Star Wars Special edition
Rant time -
I watched Star Wars (1977) special edition (1997)again today. Before I had always thought of the new material as stupid and distracting. But this time I actually paid attention to it a bit more and discovered:
1. Jabba the Hutt is now a different character. There was originally a scene with Jabba confronting Han and demanding payment. This was shot in 1977 with a fat guy as the stand in for Jabba. Lucas was disappointed with the result and edited it from the movie. Now it's back and there's a CGI Jabba there. The circa 1990s CGI is annoying enough (Jabba moves around like a big zombie slug, looks and talks completely different than he does in Return of the Jedi) but the character itself is different. This Jabba is a pushover - he lets Han fastalk him, lets his tail be stepped on, and lets Han generally make Jabba look pretty stupid. However, in Return of the Jedi, Jabba is shown as a ruthless smuggler lord who doesn't think twice about sending insolent slave girls to their death, keeping Han frozen in carbonite, or negotiating with someone holding a bomb. The Jabba from the Special Edition is just a different character. This is a little jarring and frustrating.
2. Han Solo is a different character. Originally he cooly dispatched a bounty hunter when he was in danger of being killed using a sly under the table shot. Now Han reacts to a missed shot and THEN shoots under the table. The graphics/editing look ridiculous because Lucas had to squeeze in a shot of the bounty hunter shooting first. But more importantly it has changed Han's character - he's less ruthless, less sly, and not as tough.
3. Pacing. Every moment of needless special edition nonsense slows down a tight movie by a little bit. That extra few seconds of a droid dropping some pipes and squabbling with another droid? The extra shots of stormtroopers riding dewbacks? All takes time. And. . .
4. it draws the viewer out of the experience. The differences in technology from the 1970s to the 1990s are immense. It is instantly obvious where computer graphics have been added and instantly distracts the viewer. It becomes a game of "find what was added".
Not all the special effects are bad. There are certainly some big improvements - lightsabers all look better, Death Star explosion is bigger/badder, more starfighters, you can see heads moving in the cockpits of fighters in a few shots, etc. But was all this really worth a special edition? I mean any movie shot before 1993 (Pre-Jurassic Park) or so is going to have some pretty dated special effects. Terminator 2, Aliens, Indiana Jones, Jaws - all of these movies could be remade with much better effects. Why weren't they?
Star Wars has ceased to be just a movie, it is a moneymaking empire. Lucas and Fox decided that a new generation wouldn't embrace the original trilogy unless the special effects were better. They assumed that a simple re-release to theaters wasn't enough. This problem was intensified with the prequel trilogy when technology took over the soul of the movies. (Easy analogy time - just like Darth Vader. "he's more machine than man now".)
Lucas hasn't messed around with the original trilogy for awhile, but I don't doubt he will again. It hasn't been released to Blu-Ray yet and it hasn't been released in 3D yet (and I'm sure Lucas has noticed the success of Avatar).
Can the franchise survive on video games, animation, and merchandise alone? Or will Lucas decide that there needs to be even more movies. He's in his 60s now, but I'm convinced that he will make another trilogy. 3D will draw him back in.
I watched Star Wars (1977) special edition (1997)again today. Before I had always thought of the new material as stupid and distracting. But this time I actually paid attention to it a bit more and discovered:
1. Jabba the Hutt is now a different character. There was originally a scene with Jabba confronting Han and demanding payment. This was shot in 1977 with a fat guy as the stand in for Jabba. Lucas was disappointed with the result and edited it from the movie. Now it's back and there's a CGI Jabba there. The circa 1990s CGI is annoying enough (Jabba moves around like a big zombie slug, looks and talks completely different than he does in Return of the Jedi) but the character itself is different. This Jabba is a pushover - he lets Han fastalk him, lets his tail be stepped on, and lets Han generally make Jabba look pretty stupid. However, in Return of the Jedi, Jabba is shown as a ruthless smuggler lord who doesn't think twice about sending insolent slave girls to their death, keeping Han frozen in carbonite, or negotiating with someone holding a bomb. The Jabba from the Special Edition is just a different character. This is a little jarring and frustrating.
2. Han Solo is a different character. Originally he cooly dispatched a bounty hunter when he was in danger of being killed using a sly under the table shot. Now Han reacts to a missed shot and THEN shoots under the table. The graphics/editing look ridiculous because Lucas had to squeeze in a shot of the bounty hunter shooting first. But more importantly it has changed Han's character - he's less ruthless, less sly, and not as tough.
3. Pacing. Every moment of needless special edition nonsense slows down a tight movie by a little bit. That extra few seconds of a droid dropping some pipes and squabbling with another droid? The extra shots of stormtroopers riding dewbacks? All takes time. And. . .
4. it draws the viewer out of the experience. The differences in technology from the 1970s to the 1990s are immense. It is instantly obvious where computer graphics have been added and instantly distracts the viewer. It becomes a game of "find what was added".
Not all the special effects are bad. There are certainly some big improvements - lightsabers all look better, Death Star explosion is bigger/badder, more starfighters, you can see heads moving in the cockpits of fighters in a few shots, etc. But was all this really worth a special edition? I mean any movie shot before 1993 (Pre-Jurassic Park) or so is going to have some pretty dated special effects. Terminator 2, Aliens, Indiana Jones, Jaws - all of these movies could be remade with much better effects. Why weren't they?
Star Wars has ceased to be just a movie, it is a moneymaking empire. Lucas and Fox decided that a new generation wouldn't embrace the original trilogy unless the special effects were better. They assumed that a simple re-release to theaters wasn't enough. This problem was intensified with the prequel trilogy when technology took over the soul of the movies. (Easy analogy time - just like Darth Vader. "he's more machine than man now".)
Lucas hasn't messed around with the original trilogy for awhile, but I don't doubt he will again. It hasn't been released to Blu-Ray yet and it hasn't been released in 3D yet (and I'm sure Lucas has noticed the success of Avatar).
Can the franchise survive on video games, animation, and merchandise alone? Or will Lucas decide that there needs to be even more movies. He's in his 60s now, but I'm convinced that he will make another trilogy. 3D will draw him back in.