why changes to Star Wars are so offensive
Something I posted on the originaltrilogy.com forum, but thought worthy of also saying here. Made in response to a thread about sycophantic prequel gushers with their heads up Lucas' ass who put down love of the original unaltered films as nothing more than misplaced childhood nostalgia, and who think the changes to the story are the best thing
( Read more... )
I guess I wasn't entirely happy with the SE's back then--Greedo inexplicably shooting the wall was always a jarring 'WTF?' moment, and digital Jabba looked stupid--but I didn't think about it that much for some reason. But the sad thing is that I think he actually believes his own lies about things being all planned out from the beginning, and he honestly thinks that his digital toys are the best thing ever, even when altered effects glaringly stand out from the rest because they are so inconsistent with the original photography.
I still find it hard to believe that he actually consented to allow the original versions to be released on dvd at all. Over on originaltrilogy.com, there was and continues to be a furor over that release, because they lazily stuck an old laserdisc transfer onto dvd instead of doing a new film scan in high resolution and cleaning it up to look its best. Project it onto a big screen and it doesn't hold up all that well compared to his spiffy new version; it's like he wants people to be put off watching them because they don't look as good, even though those flaws are entirely the fault of the lesser source they used rather than inherent to the films themselves. The official Star Wars website even had what was virtually a slander campaign against their own films, showing all the so-called flaws and highlighting how they had been 'fixed', because he doesn't want people to know that a real restoration of the original films could make them look very nice indeed.
Then again, in its own way even his revised version looks like crap, because they got the colours all wrong--it's a blue-shifted, over-contrasty mess, alternately over- and under-saturated in various scenes. And the sound is completely screwed up like I said. Just--ugh. It's such a frustrating and disappointing waste. But many dedicated fans have banded together and taken it upon themselves to fix things with the best they can with what's available, including me with the sound, so there's some good that's come of it.
The whole thing is so strange! There's really nothing else like it anywhere, and it doesn't have to be this way. Ah well . . .
Reply
Leave a comment