CT Special edition - worst and best changes

Let's do it. You guys list your the 3 changes you think are the worst. And also list your three favorite changes.

Worst changes
Boba Fett's voice
Hayden's ghost
Jedi Rocks

Favorite changes
New emperor's hologram
Victory celebration
Cloud City new sky

Feel free to lock this thread.

 

Worst Changes:
1) Jedi Rocks
2) Han conversing with Jabba in ANH.

Favorite Changes:
1) Ian McDiarmid as Emperor Sidious Palpatine in TESB.
2) Cloud City improvements.
3) Sarlacc CGI.
4) Music at the end of ROTJ.

 

Worst Changes
1. Hayden Christensen replacing Sebastian Shaw
2. Jedi Rocks replacing Lapti Nek
3. Greedo shooting at Han and missing at point blank range

Best Changes
1. Updated Battle of Yavin effects
2. Additional shots of Boba Fett's ship pursuing the Millenium Falcon
3. Additional shots of the Millennium Falcon flying over Cloud City

 

Worst Changes:
1) Greedo shoots first
2) Jedi Rocks
3) Hayden Ghost - doesn't make sense except to tie the bad trilogy with the good trilogy
4) Ian McDiarmid in Empire Strikes Back - the original old woman with male voice was haunting and sinister... The ROTS Palpatine shows up and it doesnt feel right.

Best Changes:
1) X-Wings in A New Hope with some cool Tie vs. X-Wing shots

 

Best
1) Anakin's Force Spirit
2) Sidious's hologram with the accompanying new dialogue
3) Boba Fett's voice

Many more including Vader's "NOOOO!!!"

Worst
1) Greedo shoots first as opposed to only Han shooting and not for any nonsensical character reason but just because it doesn't really work visually. I would want the scene changed to pull out the Jabba dialogue given to Greedo and return the scene to it's earliest form then have that where it is now with Jabba.

Can't think of anything else of consequence to me.

 

Best changes:

• Added scenes for Mos Eisley in A New Hope (I think it makes the world of Tatooine look much larger and busier despite some of the CGI that doesn't really fit for the added creatures)
• New scene added for Ben Kenobi's home on Tatooine in A New Hope
• New scene added when the Millenium Falcon takes off from Mos Eisley in A New Hope
• New scenes in the Battle of Yavin against the first Death Star in A New Hope
• The new Emperor hologram in The Empire Strikes Back
• Added windows and scenes for Cloud City in The Empire Strikes Back
• Victory Celebration at the end of Return of the Jedi
• Added ring explosions for the Death Star I & II and Alderann in A New Hope and Return of the Jedi

Worst changes

• Jedi Rocks in Return of the Jedi (but I've generally found all the Jabba's palace scenes silly with or without those changes)
• Added Vader's Nooo at the end of Return of the Jedi
• Added rocks in front of R2-D2 when he hides from the Sand People in A New Hope
• The changed dragon's cry made by Ben Kenobi in A New Hope

Changes that I don't care about or I don't mind about

• Hayden Christensen's ghost in Return of the Jedi
• Jabba the Hutt added scene in A New Hope
• Ewoks blinks in Return of the Jedi
• Boba Fett's changed voice in The Empire Strikes Back
• Han vs Greedo in A New Hope

 

Worst changes:
RotJ Vader's "No! Noooo!"
Ghost Hayden
Greedo shooting - period.
Obi-Wan's latest Krayt call

Best changes:
Fixing the color of Luke's lightsaber on the Falcon
Removing Shaw's eyebrows during the reveal

 

Worst:
Greedo shooting. It just looks bad. it's a blaster bolt and Han doesn't even move.

Best:
I actually liked everything concerning Mos Eisley. The expanded city and Han's conversation with Jabba.

 

This has been done to death

 

Worst changes: R2 hiding behind a rock, with the rock later randomly disappearing and Obi-Wan's terrible Krayt call. The one right before 2011 was best.

Best changes: Emperor hologram, Mos Eisley, Boba Fett's voice, Hayden Christensen so the trilogies flow better.

I'm find with pretty much all the changes except the ones I put in worst though.

 

Thing about that to me is that there is always something. Like the "human" Jawa at the Droid sale or Peter Mayhew not having the Chewbacca head on for part of Luke's arrival when he ducks under the X-Wing so if you are looking for it you see the back of his human head or the doubles for Luke out the window in TESB or Mace's background double for TPM.

So the point isn't any randomness (of which there is always bound to be some) but the story point that you get.

 

Every time I watch the BRD version of ANH I look for this "disappearing" rock everyone keeps complaining about. I think I've watched it four times and I cannot for the life of me locate the shot that supposedly shows this. The overhanging rock is there in every angle.

 

The disappearing rock gets a lot of attention, but the disappearing window on Bespin is just as bad.

 

Images not loading for me. It just says "dvdactive -- image available exclusively from www.dvdactive.com".

 

Oh, that's weird. It's showing up for me. Here are the direct links. They're complete lists of all of the changes made to the films with images. I enjoy these articles, because they are very balanced and very relevant to this thread. The author is very clear about what he likes and doesn't like.
http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-one.html
http://www.dvdactive.com/editorial/articles/star-wars-the-changes-part-two.html

 

I'm just going to paraphrase the fanbase

best:
ALL OF THEM

worst:
ALL OF THEM

 

Okay, then yes, that's exactly what I mean. R2 is blocking the exact space where he was previously hiding, and what little bit of it we can see is in shadow. Unless we compare two stills of the same space, we can't know that the slab is missing. While watching the film we don't photographically memorize the previous angle from several minutes prior. I have my issues with some of the SE changes, but this certainly isn't one of them.

Thanks for the links.

 

While not a popular position, I'm going to say that 99% of the changes were good. There are literally hundreds of changes to the films, and many go unnoticed next to the obvious CGI bits.

The majority was re-compositing images. People like to divide the group into strictly old school and new school, but when practical models are touched up with modern technology, it really looks amazing:

The original foreground element had to be transparent (you can see the ship through Luke's head). Even in pristine condition, the special edition wins out in that respect. Even improved motion blur, matched lighting, and improved shading with CGI makes some scenes look worlds better.


So in a nutshell; THOSE are the best special edition changes in my eyes. Of course, that's still technically changing the original film, which is why it's hard to draw the line for what's truly "original." I admit that many CGI additions were put in specifically to solve certain problems. The mouth of the Sarlaac, for example, is a recreation of a failed practical set piece. While some changes are frivolous, there was thought behind a lot of them, and why it was necessary. Some are a stretch (livening up Mos Eisley), but none are completely distracting. Well, there is Jedi Rocks, but that was the intention of it.

One thing I wish was fixed up rather than discarded and replaced was the X-Wing attack on the Death Star. While fixing those up could very well have been more trouble than a CGI recreation, the results of the fan restoration speak for themselves. Recomposite the elements to make everything nicer, and you've got a beautiful scene.

As for all of the "worst" changes, I can sum everything up with instances where the filmmakers second-guessed themselves. That is, changes where it was completely feasible to do it the SE way at the time, but was done differently. They had the ability to make Greedo shoot first at the time, but they didn't. Same with the Krayt Call, Ghost Anakin, etc. See, if Anakin's Ghost was originally some young guy said to be Luke's father, everyone would be onboard for replacing him with Christensen. But deliberately making the ghost the same age as Darth Vader really means something different.

 

Sure the models blend better, but ugh, they completely destroyed the picture quality by increasing the contrast! So many details drowned out with increased contrast.

 

I think that scene is actually pretty well-colored. I know there is some horrendous examples from the 2004 DVD, but everything in that scene looks natural. It might just look off next to the original, which is pretty desaturated from blending with the background.

 

The coloring is fine if a bit diminished on the underside of that one Snowspeeder next to Luke, although why I'm not sure. The colors seem fine everywhere else in the images if a bit more vibrant. The contrast, on the other hand, destroys the details in the image. All the lighter areas like the snow are a lot brighter, removing the texture of the landscape, and the darker areas like the shadows removes the textures inside the cockpit.

 

Worst changes: Greedo shooting and Jedi Rocks!
Best changes: Emperor hologram, Cloud City approach, victory celebrations, re-compositing.

 

Complete destruction! The devastation, the horror...

Come on, slightly increased contrast isn't inherently bad, and the end result is evidently great.