Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Cook]

I just canceled my order with Amazon. I will wait until reviews are in, and this set has been evaluated in every possible way before I consider buying them.

P.S. People saying "I didn't cancel my order" or "You will buy it release day" please do not reply to this post. Of course, I have no way of proving one way or the other whether that I will not be picking these up release day so there is no point in arguing about it. I can only say that I will not.

[Jumpman]

Toschi,

I wish I had a nickel for every time I've read "I'm done with Star Wars!" After every Prequel, every DVD release, and now after the BD release. I wonder if those folks will stick to their word for a change...

I'm with you.

[SiUttley]

I've always been a massive apologist and was so excited to get this set. I get what you're all saying about the knee-jerk rage, but I'm considering cancelling my pre-order right now, which is something I never would have believed.

I also know I will probably cave in and get the set anyway, so I only have myself to blame, but Christ this whole mess is infuriating and totally unnecessary.

I think what really riles, is that from the reports so far, the much touted changes and fixes they banged on about in their press release seem not to have been followed through on at all beyond the exact frames they mocked up for the Press images.

And to rub salt in the wound, we get the Noooo change. Just... Staggering...

[Jumpman]

I do find it interesting about the restoration article and how it seems with these rips that none of the things touted have been worked on.

Did someone at Lucasfilm didn't think to check the exact things that have been touted in said article?

I'm not saying that that's one of the reason why this might be a elaborate hoax, but do they not know how bad this will look if they openly lied about it...?

[barfc]

Any truth that nipples have been added to the Vader suit?

[Jumpman]

Let me check.....

[SiUttley]

Originally Posted by Jumpman

I do find it interesting about the restoration article and how it seems with these rips that none of the things touted have been worked on.

Did someone at Lucasfilm didn't think to check the exact things that have been touted in said article?

I'm not saying that that's one of the reason why this might be a elaborate hoax, but do they not know how bad this will look if they openly lied about it...?

I think this is perhaps the worst part. Just try reading the restoration article on the SW main site, knowing what we "know" now without getting angry.

It's blatant false advertising from the sounds of things.

I can't believe I've just cancelled my pre-order.

Sad day to be a SW fan.

[NYorker]

Originally Posted by Alpha

Hmm, PREFER visuals over story? So wait, what is YOUR definition of the word "accompany"?


Not exactly sure how GL is forcing a franchise by strangling everything together when in fact everything pretty much falls in place. Unless you wanted things like the Emperor's "monster eye" look and a character named Darth Vader with NO backstory. For all that, we'd have a trilogy with no backstory. That's not to say the OT doesn't stand on its own, but things like Vader's redemption are only solidified with the PT.

No matter what anyone does, the franchise has been set. You can boycott the hell out of GL and all his merch., but at the end of the day, you're left with Episode I - VI. Deal.With.It. Romeo & Juliet wasn't a story told years apart, backwards or w/o a true backstory, hence Shakespeare didn't need to tweak shit. A happy ending to Romeo & Juliet = a completely different story. Last I checked, Star Wars was still about Jedi, Galactic Empires, and the rise and fall of both. Unless you're referring to GL changing the ending of VI to Vader and the Sith surviving, fogiving each other, and partying it up with Luke on the Death Star (which was also altered to not get blown up), then I think your little analogy there needs some tweaking of its own.

I might have misread your meaning about the visuals. It implied to me that you preferred the visuals, but I was mistaken.

I'm not talking about the entire saga or the additions of the prequels. as far as my analogy is concerned - that was the first thing that popped in my mind, but I did say it was probably extreme. My point was that by changing a verbal element, even a small one, you're liable to change a huge effect of a scene or a story.

I'm not talking about visual tweaking, or Vader's backstory - again, I'm talking about "additions" that subtract from the whole movie. In the case of the "noooo!" It's a terribly misguided effort to "mirror" ep. III (completely unnecessarily).

On a side note, another option I suggest to those who want to buy the set anyway: press the MUTE button..

[Jimmy Bro]

Originally Posted by BladeRunner2007

He should have completely re-cut AOTC and re-scored it with Williams' oiginal score.

As opposed to what?? Williams did score AOTC..

[gadsilla]

Originally Posted by Blu-Runner

I'd like to piggy back on this and pose the same question about Han's change in RotJ: from "It's alright, trust me." to "It's alright, I can see a lot better." Lando already to told him to aim just a little higher... meaning that Han still couldn't see.

Back in 83 they sold albums and cassettes,not the read along books with narration but only with dialogue and sound effect of the movie and
i remember Han saying "it's alright, i can see alot better" and in the movie he says "It's alright,trust me"... but on the Dvd release it was changed to "i can see alot better" . This got me confused as well.

[Jumpman]

Realistically, I think because this is the final time that Lucas can sell these films to us, as I believe we won't have another home theater format that many will jump Blu Ray for, he's going for a complete unified saga experience...that I think all of these changes are very legit.

I've been waffling back and forth about the validity of this whole thing and I think Vader's new dialogue is the clincher. Thematically, the change is right up Lucas' alley. It's the sort of thing he would do to make the point even clearer of the character of Anakin Skywalker.

Adding Hayden was the first part of it. Doing this is the last part.

I think the reason why this is so jarring for me, as a Special Edition lover, is because, just as I've gotten use to how the films sound with the '04 release, he ups and changes it again. Had he done this in '04, I don't think I'd be up in arms about it....even if I'm not technically now.

I can deal with the other changes because to me, they're so minor. I've dealt with them all. I've basically agreed with them all except for the "Bring My Shuttle" change and the whole "Greedo shooting first" (which I don't mind the idea, I mind the execution).

But even now, with me still lock step to purchasing this set on the 16th, Vader's new dialogue is still bugging me. And from reading across various forums, I think Lucas may have finally broken the back of the fanbase. There have been outcries over Star Wars the last 14 years but nothing like this.

It. Is. Bad. Out. There.

[American]

It's only going to get worse.

[SiUttley]

Just cancelled the pre-order.

I think you're right, he may finally have broken the fan base.

Free Hat indeed...

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Alpha

...so what's the big deal if GL ties everything into a nice bow?

It's only a big deal when the bow sucks (and even then, truth be told, 'big' is relative).

Ian MacDiarmid was outstanding in Jedi and the PT and working him into Empire was relatively harmless and a nice enough bow. Boba Fett and Jabba popping up in ANH was distracting with no real gain. And tying one of the most iconic bad guys in movie history even more closely to his younger, douchier self? That's just bad.

Vader's 'noooo' at the end of Sith was flat out laughable and if you're going to tie your films together you should probably tie them together with stuff that doesn't, well, suck.

Sure, some of the howling over the howling has been over the top but its not exactly difficult to understand. You don't fix things that aren't broken and you certainly don't fix them with things that got laughed at the first time you tried them.

I've said many, many times I've thought from my first theatrical screening (back in the day, as we used to say back in the day) that Jedi was a terrible movie. I honestly wouldn't care if Gilbert Godfried showed up as a force ghost. But I do find a little frustrating the fact that they - for some incomprehensible reasons - decided to 'fix' one of the few things about Jedi that actually worked really, really well.

Do I actually care? Eh, not really. But I do seriously wonder what the hell they were thinking that day.

[C A Iversen]

Huge stretch here, but is it at all possible that Lucasfilm would allow this to get into some outfits hands (that they knew pre-release leaks had come from before) to be released as a torrent and then it'll keep people downloading a non-legit version until the actual ones are released?

Kind of realising that false label torrents don't work really any more and that this version will not really satisfy anyone? Then bang, out come the real discs with no real piracy in the lead-up? After all, those who'd use up large amount of gb's to download these would have to be pretty much big time fans and they know they'll buy the actual product.

When you think of all the bits that are only somewhat touched up, it sounds like from the rips they've done a half-assed job (a few frames of fixed sabers etc) on things they have said were fixed properly.

It'd generate a lot of positive spin if people then saw the actual thing and it was much better. After all George was a big fan of his Blue Harvest scam and he's probably the kind of guy who'd like to get the fanboys back after the last 10 years.

Hey, it's unlikely to be the case, but at least it's temporarily providing me with a new hope.

[Bukax42]

Originally Posted by octagon

Sure, some of the howling over the howling has been over the top but its not exactly difficult to understand. You don't fix things that aren't broken and you certainly don't fix them with things that got laughed at the first time you tried them.

First of all, Lucas should fit PT to OT, and not OT to PT by adding awful CGI and new audio, which is absurd since these movies were made so many years ago.

I've said it many times, but now I'm more convinced about this than ever - George Lucas is a moron.

[meehan]

Originally Posted by SiUttley

I think you're right, he may finally have broken the fan base..

Just cancelled mine too. The amount of money I've spent on these films over the years is ridiculous and I'm not spending any more on something, that in my opinion destroys any personal attachment I have with these films with every passing release and that is something I never thought I would say about Star Wars.

[miniroll32]

Has the Han vs Greedo from the leaked video been uploaded yet?

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Bukax42

First of all, Lucas should fit PT to OT, and not OT to PT by adding awful CGI and new audio, which is absurd since these movies were made so many years ago.

Well, that's another side of the 'what's wrong with one big bow' approach.

Nudging and tweaking and editing all six films until they resemble one long homogenous story might look good on paper but I think it sacrifices something of value.

Each trilogy in general and each film in particular has to some degree or another its own unique flavor and I very strongly believe you can lose something worth keeping - no, make that worth celebrating - when you tinker too much with the 'smoothing tools'.

[Alpha]

Originally Posted by octagon

Do I actually care? Eh, not really. But I do seriously wonder what the hell they were thinking that day.

At the end of the day, this is pretty much the end-result.

Again, it comes down to three words...

Deal.With.It