CT Special edition - worst and best changes

worst: jabba the hutt scene added in a new hope&& greedo shooting first in a new hope
best: emperor change in empire strikes back&& removing yubnub was ok to me, I liked the celebration music at the end of return of the jedi a little better

 

Agreed, the music is way more festive and soothing than yub nub imo.

Also old Emperor was creepy, but new one makes more sense.

 

Worst: Darth Vader's nooooo and young Anakin force ghost both in ROTJ.

Best: New Cloud City scenes and new victory celebration song.

 

Best: Recomposited original effects, changing English to Aurebesh, Ian MCDiarmid in TESB (dialogue notwithstanding), new Victory Celebration music.
Worst: Greedo shooting first, Jabba in ANH, Jedi Rocks, pretty much every BD change but especially Vader's NO.

 

Worst - Hayden... Ugh!! Boba Fetts voice

Best - Music at the end of Jedi

 

I only like the Ian McDiarmid change.

 

Worst - the nonsense(zany slapstick with cgi characters) before ben, Luke and the droids enter the Cantina
Best - The Battle of Yavin dogfight fixes and additions. It mkes the BEST battle scene in the entire mythology even better

 

It's interesting to see in this thread how many different favorite and least favorites there are across the board between person to person. Seems like preferences are all over the place!


I actually am one of those few who quite like many of the changes-mainly as we see them in the blu-ray versions.

However, my favorite change is the addition of McDiarmid as emperor in the ESB hologram. I also like the altered dialogue there. IMO it's great for continuity reasons when viewing the saga as a whole.

My least favorite would be (and I don't know if this counts) the lightsaber effect fix of Luke's lightsaber on the Falcon in ANH. There are several lightsaber effects issues throughout the OT, but IMO ANH is the worst. If they were going to actively do something to improve it (as they said they did for the BR version), they should have fixed it properly-it STILL doesn't look right color-wise, and there are shots where the blade color is still non-existent.


If that actually doesn't count, then I'd say least favorite is Greedo shoots first. I'm not one of those angry OT purists that gets all worked up about it and wears Han Shoots First T-shirts and whatnot, but IMO it was a pointless thing to change-and besides, it wasn't even done well. If they're going to do something like that, at least make it LOOK good-but they didn't, so double-hit there. It's been improved abit in the blu-ray version, but if they go that far, I say just put it back and be done with it!

 

Putting Christensen there was dumb, it is like he hadn't aged anything. I didn't like the singing brown monster in Jabba's Palace either.

 

Worst changes:
Greedo shooting
Jedi Rocks
Changing Luke's line in TESB after R2-D2 gets spit out by swamp creature from "It's lucky you don't taste good" to "It's lucky you got out of there" From a clever, amusing line to a stuipid, insipid, completely pointless line

Best changes
Wampa appearance!

 

The best was Hayden. Can't think of a worse atm.

 

Best: I'm comfortable with the small stuff. Changing English to Aurebesh in A New Hope, fixing the translucency of some composited elements, removing matte lines and garbage mattes.

Worst: I hate the Jabba scene in ANH so, so much. Then new Mos Eisley footage, especialy as pertains to the rontos; Jawas falling of them, walking in front of the camera, etc. The Han/Greedo scene, not because it changes Han's character in any significant way, but just because it looks bad. Jedi Rocks is a blight. The new sarlacc.

 

Why people hates Jedi Rocks so much, I preferred it.

I also loved seeing Hayden as Anakin. I know people doesn't like it but it means total redemption, choosing to go back where his body hasn't fell to the dark side, because himself.

Worst?
Jabba. nuff' said

 

I'll summarize. Improving the picture quality and adding extra sounds and background scenery. All good
The changing of scenes to make it in line with the PT and all the additional CGI was not good at all.
The bonus scenes or added dialogue are not essential but they do add somewhat to the Saga and taking them out makes the series incomplete so keep them in.

 

Best: Maybe the new song at the end of Return of the Jedi, but I didn't mind the old one
Worst: Just about everything else, but the gravest offense was putting Hayden Christensen in as a force ghost at the end of Jedi.

 

Personally I'm not a big fan of the Force Ghost change, while I like the idea of Hayden's Anakin replacing Sebastian Shaw as a force ghost, the execution wasn't very good, and comes off slightly creepy (Likely because they used footage from ROTS) . After recently re watching ROTJ with my father, I've come to the conclusion that if they re shot the sequence, preferably with Hayden sporting a beard, similar to Luke's in TFA, the change would be more positively with others and myself.

 

Favorite-Victory Celebration and Ian McDiarmid in Empire Strikes Back

Least Favorite- Boba Fett breaks fourth wall

 

Best changes: Ian McDiarmid as Sidious Palpatine in TESB (2004) and the Sarlacc in ROTJ (1997).

Worst change: Jedi Rocks (ROTJ)

 

Star Wars:
The only good ones are the visual effects changes like the X-wings taking off from Yavin, increased speed and maneuverability of ships, etc. Correcting Obi-Wan's flickering lightsaber, replacing the cardboard people, stuff like that. All of the nonsense that changes or adds scenes is terribad. Greedo shooting and Han dodging, R2 impossibly behind the rocks, Kenobi's ridiculously obnoxious "what-the-hell is that?" krayt call, the stupid CGI nonsense going on in Mos Eisley, the added Jabba scene that just repeats previous exposition, all of that stuff is horrible, horrible, horrible and seriously ruins the film. Probably the only change in that category that I find acceptable are the added stormtroopers in the scene where Han is charging and has to turn around in the Death Star, but that would be it.

Empire Strikes Back:
Some of the soundtrack mix changes are superior to the original in my opinion. The exterior window shot of Leia pacing in Cloud City looks much better, but could still be improved today. Really the only thing I hate about the original film are the Cloud Cars in some shots and the Cloud City mattes in others. Some of the new exterior shots look good but then the SE was not consistent in that regard: when the Falcon lands on Bespin, for instance, the background was all redone with CGI, and looks better, but then when the actors step out, it's all mattes again. Anyway, all of the other changes are bad. The wampa stuff is terrible not only because it looks bad, but because it completely alters the scene. The focus gets changed from Luke trying to use the force to reach his lightsaber, to the stupid creature. It ruins the suspense of the scene and diminishes what is really going on. I get what they were trying to do with the new Emperor hologram, but the execution was terrible. The prequel makeup was inferior and doesn't even look professional to be honest...Palpatine looks like a fat clown in the new scene. The dialogue is also wrong and changes Vader into an idiot simpleton and ruins the very nuanced cat-and-mouse game going on between the two sith and simply does not match with Vader's character in the whole rest of the movie. As I mentioned, some shot changes on Cloud City are improvements, but most are not including all of the various windows. All of the CGI video game cutscenes are jarring and disruptive and don't match the aesthetic of the rest of the film. And Boba Fett's new voice is not even in the same league as Jason Wingreen's menacing delivery.

The single worst change in Empire, however, is the Vader shuttle scene that completely stops the film's climax dead in its tracks. The most important sequence in the entire movie, the one that the entire movie has been building towards for two hours, just stops dead in its tracks and kills the films momentum so we can see some cutaway footage from a completely different movie. It's a disgraceful edit. I do like the new music cue and the included shot of Vader's shuttle approaching the Executor, and I have worked these into my own fan edit, but the rest of the SE edit is just so bad it needed special mention.

Also, "bring my shuttle" is Darth Vader, not all that other nonsense gobbledy-gook that gets said in the SE.

Return of the Jedi:
All of the changes are terrible. Maybe some of the moving visual effects like the skiffs needed to be updated, and that's fine. But everything else is a travesty. Jedi Rocks is probably the worst thing ever put on screen. There is no reason to see the Rancor eat people twice, and since we already see the Gamorrean guard get crunched when Luke falls into the pit, there's no need to see the dancer get eaten as well. Her screams from below are enough to cue the audience that something bad happens to people who fall down there. Boba Fett mugging for the camera for stupid fanservice is so unnecessary and petulant that it doesn't even need additional commentary. The CGI cartoon Sarlacc is arguably the most fake looking thing in the entire trilogy. Even people who don't tend to notice or care about the changes much tend to hate the change of Han's line from "it's alright, trust me" when I show them the alteration. And then there are all of the infamous changes to the ending. Vader's "NOOOO" ruins the entire climax of the film. There is no reason for him to externally say something corny and dumb at that critical moment when the camera work tells us everything about his internal emotions that we need to know. It's just such a damn travesty. The new music at the end and all of the new footage of these places that are not even in the movie are terrible. Yub Nub and the Endor-only shots fit the atmosphere like a glove. And of course there is Hayden's stupid ghost, with this smirking adolescent child murderer appearing out of nowhere when it was the proud old man of Sebastian Shaw who was the person saved by Luke, his son.

 

I agree with most of your points. However, I still prefer the original models in the battle of Yavin scene. I don't dislike the updated effects. I just prefer the originals.

There are some many bad changes, it is difficult to pick the absolute worst, but I think I'm going to go with the cut and paste job of Vader returning to the Executor, a.k.a. the Death Star II, and everything that surrounds that scene. Cutting and pasting the Death Star II comes across as cheap and sloppy. "Bring my shuttle" is perfect. His subdued anger comes through loud and clear in the delivery. With "Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival," he almost sounds jolly.

I'm curious about the fan edit you mentioned. Is it something that is out there for others to view?

 

Worst for me is the NOOOO in 'Jedi. I refuse to buy any new editions until that is taken out

 

Are we talking about the special edition changes of 1997? Because a lot of the changes listed here happened after the special editions.

 

Worst:
Luke Screaming in ESB - Glad Lucas took that out
Mos Eisley CGI Clutter - That alien that hogs the frame for a few seconds while it passes by is particularly annoying.
Jedi Rocks
Jabba Scene in ANH
Obi-Wan's Krayt Scream (2011)
R2 Hiding Behind Rocks
Greedo Shooting
Hayden Christensen Ghost
"No. NOOOOO!"
Best:
Aubresh font on the Death Star Tractor Beam (2004 onward)
Almost all the aesthetics changes to Cloud City (though I don't think the theatrical version of the city is bad at all)
Victory Celebration Music - I can take it or leave it. It's a great track, but there was nothing wrong with Yub Nub.

 

In short, I loved almost all of the ESB changes and didn't like most of the ANH and ROTJ changes.