Chefelf.com Night Life: I Wonder... - Chefelf.com Night Life

Jump to content

Star Wars Fan Convention

  • (2 Pages)
  • +
  • 1
  • 2

I Wonder... About First "Special Edition" Fans

#16 User is offline   Sailor Abbey Icon

  • Queen of the Harpies
  • PipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 2,122
  • Joined: 29-March 05
  • Gender:Female
  • Location:the land of Huskies
  • Interests:Defending the forces of evil from the whiney forces of good; spreading awareness about violence and its ability to solve all problems - from the very smallest to the very stupid…est…; sticking up for the little guy, as long as the little guy shares my point of view or is willing to convert in exchange for some ‘sticking up for’; and of course, plotting world domination and putting and end to reality tv once and for all. <br /><br />Oh, and beautiful women.
  • Country:United States

Posted 02 March 2006 - 06:17 PM

QUOTE (Jacen @ Mar 2 2006, 05:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
The SEs are IMHO quite good. If anyone of you would have seen the Making-Of, nobody would say that it's an amateur job! Well, yes, there are some scenes that could have been done better, but if you compare the almost destroyed old version with the recolored new special edition, you would notice that they really did a good job.
For example, Tatooine at the beginning of episode 4 is MUCH better than in the original version. Now what I am really missing is a better fight Obi Wan vs. Darth Vader or Darth Vader vs. Luke Skywalker, but it's impossible to replace those scenes with scenes like that.

Leaving the OTs untouched would have destroyed them completely, so restauration was required. New added scenes or not: As a whole I think the additions are good.

Talking about the prequels... huh, now that's another story and doesn't belong to the topic ^^


You restore a film to clean it up not to soil it further. I think it would have been better just to let the original films rot and until they completely disintegrated. At least our memories of them wouldn’t have been tainted - our childhoods’ shat upon.
0

#17 User is offline   Jacen Icon

  • New Cop
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 2
  • Joined: 02-March 06
  • Country:Nothing Selected

Posted 03 March 2006 - 11:40 AM

Well, nobody forced you to watch it and taint your memories... if they completely disintegrated, all the children (like we had been earlier) wouldn't be able to see the last 50% of the Star Wars Saga, and that's in my opinion all the worse than your tainted memories. You know how the old one's looked like and you are still able to watch 'em right now. So why don't u just try to do so and update your memories with the originals instead of the special edition? Make a cool "Retro" Star Wars Night (IV to VI) at home with some friends, popcorn and beer :-)

As I said before, I think the restored film is much more cleaned up than soiled further.
0

#18 User is offline   Gobbler Icon

  • God damn it, Nappa.
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 4,560
  • Joined: 26-December 05
  • Gender:Not Telling
  • Location:Three octaves down to your left.
  • Interests:Thermonuclear warfare and other pleasantries.
  • Country:Nothing Selected

Posted 03 March 2006 - 11:54 AM

I haven't even seen the restored version yet... only saw some of the enhanced pictures... well, I think it's somehow just not fitting for such an old movie to have new scenes like that. Star Wars just has its unique charm, with the unique effects they had at that time. I think it would ruin a part of my childhood, too, if the new CGI effects were as bad as in Episode II *shudders at the thought*.

Quote

Pop quiz, hotshot. Garry Kasparov is coming to kill you, and the only way to change his mind is for you to beat him at chess. What do you do, what do you do?
0

#19 User is offline   Chefelf Icon

  • LittleHorse Fan
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Admin
  • Posts: 4,528
  • Joined: 30-October 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:New York, NY
  • Country:United States

Posted 03 March 2006 - 06:16 PM

QUOTE (Jacen @ Mar 2 2006, 05:53 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}>
Quote:
"We should have been introduced to Bail Organa and Mon Mothma right off the bat, IMHO, since they will become fierce opponents of Palpitine later."


Just for the record, you're quoting a post that was made seven months before ROTS was released. wink.gif

But I do agree that Organa and Mothma could have been used in the prequels from the first movie rather than thrown in as an afterthought.

I agree with you about the restoration of the OT. I'm all in favor of the restoration efforts. The magic they did with deleting the black lines around matted objects and the transparency issues with the snowspeeder cockpits is great. It doesn't detract from the film at all and gives the film a much more crisp look overall.

I'm rather fond of the "Faces" release of the OT as it has the best film quality while still remaining untouched.

The new scenes are the main problem I have with the SE. They range from unnecessary (additional wompa and vader footage) to distracting (ridiculous song and dance in ROTJ) to just plain infuriating (Greedo shooting first).
See Chefelf in a Movie! -> The People vs. George Lucas

Buy the New LittleHorse CD, Strangers in the Valley!
CD Baby | iTunes | LittleHorse - Flight of the Bumblebee Video

Chefelf on: Twitter | friendfeed | Jaiku | Bitstrips | Muxtape | Mento | MySpace | Flickr | YouTube | LibraryThing
0

#20 User is offline   KurganX Icon

  • Soothsayer
  • PipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 566
  • Joined: 06-June 05
  • Gender:Male
  • Country:United States

Posted 04 April 2006 - 07:34 PM

I'd say I was more a fan of the Special Editions than than 2004 Editions. I mean I like certain things about both, hate certain things about both.

I like ChefElf's nitpicks to the SE's because unlike most guides they don't just say all the changes were bad or they were all good, he rates them according to their usefulness or not.

Making Greedo shoot was stupid. Jabba was poorly done (I like Jabba, but the scene was just poor and aged badly fast). The rest were forgiveable for me.

The 2004 Editions I liked the restoration, but they screwed up the colors (especially the sabers) and the sound glitches in ANH were awful. Redubbing Fett, putting in a one-take of Ian McDiarmond acting stoned, and pasting in prettyboy stalker Hayden. I think the changes made in the 2004 Editions were more in-your-face and offensive in that way.

The best thing about the SE's was getting to see the trilogy on the big screen again, and the "enhanced" space combat in Episode IV was nifty. ESB's sunsets and skylines and stuff was pretty and the CGI flythroughs of Cloud City weren't quite real looking but also aesthetically pleasing. The ending celebration in ROTJ SE was somewhat nice as a wrap-up to the saga, but I missed the nostalgia of the original celebration, I'm not a big Ewok hater, so it wasn't something that I thought was that necessary. But the DVD's had to toss in a Gungan yelling "wesa free!" arggh.

Thankfully there's fans out there releasing their own edits of the trilogy and working to preserve the originals. At least I can say I've got the DVD's but I can still look at the best of the series without being stuck with just this one "vision" of them.
0

#21 User is offline   barend Icon

  • Anchor Head Anchor Man
  • PipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Crappy News Team
  • Posts: 11,839
  • Joined: 12-November 03
  • Gender:Male
  • Location:Nieuw Holland
  • Interests:The Beers of Western Europe, Cognac, and constantly claiming the world would have been a better place if Napoleon had won.
  • Country:Australia

Posted 05 April 2006 - 02:37 AM

Jacen, thou art a necromancer...

so old is my post near the beggening that i didn't understand half of it.
0

#22 User is offline   KurganX Icon

  • Soothsayer
  • PipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 566
  • Joined: 06-June 05
  • Gender:Male
  • Country:United States

Posted 05 April 2006 - 03:26 AM

Now that's saying something! Just to respond to another thought that was posted here. I think we can agree that we all wanted Lucas to restore the films and clean them up. None of us asked him to throw CGI in there and re-do old scenes, or tinker with the "history" and change the storyline.

SOME of the CG I think enhances the movie (like the fighter combat) and makes it more how it was originally intended (and in a real way, not in some revisionist Lucas excuse way), compare the shots of the fighters moving out of camera or on the displays vs. how they move in the original original, they're slow and sluggish! Compare the original storyboards to the actual way it came off. This is one area where the Special Editions are good. Though the nostalgia is with the old scenes, the wow factor is with the new. However that's just one small piece, there's dozens of other changes which are hit and miss.

Anyway, I just got done watching a fan edit some guys obviously spent a LOT of time on, put together with elements from the 2004 editions, but with many tweaks of their own, and all kinds of cool stuff like alternate sub titles for Jabba, the correct death star blue-prints, fixing up Obi-Wan's saber so it doesn't fizzle out, making Luke's saber blue (well, at least in the most obvious "green" scene) and fixing up the sound. It's called the "hybrid" adm de edit. Some color correction could still be done, it doesn't have interactive menus or an original crawl toggle (just "A New Hope"), but I think it's the best version of ANH I've seen so far on the small screen... the basic movie they should have given us on DVD in the first place, and truly a "special" edition!

I can't wait to see them tackle the other two episodes... there's also a fan edit of Episode III that apparently fixes the droid voices and tightens up the editing. Ah well, if Lucas doesn't do it...
0

#23 User is offline   jariten Icon

  • making the nature scene
  • PipPipPipPipPip
  • Group: Members
  • Posts: 1,845
  • Joined: 18-August 04
  • Location:in the bin
  • Country:Nothing Selected

Posted 05 April 2006 - 06:57 AM

QUOTE
there's also a fan edit of Episode III that apparently fixes the droid voices and tightens up the editing. Ah well, if Lucas doesn't do it...


hmm..wouldn't mind seeing that. Although i'd prefer the editing to be tightened on AotC, I certainly wouldn't miss those BD/SBD voices in RotS...
0

#24 User is offline   Little Nippatiz Icon

  • New Cop
  • Group: Junior Members
  • Posts: 26
  • Joined: 24-March 06
  • Country:United States

Posted 05 April 2006 - 12:18 PM

The SE was great to see on the big screen. Restoration I'm all for and exposing it to new people. Even adding a new shots to open up a scenes.--- ( Bespin arrival / Banthas on Tatoone for the sail barge, etc)
But when elements are added that alter the story or characters--- (Greedo shoots first, Luke's scream when he falls, and in the dvd releases- Emp's talk with Vader about Luke and a young Annie appearing as a ghost)-- just smacks Lucas in his face with his own hand. These were his discussions he put in the films originally and changed later. Something he can't blame on .."the technology wasn't there to do correctly at the time" bullshit. He's changing his own always changing mind on what he first presented to us.

And the biggest rub is that he denies the original version to ever be released along with the SE's, at least until greed gets the better of him.later --Bastard.
Until then, we're stuck with scnes of Han and non threatening Jabba, and a smirking Manikin at the end of Jedi.

I can imagine F-george's face and reaction if the original architect returned to Skywalker ranch and started making structural changes and added a 7-11 and Walmart to it to make if more available to a new generation.
0

  • (2 Pages)
  • +
  • 1
  • 2


Fast Reply

  • Decrease editor size
  • Increase editor size