I went and bough the DVD on Tuesday morning and have watched all four of them (including the bonus material which I'll get to at the end).
Now, I'm a die-hard Star Wars fan. I fell in love with Luke Skywalker when I was young, and while being a decided geek and never wanting to miss school, I ditched school to see ESB and ROTJ. In fact, we used my quadripeligic aunt to get to the front of the line isntead of having to wait outside. I lept with joy at hearing about the prequel, went to see the special edition when it came out, and felt slightly sour after Episode 1. Looking back, I see now why it wasn't made first, and appreciate the political manuevering and seeing just how the Republic became the Empire. I enjoyed AOTC, and have to say that Hayden was whiny, irritating, and almost insufferable, in other words perfectly done to see how Anakin became Dath Vader eventually. Ewan McGregor, in my opinion, does great work as Obi-Wan, and makes seeing Alec Guinness as Obi-Wan in the original trilogy even more enjoyable.
Now, watching these on the big-screen televisions both grandmothers own has been extremely nice, and yes, I've watched each of them at least twice again. Some of the changes were subtle enough I didn't catch them the first time around, others less subtle. Frankly, I like the 'final' SE versions slightly better than the originals, although the originals are always going to be special because they are what I grew up on. The second time I watched them with my second cousin Whitney and some of her friends aged 15-19. For them, I think the things added with the SE made them more enjoyable to watch than if they'd just seen the originals.
By the way, the reason it cost millions was that nearly every frame of the original films had to be re-mastered for DVD quality. The original films are now dirty, aged, and worn, and if you want some idea of what they'd look like un-touched, go back and watch a video tape you recorded twenty years ago and see how crystal-clear it is now. That's where millions of dollars went.
Now, as for the changes I really, really noticed:
1) The Jabba/Han scene in Ep. 4 is MUCH better looking. Yeah, the scene ain't really necessary, but it's nice because it tells us exactly WHY Jabba is so hot after Han's ass in Ep. 5, and why in Ep. 6 he ain't willing to bargain about letting Han go.
Um, that's what a 15 year old guy said at that point in ROTJ. His words were like "D'oh, Jabba ain't gonna let him go after Han broke the promise he made in the first movie."
2) Boba's new voice - Yep, got to like the change. It makes a LOT of sense.
3) Woot! They changed the Emperor for the Holocam scene. Much more in-line with everything else now.
4) Vader/Kenobi Death Star Lightsaber Duel - The blades are a lot better looking now and the frames where you could see the actual sticks the actors used has been touched up. I said it before, I'll say it again...Ben's death here is even more poignant after getting to know Kenobi through the prequels.
5) Hayden appears with Yoda and Ben at the finale - (First...yeah, thought that was Naboo and shuddered at the gungan voice but oh well.) Hayden's appearance is NOT Anakin from AOTC, it is Anakin from Episode III. His hair is different and he does look older, though far younger than he would have been if he'd not become darth vader. My bet is we're seeing Anakin at the last moment before he fell to the dark side, when Luke and Leia are just a month old and he does not know of their birth. (woops, minor spoilage for Episode III).
The 'Bonus' disk I have not fully explored yet, but it's just as good as the rest of the movies. Hell, it's almost worth buying the whole dvd set for...
Why?
There's a teaser in there...an Episode III teaser that had me in tears because I got to see what I've been dreaming of ever since ROTJ ended. All Star Wars fans know Anakin fell to the dark side and fought Obi-wan Kenobi. During that fight, he was pushed or fell into a lava pit, lava shower, or something like that, and badly burned so that he had to have special life support and bionic implants in order to live. Thus, his black suit, his helmet, and the final transformation from Anakin Skywalker into Darth Vader. The episode III teaser is about that transformation.
There's a lot of Lucas babbling on, a lot of background, we see Jake Lloyd's childish Anakin, we see the AOTC Anakin, we see the Original Trilogy's Darth Vader. What really got me though, was the shots of Hayden in his new Darth Vader outfit (yeah, they made the new one for him to wear). Also, the fight scenes between him and Obi-Wan, against the blue and green screens was very wonderful to see...Overall...that was worth half the cost of the set right there...
Topic: Five major changes in the 'Star Wars' DVD (Read 4194 times)