deepanddark20

The word "Sith" is far from a prequelism

Let's just hope the villains of the sequel trilogy aren't Kathleen Kennedy, J.J. Abrams, Lawrence Kasdan, and Walt Disney Pictures.

I know Team Blu will be releasing awesome versions of the '97 SE, but until then could someone make a comprehensive list of the versions that are already available right now for '97 SE? (also feel free to make comments about how they compare to each other quality-wise).

I'm thinking that Adywan's 14GB .mkv of Empire Strikes Back is probably the best '97 edition of that movie right now (that I know of anyway) but I don't think he's released '97 editions of the other two.

Honestly Return of the Jedi is the one I'm mostly interested in, because even though the theatrical version is by far my favorite to watch, 1997 was the last time Return of the Jedi was released without changes that stab me in the heart (unlike the other 2 movies). I don't mean to downplay the horribleness of other changes to the trilogy, but the 2004 and 2011 changes to Return of the Jedi specifically are literally traumatizing to watch.

Is it possible to get in on any future screenings?

This wouldn't have been anywhere near Massachusetts would it? Anyway, I'm just jealous of the attendees.

My personal canon is the original unaltered trilogy including the Return of the Jedi story conferences in which Lucas explained that Anakin didn't know his wife was pregnant (therefore her pregnancy had nothing to do with his reasons for turning to the dark side), and that his wife survived the pregnancy and took Leia to Alderaan and died when Leia was very young but still old enough to reasonably have vague memory of her (only Luke was separated at birth).

In my canonical interpretation, Yoda was Obi Wan's master who trained him to be a Jedi (I reject the idea that it was someone else like The Phantom Menace claims). Also in my canon, Obi Wan decided to train Anakin on his own, not to keep a promise to someone else.

I find EU to be very interesting and I like parts of it, but besides my interpretation of unaltered trilogy and those Jedi conferences, there is literally nothing else I consider "canon."

I went to the theater determined to love the prequels. In fact I was so determined, I convinced myself I did love them, and it took me several viewings to realize I don't. They forced me to hate them, kicking and screaming. Yet no matter how many times I watch Return of the Jedi, I don't feel this way about it, not even close.

So yes, I can deceive myself into loving a movie (because of nostalgia or passive viewing or whatever), but there is a limit to how many repeat viewings I can have before I have to admit "okay, this is actually a piece of crap." I watch the Star Wars saga so frequently that if Return of the Jedi were remotely as crappy as the prequels (according to how I judge movies), then I would have realized it by now. It pains me to admit that the prequels are a suckfest and I never wanted to form that conclusion, but after how many times I've seen them I can't deny it anymore.

And this isn't because the prequels have flaws. Repeated viewings of Return of the Jedi have opened my eyes to multiple flaws in that film which ANH and TESB don't have (even though they have their own flaws of a different nature; just to show I can be fair here), and I was planning on loving the prequels even if they were filled with flaws. Of course what constitutes a "flaw" in a movie is a matter of opinion, but that's all this post is (my opinion).

One of the things I actually hate most about living in a world where the prequels exist is that comparisons get made between the prequels and the originals in which people relativize their flaws. A lot of the things that are horrendous about the prequels (acting, dialogue, etc.) were also not oscar-worthy in the originals, but IMO we're talking about a crystal clear categorical difference in quality here. When I complain about the acting/dialogue in the prequels and someone responds by saying "well c'mon, the Star Wars saga never had great acting/dialogue", I want to rip my teeth out.

If it's scientifically possible to make lightsabers more than one color in the Star Wars universe, then it makes sense that different force users would have different personal preferences for their lightsaber color. Having just one "good guy" color and one "bad guy" color seems as outdated as the old westerns where all the good guys only wore white hats and the bad guys only wore black hats. If you were a badass gay Jedi like Mace Windu, would you let people dictate to you that your lightsaber is only allowed to be green? Hell no.

I also reiterate my earlier point that we should hope and pray that colorful lightsabers are the only problem with the new movies... we would be immensely fortunate if it turns out that way (which I don't think it will).

By the way, the gay overtones of the saga are also illustrated by a conversation Vader has with the emperor in Return of the Jedi.

Speaking of Luke, the dialogue goes like this:

Vader: "I have felt him, my master."

Emperor: "Strange that I have not. I wonder if your feelings on this matter are clear, Lord Vader?"

Vader: "They are clear, my master."

AntcuFaalb said: 

Harmy: Any updates on your 1981 crawl?

If there are, don't forget to tell us about them in our EPIV:ANH crawl thread ;)

What's up with Obi Wan claiming "If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine"?

He gets the ability to appear anywhere and talk to people. THAT'S IT. That's a far cry from more powerful than what could be imagined.

Then again, Obi Wan is a pathological liar.

Everyone's welcome to their opinion of course, but I really don't see any issue whatsoever with Leia having a lightsaber.

And let's face it, she will have one. If she doesn't, then the movie will have some serious explaining to do. She's a Skywalker for Christ's sake. Yoda, Ben, and Luke all made statements in the last trilogy implying she's going to be trained. I would take issue with the movie if she doesn't have a saber.

At the very least, even if you don't agree with me so far, I'd be shocked if we can't agree that we have far greater things to worry about from this upcoming movie then whether or not Leia has a saber. Let's not multiply complaints beyond necessity; the complaint list is already huge.

But again, this is merely a suggestion; a variety of opinions is a beautiful thing.

I would have much preferred Peter Jackson directing Star Wars over J.J. Abrams, but that's just me.

My whole life, I have never been a fan of ranking the Star Wars movies above/below each other when it comes to episodes 4, 5, and 6. I have always placed all 3 of them on my highest rank for movies. So I would be hesitant to call RoTJ the "best" movie in the trilogy like the title of this discussion thread does, but that's not because I like ANH or TESB any better.

Having said that, I must admit that the perspective which considers Return of the Jedi to be a significantly inferior achievement to ANH and TESB is a very common one, and many of the reasons given for this perspective are very compelling to me. But it's a perspective that never occurred to me before I read other people expressing it. Which leads me to my next point:

Something just seems really wrong to me about the following scenario: I hold my top level of movie love for Return of the Jedi my whole life into my 30's, and then suddenly I read what people say about it on the internet and it's no longer one of my favorite films. I'm not advocating closed-mindedness, but no matter how much sense people's criticisms of RoTJ make, that scenario doesn't feel right.

I don't have a reasoned-out counter argument for many of the criticisms people level against Jedi. All I know is this: when I sit down to watch it, I have as good an experience as I can expect from a movie. If I read people's criticisms and feel one way, but then watch the movie and feel another way, I think I'll go with the way I feel from actually watching the movie.

I don't appreciate people feeling the need to "explain away" how I feel about Jedi by assuming that I must just be blinded by nostalgia or some other factor, as though the critical opinion of Jedi is the "correct" one and mine is the "biased" one. If we're honest, we can admit that all of our opinions are subjective.

And for those who insist that it makes no sense to love Jedi but hate the prequels, get ready for this: I think the prequels are a suckfest from episode I all the way through episode 3.

Is it possible to get this theatrical version of Phantom Menace anymore?

Episode VII Here We Go Again

Episode VIII I Have a Bad Feeling About This

Episode IX How Rude

If Disney releases the OUT, will they replace the 20th Century Fox fanfare/logo at the beginning? Even if the entire rest of the movie after that is the unaltered theatrical version, it still wouldn't be acceptable to me. I'm already having a hard enough time accepting the fact that every Star Wars movie from now on (starting with VII) will not open with the fox logo/fanfare... if Disney removes it from any of the previously released movies, I won't buy a copy.

Then again, if the logo is the only thing they change, someone here at originaltrilogy.com can easily fix it :)

So I suppose getting something from Disney that repeats the mistakes of GOUT is a bigger concern.

Thank you so much Harmy, that's very cool and promising. Yet another exciting thing to look forward to.

And thank you Mavimao for your comparison.

Actually there is some legitimate debate as to whether or not the clean up by Lowry is specifically to blame for some of those losses, like the star fields. But it is a fact that the masters used for the 2004/2011 releases (and Harmy's DeEd) have those problems, whatever the cause. And it sucks that it wasn't caught and corrected (or recalled). So much for supposed "professionals."

Still, since that's the way that Lucas released his Special Editions on DVD and Blu Ray, it's reasonable to assume that that's the way the unaltered trilogy also would have looked, if he had listened to his fans and released it with a modern remaster alongside the others.

"Please leave the remixing to the non professionals George." - this statement is how the reviewer ends his review of the Star Wars Saga Blu Ray boxed set on wired.com

Knowing is half the battle, DominicCobb

Exactly. Then while Palpatine is in the middle of saying "no" repeatedly, show Windu lift his lightsaber in the air out of frustration, like he's going to kill him just to shut him up.

Come to think of it, I think Anakin might scream "No" somewhere around there too. The whole thing can turn into a big "no" fest

In the scene when Mace Windu has Palpatine on the ground with his purple lightsaber pointed at him (geez that sounds dirty), Palpatine already says the word "no" a silly number of times. You should have him say it even more times so it sounds more ridiculous.

These ridiculous edits are a lot of fun Frink. I can't thank you enough for making me actually laugh out loud at Jar Jar Binks. This is the way these movies were meant to be seen.

Why don't I have my HD extended prequel cuts yet? You people have had a whole day to fulfill my request and I still see nothing. I'm supposed to get what I want! I'm not as forgiving as nightstalkerpoet. Oh yea, and stop ignoring his ideas too. Don't make me ask again!!!

This is very interesting information guys, thanks!

Again, my awkwardness is your perception, but I do very much appreciate your reconciliatory tone. Thank you very much for that. Please PM me about any further comments you want to make about my delivery in my posts, if any.

My request about an HD extended cut of the prequel trilogy got sidelined by this. Getting back to the subject of this thread (reincorporating Star Wars deleted scenes).....

I also have ADigitalMan's SD extended cuts on my hard drive (and I'm willing to upload them to MySpleen if there's demand for that), but I think it would be awesome if someone redid them using the 1080p version of the movie. So if anyone is reading this who might possibly have the ability/desire to do the prequel trilogy extended cuts in HD, I would be excited and grateful.

Honestly, the fact that pleasant friendly people like Harmy are members of this forum is the thing that keeps me sticking around.

When simply taken at face value without reading between the lines, my posts to the forum do not necessarily have to be seen in the way you have described, not even remotely. You are of course welcome to your subjective opinion of me, but if there are things in your perspective of me that are at all negative or critical, I would appreciate it if you would PM me about them instead of publicly painting me with your perspective in front of everyone. If this had started the other way around, I would have had the respect for you to take the PM approach. The only reason for you to do this publicly is to get affirmation of your perspective from others, such as Frink's response of laughter (or the further posts I'm sure will follow this, saying that I'm overreacting and thin skinned and that you are in the right). I again shake my head at the thought that if and when a moderator steps into this, I'll be the one told to pipe down and not you, which I think is ridiculous.

I can honestly tell you, regarding my posts (since I'm the one who made them), that they have been way more innocent than what you have made them out to be. I can open my mind enough to be able to see where you're coming from, but I still say that you have had to read between the lines a bit to arrive at your conclusions, wheras the negativity in your post about me is much more direct and specific. My posts have not contained any negativity explicitly personally directed at particular forum members. You on the other hand are directly telling me I'm being moochy and snobbish. I don't speak that way to other forum members because I think it's very presumptive, but you don't seem to have any problem with it at all, yet I'm the one who you say should be more friendly?

If you've been following my posts so closely, have you intentionally ignored the fact that I've gone out of my way to emphasize that I'm not entitled for anyone to fulfill my requests and that therefore if they do fulfill them I would be very grateful and undeserving? I suppose you've also ignored my offer to upload my copies of L8wrtr's prequel edits to MySpleen if anyone wants them. And anyway who do you think you are to critique my posts and advise me on how I ought to post in the future?

And again, the main issue with this is that you're doing it publicly instead of in a PM (the only reason what I'm typing right now is not PM'd is because you brought this to a public thread).