CT Star Wars SE Appreciation Thread

This is a thread in which fans of the Star Wars Special Editions can discuss those versions of the films. This thread welcomes discussion comparing the SW SE and the OOT. If you don't wish to discuss the OOT with reference to the SE, this is probably not the place for you.

 

Look Sir, Droids...

 

The one thing it did well was bring Star Wars back to the big screen and rekindle the love for Star Wars before the Prequels. I saw the films on TV first, so when I got to witness them at the cinema it blew my mind completely.

I certainly credit it with my love of the Trilogy. Over time I have gone back to the Originals for my viewing pleasure now though.

 

Before the SE releases, I had only watched the trilogy on VHS, so getting to see them in the theater for the first time was almost a religious experience for me.

 

February 1997. My dad takes teeny tiny little me to see the special edition theatrical release of Star Wars: A New Hope. It's my first time seeing the film. How young was I at the time? Answer: siting on my father's lap and watching Darth Vader walk through a haze of smoke onto the Tantive IV, in fear and awe of what I was looking at, is my earliest memory. My earliest memory. That was the day I irrevocably fell in love with Star Wars.

 

I saw the trilogy first time around but the SE was my first chance to see it on the big screen as an adult. As exciting as that was, my strongest memory was seeing the SE trailer when I wasn't expecting it. I nearly fell out of my seat when the x-wing flew out of the tv set! Lol.

 

i like them. (except the rotj noooo).

 

I like that we finally got to see Cloud City, for real.

















I, for one, have a hard time seeing how anyone could prefer the claustrophobic corridors of the original. The audience shouldn't feel confined when they're in a place called Cloud City (that is, until Lord Vader shows up unexpectedly at a dinner party and has everyone thrown into a dank cell).

 

Like others the se was the first time I got to see star wars on the big screen cause I was born a year after rotj came out. Grew up on ot vhs. Thing I loved About the se versions

A new hope-
The expansion to the battle of yavin. More dynamic shots of the x wings and ties dogfighting.

Esb-
Like phantom calamari, the opening up of cloud city.the new shots of vader returning to his ship that were actually rotj outakes
The saber fight on the big screen
Battle of hoth on big screen

Jedi-
The bantha herd in the dune sea
the saber fight on the big screen.
Luke turning down the emperor at the end of rotj is much more powerful on the big screen for me some how.
Battle of endor on big screen.

Now the battle would have been awesome if I had been alive to see the oot in theaters buy I was not so the se's allowed me to experience what may dad did 20 years before.

 

I agree about Cloud City and the Battle of Yavin. To me, those aspects add value without jarring and disrupting the tone of the scenes. Pretty spectacular on the big screen in '97.

 

I was introduced to Star Wars watching TPM in cinemas in 1999, so I didn`t get to see the 1997 re-release on theatres. Don`t recall why though. Maybe it wasn`t being screened here. I actually only watched the OOT for years in VHS form, until I acquired the 2004 DVDs back in 2006-07. I was a big fan of most of the changes then, while a few others I had a problem with (e.g. the lizard walking in the forefront in Mos Eisley. I appreciate the inclusion of the lizard, but it didn`t have to block everything else). So I haven`t ever watched the 1997 SE, only the 2004 (and now the 2011) one. I bought the Blu-Rays earlier this year, and I`m also fine with its tweakings, except for the ROTJ`s "Noooo". I think that scene works better with Vader silent.

 

Oh yeah! I remember that as well! Long before the day of the internet telling us everything.

I had no idea they were doing it and I did a huge double take and me and my brother just looked at each other gobsmacked! We must have seen the SE's half a dozen times each in the cinema, we couldn't get enough!

 

Anakin´s No before he kills Palpatine. A clear and without any doubts intentional parallel to Anakin´s No before he kills Mace Windu. Brilliant addition making those two dramatic higlights of the saga fully-fledget mirror images of each other.

Vader being silent definitely worked better in the era of the "original trilogy" before Menace, Clones and Sith were made, but in the context of the entire six-part saga as a whole, the version with the "No" is for me much superior.

 

I have to admit I'm a fan of Christensen in the end of RotJ. I remember watching it with my mom when it first came out (sidenote: she never cared for the original Anakin, she thought he was way too old to be Luke's dad, but that's a different story) and when young Anakin appears she yelled "Whose that!?" And now she's a fan as well, go figure.

 

And this thread was going so well

 

I saw the original releases - own them and the SE's both on VHS. SE's all the way.

 

I'll never forget the night my dad went to my siblings and I,

Dad: "Hey, I have a movie you guys will like."
My sister: "Harry Potter?"
Me: "Harry Potter?"
My brother: "Monsters Inc?"
Dad: "No, it's called Star Wars. Trust me, you'll like it."
I rolled my eyes and went "Whatever dad, if you insist."

11 years later, here I am, neck-deep in a Star Wars forum message board.

My first and favorite memory of the SE.

 

Fans of the SW SE? Fans of the OOT? Why this differentiation? I'm a fan of the OT (plus PT) whether it is OOT or SE, period.

 

<shrugs> Because some fans make it so? I'm a Saga fan, myself, and I could care less if folks prefer the OT, OOT, OT-SE, etc. but unfortunately, it seems, a few fans want to "peg" other fans.

However, expressing an opinion is not in itself divisive. I prefer the PT and the SE. I like the entirety of Star Wars. If someone wants to call me out on my preferences, okay.

Also, IMHO, it seems that a few fans want to stake out their preferences as the mark of the "true" fan - who's with me? Right-on, etc. So some other fans get a bit tired of both that attitude and the idea that if no one expresses a different opinion, than the first group of fans is "obviously" right. So some speak up - some quietly, some more stridently.

 

There's no differentiation in my post that I can make out. If you like both, great. Sometimes, though, people want to keep discussion within certain parameters.

 

I grew up watching the OOT on VHS, but I prefer the SE. One great improvement is in ANH when Han is chasing the Stormtroopers on the DS. Instead of chasing them into a dead end before fleeing, he now chases them into a hanger full of Stormtroopers LOL.

 

Some of the more striking and yet often overlooked improvements (credit to Mike Verta for the cleaned-up OOT images):
















I must say, even I'd forgotten all about that last one. And people complain about the background matte for the Jedi Temple in AOTC looking fake.

 

Goodbye Star Wars. Welcome Star Wars: Episode IV - A New Hope




I would say that even the most viscious Lucas haters/SEs bashers will admit that this was an improwement

 

I wish I had been able to see them on the big screen. Unfortunately, I was about 3 and a half years old at the time

 

OH MY HOLY FRIGGING FRIG SOMEONE WHO AGREES WITH ME

High five