Posted by: JeffS
Star Wars on DVD - 20/09/2004 23:11
Yup, they're changed again, and yup I bought them. They'll arrive in a week and I can't wait to sit down and watch them all back to back even if they aren't the movies of my youth.
In the list of new changes they changed the "Greedo Shoots First" so that now greedo just barely shoots first, like that's supposed to fix Han's character arc. Whatever. Anyway, in honor of that I have to post this link:
Top 10 Things that Han Shot that Didn't Shoot First
Posted by: FireFox31
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 20/09/2004 23:59
And didn't the movie theater ticket sales of Titanic still overcome all the Star Wars movies and all their rereleases (and rerereleases??)?
(yes, I do personally find that to be false because the movie industry never seems to account for inflation in ticket sales price; in this case between 1977 and 1997.)
Posted by: mschrag
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 00:05
http://www.the-movie-times.com/thrsdir/alltime.mv?adjusted+ByAGStill Gone With the Wind when properly adjusted for inflation ...
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 02:21
They've since
retconned the Emperor's slugs, IIRC, in some of the novels as being something to do with his Force powers, like some physical manifestation or creatures that feed on his emanations or some such bullsh
it.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 02:45
Oh you've got to be kidding me. Altering the canon to cover up a telecine transfer error?
Posted by: wfaulk
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 02:59
First, I could be totally wrong. I could swear I remember this, though, from one of the fairly few SW novels I've read.
Second, you have to keep in mind that most of the Star Wars fans out there never saw RotJ on the big screen, but only on video, and all of those video transfers have had the slugs. Even those of us who did see it on the big screen have seen it many more times, and obviously much more recently, on those same video transfers.
Third, if they did retcon those slugs into canon, then that would explain why they left them there in the Special Edition. Of course, my preferred reason for that is that they ran out of time and just didn't get to it.
I also seem to remember that they were there on the big screen Special Edition RotJ, and there wouldn't have been any telecine action there at all. Of course, there could be similar errors from when they scanned the entire film into the computer. I don't know if a telecine-like device would be used there or not.
Posted by: Cybjorg
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 12:15
What? They didn't Photoshop out all of the '70's-era sideburns from A New Hope in an attempt to bring it up to speed?
Posted by: loren
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 14:02
We get our copies of the DVD and THX 1138 today, as soon as i get my ass to work. We already saw a bit of the bonus disc and it's pretty damn awesome. The documentary that is. Really well done and reveals a lot of stuff I never knew. If I remember correctly, they interview 40 people from Star Wars.
http://edition.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/20/film.qa.george.lucas.ap/index.htmlThat is a link to an interview with George on why he did the changes he did. May shed some light on it for those pissed that he tinkered with their beloved. I guess it's somewhat settling to know he has a shred of artistic integrity left. Heh.
Posted by: DLF
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:17
Funny you should mention the Laserdiscs: his oft-mentioned reasoning for delaying the release of the DVDs for 7.5 years was "I got burned on the Laserdiscs, and I'm not letting that happen again." I can agree with you that his artistic instincts have proven to be as unfortunate for his many fans as his business-driven ones.
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:34
OUCH! That was the first I read about that. Sorry about that...
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:35
I thought he'd posted on the BBS about it before?
Posted by: Cybjorg
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:42
Yeah, I didn't know about that one either. Sucks.
Posted by: pgrzelak
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:44
I probably missed it - my reading has been a bit erratic lately.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:45
Either that, or I'm recalling private conversations we had and thinking they were on the BBS.
Posted by: Cybjorg
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 15:51
Probably the most egregious change (aside from Greedo shooting first) has to be the replacement of Sebastian Shaw as Anakin's ghost with that of Hayden Christiansen. Ugh. I'm surprised that they didn't replace Alec Guinness with Ewan McGregor while they were at it.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 21/09/2004 16:04
Actually, if they'd done Hayden and Ewan, it would have made sense. But just doing one of them is odd.
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 22/09/2004 21:18
So... I haven't seen the DVDs yet, probably won't actually buy them until Christmas-ish. Anyone able to report whether the Emperor's slugs are fixed or not?
Posted by: tfabris
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 22/09/2004 21:20
Also, something I whipped up today. Source "to the tune of" should become obvious very quickly:
(Told from the point of view of a project manager at
a certain little company in San Rafael, CA, sometime
in the mid-1990's...)
"My vision was too big for its time," he said to me,
"there were too many limits technologically.
I've got this burning need to fix my trilogy.
There must be... fifty ways to change my movie."
I said, "I don't think that's a good idea, dude.
Furthermore, all of your loyal fans will think they're getting screwed.
But I'll concede your point, 'cause clearly no one disagrees with *you*,
there must be... fifty ways to change your movie.
Fifty ways to change your movie."
(Chorus:)
Ya just clean up the mattes, Pat
Make a new song, John
Then add some more bots, Dot
Just do as I say
Speeder gets fixed, Dix
I think we need a new sound mix!
Add a launch bay, Kay
Just do it my way
Ooo, step on his tail, Gail
Max Rebo's new band, Stan
Add Blue to Artoo, Stu
Don't ask yourself why
Add a new slave, Dave
The planets need a new shockwave!
More ships in the sky, Sly
Kiss the old films goodbye
I said, "those changes are too goofy and arcane.
And I must say... showing Greedo shooting first is just insane."
He said, "You're wrong about that... Han can't seem inhumane,
at least not nowadays."
And then he ordered me to start the work that night.
I suppose it could be worse, he could remake them all outright.
And though it's too bad... ILM can't fix the fact that he can't *write*,
I guess there's... fifty ways to change the movie.
Fifty ways to change the movie.
(Chorus)
Posted by: trs24
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 23/09/2004 14:03
So has anyone seen the new DVD trilogy, now? If so, how did you like the changes?
CNN has an article on some of the changes.
Posted by: ashmoore
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 23/09/2004 16:15
I am sorry to admit that I had this on preorder at buy.com since the announcement
Only got to half way through Empire so far.
Overall the quality of the image and sound is really good.
As for the mods specifically, most of them have a much more 'connected' feel to them. Especially compared to the original re-release if you can call it that.
But even now, some of the added beasts etc still look fake. I suppose the better quality of the DVD allows you to see some of the things that the VCR would hide.
Having seen these movies so many times you can see so much more in every scene, even for the untouched ones.
I will get to Jedi this weekend.
Posted by: JeffS
Re: Star Wars on DVD - 23/09/2004 20:55
Just received mine and watched the first little bit. I'd say the enhancements are a definite improvement over the first set, though the Greedo scene is still stupid both for the plot and the fact that Greedo can't shoot. Han now shifts over a millimeter which I suppose is sposed to make him a more difficult target to hit, but come on! And Han still steps on Jabba's tail, though I must admit Jabba looks much more realistic now. That goes for just about all of the added graphics so far. They are far more seemless and less distracting in these versions.
So I'm relatively pleased. Now that I'm through my two least favorite additions it should be clear sailing until Anakin's ghost shows up.
Oh, and of course it looks and sounds great (through my headphones). Unfortuntly I don't have a great sound system so I'll have to wait until this weekend to really test out the 5.1 on my friend's setup. I have little doubt it will be an awesome experience.