Special Edition Good or Bad?

[Jon]

I just finished watching the original trilogy...again....and I did it this time deciding to really check out the Special Edition changes and decide which ones were good and which ones really sucked...here's my list of good & bad

Good

1. Scene with Jabba (except for how he looks, he must have gone on a diet between Episode I and Episode IV and then reverted back to his binge eating by Episode VI, but the scene was pretty good)

2. Celebration Scenes & New song at end of Return of the Jedi
3. Expanded Mos Eisley
4. Wampa
5. Expanded Bespin approach
6. Expanded Oola in Rancor Pit scene
7. C-3PO voiceover during explantion of Death Star Tractor Beam deactivation
8. Yavin Battle...Best addition to Special Edition overall I think


Bad

1. Greedo shoots first...yeah that looked real good

2. Changing Lines...why change Luke's funny line on Dagobah to R2-D2 "good thing you don't taste very good" to "you were lucky to get out of there"? It was better the first time

3. New line for Vader on Bespin "Bring my shuttle" unnecessary unless James Earl Jones would have done it

4. Shuttle scene to Executor from Bespin. Just another camera angle from the ROJ Death Star Landing. If you look you can see Moff Jerjerrod in the background moving his mouth to his ROJ lines. Crappy insertion

5. "Windows" on Bespin during the escape. Looked pretty phony, shouldn't it be windy way the heck up there?

6. Jedi Rocks....pretty horrible

7. Sarlaac Monster....unecessary and poorly done

8. Still omitting the Biggs scene in ANH, would have rather seen that than Joh Yowzah acting like a Muppet on Acid

well, that's about it, the one that really steamed me has always been Jedi Rocks & changing Luke's line on Dagobah. Ugh.

[Rollo Tomassi]

Greedo didn't shoot first. It was just..uh..a glare on the lens. yeah. That's it.

[dr_evazan22]

I agree with alot of what you said, especially about the Battle of Yavin.

The new approach to Cloud City, while it was good to show more of the city, it looked very 2D.

I think overall a better job cpuld have been done with the digital insertions: Cloud city like I said above, the Jabba scene from ANH when Han was standing right next to Jabba.

In addition, I thought that ROTJ, which, IMO, should have had the best effects of the OT, had the WORST. The Rancor pit comes to mind. The speeder bike chase.

I kind of expected the movie to have all the effects shots cleaned up for the release.

You are absolutely right about the bad scenes though. I cringe when I watch Jedi Rocks and Joh Yowza. And I just can't understand how, if Greedo shot first, how he missed from just 1-2 feet away!
And those windows on Bespin... I'm cringing again.

I hope that when the OT is released on DVD that the viewer can cut out the additions that were put in, if thats what we want.

[Beast]

Originally posted by Jon
3. New line for Vader on Bespin "Bring my shuttle" unnecessary unless James Earl Jones would have done it

James Earl Jones did record the line, Lucasfilm and he himself have confirmed it in the insider. For some reason probably due to him being older then he was in 1980, and the lack of the original way that his lines were recorded, it came out sounding different then Vader normally sounds. Hopefully this and Jabba's look in ANH can be fixed for the Archival Edition DVD box set.

MTFBWY and HH!!

Jar Jar Binks

[Jon]

Really? I had no idea....still unnecessary to change the line though even with James Earl Jones.

[GNT]

Just wait for the Special,special one of a kind special edition,one of a kind release of the the Star Wars movies 3,where Lucas totally ruins the films and has new actors as stand ins Due for release in 2005

[Wolfwood319]

Its funny, to this day, whenever one of my friends or myself think we have a good idea, someone always says; "yeah...and someone thought Greedo shooting first was a good idea too..."

Its kind of an homage I guess, that this change has impacted the "fan boy" social base that it is used in such a context. A lot of people refer to it as the "change," if you will, from the original Star Wars to the Star Wars that is perceived today. Truly a terrible change.

The only SE I truly liked as a whole was ESB. The additional Wampa scenes, the Bespin stuff, the transfer was the best (IMO,) and the sound were top notch. With the exception of a few changed lines and that Vader scene at the end, its flawless.

Jedi Rocks is still bad, I didn't like the celebration either. Just because the Rebels destroyed the DSII, doesn't mean the entire galaxy starts throwing this massive New Years-esque party. It didn't seem in the right context.

[JediTricks]

In general, I think the Special Editions are a bad thing. The effects changes are mostly great, but there was a lot of stuff that still feels sloppy or even worse, forced. Then there's the "revisioning" stuff like Greedo shooting first, I think that is the worst thing to happen to Star Wars. Some day, I'd like to edit my own personal "definitive version" for my personal collection, replacing stuff like Jedi Rocks and Greedo with their original scenes while maintaining the SE parts I liked.

[master jedi]

I like some of the things they added but there were a lot of things they could have done better with or just left out.

I liked the Jabba scene in ANH but could have made him look more like the Jabba in RotJ.

I could have done without the changes in the cantina. Especially Greedo firing first.

I hate that beak thing in added to the Sarlac(sp?).

The Joh Yowza thing sucked. The original was fine for me.

I liked the music at the end of RotJ but I don't really think it fits in quite right.

[Darth Ovori]

WARNING: This post contains a possible Episode 2 spoiler! Highlight to read.

The changes that I feel should be made...

Redo that Jabba scene in ANH... We have the technology!

Change Vaders lines back to "Bring me my Shuttle" in ESB!

Redo the final Endor battle!!! Seeing little fuzzy bears beat up Emperial elite forces was super lame!!!

Either give Boba a proper honourble Death or make him blast out of the scarlett pit with use of his back pack...

After seeing Jango's moves I find it hard to believe that his clone son is that pathetic in battle!!!