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Detailed Empire Strikes Back DVD Change List
JSDopefish writes "The DVD news site DVDanswers.com is back with Part 2 (of 3) of the series by Chris Gould showing in detail the changes between some the various iterations of the Star Wars original trilogy movies. In Part 2, Chris covers The Empire Strikes Back, showing such important changes as the color of Han Solo's jacket before he's frozen in carbonite, as well as other things like the change in actor for the Emperor, and more on light saber colors. Chris has screen captures from the original, the 1997 remaster, and the 2004 DVD versions, plus some audio clips for you to check out. There is an existing Part 1 covering A New Hope, and a forthcoming Part 3 covering Return of the Jedi." Very detailed synopsis. Worth a read if... well, you're me.
I read the first part and am (hopefully) loading the second one. To me, it's fascinating, as many of the changes they make, I never would have noticed. I never really stopped and thought too much about lightsaber colors or the funky shadows below a landspeeder. And honestly, had I not read all the vehement discussions on the ramifications of Greedo shooting first, I might have passed over that change. (Well, not entirely... at least on the first remake, his head looks really weird when he dodges...) By opening my eyes to things I might not have noticed before, I think these articles are serving a valuable purpose.
This sig has absolutely no significance and serves only to take up screen space and waste the time of the reader.
I really like this guy's work. He's spot on regarding the far inferior delivery of lines with the new and improved Boba voice.
/shrug
One disagreement I have with him though: the line change for Vader from "Bring my shuttle" to "Alert my star destroyer to prepare for my arrival" was a bad idea.
I know it doesn't bother him much, but I think that the original line and delivery better contributed to Vader's character arc, as the voice always sounded morose to me...like he was either angry with Luke or himself, and the curtness of the line was appropriate if that was the case.
Karma: Non-existant. Due mostly to the fact that you smell funny and nobody likes you.
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Shocking stuff how they could miss that while redoing it almost frame by frame, and now all my childhood memories of that creature looking real have been ruined. I hate you George Lucas :(
I hope this isn't too off topic, since the story is about Empire Strikes Back, but I was listening to the commentary on the ROTJ DVDs, and Lucas said something to the effect of, "if I had known Boba Fett was going to be such a popular character, I would have put more effort into giving him a more interesting death. Most people don't really believe he's dead anyways."
Lucas is a posterboy for anti-corporate success, having financed Ep. V & VI himself, so he could maintain his artistic vision. That's pretty cool in my book. There are many similarities (in spirit, mostly) to OSS and blogging culture, if you think about it. There was a system in place that did not make sense to someone who deeply loves his craft. Lucas had the drive to do it differently, overcoming great obstacles. He hired SFX guys laid off by the corporate crew that took over the studios some years before, and gave the whole industry a new perpective. He fought the law and _he_ won.
Lucas looks at his craft much like a technology-type, (Google-Lucky ILM & non-linear editing) so why shouldn't he be able to release version 1.2? He can do whatever he wants, it's _his_ story, so only he can decide when it's done. Go buy the original off eBay or something if it irks you, or don't buy the reworked films.
Lots of people bitch and moan about the changes, (some posts are quite hilarious, though). But, before you jump on the smack-the-changer-of-the-story train, stop and think about it. Maybe there's some inspiration in the story of it all.
You'd think after being slashdotted the last time that they would figure out that they were going to be slashdotted on parts 2 and 3 and get a bigger server....
They are 0 for 2 right now. What are the odds that they'll get their problems resolved for part 3?
My money is going on 0 for 3.
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I watched Episode V/DVD, and I thoroughly enjoyed it from start to finish. The ham handed CGI changes in IV and VI now make the overall quality of V stand out in sharp relief. The movie flows.
A friend of mine is a lead compositor at ILM. He worked on the Special Edition of Empire, and did the Cloud City scenes (among other things). To make some of the interior shots more realistic, he added slight reflections on the windows. He showed it to Lucas, who said thoughtfully,
'Lose the reflections. In Cloud City, they use force fields to keep the bugs out.'
The Boba Fett action figure was available in some Kenner promotion before The Empire Strikes Back came out. It was hyped as a new character from the next Star Wars movie and it had some ridiculous requirement (mail order only with 5 barcodes from other figures plus money or something like that).
While I may not recall the details of that merchandising campaign well, it WAS Lucas or his licensees that hyped Boba Fett as a big character before the movie came out. I think that he's being a bit coy by saying he didn't expect Boba Fett to be a popular character. Maybe he's telling the truth though, maybe the sales indicated a low interest in this guy and so Lucas had his part minimized in the movie. Who knows.