Things the Star Wars Special Editions Did Right

[SpAc3man]

I would point you to the Higher Ground series or Life as a House, or even Jumper. But you obviously don't like him as an actor and me trying to convince you otherwise would make me into some kind of unfeeling, evil monster that can't percieve other people's tastes.

I'd be like a Brony or an Anime Fan

I didn't think he was that bad in Jumper. He just wasn't able to portray the character struggling with many different emotions and personal demons that he needed to in the most import role of his career so far. He was a poor choice for the character.

 

[Kragg]

Although, I saw the 2004 DVD release. Anakin now LOOKS like Anakin? Fuck yeah!

Leave now. You are not permitted to spew that blasphemous filth from your mouth here. Ever.
Hayden Christensen is the worst thing that ever happened to Star Wars. Every real Star Wars fan in the world is obligated to punch him in the face. Once for each film.

*clears throat*

No!

What, I'm not allowed to like a character played by my favorite actor? I'm not allowed to express appreciation towards a series of movies I grew up with? I'm not allowed to see those movies referenced in the movies that came before them? That makes me not a true Star Wars fan?

Like all good little Star Wars fans I have to openly despise anything that isn't the original version of the first three movies or KOTOR? A true Star Wars fan has to openly hate the Prequels, The Force Unleashed series, the Clone Wars tv series, and the two MMO's?

A true Star Wars fan has to openly hate an actor who did an okay job portraying a character that had more expectations towards it than any other character in recorded history? Let's see you take on the insane job of portraying Darth Vader before the Dark Side and see how well you do it.

I'm going to be the one who finally says it. I'm a Star Wars fan, and Pre-Vader Anakin is my favorite Star Wars character.

It really says something about a series of movies when the only actors who show any kind if interest in their job are Harrison Ford and Hayden Christensen. Especially when you have Ewan Mcgregor, Samual L Jackson, James Earl Jones and Alec Guiness on your cast.

Apparantly being a true fan of anything requires seething rage that borders on the psychotic. That is the path of the Dark Side.

i like how you soapbox for this when it has nothing to do with the original point of things

point that changing the forceghost to what he looked like 30 years ago makes no sence at all

I like Natalie Portman as an actress, why arent all the forceghosts Natalie Portman guys? come on ! ...

 

[Vivi22]

Personally, I can see why it was originally cut (aside from the obvious Scottish bloke in a fur suit).

Most of the stuff Jabba talks about was already stated by Greedo just a few minutes earlier, making the entire scene seem redundant. Besides, why would a galactic crime lord (a fat, slow slug of a crime lord, mind you) leave his palace and go all the way to Mos Eisley just to intimidate a two-bit smuggler that hasn't paid off his debts? It would make more sense to have one of his flunkies deliver the message for him.

I have to agree with this and I was actually going to say most of it until I saw your post. I just watched the revamped versions again a few months back and the redundancy of the dialogue in this scene annoyed the hell out of me. It seemed pretty obvious that this scene was cut and then much of the dialogue recycled for the Greedo scene. It also makes less sense when you take the Greedo scene into account. Jabba puts a bounty on Han's head, except he knows exactly where he is, goes to meet with him, and then just let's him go? I've got to call bullshit there. A man/alien that goes so far as to offer money for you dead or alive is someone that probably doesn't know where you are, and doesn't want to take the effort to go find you themselves. They're also not likely to be smooth talked into letting you walk away.

The only really good improvements for me were the revamped space combat scenes. Computer effects work far better with inanimate objects like vehicles than creatures or people.

I disagree with you here though. I actually felt the CGI space combat added very little, and was often a jarring distraction compared to the look of the rest of the film. The original effects actually hold up very well I find. They were extremely dynamic and fast paced, and far ahead of anything else at the time. I could have understood things like touching up explosions and the like here or there, but I didn't feel adding in CG ships flying around really made the experience any better. If anything, I'm more impressed by the original effects, especially when I think about the fact that they were done in the 70's and 80's. And perhaps I'm also a little jaded when it comes to bad CGI. These scenes were added in the 90's, and CGI from that time period rarely ages well, the Original Trilogy being no exception.

 

[Sexy Devil]

Although, I saw the 2004 DVD release. Anakin now LOOKS like Anakin? Fuck yeah!

Leave now. You are not permitted to spew that blasphemous filth from your mouth here. Ever.
Hayden Christensen is the worst thing that ever happened to Star Wars. Every real Star Wars fan in the world is obligated to punch him in the face. Once for each film.

OT: George did do some good things with the special editions. The Jabba scene is pure gold and the scene where they are flying into Cloud City gives a great view of Bespin, most of Empire was general polishing. Greedo shooting first is an unfortunate addition to an otherwise well done touch-up.

I disliked Christensen too (even though I maintain that a lot of it was bad writing and wasn't his fault), but adding him in there kinda fits with what Obi Wan was saying throughout those movies about Anakin dying long ago and the thing that's left being Darth Vader. I know one could argue that he was Anakin again at the end, but the form that Luke saw at the end wasn't the same man that Luke saw die. Any credibility to the "he should show up how he died" argument goes out the window when you realised that in the originals he suddenly loses all his deformities.

I don't know, the way they made him lose those deformities and scars, it kinda felt like they would have done what the edit did if they had an idea of what they wanted young Anakin to look like.

My $0.02.

Also holy god I popped my original version in again just to remember the Ewok song at the end, and that... that is awful.

 

[SpAc3man]

It is true that supposedly we see Anakin as he was before what Obi Wan referred to as Akakin's "death" that only left behind Darth Vader but that contradicts the plot of Luke refusing to accept that Anakin was no longer there and that there was still good in Vader. Obi Wan didn't believe this could be true and discouraged Luke from trying to bring his father back. The whole ending of ROTJ from Vader betraying the Emperor to save Luke and having Luke unmask him so he could die as Anakin was a kind of rebirth for him. All the scars and deformities were a part of his descent into evil that was undone when he turned back.