S_Matt

The excuse that it'll cost too much to restore the theatrical versions is complete BS - experts estimate that it'd cost $100k per film TOPS. They have prints, they have IP's they have negatives, they have the 1997 SE's as archival negatives - all they need to do is scan those, chop out anything with SE content in it and drop in theatrical bits, which being isolated short sections of footage, they can get from whatever source is best on a case by case basis. Throw in some color-correction and paint out some dirt and damage and boom, done.

hey all, just signed up to the forums...

Always find myself going to the "limited edition" bonus discs to watch any of the films - for non-anamorphic laser disc masters the quality, I find, is pretty good when played through a good upscaling DVD player. I actually quite like the grit and grain too - and at least the colour and contrast look natural unlike the bizarre dayglo flesh tones and aggressively crushed blacks of the 2004 DVD masters/hi def broadcasts.

Of course the *main* issue is I just found that for every change done to the films a bit more of the atmosphere was removed. A case in point is the scene in Empire where Ian McDiarmid was inserted to improve the continuity of the films. But the price of improved continuity was a high one - the eerie mood of the original scene was destroyed. The dialogue was changed to that verbose, stilted style of the Prequels and it takes you straight out of the film. And for some reason the emperor *still* looks wrong - the makeup or the lighting or something was just - off somehow. Magical things can happen by accident in filmmaking - redoing things almost always ruins whatever creative spark had been present first time around.

Another point I feel detracts from the films in their revised incarnations is that they payed most of their attention to inserting or changing scenes that, technically, had nothing wrong with them. And of course I feel that the now-dated CGI creatures and environments that were added in the mid-90's simply draw more attention to their shortcomings than any glitches or shortfalls in the original optical effects ever did.

I feel that the Star Wars trilogy got it right the first time. There are many "happy accidents" in them and many concepts and plot points turned out for the better *because* of the technical limitations that forced the filmmakers to be more creative than they might otherwise have been. Lucas claims that he was frustrated by technical limitations of the period and did the special editions as a way to make his trilogy more cohesive - the result was the complete opposite.