I'm sooo glad i bought these on VHS before all these silly Special Editions came out. I have those too of course, but i think i only watched them once and then returned to the proper ones.
Looking at the proper ones i can see a few falws i hoped would be fixed in the Special Editions (Namely boxes around the tie fighters and bad bluescreen ith the Rancor), but other than that i don't see why you should mess with classic films.
I can't think of a single item that was ADDED to the special editions that was worthwhile.
-Greedo shooting first comes off as stupid (han hardly shot him in cold blood, greedo missing by a foot from 3 feet away).
-The jabba scene (which i wanted to see) is pointless as it repeats most of the dialogue from the greedo scene, and it is really badly done.
-The bit where han chases stormtroopers until they realise there is only him is made silly by filling the room with stormtroopers.
-The rancor bluescreen still isn't fixed.
-The extra dance number just comes off as silly and inserted.
-The ending of ROTJ is slightly interesting (all the planets celebrating), but it (and the change to rubbish downbeat ethnic music) slows down the whole ending of the film.
Oh, I suppose i liked that the re-inserted biggs into the Yavin hanger. That was cool.
The main problem I have with the Special Editions is that the CGI looks terrible. It stands out like a sore thumb and not only looks fake in comparison to the models (which had a kind of gritty realism) but also makes the models look static in comparisson. Neither wins. The added creatures look like bad Jurasic Park rejects (like when the used to stick horns on a iguana and call it a dragon). The original special effects have stood the time amazingly well for a 27 year old film, whereas most CGi tends to date very rapidly.
There were a few scenes that i would like to see in a Special edition (Luke jumping to grate in rancor pit, vader choking imperial guards) but I would only like them as OPTIONS, not irreversiably inserted into a classic film. THe jabba scene isn't one of them.
Oh, and the rumoured additions like cgi duels and replacing anakin are really bad ideas. Not all directors cuts are better than the original, often there was a good reason why something was cut, or done the way it was. (See Alien, Aliens for worse (if interesting) special editions). Just clean up the flaws and leave it the hell alone... or release a Quadrilogy style pack with 2 versions of each.
These films wouldn't be the classics they are now if there was SO MUCH that needed changing...
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