Who’s Idea Was This?!
November 21st, 2003If you ask me, the following list of supposed changes in the OT for the rumored Ultimate Edition is some fanboy’s pipe dream.
The list (my comments in red):
Episode IV: A New Hope
1. The Imperial March has been added to Darth Vader’s first appearance on Princess Leia’s ship. Not really necessary.
2. When Obi-Wan is talking to Luke about his father Anakin’s Theme plays in the background and then it turns into the Imperial March as he talks about Vader. Same here.
3. The lightsaber effects have been redone and the frame jumps of lightsabers being turned on has been removed. Meh.
4. There’s a new scene which has been shot during the filming of Episode III in which the Emperor dissolves the Senate. I’ve always been against this. All we needed to know was what Tarkin said about it. We don’t need to see it. If you did that, then Tarkin’s lines would have to be removed. No need to present the same information twice.
5. In the Cantina, the Duros (green aliens guys) have been replaced with Neimoidians and some aliens from the prequels have been added. DON’T TOUCH THAT SCENE. IT’S FINE!
6. The bleeding arm on the floor in the Cantina has been replaced with a non-bleeding arm because it’s now canon that lightsabers cauterize wounds. Nit-picky stuff.
7. The original shooting scene between Han and Greedo has been restored. Common sense! But that change won’t happen.
8. Jabba the Hutt has been given a makeover and Han no longer steps on his tale. This scene should be taken out all together. Slows down the movie with more useless information, some of which is mentioned in the Han-Greedo scene.
9. In place of R2 wobbling down the stairs to the Falcon’s hangar, a CG R2 navigating the stairs like he does in Attack of the Clones was added. Unnecessary.
10. The white boxes around space ships have been removed and new CG shots have been added. I would like for this to be done with the original OT, but if those were left in, no biggie.
11. The scene of the Falcon being chased by the two Star Destroyers was modified. The Falcon now does spinning moves, avoiding the Star Destroyers’ fire. *sigh* Leave it be.
12. When the Death Star destroys Alderaan there’s a new scene of Yoda’s reaction to the disturbance in the Force that is created by all those deaths and then it cuts to Obi-Wan reacting to it as well. No, no! A thousand times no!
13. The Dianoga has gotten a CG makeover and were are now able to see more of the creature. Leave it alone. Less is more.
14. The Death Star’s paneling and computers have been slightly altered to show similar displays to those in the prequels. Nit-picky.
15. The words “Tractor Beam” with Aurebesh lettering. Ditto.
16. More stormtroopers have been added to the Death Star. No good reason for this. A big space station like that is understood to be infested with stormtroopers.
17. Temuera Morrison’s voice is being recorded for use with all the stormtroopers. Idiotic and nit-picky.
18. The Obi-Wan/Vader duel has been spruced up. It is much more epic and there is much more movement. A modified version of Duel of the Fates is being considered for the scene. NO!
19. The Death Star plans that are taken from R2 have been updated. When the Rebels are reviewing the Death Star plans they look similar to the plans we see in Attack of the Clones. Unnecessary.
20. The Death Star battle is much more epic with more Tie Fighters and more Rebels being blown to bits. We get to see old Naboo starfighters being used by the Rebels. More epic?!!! Whoever did this list has a funny definition of epic. “Epic” does not mean more explosions. Why the heck would the Rebels be using way out of date ships from an insignificant planet? That would really be scraping the bottom of the barrell.
21. There’s a new scene (shot during Episode III) where Darth Vader goes to Coruscant and lands his ship in the same building Count Dooku does at the end of Attack of the Clones. Except now the building is all fixed up and it is now Palpatine’s palace. He meets with Palpatine to ask for forgiveness for his failure and inform him of a new potential who is strong in the Force. Oh, God, no.
22. Chewbacca now gets a medal. Huh?
Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back
1. The taun-tauns are now CG. Leave them alone.
2. The battle of Hoth is much more epic. We see the Imperial ships land on Hoth and release AT-ATs. The AT-ATs have been sped up a bit. There’s a ground battle between the Rebel soldiers and stormtroopers featuring new ships and vehicles. Same reaction I had for making the Yavin battle more “epic”. Bah!
3. Temuera Morrison’s voice is being recorded for the older Boba Fett and all the stormtroopers. What I said about this above.
4. The white boxes around space ships have been removed. What I said about this above.
5. The slug monster is CG. Unnecessary.
6. Ian McDiarmid has refilmed scenes as the Emperor. The conversations between Vader and Palpatine is now longer and features a few connections to the prequels. The original scene might not look that great, but I’d leave it alone.
7. Yoda’s face is now animated in CG allowing more expression of emotions yet his movements remain the same. Also two deleted scenes featuring Yoda instructing Luke have been restored. Sacrilege!!!
8. A new scene was shot in which the stormtroopers, after they capture Han, Leia and Chewie, bring Vader the box containing C-3PO in pieces. Vader orders the stormtroopers to bring the broken droid to Chewbacca’s cell so that he can fix him. Huh? What’s the point of this?
9. The lightsaber effects have been redone in certain parts. Now these have dated pretty well, I think. No need to bother that.
10. Luke’s fall from Cloud City has been reshot against bluescreen using a stuntman. NO!
Episode VI: Return of the Jedi
1. Jabba the Hutt is now a combination of the puppet and CG. No point in doing this. At all.
2. The Rancor is CG and looks disgusting as ever. The CG creature won’t look any less fake than the stop-motion creature.
3. Yoda is CG. Yoda disappears leaving his clothes behind like Obi-Wan now. Nit-picky and useless.
4. The ewoks are now mostly CG and there are a lot more of them. No good reason for this.
5. The plan is to insert the love theme Across the Stars when Luke is talking with Leia about their mother. HELL NO!
6. Temuera Morrison’s like before is now the voice for Boba Fett and all the stormtroopers. *sigh*
7. In the battle of Endor there are thousands of Ewoks and they are more vicious than there midgets-in-suits counterparts. More bite the dust now. No reason for this. It’s obvious that there’s more than a few Ewoks running around out there. Are there people actually counting them?
8. White boxes around ships removed. What I said about this before.
9. The black blotches around Palpatine’s face are gone. They’re ink blotches deliberately applied to the film itself, probably to cover the edges of Ian McDiarmid’s make-up. If ILM can figure out how to fix that and not have it look fake, more power to them.
10. Some of the lightsaber effects have been redone. The shadows that the lightsabers made on the floor are gone. Nit-picky. The shadows never bothered me.
11. During Anakin’s death scene it starts with a sad rendition of the Imperial March and slowly evolves into Anakin’s Theme. That would destroy the atmosphere in that scene. The music John Williams composed for that scene is perfect.
12. Sebastion Shaw who played Anakin when he was unmasked has been replaced with Hayden Christenson in make-up to make him look older. Anakin has much more dialogue. He apologizes for the destruction he caused, he thanks his son for turning him back to the light, he tells his son to rebuild the Jedi and he says he loves him and his sister. Just before he dies he says, “It is finished…”. Now this is disrespectful to Sebastian Shaw (may he rest in peace). You would have to remove his credit from the movie, and there is no excuse or good reason to do this. The dialogue additions are unnecessary, verbose, and totally out of place.
13. We see more planets celebrating at the end of the movie. We see an aged Jar Jar, who is now the leader of the Gungans, on Naboo celebrating with the people of Naboo and the Gungans. We see an old Watto, who is now unable to fly, sitting in a hover chair cheering on Tatooine. During these scenes Across the Stars plays transitioning to the victory celebration music at the Ewok tree village. No. No good reason for this.
14. Anakin’s spirit is now played by Hayden Christenson with make-up to make him look his age. He looks on proudly at his son Luke with the spirit of Padme by his side. The same thing I said about replacing Shaw. Padmé has no business being there; she’s not a Jedi.
This can’t be from the Ranch. Well…I take that back. Some of this stuff could worm its way in. This is the same place that gave us Jar Jar and Yo Da Man. :cuss: