What's wrong with the Star Wars: Special Editions?

[Jezza]

As a follow-up to my thread about the dislike for the Star Wars Prequels, I thought it would good idea to see both sides of the arguement when it comes to the Star Wars: Special Editions and 2004 DVD Editions.

I personally have never had an issue with them since George Lucas has always wanted Star Wars to be seen on a grand scope, but naturally during filming for the Original Trilogy there were quite a few restrictions, and this 'grand-scope' GL was going after just didn't come true. So what he wanted to do when going back to them was to create what he imaged Star Wars should look like when he envisioned it in 1973. He wanted vast landcapes, alien races and epic space battles, and that wasn't 100% possible at the time of the OT. So really OT fans need to understand the reasons for the changes and anyway if you had a vision of a huge universe full of life and planets and then when you come actually making the films, they weren't what you had hoped for, wouldn't you go back and change it, if you had the chance? And the answer is 'yes', whether you admitt it or not, and this is what George Lucas did because he is a visionary and a storyteller.

• I think that pretty much every change/alteration has a purpsose, I mean look at the opening shots coming into Mos Eisley (in ANH) and Cloud City (in TESB), what is bad about them? They make them fell like a... city, that is inhabited by a variet of people and creatures with different lives, personalities, etc.
• Then you have the ending to Return of the Jedi which I feel is a much more fitting finale to the whole saga, or even just the OT at that because you have a large montage of seeing various planets from the Star Wars universe and it feels like 'this is the end', but in the original theatrical version there isn't that same scope. The 'Nub-Nub' music for me has always felt for me un-fitting since it... just doesn't fit, and also sounds a lot like it was just put on afterwards rather than the ewoks singing it, whereas the updated music sounds more epic and less silly for a big long storyline, and it also makes ROTJ fell like the last chapter in this epic Saga.

There are many other thing I like, but those are just a couple of things that really bug me when fans complain about the changes in the OT.

Now like the prequels I don't think everything is perfect, because nothing is, but the changes aren't nearly as bad as people say they are, the only one that could have been better executed is the 'Han Shot First' scene. Now I don't mind the idea of Han and Greedo shooting in sync, but it is better as an idea than a physical thing because GL had very little to work with in the way of footage so it didn't work as well as it could of had it been intended at the time of filming.

What I don't understand is why people dislike every single change? But what is your opinion, do you like the Special Editions and 2004 DVD Editions or not? Do you like the changes and think they add more to the Star Wars universe or is it adding too much to something that was alright before?

P.S. And remember I am including the 2004 DVD versions too in this.