Star Wars - More "Improvements" Coming

[Black Dragon]

You may have heard that all six Star Wars Films will be coming to blu-ray soon:

Amazon.com: Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray]: Mark Hamill, Hayden Christensen, Harrison Ford, George Lucas: Movies & TV

As it happens, George Lucas has made even more changes to the films. Some of the most glaring include:

• Darth Vader screaming NOOOOOOoooo while killing the Emperor
• The puppet Yoda in Episode I is replaced with a CGI Yoda
• The Ewoks now blink their eyes (yay!! I love blinking teddy bears)
• Obi-Won now makes a bizarre dragon call during his first appearance in Episode IV
• A whole bunch of Tie Fighters have been added to the final battle during Episode VI
• Jabba's Palace now has a larger and more stylish front door

There are more, but these are just the highlights.

What do you think of these "improvements?"

And Why does Mr. Lucas feel the need to obsessively change his films every few years?

 

[Map the Dragon]

Darth Vader screaming NOOOOOOoooo while killing the Emperor -----UGHHH. Heard and watched this. Horrible addition. Already being made fun of all over the web.

The puppet Yoda in Episode I is replaced with a CGI Yoda - Haven't seen, can't judge. But, it wasn't broke. Should it be fixed?

The Ewoks now blink their eyes (yay!! I love blinking teddy bears) - Sure...why not. Wicket is awesome...let him blink.

Obi-Won now makes a bizarre dragon call during his first appearance in Episode IV ----SOOOOOO Awful.

A whole bunch of Tie Fighters have been added to the final battle during Episode VI - The more the merrier.

Jabba's Palace now has a larger and more stylish front door - Not as cool as the doors to the Mines of Moria, but whatever.


I think that these craptastic additions were a gimmick to sell more Blu-Rays that may or may not backfire. I think you used the right word to explain Lucas - obsessive.

 

[Donny Bruso]

George Lucas is definitely obsessed with his universe. I mean, besides Star Wars and Indiana Jones, (granted two very highly regarded franchises) what exactly has he done? Not much, really. He has a lot of producer credits to his name, but not much else going for him. So instead of creating something new, he sits back and finds ways to destroy the films that he has already made. I would have thought that the public backlash from the original release of the three prequels would have been enough to send him back to his giant ranch, but I guess not.

Some people never learn.

My opinion on his most recent changes, well Vader screaming NOOOOOO... while killing the emperor is just stupid. Makes it seem like he's being controlled somehow instead of actually redeeming himself. Undercuts the entire 6 movie character arc in one scene. Way to go George.

Puppet Yoda was awesome. I'll grant you, Lucas's crazy sword fight with Dooku would have been impossible, but I think we all might have forgiven a scene here and there if the 'real' Yoda had been used for the rest of the movies. CGI Yoda is an abomination.

Blinking Ewoks? Meh. Don't really care one way or the other.

Obi-Wan making his Krayt dragon call actually IS in the novelization. I haven't heard the actual sound effect, so I can't judge that one way or another, but imitating the call was the original way he scared off the sand people and saved Luke's useless hide.

More tie fighters? Ok, I'll buy that.

New front door for Jabba's palace? Again, doesn't effect my movie-going experience. I was happy with the original door, but whatever.

 

[myrddin173]

My take on the changes:

Vader scraming Nooo! - I have always felt something was missing from that part, so I actually kind of agree with that as long as it is not overly long. The way it is or rather was seemed rather nonchalant on the part of Vader. He is a father saving his son from death why wouldn't he scream no at the Emporer?

Puppet Yoda - I don't have anything against the change but I don't think it was necessary, I know they originally wanted Episode I's yoda to be CGI but they couldn't do it yet. I do love the Yoda vs Palpatine in Episode III though.

Blinking Ewoks - can he make the other aliens blink too? like the band in the cantina, no blinking kind of creeps me out so I agree with this one.

Dragon noise - I agree with I think a scary looking figure with a scary sound is more likely to scare the sand people away than just the scary figure.

Tie Fighters - I am all for an even more epic space fight.

New Front door - don't care one way or the other.

 

[Dragonie]

I think GL is like one of those people who can't stop fiddling with their story, even if it's perfect and doesn't need changing. He doesn't think it's perfect-- he keeps needing to change things-- and no one will say "no" to him because he's so famous/rich/whatever. What he needs is the equivalent of a headstrong editor, haha!

 

[Philip Overby]

Here's the problem with George Lucas:

Most artists don't have the luxury of going back and adding things to their movies. They just have to deal with the flaws and be happy with what came out. Millions of people love the original trilogy, yet he some how wants it to connect to the prequels. He's a revisionist of his own history. Which is his right to do, but it doesn't seem like he has his fans in mind. He just wants to add stuff just because he can.

I once heard that Lucas was really displeased with a lot of the errors and producer vetoes from the original films. That's why when he did the prequels he had complete control and no one questioned how completely stupid they were. He thought that fans wanted more lightsabers and to see the origins of all these great characters...but they didn't.

Patton Oswalt tells a great story about Star Wars.

George Lucas: Hey do you like Darth Vader?

Star Wars Fan: Oh yeah, I love Darth Vader. He's so bad ass and cool. He's going to be in new Star Wars movie?

George Lucas: Yeah, but in this one he's a kid.

Star Wars Fan: Oh...

 

[Ravana]

Well... as far as the prequels go, they were planned all along; in fact, he originally planned a nine-movie story arc (though after he finished the prequels, he swore he was so fed up with the process he wasn't going to do Chapters VII-IX). In fact, the very first change ever made was to the opening scroll for the original movie: when it was released, it didn't say "Chapter IV," but that got tacked on as soon as Empire was released (with the "Chapter V" header already in place). I haven't a clue where he thought he could take the series after Jedi... so hopefully, he'll stick with his resolution not to attempt it.

Especially since the prequels were indeed lame. Great as far as eye candy value goes--and yes, I too loved finally getting to see Yoda kick some ass. The problem is, the way that they could have been most improved would have been to eliminate Anakin from the story... which would have been kinda self-defeating. Everything else was pretty cool (if occasionally far-fetched even for fantasy)--but I hated watching Ani whine his way through II and III. (Though if Obi-Wan had said "Patience [or whatever], my young padawan" to me that frequently, I'd've turned to the dark side, too. Couldn't they have thought up some real dialogue?)

As for the upcoming changes: don't care that much about Vader screaming. Makes sense he'd say something--his silence was kind of off-putting, made the act seem almost casual--but I'm not sure this adds anything.

Yoda: as Map says, it ain't broke, so don't fix it. Part of what made the movies wonderful was what they accomplished without CGI. What's next--editing Harryhausen movies?

Blinking: okay, fine, a bit of verisimilitude... but if he was really that worried about it, they could have made the aliens blink in the first place. Jabba did, after all. So did Yoda. I'm pretty sure even Jar Jar blinks. [Thank you, BD, for starting this thread: the opportunities for fresh puns is so rare.... ] All this really is is covering up having been cheap in the first place.

Obi-Wan: he did make a "scary monster noise" originally... he even mentions having done so while tending to Luke. Did this get taken out at some point? I don't recall seeing a version where it was absent.

More TIE fighters? Meh. Sixty-four wasn't enough? I'll bet this is an excuse to fix the one special-effects error that did make it into a movie... if you have a copy of Jedi, watch the initial swarm coming out from the Death Star; pay attention to the upper right quadrant of the screen. You're looking for exactly four frames of action. I'll actually miss that if they fix it.

Jabba's front door: I liked the one they had. What else did it need?

There is one change I would like to see: change the cantina scene where Solo shoots Greedo back to the original. You know--where Greedo's gun doesn't go off? At all? Either before Solo shoots him (first revision), or simultaneously (second)? Come on, George: you had it right in the first place. Plugging someone who's holding a gun on you does not make you a "bad guy"--and besides, Solo was a "bad" guy: his growth from a self-centered mercenary smuggler into a heroic figure was part of the point of the whole thing. So leave him the room to grow.

 

[pskelding]

I was an evil downloader person and checked A New Hope out. I didn't like the change to Ben's Krayt Dragon scream, the new one sounds lame as hell. I did like that they removed all the old matte lines during the space scenes. I am 90% sure they made some small changes to the Death Star battle. I probably won't sink my money into this set and instead get the LOTR Boxset on BluRay when I visit Hong Kong later this year.