Star Wars IV, V & VI DVDs

Only three things bother me about the Special Editions: Han shooting first, Luke's scream when falling in Cloud City, and Vader's departure from Cloud City -- which is just footage from Return of the Jedi, looped with different music.

Put those back the way they were, and the rest of the Special Editions are fine. A few nice cosmetic touch-ups, the annoying song at the end of RotJ cut out, and so forth... I have no issues with that.

I'd even accept Vader's departure from Cloud City, if they'd just take out that stupid scream... and Han shoots first, dang it!

I hate to say it but I know I'm not going to be able to hold out. I'll buy the bs versions. If the extras are up to the Indiana Jones stuff it will be worth buying(Indiana Smith and the Temple of Doom starring Magnum PI and Sean Young, ha ha). Han awkwardly shooting first and the extra animals at port bother me the most. The extra animals in IV look too two dimensional, it's obvious that that there was no room left for them when filming. My concerns are not due to childhood attachment eithe, I was actually too young for this to be the case. Jedi came out when I was three and by the time I was old enough the buzz had faded. It wasn't until I was a teenager that someone clued me in that it was unthinkable to have not seen the Star Wars movies.

On a side note I think the only way we'll get the original versions is if his kids run through all his money after Lucas crokes. Hey cheer up, maybe they'll get a nasty coke habit.

I love the cheese of the first film. The way the Death Star sorta blew up, how the frame around Luke jumps when he turns on his lightsaber, how the beams on the sabers are inconsistent, all the times the dent on C3PO changes sides, etc. That's part of the fun! It's not Star Wars without it.

Lucas is adding even more changes to the special editions. I vaguely remember seeing something that he may make Han shoot first in the bar again, so at least that would be nice.

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A couple of people have said things along these lines, where's that information coming from?

Personally, I too am not a particularly big fan of the special editions. Not only because of the infamous 'Greedo' incident, but because most added scenes don't do anything more than make the films more 'Political Correct' and add cute, funny robots and/or animals.

(This should has served as a warning for what to expect in episode 1, but for some reason no-one saw it coming. Perhaps if people protested then against these comic-relief additions, we might not have ended up with Jar-Jar Binks)

However, having said all that: I would still LOVE a new 'definitive' version of Star Wars, but not for the reasons others have already uttered.

Reason #1: Lucas has made his prequels in such a way that a linear viewing of Star Wars (starting with episode 1 and ending with episode 6) is encouraged. Just think of the entire 'Senator Palpatine and Lord Sidious are not the same guy' routine. For future generations, a linear viewing might even be more rewarding, but only if the original films are more enhanced special effects-wise. Otherwise, episode 4 would seem very underwhelming right after watching the no doubt mind-blowing spectacular finale of episode 3.

Reason #2: I would love to see Darth Vader and Obi-Wan really ripping into eachother in episode 4. Because c'mon, that fight looks silly even compared with ep5 & ep6, and especially when compared to the prequels. If CGI can create a spectacular fight between a senior citizen (Christopher Lee) and a cgi-character (Yoda), CGI can also add additional fight scenes between the late Alec Guiness and someone who is fully covered by a suit.

Reason #3: When you look at it now, the added CGI stuff from the special edition looks MORE outdated than the original footage. The original Star Wars kinda has this 'timeless' feel, even with the limited recourses Lucas had when filming it. In the definitive version, the added CGI could be enhanced and be brought up to par with episode 3.

The one rumour I have heard about this is that the Episode IV fight between Darth & Obi-Wan will be "enhanced", which to my mind is not a bad thing, as per Shism's comments.

They had better release some original versions...

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YEP !

The director's cut was unnecessary. :devil:

The one rumour I have heard about this is that the Episode IV fight between Darth & Obi-Wan will be "enhanced", which to my mind is not a bad thing, as per Shism's comments

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Hmm, interesting, but please define 'rumour'. With all the speculation out there (I need only refer to the Babylon 5: TmoS discussion on this forum) a rumour often is fanboy speculation that has been picked up, turned upside down and quoted somewhere else.

I just checked local store for coming DVD releases and whoopi moopi what did I found. They're saying that Star Wars Trilogy DVD's are coming 22. september this year. This is quite big mall chain and they have been always right about many DVD releases before, so I think that this info is quite correct. Of course there is absolutely no info or what-so-ever is it the original trilogy or "special edition scheit" or what, but at least SW trilogy is somewhere on the horizon watching for us.

I never had a problem with the SE version of Star Wars, that's not to say i don't love the originals because i do and i even have a copy of them on tape & yes there great but nothing in the SE versions really ticks me off that much & a lot has been fixed up. Truth be told the original vinal release was almost stuffed when they decided to do the original revamp, if they had not of done it then it's quite possible that there wouldn't be any dvd's either old or new. As long as George dose not go crazy then i won't mind.

Just from Lucas' track record on this, and what quotes I have seen over the last few years, I would be *extremely* surprised if any of them included the original versions.

Perhaps it's old news and the whole world now knows about it except me, but perhaps not. And if not: I've found pictures of the star wars box sets. Yes I mean multiple sets , three of them (just gotta love George Lucas for his capitalism!).

Apparantly the source of these pictures is the site from the company that is creating the packaging, it is claimed the pictures appeared there for a couple of minutes and where then removed.

The sets you get to choose from (or perhaps buy all three which is probably what GL is hoping for) can be found here

For myself, I like the Jedi vs Sith one the best.

Jedi vs. Sith would be nice if it had a big picture of Luke instead of Yoda. I mean, original tirlogy is more abuot Luke in my opinion and his "battle" with Vader. Now the yoda.. well.. he would fit more like in the prequel trilogy cover, but not on the original... though I do not know that how much oriniganility will be left there when those movies will be secunda edition...

P.S I like the Vader mask most. If it would be from another perspective, it would be better.

That’s odd, over at ign.com, there’s also the news of leaked star wars boxset design, but they are nothing like what I posted earlier. Ign states that ‘Fox has given the go-ahead to post these babies’ so if that’s true these designs should be the official ones.

Anyway, instead of three possible designs there really is one, except it is gold for a fullscreen version and silver for the widescreen version.

What they look like? Well like this

By the way, how odd Lucas is realising a fullscreen version as well. Lucas has stated time and time again that he did the '97 version for the sake of ART. But then why o' why would you release a horrible fullscreen version where the image has been massacred to accommodate a 4:3 television set?
This is even stranger if you consider that widescreen already has become the DVD-standard.

It's quite insulting really. George Lucas shows himself as a man that will
A. accommodate wankers who insist a horribly deformed 4:3 image is preferable over the complete 16:9 image, but with black bars.
B. will not accommodate people who have great issues with the some of the 'artistic' changes he made back in '97.

If you are going to do ART, then why also bring out a fullscreen version, which has nothing to do with ART, and is only for people who don't know how to appreciate movies as an art-form in the first place?!

Anyway, instead of three possible designs there really is one, except it is gold for a fullscreen version and silver for the widescreen version.

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That was the only design I saw availabe on other websites as well. I was hoping for a bit more variety as I liked some of the other designs mentioned previously.

Ok, gold and silver... Right. And why gold for fullscreen and silver for widescreen? I mean... it would be logical... ah on the other hand, it doesn't matter. I want the original version of SW without new "added shit".