The Ultimate Editions: Discussing Changes to Possible Upcoming Releases of the Saga

I'm not even going to go into the prequels as the list is very long. I will stick to the OT:

Star Wars:
1. rusted old battle droid in the corner of the sandcrawler.
2. color correction
3. recomposites of original elements
4. Han shoots first

ESB:
1. color corrrection
2. bring my shuttle line restored
3. remove Vader's flight to SSD and his landing

RotJ:
1. color correction
2. more ewoks and theyre fierce
3. more stormies
4. No Hayden

 

Here's one:

Episode VI (What else?)

Get rid of Nien Nunb -- In a movie rife with irritating, costumed abominations, Lando Calrissian's co-pilot takes the cake. I hate that alien.

Maybe it's his exceedingly obnoxious laugh.

Or his soulless eyes.

Or the fact that the lower-half of his visage begs comparison to genitalia. (And not in that intriguing H.R. Giger way.)

Ditch him! And replace him with a CGI creature. Preferably Watto--who, unlike Darth Vader, deserves a shot at redemption.

 

Wait - you would rather have a CGI creature used than a mask or a puppet?

But drg4 - masks and puppets are magical! Magical and innocent (like childhood).

 

Also, maybe Kashyyyk can be added to the celebration scene at the end of ROTJ.

 

A New Hope

Fix Luke?s lightsaber when he?s aboard the Falcon once and for all!

Please go back to Han shooting first. It just looked ten times better

Try and spruce up Obi-Wan and Vader?s duel. Lucas? old excuse that Obi-Wan is an old man is obsolete, especially when you look at Count Dooku, who was actually much older than Obi-Wan! Out of all changes this is the one I would like to see most, but I know the chances of it occurring are very slim


The Empire Strikes Back

To be honest, very little. I can?t really think of much. The DVD version is pretty perfect, IMO. It was the leased touched, and for good reason


Return of the Jedi

Fix the lightsabers when they?re crossed over the Emperor. Really don?t know how Lucas let that one go. It truly looks awful

Keep Hayden as the Force Ghost, because story-wise, IMO, it actually makes perfect sense. But, make it look better, especially when he first appears

 

I think this could not only work well, but would be a nice addition-considering what we know of backstory with the Wookies and what happened to them as a result of the fall of the Republic.

 

I think adding eye blinks and perhaps some CG enhanced mouth movements could go a long way.



Eh....Watto?

 

well i agree that all OT and PT aliens needs eyeblinks now- especially now when Lucas decided to add eyelids to the rodians in TCW Greedo needs better mouth movement and he should shoot first again .... Nien Numb for the win- he is best character in saga..... along with Ben Quadrinaros I hope they never replace him..... Actually one change they should do is add aliens among rebels in ep4 and 5- now it's all-human rebellion against all-human empire and all humans are not even from the same planet.... CGI in PT should be improved- i like the way ep3 looks but ep1 and 2 needs updating- Yoda in ep1 should be CGI yoda like in other PT movies....

 

I agree about the eyes blinking for all OT aliens. Just imagine how much better ROTJ would be if Rob Colman from ILM touched up the ewoks faces and eye blinks even a little tiny bit. Just imagine watching the scene when leia meets wiket and wiket actually GIVES A REAL preformince rather than a stiff teddy bear face tilting its head.

Imagine when leia gives him the cookie (or what ever it was she gave him) and he actually changes his facial expression from a warrior with his spear up to a happy, cute little ewok dude because he now has a treat to eat from a friendly princess leia.

IMO it would do such wonders for that scene that i think it would even make a lot of people like the ewoks more because the introduction of them would have been done much better if the thing can give SOME kind of performance.

First wiket is all scary looking with his teeth showing and stuff and we dont yet know what he is and then when she gives him the cookie all of the sudden his teddy bear ears pop up and he gives a big cute ewok smile. IMO something like this could go such a long way and do wonders for the whole ewok subplot in the movie.

 

Well it will have to be someone else besides Rob Coleman doing the animating because he no longer works for ILM or Lucasfilm. He lives in Australia now.

But yes digitally enhanced Ewok faces is a good idea.

 

I had a dream last night that I was watching the upcoming rerelease of Empire and Lucas replace all the TIE Fighters with homing missiles in the asteroid field to make it less violent.

I wake up and the blu rays are announced.

 

The trailer sent chills down my spine.

However, I REALLY hope the shot of Emperor Palpatine with the sabers clashing in front of him will be fixed. Like a lot of shots, it looks worse in the DVD version than the original/ Special Edition release. The missing Lightsaber cores need to be added and the "slug" on his face removed.

 

Yes, the "face-slugs" do look better on the 2004s, but they're still there and still distracting. According to some sources, these will absolutely be fixed for the blu-rays, along with the wacky lightsaber colors.

 

One would hope the lightsaber colors would be fixed. If they failed to address this problem it would be unbelievable.
( Then again, I'm actually amazed we haven't yet seen a "variable color saber crystal" retcon. )

You said it!

 

My ideal "ultimate edition" changes list for the saga:

Episode I

1. Make it so Jar Jar does not vie for the audience's attention when the focus of the scene is on other characters. Even when he's out of frame he often makes annoying vocalizations that add to the overall annoyingness of the character. As someone who has spent an extensive amount of time making a fan cut of Episode I, this is something I became acutely aware of.

2. Get rid of Anakin's stupid little "yippees" and constant "oopses." You'd think the kid was either high or the world's biggest klutz.

3. Make Anakin's actions during the final battle more deliberate. I hated the fact that he came across as an accidental hero, and his running commentary of the battle really detracted from his character.

4. Fix the final battle to make it look less like a video game. I know there's only so much they can do, but at least re-rendering some of it with newer shaders would help a lot. The wide shots in particular looked pretty bad.

5. Could Lucas please ditch the midichlorian references? I know he won't, but I wish he would.

6. Some of the holograms in the movie are in color, when they should be monochrome. They should be re-colored, since according to canon color holograms haven't been developed yet.

Episode II

1. Remove Anakin's iirritating "it's not fair" rant in Padme's apartment. Seriously, even though my 15 year old self loved Episode II when I first saw it in theaters that scene made me want to punch someone.

2. Tighten up the pace a bit. The Anakin and Padme stuff on Naboo simply drags on way longer than it should, so why not just cut to the chase and have them hook up sooner.

3. Obi Wan wastes too much time trying to figure out that Jango Fett is on Kamino. As much as I'm sure Lucas hates the idea of parting with it, the dexter scene should be scrapped. All they have to do is make Zam's dying words be "Kamino System" and you've suddenly eliminated a good 10 minutes or so of redundant exposition.

Episode III

1. The balcony scene. Please alter or remove.

2. "Only Sith deal in absolutes?" Really? How could Obi-Wan not realize how badly this statement contradicts itself, not to mention being a backwards representation of the Sith and Jedi ideology? Either get rid of this line or have Anakin tell Obi-Wan out how retarded and hypocritical and oxymoronic it is.

3. Have the medical droid give a more scientific reason for Padme dying. Millions of women have died in childbirth since the dawn of humankind, and medical journals have recorded plenty of causes for it. They could even compromise by saying "She's too weak to survive childbirth. Her emotional trauma is killing her."

Episode IV

1. Han shoots first

2. Film a new / extended duel between Obi-Wan and Vader. Obi-Wan may be old but he should still be agile. He won't be doing backflips at his age but overall I would like the duel to better sync with the other 5 episodes, especially since these are two masters of the force having a final battle. It can't be as epic as the duel from Episode III since it's not the climax of the movie, but but it needs more energy and more excitement. Put a CG Alec Guiness head on a stuntman's body and we should be good to go. Also, if they could digitally change the location to something more interesting than a boring, nondescript hallway it would be a big improvement. Maybe a TIE Fighter hangar?

3. Show us some of the destruction of Alderaan from the point of view of the Alderaanians. This is a freaking genocide, and it would carry a bit more weight if we people screaming in terror as the world around them is destroyed. See example:

4. Add some new shots and more TIE fighters to the Battle of Yavin. Make the scene feel bigger and even more climactic.

5. Give us the imperial march somewhere.

6. Make some CG tweaks to the Cantina creatures to make them look more alive

7. Add more planets to the space shots

Episode V:

1. CHANGE BOBA FETT'S VOICE BACK!

2. Fix the way P

 

What if the reason is not scientific in the usual sense of the word?

But it's not a given that the new shot "needs an offscreen explanation". Some people feel that way, others don't. By this logic, if any percentage of the audience fails to grasp the justification for any given scene, it is automatically labeled a "failure".

Not enough time.

 

As I said, the problem with Hayden replacing Shaw goes beyond simply being that it requires an off-screen explanation-- the problem is that the reasoning behind it is illogical, and it makes a lot less sense than having Anakin appear as a middle aged man. If Anakin "died" when he went to the Dark Side in more than just a metaphorical sense, then why didn't his ghost appear earlier, while Vader was still alive? Also, if he changed back to the light side shortly before his death, then what happened to the soul of the man who Look unmasked? Are we to believe that Anakin has literally turned into three separate people, or was he converted into an evil person, but then redeemed himself in the end? The original ending with Shaw implies the latter, while the 2004 version implies the former. The 2004 ending is bad writing on top of it being tasteless.

As for the destruction of Alderaan, they can simply change how the effects of the Death Star's cannon is depicted. An instant explosion would probably not occur with such a weapon, anyway. See example:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1hMOG9qN5rg

 

^ ^ ^ That's pretty good, IMO. The editing is cleverly accomplished and, if it were this tastefully done on an Ultimate Edition, I should have no problem with it. The sequence has greater emotional heft and gives the audience an immediate, but suitably brief, perspective on how the explosion might look from the surface. Very cool bit of splicing (even with all the obvious lifts from other sources).

 

That is not only a strawman but is also silly. Besides, Anakin didn't have the ability earlier.

 

Never.

 

timstuff that Alderaan destruction is actually pretty good.

 

Who knows? I prefer the instant explosion. I'm glad Adywan removed that part.

 

While we are still talking about Alderan, I know this is impossible and sounds strange but for some reason when I was little I always thought I saw its destruction from the ground and heard screaming?!?! Now everytime I watch ANH original, or special edition I never see this as the scene was obviously never created 30+ years ago, or in 98, or 04. WIERD!

 

Your mind was filling in the gaps that the movie didnt show. It's implied because that's what Kenobi tells us happened too(billion voices crying out in terror and suddenly silenced). So your mind was creating those scenes in your mind.

 

Yea actually, that line was one of the most perfectly delivered lines in the movie IMO, he just made it sound so...epic. IDK how to explain it but when your a kid and you watch that scene for the first time...it has an impact on you.