Official Star Wars Thread

[Ben]

I expect this is the kind of stuff that will eventually turn up on these discs. Not particularly exciting to me (easy to see reasons why it was cut), but "true fans" might enjoy this slight deleted moment from Jedi:

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/sh ... -Jedi.html

[eddievalient]

Kinda neat. And all I meant by "true fan" is that I can look past the movies' shortcomings (like Hayden Christensen's bad acting and the fact that his turn to the Dark Side was poorly handled) and enjoy them, whereas a lot of other people take great joy in bashing Star Wars to pieces over the same things. If all you're going to do is bash it, you probably shouldn't be calling yourself a fan. That's all I'm saying.

P.S. I always liked Jar Jar Binks. He's funny.

[Ben]

We're not even going to rise to that last comment. Right, guys?

[Randall]

That had to be baiting.

[EricJ]

We're not even going to rise to that last comment. Right, guys?

(does Boss Nass "blbbblbllbbl!") No sah!

I'm probably going to be in the minority here, but I'm honestly not going to care much if the original versions aren't on there. Sure, it might be nice to have them, but if it only has the special editions, I'll still be happy.

Sales numbers don't lie: Fans bought the "Original version" SW to keep Han shooting first and no Episode IV, but NOBODY CARED about seeing Empire or Jedi in their original forms.
Some SE's were improvements.

[droosan]

NOBODY CARED about seeing Empire or Jedi in their original forms.

I prefer the Star Wars movies the way I saw 'em, as a kid. Matte-lines, and all.

[eddievalient]

I wasn't baiting. I like Jar Jar. So what? "The Gungan General" is one of my favorite episodes of Clone Wars because it showed that even he can rise to the occasion when he has to. And it was great to hear Ahmed Best again in "Bombad Jedi". He and Threepio make a great comedy duo, they bounce off each other really well. I haven't seen season two yet (I'm waiting for the dvd), but I'm hoping we see Jar Jar again.

[droosan]

I wasn't baiting. I like Jar Jar. So what? "The Gungan General" is one of my favorite episodes of Clone Wars because it showed that even he can rise to the occasion when he has to. And it was great to hear Ahmed Best again in "Bombad Jedi". He and Threepio make a great comedy duo, they bounce off each other really well. I haven't seen season two yet (I'm waiting for the dvd), but I'm hoping we see Jar Jar again.

I have to agree that "Bombad Jedi" is the most enjoyable episode of Clone Wars that I've yet seen.

Jar-Jar is far more entertaining in that episode, than at any point in the 'Prequel Trilogy' films.

I've shown that episode to a few co-workers who'd doubted that Jar-Jar could actually be funny .. and it hasn't yet failed to get 'em laughing!

[GeorgeC]

NOBODY CARED about seeing Empire or Jedi in their original forms.

I prefer the Star Wars movies the way I saw 'em, as a kid. Matte-lines, and all.

Me, too...

... And it's fairly arrogant to presume that those of us who saw the films in their original forms wouldn't care about keeping them that way in our film collections.

There's quite a bit more than the matte lines that endears those films to us.

The editing and pacing was generally better in the original theatrical cuts... What was added to both Empire and Jedi were sequences that "explained behind the scenes" shuttle take-offs that weren't necessary. As if we needed every "i" dotted and "t" crossed to follow the storylines! Bad, bad filmmaking choices on Lucas' part.

As for Jar Jar, his best appearances for me were in "Jar Jar's Walking Papers" and Lego Star Wars where players were finally given a chance to kill him... REPEATEDLY!

[Ben]

I prefer the Star Wars movies the way I saw 'em, as a kid. Matte-lines, and all.

Actually, in the SEs, the matte lines are still there. All this stuff about ILM recompositing stuff is pure guff. Lucas got Fox to pay for a remaster and VFX "upgrades" on the CG insertions, but the matte shots are still the same. All they did was re-grade them to increase the contrast. When Luke was attacking the AT-ATs, the miniature photography was visible through the hull of this ship, very clearly in the original edition. In the SE, the image contrast is increased so as to hide the transparency more.

Far from re-compositing those layers, as Lucas told us all - and Fox - that had been done, the transparencies were just taken down a couple of notches. But play 'em and look closely...they're still there. That's just an example...that's rampant over all three films (remember that Vader's lightsabre in Star Wars after killing Kenobi wasn't fixed in 1997 either; that had to wait until the DVD editions, when all red lightsabres were pink) - along with stereo surrounds that were left and right switched by accident, not the "creative decision" by Lucas.

I just guess they were "good enough".

[eddievalient]

I don't know why we're even debating this. We all know he's going to rerelease the originals again at some point to squeeze one more dollar out of the hardcore fans (like me), but just like the dvds, there won't be any extras. All the extras will be with the SEs, so if you want all the behind the scenes stuff, you'll have to buy both. Lucas does that. He's a capitalist. I accept it.

[Ben]

BA Baracus has a wonderful phrase to sum that up.

[EricJ]

Y'know, for all the George-hating, you'd think there were fans who'd finally believe he was stupid enough to destroy the original-version prints, and that's why we got the bare-bones LD prints on DVD that everyone complained about...
C'mon, it's either Incompetence and he did destroy them, or Evil Conspiracy and he didn't; you can't logically have BOTH complaints.

[Ben]

In the early/mid-90s I saw the LucasFilm inventory, and those elements were there and available, as I've said elsewhere before. And even if he hated them, he'd be a nut to destroy them, just like he has the broadcast master of the Holiday Special. When the barrel has well and truly been scraped, we might even see that one day. Oh, yes.

[Bill1978]

I used to think I was a huge Star Wars fan then two things happened. The internet was made available to the public and I became friends with a full on die hard Star Wars fan.

Both events highlighted my complete lack of knowledge about Star Wars and the fact that the true fans are those who believe in the Extended Universe. For me, it's always just been about the movies but my friend absolutley hates the prequel trilogy because they do not follow events that happened in the Extended Universe. Of course me saying, Lucas is the creator and he can do want he wants and the genereal public are clueless to those EU stories so he has gone with his own flow cause even more arguments, then I resorted to just nodding my head and keeping my mouth shut.

To be honest, I don't really care if I ever get to own the original film on blu ray. I have them already in another form and that's good enough for me. Even though I don;'t own a bluray player at the moment, I can see myself getting these because after Beauty And The Beast, the Star Wars verse is the only other movie I feel passionate about to have it in this form before I get the player.

I wouldn't mind seeing the deleted scenes, but I can honestly say I won't get orgasmic over them like that crowd did over the making of a lightsaber. And I have no problem with the Special Edition versions either, but then it appears I'm just not as a passionate as others are about this franchise. Hell, I can even tolerate Jar Jar Binks and felt empathy towards him when he was used by Palpatine.

The only thing I wish Lucas would fix up in the entire 6 films, is to get rid of that dreadful Harry Potter-esque music when the twins are born in Episode III and replace it with the Luke & Leia theme from Episode VI

And thanks George C for that link to the article of the interview with Kurtz. ALthough I have to admit it tooo me about half way through to realise that I had him confused with the director for Empire. Silly silly me.