Tarrasque Wrangler said:
But why did he want it in there?
Ask Lucas. No one can answer that but him.
What is so special about that scene? Of all the scenes you could rescue from the cutting-room floor (such as Luke and Biggs on Tatooine), why rescue that useless, lame-o scene for any reason other than "ILM can make a digital Jabba now"?
If he wants to add harmless mumbo-jumbo like splashy musical numbers in Jabba's palace, fine, doesn't ruin my enjoyment. But a useless scene that makes characters in a serious conflict (serious enough for Han to kill over, anyway) look silly is a travesty.
Its not useless. It introduces Jabba, and while I do like the wait until Jedi to really see him we had before the SE, that doesn't make it useless. We also see that Jabba isn't just some murdering thug crime lord and actually LIKES Han. Ironically enough, there is a character development in Jabba through the movies as he gets annoyed with Han for not paying him off.
Those are reasons more than "ILM can make a digital Jabba now". Not only that, but he OBVIOUSLY had other reasons than that, as Lucas wanted the scene in the movie BEFORE ILM could do it. But, again, you'll have to ask him for the specifics.
Because it lends credence to Lucas-bashers who claim he's lost the ability to tell a story. For the record, I'm not bothered by 90% of the stuff haters complain about the prequels, but something like that Jabba scene made me think they might be onto something. Dropping a scene like that from your final cut is Filmmaking 101. Hell, dropping a scene like that from your final script draft before you even start up the cameras is Screenwriting 101.
Lucas has never been one to follow the mainstream ideas of what should be done. He does things HIS way because he feels that's how HIS movies should be told. Filmmaking 101 can't tell you that, neither can Screenwriting 101.
If Lucas had lost his ability to tell a story, there wouldn't be a huge fanbase that is STILL growing today. He just doesn't tell a story in the same way that everyone else does. Lucas tells his story the way he wants to tell it. Its just like writing a book in a different style. Not everyone's going to like it, but some people are. In the case of Star Wars, though there are many that yell and scream about Lucas' lack of ability to tell a story, this doesn't hold up when you really look at things and see that he tells a story just fine.
I've always respected your reasoned opinions on Lucas A-MG,
Now, now, let's keep this clean. We're not going to have any of this respect here on the internet.
He can come up with all the bogus rationales he wants, but that dog won't hunt.
In other words, you've already made up your mind and no matter what Lucas says, you won't believe him. Why even comment on it then?
wingandsword said:
If he wanted Greedo to shoot first, he could have done that in the 70's. If he wanted Luke to scream when he falls down the shaft in Cloud City, he could have done that too (amusingly, he undid that in the 2004 DVD release, so he always wanted that but not now). If he wanted a closing shot of the worlds of the Galaxy, including Coruscant and Naboo, he could have done that in the 70's
Those changes are different from the Jabba scene, though, which was what I was referring to. For the Jabba scene, Lucas has ALWAYS said its what he wanted to originally put in. For the others, they can be chalked up to other reasons.
Greedo shooting first changed because Lucas looked back on things and felt that it made Han look like a cold blooded killer. I don't really agree on this one, but he's not just doing it for a random "I can, so I will" reason.
I can actually understand putting in Luke's scream, as the scene is almost empty and silent otherwise. Of course, it was a horrible scream effect and Lucas proved he's not above changing things a second time. Obviously, he thought it was bad, too.
Coruscant was put into the Special Edition release to give us a nice little teaser before Episode I, and Naboo is on the DVDs as a nice connection to the Prequels. Honestly, both of them work just fine.
But, again, the ONLY thing Lucas continually stated he wanted to do from the beginning but couldn't was the Jabba scene.
Just because George Lucas has the legal right to change his movies, doesn't mean it's the right thing to do.
Who gets to judge what is 'right' and 'wrong' when it comes to his movies? I'm sorry, but these ARE his and I can completely understand the need to fix things and touch them up. I constantly go back to older pieces of art I've worked on and change or alter them because I either wasn't able to get something just the way I wanted it or I just don't think its working anymore.
YES, he has created a myth that modern culture has embraced, but they are still HIS movies and HIS work. I CAN understand that people don't agree with some of the things he's done, but you saying what he's doing isn't right is worthless. Lucas' opinion is really the one that counts, not any of ours, and I think that IS the way things should be.
