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Yoda Is Your Father

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Join date
6-Jan-2005
Last activity
3-Sep-2018
Posts
4,577

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Post
#83607
Topic
It isnt so bad...
Time
I bought the DVDs when they were released but then held back watching them till Christmas. At the time I bought them, I thought they were the ORIGINAL TRILOGY, but between the purchase and Christmas, the bad news that they were the super duper special editions mark 2 was broken to me by a friend. I dreaded what I would see as I inserted the first disk and.....They weren't as bad as I feared. I welcome the remastered colour and picture quality, I can live with the CGI background changes, I even don't mind the new emperor in ESB and Hayden Christensen's ghost. I can deal with (but can't excuse) the shoddy job they've done with the lightsabres and the boxes around the TIE Fighters etc - anything that I could fix on my home PC should have been the first thing they sorted out, but it doesn't ruin the movie for me so I can let it slide. I can even accept the greedo/Han Solo encounter (I just pretend that it's still the original one, with Han coldly blowing Greedo away).

But, and it's a humungous But...

The Jabba Scene in ANH just HAS to go. Not only does Han stepping on his tail look sh*t, it also takes away from Jabba's menace. It was also great how in the originals this guy Jabba was mentioned in the first 2 movies and unveiled in the third - what a build up. Oh yeah, plus it looks crap.

The CGI Max Rebo band - What the hell is that??!! Embarrasing, irritating, pointless.

On the whole I would say that the special editions are bearable, and they do in fact tie in with the prequels, which, I hate to admit, actually lift the originals to a new level - Vader's redemption is now all the more meaningful and deep, I now look at Obi Wan as an old guy who was a total badass in his day and has seen a lot of action before winding up on Tatooine, and the same goes for Yoda. The characters I loved are now more 3 dimensional and as a result I love them more. However, FCUK the Jabba scene and FCUK Max Rebo and his band. If Anything, couldn't they have just left the original actor talking to Han instead of replacing him with a lame CGI Jabba, and do some CGI magic to their mouths to accomodate a bit more dialogue explaining that he is one of Jabba's debt collectors or henchmen sent to pay Han a visit - that way we would still get a peek of Boba Fett in ANH, and a bigger mention of Jabba before his unveiling in Jedi, but not have to endure the undersized cringeworthy Hutt (Han Ma Bookiii - Oh shut up..)

The box set should have had both versions, the original and the special editions, or 2 boxes and we have the choice to buy whichever we want (I would get both).

And as for the packaging...Sheesh...What is this Photoshop crap? there is a wealth of great 70s and 80s painted artwork to use in a package like this. Even the 1997 Special Edition posters by Drew Struzen were great - couldn't they have used them? Instead we get a cheap and rushed DVD cover worthy of any old movie, not the Star Wars Trilogy - George Lucas should take a leaf out of Peter Jackson's DVD producing book (and maybe his CGI movie making book too). The lord of the rings extended edition DVDs are fantastic in every way - the movies, the menus, the extras, and the packaging.

So that's my grumbles out of the way

May the force be with you all
(except Max Rebo)