What would YOU have done with the Special Editions?

[darko666]

i would add a scene in ANH with Sebulba begging for credits in front of the cantina. and as Luke and the crew enter the cantina, 3PO notices him and utters "Oh my". and to further ruin the movie, have Sebulba talking to the Stormtroopers outside of the cantina while the droids look on.

for the ESB, when Luke stops his training with Yoda to save his friends on Cloud City, when the ghost of Kenobi and Yoda both fail to keep Luke there, a ghost of Mace appears and says "This party's over, that boy was our last hope."

ROTJ, just replace the perfectly acceptable ghost of the old Anakin with the younger one... oh, wait.

[El Chuxter]

Shortly after the ghost of Anakin appears in ROTJ, I'd have the ghosts of Mace, Kit, Saessee, Agen, Cin Drallig, Jocasta Nu, and all the younglings appear, holding baseball bats.

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

As far as Vader's "Bring my shuttle" vs. "Alert my Star Destroyer to prepare for my arrival," after seeing both versions, I prefer the older one. He sounds more tense and somewhat angry or sad that he couldn't turn Luke, whereas in the new one there's really nothing.

After watching them again a few weeks ago there are still some things they need to do. I'd like to see them completely redo the lightsabers in most of ANH, especially Luke's in Ben's hut (why is it flat when he turns it?) and on the Falcon (green, to white, to kinda blue). I've also been bothered by the "quick cuts" when the sabers turn on, and when the doors go up or down it just looks bad ("let's just look down for a few seconds and hold still while this door opens").

I'd also really like to see some re-rendering done on a lot of the CGI, especially the Sarlacc and the Rontos. And the Landspeeder in Mos Eisley; they changed the first shot and now it looks great but they should've used the new model throughout the other CGI shots. I've also always been bothered by the CGI sand dunes in ROTJ when the banthas are randomly walking toward them, they look really small or something.

[Jargo]

ANH: (in no particular order)
I'd add some mobility to the masks on the cantina patrons. no need to change their look but just digitally add some eye blinks and mouth movements. make sure that hands all looked right such as the Duros having the same hands and Ponda Baba. In fact i would probably insert a more grizly shot of the dr' and ponda being sliced by the saber.
Han would shoot first.
mos eisley and mos espa seem far too busy. and there's so many different species of creature on what is essentially a burned out rock of a planet with tatooine. it has twin suns, it's incredibly harsh yet somehow all those gazilions of creatures survive there and all concentrated in one small patch of the planet? doubtful. thin it out more so it's sparse like the original cut and gives it even impact when luke says he wants to leave the planet coz there's nothing there.
the drive into mos eisley, i'd change the backgrounds completely especially that part whee they used the exact same setting as the cantina but threw some cruddy CGI stuff on top and that ronto rearing up. they didn't even remove the speeders. I could accept that there might be similar buildings but with the exact same droids outside and the exact same speeders? even the exact same locals walking past. just cheap and lazy work there.
why does han have a rebel helmet aboard the falcon? Ben gives it to luke and it has a solid blast shield. why would a starfighter helmet have a solid blast shield? what possible reason would there be to have such a thing. why would han possess one? I'd digitally alter the helmet design. make it more like a welders face guard sort of thing. han would have one of those.
the dead jawas. they all seem sort of deflated. probably could bulk them up a bit with a little digital painting.
i'd restore trims like the extra dialogue betwen Owen and Beru on the morning Luke takes 3PO to track down R2. I'd restore the tosche station footage. I'd restore the footage of Luke seeing the space battle above tatooine while fixing the vaporator. I'd replace the shots of R2 wadling up and down steps with CGI flying/hovering R2.
I'd have holographic images in the death star conference room rather than just audio. in at least one establishing shot of the death star I'd add a shuttle.
I'd totally redo that shot where Han runs into scores of stormtroopers. It worked better with just a few. o if it had to be a full hangar then at least get the perspectives right and put less in there.
I'm sure there's something could be done with the death star plans readout on yavin. and the cardboard cutout x and y wings in the hangar.
I'd have at least one shot of the planet alderaan from the surface as it gets destroyed. and have more physical mass as the planet explodes. as it is now it looks more like a can of fuel exploding by electronic means. there needs to be chunks of molten rock spinning around otherwise how could the falcon run into what appears to be a meteor belt?
I'd put back the chest explosions on the imperials who get shot. it's only sparks after all but it just looks better.
I'd overdub all of Anthony daniels' dialogue with a less irritating characterisation. and more of a processed sound to his voice. American too.
I'd paint out any occurence of the grey pipes on R2's inner legs where Kenny baker was in the costume.
Darken Vaders lenses on his mask.
make the astro droids on the death star black.
I'd make the music played by the modal nodes more alien. less jazz and more akin to the street music of mos espa.
I'd go back to the original footage of jabba in docking bay 94 and use that rather than a CGI jabba. but i'd tweak the dialogue in ADR, change han's dialogue so references to jabba were replaced by references to whatever name was chosen for that character. use CGI to reshape Hans lips to match the dialogue.
I'd make more of the death star explosion. like the whole thing superheats first, glowing and with cracking edges at docking ports then whole portions splitting then the thing explodes outwards then implodes before that huge shockwave is sent out. except the shockwave would be a spherical one not flat plane one. and the remains of the DS should burn a little longer like a tiny dying star.
I'd also not end the movie with that victory celebration. I'd re-use footage from the yavin base control room and have one of the comms officers recieving a crackly message from some rebel outpost of some new danger. end the movie with a touch of the 'more to come' rather than 'this is an end'.
I'd change the stupid noise that patrol droid makes as it annoys the ASP droid. it'd be more nasty and electronic. like the sort of attitude E-3PO gives C-3PO on cloud city.
I'd add AT-ST's and speeder bikes to establishing shots of Mos Eisley. give even more of a sense of danger to the place. maybe even some distant stand-off skirmish. just a quick glimpse of the imperials meting out punishment. to back up Ben's claims of the place being dangerous. as it is ben and luke see to breeze through mos eisley like they're off down the local shops for a carton of milk.
I'd remove any 'comedic' music cues and replace them with less overt ones.
finally I'd replace vader's voice. as lovely as james Earl jones is and as great as his voice is for me it just doesn't work as anakin inside a helmet speaking through a vocoder. for one thing I'd use a white guy for the voice. secondly I'd use someone far more sinister sounding. thirdly it'd be more processed. less human. it would also probably have a dual vocal track with Hayden speaking the lines and his track just faintly in the back of vaders voice.
and finally I'd put that hole in the ground next to the roof of the lars garage so it matches the interior shots looking out of the garage.

[Jargo]

ESB:
The stop-motion Tauntauns would be replaced with CGI ones.
I'd put the scene of Luke having the bacta mask removed back.
I'd redo the scene of the Wampa attack on echo base and R2 luring Wampa's into the trap. then the scene of the snowtroopers entering the chamber where the Wampa's were held captive. It's not essential to the plot and doesn't advance anything but it's just a nice idea.
I'd replace the AT-ST with a CGI version or an AT-AP and have some speeder bikes buzzing around. I'd add into the footage of the rebels battling against the imperials with some sort of skirmish inside echo base.
I'd completely redo the space slug asteroid sequences. or at least paint over the main crater digitally. make it more hostile looking. I'd add more mynocks to the slug interior scene. Completely redesign the slug to look less like a sock puppet and more like real creature.
add a shot of the other bounty hunters flying away from the executor before the fleet starts to split up.
Redo the floating head of doom holographic emperor. make it more akin to the holographic sidious of TPM.
I'd change the colour pallet of cloud city. fewer pastels and more bold colours. try and lose the 1980's wallpaper design look to the interiors. I'dd add more air traffic with different air speeders buzzing around. tibana gas transports.
I'd use the more graphic shots of han's torture.
The scene where chewie finds the bits of threepio, I'd redo that and have chewie get real angry and hold an ugnaut next the furnace threatening to throw it in then have the ugnauts collecting the parts together for chewie.
I'd lose the scream from Luke.
I'd put back the shot of Lando catching Luke o the hull of the Falcon.
I'd insert a shot of Lobot and Cloud city citizens being shot in the back. just to give the stormtroopers some ability at hitting targets. and to up the stakes in the reasoning for Lando joining the rebellion.
I'd replace puppet Yoda with the CGI one.
I'd do something with that horrible galaxy backdrop to the med bay window. and the shot of the window from the outside. Just make it all gel a bit better.

[Mad Slanted Powers]

I just remembered that in the Hoth battle, there is a scene with an AT-AT in the background that doesn't seem to be moving at all. It's probably just a painting or something. It always looked a bit odd to me.

[C5Jedi]

I just remembered that in the Hoth battle, there is a scene with an AT-AT in the background that doesn't seem to be moving at all. It's probably just a painting or something. It always looked a bit odd to me.

Along a similar line - in Jedi when the droids get picked up after the Sail Barge scene, the background (behind the droids) is a painting and it's really obvious.

Han shoots first.

And in the Jabba/Han scene the last line should have been Jabba's "Dont insult me" when Han refers to him as being almost human or whatever the line was.

I like the yoda in the original trilogy/SE (but I would change him to a cg yoda in ep1).