^that, in my opinion, is the most dangerous attitude of all. “Just change back the most offensive parts” is every bit as revisionist as any special edition so far, but far more insidious and dangerous to history because it appeases the ire of many which reduces demand and interest in the actual original cuts even more. It’s an extremely slippery slope.
The Empire Strikes Back - Unnecessary changes were unnecessary.
Once again the new color timing and 4K master (even at 1080p) looked flipping amazing. I cannot stress enough how pleased I am that people watching the SE now have a decent looking version of it!
It’s still one of my favorite movies ever made (probably THE favorite) so enough said about that.
It’s been interesting watching Vader with the mindset of the PT and how he turned to the dark side to gain power and control to bring order to the galaxy but has completely failed at it. Gave a little extra weight to his plea to Luke.
This may be the least offensive of the SE’s but it is still offensive. Some of the new cloud city stuff is kinda cool, but then a lot of it is very sloppily done. Case in point, in leia’s apartment on cloud city the shadows from the roof window very clearly indicate the center circle is NOT a window, yet we see a cloud car fly through it! That’s bugged me since 1997!
The worst offenses are the extra wampa scenes and the Vader going to his star destroyer additions. The wampa scenes are gratuitous and completely erode the dread we feel from the fear of the unknown. The Vader stuff totally destroys the tension built by the marvelous editing of the escape from Bespin. Like TOTALLY ruins it! It kinda pissed me off honestly.
But, the duel in cloud city (my favorite scene in all of cinema) looks GREAT and the lightsabers finally look like they’re supposed to, so there’s that.
the worst SW ever
You rang?
Well said ZkinandBonez. While we might have minor differences in opinion here and there, I think you did a great job generally summing up my thoughts on the show so far. Episode 2 is also my favorite. I totally love that episode and may be unfairly judging every episode since (even though I love episode 3 and 4 too).
And I don’t dislike any episode, I just found the most recent two to be weaker when compared to some of the material that came before. I did find the twileks to be rather cringe-inducing clichéd ‘90’s cyberpunk (if that’s the right word?) stereotypes and I think they brought the whole episode down a notch.
The latest episode once again suffered from either some poor casting choices, weak direction, or maybe a bit of both. It was a decent story and had some pretty good bits and pieces, it also had some major issues and the whole just didn’t gel properly for me. I think the last two episodes have been the weakest so far and I hope the final two episodes swing back to the greatness of the first four.
Star Wars (A New Hope) - man, I haven’t seen the episode IV subtitle since the 2006 GOUT discs came out. The main title recedes ridiculously fast, it almost made me laugh!
Even at lowly 1080p the new Disney+ version looks really nice. A MASSIVE improvement over the clips I’ve seen from the dvd or BD versions.
As I said, I’ve not watched any of the SEs since the days of VHS, and I’ve never watched any SE iteration beyond the 1997 cuts. For the most part, I dislike the changes and find them obtrusive and distracting. I will admit I actually like the Biggs scene in the hangar and the new fix to Obi-wans lightsaber. Everything else sucks.
Of all things, the change I actually dislike the most is the changes to the battle of Yavin. I’m a huge fan of models and miniatures, both in film effects and as a hobby in real life. Seeing all the beautiful artistry replaced with crummy 90’s cgi was just painful.
But despite the hindrance of being the SE, it’s still such a great film. It’s been very fun watching this from an “in-universe” historical perspective seeing the old republic fall, the rise of the empire, and all the little details in the films about such things. I think Solo and Rogue One do a fantastic job bridging the gap between the PT and the OT.
It’s also been fun seeing how the little details in the PT and those two Disney films line up with the backstory given through the dialogue of ANH.
It has also put something into perspective that’s always been there but didn’t really register before. The empire has been in control for about two decades, give or take. Which is long enough to feel like “forever” to many people but it’s still relatively new in terms of massive empires and there’s lots of little details pointing out how they don’t have complete and total control yet and they are still struggling to get it.
I dunno, it’s just been interesting watching the galaxy go from long peace to this huge civil war to a totalitarian dictatorship and how even under the empire the turmoil is still bitter and ongoing. Anakin never achieved his goal of ending the conflict, which I think will give even more impact to his plea for Luke to join him and rule the galaxy as father and son when I watch ESB in a few days…
I didn’t know about this Yojimbo film, but I guess for a good reason.
If you reuse something you should make it better, as all of those pictures you mentioned here did.
What makes you think that’s true? If you’ve never, by your own admission, even heard of them? Because I assure you it is not.
Oof I’m glad you got to this before I did. Yojimbo is a SPECTACULAR film and very much the better of the two.
Jedit: oh geez, I just realized he’s also implying Magnificent Seven is an improvement over Seven Samurai…! Egad!
Return of the jedit:
I should’ve read his whole post before commenting! If you didn’t realize that Magnificent Seven was a blatant remake of Seven Samurai, then you had never seen Seven Samurai. Same goes for Yojimbo/Fistful of Dollars.
Your argument is preposterous. I stand by my statement that it doesn’t matter if it’s been done before, all that matters is how well THIS version does it.
Meh, I like the ensemble cast as is. I agree Chirrut and K2 are my favorites, but I thoroughly enjoy Baze and his brotherhood with Chirrut (plus the little dynamic of the still deeply faithful and the guy who lost his religion still being such tightly knit friends). I also really like Cassian (can’t wait for that D+ show!) and Jyn has grown on me a lot. I’ve had the opposite reaction to whoever said their rating has dropped; I love this movie more each time I watch it.
Well, I don’t have a 4K set, but I watched ANH last night in 1080p and it looked fantastic. The color timing looked extremely similar to 4K77, which is a very good thing, imo. And yeah, like others have said, many of the screenshots posted showing the colors being really washed out do NOT represent how it looked when I watched it. It was very nice looking and a real breath of fresh air compared to every other release from the past 14 years.
JEDIT: just checked on my iPad and ANH looks just as good. I did have to remember to turn my screen brightness back up. Normally I turn the brightness down to about 50% or less, but when watching videos (any videos, not just Disney+) I have to turn it up to 80%-100% for the contrast to be reasonable.
Rogue One - now we’re really getting to the good stuff. I love this movie to death! It’s not perfect, the ending gets a bit too convoluted for its own good. But I don’t care. This movie is mid 90’s EU come to life in the best possible way!
Speaking of the ending, I do think it could’ve been reworked a little to be less convoluted. There are two main issues.
First, the whole bit about “they’ve closed the shield and we’re trapped. But we can transmit the data. But we have to open the shield to do that, which would let us escape anyway…” I think this could’ve been easily handled by just saying “they’ve closed the shield, we’re trapped and have no way to get the plans out. They have to break the shield. We can transmit the plans to make sure they get out and then try to figure out a way off this planet.”
The second issue is the whole “master switch” business. They could’ve simplified this by having pretty much all the same events transpire, but with the goal simply being to run the cord from Bhodi’s ship to an imperial comm outpost so he can broadcast his message to the rebel fleet. No convoluted master switch business to muddy up the proceedings.
But it only took me watching the film a dozen times to come up with those ideas, so I don’t hold it against the filmmakers too much.
Otherwise I love this movie and everything about it. I rank it behind only Star Wars and ESB among the theatrical films.
Yeah, we know. We’ve discussed it all already. Shogun Assassin is just a film compiled from parts of the first two Lone Wolf and Cub films, edited together for American theatrical release. Magnificent Seven is just “reused material” (to quote you) from Seven Samurai set in the American West rather than Feudal Japan.
Did you know Star Wars (1977) is just a bunch of standard hero and myth tropes jumbled together with a bit of fantasy, western, and samurai genres all blended together? Did you know Fistful of Dollars is just a spaghetti western remake of Yojimbo? Things reuse ideas from previous things. Omg! There’s a reason the word “tropes” exits…
The issue is, how well does THIS media execute those ideas? I thought episode 5 was possibly the weakest so far. I still liked it, but it definitely had some issues with the casting and maybe the directing imo. I still think episode 2 and 3 were the high point so far but this is still a very fun series! I’m sad we’ve got only, what, two more to go this season?
Solo - this movie is so much better than it had any right to be! I really enjoy it and honestly don’t have any major complaints. I mean, really, my biggest issue is the modern, punchier blaster sound effects Disney seems to love just don’t sound as Star Wars-y as they should.
I think they did an amazing job with casting Han, Lando, and Chewie! I totally believe these are the guys who grow into our beloved OT characters.
Enfys Nest is awesome. The costume design is great (her whole band of marauders have awesome costumes, love the Native American influences!) and the character is unique and interesting. And her fights, short as they are, are amazing. I love the “feather shields” on her forearms that deflect laser blasts, her staff is wickedly cool, and her fighting style is unique, fun to watch, and believably effective. I love how if you closely watch her fight Becket on the train, you can clearly see she’s intentionally not Using lethal force. She is super aggressive and charges him, pins his blaster down and cuts it in half, then uses the energy pulse side of her staff to knock him away. She could have easily killed him but very clearly chose not to. Just a cool little tidbit that’s easy to miss because it happens so fast.
I could go on about all the things I like in this movie, but to sum it up, this movie somehow overcame some seriously massive obstacles to be a pretty great Han Solo adventure. It’s a shame it “underperformed” because I’d love to see another stand alone adventure or two with these younger versions.
Yeah, they may not be perfect, but they are a massive step in the right direction (regarding color) from every previous release since 2004. I’ll admit it actually goes a long way to healing old wounds, so to speak. Having the fan-made 4K series more than 2/3 done along with official versions that actually look decent again (even if they’re not my preferred versions of the OT), as well as some pretty great new content in recent years has moved my “love/hate” opinion of Lucasfilm a bit further towards the “love” column. If they’d just suck it up and officially release reasonably competent 4K versions of the OOT all would be forgiven at this point.
Revenge of the Sith - eh. It’s kinda like TPM to me in that I’m mostly indifferent to it. There’s bits I like alright, there’s bits that I think are pretty atrocious, and then there’s huge segments that I find either quite boring or just sloppy. Thankfully it doesn’t fill me with the sense of frustrated anger and disgust that the last third of AOTC does.
I was surprised to admit that I didn’t hate Anakin’s turn to the dark side this time. Don’t get me wrong, his primary motivation (stopping death) is still lame and the actual turn happens too quickly to be convincing, but I more clearly saw how all the building blocks were there throughout the trilogy leading up to this point and it did actually mostly make sense. And I even give Hayden some real credit. I think had they leaned harder into his trust issues with the Jedi, his infatuation with his own growing powers, his desire to “end the destructive conflict” by any means necessary, and his willingness to break Jedi oathes for his own satisfaction (marrying Padme) and gotten better writers to handle it all and a better dramatic director, this could’ve really worked. And I think Hayden could have pulled it off.
I have to say, this movie looked like absolute garbage. The cgi is far too often just atrocious and the movie looks like a cartoon or video game. The massive amounts of painfully obvious green screen composites really hurt it too.
The sword choreography is still pretty terrible but it’s at least a bit better than AOTC. The actual choreography for the big fight between Anakin and Obi-wan is pretty bad but I will say that I genuinely liked the ferocity, energy, and passion of the fight, even if the actual techniques/moves looked fake. The anger, brutality, and speed in the fight felt appropriate and real for a fight between two close “brothers” who’ve had a devastating, relationship-ending disagreement. The set pieces in the fight are also mostly pretty awesome until they just get too outlandish to suspend disbelief.
Unfortunately the fight is undermined by the preposterous end. The high ground thing is bad enough, but its what happens next that really kinda kills it. Obiwan has dismembered Anakin and won the fight. He calls him his brother and says how much he loved Anakin. Then he flipping sits there and watches him burn and then just walks away while his best friend writhes in agony! It’s so wrong! Anyone with half a heart would’ve realized the fight and argument were over and less important than helping your friend at that point, no matter how much you disagreed with each other! I feel like this portion should been handled differently. Something like, their fight and emotions are reaching a peak when Obi-wan gains an advantage and cuts Anakin’s legs off. Anakin drops his saber and falls off some massive ledge or something. Basically obi-wan thinks he’s assuredly dead, not realizing he survived the fall (and subsequently gets burned by the lava just like in the film). Obi-wan has already seen the security footage of Anakin taking the name Darth Vader, so when he hears of Darth Vader running around with the empire, that’s when he’d realize that Anakin survived. It would also make hiding Luke on Tatooine seem much less stupid on Obi-wan’s part if he thinks Anakin is dead when he makes that decision.
Overall this has been an interesting exercise. The ire and frustration I used to feel towards the prequels is mostly gone. They’re pretty crummy movies but I don’t loathe their existence like I used too. I guess time really does heal all wounds. Not that I ever cared so much that it affected me in any serious way. But I did avoid these movies for so long because they did elicit genuine feelings of anger, frustration, and disappointment. But now I’m mostly fine with TPM and ROTS. I still take exception to AOTC. It just sucks so bad and the third act with the droid factory and Yoda fight just destroy any mercy I might’ve been willing to give it.
I will say that, had George been more of the “big picture, overall story arc” guy and hired truly talented writers and directors and allowed good creative types to reign in some of his more terrible ideas (like anakin building threepio, jar jar, excessive cgi, the droid factory comedic sequence, etc.) i actually think this could’ve been a very good trilogy. The building blocks are there for a great story, but the execution just totally flounders.
Mmm, picking just one is difficult. I’d say if I had to sell off my collection I know the last thing that I’d part with, so I guess it would be my favorite.
The eFx PCR Darth Vader helmet. There are higher quality (and much higher priced) Vader helmets out there, but for the money this thing is spectacular. It’s a replica of the original 1977 helmet and it has a well documented lineage that traces directly back to that original screen-used helmet. Basically, some time after filming Rick Baker cast a mold of the actual screen used helmet (probably in 1978) and that mold was digitally scanned and used as the basis for this prop replica.
Other runners up would be my Hot Toys ESB Darth Vader 1/6 figure, my Mafex Boba Fett figures (both ESB and ROTJ versions), and, of all things, my micro machine collection. I always loved Star Wars micro machines and when they started producing them again when TFA came out, I dove in hard. I was quite disappointed when they canned the line again after R1 but I’m glad we got what we did.
What else about the first third of the movie did you feel made it fair better than what you remembered?
I’m not sure other than it didn’t suck as much as I expected it to based on my memories of the film. But I think it’s because the last two thirds (especially the third act) leave such an awful, putrid taste in my mouth that it spoils the whole experience and overpowers any other thoughts or memories I had of the movie. I basically was thinking, “hey, this isn’t as bad as I remember. It’s more or less on par with TPM.” But then the rest of the movie happened…
Do you not like that Anakin slaughtered the Tuskens, or that he told Padme he did and didn’t seem to register that big red flag?
Padme’s reaction (or, really, complete lack thereof) is the problem. “Hey, I just flew off the handle and murdered a bunch of women and children in a blind rage.” “Oh you poor thing, let me comfort you and empathize with your psychopathy.” Interestingly, I found Hayden’s acting during his confession to be quite good. He really comes across as genuine in his anger and it’s quite terrifying.
Yeah, the swordplay definitely feels like a downgrade compared to TPM, not only with the choreography but the location felt less interesting as well. I think it would’ve been an interesting contrast if they had shot and blocked the choreography more akin to the fight scenes in Ridley Scott’s The Duelists. It would have shown how Dooku was a more dangerous opponent than the aggressive Maul because if you made one mistake he would exploit it and kill you. It would have made the duel tense in a different way, and suited Christopher Lee’s capabilities as an actor. I almost feel like they may have been going for this, but it doesn’t feel like it was shot or cut with that in mind.
I’ve not seen The Duelists (but thanks for keying me in, it’s now on my list!) but yes, a more refined, precise, and icily ominous style would’ve suited Christopher Lee far better than the rave party spinning glow stick fights he was saddled with.
Attack of the Clones - I think I watched this movie in its entirety 4 times now. I saw it opening night and hated it. I saw it again the next day because we had already bought the tickets and I wanted to give it a second chance. Then I bought the dvd when it came out and gave it a third chance and have never watched it again until now.
My opinion has not changed. I will admit that I was surprised the first third or so fared better than I remembered. I always thought the chase for Zam Wessel on coruscant was boring but I actually enjoyed it this time. And overall I felt much the same as I did about TPM: not great but I don’t hate it.
Then we have the worst, most awkward and unconvincing romance scenes I’ve ever sat through. Then we have Padme comforting Anakin after slaughtering an entire clan of sentient beings. Then we have the droid factory and battle scenes with 3PO where he quite literally becomes a cartoon.
And then Yoda uses a lightsaber.
I hate this movie. It is wholly unredeemable and I have no desire to see it again.
Oh and the sword choreography in this absolutely sucks. It’s a big step down from TPM.
I thought it was good. It’s a familiar and, at this point, kinda cliché story. But I thought it was helped by the characters and some particulars unique in this version. The Mandalorian (the character) has quickly become a favorite of mine, and his growing relationship with the Yadpole is engaging. The Yadpole himself is awesome and while I know they are playing him for all his cuteness is worth, it’s totally working. Cara Dune was another interesting addition and I’d be game for more appearances by her but I’m also ok with this being her only interaction with “Mando”. So yeah, not the strongest episode but still a good one. I still think episode 2 was the best so far. It was nigh perfection, imo.
Also, does “Mando” remind anyone else of “Hondo” or is that just me?..
Well, I’m going for it. I’m watching all the “official canon” versions of the theatrically released live action Star Wars films (mostly via Disney+) in preparation for TROS. I haven’t watched the prequels in over a decade and the special editions of the OT in even longer.
The Phantom Menace - you know, I don’t hate it. I don’t particularly like it, but I don’t hate it. It has some good things in it. Obi-wan and Qui-gon are both great casting choices and pretty well acted given the material and environment they had to work with. And Qui-gon is actually an interesting character. Darth Maul is also a positive. He looks cool in a very space-age-medieval Star Warsy way and he’s kinda mysterious and ominous. There’s some decently cool locations, sets, and costumes. Much of what we see on Naboo and Coruscant look like natural extrapolations/evolutions of the kind of designs we see in Cloud City, and that’s a good thing.
The story is also not terrible on paper. It had the potential to be a cool political drama/thriller a la something from the BBC. Unfortunately it falls WAY short of any of that potential and ends up being just incredibly boring for long stretches.
I’ve made some lengthy posts about sword combat in the Star Wars franchise and have been particularly critical of the prequels, so I was curious to see how this would hold up. The combat is not terrible. It’s not very realistic, even for a movie, but it’s fun and engaging and it doesn’t immediately make me roll my eyes or groan in disgust. It’s decent stage combat. And, more importantly, it’s fun and exciting to watch, even for someone who can apply a pretty critical eye to choreographed sword fights.
Overall it could’ve been a lot worse. I doubt I’ll have any desire to revisit it again anytime soon but I don’t recoil at the thought of sitting through this movie again someday.
Haha, that was great!
So I’ve been watching Star Wars Rebels with my kids on D+. Four episodes in and it’s pretty darn great for a kids’ cartoon show. It does have some pretty lazy dialogue, though. I swear the writers were taking bets on who could make the most reference to famous lines from the OT in a single episode.
But the characters are good, if not terribly original and the storyline so far is fun and interesting. And, importantly, it just looks and feels like you automatically think a kid’s Star Wars cartoon should look and feel like.
If you’re really adamant about not giving the creators of the show you desire to watch even a single penny, they do offer a free 7 day trial. You could just wait until the whole season is uploaded in a few weeks and sign up to watch it then. And just cancel before they charge you.
Yeah, I’m loving it too, but I agree they could slow it down a bit. Any of the episodes so far could be easily stretched into two parters, especially this most recent episode.
Also, minor side note; were the two villagers who first approached Mando meant to be a homage to the Kurosawa “Hidden Fortress” characters that inspired R2 and 3PO? That was my first thought, at least.
Perhaps, but this one was so obviously an homage to (or even blatant copy of) Seven Samurai that I imagine they more likely were inspired by the peasants sent to hire the samurai in that film.
But that makes me want to mention that I’m loving the very clear inspiration classic samurai and western films (which in my mind are often one in the same genre in so many ways) have had on the show. It’s only fitting since those same films were a major inspiration for the creation of Star Wars in the first place, but it’s nice to see the creators going back to the source, so to speak, when looking for inspiration with which to creat new and original Star Wars content.
But it’s not in cold blood. Even in the original cut, it’s very clear that Han’s in serious poop. He’s held at gun point and Greedo made a not so subtle threat against his life moments earlier (“Over my dead body.” - “That’s the idea…”).
But otherwise, yes. Han shoots. Period.
So after watching the recap at the beginning, and then seeing him use the knife again in episode 3 it finally dawned on me that it’s a vibro-blade (I actually thought his hand was shaking in fear or exhaustion when he held the knife out against the space rhino). So maybe it wasn’t poisoned? I still don’t know that I buy being a vibro-blade is enough to have taken out that huge animal but, you know, mystical space tech… so, maybe?
I enjoyed episode 3 but 2 is still the best so far. I’m enjoying the mandalorian culture so far. I watched the whole clone wars cartoon series on Netflix a while back, but I really don’t remember many details. I wish the jet packs had more sparky and smokey rocket flames a la ROTJ Boba Fett instead of the clean, soulless cgi rocket flames we got…