Star Wars "Archive Editions" officially confirmed

[KenM]

This is funny about GL: http://www.gamespy.com/comics/nodwick/ffn/ffn.htm

 

[Darrin Drader]

Kai Lord, you aren't bitter about this are you? I have just one thing to say to you about this unhealthy obsession you have with the revisions made to the classic Star Wars trilogy: Don't tempt fate!

But as long as we're tempting fate, you forgot to add one important scene that absolutely can't remain, in the interest of being politically correct, of course.

The pivotal scene where the death star blows up Alderran. Because the instantaneous vaporization of billions of people is too much death for modern viewers to stomach, Lucas will have the empire send out advanced warning of the impending attack, allowing all of the people of Alderran to escape in their space ships moments before the big boom! When Obi-wan talks about how he senses millions of voices crying out and then suddenly silenced, he is actually talking about all the droids who were left behind. It's OK to kill droids, you know.

 

[Dark Jezter]

...

 

[demiurge1138]

The most ridiculous thing about all of that is Lucas directly addressed it in the commentary for AOTC. He said "see Kevin Smith doesn't have to worry the Death Stars were built by a bunch of bug people." Does nothing tragic happen in the SW universe? I hear in the new SE of Episode IV Luke will return to the burning homestead and see that his deceased aunt and uncle were in fact droids all along.

Are we not allowed to feel for the Geonosians? Must all of their losses be in vain?
Besides, the Geonosians didn't build the Death Stars, they just designed them.

Demiurge out.

 

[Kai Lord]

Besides, the Geonosians didn't build the Death Stars, they just designed them.

Not according to Lucas. I just popped in the AOTC DVD and flicked to the scene with the Death Star plans with the commentary on. Lucas says that late in post-production they decided to throw that scene in to give more urgency to finding Dooku. Then he adds that the Geonosians designed it and were probably the ones contracted to build it and that "they were the people Jay and Silent Bob commented on about being killed. But even though they all die they were in fact, just big termites."

 

[Darrin Drader]

I just popped in the AOTC DVD and flicked to the scene with the Death Star plans with the commentary on. ...He adds that the Geonosians designed it and were probably the ones contracted to build it and that "they were the people Jay and Silent Bob commented on about being killed. But even though they all die they were in fact, just big termites."

I haven't listened to the EpII DVD myself, but if he really did say that, I'm sure he was being fececious.

On the other hand, it is a well-known fact that the emperor hated aliens, so he enslaved them and subjected them to a lot of grunt work. If is possible that he intended the death stars to be made by aliens all along. Regardless, there had to have been some human civilians on the death star when it blew. Even if that isn't the case, what makes bug-like aliens less important than humans? I'll have to check this out to make sure you aren't blowing smoke here, but if that's true, Lucas is undercutting much of the message he himself is supposedly making with these films.

 

[Kai Lord]

Kai Lord, you aren't bitter about this are you?

Not as much as people here probably think. I recently watched some of the scenes from the SE's for the first time in three or four years and I think a lot of the revisions are really pretty cool. I even like the Jabba scene in SW:SE (thought the CGI could definitely be improved).

Aside from Greedo, my biggest problem with the first SE is they didn't change enough. If you're going to start making some of the effects state of the art circa 1997, you need to do that to all the effects. I wish every dated Falcon and X-Wing shot (particularly Han's "maneuvers" to elude the Star Destroyers outside of Tatooine and Red Leader's collision with the Death Star) were replaced with new models and/or CGI.

Other than that the only real annoyances are Greedo and the shotgun blasts(!) that replaced Leia's blaster fire when she and Luke are on the ledge in the Death Star. Oh, and the censoring of the Imperial Guards getting blasted in the Detention Area. But those are pretty minor compared to a lot of the great additions (the Dewbacks, gorgeously cleaned up landspeeder effects, Falcon taking off, new X-Wings, Biggs, etc.) A lot of great stuff. As I said, too bad they didn't do more.

The tragedy of the whole process is twofold.

1. The reported destruction of the original negatives of all three films in the process, and

2. The utter ruining of The Empire Strikes Back.

That's the one that bugs me to no end whenever I think about it. The minor tweaks to ROTJ are for the most part cool, and SW has lots of good stuff, but ESB, the greatest film ever made before LOTR, butchered and tainted so. That kills me. In the grand scheme of things, eh, I've got my THX LD's of the original version and 20 years of memories. But still, frustrating nonetheless.

 

[Kai Lord]

I'll have to check this out to make sure you aren't blowing smoke here,

I don't blame you, as I do sporadically troll without warning. But on this I'm actually being serious.

 

[Darrin Drader]

I don't blame you, as I do sporadically troll without warning. But on this I'm actually being serious.

Yeah, as if you're the only one guilty of that.

Time to make a confession. That whole Reapersaurus controversy regarding the Lord of the Rings was nothing more than a counter-troll. He was trolling. I was too, and wondering if anyone was going to figure out that it was all just a big to-do about nothing on my part. I just hope I didn't give Hypersmurf an ulcer with the whole ordeal.

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, maybe I need to rewatch Empire Strikes Back, but I found that to be the least changed of the three. The only thing that struck me as different was the addition of windows in cloud city and making the opaque walls of the snowspeeders solid. OK, then there was the whole pointless bit about Vader telling them to prepare his shuttle. While I don't feel that added andything, I don't really feel like it detracted either. When I saw it I was just left wondering if there were any other pointless statement Vader made that would now be legendary popculture quotes, had they incorporated them 20 years ago.

 

[Kai Lord]

Anyway, back to the subject at hand, maybe I need to rewatch Empire Strikes Back, but I found that to be the least changed of the three. The only thing that struck me as different was the addition of windows in cloud city and making the opaque walls of the snowspeeders solid. OK, then there was the whole pointless bit about Vader telling them to prepare his shuttle. While I don't feel that added andything, I don't really feel like it detracted either.

The good parts about ESB:

Every last scene, edit, sound effect, plot twist, performance, design, everything.

The "not so good" would simply be some of the dated effects (the matte lines around TIE fighters, the background painting of the rebel transport in Echo Base, etc.)

The good parts about ESB:SE:

The cleaned up picture, the absolutely stunning polishing of the AT-AT battle, a couple of the new Cloud City shots (particularly the extended shot of the Cloud Car flying through the city.)

The BAD parts about ESB:SE:

1. The new Wampa
2. The out of sync sound due to the additional wampa scenes (now you hear Luke's lightsaber "swish" off while the sword is still ignited. Ugh.)
3. "You're lucky you don't taste very good" changed to "...lucky you got out of there." A small irritation, but worth mentioning.
4. The plethora of newly created continuity errors in Cloud City due to the addition of all the new panoramic windows. When Han, Leia, Lando and everyone walk down the first hallyway there's a large open vista at the end displaying the dusky orange sky. Then when they cut to Han and Lando in close-up the original wall is back in place of the sky!

Worse than that, later on they walk by a large window with an elevator going up the side of the building. Then they walk down a few steps, open a door, and see Vader sitting at the dinner table. Cut back to Han, Leia, Chewie, and Lando and the giant window and elevator behind them have vanished, to be replaced once again with the original gold stained glass wall. Horrible! Sloppy, sloppy errors that simply didn't exist before.

5. All of Luke's extra grunting during the lightsaber duel. After losing his sword in the carbon freezing chamber he rolls down the stairs and lets out an "uh-uh-uh-uh-uh" as he hits every step. What is this, the Naked Gun? In the original version he remains silent except when he absolutely could not help it.

6. Vader's annoyed "eeyaagh!" when he falls backward off the ledge of the freezing chamber is redubbed with his surprised "Oh!" sound after being blasted with the steam pouring out of the severed hose. WHY???

7. Tied for worst: Luke's scream. The most pivotal moment of the whole saga ruined. Greedo I can handle. A new musical number in Jabba's palace I can handle. But this is utterly inexplicable.

8. Tied for worst part II: The new shuttle sequences. Completely disrupts the tension and flow of the Falcon's escape, and with the shuttle landing sequence on the Death Star II from Return of the Jedi! Inexcusable and pointless.

Watching the ESB:SE I was reminded of how much of the film is still so utterly breathtaking in its storytelling grandeur. But then towards the end I feel like I'm watching it on HBO with a friend who's holding the remote and every few minutes or so switches to another channel he's watching then back again.
"Knock it off, dude, I'm trying to watch the end of the movie!"
"What, oh look Luke lost his hand and is about to fall..." *click*
"Turn it back, man!"
"Okay, fine, look you didn't miss much, there he is down in that shaft thing now, about to fall out onto the weather vane. Oh, there's Vader walking out all pissed..." *click*
"Dude, stop, turn it back!"
"Sorry, look you haven't missed the escape yet..." *click* *click*
"sigh..."