Radar Rider

I: Fall of the Jedi Fanedit – As this is the only one of the prequels where I really can’t stand the childish stuff and FOTJ does a good job of chopping that out.
II: Official 2011 BD
III: Official 2011 BD
IV: Depends. Sometimes 2011 BD, sometimes whatever the latest “best” is of the unaltered versions. I actually don’t mind most of the changes but I like to see the original cinematography and so forth from time to time and so I watch the best unofficial of the unaltered originals (lately TN Silver Screen transfers).
V: Harmy despecialized and 2011 BD depending - Same reasons as above
VI: 2011 BD and Grindhouse 35mm - Same as above
VII: 2D BD; I may prefer a fanedit in the future if someone decides to throw together a fanedit with deleted scenes intelligently inserted for an unofficial “Extended Edition”

Rogue One: N/A - Have not seen yet (I no longer go to theaters) but I intend to watch 2D BD once available.

I don’t care for 3D, so if any 3D versions exist of the above I am referring to 2D if not stated.

My preferences are based solely on visual aspects as I cannot really compare the auditory differences – I only own a 2.0 sound system.

When I own a 4K display some day and when these are all re-released on UHD-BD (“4K Blu-ray”) then I’ll certainly check those out if and only if reviews state that they have more detail over the BD versions. As 4K versions do not necessarily have more detail due to a botched transfer and/or poor source media. There’s also other issues such as bitrate starvation that sometimes makes lower resolution mass media versions superior if using a decent scaler to rescale the output to your display’s native resolution (such as an HTPC with madVR’s various scalers). Oh and of course, for the PT many of the CGI models would likely need to be redone to be appropriate for 2160p/4K unless they intend to hawk out an “upscale” (like many early BD releases of movies were just upscales of existing 480-720p transfers to digital).

First I’ll preface with saying the 1997 SEs were the first I saw of the OT. I was given it as a gift on VHS for the holidays when I was a child. I’ve only seen the PT in theaters.

I liked most of them but anything that changed a character such as Greedo shooting first I hated. I do believe strongly in preservation of the originals though.

Since I like most of them I’ll outline ones I hated besides:
The new CGI song and dance number. I skip past it always on rewatches. Analyzing it from a non-comparison point of view even, it is complete filler and adds nothing to the plot and only pads the runtime. If featured at all it should’ve been featured as background during dialogue.
The whole stepping on Jabba’s tail. Totally unnecessary and wasn’t done well.

With all the edits they did I was surprised at how they didn’t seem to update the lightsaber effects in many scenes. I don’t know much about video production but I’d think that would’ve been one of the more easy things to revise.

And though this thread refers to the SEs and thus the 1997 revisions, I’ll add that the rocks added in front of R2 in a later revision was immersion breaking as it would be physically impossible for him to have squeezed in there unless he can turn into liquid or something.

moviefreakedmind said:

I don’t understand why anyone would like ROTS but not like the other two prequels. It’s just more of the same, with some OT stuff at the end.

Well, I liked all 7 so far, but there’s just some I like least. AOTC is the only one I’d truly rate as mediocre out of all 7 hence the “5/10.”

Just wasn’t too engaged for AOTC while with the other SW movies I had varying levels of engagement. Still, it was enough to find enjoyable and I include it in rewatches, though usually I skip past a scene or two.

1. ROTS: 8/10
2. TFA: 7.5/10
3. ESB: 7/10
4. ANH: 7/10
5. ROTJ: 6.5/10
6. TPM: 6/10
7. AOTC: 5/10

suspiciouscoffee said:

Radar Rider said:

ROTS is my favorite of the six movies (I have not yet seen TFA, I am waiting for the Blu-ray).

Why?

Well when I first watched the OT circa January '98 (got it on VHS for xmas) one thing I was most curious about was the backstory where Darth Vader turned bad. And IMO EpIII more or less did an excellent job of filling in that backstory.

Plus I absolutely love Ewan McGregor and found his performance to be the strongest in III. The final battle in the lava place is my favorite scene of the saga (so far, not having seen TFA yet) except, admittingly, a couple lines of dialogue by Anakin that briefly unimmersed me particularly “you will try.”

I was also a bit curious about Luke and Leia’s mother and what her life was like.

Also I loved every scene Palpatine was in. That’s another aspect I loved of III, seeing the political maneuveing and seeing him while he was still more or less a normalish guy and seeing his immediate transformation was very impactful for me.

Also, I’ve been a big fan of Samuel L. Jackson and enjoyed his scenes quite a lot.

It was also nice getting an in-depth look at the political system of the pre-Empire government as even though I was a teenager at the time I thoroughly enjoyed politics and attempts to depict fictional political systems. At the time I was actually hoping for a spin-off movie that explored the imperial senate much like there’s a spin-off side movie this year about the rebels stealing the plans for the Death Star.

Simply put, it has the most enjoyable moments for me compared to the other five that I’ve seen.

ROTS is my favorite of the six movies (I have not yet seen TFA, I am waiting for the Blu-ray).

But what did I not like (as not even my favorite movies are perfect)?

The single scene with Jar-Jar.

Too much focus on Padme and Anakin’s relationship (I don’t like when movies get bogged down in romance sideplots).

General Grievous was a bit cheesy.

Puggo - Jar Jar's Yoda said:

Radar Rider said:

All in all it was necessary IMO to give better linkage with the PT.

Welcome to the forum.  Do you think that the original movies should also be preserved?

 Sure, like the Brazil Bluray set that has all the different versions. 

I actually like the change, but I do have two gripes with it:

1. They could've used a better shot of Hayden. The whole looking down at shoes thing was a bit strange

2. For consistency sake, maybe put Ewan in as well. Or on a second thought if its the whole ghost manifesting as the spirit's prime-of-life thing I guess it wouldn't make sense to put Ewan in since Obi-Wan never turned dark. 

I saw the version with Shaw first and foremost but it always took me out of the scene that this baby boomer looking guy was the guy behind the Vader mask. 

All in all it was necessary IMO to give better linkage with the PT.

Wasn't crazy about the first trailer but as soon as I heard Luke's voice in this new one I can feel the hype.