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Lucas Promises Star Wars on Blu-Ray in 2011
Several readers have written with word that George Lucas has announced a 2011 release date for the Star Wars series — all six films — on Blu-Ray. Engadget (linked) has an explanation of what to expect, and includes a video of a deleted scene that the Blu-Ray version will include. They warn that this might be a disappointment to anyone who (correctly) believes that Han shot first.
That's impossible - only three Star Wars films were ever made.
... and then they built the supercollider.
George. Get the hint. Even if you aren't happy with your creation years ago - WE ARE
I will not buy anything without original footage, with solo shooting.
I'll keep my "original" trilogy dvd set until format is dead or he gets some balls
and give us what we all want - Choice of either or, or both
I mean, a couple years ago? Maybe. Now? No. So what's changed? Well, I've gotten older, there are better movies out there that I'd spend my money on, and frankly, I'm tired of producers yanking our chains with new versions every couple years.
So no. I will not be buying this, as I suspect will be the general refrain from his target base.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
As I commented on Engadget:
Originals == Buy.
Special Edition == 1080p MKV DTS torrent.
That and the decent Laserdisc rips of the originals will have to do, I guess.
Trolling is a art,
Call me crazy, but is Star Wars even culturally relevant anymore? It feels like Disco at this point.
The ______ Agenda
As a huge Star Wars geek, I've hated almost any discussion of the films I've been involved in since the prequels came out. I liked the prequels, especially Episode III, which is by far Lucas' best film. Just because you have fond childhood memories of the originals doesn't mean the prequels suck. Why is it that everyone acts as if the original three Star Wars films were perfect? They can be scrutinized just as much as the prequels have been. How is it that Darth Vader didn't sense Han coming up behind him when he was about to shoot down Luke in Episode IV? What happened to the force? What happened to Vader being the best pilot in the galaxy? Why didn't Obi-Wan kill Vader rather than sacrificing himself? He claimed that in death he would be more powerful, but his ghost did the same thing he did in life: guide Luke. We later learn that Luke never has the power to take on the Emperor himself, so wouldn't it have been better to eliminate Vader and then team up with Yoda and Luke and go after the Emperor? And for those who complain about Jar-Jar, I have one word: Ewoks. The entire series is riddled with plot-holes and silliness, but that's okay with me because IT'S A SILLY SCI-FI ADVENTURE. People are able to disregard that fact because, as a child, it was so much more. But as much as everyone wanted to revert back to that childhood mindset when they went to see the prequels, they couldn't, because like it or not they'd matured and the silliness of it all became apparent.
I feel the same way about Indiana Jones. How is the Crystal Skull any more silly than Temple of Doom? And the Holy Grail one was just absurd on every level. If you want to watch a serious Lucas film, watch THX-1138.
Concerning Star Wars, I'll always view the prequels as better, despite my fond childhood memories of the originals. The originals were so black and white, good vs. evil. The only intellectually intriguing moments was when Vader turned on the Emperor, and that lasted like 5 minutes. Episode III gave a deeper meaning to the entire series. A balance between good and evil can never be achieved when one group (Sith or Jedi) is in power. In the end, their allegiance is to an absolute adherence to their ideals, not to what they know in their heart to be right. Compromising men are the only effective governors, men like Han Solo or Lando Calrissian. Men who have vices but have a good heart. But Han and Lando are just presented as bumbling adventurers, it's not until the prequels that their greater significance is realized. It's not until the prequels until we are told that "the Jedi aren't all that," a message that many fans probably didn't want to here.
All this directly ties into politics: we want our politicians to be Jedis. To be free of vice, absolute to their ideals, and courageous. But setting such impossible standards is what makes politics as a whole so dishonest. It's what makes distinguishing between a Sith and Jedi nearly impossible. So we never understand the motives of our politicians because they're so cold an calculating, whether for good or for bad.
Maybe that's not the best explanation of the prequel's theme but that's also what makes them so good: there are so many different angles one can view them from. With the originals, it's black and white. The final declarative message clearly deals with paternity, something like, "nothing can destroy a father's love for his son." I just find the prequel haters to be so ungrateful. Lucas not only made the films, but he added elements that went beyond the simple adventurism. If you didn't like the end product, don't hate on Lucas for it, it's HIS saga, not yours.
"From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
Well, completely ignoring any effect the scene has on Han's character development, I think most people get outraged because it doesn't make sense that Jabba would send a bounty hunter that can't shoot someone sitting across the table from him. Because it makes so little sense on its own, the only purpose it serves is to change Han's character from the original. Frankly, I'm not sure that Han would have survived so long if he waited until getting shot at before shooting. So it's really the inanity of the change that I think people take issue with.
I actually LIKE Greedo shooting first in Episode IV. It's more consistent with Han's character through the rest of the classic trilogy.
What I have never forgiven Lucas for is editing Sebastian Shaw out of the final scene of Return of the Jedi. Having Hayden Christiansen show up destroys the ENTIRE arc of Anakin not being completely destroyed. I really think this is a far, far more serious change than Han/Greedo shooting first. But I guess it's just me.
Lucas will not show common courtesy this time either.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
I've come to a realization recently - as much as the temptation is to show people new to any series the "best" version, the extended version that tells the whole story, etc. - just show them the shorter version. If they get bored, you'll lose them forever.
but if you can stand living in a world where Greedo shot first
I can't.
Send your spendthrift head of state this
I find Han shooting first to be consistent with Han's character at the beginning of the trilogy. He was just in this thing for the money. Later, his character changes. With Greedo shooting first, it makes Han's character inconsistent with him being in it for the money, and also detracts from his character changing to become more compassionate to the rebel cause in the later parts of the trilogy. That and the aforementioned fact that he would be dead already if he waited to get shot at before shooting,
Not that I really care. The most important thing is that you don't lay something down and then change it.
If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
If you liked the prequels that's fine but we are also entitled to our opinions. I thought they sucked. 3 was marginally ok, 1 was just incredibad. If you want some specifics:
1) The acting. Just bad, bad, bad. This was probably partially the bad writing, partially directing, partially the fact that they were almost always on complete green screens. The combination just adds up to an extremely unconvincing performance from most of the actors. Also some were just flat out bad actors for the roles. The child Anikan was -horrible-. Anikan is supposed to be some hardened, badass slave kid and we get a kid who plays him as a happy go lucky middle class white boy.
2) The writing. As I said the writing is very poor. The dialogue is really bad. Most of it does not feel natural and appropriate, it feels forced. The love scene dialogue in #2 is one of the very worst of all. There's plenty of non-dialogue related badness though, such as the space fight scene at the end of #1 where Anikan is just "playing" effectively and yet kicking ass. Rather than show him as extremely competent with supernatural talents, as you'd expect given the backstory, he is presented as a bumbling kid that happens to be lucky and manages to do what is needed by accident.
3) The story. It was a shitty story arc. You had some just flat out retarded shit like the miticholrians, but over all the story was just bad. In particular the final part of Anikan's conversion to Vader was trite, forced, unbelievable, and poorly developed. It was a massively rushed conclusion that seemed stuck on to a meandering story to try and make it connect to the later films.
I could go on, but I really don't need to because someone already did an excellent and extremely lengthy (and funny) analysis: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxKtZmQgxrI There's one on EP2 as well.
"don't hate on Lucas for it, it's HIS saga, not yours."
Oh please, of all the cop out lines this is the worst "You can't criticize this because you didn't make it!" That is the same as saying "You can't criticize the government because you aren't the president!" Fuck you, it was MY time and MY money I sure as hell can criticize and I can can refuse to spend more on it. You can get down on your knees and blow Lucas and worship everything he does but you cannot demand I do the same. I get to have my own opinions and my opinion is that the prequels suck.
It's important in the sense that it establishes Han Solo as a rogue-ish sort of character, one who is "morally flexible".
To be fair, the special edition in the theater had Han shooting first in an atrociously butchered photoshop job. It's bad now, but the first version in the theater looked like a high-school student screwing around in flash.
I do think the problem is that Han is supposed to undergo a character arc from a scoundrel willing to kill for his own benefit, to a scoundrel that is willing to die for his friends. Making Greedo shoot first flattens a big part of that character arch. In the original version, it's not even clear that Greedo is going to shoot. Han just doesn't want to go with him to face up to Jabba / his mistakes, and he's willing to kill because of that. Of course, it has also become symbolic of the problem that Lucas just doesn't know how to write a decent character arc. And that he needs to stop changing things with the original series as he does so without delicacy and with a tendency to make them worse.
And, again, lots of outrage originally stems from the embarassingly bad effect the first time 'round. Thankfully, they cleaned it up a little for the disk releases.
The ______ Agenda
when the first trilogy ended with dancing teddy bears.
1- Han shot first, not after, not at the same time. First as in *I'm a smuggler and a tough guy* :)
2- Remove Jar-Jar
3- Remove midi chlorians
4- remove Darth Vader's *NOOOOOOOOO* at the end of ROTS
5- remove the walkie-talkies and put back the guns (sorry, wrong movie
I've got better things to do tonight than die.
Lucas will try to jerk us around some more but there really isn't anything more of value to see. Ever since Episode One Lucas seems to be nursing a grudge against his fans. "You don't like JarJar? Well prepare to see a lot more of him!" Now "you still think Han should have shot first? Well we're splicing in additional scenes showing he didn't!" Maybe even since Return of the Jedi, when geeks who were supposed to be praising him as a god instead got a little too snarky about certain spear-wielding teddy bears. (A show of hands: Who saw "Ewoks: The battle of Endor"? Yeah. Have your eyes stopped bleeding yet?)
Fer crissake, skim Lucas' imdb entry, and try to pick out anything he's written or directed in the last quarter century that wasn't a shameless, heartless, lifeless rip-off of Star Wars or Indiana Jones. The guy hasn't had a fresh idea since the early '80's.
Give it a rest. Everyone, please just give it a rest. Let Lucas pee in his own sandbox on his own dime. You know the added clarity of Blu-ray will not make up for the additional liberties he's going to take with your childhood memories. Let us demonstrate that collective geekhood can say no to Star Wars. For God's sake, let it go. Find another up-and-coming director to patronize, one who isn't yet barn-sour and can still produce a fresh idea.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
What I have never forgiven Lucas for is editing Sebastian Shaw out of the final scene of Return of the Jedi. Having Hayden Christiansen show up destroys the ENTIRE arc of Anakin not being completely destroyed. I really think this is a far, far more serious change than Han/Greedo shooting first. But I guess it's just me.
i had no idea that this had happened. i was really hoping to sit out of this discussion and not get upset about star wars like a big nerd, but that is just pathetic.
here is is on youtube if, like me you hadnt seen this till today. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L1LulT30Qkc
yoda and obiwan appear as they did when they died, why not anakin? why make this change? because you can?
what a joke. what a fat moron.
i guess this is one reason to keep a vcr around somewhere.
HD is cool for some stuff ( I recently bought/saw my first ever movie on bluray, the matirx, and was pleased), but i think a movie with lots of hokey rubber masks and dated haircuts is prolly better off looking a little softer. im sure they'll work some digital magic to smooth over this crap, but this is again just changing something that was perfectly fine to begin with, and future generations get a distorted version of the film and of history....(maybe im getting carried away, but the idea of "modernizing" and "updating" art of any kind for re-release - even star wars).
i understand that everyone wants to make money(so we get this garbage thrown at us now), but hopefully, one day, someone will find it commercially viable to sell the original editions again on an easier to consume format than vhs.
Hans is introduced as an amoral smuggler with little regard for life. All he wants is cash. He hangs out the bar not as a person who has to due to his chosen profession, but as a person who enjoys the life. There is no question that he is going to shoot first, because to do otherwise would be to acknowledge the needs of others. Obi-wan sees this in his character which is why he offers a small fee up front, to tweak his interest, with a large fee at completion. The thought that goes into this not only insures that Hans will not space them as soon as they leave the planet, but will continue on to the rebel base instead of doing the logical thing and abandoning them at the death star. There is a reason that Harrison Ford has a career. He was able to pull off a very complex character.
By the end of the movie the Force and Luke had changes Hans from a self centered opportunist to a person willing to acknowledge that the universe was greater than himself. He was willing to risk his life for something that would not benefit him. Of course it is hard to believe that such a huge transformation could occur in a person, but that is why Star Wars is a fairy tale. Unfortunately, like all fairy tales, it has been cleaned up to suite a wider audience to gain more profit. In effect, Star Wars, and many of Lucases project, has taken the opposite trajectory of Hans Solo. Rather than progressing from amoral to enlightened, Star Wars started out as a rather gruff view of the Transformative power of Faith, to an amoral tool of profit.
"She's a scientist and a lesbian. She's not going to let it slide." Orphan Black
What are you talking about? The scene doesn't even make sense with Greedo shooting at all. He is there to bring in Han to collect the bounty. He either is going to take the money from Han or bring in Han to get the money from Jabba. He is no good to Greedo dead. There is no reason to think that Greedo would shoot unless he is first shot at. It just fits with the dialogue for Han to shoot when he does. It makes no sense that Greedo would just arbitrarily shoot at that moment. Never mind the fact that a guy with a gun already trained on his target for a few minutes is going to miss a point blank shot. Throw in how Lucas tried to make Han look like he nods to one side to avoid getting shot before returning fire. The reworked scene is an amazing display of idiocy on the part of Lucas and anyone involved who wouldn't show he had a pair by saying "this is just stupid." In the original it makes sense, it flows, and it shows Han being Han at a very early point in the narrative. In the retarded edition (hey, special is used in place of retarded a fair amount. It really fits here.) the Greedo scene makes no sense, the flow is fubared, Han is still Han, but he has this artificial nobility now. To top it all off the scene looks horrible with the wrong guy shooting and the other guy dodging. The effect is quite jarring if you are really familiar with the original. Makes me think of the part in the 70 minute Episode I evisceration where the guy referring to the opening scene of the original says something to the effect of "This scene is so perfect (or maybe genius) that I'm convinced Lucas had nothing to do with it." He puts his stink on things over and over again. He just can't leave crap alone. The result is the guy that should be delivering a masterpiece special edition with fixes and tweaks is upstaged by a fan working with off the shelf stuff at home in Star Wars Revisited.
Heroscape, it's like legos combined with anachronistic wargames.
The most disturbing thing to me wasn't the shiny newness of the DVD version. Rather, it was the actual changes made to the story and the scenes between the old version and the new one. Adding Hayden Christensen into scenes where the original had Sebastian Shaw just made me cringe.