WedgeCyan

Since Disney hasn't lost any money yet on people boycotting special edition releases, I don't think they mind so much. And seeing as it's becoming increasingly more likely that the OOT will be included on the next release, I don't think there'll be so much of a boycott in that situation. 

Although, this doesn't take the prequels into account. Unless they pack the prequels in with the OT I doubt the PT will sell as well, so they might get upset at that point.

DrCrowTStarwars said:

I can't stand the beach.  I feel like I am alone in this but I never have any fun when I go there.

 I also do not like beaches and very much wanted to make an Anakin joke but alas, I am far too late.

skyjedi2005 said:

With the Apes Saga i only like the first film, i guess that is considered as weird as only liking Star Wars, or just Raiders. Or those who only like the first Alien film, or only like the first Terminator.

I only like Raiders. And I don't think it's that weird to only like the original Star Wars. I've never seen a sequel I thought was better than the first one. (yet)

I don't care if no one reads this or if it gets buried I just need to vent.

My friend is a fucking idiot. I've mentioned him before on another thread, TPM is his favorite Star Wars movie, followed by AOTC. But that's surprisingly little of what pisses me off about him, the others which shall now be laid out for your reading discomfort.

1. He has an unwavering acceptance of all secondary material to any franchise (SW, Indy, JAWS for fuck's sake.) His ultimate wet dream is that every movie gets at least two sequels. I can't have a simple conversation with him about any movie without him bringing in every sequel and spin-off and novelization of it. For example: Aladdin. It's a classic kid's movie from the early 90s, right? Nope, apparently there were two shitty direct to video sequels and a whole fucking cartoon tv show, and I'm supposed to incorporate all of those into discussion of a goddamn kid's movie? It's not Star Trek for crying out loud! And what about Jaws, one of the greatest movies ever? It's got three dreadful sequels and it's based on a book or some shit. Who cares? I mentioned that the prequels give him a ghost wank but you know the reason? He liked the video game versions of them. What a shitty, shitty, shitty criteria to like a movie, example: E.T. (The video game adaptation for the Atari was so tragic they literally built a mass grave for all the returned copies.)

2. Movies must obey blindly all rules set forth by their original source material. This is often a moderately understandable point, usually revolving around small details of a book he liked that were slightly changed for their film adaptations (Harry Potter.) However, one thing just pisses me off beyond understanding. We were watching one of the Dark Knight films and he proclaimed at one point: "Ah, no. That's not what happened." I turned to him, utterly confused. "What? I know it didn't happen, it's fucking fictional." "Yeah, but in the comics..." I ignored the rest of the sentence. He's so dense about the notion of film adaptations and the essence of fiction being fictional that he has to point out anytime anything changed at all. I get the notion of die-hard comic book fans, but seriously? It's not exactly the same story as you're used to, so it's dumb and shit. He despised Iron Man 3 because of the whole Mandarin thing, and his delicious fanboy aneurysm made me enjoy the movie even more because of how much he hated the idea that a movie did something different in an interesting way. An interesting thing about this is that he doesn't just view original source material as superior, it's that he views ALL print material as superior. This was most evident when we watched Revenge of the Sith a few months ago. (I know it's controversial, but until watching it with him, I didn't mind it all that much.) Guess how long it took for him to mention a Star Wars novel? About 15 minutes. As soon as Dooku and Anakin trade words, guess what? Apparently they fought very recently in some book-prequel of ROTS. I let that one go, as I though it would be the only mention of the Expanded Universe. How wrong I was. At the point when Grievous talks to Sidious, he said, as he does: "Haha, no, that's not how it happened." I literally had to pause the freaking movie so as not to be overwhelmed with bullshit from both angles. "What now?" "He's not supposed to look at Palpatine in the eyes, it says in the book." "Book? You know we're watching a movie right? And that the movie isn't based on the book?" "I know, I just think it's funny that he does it even though he's not supposed to." "Maybe in the book, but that doesn't matter to the movie at all because the movie is the authority." He didn't speak for the rest of the evening. I practically jumped for joy at the prospect of seeing his face when he found out the EU was eliminated, even though I could care less if it was there or not, I'd ignore it anyway.

3. He thinks movies should be measured by the amount of money they made, otherwise known as the ever idiotic "vote with your wallet" mantra. We were discussing movies because he doesn't know anything about anything else, and he decided it pertinent to run down a list of the 50 highest grossing movies on his phone to see how many I'd seen. I'd seen 38, a higher number than I'd be proud of, noting how many shitty movies were on that list. He'd seen every single damn one of them, and was proud of it. He loved Spiderman 3. Enough said.

4. He thinks critics aren't worth shit, or are worth literal shit and the opposite of everything they say should be obeyed. This is a mockup of what I think his top 5 movies would consist of based on how many times he's mentioned every one of them.

  1. Jumper

  2. Spiderman 2

  3. Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace

  4. Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones

  5. Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

I guess in conclusion, what pisses me off about him is that he both knows too much about the wrong kind of movies (Prince of Persia, Transformers, Bad Boys II, etc.) and nothing about any classic movies (Gone With the Wind, Citizen Kane, The Deer Hunter, etc.) yet decides he is highly qualified to speak on the topic of movies and as if he is actually very knowledgeable about film as an art form.

nevermind

The more of these I read, the more I'm reminded how little Lucas changed the films from 2004 to 2011 (compared to the previous two "improvements". It's like he looked at the DVDs, and decided that pile of slop was, like, 95% there in terms of his "original vision." The movies just needed a few more poorly placed rocks, eyelids, and screams of anguish.

Anyways, I thought of a few more.

SW:

-New scene added where Emperor warns Vader of Obi-Wan's impending arrival

-Cantina creatures GL wasn't pleased with in the originals are changed to PT aliens: The devil becomes a Zabrak (Darth Maul), etc.

-Han finally shoots first again, but Greedo still manages to get a shot off by being ludicrously fast and firing before Han's blast hits him. 

ESB:

-far shot added showing Vader's arrival on Cloud City, being greeted by Lando, eliminating the big surprise at the dinner party

-When the door opens, revealing Vader at the dinner table, Han doesn't manage to get a shot off before Vader force-grabs his blaster (this is to make it more kid-friendly so there aren't as many scary gunshots)

-Yoda tells Luke about Midichlorians

ROTJ:

-Nien Nunb (Lando's copilot) gets subtitles

-Jabba's guards are replaced by robot guards with electro-staffs

-Shots added to end show celebrations on every planet shown in all the films that haven't been shown yet: The Geonosians celebrate by sacrificing stormtroopers in the arena, the Kaminoans break all the cloning facilities, Mustafar and Hoth are shown to host thriving metropolises celebrating like it's New Years, Utapauans and Cloud Citizens celebrate generally, and the Wookiees on Kashyyyk celebrate an early Life Day. No attempt is made to maintain consistency in the music, which is horribly and tragically butchered.

moviefreakedmind said:

Does anyone know when the, "From Star Wars to Jedi," documentary was posted on the Star Wars youtube channel? It says it was "published" in 2014 but that never means when it was actually uploaded. Was this uploaded after Lucas left, or when he was still in charge? Either way it's interesting because it includes several in depth explanations of how OUT shots were made so I wouldn't expect GL to allow his staff to post it on youtube, but if it's been posted since he sold LFL then that means they're no longer going to pretend like Star Wars wasn't made until 1997, even if they don't release the originals.

EDIT: It's also interesting given that the documentary was not on the blu ray

 It was posted in several parts after the sale.

But even in 2011 for the blu-ray, three classic documentaries were included which detailed the making of the originals, as well as the passionless, 25 minute snoozefest "Anatomy of a Dewback" which details the animation of said creatures for the 1997 Special Edition.

So I don't think George is opposed to explaining how the OUT was made, but he will always pretend that the movie that was made all those years ago is the same as the ones we have now, acting like all of the extensive model, camera, animation work from the originals is still intact.

SilverWook said:

WedgeCyan said:

TV's Frink said:

WedgeCyan said:

-Gungan added to Jabba's palace

 This actually happened on the Blu-ray.

 Really? I thought it was just a dug (Sebulba) that was added

 It's actually the dug that was in AOTC. They didn't change the model at all.

 I'll have to admit I didn't know that. I knew it probably wasn't Sebulba but it's just easier to skip explaining what a "dug" is.

That's pretty ridiculous that they used such an old model. That's probably a big part of why it looked so out-of-place.

TV's Frink said:

WedgeCyan said:

-Gungan added to Jabba's palace

 This actually happened on the Blu-ray.

 Really? I thought it was just a dug (Sebulba) that was added

In a world where George Lucas never lost control over his and two dead director's movies...

What would be the worst possible special edition changes George would probably actually make that you can imagine?

Here's my checklist:

Star Wars:

-Make there be twice or three times as many Jawas in the canyon, two thirds of them don't do anything but stand around

-New scene where Vader's TIE gets rescued by a Star Destroyer, all CG.

-CG new droids into the Lars homestead (why would they need so many droids?)

-New scene that shows the stormtroopers burning the homestead

-Establishing shots on Alderaan's surface before its destruction

Empire:

-Vader has a NoooOOOooo moment when the Millennium Falcon jumps to lightspeed.

-The Emperor outright states that Vader is Luke's father during the hologram scene, not a shred of mystery left.

-CG Yoda

-New scene of Boba delivering Han to CG Jabba

-New scene of DSII under construction

Jedi:

-Gungan added to Jabba's palace

-CG Yoda, Jabba, Rancor

-New scene of Boba escaping Sarlaac

-Jedi Rocks AND Lapti Nek

-Luke/Leia "sister" scene changed to remove references to their mother, or mangle together new dialogue describing in too much detail how she used the force to see Padme right before she died.

-Ghost scene shows Qui-Gon putting his hands on Anakin's shoulders and smiling to Yoda and Obi-Wan

When the Millennium falcon jumps to lightspeed at the end:

VADER stares out the window. He turns away, uttering under his breath, "No." He glances back out the window. As he turns again to walk away, he lets out a bellowing "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooOOOO!"

This would serve to dissolve all tension in this scene, even more so than the scene where this actually happened.

Post-credits, Anakin awakes in bed, panting. (from ROTS)

NeverarGreat said:

In many accounts of Near Death Experiences or OBEs, deceased loved ones are often seen as in the prime of their life, even if the OBE-er couldn't ever recall seeing them that way. So actually, having a young Anakin Skywalker ghost makes more sense than seeing the image of an old man who could have only appeared that way if he was not horribly mutilated decades ago. Of course, that would mean that the ghost of Obi-wan would need to be played by Ewan McGregor, and they would need to make a CGI version of Yoda of him in his vigorous tadpole years.

Also, in NDEs or OBEs, subjects (almost exactly 100% of the time) see experiences related to whatever religion/tradition they were raised in (because their brain is randomly firing neurons as it dies). So I guess we'd have to determine the religious tradition Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru raised Luke in, if any.

imperialscum said:

WedgeCyan said:

imperialscum said:

 But for example AT-AT motion and interaction with environment looks quite fake to me because the dynamics of the model is completely different from the dynamics of the thing that it tries to model.

You're right. Stop-motion AT-ATs are so unrealistic compared to all those real-life 20-story mechanical walking tanks.

What a childish reply. I was simply stating the physics... If you make a model of something that does not exist in real life and your model does not perform/match in terms of physics, then you can't use an excuse as lame as "the thing I modelled does not exist in real life" to justify its bad performance.

 Are we really criticizing physics in a discussion of Star Wars? Ships banking in space is certifiably bunk, but it doesn't bother me in the slightest.

In addition, I think AT-ATs are a little more realistic in their movement than, say, a tauntaun, simply due to them being mechanical in nature. They are mechanical, and look so as well.

imperialscum said:

 But for example AT-AT motion and interaction with environment looks quite fake to me because the dynamics of the model is completely different from the dynamics of the thing that it tries to model.

You're right. Stop-motion AT-ATs are so unrealistic compared to all those real-life 20-story mechanical walking tanks.

Yep. I (shamefully) prefer puppet Yoda in TPM, if only for nostalgia's sake. Also, the already overly long pod-race sequence is even longer on DVD/blu-ray. I don't approve.

imperialscum said:

Gogogadget said:

Can't they do a Close Encounters situation and start over with the 'Directors Cut' and do it properly.

Well making Director's Cut means calling back Lucas to do it.

 And Kershner and Marquand are both dead...

DuracellEnergizer said:

"Official" canon will never be important.

Frank T said:

There is no canon, as far as I'm concerned. We're well past that.

Agreed, and agreed.

That's what I meant. Didn't feel like typing "the"

The newer show is indeed canon, while the other is "dead"

When it comes down to it though, whatever you want is your own canon.

Hmmm... that's a bit of a tough one. There hasn't been an official statement either way since the purge. But, there was a statement a little further back specifically about the novelizations of the films being canon as long as they didn't contradict the films. But, this apparently was rescinded as Wookieepedia isn't treating them as canon, but as legends.

I would say, based on the information we have now that the deleted scenes are not canon. I think the easiest method to approaching the purge is to assume total annihilation of the old EU. Therefore, only the movies and Clone Wars are canon, along with (most) newly published material starting on that date.

TV's Frink said:

I would spend countless amounts of dollars to see the real negative1 speak.

 I wonder if 

he would pause

after every few words

timdiggerm said:

WedgeCyan said:
confiscate our non-sanctioned versions of the movies.

Confiscate our digital files which have been distributed via public computer networks? Oh no!

True... though it seems just stupid/evil enough for them to try.

According to the official canon, the only canon version of the films is the 2011 SE. This is the case even for Legends, as this decision came down before the canon was reset

In short, the only releases with authority of any kind are the most current SE's.

Interesting that Spike aired the 2004 version. I think, however, that this was the most recent version licensed to media outlets. 

Also, as to theatrical showings, from 97 til now any theater that rented a print for a showing got the 97se, because no prints were made of the 2004 or 2011 versions. Now, with the recent screening in Atlanta it is clear that there is a new dcp (Digital Cinema Package) that has been created from the 2011 master.

I can't really put my finger on anything specifically from the prequels I liked. I guess some of the ship designs were kinda cool, and Darth Maul wasn't so bad.

However, as others have pointed out, the parodies and deconstructions of the prelogy make them worth it in my opinion. The resurgence of interest in Star Wars is another plus. The Clone Wars series was somewhat redemptive of some parts of the prequels, but movies shouldn't rely on a later TV show, or books, or video games to make them solid. But I digress...

John Williams's scores were pretty fantastic, as always, especially Duel of the Fates and the Mustafar battle piece.

The Disney canon reset was earlier this year, in fact it officially took effect on April 25th of 2014.

Anyways, the most recent editions of the film are "official canon." This means the 2011 blu-rays are now the official story of the events that took place a long time ago, etc. etc.