CT Changes to the Original Trilogy

Do you like it?

 

I'd say it's an improvement, but I prefer the original version with Han being the only one who shot.

 

Funny, I just read shadows of the empire again and there was a description of that scene as being a "shoot out" between Greedo and Han... And this is pre SE days..maybe Lucas did always intend Greedo to shoot too

 

I don't think so. If he did, it wouldn't have been that hard to stage a shootout the first time around. They have them on Tantive IV and aboard the Death Star.

 

I don't know...it was a horrible shoot and they were over budget and pressed for time...

 

The script is a bit of a giveaway...

 

What does the script say? I never read it before...

 

Letting Greedo shoot at all ruins the scene as much as it would to have the swordsman shoot a pistol at Indiana Jones. That's the whole point of the scene, and it sells Han and Indy as tough no-nonsense characters.

 

I heard Steven Spielberg got old and decided he didn't like violence in his films, so he replaced Indy's pistol with a CGI walkie-talkie. Is that true?

 

You're thinking of E.T. He replaced the cops' rifles with walkie talkies in the "special edition."

 

Yeah, but he changed them back for the next edition.

 

lol

come on, you guys have to have a sense of humor in there somewhere.

 

The book was published in April of 1996 and ANH SE hit theaters in January of 1997. Steve Perry would have started writing in the summer or fall of 1995, which was enough time for Lucas to impart that bit of detail to the publishing division. Course, it might have been coincidental writing on Perry's part, not knowing that Lucas was going to change that detail.

 

Remembered another change I like, the whole changing the language on the instruments from the modern alphabet to Aurebesh.

 

The way I see it, the changes that George made were made for the same reasons that Gainax keeps remaking Neon Genesis Evangelion: A lack of personal accomplishment and a belief that they could have done it better.

Now, quite personally I like a lot of the alterations and additions. The only one I'm kind of "iffy" about is R2-D2's photoshop rocks, but I guess I could get used to them. My favorite Blu-Ray change is the "No...Nooo!" in VI. Before, Vader's silence always kind of bugged me. I was like "at least say something". "Not my son!" or "I have had enough of you!" or something.

I've heard that some people actually dislike the removal of the matte boxes around space ships because they liked to imagine those as the ship's shields? Are you serious?! Well in that case we might as well revert back to the 4:3 fullscreen ratio, on cathode ray TVs, on VHS tapes.

 

Lucas has long said as much about ANH. He was never fully satisfied with how the film looked and really started saying so a few months after the film's release.

 

Man, this takes be back to seeing these films on the big screen for the first time back in '97. I was 15, and was way too caught up in the thrill of seeing them in the theater to nitpick. I was euphoric walking out of there, know what I mean?
Anyway, some of the bigger things:

ANH
The bigger, busier Mos Eisley. Not the two lead-up scenes (which just made me go "Whaaa?"), but the main thing. Finally looks like a bustling space port.
The sand crawler. Somehow, that really impressed me back then
Attack from Yavin. Don't see how that's not an improvement.

ESB
Cloud City

ROTJ
Okay, I got nothing. I'm indifferent to pretty much all of it.

Overall, like the improved picture quality and special effects

Since this thread is supposed to address the positive, I won't go into my dislikes

 

The blu ray version of the Han and Greedo scene has really growed on me...compared to the horrible DVD version it's not a big deal to me anymore

 

I do like some changes, Jabba scene in particular and back in the day I actually wanted more but now to be honest... No amount of changes will make the movies look like they were made in the late 90s/2000s/2010s. They were ahead of their times in many aspects, but in others they're the product of late 70s/80s too. Better to just accept it and appreciate the 'baggage' that comes with it. The PT will feel "dated" at one point too, every movie will eventually

 

The Sandcrawler improvements are probably the most legit alteration, in my opinion. Since they used a model of the Sandcrawler rather than CGI, it seems to have fit in quite seemlessly.

 

Didn't they change the time of day in the sandcrawler scenes? One version had it light out and another version it was dark outside?

 

Yep.

Special Edition.



Original.



A number of shots with the Sandcrawler was altered for the SE, not just changing the time of day, but also to make it look more natural within the film.

 

Okay. Why change that then? The time of day thing?

 

Looks more.... visually pleasing I suppose

In addition, it implies that Artoo has been wandering the desert all day, giving a bit of a different feel to it

 

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