I was talking to a friend about this recently and we both have mixed feelings about the “Special Editions” versions of the original trilogy.
Of course we both hated the “Han shoots second” crap. All right-thinking people do.
I didn’t like the revised dance-number in Jabba’s palace but it didn’t make me nuts. It DID make my friend nuts. He loathed it. I thought the original song was better and I didn’t like the furry guy putting his lips on the camera lens, but it didn’t bother me that much.
I didn’t like the “bigger” ending of Jedi. I appreciated the technical details and what Lucas was trying to do, but on the other hand, I prefer the more intimate closing number with the Ewok’s “Yub-yub” song. My friend disagreed and liked the revised version far better.
I don’t think the insertion of Jabba (over the live actor) in Star Wars worked on a technical level, but I can overlook iffy effects as it added to the story.
I loved a lot of the little details Lucas added: the big skeleton on Tattoine and other little touches like that.
I can’t remember any major changes to story or music in Empire: were there any?
Overall, I’d say the revisions are a mixed bag with only one being unforgivable (“Han shoots second”)
BTW: Anyone have a site that lists the differences between the two versions?
Here is a site that describes all of the SE additions and changes in good detail.
I hated hated hated the new dance scene in ROTJ. You know how some people hate Jar Jar? That’s how I hate that scene. This is Jabba’s hideout in the middle of the desert, not the Sands in Vegas! I kind of like the bigger ending in ROTJ, though, at least because we’ve now actually seen Coruscant in TPM and AOTC, so it adds a little more connection. (I have no problem with backfitting and retcons when the situation calls for it.)
The new Cloud City shots in ESB were nice, if not strictly necessary.
I thought the worst change was, of course, Han shooting second. Other than that, the worst change was the added song in RotJ. Not that it was horrid, but it should have been more low-key. Star Wars is not meant to be a musical.
The best change was the ending of RotJ. I love love love the new music compared to the yub-yubs. The new scenes of celebrating citizens of the former Empire are great! I especially love the toppling of the statue of Palpatine. It really added a sense of closure to the movies. Before it seemed like the movie ended but the story didn’t - which is cool in one way. But if Lucas isn’t going to make any episodes after VI, then the new ending is a great way to wrap things up.
A friend of mine has admitted publicly that for years the Ewoks were singing: “Lug nuts. We got yer lug nuts.”
It seems appropriate, since they’ve just (improbably) defeated a group of Imperial Walkers.
Hans shooting second in and of itself raised such disgust in me that I never even considered buying tickets for the modified versions of the later two films, nor will I ever buy them on DVD.
If you’re talking about the big skeleton of the Kryat dragon lying on the sand banks of Tattooine, that’s always been there.
In Empire the changes were a little more subtle. There’s added footage so you can see the Wampa a little better before he attacks Luke in the cave. On Bespin, they removed some walls and made windows out of them so you can see the sunset (an attractive touch that I liked.) And there is a brief addition after Luke jumps (oh yeah, that horrible scream was added when Luke jumps) when Vader is walking away and tells his people to prepare the Executor for his arrival.
And I liked the new song over the Yub-Yub song. I prefer seeing the other systems celebrate rather than just the Ewoks who hadn’t heard of the Empire until recently. Some complained that how would everyone know about the Empire’s fall, but I figure they gotta have something like CNN. Do you reckon Darth Vader did all the promos for them too? “This…is ENN…[hawwwch…heewwch]”
Is it even possible to buy video tapes (I assume the situation is hopeless with DVDs) of the original trilogy as they were released to theaters any more? I’m not sure I’m ready to have another one of my childhood memories messed with.
(Please keep the mods happy and don’t post about bootleg stuff!)
…authorities suspect that the attackers are neo-Republic anarchists supported by a number of outer-ring systems.
Once again for those of you just joining us: The Death Star construction site orbiting Endor has been attacked and destroyed in a surprise attack by Rebel forces. The Super Star Destroyer Executor, flagship of the Imperial Navy along with several smaller vessels have also been destroyed. No word yet on casualties, but estimates are in the tens, if not hundreds, of thousands. Worst of all…there is no word from Emporer Palpatine…leader of the galaxy…who was overseeing the final construction of the massive station. Officials refuse to comment, but rumor has it the Emporer is feared dead…or at least has been turned into a “Force ghost”. We take you now to the scene…in orbit around the moon Endor.
“…Thanks Bob! The scene here is one of utter devastation! Some peices of spacecraft and the station, some miles long, some no bigger than a droids head, continue to burn in orbit. Others, trapped by the moons gravity have begun their decent to the surface. The local inhabitants, called “Ewoks” are cheering…even as the debris falls to the plannet…setting ablaze the massive forests…”
Once again - Death Star destroyed…Imperial Navy badly damaged…Emporer Palpatine and his staff feared dead…a sad day for the Galaxy…This is CNN.
I had a problem with the celebrations on Coruscant. I mean, this place is the imperial capital, and sure, the emperor is dead, but that doesn’t mean that
It’s neccesrily pro-rebel. There must have been some planets out there that liked the Empire.
and
The Imperial presence isn’t gone. I’d assume Coruscant is pretty heavily garrisoned, and, even without the emperor, I don’t think they’d allow rioting in the streets.
What’s kinda creepy is that I watched the Special Edition on Fox when they aired it a few weeks ago – I’d never seen it before – and I had the “Yub-yub” music stuck in my head all night, though of course they didn’t play it. Probably because I’ve seen Jedi so many times (it was my favorite when I was little) – so the whole thing felt a little off. Although on the whole the bigger ending was sorta cool, even if the part on Coruscant was jarring for the reasons Captain Amazing mentions.
Of course, now I’m always going to hear it as “Lug nuts!”
Incidentally, there’s a minor-league baseball team called the Lansing Lugnuts. Wonder if they need a theme song? Lucas isn’t using it anymore…
Besdies the change in the meeting between Han and Greedo, the added scene where Jabba and Han talk shortly thereafter strikes me as quite unnecessary. For one thing, they repeat, almost word for word, a couple lines of dialog that Han and Greedo exchanged just moments earlier!
The only change I didn’t like was Greedo firing first. Gee, how original!
But seriously, they didn’t even do a good job of it, if he missed Solo by a good three feet, while they were both stationary, sitting down, and he’d had his gun aimed at him for a while, how did he manage to get to the cantina in the first place without tripping over his feet and stabbing himself in the eye with his own finger?
If they had inserted some reason for him to miss at that close range it would have made sense, as it was it turned a great scene into a confusing one.
In “Star Wars,” the only thing I really liked was the added in bit with Luke and his friend (who’s name escapes me) before going into battle. It makes the guy’s death a bit more meaningful. The addition of Han’s “self defense” shot and the Jabba the Hutt scene both were terrible additions in my opinion. Han’s supposed to be a fucker, that’s his thing, man. And as for Jabba showing up…why would the essential owner of this territory make a personal visit to a guy who ripped him off and NOT break every bone in his body one by one, and then start the very mean stuff. It makes no sense. This guy’s hiring bouty hunters to find him and kill him, so he decides to make a personal visit and LET’S HIM GO!!! Makes Jabba seem like a big pussy in my opinion too.
The shit in Empire was alright. I really liked seeing the Wampa more, but the window shots were a little silly. What I HATED was any shot where there was a CGI rendered Falcon. The model looked so cool, and beat up, yet the CGI renderings were smooth, fake, and flat. Every shot of those, the ship looked liked it’d been compressed.
As for ROtJ, the ending sucked. Lucas basically put it in there to say “I’m the guy who decides what goes on in this universe, all other stories never existed.” Ego, man, ego. Also, how is it that as soon as the Emperor “dies,” the entire Empire finds out about it immediately? And celebration goes up everwhere? Like Captain Amazing said, it wouldn’t have happened that quickly, or in such a grand scale. Oh, and the addition of the venus flytrap mouth in the sarlac pit? LAME!!!
What really annoys me about this is that Greedo was supposed to even shoot in the first place. In ESB, when they are preparing Han to be frozen in the carbonite, didn’t Boba Fett say to Vader “He’s no good to me dead”? So why would Greedo shoot at Han in the first place? Apparently he wouldn’t have gotten any cash from Jabba anyway if Han was dead.
Because, if you read the books-(and I stop whining, Lucas said they’re canon, so they’re canon-even if the movies come first!), Greedo is extremely stupid and arrogant.
Jabba was playing around with Solo. He wasn’t too fond of Greedo in the first place.
Of course, that begs the question of why the Empire – the leading superpower in the galaxy – would refer to its battlestation to its own citizens with such an ominous-sounding name. Doesn’t the Empire have any PR people?
And I hated the gratuitous insertion of Boba Fett in the revised version of “A New Hope.” Stop making those fanboys cream their pants, Lucas!
Well, I think the Empire’s PR people are more dedicated to fear and terror than inspiring warm fuzzies.
<briefing room>
Imperial Bureaucrat #1: Ok, people, you’ve all seen the plans for the new space station, designed to pacify our citizens through sheer terror. Does anyone have any suggestions for names?
Imperial Bureaucrat #2: How about “The Happy Fun Ergonomics Research Center and Playland”?
Impeial Bureaucrat #1<to guards>: Take him out and have him shot.
