What's Wrong With The Special?

[ExileRevan]

Well this just may be my anol retentive attention to detail talking but, Han shooting first imortalised his character to me. Anything else just isnt quite right to me. Plus the added stop-motion Jabba the Hutt was a pointless scene which was, I beleive a replacement scene for Han shooting Greedo, because Greedo can be seen walking off screen when the outragiously skinny Jabba the Hutt leaves.

[Henz]

Originally Posted by MacCorp

What if George decided in about twenty years to change Hayden's face in Episode II and III to a digitally younger David Prowse (The Original Darth Vader)? Would you be upset?

Think about it this way: Several of us have been bourght up with the original cut of Star Wars for 30 years. One day, George decided to make tweaks to his films. After making several cool tweaks, he also managed to make some argumental tweaks. The movie that I grew up with no longer exists. The movie that I fell to admire for its place in film history has been overhauled in a way that is indifferent. If the Star Wars saga was built from Episode I - VI, from the very beginning, I would probally not like the franchise. Episode I-III don't sit well with me. When it comes to George making changes to Episode IV-VI, this ultimately changes the story I grew up with.

From my perspective: Luke Skywalker & Han Solo are at the center of Star Wars.

To everyone who did not see the original 1977 cut, they see Anikan Skywalker at the center of Star Wars.

Boba Fett is a prime example of another change, which I honestly didn't want to see happen. I felt that seeing Boba Fett as a child ruined my perspective of him. I rather think he is ruthless, but now I see him as a cheap kid in a bounty hunters suit looking for revenge.

Mediclorians (sp?) are another example of horrible changes to the story. I grew up with the force being an energy filed, which a human can summons and control. Now, that idea was crushed by the medaclorians. Grrr....

Princes Leia's story is intresting. She was the only one who remembered what her mothers face looked like. Episode III messed that logic up. A five minute old baby will not remember the events that occur at the time. I personally thought Leia was brought up for a few years or so by her mother, and Luke was seperated from them to protect them fromVader. Combined, they act like a force beacon, which Vader could find and locate. Seperately, the force would bee too weak for Vader to notice.

None of that bothers me as every example was merely an assumption that was later defined.

The gay-ness' of the colouring in the DVD editions... Are they all present in the 2 disc releases with the original versions too, or did they fix them?

[Kurgan]

Originally Posted by Henz

None of that bothers me as every example was merely an assumption that was later defined.

The gay-ness' of the colouring in the DVD editions... Are they all present in the 2 disc releases with the original versions too, or did they fix them?

Sorry, but the 2004 Special Edition of each of the movies ("disc 1" on the 2006 release) is the same here as it was in the 2005 "Limited Edition" and the 2004 Four Disc set.

It hasn't been fixed or changed at all except for the lettering on the disc label. The colors are still wrong... nothing's been fixed.

Thankfully the colors in the "Bonus discs" (disc 2, theatrical editions) are accurate.

I guess to summurize how I'm feeling at the moment.. the 2004 Editions would be far less offensive to me if the sound and video/color gaffes were all fixed up. But I couldn't justify buying them a third time just for that... (I have purchased them twice now, once when I got the four disc set and when I purchased the three 2006 sets).

Then I think I'd just consider the 2004 SE's to just be lame. As is I have to consider them "broken." They're like a hugely hyped and much anticipated game that comes out full of bugs and remains unpatched.

Had I known that Lucas was going to release the 2006 sets back in the day, I would have skipped buying the 2004 package, and just caught the "Bonus Materials" disc 4 on rental or purchased it seperately on Amazon.com.

Now I hear the supposedly "Limited Editions" are still widely available. So much for the hype!


The 2006 "theatrical versions" on the bonus discs are good, but not complete. Had they included the original theatrical soundtracks as an option and anamorphic widescreen they'd be perfect, though. Add the long missed deleted scenes and vintage documentaries as bonus material and you'd have the ultimate OT DVD experience. Too bad Lucas doesn't have the sense to do that...

[Sir Phobos]

The Sarlacc's beak and the fake looking Jabba in ANH sort of rubbed me wrong. Other than that the SE is just fine, nothing to get hyphy over.

[Kurgan]

You've gotta admit though, Luke screaming, Greedo shooting (and Han head bobbin'), and Temura Morrison's phoned in performance for the redubbing of Boba Fett were pretty dumb changes though (I'm surprised Fett fans aren't more angry with the latter, but I guess they've switched from liking Boba to liking Jango?). And what's with the Emperor's dead-pan acting in the altered ESB hologram scene? The makeup looks off somehow... and why did they alter the dialog? Unnecessary.

And pasting Hayden Christiansen (from stock footage costume tests for crying out loud) on top of Sebastian Shaw's body was unforgiveable.

Still...

I'm more pissed about the awfully botched "restoration job" and bare bones feeling of the extras in the 2004 edition (when you look at it, most of them are dated advertisments for video games or fluff teaser pieces for Episode III), than just the idea of the Special Editions.

Any "fan" of the Special Editions should be pissed about that. Sure the picture is sharper and there's less grain, but the colors are all wrong and it's too dark. The sound is off on the english/spanish tracks of ANH as well. Compared to the 1997 editions that we saw in theaters, these DVD's look like crap! Of course people who have never seen Star Wars before won't notice this, though they will notice how lightsabers keep changing colors!

Lucas hemed and hawed for so long before finally releasing the originals on DVD in 2006. I'm glad that finally happened, but was that so hard? He should have released those back in '97-'98 (along with the '97 special editions which STILL have never been officially releasd on DVD), and released the 2004 editions for the 30th anniversary (done properly), and included an anamorphic original theatrical trilogy for the box set.

[Lord XZantor]

I wouls say both. But i said origanel. For the little money the had, they did a good job. And while I was watching the beginning of the special addition, i listened to the guys talk. How they refered to parts of it, like under the speder in Mos eisly, it was funny, you know the "force" under the speder. LOL!

[Jediknight1818]

I liked the new altered versions way better. I grew up with the old ones too but, the way the special effects were updated just improved the movies as a whole. Besides some changes were made for the better like putting Hayden at the end of ROTJ made episodes 4,5,and 6 match up w/ episodes 1,2, and 3. Thats the way I see it anyway but no one is going to have the same opinion.

[jawathehutt]

I would say the new one, since its the only one I own and it looks better than the original. Although I dont like all the changes they made to the box set, and I agree with kurgan that the special features disk sucked.

[BigMike322]

The originals hands down. Some of the updates are good, but when looking at the films as a whole, the originals are still better in my opinion.

[Kurgan]

I still can't quite fathom how anyone can honestly say the 2004 editions "look better." It reminds me of a bad colorization job done on a black and white film!

I bet the folks who claim to prefer the 2004 editions haven't seen the originals in awhile to compare...


LucasFilm/Fox really should have refunded the people who bought the first edition and I'm shocked that they haven't fixed the colors/contrast and sound glitches in all this time (can you believe it's been 3 years since the 2004 "box set" came out?!).

[BigMike322]

Greedo shooting first killed the remakes for me. Although I do like the added scenery. The Jabba the Hut scene is flawed because Han calls Jabba "A wonderful human being". I know this is because it was a human in a costume, but this obviously doesn't flow with the final product of the Jabba the Hut character. As far as the dvd's go, Ian Mcdiarmid as Palpatine in Episode V is cool, but Hayden (I forget how to spell is last name) as the spirit form sucks. All they did is edit the head, and it doesn't look good because he is wearing robes that Hayden never wore. Watch episodes 2 and 3, he's not wearing the standard robes.

[Han-Solo]

Both are amazing

[adamqd]

Theres a lot of elitist Star Wars Fans, some say unless you watch the latest version of the movies and know all the EU you don't qualify, others say only the OT is good, the PT sucks, and the EU is Convoluted blah blah, You cant win. I personally experienced the Originals from 1983 onwards, but I am completely happy with the SE, I think the changes suit the current vision of Star Wars, and, I even prefer the "New" End Celebration Song to the Ewok folk song (Gasp)

[Rev7]

Originally Posted by McCusto

I liked the DVD versions just because the old Anakin and Emperor just didn't fit into the movie.

Well, wasn't the 'old' Emperor the same Emperor from the prequals? The old Anakin was technically in the movie....

I chose the DVD (2004) special edition, just because it was digitally re-mastered, and was a DVD.

[TKA-001]

I vote for both because nearly all of the differences are so trivial that I find it ludicrous that there have been entire threads on hundreds of forums across the internet arguing over whether the unmasked Vader at the end of ROTJ has eyebrows or not.