Matt.F

I think Gwendoline Christie is awesome. I’ve seen her interviewed a few times and she compered the Rogue One panel at Celebration London - comes across as a really cool person. She herself would say that she’s a square peg in a round hole, and there aren’t many roles for a lady with her physical characteristics, but im really pleased she has a place in Star Wars and I hope Phasma is back again in Ep IX.

Balance of the Force has been a theme throughout the saga, particularly in the prequels. I don’t know if anyone noticed but the round pool near Luke’s special rock seemed to have a balance symbol, rather similar to Yin and Yang.

I actually thought The Last Jedi gave us a really nice, naturalistic, presentation of the Force, and went a long way to retcon the mistake of Midichlorians, blood tests, and ‘all in the genes’ exclusivity that the PT advanced.

Rey isn’t a Skywalker, she isn’t a Kenobi. She’s no one. And for the audience, that makes her everyone.

RE: Reys fast progression, the ‘Mary Sue’ complaint.

I thought this was explained and dealt with very elegantly in the sequence within Snoke’s chamber. Snoke’s “Darkness rises… and light to meet it” speech clarifies that as Kylo’s dark side power has grown, the Force has found natural balance by also growing the light side. Snoke had mistakenly assumed this growing power was manifested within Skywalker, but in this speech he makes it clear that it was Rey that was the recipient.

I believe that was indeed Snoke who connected Rey and Ren telepathically. Kylo seems just as surprised as Rey when the link up occurs (he runs out into the corridor, does a little Tom Cruise ‘Risky Business’ floor slide, and then queries how it happened and whether she can see his surroundings).

Now we know what happened to Lando, Chewie chopped him up as salami and fed him to the Ewoks after the Yub Nub song.

Revenge is a dish best served cold.

Hal 9000 said:

I feel disappointed that I didn’t get the legendary Luke, and the movie actively wants me to feel that way, so I can’t fault it for that. I was someone who, when they announced they’d be doing 7, 8, and 9, ventured into the post-ROTJ EU to take in the broad strokes of the continuing adventures of the legendary Luke Skywalker. (This trailed off when they announced the EU was no longer canon at all, not that I was expecting them to be beholden to it. I figured they’d probably ignore the EU and contradict whatever they happen to contradict, leaving the EU to deal with it.) Luke is a different character here and the film deliberately thwarts everything that I went into this moving looking forward to. And… it did so in a series of 9 movies with only one left.

If your small town has an apple pie baking contest, and someone submits the best peach cobbler in the world… what do you do? I don’t know, this movie more than any previous one is hard to swallow, by design, which is good and bad which is good. I’ll have to chime in later after a week or more once I can sit with this.

Hal, Mad Max 2 was (and still is) one of my fave ever films, as a kid I wore out the video tape. When Mad Max 3 was released I went along with high expectations. I remember walking out of Mad Max 3 thinking WTF? It didn’t feel like a Mad Max film at all, it didn’t feel right.

However… repeat viewings have softened my stance, and I really enjoy the film now. It’s the old saying of “appreciate what it is, rather than what you wanted it to be”.

ps. Happy ending we did eventually get Mad Max: Fury Road, which was awesome from the first viewing!

TavorX said:

After mulling over it some more, my view this film inches even more towards disappointment. The main crux for me all comes down to Luke and Kylo’s past. Okay so, Vader has tortured Leia, has blown up Leia’s home planet, has killed many of his fellow Rebel friends, has tortured Han and sent to Jabba’s, has sliced Luke’s hand off, etc. Vader has done some really horrible and twisted deeds, and Luke’s idealism never faltered, even when he was being electrocuted by the Emperor. "Father please!"
Luke’s unwavering determination and faith in his father to have the capacity to turn to the light was what finally convinced Vader to overthrow his master.
NOW…
An older, supposed wiser, Luke wants to murder his nephew in his sleep because he ‘felt’ some darkness in Kylo’s mind?? This isn’t even some random padawaan; his own family! Leia’s and Han’s! How the hell was he going to rationalize this act of murder to them?? Not without lying you couldn’t! I’m not even convinced or shown how Kylo was an issue in Luke’s academy prior to scary Luke the executioner shows up at Kylo’s bedside.

Regarding Luke… we’ve all had 30+ years since ROTJ to imagine what might have happened to the character, and with Star Wars being a fairy tale the default position naturally tends to be “lives happily ever after”.

Remember we are shown three versions of events, the night the Jedi school was destroyed. “Scary Luke” at the bedside is Kylo’s version of events… it’s not until the 3rd showing that we see the actual version of events. And that fleeting moment of doubt, where Luke saw the terrible dark side and thought to strike it down is presented as Luke’s great failure. He feels shame. He IS acting out of character - that is the whole point.

This has beautiful symmetry with Obi Wan. Both Obi Wan and Luke are living as hermits after a perceived failure (“I thought I could teach him as well as Yoda, I was wrong…”).

Luke does get to be a hero one last time, as does old Ben. In their final acts both stand against the might of the enemy to create a distraction so their friends can escape, Kenobi in the Death Star hangar and Luke at the gate of the mountain, and both sacrifice themselves in that moment.

I think Luke’s return - and character - in The Last Jedi, is perfect.

“The odds of me surviving are…zero. Oh my!”

adywan said:

They didn’t want to use a different voice actor for Ackbar after Erik Bauersfeld, who originally voiced him in ROTJ & TFA, died. Which is why he only had one line which was recorded at the time of TFA. I fully respect their decision on this.

They recast Peter Mayhew, they refilled R2 after Kenny Baker’s passing, a new muscle man wore the Vader suit, and they even brought back Peter Cushing. Life goes on, and having another voice artist provide the vocals for Admiral Ackbar would have meant no dishonour to the late Erik Bauersfeld.

Holdo staying behind to be the ‘captain going down with the ship’ wasn’t well earned, as it was only really her ship for a couple of hours.

Someone on this site might correct me, but isn’t the Cruiser the same one that Ackbar commands in Return Of The Jedi? Having Ackbar stay behind to do the hyperspace ram would have been an epic end to a fan fave, far better than the derisory off screen death he recieved.

As for Ackbar not telling Poe the plan, that would be an easy fix - “loose lips sink battleships” and for a character who famously found himself in a trap before he’d be keeping tight lipped for sure!

crissrudd4554 said:

Killing off Snoke and Phasma after only two movies I thought was a big twist.

I wouldn’t be at all surprised that Phasma is still alive. There was foreshadowing of a laser blast which simply deflected off her armour just before she fell through the flames, so I think the film makers could in good faith have her return. Snoke less so!

The Last Jedi (2017)

I had tickets safely booked in several weeks before release. I’d be watching The Last Jedi at the local Curzon with my family, including two young daughters who’d both very much enjoyed The Force Awakens. However, as a keen Star Wars poster collector with a completist streak, when I heard news that Odeon were giving out an exclusive poster on opening weekend to those who saw the film in 3D I hastily scrabbled together a second viewing, this time with friends. So I’m writing this review having watched The Last Jedi twice on consecutive nights! I’ve only ever done that once with a movie before (Back To The Future, and that was indeed way back as a 13 year old in 1985).

Despite The Last Jedi being longer than any Star Wars movie to date, the older me thoroughly enjoyed every minute. The length, and the episodic structure of the movie, gave it the feeling of watching a box set TV show. Those evenings when you watch two episodes and really ought to go to bed, but then you look at your partner and go… shall we do just one more?

The opening crawl has never had less to do, as the action follows on so closely from The Force Awakens. Rey is holding out the lightsabre plaintively to Luke (his response drew howls of laughter from the audience on both nights – this movie has belly laughs throughout and is comfortably the funniest of all the Star Wars films), and up in space above the evacuated Rebel Base (we get just a tiny glimpse of Greenham Common) the Rebels are doing a runner after exposing themselves by their assault on Starkiller Base.

Here we see more of the lighter tone as Poe first trolls General Hux to buy time for the rebels and then runs rings around an old warhorse type First Order General who is piloting an enormous Dreadnought Class Star Destroyer. I’d have liked to have seen more of this General as he seems competent and professional in the military manner that we’ve come to expect from the Empire – Hux really does not, and is generally played as the butt of the joke in every scene he’s in, which does reflect back on the First Order and makes them seem a bit toothless and unthreatening.

The bomber run on the Dreadnought is a bravura opening set piece, the James Bond tactic of giving the audience some major action right from the off. Really well delivered sequence, which achieves the tricky balance of evoking the mayhem of battle whilst retaining clear geography and audience understanding of what’s going on. On first viewing I did wonder why the camera lingered so much on the Asian bomber pilot with her unusual necklace, but that small query was answered soon after as she is shown to be the sister of Rose – a new character who would act as a foil for Finn and provide the film with a moral centre. She is a character that might be viewed as ‘sappy’ by some, but to balance her – and balance is certainly a strong theme throughout – she shares many scenes with another new character, DJ played by Benicio Del Toro, who represents the absence of morality altogether.

However Finn, Rose, and DJ’s story is a side dish to the main event (in fact it could be excised altogether with little impact on the rest of the tale, however for me that would be a great shame as there is much to enjoy in the Canto Bight sojourn and I’d much rather have more Star Wars rather than less). The meat of the story is Rey’s journey, and the pull she endures between Kylo and Luke. Daisy Ridley remains a magnetic presence to watch, and is an actress that effortlessly takes the audience on a journey with her, just as Mark Hamill did in Star Wars. The two of them have some wonderful interactions, and the rocky crags of Jedi Island (I know it has a proper name but it’s always going to be Jedi Island to me) provide a great backdrop to their spiky and unpredictable relationship. The monastic environment also allows for the mystical mythos of Star Wars to percolate and brew in a way that it hasn’t done since Dagobah. Nature is the Force and the Force is everywhere. It elegantly retcons the mistake of Midichlorians, and the Force is no longer a medical condition that can be measured by a blood test… a product of your genes. Once again those childhood dreams of anyone being able to become a Jedi through dedication, meditation and hard work are back on the table.

Throughout her stay on Jedi Island, Rey also builds a relationship with Kylo. Like a creepy internet romance they speak remotely through the force. When Rey eventually goes to him, and the two of them stand before Snoke, as an audience you really don’t know how this encounter is going to play out – beautifully handled by Rian Johnson. And then… the sequence that the film has been building towards. Played out in Snoke’s blood red chamber – never forget that cinema is a visual medium – the fight sequence between Rey, Kylo and the Royal Guards is one for the ages. A real stunning treat for the eyes, and the highlight of the film for me.

Whilst on highlights it would be remiss if I didn’t mention lowlights. For me, BB8 in the Scout Walker didn’t work, either conceptually or in execution. And story wise I would have preferred for Admiral Ackbar to occupy the role that was given to new character Admiral Holdo.

I would put The Last Jedi on par with both The Force Awakens and Rogue One, and all three of these new films would sit slightly below the Original Trilogy. It’s my favourite film of 2017, and I am thrilled to have new Star Wars content to enjoy and rewatch. As Kylo says, ‘let the past die’, and we are now all set for the new cast of Star Wars to do battle in the final act of the trilogy.

RE: Vader’s unmasking.

Adywan, I am sure you have seen ‘I Am Your Father’, and I am also sure that whilst watching the reshot sequence with Dave Prowse that your mind was thinking “could this be something for ROTJ:R?”

Whilst the documentary was a commercially released property which ultimately prohibited the film makers from including the reshot sequence in their film, ROTJ:R is not.

Without having watched it we have no way of knowing whether the reshot unmasking with Prowse is better or worse than the theatrical version with Shaw, but what I would say is that ‘I Am Your Father’ was from a technical standpoint VERY well shot, and with really credible cinematography and so I would infer that the reshot scene would at least look the part.

The film makers are also approachable, and on facebook. This presents an almost unique opportunity for you to use HQ footage reshot with an actual SW actor. You might already be ahead of me here, but I think it well worth investigating…

The Galactic Empire has many parallels to both the Roman Empire and the British Empire. The Romans wore red capes, the British wore red coats. They were there to be seen and project power, as are the Stormtroopers.

“…the story really is of a primitive society–apparently a weak society–who is able to overcome a very technological society.” GL.

Asymmetric warfare is what Lucas is touching upon with the Ewoks vs Stormtroopers (and a powerful and pertinent lesson that is, as we’ve seen in the past decades with the West struggling to combat the Taliban and Al Quaeda), but the fact that they are the “best” troops is actually neither here nor there. You can remove the declaration that they are the “best” elite legion of Stormtroopers and the sequence still admirably achieves the intended goal.

Adding more firepower to the Rebel Strike team actually would water down that intention.

Adywan, I have a small suggestion for a dialogue tweak. In the throne room sequence the Emperor delivers the line “An entire legion of my best troops await them.”

Given how easily they end up succumbing to the Ewoks, that “best troops” line contributes to make the Empire’s forces seem rather toothless. In drama if the villains are devoid of threat then the accomplishments of the heroes are also lessened, and so I think this sequence is better served by the easily-defeated Imperials being regular Stormtroopers rather than elite.

The Emperor’s line is delivered during a cutaway shot to Luke and Vader, and so could quite easily be snipped - my simple suggestion would be to remove the word “best”.

After all the Emperor is defined as being overconfident - it seems in character that he wouldn’t have considered the small squad of rebels worthy of deploying his “best” troops for.

What do you think?

nightstalkerpoet said:

I’d like to suggest completely removing the Leia and Wicket scene.

doubleofive said:

I’m all for cutting the Force Choke.

ChainsawAsh said:
cutting the Obi-Wan conversation

Possessed said:
I used to think you should cut all familiar characters from the briefing scene since they mostly just bring cheese, and maybe we still should.
regularjoe said:

Cut that. Cut it cut it cut it - do it. Now.

Cut this scene
NOW

Val, again my taste tallies with yours - ever since seeing the longer cut of The Abyss I’ve preferred and sought out movies ‘extended edition’. However Original Trilogy is a fan edit site born from the prequels. The natural inclination of most of the guys here is to cut. It becomes that the movie is almost a puzzle, or a technical exercise what lines / scenes can be cut whilst preserving logic. There are dozens of variations on the prequels that use this approach, sometimes cutting so drastically that all 3 films are reduced just down to 1.

For me, I’d hate to see the Boussh scene cut or the Leia meets Wicket scene cut or the Ben force ghost. All of these have some value in them and some meaning to me. I would rather see more of the story rather than less, and I would miss them if they were gone. If the quality was high enough it would be great to have all the deleted scenes restored.

Jedi Rocks however… well you got me there!

Valheru_84, I am of similar opinion to yourself. “What the special edition should have been” is a great description for SW and ESB Revisited and I hope it will also apply to ROTJ Revisited.

Whilst Adywan has mentioned that there will be more editorial changes in this film than the previous two I look at what he’s specifically mentioned in his change list on the first post and these all seem very much in keeping with the previous two Revisited films.

Reading through this thread there are many people who want to push and petition him to make more major changes, rearrangements and even introduce new subplots (several pages were spent trying to persuade him that introducing a ‘Boba secret plan to kidnap Luke’ subplot was somehow worthwhile).

I think Adywan is now ‘two for two’ and has earned a degree of trust. His instincts on what to change and what to leave well alone seem to be sound. As Lucas discovered, these are beloved films and one clunky misjudged change can ruin the whole film for the audience, but I trust Adywan not to make any Greedo Shoots First type mistakes and go off the deep end.

I think moving the lengthy and slow Yoda death scene / Ben force ghost scene to the start of the movie would be a horrible idea. It sits perfectly where it is, as down time between the two big set pieces.

If you’re looking for a plausible in-universe reason why it took Luke some time to rescue Han, then why not just presume that finding a Khyber crystal to power his newly built light saber took him on a quest around the galaxy. Them crystals don’t grow on trees you know!

“Now the shuttle Tydirium is going to be changed. One thing that has always bugged me is that the same model ship that is used for dignitaries, is also being used to transport cargo and troops. This ship needs to be a different model. More in line with a cargo shuttle, similar to what was seen in Rogue One and the troop transport in the SE ANH.”

Adywan mentioned that the Shuttle will be changed potentially to the Rogue One design. I think adding the Rogue One Shield Gate also might be a little too on the nose.

.Mac. said:

Wanted to let Ady know I just made a small $50 contribution for Revisited that I hope can be made useful 😃 More will be on the way next month when I am able!

Good man! Suggestions are great but what Ady really needs to make this a reality is donations. I really hope everyone can chuck a little something in the pot. If you’ve got paypal it’s literally 30 seconds of your time, be awesome and follow this link… https://swrevisited.wordpress.com/

In the words of Shrek, “You’ve had a lot of time to plan this, haven’t you…”

There are some good suggestions for continuity or error fixes, and some of the small enhancements suggested such as Jabba’s eyes going bloodshot when he’s strangled could work, but imho you’ve also gone way leftfield into fan fic territory.

Well done Adywan - I’ve just gladly donated £20 to Return Of The Jedi Revisited. One small point is that on the paypal giving page it still lists Empire Strikes Back Revisited as the beneficiary so you might want to swap that to Jedi now.

Also, i’ll take this opportunity to implore all the other commenters and readers of this thread to send a little contribution Adrian’s way. And to do it right now, don’t delay!
The main point of the original post was for a donation drive, although that has naturally been lost somewhat in the excitement at the change list, and the reaction to it. But the main body of info that Adrian has provided isn’t the change list - it’s a well thought out explanation of why he will need approx. £6,000 to make this a reality.

So please do send a contribution however modest.
Here is the page that contains paypal links to donate: https://swrevisited.wordpress.com/

Here is my review of Adywan’s masterpiece, hope you enjoy the read…

The Empire Strikes Back Revisited (2017)

In short: A VERY special edition. The Empire Strikes Back gets a meticulous makeover courtesy of fan editor Adywan.

Review: I have been following the progress of The Empire Strikes Back Revisited for what seems like much of my adult life. Fx guru Adywan (Adrian Sayce) began work on the movie soon after releasing its predecessor, Star Wars Revisited, to fan acclaim way back in 2008. Here we are nearly ten years later and the finished sequel has just been released. It has clearly been a labour, but a labour of love, and after viewing the movie I can say that all those years of tinkering, polishing, correcting and perfecting really have resulted in something very special.

And it was something ‘special’ that set the Revisited project in motion. The Special Edition re-releases of the original trilogy back in 1997. Fan grievances over the Special Editions are well noted (with crowbarred-in incongruous CG and some clunky retconning - most infamously Han’s dispassionate dispatch of Greedo) but The Empire Strikes Back arguably came off the best of the three in terms of avoiding any really contentious changes. There are a few Special Edition ‘changes revoked’ in Revisited (when Luke comes to the aid of R2 on Dagobah his original 1980 dialogue “You’re lucky you don’t taste very good” is restored, as is Boba Fett’s original Clint Eastwood-esque voice) but for the most part ESB Revisited isn’t about restoring - it is about enhancing.

And wow – what a difference these enhancements make. Even if you have seen ESB a dozen times or more I guarantee that watching Revisited will feel like seeing it for the first time. The sensation of experiencing the movie afresh is perhaps the greatest accomplishment of Adywan’s version - although on the flipside I’m not sure that I could go back to watching the original after being so thoroughly entranced by Revisited. Before I get too hyperbolic or mislead you as to what this version is – it is still The Empire Strikes Back that we know and love, but it so beautifully presented and polished as to shine.

The blue tint that was bluntly applied across the Special Edition of The Empire Strikes Back is now gone, and the richness of the colours are at times a revelation. The deep gold of C3PO, the obsidian sheen of Vader’s helm, and the warm skin tones of Han and Leia as their romance blossoms all contribute to enhance the already superb cinematography.

Continuity and production errors have also been corrected. The thing about ‘movie mistakes’ is that they’re usually hard to spot but once you have seen them they’re equally hard to un-see. From Adywan’s change log there are a multitude of corrected mistakes, ranging from wobbling sets to cameramen being visible in reflection. However, the really big one is the carbonite block, and the frozen Han is now wearing the same shirt that he appears in when descending into the freeze chamber. Seamlessly done.

Throughout the movie there are small enhanced details. On first viewing I’m sure I have only picked up a fraction of these. For example; the Wampa’s severed arm now has burning strands of fur from the lightsabre strike, the Snowspeeders cockpit displays are alive with new instrumentation, the hangar bays below the Star Destroyers are illuminated, and there is even a new creature glimpsed on Dagobah (the knobby white spider, first visualised by Ralph McQuarrie in his original ESB concept art).

However, the grandstanding sequence in terms of enhancements is the Battle of Hoth. The ferocity, the scale, and the sense of geography are all improved. As a child I recall the giant lumbering AT-AT’s seemed less mechanical and almost bestial to my eyes, and that sensation is now made even more acute by a contingent of AT-ST Walkers. These cluck alongside the elephantine AT-ATs almost like Velociraptors, their cannons and gaze darting here and there, protecting their larger charges. The rebels now truly do feel hopelessly outgunned, and it makes their small victories in the battle seem more significant. In fact, there is a new sight gag when one AT-AT falls that Lucas himself would have been proud of – I won’t spoil it, but it’s the kind of moment that would draw cheers and whoops from a theatre audience. Bravo Adywan!

Apart from letting rip on the Hoth battle, Adywan has implemented the rest of the enhancements with a good degree of subtlety, elegance and restraint. The techniques he has used are varied, and certainly not all reliant on CGI. In fact, like The Force Awakens and Rogue One, Revisited is well served by going back in time and embracing physical model building and costuming. New miniatures for Dagobah and the Rebel Hangar on Echo Base are massively impressive and add to the solidity and tangible feel of the Star Wars universe. I honestly think you could watch The Empire Strikes Back Revisited and Rogue One back to back, and see them as companion pieces rather than films separated by over 3 decades.

And so, how do you watch The Empire Strikes Back Revisited? Is this some murky, illegal dark web endeavour? Not at all. The only legal requirement for downloading this fan edit is that you must already own the source – in this case The Empire Strikes Back on blu ray disc. If you’re like me you’ve probably bought The Empire Strikes Back multiple times over the years on different formats, but do make sure you don’t buy Revisited – this is a free-to-view fan edit, and anyone trying to sell copies on Ebay or elsewhere is on very shaky ground.

The download is a 7.5GB Mkv file, presented in crisp and clear 720p, and it’s available through torrent sites or through Megadownloader links on the Star Wars Revisted facebook page. I know that some people watch films on their tablets or smart phones, but I would say that it’s well worth finding the biggest and best screen to properly enjoy this spectacular movie on. Now Adywan, please don’t make us wait another 9 years for The Return Of The Jedi…

Adywan, well the sun is out and summer seems to be coming to England. What a great opportunity to get away from it all for a few days, have a little adventure camping down in Dorset or somewhere nice. Only one rule - no tech. No phones, no tablets, no screens. Take a walk round Corfe Castle, visit Durdle Door or swim at Lulworth Cove. No human being can be stressed there. You will come back a new man.