[Despondent]

Ditto.

Great Work, Chefelf. The scales are fun, too. Heck it's one big hilarious adventure, and I'm grateful you've expanded it for our amusement and participation.

[Private Zod]

Great list. My most hated (exception of Greddo debacle) was the inclusion of Boba Fett. THIS he listens to when a legion of geeks think that the 5 min of Boba in ESB was not enough, but every other major complaint the rest of us have go unanswereed. Asshole.

I love the fact that Ep III already has a spot waiting for it for the "Reasons to hate.." just because we all know here is going to be shit in it.

[civilian_number_two]

I must have blocked out the whole Boba Fett "introduction." So now I don't get it. Am I supposed to find him mencaing there because I think he might be Jango's son? Or am I supposed to just realize, out of the fucking blue, that Vader will hire him a couple of years later and so he's really one of the bad guys?

Because, correct me if I'm wrong: Vader hired Boba to finf Luke, and Boba negotiated for Han Solo, so that he could make more money, yeah?

Whatever. No mention of the dewbacks, and only scant mention of all the droids flying around Mos Eisley. For shame!



"You'll never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy."

"YIPPEE!"

[HK 47]

Veeery nice Chef, love it! And thanks Civilian for making it happen.
Chef are you sure that the "silly-looking dinosaur smoking from a bong!" was the replacement in the previous special ed? Never seen it before. Wasn't the wolfman the one growling at the little worm thing when it was annoying him and then replaced with this funky looking alien? See pic:

[/URL]

I still love the horned alien in the back there.

[Despondent]

I'm sure he's related to Darth Maul somehow

[Chefelf]

I must have blocked out the whole Boba Fett "introduction." So now I don't get it. Am I supposed to find him mencaing there because I think he might be Jango's son? Or am I supposed to just realize, out of the fucking blue, that Vader will hire him a couple of years later and so he's really one of the bad guys?

Well, in the 1997 release you were just supposed to think "oh boy... Vader will hire him!". Now in 2004 you are supposed to think "Wahoo! It's Jango's clone/son!"

Chef are you sure that the "silly-looking dinosaur smoking from a bong!" was the replacement in the previous special ed?

Positive. The stupid bong dinosaur was from the '97 special edition. Not sure about that pic you posted... looks faked.

Thanks again to everyone who liked it. More coming soon (hopefully next Monday).

[Just your average movie goer]

The picture HK-47 posted was real enough (at least in the 1997 Special Editions).

Great list, Chefelf! You've made my day. And you included the dinosaur walking across the screen - fantastic!

I just remembered another change to the Special Editions that really, really sucked and I wondered did it go onto the DVD Edition...

When Obi Wan was looking at the computer display on the Death Star that showed him where the tractor beam controls were, they added in this commentary by Threepio. It was pointless and very poorly done too.


Ah, yes, one more...

Do you remember when in the original film, Han jumps through the closing blast doors and then a stormtrooper shouts "Open the blast doors! Open the blast doors!"?

Well, in the 1997 Special Edition, Lucas felt the need to include another voice beforehand, going "Close the blast doors!"

This causes the scene to be somewhat dicky now... maybe because we hear the words "Blast doors" three times in a row perhaps. Again, very unnecessary...

I would rate both of this very highly on the Wampa scale of pointlessness.


Anyway, again... great read, Chefelf. Can't wait for the next installments.

[Madam Corvax]

No mention of the dewbacks, and only scant mention of all the droids flying around Mos Eisley. For shame!

Well, deep in my heart I was also hoping you'd include the "dewbacks" (I didn't even know they had a name). I'd've given them "four Vampas" for the insignificance of the change.

[ernesttomlinson]

A good list. I've only one small disagreement: I don't think that the little extra scene showing Biggs talking to Luke before the final dogfight is insignificant; I think it's a small but definite improvement. Just that scene, along with Luke's referring to Biggs when arguing with his uncle, are enough I think to make Biggs more than just another indistinguishable fighter pilot.

Oh, and what about those horrible fakey CGI shots added to the final battle sequence? The "Hardware Wars Special Edition" parodied that brilliantly, adding in pathetically obvious computer-generated eggbeaters to its final sequence.

[HK 47]

The picture HK-47 posted was real enough (at least in the 1997 Special Editions).

It certainly is. But this is interesting... Is George subtly changing the patrons in the Cantina every update? It wouldn't have anything to do with action figure marketing, would it?

[Just your average movie goer]

Highly possible... and certainly not out of character for him either.

[HK 47]

Found the original pic.

[Chefelf]

When Obi Wan was looking at the computer display on the Death Star that showed him where the tractor beam controls were, they added in this commentary by Threepio. It was pointless and very poorly done too.

Not sure I know about that one. Perhaps I missed it.

Do you remember when in the original film, Han jumps through the closing blast doors and then a stormtrooper shouts "Open the blast doors!  Open the blast doors!"?

Well, in the 1997 Special Edition, Lucas felt the need to include another voice beforehand, going "Close the blast doors!"

Ah, yes. How could I forget about that? That just turns the stormtroopers into bumbling idiots.

Well, deep in my heart I was also hoping you'd include the "dewbacks" (I didn't even know they had a name). I'd've given them "four Vampas" for the insignificance of the change.

Sorry, Corvax. The "Look sir, droids" change was pretty insignificant I suppose.

I don't think that the little extra scene showing Biggs talking to Luke before the final dogfight is insignificant; I think it's a small but definite improvement. Just that scene, along with Luke's referring to Biggs when arguing with his uncle, are enough I think to make Biggs more than just another indistinguishable fighter pilot.

I agree but I feel that Biggs' inclusion would have held much more dramatic weight had he been included early on (on Tatooine) rather than thrown in just moments before his character is killed off. They had already killed Obi-Wan in an emotional way... seems dumb to add in a character AFTER the death of a principle just to kill him off to get a second sad reaction from the audience.

[Just your average movie goer]

It makes you wonder why Lucas still included all their Tatooine-boy talk during that scene in the Death Star trench...

Biggs - Luke! At that speed, do you think we'll be able to pull out in time?

Luke - It'll be just like Beggar's Canyon back home.

Wedge - Ah... do you two guys know each other?

[ernesttomlinson]

"Wedge - Ah... do you two guys know each other?"

Hah hah! I like that. But then it reflects on the irony of Wedge's becoming one of the most durable minor characters in the Star Wars movies. He comes out of nowhere in Star Wars without a shred of backstory yet he's accorded a central place in the big battles in the subsequent two movies. Hey, I've got no problem with that at all.

I rate Biggs's death alongside Red Leader's in Star Wars. The first time we learn about Red Leader is in that final battle sequence but we see enough of him to feel that we've lost something by his death (at least I think so.) He tries so hard in his attack run against the Death Star but he fails and makes no attempt to save himself, ordering Luke and the others not to try rescuing him.

There's something in that final battle sequence in Star Wars that survives in The Empire Strikes Back but is disappearing in Return of the Jedi and completely gone in the later films: the ability to make us care at least a little bit about characters who get only a few lines and are killed immediately thereafter. Maybe Lucas merely borrowed this from World War II movies and maybe I'm simply reading too much into a film I've seen a million times--but still I don't think I'm wrong in perceiving a clear degeneration in Lucas's ability to handle battle scenes in his movies. Yeah, only Luke succeeds in destroying the Death Star in Star Wars but you get the idea that the other pilots at least gave it a good try. In The Phantom Menace, though, the other "Nubian" (ugh) pilots never register as people at all; the whole action exists solely for the purpose of making Anakin into a hero, however idiotic.

(Incidentally, with The Phantom Menace Lucas resorted to the "blow up the impregnable fortress from the inside" trick for the fourth time in three movies. Couldn't he think of anything better? At least he doesn't resort to the incredible stupidity of Licence to Kill in which an overturned Bunsen burner leads to the utter destruction of an enormous cocaine-manufacturing plant.)