVD shelf. More for what they represent than the actual low quality of the content.

I’m looking forward to seeing the completed 4K80, to go alongside their '77 and '83 releases. Someone posted that a “5th Beta” for 4K80 was recently released?, so it appears a finished release could be soon (ish).
 

Adywan’s Revisited Edits will be my choice for any “Special Edition” cuts of the Original Trilogy.

Those are some well made points. Plus, a concerted effort of celebrating something that isn’t actually available would seem strange, and likely raise more unwanted questions.
 

I do find it ironic that many a 1997 Special Edition fan having to come here and look around for those preservation projects, especially given attitudes, insults, and actions of many of those early SE fans back in the day to fans of the theatrical cuts.

That would include a considerable number of fans from the likes of the staunchly pro-SE TFN, even their moderators and staff, who were part of the purging of OOT fans on TFN back in the early/mid 2000’s. I wonder if many of their views and positions have changed over time, with more releases of the Special Editions with further alterations.

Samuel-Wan Kenobi said:

we need the 1997 in 4k they are in a odd place only being on vhs and laserdisc while we can watch the original cut in 4k thanks to 4k77/80/83

It is strange that they have not had a high quality official release given the significance of these 1997 Special Editions.

Even for the 25th anniversary last year there didn’t seem to be much out there from Lucasfilm or the official websites celebrating or acknowledging this release.

I’ve seen calls on here and on many other websites to release all the different versions of all the Star Wars films, even if only on the “Vintage Star Wars” section of Disney+, and it is kind of surprising they haven’t done this.

It would be a big win from the PR/fan point of view as well as the financial aspect fro many increase in subscribers, costing very little to do.

Emre1601 said:

NeverarGreat said:

I agree that this keeps the film from being a perfect stand-alone, but there is a mitigating factor in that we do see a lightsaber fight so the lightsaber as an object is paid-off. The fact that it belongs to Obi-wan isn’t to troubling to me. Star Wars is a universe of unbounded promise, so giving Luke a weapon that he doesn’t use in a fight only fires the mind to imagine him using it in a future battle against Vader.

I like this take.

A you can be a hero like your father, or be similar to your father, but without the need to actually fight in the same way. Or using methods and weapons that his father did.

I like that interpretation as well.

That Vader lives, the Emperor is still around, and the Empire not yet wholly defeated, just fires the imagination of those that watched it at that time.

Very much in keeping with the Flash Gordon serial vibes of the bad guys being around for the next installment. Or having kids make their own stories up as you said, but also talking about it with their friends, and then playing out situations with them. With lots of arguments over who gets to be the hero and who has the “bad guy”!

Mocata said:

Please use a trigger warning before you post these kind of graphic images thank you.

^ and also an “uncorrected mistake” still in the 2019 release! 😉

Marooned Biker Scout said:

Lucas the Barbarian said:

While April of this year will mark the 10th anniversary of the Despecialized Editions, it will also have been 10 years since the last official copies of the original theatrical versions of the Original Trilogy (a mouthful, I know) were pressed and sent to retail stores. In April 2011, the 2006 GOUT DVDs ceased production, and were sold in stores up until September 2011, just before the Blu-rays were released.

Yes, the DVDs were an absolute JOKE of a product, but at least it meant the original versions were legally available to the general public in SOME form. While Harmy has done the community a HUGE favor by saving the greatest film trilogy of all time from becoming lost media and I can’t thank him enough, I also can’t help but feel like we lost something when the official releases went into the vault. It marked the end of an era when George’s Original Unaltered Trilogy was out in the open for all to buy, and the general public could view the three movies that made him so successful in the first place.

I never knew they were still pressing those DVDs in early 2011. Or selling them right up to the blu ray release, They really did take the biscuit with that “Limited Edition” text they put on those 2006 DVDs!

They even said “for a limited time” on the official trailer for the 2006 DVD: www.youtube.com/watch?v=cmtnEQS8ICw

5 years being the “Limited Edition” and also “for a limited time” 😃

They “took the biscuit” (I love that phrase, and will be using that for the next few weeks!) with the quality of the 2006 DVD release too!

Although I do still treasure my copy of it, as a victory for all the fans who campaigned for them at the time, and won.

I wish this below was merely a contrast thing; this mistake is still in the 2019 Special Edition too:

 
The original Yuzzum from the unaltered cuts is not impressed with the Special Edition replacement either!:

If they are going to do Heir Of The Empire, or a riff of it, as part of this “climactic story event” I really hope they don’t bring back Luke, Leia and Han for it. Be it through Deepfakes, CGI, a mixture of both, or a recasting.

What sort of file sizes are you look at transferring?
 

These 3 options could be worth looking into further?:

Rakuten Drive Pro: 50gb file size, it is $6.70 per month, with a 30 day expiration date on shared links.

SendBig: 30gb file size, free?, 3 year expiration on links if using the free MAX feature from SendBig. They have some good customer support, and aim to respond to email queries within 24 hours (on work days).

Edit: Terabox, $3.50pm, 1080P playback, 20gb file size, 2tb storage.