Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[JoshKelhoffer]

Originally Posted by ParkerAL

Yeah, that damn Jabba scene has no business being in the movie.

It really doesn't. The original plan was to replace the actor with a stop motion creature of sorts. however, it was quickly realized how unfeasible that was for them, so the scene was abandoned during principal photography. Which isn't a biggie until you add in the fact that they did some reshoots to the cantina sequence, adding more creatures (including the Cantina Band, I believe) and more to the Greedo scene, including the line "Even I get boarded sometimes," which is now repetitive.

From a storytelling perspective, the Jabba scene adds very little because we already know Han owes Jabba money and it pauses the story for a bit. It also nerfs the character of Jabba. In ROTJ, he seems so slimy, despicable, and menacing. Yet in ANH, he now seems so casual with Han. There is no menace there -- and then Han steps on Jabba's tale and now Jabba is cartoon character.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Martoto

Even if it didn't have that abomination in the scene, it is virtually redundant and creates several continuity issues.

Jabba's dialogue should be "Why did you fry poor Greedo? I'm going to have to repeat all his lines now and then agree on a deal that removes any need for you to be in a hurry like you'll claim to be when your passengers turn up."

- The falcon appears on screen before its actual reveal in the movie

Chewie jumps around from standing at the door of the docking bay, then walking close behind Jabba, then magically reappears at the door gain then eventually winds up smack in the middle of the scene, but then a moment later he's leading Ben and Luke towards the docking bay.

BUUUUUUUUT it fixes one of the worst edits in the entire series, that weird dissolve from Ben and Luke walking down the street to walking to another street which even seems to interrupt a music cue as it does so.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

Ugh. Morons.

Right? This is just clickbait bullshit that they've wheeled out again just because Rogue One is around the corner. If Lucasfilm Ltd c/o Disney wants to release the original unaltered movies then they can do so under the terms of the current agreement with Fox! It's incredible how myopic these idiots are, and now the "Disney can't release the original movies!" thing will go on for another cycle. Hell, they're actually right that Disney themselves can't...but Lucasfilm and Fox can, any time they want from now until May 2020.

And if a new OT release does happen under Fox's watch then all these asshat commentators will say "oh, see, they made a deal like we said!!" and continue thinking they were right all along.

[Mighty Max]

Originally Posted by JoshKelhoffer

It really doesn't. The original plan was to replace the actor with a stop motion creature of sorts. however, it was quickly realized how unfeasible that was for them, so the scene was abandoned during principal photography. Which isn't a biggie until you add in the fact that they did some reshoots to the cantina sequence, adding more creatures (including the Cantina Band, I believe) and more to the Greedo scene, including the line "Even I get boarded sometimes," which is now repetitive.

From a storytelling perspective, the Jabba scene adds very little because we already know Han owes Jabba money and it pauses the story for a bit. It also nerfs the character of Jabba. In ROTJ, he seems so slimy, despicable, and menacing. Yet in ANH, he now seems so casual with Han. There is no menace there -- and then Han steps on Jabba's tale and now Jabba is cartoon character.

WRONG!
Jabba was supposed to be human.
Jedi changed it to a slug, so they had to retroactively change the footage that was shot for a new hope.

[JoshKelhoffer]

I hate when people say things like "re-mastering the UOT is still altering it." How naive can people be? As if cleaning up a print and adding/completely re-doing things with obvious CG elements are one and the same. They are not. It's a simple minded argument with little to no substance, just like Screen Rant articles.

Sure, remastering is technically altering. However, that is clearly not what people mean by "unaltered version." It's called context. Use it. And using using the word "purists" makes one sound smug.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Mighty Max

WRONG!
Jabba was supposed to be human.
Jedi changed it to a slug, so they had to retroactively change the footage that was shot for a new hope.

It's interesting as the original comic book had Jabba as an alien. I'm not sure if this was based on the storyboards or not.

jabba.jpg

[kemcha]

Read more into that, Josh. I seem to recall the uproar when Lucasfilm THX'd the original trilogy. So-called "Star Wars fans" were whining and *****ing that Lucasfilm upgraded the special effects and the sound quality. This was back in the last 1990's, before Lucas ever thought about the Special Editions. Every time Lucas released the Star Wars trilogy and improved the films, whether it was additional scenes, updated audio quality or updated special effects, it was the "so-called" fans who whined like cry-babies about it.

Originally Posted by JoshKelhoffer

I hate when people say things like "re-mastering the UOT is still altering it." How naive can people be? As if cleaning up a print and adding/completely re-doing things with obvious CG elements are one and the same. They are not. It's a simple minded argument with little to no substance, just like Screen Rant articles.

Sure, remastering is technically altering. However, that is clearly not what people mean by "unaltered version." It's called context. Use it. And using using the word "purists" makes one sound smug.

I remember that. Back then, comic book publishers were only given scripts about the movies that they were adapting to comic books. Star Wars was no different. They just had descriptions of the movies via the screenplay and I remember that was way back with Star Wars #1 or #2. I collected the Star Wars comics when they were originally released from Marvel Comics. The Star Wars comics were released prior to the release of the movie, I believe.

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

It's interesting as the original comic book had Jabba as an alien. I'm not sure if this was based on the storyboards or not.

Attachment 156371

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by ParkerAL

Yeah, that damn Jabba scene has no business being in the movie.

Originally Posted by JoshKelhoffer

It really doesn't...

Good thing nobody's brought this up in this thead before

[Mighty Max]

For the most part, I don't mind the Jabba scene...
How exactly was Jabba to know what Greedo said?
Greedo took it upon himself to swindle Han and Jabba.
He deserved what he got.
Jabba on the other hand, made a deal with Han.
Han would have followed through with it had he not been on the run from the empire after the events of the end of the movie.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by kemcha

Read more into that, Josh. I seem to recall the uproar when Lucasfilm THX'd the original trilogy. So-called "Star Wars fans" were whining and *****ing that Lucasfilm upgraded the special effects and the sound quality. This was back in the last 1990's, before Lucas ever thought about the Special Editions. Every time Lucas released the Star Wars trilogy and improved the films, whether it was additional scenes, updated audio quality or updated special effects, it was the "so-called" fans who whined like cry-babies about it.

The THX box set on Laserdisc? Nobody whined about that. Jesus, people raved about it.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

Right? This is just clickbait bullshit that they've wheeled out again just because Rogue One is around the corner. If Lucasfilm Ltd c/o Disney wants to release the original unaltered movies then they can do so under the terms of the current agreement with Fox! It's incredible how myopic these idiots are, and now the "Disney can't release the original movies!" thing will go on for another cycle. Hell, they're actually right that Disney themselves can't...but Lucasfilm and Fox can, any time they want from now until May 2020.

And if a new OT release does happen under Fox's watch then all these asshat commentators will say "oh, see, they made a deal like we said!!" and continue thinking they were right all along.

The problem with sites like ScreenRant, Latino Review, CinemaBlend, Aint It Cool News, and a slew of others is that they are all amateur hour. When I was 19 years old and writing for the third-largest student newspaper in the United States, opinion pieces were one thing, but journalism -- actual journalism -- required confirmed sources. You had to sack up and actually call the people you were writing about. Today, we have sites running with rumor, speculation, absolutely no accountability, publishing speculation as fact. I'm not talking about people shooting the breeze on message boards...publishing a news article as a news article, with clear demonstrable ignorance and bias, is so pervasive, that unless you're Brian Williams and get caught making things up, there's no repercussions, and even HE got re-hired by NBC. There's all this talk about "fake news" -- the truth is, we swim in a hot soup of lies and misinformation, all day long, from everybody, because of economic and political motivations. This isn't the Information Age...it's the Irresponsible Information Age, and nobody's hands are clean.

[Mighty Max]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The problem with sites like ScreenRant, Latino Review, CinemaBlend, Aint It Cool News, and a slew of others is that they are all amateur hour. When I was 19 years old and writing for the third-largest student newspaper in the United States, opinion pieces were one thing, but journalism -- actual journalism -- required confirmed sources. You had to sack up and actually call the people you were writing about. Today, we have sites running with rumor, speculation, absolutely no accountability, publishing speculation as fact. I'm not talking about people shooting the breeze on message boards...publishing a news article as a news article, with clear demonstrable ignorance and bias, is so pervasive, that unless you're Brian Williams and get caught making things up, there's no repercussions, and even HE got re-hired by NBC. There's all this talk about "fake news" -- the truth is, we swim in a hot soup of lies and misinformation, all day long, from everybody, because of economic and political motivations. This isn't the Information Age...it's the Irresponsible Information Age, and nobody's hands are clean.

No editors either!

[Class316]

Originally Posted by Mighty Max

For the most part, I don't mind the Jabba scene...
How exactly was Jabba to know what Greedo said?
Greedo took it upon himself to swindle Han and Jabba.
He deserved what he got.
Jabba on the other hand, made a deal with Han.
Han would have followed through with it had he not been on the run from the empire after the events of the end of the movie.

First off it ruins the Jabba reveal. We hear the name Jabba throughout ANH and ESB yet we don't who Jabba is. Then we see that huge slug.

And besides that it further ruins Han's character as an outlaw. Without the scene we are under the impression he is in hot water with Jabba.

[JoshKelhoffer]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The THX box set on Laserdisc? Nobody whined about that. Jesus, people raved about it.

Overall, they were well-received from the fan base, apart from maybe a person or two. I mean, there's always somebody that doesn't like something. Still, though, it's just a diversionary argument. Back on point, unless they pull something like they did with John Badham's Dracula -- where they de-saturated it almost to being black and white -- there is a major difference between improving the picture/sound (or even subtle enhancements, like removing the "worm" from some of Palpatine's shots in ROTJ) and completely adding new CG elements and new scenes. One is just not the same as the other.

[Ernest Rister]

Originally Posted by JoshKelhoffer

Overall, they were well-received from the fan base, apart from maybe a person or two. I mean, there's always somebody that doesn't like something. Still, though, it's just a diversionary argument. Back on point, unless they pull something like they did with John Badham's Dracula -- where they de-saturated it almost to being black and white -- there is a major difference between improving the picture/sound (or even subtle enhancements, like removing the "worm" from some of Palpatine's shots in ROTJ) and completely adding new CG elements and new scenes. One is just not the same as the other.

I hear you - we're on the same page.

[bobbyh64]

I can't decide if I want the Complete Saga on Blu-ray. I prefer the original unaltered versions and think they're way better than the prequels, although I can still enjoy the prequels. I have the 2004 DVDs that came with the theatrical versions on "bonus discs" and I also have the original DVDs of the prequels. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to brainwash myself into liking the special editions of the OT and appreciate them for what they are even though my entire being is resistant to it. I feel like accepting them is tantamount to joining the dark side!

[dallywhitty]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

I can't decide if I want the Complete Saga on Blu-ray. I prefer the original unaltered versions and think they're way better than the prequels, although I can still enjoy the prequels. I have the 2004 DVDs that came with the theatrical versions on "bonus discs" and I also have the original DVDs of the prequels. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to brainwash myself into liking the special editions of the OT and appreciate them for what they are even though my entire being is resistant to it. I feel like accepting them is tantamount to joining the dark side!

The only time I came close to owning the Complete Saga was when I ordered it from this site that was selling it for £15. But then they cancelled my order due to a pricing order.

Probably for the best.

[crissrudd4554]

Originally Posted by Mighty Max

WRONG!
Jabba was supposed to be human.
Jedi changed it to a slug, so they had to retroactively change the footage that was shot for a new hope.

Lucas himself said in the From Star Wars to Jedi and Special Edition documentaries that he had always intended to replace the original actor with a stop motion creature but ultimately nixed the idea due to money and time.

Anyways I'd prefer the scene more as an extra rather than inserted back into the film. Despite which version you watch the CGI Jabba looks horrible especially when watching the films in sequence and you get to ROTJ. Also the aforementioned fact it repeats the dialogue from the Greedo scene and spoils the Falcons reveal. However as an extra where we can view it more as a 'what if?' I could accept the scene more.

[PeterTHX]

Originally Posted by Ernest Rister

The THX box set on Laserdisc? Nobody whined about that. Jesus, people raved about it.

Most. But people did notice noise reduction effects - a strange digital blurring and pixilation on some shots. Some didn't care for the sound mix and of course there was that missing several seconds at the beginning of side 3 that forced an exchange program.


A few years later several discs developed laser rot (CAV set pressed by Mitsubishi), had to get some exchanged via Image Entertainment.

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

I can't decide if I want the Complete Saga on Blu-ray. I prefer the original unaltered versions and think they're way better than the prequels, although I can still enjoy the prequels. I have the 2004 DVDs that came with the theatrical versions on "bonus discs" and I also have the original DVDs of the prequels. Now I'm trying to decide if I want to brainwash myself into liking the special editions of the OT and appreciate them for what they are even though my entire being is resistant to it. I feel like accepting them is tantamount to joining the dark side!

I bought them so I could watch the movies in HD on my projector, but yeah, its definitely a middle of the road release. Versions of the films aside, the classics are struck from okay but outdated masters, and The Phantom Menace has a pretty crappy DNR'd transfer. I couldn't possibly imagine that Disney and Lucasfilm don't have plans for better releases of all 6 movies down the road, although whether thats sooner or later is still TBD.

Personally if I were in your position I'd stick it out with the DVDs of the prequels and look into the wonders of Harmy for all your OT needs, until that 4K-restored uber set that we're all waiting for finally comes out.