Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by The Nice Guy

Just finished Empire Strikes Back

The fight between Luke and Vader was awesome.

I feel a little wrong for laughing at the scene where Vader chokes out the General while giving the Commander orders

Poor little C3PO spent half of the films in pieces

Definitely think it's better than ANH

Going to watch it again soon just to see the scenes with Yoda and to see the fight at the end again.

ROTJ is up next.

The scene with Admiral Ozzel is definitely my favorite in the entire saga. I still laugh at that exchange even though I have seen it 100 times.

"Ah, Lord Vader. The fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we're preparing to uhhh...."

[thebard]

Originally Posted by The Nice Guy

Just finished Empire Strikes Back

The fight between Luke and Vader was awesome.

I feel a little wrong for laughing at the scene where Vader chokes out the General while giving the Commander orders

Poor little C3PO spent half of the films in pieces

Definitely think it's better than ANH

Going to watch it again soon just to see the scenes with Yoda and to see the fight at the end again.

ROTJ is up next.

The dialog during Luke's training on Degobah is what really established the Jedi mythos for the films, IMO. Nothing that came after came close to capturing that mood.

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by The Nice Guy

Just finished Empire Strikes Back

The fight between Luke and Vader was awesome.

I feel a little wrong for laughing at the scene where Vader chokes out the General while giving the Commander orders

Poor little C3PO spent half of the films in pieces

Definitely think it's better than ANH

Going to watch it again soon just to see the scenes with Yoda and to see the fight at the end again.

ROTJ is up next.

The Empire Strikes Back is a very special movie. Why?

For one, no one could wait for it to come out back in 1980 and just what it would be like after A New Hope.

Empire is the movie that really expanded the Star Wars universe - more so than any of the other films. A LOT was accomplished in it. We saw and learned things that would forever change the way Star Wars was perceived.

And I can tell you this - having saw the movie when it was original released in 1981 (I was just 9 at the time) you were just in awe at the expanded universe you saw with Hoth, Dagaboh, and Cloud City - not to mention the interiors of the Star Destroyer. Just so much cool stuff and the musical score was/is just amazing.

In addition, in my opinion this movie had the best directing and acting of the Star Wars movies. This was hands down Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, and especially Ford's best performances.

[Thomas Guycott]

Originally Posted by The Nice Guy

ROTJ is up next.

Oh no.

I just realized if you're watching the Blu-ray version a very important scene is going to be soured.

The rest of you know what I'm talking about.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Thomas Guycott

Oh no.

I just realized if you're watching the Blu-ray version a very important scene is going to be soured.

The rest of you know what I'm talking about.

I have nooooooooooo idea what you're talking about.

[Blu-21]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

120 extra lines and the proper ratio are worse?

Its more about windowboxing being no way to watch a "widescreen" film let alone something as big and as epic as Star Wars. The picture area is so small and there is so much dead space. Zooming/stretching/aspect ratio management etc all have their short comings simply because its no substitute for anamorphic which is the underlining problem when watching something on a 16:9 display, but I just hate windowboxing for transfers in letterbox.

[Blu-21]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

The scene with Admiral Ozzel is definitely my favorite in the entire saga. I still laugh at that exchange even though I have seen it 100 times.

"Ah, Lord Vader. The fleet has moved out of lightspeed and we're preparing to uhhh...."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5blbv4WFriM

[manunited1]

I watched ROTJ literally every day growing up, it is so special to me

I imagine if you have never seen the uncut version then the Blurays wont be so upsetting like they can be to our inner child. I am sure they are still amazing.

[Gold Ranger]

I still think that Ozzel is a Rebel Sympathizer...
Someone that high in Rank in the Empire isn't that stupid to just give away the fact that the Empire is about to come down and crush the Rebellion. That and his earlier line of trying to dissuade Vader from the Hoth System...

[StingingVelvet]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

The Empire Strikes Back is a very special movie. Why?

For one, no one could wait for it to come out back in 1980 and just what it would be like after A New Hope.

Empire is the movie that really expanded the Star Wars universe - more so than any of the other films. A LOT was accomplished in it. We saw and learned things that would forever change the way Star Wars was perceived.

And I can tell you this - having saw the movie when it was original released in 1981 (I was just 9 at the time) you were just in awe at the expanded universe you saw with Hoth, Dagaboh, and Cloud City - not to mention the interiors of the Star Destroyer. Just so much cool stuff and the musical score was/is just amazing.

In addition, in my opinion this movie had the best directing and acting of the Star Wars movies. This was hands down Mark Hamil, Carrie Fisher, and especially Ford's best performances.

Empire is the only film of the six that I personally truly love. That junk future aesthetic, the perfect lines, the great visual imagination on display, the cool blue color palette and the militaristic Empire on full display.

I like the other two from the original trilogy, don't get me wrong, but it's Empire Strikes Back that I love, that shaped a lot of my childhood preferences, that inspired the best video games, that really made me a Star Wars fan.

[thebard]

Anybody else catch James Earl Jones and Carrie Fisher on Big Bang Theory last night?

[B72]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

Empire is the only film of the six that I personally truly love. That junk future aesthetic, the perfect lines, the great visual imagination on display, the cool blue color palette and the militaristic Empire on full display.

I like the other two from the original trilogy, don't get me wrong, but it's Empire Strikes Back that I love, that shaped a lot of my childhood preferences, that inspired the best video games, that really made me a Star Wars fan.

Empire isn't just the best Star Wars episode - it is a cinematic masterpiece

[Blu-21]

Do any of you guys have pictures or videos of the orignal Wampa scenes from the theatrical cut? I'm talking about the first shot when the Wampa attacks Luke and the whole scene when Luke breaks loose and strikes the Wampa as he approaches him.

from what I recall there was very little seen of the Wampa suit in the theatrical version because apparently it kept breaking down and was impractical. That scene originally how it was, while it does offer ambiguity and suspense always did feel incomplete to me.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

Do any of you guys have pictures or videos of the orignal Wampa scenes from the theatrical cut? I'm talking about the first shot when the Wampa attacks Luke and the whole scene when Luke breaks loose and strikes the Wampa as he approaches him.

from what I recall there was very little seen of the Wampa suit in the theatrical version because apparently it kept breaking down and was impractical. That scene originally how it was, while it does offer ambiguity and suspense always did feel incomplete to me.

This shot is part of the original and was actually a hand puppet. It was actually kept for the Special Edition in 1997 and is still there in the latest releases.



This shot shows the original arm before it was fixed for the BD release.

[Thomas Guycott]

There's also one shot of the wampa costume used in the cave scene, just before Luke cuts its arm off:



Notice that the head is very different from the on-location hand puppet.

[JackKnightStarman]

Originally Posted by Blu-21

Do any of you guys have pictures or videos of the orignal Wampa scenes from the theatrical cut? I'm talking about the first shot when the Wampa attacks Luke and the whole scene when Luke breaks loose and strikes the Wampa as he approaches him.

from what I recall there was very little seen of the Wampa suit in the theatrical version because apparently it kept breaking down and was impractical. That scene originally how it was, while it does offer ambiguity and suspense always did feel incomplete to me.

The two or three scenes where you see the Wampa and parts are still in the current release.

First you see a shot as the Wampa starts towards Luke from a angle at the creatures leg walking toward and you see Luke hanging upside down. After some scenes of Luke trying and finally getting the lightsaber and freeing himself, the next scene is the Wampa lunging toward Luke hands out in front and the eyes, horns and mouth are visible but obscured by its hands in the foreground of the screen. Luke swings his light saber and the next scene is just a severed arm on the ground and bloodcurdling scream. Next is a shot of Luke coming out of the underground cave.

[Blu-21]

Thanks for the answers you three!

There does seem to be an inconsistency with the hand puppet version used from the theatrical edition and the actual full costume version, but obviously this is hardly the fault of the new extra re-shoot scenes of the Wampa for the special edition that were inserted into the film in 1997 since that very inconsistency was present with the Wampa in the theatrical edition itself anyway. I guess that inconsistency was just the difference in pure design from a hand puppet to a suit which they didn't quite match up when they originally made and shot the sequence, but since shots of the Wampa were so few and far in between; the inconsistency isn't so obvious in the theatrical version.

They did a good job matching the 'new' shots of the costume/suit however with the very few 'old' shots of the costume/suit though.

Overall one of the better updates made to the film IMO and CGI free!

[StingingVelvet]

The wampa scene is definitely one of the better special edition changes. I'd still watch the original version of the film every time though.

[B72]

Nothing new here but :

The new Wampa scene takes a bit of the mystery and suspense from the original, while adding gore

Removing Vader's "shuttle " line removes the emotion that existed in the original

The conversation between Vader and the Emperor is just dull and awkward now
( I like the new visual for the Emperor though )

The only good addition is the opening of the windows on Cloud City , it looks pretty and it makes sense

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by StingingVelvet

The wampa scene is definitely one of the better special edition changes. I'd still watch the original version of the film every time though.

Agreed on both accounts.