George Lucas tinkering with Star Wars films

by LoveUniHateExams 56 Replies latest social entertainment

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    Just thought I'd start a thread about Lucas revisiting Star Wars films and making new edits - for better or for worse.

    First off, let me say that George Lucas has a tremendous imagination and Star Wars (1977), also known as Episode 4: A New Hope, and The Empire Strikes Back (1980) - Episode 5 in the franchise - are two of my favourite films.

    As progress has been made in special effects, including the development of CGI, it makes sense for Lucas to go back and retouch the spaceships, laser blasts and light sabres, improving what was 70s and 80s effects.

    But I feel that Lucas' tinkering has been a mixed bag - some have been bad choices, some unnecessary and others have been good.

    What do you think ...

  • sir82
    sir82
  • truth_b_known
    truth_b_known

    As a Star Wars purists snob, I only consider the following movies to be true Star Wars -

    1. Rogue One

    2. Episode IV - A New Hope

    3. Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back*

    * The Empire Strikes Back all the way to the point when Vader is about to reveal to Luke that he is his father. Stop the film just before he utters those words "No. I am your father."

    George Lucas had help writing The first two films (A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back). Return of the Jedi is A New Hope with Muppets. Lucas wrote Episodes I, II, and III by himself and it shows. Pure garbage.

    What about the new films - The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi?

    Horrible! Absolutely horrible!

    The Force Awakens is A New Hope 3.0. Rescue the Rebel and blow up the Death Star...I mean Starkiller Base.

    My hope is that Disney will re-release the original trilogy in it's original form in Blu-Ray or 4KUHD.

  • Simon
    Simon

    Maybe he can erase JarJar?

    I don't know if you really "add" anything to movies like this, other than try and sell some more copies with an updated release version.

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    Good points, everyone - I pretty much agree.

    @Sir82 - yes, that change was awful. Han was a badass smuggler who played by his own rules. He definitely would have shot Greedo first without batting an eye ... which he did, in 1977.

    @truth-b-known - yes, I more or less agree with your whole post. The Empire Strikes Back is great but the point at which I lose interest is when Luke and Leia communicate telepathically ... a hint that they're brother and sister. I can swallow Vader being Luke's father - it's an excellent build-up and reveal - but Leia being Luke's sister? That's just corny.

    @Simon - yeah Jar-Jar is annoying. And he's a main character in Ep 1. Thanks George ...

  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    On the plus side, I'm glad Lucas replaced puppet Yoda in The Phantom Menace with a CGI version.

    It doesn't really add anything to the film but that Yoda puppet sucked.

  • My Name is of No Consequence
    My Name is of No Consequence
    George Lucas has tinkered with the classic "Star Wars" movies enough (i.e. putting Hayden Christensen as Anakin at the end of Return of the Jedi and replacing the original ewok music).
  • LoveUniHateExams
    LoveUniHateExams

    George Lucas has tinkered with the classic "Star Wars" movies enough - yes he certainly has.

    I agree that ghost-Anakin was pointless but I actually prefer the music that replaces the ewok tune.

  • MeanMrMustard
    MeanMrMustard

    On a scale of “JarJars” (hint: you don’t want JarJars) :

    George Lucas’ modifications to the original trilogy: 1 JarJar

    The Force Awakens: 4 JarJars

    Tremors 12: 10 JarJars

    The Last Jedi: 100 JarJars

    Note: you can replace the unit of “JarJar” with the unit of “Rose” without effect.

    Edit addition: The SW Prequels: 3 JarJars

  • neat blue dog
    neat blue dog

    As far as the OP:

    Yeah, I think a few of the edits from the late '90s edited versions came off awkwardly in areas, (due to tech limitations at the time) but as a whole I prefer them.

    To be honest I think Lucas is much more of an artist than Abrams, or even Speilberg could ever be. I know this might seem odd to some so-called purists (that's really subjective, and some might argue that the artist's vision is as pure as you can get, not the audiences short-range wants), but Return of the Jedi is actually my favorite Original Trilogy film, and I think the prequels were his strongest work and made the originals even better.

    Here's just one of many articles that doesn't resort to the lame "Jar Jar sucks" trope:

    http://cinema.hbu.edu/revisiting-the-star-wars-prequels/

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