CT Special edition - worst and best changes

They're wearing uniforms. And these Rodians in Docking Bay 94 have on slightly different uniforms than Greedo. For one their vests have pockets.

 

If I'm not mistaken, Greedo actually wears two different uniforms: there are small differences between what he wears in the wide shots with Han (shot during principal photography) and in his close-ups (shot during pick-ups), if I recall correctly.

 

sounds like Greedo was quite the fashion icon.

 

Not to mention that his hands changed their shape between the original and pick-up shoots!

 

And of course the actor/actress was different too.

In fact, it's amusing that the scene was one of earliest scenes Lucas to be altered. He was unsatisfied with the original cut of the scene (hence the pick-up shots) and he kept being unsatisfied with it, changing it with every single release.

 

That said, I do appreciate how the 2004 Jabba was greatly improved from the 1997 version. It looks closer to the ROTJ Jabba, if not a little shorter.

 

Yeah, but none of them were ever intended to be Greedo. This scene was always meant to take place after Greedo's death. Han and Jabba even talk about Greedo's death in the scene.

The problem here, as always, was time and budget. Lucas didn't have the ability to design and create a bunch of new alien henchmen for Jabba, so he just had several extras wear Greedo costumes. In fact, this was one of several reasons Lucas wasn't satisfied with the scene--he thought Jabba's henchmen were lame. This is probably one of the reasons he inserted Boba Fett into the scene in 1997. It wasn't just fan service. It was so Jabba's posse would finally seem threatening, like they were supposed to be.

 

That's fair enough.

 

Best change: Ian McDiarmid in TESB
Worst change: The Vader "No!" at the end of ROTJ

 

That is a great point about Boba Fett. I do love Jabba's henchmen here. You're right - they're generic - adding Boba steals the show. Suddenly there is an all star threat with Jabba.

I do like how run of the mill these henchmen are. These guys are all like far background characters for Jabba's palace in Return of the Jedi who'd never get a close up. The humans are wearing costumes that would still totally fit in for close up extras wearing a Nikto or Klaatu mask.

Also having three Rodians in the posse gives Jabba another motivation to personally visit Docking Bay 94. Whatever their feelings about Greedo, Jabba stopping by could be a way of appeasing his Rodian henchmen that might be upset. Having three more identical Rodians also shows that Greedo wasn't unique or special to Jabba. He' a henchmen. His hit on Solo was probably more than Jabba actually wanted. So Han killing Greedo doesn't mean so much. Jabba's got plenty of Greedos.

 

Put another order in with the Greedo factory on Kamino...

 

so he was greedy with his Greedos?

 

best change: ''i can't shake him'' dogfight shots of ties and the xwing in battle of yavin
worst change: bpba fetts voice change - horrendous, the original voice is amazing

 

Best change: Any of the subtle cleaning up of clunky effects. Anything not very noticeable

Worst change: Greedo shooting first

 

Agreed, Jason Wingreen was great. I like Temeura Morrison, but the NZ / Maori accent is very clipped and it doesn’t sound as menacing.

 

Yes the original voice is so of it’s time and makes me feel like a kid again.

 

Very of it's time in the best possible way. The orignal voice is great.

The updated voice works better for the entire saga. 1) It matches the prequels. 2) Darth Maul's voice is sort of similar the orignal Boba Fett voice. The Temeura Morrison voice helps make Boba more unique.

 

So my brother is letting me mooch off his Disney+ account and I've finally been checking out these new versions for myself. Obviously there are lot of improvements with this new color grading, but I can't help but notice that everything seems a little...desaturated.

Like take a look at these Greedo close-ups:

Blu-ray:

Disney+:


Don't get me wrong, I know the color grading in the first image isn't ideal. But at least Greedo is clearly green. In the second one, he's almost gray. Then in other shots in the Disney+ version, Greedo appears to be more of a bluish-green:



Regardless of whatever the "original" color grading was, I don't think this is how this should look. Greedo should be green.

And then there's shots like this:

Blu-ray:

Disney+:


While I can understand adjusting the color values of the Blu-ray to be more natural, I don't see why that should result in the dull, almost monochrome look of the second image. I have to say I find the overall vibrancy of the first image to be more visually appealing. I know the sky is supposed to be more of a greyish-blue than in the Blu-ray shot, but my feeling is that it should look basically like it does in this screencap from TPM:



Basically a middle ground between the Blu-ray and Disney+ version.

Is there any chance this is partially just a symptom of my computer display not being able to properly display the full color range of the new scans? I can't imagine these movies are so supposed to look this faded and drained. I'm not asking for red lobster skin and hyper-saturated colors, but I feel like Star Wars should be vibrant and punchy like a comic book. I remember looking at some of the color restorations posted in this forum by @DrDre and, indeed, they looked more or less like these Disney+ versions, but they were more vibrant.

 

It might be your display. On my 4K tv these scans look natural without being washed out. Also, that blu ray screencap you posted is A LOT more clear/sharp than the Disney+ and one would imagine that it should not be.

 

No, as that is the way it looks on the 65" 4K screen I view then on.

Can't say I noticed them myself until you pointed it out but then I wasn't bothered by the BD versions or the multiple attempts to create different versions of the "theatrical" color timing.

IIRC weren't all the home video versions of the 97 SE's all slightly shifted to "pink" for skin or something. There always seems to be some issue or oversaturation or unsaturation or desaturation.

That being the case it might come down to using settings that create that look.

I'd say that the best way to look them as fully intended will be on disc.

 

I'm really liking the new color grading. It's much more natural and removes the added colors and shifts in color that were on the DVD and BluRay. We're back to what Star Wars looked like before 2004. I also think the CGI shots like Mos Eisley look dramatically improved, at least on my TV.

Thanks for the screen capture @The_Phantom_Calamari !!! Please keep them coming.

 

It should be. Streaming suffers from compression artifacts. One of the advantages of home video.

 

I like the new colors too, overall. It's really only the saturation I'm concerned about. Like, I don't know, I don't think stuff like this is right:

Blu-ray:


Disney+:


Theed should look basically like it does in the TPM Blu-ray:



The color value (I think I'm using these terms right, someone correct me if I'm wrong) seems to be basically the same as in the Disney+ version of ROTJ, but its seems more saturated and vivid.

And here's another illustrative example:

Blu-ray:


Disney+:


The lights in this shot should be a vivid, blood red. The color represents the intensity of the anger and aggression Luke is feeling in this scene. It should not be a faded, dull red. That's just wrong.

 

Are you sure you're not taking screenshots of the HDR version? Sometimes that washed out effect happens when displayed on SDR screens.

If that's how it looks in SDR, then I'm beginning to have second thoughts regarding the new color timing...

 

This is what it looks like when I stream it from the Disney+ website on my computer. The prequels look fine.