Topic: Star Wars Rant

[bustin98]

When news first broke that the original unedited Star Wars films were being released on DVD, I was excited. I am terribly disappointed by the 'enhancements' of the late 90's re-release of the films, and consider the original far superior. After all, DaVinci wouldn't go back over the Mona Lisa just because a brand new set of paints became available.



So now its apparent that this release is actually a 'gift' from Lucas attached to a yet additional release of the remakes. So you can choose which version to watch. Thats not bad. What is bad is the transfer for the original is from the Laserdisk set, not the original negatives. The sound is compressed where the original is 5.1, and its letterboxed, not anamorphic (yes, I have a 16x9 tv).



Holy shit, this is the set the fans have been begging for, and Lucas responds by blowing smoke and saying the remakes are the 'true' version so get over it. I realize that it is his work, but once art is shared with the world, it takes a life of its own.



If Star Wars was originally released with the computer effects, I wouldn't know any better except that the effects are visibly noticable. But I do know, and knowing is half of something.



Some of you youngsters may not be too familiar with the original versions, but think of one of the defining pieces of your childhood, art, book, movie, or music, and then picture it being 'enhanced'. Every time you see the new version, you might get a little feeling of nostalgia until the new changes smack you in the face and takes you out of your emersion.



And this doesn't compare with the Transformers movie or others similar. Its not a 're-imagining' I have trouble with.

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Cool beans

[Revned]

I saw the originals once just before the first round of edited versions came out. While I won't buy them when he finally releases them, I understand completely. Lucas is an idiot.

[TerraEsperZ]

Although I'm a quite the Star Wars fan (at least, in regards to the movies and the SW universe itself, not the countless novels and comics where Luke & co keeps fighting either new unstoppable aliens or Imperial Remnants with yet new Super Weapons), I don't feel such a special attachment to the original trilogy as first released.



Maybe it's because I'm no that big a fan, or that I was too young when the films came out to fully appreciate them like older people did. Instead of being angry at all the changes, I just feel pity for Georges Lucas. The thing is, apart from fixing some shody special effects (like the AT-AT leg seen through the Snowspeeder cockpit), both the Special Edition and the DVD Edition don't actually bring anything new. In fact, they detract from the mood because the new effects and added scenes just don't fit with the rest of the movies.



Take Jabba's scene in A New Hope; it spoils the revelation of who Jabba really is and how malevolant he can be. The added Landspeeder approach to Mos Esley looks cool and makes the city appear much bigger and busier than before but the special effects just don't mix well with the rest which was done with miniatures and live acting.



There's also making Han a big softie from the start by not shooting Greedo first (which would make sense when you're a smuggler working for big crime lords; it's a violent world after all). Then you have incoherence like re-doing the whole approach of the Death Star in CGI (which looked great) only to switch back to shoddy miniatures right after (the contrast is really jarring since the explosions in the Trench run are the worst effect in the old trilogy I feel). And so on and so forth.



So, like I said, I'm not that angry about it, but I really think Lucas has problems with his work and his relation to SW fans. At times it feels like he's actively trying to piss them off. I just think it sucks for those who wanted a restored DVD set of the original films, with corrected visual effects and remastered score, but nothing else.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[bustin98]

I'm more of a Star Trek fan than a Star Wars fan, but it is frustrating when something cool is announced only to have the reasons to be excited about it pulled away. After all, I have a collectors edition VHS set that will give me as much satisfaction as this new set would. I can only justify a purchase if it was significantly superior.

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Cool beans

[JonLeung]

So there's the original trilogy, the original trilogy THX remastered and rereleased, the 20th Anniversary Special Edition with various additions, the "Limited Edition" rerelease that we're talking about right now, and the upcoming 30th Anniversary 3D Edition.



There's VHS, Laserdisc, DVD, and the upcoming formats HD-DVD and/or Blu-Ray.



They can be separate, bundled together, or bundled with Episodes I-III, which also came out on VHS and DVD and will probably be rereleased again in 3D theatrically and on one of the new disc formats.



It's like, how many different ways can you give George Lucas money?



(And those are just the movies.  Merchandising?  LucasArts pretty much making only Star Wars games?  I think George Lucas's great grandchildren won't need to work if they don't want to.)



I love Star Wars as much as the next geek, but maybe we should give up and wait for a format large enough to hold every version of every film (including the radio plays, Clone Wars, the Holiday Special, the Ewoks/Droids cartoons, the entire two upcoming TV series, and whatever else) all on a single disc.

[TerraEsperZ]

Seriously, Star Wars must be the biggest cash cow ever in the history of Hollywood.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[JonLeung]

Is there really any doubt about that?  And it's just from the six films.



Imagine how much something like James Bond or Godzilla with their 20+ films each could do.  Actually, maybe not...they aren't as marketable (especially in the toy sense), don't have as many characters or side-stories with which to make derivative works from, have much less continuity, and just haven't hit that particular whatever-it-is that enthralls all the geeks.



I heard there were something like 10 000 Canadians who put down their religion as "The Force" (or maybe it was "Jedi teachings" or some variant of that) on a national census.  Either they didn't take the census seriously, or they take Star Wars too seriously.

[TerraEsperZ]

I heard there were something like 10 000 Canadians who put down their religion as "The Force" (or maybe it was "Jedi teachings" or some variant of that) on a national census. Either they didn't take the census seriously, or they take Star Wars too seriously.

Sadly, it's quite probably the latter. When you get people on jury duty insisting on wearing their Starfleet uniform and Klingon weddings (I think the worst Trekkers actually beat the worst SW fans in terms of living in an imaginary world), anything's possible. Usually for the worst.



I'm also finished with Star Wars for the most part. I have the DVDs for all 6 films, plus the two Clone Wars volumes. I'm not at all interested in the new series Lucas is supposedly working on. Anything he directs story-wise is bound to be very disappointing. It's amazing the difference in quality between his writing in the new movies and the writing of the prequel novels and comics. Lucas is good at what I'd call world-building, creating a massive universe of great complexity, but he sucks at telling interesting stories within it.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me

[bustin98]

I'm sure Star Trek is a big cow, but doesn't stack up to Star Wars. I started wondering about other successful film series, but as you stated Jon not many carry across so many different types of tie-ins.



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Cool beans

[JonLeung]

I admit to being extremely self-conscious in junior high, so I often made it clear that I didn't like Star Trek since my friends did and weren't afraid to show it.  I guess I didn't want to be labelled as a nerd.  Though I learned that not watching Star Trek doesn't help if people assume you do anyway.



So it was unfair for me to say that, I'm sure that there's something there if it has so many fans, even if it's not as many as Star Wars these days.  Some aspects of Star Wars appeal more to the kids (toys, action figures, maybe Jar-Jar Binks, etc.) and with the most recent three movies being such a big deal I'm pretty sure Star Trek can't catch up.



Is it over, though?  I thought I heard long ago that Enterprise was cancelled.  My dad is a bit of a Trekker so I'm sure I would've heard if there was another Star Trek series.



As for the movies, I read on JoBlo.com a month or two back that Ben Affleck might possibly star in a prequel movie about a young Captain Kirk.  I thought, "man, what a silly idea" and then I looked at the picture of Ben Affleck that was accompanying the news article.  From that particular angle he DID look like a young William Shatner, but I'm thinking that Ben Affleck's movie record lately would get the Star Trek fans pissed off...remember the fuss about nSync's role as Jedis in Star Wars: Episode II?

[JonLeung]

Not that anyone cares, but after that Ben Affleck rumour now comes a Matt Damon-as-young-Captain Kirk rumour.  It's like they just ask the next person in line.

[TerraEsperZ]

As far as I'm concerned, only Deep Space Nine was pretty much consistently good in addition of incorporating strong continuity and several episodes-long story arc. After Voyager, Enterprise and the last two Next Generation movies, Star Trek needs to go away for a long while, if not forever unless it can manage to be relevant again.



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"With the first link, the chain is forged. The first speech censored, the first thought forbidden, the first freedom denied, chains us all irrevocably." [...] The first time any man's freedom is trodden on, we're all damaged. - Captain Jean-Luc Picard



B*tch, meet reality. Reality, meet b*tch. - Me