As you may or may not know, I love Star Wars. The series, overall, is a great series (even if you take Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones in to account) that is not only timeless, but a permanent part of Western culture, known and loved by most of Western civilization. But, there is one thing about Star Wars that truly bothers me: the Special Editions.
In 1997, George Lucas went back to the original trilogy (back when it was just the Star Wars trilogy, as Phantom Menace had yet to be released in theatres), and "enhanced" it with CGI and various other changes. In 2004, George Lucas made some more changes, albeit less drastic than 1997, and released that version on DVD. There are many things about the 2 versions that bother me greatly, even beyond the whole issue of "Greedo shooting first" (which I will discuss later). What especially bothers me is that, because of this, we cannot see Star Wars the way it originally was, as George wants to supress it as much as possible, even going to the extreme of destroying original prints, ensuring that nobody can see his "rough draft" after all VHS and Betamax copies have faded away.
My rant will be split in to several sections, giving my thoughts on each type of change done to the movies.
Visual
When Star Wars was first released in theatres in 1977, one of the things about the movie that fascinated audiences were the special effects, which, for 1977, and even today, were an amazing feat, that matched models with various effects like pyrotechnics and heavy editing, bringing the movie to life and giving you the feeling that maybe these guys may actually get blown up by the Empire. Combined with an orchestrated soundtrack matching the tone of the movie and an amazing story (later to be turned on its head in the Empire Strikes Back), it fascinated audiences around the world, and brought many back to see it again and again.
Now, mind you I am not against the fact that George Lucas remastered the movie, cleaning up artifacts and making the quality of the footage much clearer. In my opinion, those complement the acutal footage and the special effects, and improve them. However, I am against the fact that George replaced several of the shots with CGI, and enhanced others with CGI, too.
CGI, or Computer Generated Imagery, when used, it often looks less than convincing, and often looks obviously fake, despite the best efforts of a film production company. What bothers me so much about the change to CGI is that, in addition to looking obviously fake, it also clashes with the footage. For instance, if you watch A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker and Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi are looking at the city of Mos Eisley from a cliff, in the original, the city looks like it is there, as it should be. In the Special Edition, Mos Eisley is now larger, and the added CGI to the footage contrasts with the footage, looking fake. When they get inside the city, you can obviously see all of the new CGI, which clashes heavily with the original footage, which, combined with already fake-looking CGI, just looks worse than it did before with the set, physical vehicles (made from cars, with wheels hiden by putting vaseline on the camera lens), and costumed actors and puppets, all of which were convincing already. Even in space scenes, the CGI clashes and looks shitty compared to the original models. CGI explosions don't look real compared to pyrotechnics used in 1977. CGI ships also look fake and digital, and also contrast with the model ship that they blew up with pyrotechnics that you saw just a few seconds ago. And overall, almost all of the CGI looks fake and contrasts heavily with original footage.
And honestly, most of the original puppets, costumed actors, models, pyrotechnics, and sets are already realistic looking. The advantage of having physical special effects is that they blend in with the actors and sets, and also looks realistic, as it is, in fact, a real, physical object being interacted with. When anything blows up in Star Wars, it really is something blowing up, even if it is just a model being blown up with pyrotechnics. And the puppets and costumed actors, by the same principle, also blend in. And in Star Wars, the puppets actually look realisitic, as they actually put effort in to making their rubber skins look as much like flesh as possible, with movements as natural as they can, and other effects, too, like moving eyes, which, ultimately, causes many of the puppets in Star Wars to look like living beings, with behaviours that resemble living beings.
Sound
For the most part, unlike, the visuals, the sound is mostly the same, with the same dialogue and the same tracks by John Williams, but there are some changes, which, unlike visual changes, don't bother me as much. But, with that in mind, there are changes, and they are still changes for the worse.
First of all, the new music added in Return of the Jedi just plain sucks, especially compared to music in the original version. It is more generic and doesn't fit the setting as well. The new ending music especially sucks, as it is sleepy and generic, compared to Yub Nub, which fits the scene better, and is more memorable at that.
...And honestly, that is really all I can say about sound. There is a bit more, such as the awful mixing job of the 2004 editions, but that doesn't concern me as much as the music, as that is not as obvious, nor really means anything to me.
Others
There are plenty of other changes that were made in 1997 and 2004 that, for the most part, are either pointless or shitty. For instance, Greedo shooting first. Most people claim that this destroys character development for Han Solo, but in reality, it is just pointless, and is so poorly done and stupid that you have to wonder why they even bothered to do this shit. In addition, changing Anakin Skywalker's ghost in Return of the Jedi to Hayden Christen is unconvincing and just shitty, as most Jedi ghosts look like they are the same age that they die at, not 20 years younger, and I highly doubt that he would have looked the same 20 years later if he hadn't had fallen to the dark side and become a Sith. And the ending of Return of the Jedi, which had useless and pointless shit added, instead of being left as-is.
And a big one that concerns me is when Darth Vader is talking to the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back. In the original, the Emperor just states that Luke Skywalker is a new enemy, that could destroy them. In the 2004 edition, he now has to tell Vader himself that Luke is his son. Not only is this redundant, as Vader himself could reasonably deduce from Luke's surname, and how he could feel how the force was strong with Luke, that he may just be his son, but it also ruins the very famous moment later in the movie when Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke's father, after chopping off his hand. So now, instead of adding useless shit, now he has to ruin one of the most famous scenes from the whole Star Wars saga.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel like, between the Special Editions and the 2004 Editions, most of what has been added and replaced has, overall, degraded the movies from their original versions. While the original versions were amazing movies then and even today, the Special and 2004 editions are less impressive, and are almost like a shell of their original versions.
In 1997, George Lucas went back to the original trilogy (back when it was just the Star Wars trilogy, as Phantom Menace had yet to be released in theatres), and "enhanced" it with CGI and various other changes. In 2004, George Lucas made some more changes, albeit less drastic than 1997, and released that version on DVD. There are many things about the 2 versions that bother me greatly, even beyond the whole issue of "Greedo shooting first" (which I will discuss later). What especially bothers me is that, because of this, we cannot see Star Wars the way it originally was, as George wants to supress it as much as possible, even going to the extreme of destroying original prints, ensuring that nobody can see his "rough draft" after all VHS and Betamax copies have faded away.
My rant will be split in to several sections, giving my thoughts on each type of change done to the movies.
Visual
When Star Wars was first released in theatres in 1977, one of the things about the movie that fascinated audiences were the special effects, which, for 1977, and even today, were an amazing feat, that matched models with various effects like pyrotechnics and heavy editing, bringing the movie to life and giving you the feeling that maybe these guys may actually get blown up by the Empire. Combined with an orchestrated soundtrack matching the tone of the movie and an amazing story (later to be turned on its head in the Empire Strikes Back), it fascinated audiences around the world, and brought many back to see it again and again.
Now, mind you I am not against the fact that George Lucas remastered the movie, cleaning up artifacts and making the quality of the footage much clearer. In my opinion, those complement the acutal footage and the special effects, and improve them. However, I am against the fact that George replaced several of the shots with CGI, and enhanced others with CGI, too.
CGI, or Computer Generated Imagery, when used, it often looks less than convincing, and often looks obviously fake, despite the best efforts of a film production company. What bothers me so much about the change to CGI is that, in addition to looking obviously fake, it also clashes with the footage. For instance, if you watch A New Hope, when Luke Skywalker and Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi are looking at the city of Mos Eisley from a cliff, in the original, the city looks like it is there, as it should be. In the Special Edition, Mos Eisley is now larger, and the added CGI to the footage contrasts with the footage, looking fake. When they get inside the city, you can obviously see all of the new CGI, which clashes heavily with the original footage, which, combined with already fake-looking CGI, just looks worse than it did before with the set, physical vehicles (made from cars, with wheels hiden by putting vaseline on the camera lens), and costumed actors and puppets, all of which were convincing already. Even in space scenes, the CGI clashes and looks shitty compared to the original models. CGI explosions don't look real compared to pyrotechnics used in 1977. CGI ships also look fake and digital, and also contrast with the model ship that they blew up with pyrotechnics that you saw just a few seconds ago. And overall, almost all of the CGI looks fake and contrasts heavily with original footage.
And honestly, most of the original puppets, costumed actors, models, pyrotechnics, and sets are already realistic looking. The advantage of having physical special effects is that they blend in with the actors and sets, and also looks realistic, as it is, in fact, a real, physical object being interacted with. When anything blows up in Star Wars, it really is something blowing up, even if it is just a model being blown up with pyrotechnics. And the puppets and costumed actors, by the same principle, also blend in. And in Star Wars, the puppets actually look realisitic, as they actually put effort in to making their rubber skins look as much like flesh as possible, with movements as natural as they can, and other effects, too, like moving eyes, which, ultimately, causes many of the puppets in Star Wars to look like living beings, with behaviours that resemble living beings.
Sound
For the most part, unlike, the visuals, the sound is mostly the same, with the same dialogue and the same tracks by John Williams, but there are some changes, which, unlike visual changes, don't bother me as much. But, with that in mind, there are changes, and they are still changes for the worse.
First of all, the new music added in Return of the Jedi just plain sucks, especially compared to music in the original version. It is more generic and doesn't fit the setting as well. The new ending music especially sucks, as it is sleepy and generic, compared to Yub Nub, which fits the scene better, and is more memorable at that.
...And honestly, that is really all I can say about sound. There is a bit more, such as the awful mixing job of the 2004 editions, but that doesn't concern me as much as the music, as that is not as obvious, nor really means anything to me.
Others
There are plenty of other changes that were made in 1997 and 2004 that, for the most part, are either pointless or shitty. For instance, Greedo shooting first. Most people claim that this destroys character development for Han Solo, but in reality, it is just pointless, and is so poorly done and stupid that you have to wonder why they even bothered to do this shit. In addition, changing Anakin Skywalker's ghost in Return of the Jedi to Hayden Christen is unconvincing and just shitty, as most Jedi ghosts look like they are the same age that they die at, not 20 years younger, and I highly doubt that he would have looked the same 20 years later if he hadn't had fallen to the dark side and become a Sith. And the ending of Return of the Jedi, which had useless and pointless shit added, instead of being left as-is.
And a big one that concerns me is when Darth Vader is talking to the Emperor in Empire Strikes Back. In the original, the Emperor just states that Luke Skywalker is a new enemy, that could destroy them. In the 2004 edition, he now has to tell Vader himself that Luke is his son. Not only is this redundant, as Vader himself could reasonably deduce from Luke's surname, and how he could feel how the force was strong with Luke, that he may just be his son, but it also ruins the very famous moment later in the movie when Darth Vader reveals that he is Luke's father, after chopping off his hand. So now, instead of adding useless shit, now he has to ruin one of the most famous scenes from the whole Star Wars saga.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel like, between the Special Editions and the 2004 Editions, most of what has been added and replaced has, overall, degraded the movies from their original versions. While the original versions were amazing movies then and even today, the Special and 2004 editions are less impressive, and are almost like a shell of their original versions.