Star Wars: Original/Prequel Trilogies & General Thread

[hearthesilence]

Wow. I can't believe that guy pissed away a one-in-a-billion chance like that. Was he like this with his other movies?

[The Fanciful Norwegian]

His only other film is Chronicle. I've seen no juicy behind-the-scenes stories about that one, but then nobody was paying attention. Between him and Mark Webb I wonder if studios are thinking twice now about bringing in relative newcomers to handle high-profile franchise reboots—though Gareth Edwards came out of Godzilla just fine, and I suppose Jurassic World might be okay.

[flyonthewall2983]

John Landis said at a recent event Lucas told him that Disney were planning to release the original theatrical cuts on Blu-ray

[captveg]

John Landis said at a recent event Lucas told him that Disney were planning to release the original theatrical cuts on Blu-ray

I don't get the continued wrangling over the Disney/Fox rights. The two companies are in total lock-step at this point, with the recent digital releases and the upcoming reissue of the SE Blu-rays. Those lawyers have all the profits worked out on any type of consumer video release. We wouldn't have got those sets otherwise.

[flyonthewall2983]

Just curious, is there anyone here who saw the first film in it's original release?

[Werewolf by Night]

Just curious, is there anyone here who saw the first film in its original release?

Yes.

[Rayon Vert]

Just curious, is there anyone here who saw the first film in its original release?

Yes.

Me too. I was going on 9, it's one of the earliest cinema theater experiences I remember quite clearly, and I remember being blown away by it.

[Werewolf by Night]

I was 6. I remember my mom cracking up at Leia's "walking carpet" line, and I remember being really thrilled by the trash compactor scene. I had a few of the toys, the land speeder and the tie fighter with the pop-off wings being my favorites, and I had a rich friend who had all the big toys and playsets, including the Millennium Falcon and Death Star Space Station. It was also the first movie I saw on a VCR, my friend and I laughing uproariously at watching Darth Vader's entrance in reverse.

[Zot!]

I think Jedi was the only one I watched on original release, but definately saw the first two in some form of rerelease (perhaps a Hungarian dub) along the way. Don't have strong memories of the theater experience, but I played the shit out of those toys.

Oh and an older kid down the street had a record with the original ewok celebration song on it. That was very memorable for some reason.

[Michael Kerpan]

Just curious, is there anyone here who saw the first film in it's original release?

Saw at least the first two (in my mid-20s) at the the then new-ish (but now already demolished) McClurg Court cinema on the north side of Chicago.

[Morgan Creek]

Just curious, is there anyone here who saw the first film in it's original release?

Also saw on near north side of Chicago during its opening run, which was shortly after I graduated from college. Back then we considered it a novel entertainment but not too much more than that, and by the time the Ewoks waddled into Return the series lost me completely. I was baffled when the kids in my office greeted it during the 90s revival with near-religious fervor.

[hearthesilence]

Saw at least the first two (in my mid-20s) at the the then new-ish (but now already demolished) McClurg Court cinema on the north side of Chicago.

Ah, McClurg! I remember when the first prequel came out, every hardcore Star Wars fan I knew in the suburbs took a trip to Chicago to see it at that theater. Memory's a bit vague, and it probably didn't help that I was completely unfamiliar with McClurg, but I think everyone said it had the best sound system in the Chicagoland area.

[swo17]

I'm wondering how kids are reacting to this. They might finally have a real Star Wars franchise of their own, after the previous generation got stuck with the disastrous prequels.

My daughter is seven and only became interested in these movies and watched them over the last few weeks. She ranks them as follows:

1. The Force Awakens
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. A New Hope

Note that her reasoning for placing the first movie last is "because they got stuck in the trash compactor," so you may take these placements with a grain of salt.

[FrauBlucher]

Note that her reasoning for placing the first movie last is "because they got stuck in the trash compactor," so you may take these placements with a grain of salt.

[aox]

I'm wondering how kids are reacting to this. They might finally have a real Star Wars franchise of their own, after the previous generation got stuck with the disastrous prequels.

My daughter is seven and only became interested in these movies and watched them over the last few weeks. She ranks them as follows:

1. The Force Awakens
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. Return of the Jedi
4. A New Hope

Note that her reasoning for placing the first movie last is "because they got stuck in the trash compactor," so you may take these placements with a grain of salt.

Do you plan to show her the prequels? This may sound weird, but most of the people (kids) I know born after 1990 don't see a major difference in quality between the OT and PT and enjoy the whole saga. At least that's been my experience.

[cinemartin]

I was just talking to a girl at work who just watched them all. She hated the original trilogy and said that if they didn't watch them before the prequels, she would have never made it through. I was a kid during all that Original Trilogy heyday, and I myself barely see a difference in quality when it is all said and done, I'm kind of embarrassed to say.

[swo17]

Do you plan to show her the prequels? This may sound weird, but most of the people (kids) I know born after 1990 don't see a major difference in quality between the OT and PT and enjoy the whole saga. At least that's been my experience.

I told her she could watch them but that she'd be doing it by herself. She didn't show much interest. I'm sure she'd like them just fine though--she even mostly enjoyed Jellyfish Eyes (I mean, until like an hour in when she said she'd rather die than finish it*).

*possible embellishment

[Roger Ryan]

...This may sound weird, but most of the people (kids) I know born after 1990 don't see a major difference in quality between the OT and PT and enjoy the whole saga. At least that's been my experience.

My son (born 1991) finds the prequels to be fussy CGI messes devoid of humor and decent performances. He strongly prefers the original trilogy. I can't believe it's a generational thing; as it is, I agree with how "swo17"'s daughter ranks the films!

[hearthesilence]

So I actually considered getting The Empire Strikes Back on BD because it had the "least" amount of changes, but I found this demo that changed my mind. They're uniformly detrimental. The first segment on the giant Wampa snow creature is terrible (Lucas just likes to show everything now instead of leaving anything to the imagination), but even audio is horrible.

Jump to 11:35, which covers Luke's climactic fall. They overdubbed a ridiculous scream in the special edition, and if I didn't know it was in the official revision, I would've thought it was someone's idea of a bad joke.

[Trees]

The Wampa changes are a trainwreck. So misguided.

[Mark L.]

If it changes anything, I believe that "noise one could only charitably call a scream" was taken out on the BD.

[jojo]

I wouldn't at all be surprised to find that most younger viewers would find the original trilogy to be unexciting. They are actually quite slow paced movies compared to the way modern blockbuster films are edited. Heck, I remember the second time I watched the trilogy all the way through, back in '96, and I feel asleep while watching the first 2. Granted, I was very tired when I watched them as they were on late in the night.

But anyone who says they are worse than the prequels, I always counter that at least they didn't have Jar Jar Binks. That always shuts them up.

[TMDaines]

So I actually considered getting The Empire Strikes Back on BD because it had the "least" amount of changes, but I found this demo that changed my mind. They're uniformly detrimental. The first segment on the giant Wampa snow creature is terrible (Lucas just likes to show everything now instead of leaving anything to the imagination), but even audio is horrible.

Jump to 11:35, which covers Luke's climactic fall. They overdubbed a ridiculous scream in the special edition, and if I didn't know it was in the official revision, I would've thought it was someone's idea of a bad joke.

Some fans have gone to a painstaking level to create HD "despecialized" versions online.

[hanshotfirst1138]

So I actually considered getting The Empire Strikes Back on BD because it had the "least" amount of changes, but I found this demo that changed my mind. They're uniformly detrimental. The first segment on the giant Wampa snow creature is terrible (Lucas just likes to show everything now instead of leaving anything to the imagination), but even audio is horrible.

Jump to 11:35, which covers Luke's climactic fall. They overdubbed a ridiculous scream in the special edition, and if I didn't know it was in the official revision, I would've thought it was someone's idea of a bad joke.

Some fans have gone to a painstaking level to create HD "despecialized" versions online.

It's tremendously sad that for no profit or reward, fans will do this with limited resources while the filmmakers responsible will not even bother.

[djproject]

So I actually considered getting The Empire Strikes Back on BD because it had the "least" amount of changes, but I found this demo that changed my mind. They're uniformly detrimental. The first segment on the giant Wampa snow creature is terrible (Lucas just likes to show everything now instead of leaving anything to the imagination), but even audio is horrible.

Jump to 11:35, which covers Luke's climactic fall. They overdubbed a ridiculous scream in the special edition, and if I didn't know it was in the official revision, I would've thought it was someone's idea of a bad joke.

As it was previously stated, the Blu-ray is sans horrible scream (which was completely unwarranted, let alone terribly executed).

In general, I've come to dislike any change to the original films and especially with Empire. They either diminish the imagination (seeing the wampa), create unwarranted scenes (Vader's shuttle landing ... which used unused footage from Jedi) or reminds one painfully of the prequels (Ian McDiarmand as the Emperor ... in a terrible exchange of words; Temuera Morrison voicing Boba Fett). The expanded Bespin mattes were neat but in a few spots were not very well integrated.

(The only one I like admittedly was in Star Wars: Han and Chewbacca are chasing down stromtroopers in the Death Star and when he comes around the bend, he sees many many more in waiting. I also give a respectful nod to the Biggs scene inclusion as well.)