Having just finished Jedi I expected to hate the ending changes but it really works for me. It's a nice way to tie everything together. I almost wish he'd changed the Yoda and Obi-Wan ghosts too, to add Ewan at the end as a young ghost. But then of course there would be weird continuity with Ben appearing as the old man to Luke in the last two films.

So it works as is. And the Naboo scene was fine - it lasts about two seconds as they go from city to city to see the celebrations.

Of course, just blowing up the Death Star and killing the Emperor won't wipe out the Empire completely. I mean, drop a bomb on Washington, D.C. and the rest of the government doesn't automatically abolish. There's still be numerous Empire officials and soldiers throughout the galaxy. And who knows, maybe some more Sith out there.

Watching these films makes me hope that someone (Lucas or otherwise) makes the sequel trilogy. How cool would it be to see Luke and Leia training a new generation of Jedi?

Hopefully it will be explained in Episode 3.

If it's when they go to the dark side, it makes some sense. Yoda and Obi Wan never turned, thus they appear as they did when they died.

Anakin turned, so he appears as he did before he turned rather than when he died.

Did the color of the medals change at the end of ANH?

I thought the band us to be blue.

a couple things I noticed last night, but i haven't had a chance to watch my LDs yet...

-I think Obi wan's ghost on hoth is clearer. maybe it just looks better with restoration, but it looked changed to me.
-On dagobah, when Yoda levitates the x-wing out of the swamp, when look says "I don't believe it." and Yoda says "that is why you fail." I think yoda is on a hill that he wasn't on before. so when he is speaking the back of Luke's head is in frame. I need to check it tonight from the originals, but i think that was different.
-a lot of the sky shots on tatooine looked different, but ti think that was mostly clean up of the other versions.
-I was a little let down by the Lightsabre battles as well. I thought this was supposed to be all redone, but they blades looked as inconsistant as before.

I haven't finished Jedi yet. I missed a class this morning anyway because i was up so late last night watching IV and V. I am going to look at them on LD tonight too, to see if I was wrong about changes.

This one hasn’t even been mention…

In ANH when Obi-wan scare those sandpeople away the noise he made has changed completely! Kinda strange to change something pointless as that.

Its still something that bugs the hell out of me ...

Yea it looked like crap! I was so to see that. Plus Lukes lightsabre was changing colors...blue-ish, green and white. It looked green when he was training in the falcon with that orb thingy.

Still, for all the bashing, I think these changes work subtly (except for Hayden in Jedi), unless you really look for them.
I say what few have-I clearly have enjoyed the past two days owning them on DVD.

I don't think it's been mentioned yet but of all three films, and cutting Ep. IV a bit of slack, the flying Ewoks in Ep. VI still looks noticeably chroma key-ish and IMO are as bad effects-wise as anything in all three films. Not as much the blocky mat deal as the washed out, out of phase sort of look.

I think the trilogy is simply astonishing, both in how it's been cleaned up and how it holds up today.

You know, I've been on the internet reading people bitch about the changes he's made to these films since the SE's came out in 97, and for the most part I've wrote them off. They were really not big deals in my opinion. The whole Han shoots first thing never bothered me, and I always got a good laugh out of the arguments back and forth. And so on in a similar vein.. The added CGI shots, I felt, added to the films, giving them a bit of a wider scope and so forth.

But the removal of Sebastian Shaw, and replacement of Hans whoever-the-fuck-he-is, at the end of ROTJ really gets to me for some reason. Beside the fact that it makes no sense at all, it just feels wrong. I'm at a total loss as to why it was done. I mean, Anakin was freakin' old when he bit it, why is he suddenly young again? Especially considering that Obi is the same age as when he died/disappeared.

Can somebody explain the reasoning behind this change to me? I just don't understand it.

I'm not buying the DVD set. I'd prefer to wait for the 6 pack, realistically. I'm a fan, but not the kind of fan who must own every copy that Lucas feels like shoving out the door. This has nothing to do with the change I'm asking about, I only mention it to point out that no purchase hinges on my question and I'm not asking out of some attempt to start a debate. I don't care for debate, I'm just trying to figure this particular change out here, because I don't get it.

I'm confused as to why the explosions are all pinkish-red rather than yellowy-orange. Is it so that they look more fake?

I think the rationale behind the addition of Hayden Christiansen at the end of RotJ is that Anakin died when Vader was born, so when he comes back as a spooky Jedi ghost he looks like he did when he "died."

It makes sense... from a certain point of view.

I kinda like this change now. When I first heard about it I was flipping the bird westward, and when I first saw screen shots of it I was cursing Lucas's name, and when I saw a video grab of it back in July I was placing a pox on Lucas's house, but now that I've seen it in the context of the ending of the trilogy (especially after having watched the prequels first) it really seems "right" to me to link the films together.

I guess if you hate the prequels you'll hate the new additions, but if you do see it as one big story then how could he leave out young Anakin, who really is the heart of the story?

And some of the 1997 CGI work was great - those extra windows in Cloud City, speeder additions, etc. Sure, the cartoon little things here and there look silly, but overall the changes are for the better.

Also, even though this isn't about Star Wars, the additions in THX-1138 are GREAT and for the most part subtle. But in the THX love thread there's a link to a page that shows the differences between the original and new version, and I can't help but think that those subtle changes really DO enhance the film. And some of the Star Wars changes do too.

Isn't that "phone call with the emperor" scene better now than it used to be? I think it is. Monkey woman is gone and McDirmid continues his role. And the added Vader line is seamless (thanks to a GOOD SOUND MIX for RotJ).

to the cleaned up Rancor scene. It looks terrific.

Absolutely not.

Stuff I noticed:

ANH:


Looks like the rumors of a pair of graves being added to the Larr's farm were all BS. I didn't see nuthin'.


Luke now having a green light saber wouldn't have been so bad if they'd just remembered to recolor it the first time Ben gives it to him (it's still blue)

The worst matte in the whole trilogy was during the TIE Fighter attack on the Falcon. How the hell did they miss those bright green and red boxes around the TIE's?

ESB:

Nothing really obvious. Though I continue to wonder why the devil they've never added footprints behind Luke's Tauntaun in the opening Aeriel shot.


ROTJ:

Did the Sarrlac have a head in the SE?

Despite rumors to the contrary, I'm glad they left in Leia's "She died when I was very young." line. Now that we know what Padme was like, that line really tugs at the heartstrings.

Thank goodness they left Sebastian Shaw's head in during the unmasking. I'd been hearing fan boy rumors that they were gonna digitize HC into that scene too.

DS explodes.

Han: "I'm sure Luke wasn't on that thing when it blew."

Leia: "He wasn't."

There's an extra second or two delay and her voice drops to a barely audible whisper.

"I can feel it."

Changes the emphasis of the line somewhat so that she sounds a bit confused by her odd feeling.


I actually rather enjoy the new ending. Though I notice that despite coming back to the light, Anakin still has that wild psycho look in his eyes.

My take on it is that Anakin Skywalker died when Darth Vader was "born". So when you see Anakin's ghost at the end, it is the young version of him, because that's when he "died". Obi-wan died when he was an old man, so that's what his spirit looks like.

X

I agree with you.

As Obi-Wan said, "when that happened, the good part of your father was destroyed...he's more machine now than man, twisted and evil."

I REALLY hate the new music at the end of Jedi. The scene changes are fine, in fact, I love that these movies look like movies that could have been released today (and I can always watch the original laserdiscs if I want to). However, the music at the end of Jedi is one of the things imprinted into my head from my childhood, that tribal Ewok chant that bursts into the Star Wars fanfare.

NOT AN MOVIE ALTERATION...

I just watched the bonus disc and it got me thinking...

I never knew Kurt Russell tried out for Han Solo, and being that Kurt's one of my favorite actors, I wonder what it would have been like with him in the role.

Believe me I think the casting was all perfect choices... It just got me thinking.

I agree with the Anakin reference. Listen to the DC too...

Boba Fett's ship, the Slave I, now has the same sound in flight that it does in Attack of the Clones.

-HM

changing Anakin's ghost is a pitiful attempt to tie the new series with the old. well, if Lucash ever get around to explaining how the force works, he'd better explain it all, including the dying rules (who gets to come back as a ghost, at what stage of his life, and why some jedi's don't disappear when they die.) cuz inquiring minds want to know.

Hey look at it this way...every release is guaran-damn-teed to be a collectors item since there is an alteration every single time.

Good point.

Okay, so what was better in your mind about an old woman with a slug on her face as the emperor in one film being replaced by McDirmid in the next?

Is it just nostalgia? Do you not like it because it's not like it used to be?

I don't like it because the new dialogue is dumbed down, it raises more questions then answers anything, "Search your feelings....you know it to be true" sounds repetitive now and McDiarmid's line readings are lazy and seems like outtakes. Hayden's few seconds of acting at the end of Jedi seem like an outtake as well.