Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[GORT]

Originally Posted by high def ho!

Thats the biggest load of crap I've ever read in my entire life. Are you insane? You need to be locked up! Whether Lucas or anyone else likes it, Star Wars doesn't belong to just one man. It belongs to every person who grew up loving it. I know that doesn't fit into your selfish, idealistic point of view, but it is the truth. If you don't appreciate the film for what it was then just say that. Don't hide it under some idealistic veil that this movie belongs to one man.

[Uxi]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

Here's the funny thing about all this arguing-- all of it would be moot if the original version would be preserved and released properly.

Preserved? I don't think that word means what you think it means. </Princess Bride>

Released properly... there's the rub and is seemingly the antithesis of the "preserved." original cut purists don't want the original... they want it updated with the love and resources that Lucas is giving to his ongoing tinkering project.

Otherwise, as you say, they'd enjoy the laserdisc transfer and be happy with it...

[StereoMike]

Originally Posted by Bluyoda

...and moaning about it on the internet, spreading all this negativity, like a 3 year old kid in the supermarket, that doesn't get the sweet it wants, won't do any good...

Oh that's the freaking annoying noise I hear every freaking time I read this thread...

[gregmasciola]

Originally Posted by kenkraly2004

What so funny? All I said that the speical editions of 4-6 don't need more changes.

I wasn't sure, I thought you were being sarcastic.

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by Uxi

Preserved? I don't think that word means what you think it means. </Princess Bride>

Released properly... there's the rub and is seemingly the antithesis of the "preserved." original cut purists don't want the original... they want it updated with the love and resources that Lucas is giving to his ongoing tinkering project.

Otherwise, as you say, they'd enjoy the laserdisc transfer and be happy with it...

Well, not really, because Blu-Ray is the first home video format to look transparent to the source. So if you take a restored film print of the OT and create a Blu-Ray, you essentially have the true films as you saw them at the theater. You can fire them up on your big screen or projector and watch them in all their film-like glory. Old non-anamorphic transfers can only recreate the viewing experience of watching them on your laserdisc player in 1992. That's personally why I think its so important that they see a Blu-Ray release. But it's up to Lucas to change his mind, and I really hope he does at some point. Or maybe some rich Star Wars fanatic out there with film-prints can transfer them himself and upload them onto the internet

[Uxi]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

Or maybe some rich Star Wars fanatic out there with film-prints can transfer them himself and upload them onto the internet

He won't remain rich long if that happens. Unfortunately, our copyright system requires aggressive action to defend or the property holder does lose it. It's all up to Lucas himself. If he doesn't want to, it ain't happening.

You're moving the goalpost, though. Before you said preserve, not transparent. Noone is going to confiscate the zillion copies of the original cuts, however inferior to the new Blu-ray release. A sense of entitlement to equal treatment might be ideal, but isn't realistic. Even if Lucas' artistic concerns weren't relevant.

[Duffy12]

Originally Posted by Bluyoda

What pissed me off was the behavior of many of those SE and Prequel haters.
They think SW belongs to them, just because they paid a couple of tickets, and bought the set on VHS, Laserdisc and DVD...
It's their attitude that annoys me.

...but these "fans" are just a pain in the a%^.
I have had it with them, as whenever we want to celebrate SW in a joyous manner they try their best to spoil it for us with all their negativity.

That attitude can actually go BOTH WAYS.

When the announcement of the re-release of that DVD box set the second time around and that the OUTs would be included with them(that was before we knew that it was not going to be a restored anamorphic transfer), some of these newer SW fans that favored the SEs and PQs were POed at Lucas for 'giving in to the pressure'. No kidding.

Also, they have pink colored memories of the OT, because those were the films they grew up with.
A little objectivity would be healthy.
The SEs practically don't change the story at all, just add a little scope here and there. I really don't see all the fuzz. It's being blown way out of proportions!

Again there would not be any angst if he would just release BOTH VERSIONS.

I mean, no one in their right mind can tell me that they liked the original Jabba sequence better (ROTJ, or that Mos Eisly looked like an actual city in ANH ...

Well at least there were not any absurd hijinks or goofy dinosaurs roaming around it in the original.

However again if we had BOTH VERSIONS RELEASED there would not be any uproar.(well except for the example that I mentioned above)

Now the technology is ready to do pretty much anything you want, so it's the perfect time to finish them once and for all.
In 1994, when they were working on the SEs, the technology was still in its infancy, and George was testing what he could accomplish in his PT.
Yeah, they did improve some things on the 2004 versions, and now they are pretty darn good (no film will ever be perfect anyway), but for the BD release and the upcoming 3-D releases, they could make the ultimate final cuts.

And as I have been saying, just do an entire reboot of the OTs because they will never mesh together well at all with the prequels. Plus it would make a killing at the box office.

The OT should be made available to the public in the best possible form-BD, but it's still up to the creator of SW- George Lucas, to decide whether or not that's going to happen, and moaning about it on the internet, spreading all this negativity, like a 3 year old kid in the supermarket, that doesn't get the sweet it wants, won't do any good, and is only contra-productive IMHO.
Peace out.

That is what internet message boards are all about.

Btw, we have tried many times to end the constant bickering, but that, apparently is never going to end it seems.

Man...I will tell you what...a year ago I was dreading the day that the Star Wars Blu-rays would be announced because of all this inevitable fighting it would generate.

And I don't get this so called- this is what the artist wants, its his vision, and he is just making improvements to them, when the quality of these last three releases have been pretty sloppy regarding it's picture and the sound.
It sure seems like he dose not give that great a hoot about their perfection at times.




And also if you ever wonder why else we keep complaining about it, just take a look at this quote from an interview in the L A Times of 'Francis Ford Coppola' regarding the release of the masterpiece 'Apocalypse Now' in its original theatrical ratio on Blu-ray-

"The new edition also delivers a widescreen version of the film on home video that Coppola says should quiet the howls of protest from “the aficionados and the purists” about the screen aspect ratio of past releases. The filmmaker directly supervised the transfers for the edition and with pride he predicted a long life for this burnished version of his dark classic. “This movie is the one that people want when they test out their new Blu-ray and home theaters and this is the version they’re going to want, it’s technically perfect.”



So come George, quite the howls of protest so all this can finally stop.

.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Uxi

Preserved? I don't think that word means what you think it means. </Princess Bride>

Released properly... there's the rub and is seemingly the antithesis of the "preserved." original cut purists don't want the original... they want it updated with the love and resources that Lucas is giving to his ongoing tinkering project.

Otherwise, as you say, they'd enjoy the laserdisc transfer and be happy with it...

You're absolutely right. We don't want reels upon reels of 70mm film. We want BDs that look like film.

Nice catch

[JoshKelhoffer]

It's a blu ray forum, why would be happy with a VHS or a bad Laserdisc transfer that isn't even anamorphic?

Special Edition adding scope? It added goofy aliens that made cartoony sounds in the background. It was distracting and just really bad. Most of the new scenes added nothing but just new content. Hardly new information to add depth to the story or even fun character moments or even anything productive. A lot of the new scenes either hurt the pacing or "stopped" the movie.

There were a couple changes I liked. They opened up Cloud City a bit and the additions to the Death Star battle weren't so bad. The added Biggs scene was interesting, but I don't think I would have cared if it was still left on the cutting room floor.

The prequels had "epic scope," but they weren't very good films. Bad pacing and didn't weigh it's humor so well with the compelling story. For example, it would pause the speeder chase in AOTC to show a farting alien shaking his fist towards the screen. It was also cartoonish, not witty character humor. Speaking of which, the characters, almost all of them, lacked charisma, charm, and almost all signs of humanity seemed phoned in, kind of like a bored child reading Shakespeare in English class.

However, some of this slightly improved in ROTS, which had quite a bit more focus and drive than the other two had. Most of the acting and/or dialogue can still be considered wooden, but a lot of the delivery had improvement . Still though, it suffers from a writing pet peeve of mine: many times a simple look or eye gesture can say a million times more than a line of dialogue and feel more natural as well. It's always important for character and dialogue to seem and feel natural, even in a science fiction movie. But I would gladly take the awkwardness of these films over that found in the Twilight films.

But the biggest disappointment for me is...well, a lot of you won't agree with me because you are clear Star Wars fans and have probably read all of the books and this and that...but after hearing about the Jedi in the original films and then finally seeing them in the prequels, they just weren't interesting. Far too dogmatic, waiting until the last minute to fight, when they should have been there next Obi Wan and Qui Gon in the first film.

[kenkraly2004]

This debate of originals vs special editions will live on long after the star wars films comes out on blu-ray next year in 2011.

[MCT]

I can't lie...even if Lucas put out a fully restored version of the unaltered OT, I'd be grateful, but still take a dump all over the "upgraded" versions every chance I got. Because the majority of the changes are stupid, tacky, and unneccessary. I just couldn't let these fanboys have their moment in the sun. I would still create anarchy and chaos because of their unbridled love for whatever Lucas does. Their indifference to the changes irks me the most, even more than the changes themselves. "Oh Lucas decided to add a flying breakdancing Jawa in the middle of the Vader/Luke fight? Oh well, they're his movies, whatever. Star Wars ROCKS!"

[Monolithium]

^ Which proves they are Lucas Fans more than Star Wars Fans.

[Beast]

Originally Posted by Monolithium

^ Which proves they are Lucas Fans more than Star Wars Fans.

That proves nothing. In fact, that argument makes no sense what so ever.

Especially considering the hypothetical change he offered, isn't even remotely realistic as ever occuring.

[StereoMike]

I'm so sick of this freaking bullshit. I don't care about Lucas but I do care about Star Wars. Why is it so hard to understand? We love Star Wars...PERIOD

[Agent Bond]

Sadly, we won't get the original versions of Star Wars on Blu-Ray until Lucas dies. Then again, he did release them on DVD so what do I know?

[STARKILLER--1138]

Originally Posted by MCT

I can't lie...even if Lucas put out a fully restored version of the unaltered OT, I'd be grateful, but still take a dump all over the "upgraded" versions every chance I got. Because the majority of the changes are stupid, tacky, and unneccessary. I just couldn't let these fanboys have their moment in the sun. I would still create anarchy and chaos because of their unbridled love for whatever Lucas does. Their indifference to the changes irks me the most, even more than the changes themselves. "Oh Lucas decided to add a flying breakdancing Jawa in the middle of the Vader/Luke fight? Oh well, they're his movies, whatever. Star Wars ROCKS!"

Hell yeah! That's the spirit!!!

[vegeta88]

Despite the high cost of restoring the originals, I think it would actually be a good business decision. Once restored properly, it won't be too hard releasing them on the next format as they come along. The smart move would be to release each version separately every few years, maybe the unaltered version for limited times.

I have no doubt that the altered versions would sell better, but there would be enough people double dipping each and every time the movies come out on a new format.

[Stinky-Dinkins]

The flying breakdancing Jawa adds huge amounts of background information on the Jawas and their culture and the CG is awesome. Huge improvement over the the original.

The Prequels are still way better than the originals even with the breakdancing Jawa though. Greatest movies ever? Probably!

[STARKILLER--1138]

Originally Posted by Stinky-Dinkins

The flying breakdancing Jawa adds huge amounts of background information on the Jawas and their culture and the CG is awesome. Huge improvement over the the original.

The Prequels are still way better than the originals even with the breakdancing Jawa though. Greatest movies ever? DEFINITELY!

Fixed it.

[Uxi]

Originally Posted by Agent Bond

Sadly, we won't get the original versions of Star Wars on Blu-Ray until Lucas dies. Then again, he did release them on DVD so what do I know?

He probably has a Trust created in his Will that will map out the changes to be made by his children. Just to spite and rape some more childhoods of the fanbois.