I have finished watching the newest version of the original films.
As stated before, A New Hope was relatively unchanged. Greedo still shoots first, but the delay between his shot and Han’s was changed a bit. Han also moves out of the way of the shot a bit more smoothly. I still can’t help but be pissed at this. by changing it again he’s saying that he was wrong for changing it to begin with but didn’t want to admit it by going back to the original. The rest of the film went unchanged, which is to say that it was the Special Edition.
Empire Strikes Back was relatively unchanged. One sizable difference was the conversation between the Emperor and Darth where they put in Ian McDiarmid in to replace the old face/voice. The dialog was changed a bit, too. Apparently they had used some old voice track of James Earl Jones, which wouldn’t bother me one way or the other. The scene was decent enough, and the fact that they went for consistency was okay by me. I thought the previous voice for the Emperor was a bit weak, personally.
Then Return of the Jedi came around. The whole movie went off without a hitch, which is to say that is was the Special Edition version, until the very end. I’ve ranted about it before, but here it comes again. They replaced ghost Anakin at the end with Hayden Christensen. This is wrong on several levels. First, of course, is the whole “Art shouldn’t be changed but preserved” argument. That’s been beaten into the ground. Then there’s the fact that all of the negative feelings people have towards the prequels are now being transfered over to the original trilogy (the term “original” is used loosely here). My major beef is plot. I’m assuming that George somehow rationalized using young Anakin by saying that he was the “good” Anakin that had been restored. Another way of looking at it might be that this ghost’s apparent age is when he strayed from the path. Either way of explaining it shows total disregard for his redemption at the end. If he had been truly redeemed he would have remained at his current age.
I could go on, but I might throw something heavy.
Why didn’t he just animate the whole thing and get it over with
What’s funny is that he dabbled in that. There’s a little known Star Wars Christmas Special that came out right after A New Hope that included a cartoon that introduced Boba Fett. This special also involved appearances by Bea Arthur, Art Carney, and Jefferson Starship. I couldn’t make this up if I tried.
Yowza.
and for your sanity don’t ever watch it.
not to mention the animated Clone Wars on Cartoon Network.
jar jar was lame. I would go out on a limb and say that was a lucas biggest mistake.
I have said Christmas Special on tape. Your sanity will be tested should you watch it. The whole story is that Han and Chewbacca are trying to get back to Chewie’s family for Lifeday. Chewie’s family, you ask? Oh, there’s his father Itchy, Chewie’s wife Malla, and their son Lumpy. Yes, Chewbacca has a son named Lumpy. Again, there’s no way I could make this up.
Here’s a site for the show
Check the list of characters, if you don’t believe me.
I love the grampa Wookie :) http://www.starwarsholidayspecial.com/images/photos/wookiee_family/chewie_family_1.jpg
Itchy. yeah…that whole VR sex thing is a bit odd…
Chewie does have a son named Lumpy. Or Lumparrawump or something like that. I think he’s a Jedi.
Carrie Fisher looks extremely spacy and coked up the whole time. Mark Hamill is wearing a metric ton of makeup.
This must be watched as a group thing. My VHS copy is extremely hazy, but it’s the real deal.
Well a good explanation for that is that she was spacy and coked up. Hamill probably was trying to cover the scars that he got from that car wreck or whatever…
Oh, I know, it’s just totally funny to watch. Alec Guiness wanted nothing to do with it, but could you really blame him?