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The Star Wars Fan Edit Thread of Making the Prequel Trilogy Watchable

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Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
By the way, the 70 minute review from youtube fame is available for download on that site - well, rather that site has the rapidshare link, but you get the vibe.
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
gerg said:
It amazes me how people are incapable of accepting a film as it was made by the director, warts and all. Some of the edits reach new heights of banality.
I can get edits that aim to correct shoddy visual effects (like lasers and glares that are mysteriously missing or applied to the wrong spots) or inconsistencies in setting (like two scenes one right after the other but evidently shot in completely different locations or different times of the day), but adding stuff that wasn't supposed to be there for fanwank (like the Alderaan explosion, or flipping back stuff that was flipped for a reason, or making Greedo smolder with generic rage) shows little respect for the source material.
 

Osaka

Did not ask for this tag
Jocchan said:
I can get edits that aim to correct shoddy visual effects (like lasers and glares that are mysteriously missing or applied to the wrong spots) or inconsistencies in setting (like two scenes one right after the other but evidently shot in completely different locations or different times of the day), but adding stuff that wasn't supposed to be there for fanwank (like the Alderaan explosion, or flipping back stuff that was flipped for a reason, or making Greedo smolder with generic rage) shows little respect for the source material.

Agreed 100%
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
Jocchan said:
I can get edits that aim to correct shoddy visual effects (like lasers and glares that are mysteriously missing or applied to the wrong spots) or inconsistencies in setting (like two scenes one right after the other but evidently shot in completely different locations or different times of the day), but adding stuff that wasn't supposed to be there for fanwank (like the Alderaan explosion, or flipping back stuff that was flipped for a reason, or making Greedo smolder with generic rage) shows little respect for the source material.

Not even Lucas has respect for the source material, why should it be asked for fans to have it?

Cutting Leia's reaction shot to the alderaan explosion and changing the vader-kenobi duel so obi-wan goes sword first instead of vader waiting him with the sword are much more questionable than the explosion fanwank.
 

gerg

Member
Jocchan said:
I can get edits that aim to correct shoddy visual effects (like lasers and glares that are mysteriously missing or applied to the wrong spots) or inconsistencies in setting (like two scenes one right after the other but evidently shot in completely different locations or different times of the day), but adding stuff that wasn't supposed to be there for fanwank (like the Alderaan explosion, or flipping back stuff that was flipped for a reason, or making Greedo smolder with generic rage) shows little respect for the source material.

I guess it all comes down to where we draw the line where "useful" ends and "unnecessary" begins. Up to a point I can enjoy a lot of the quirks of the film because they simply represent the time in which the film was made. I think it might be said that they add a lot of physicality to the film.

Bitmap Frogs said:
Not even Lucas has respect for the source material, why should it be asked for fans to have it?

Cutting Leia's reaction shot to the alderaan explosion and changing the vader-kenobi duel so obi-wan goes sword first instead of vader waiting him with the sword are much more questionable than the explosion fanwank.

As much as I agree that some of the elements that Lucas may have made to the original films are questionable, I'd always side with him as an authority because it is, after all, his film.

Our frame of reference might be the 1977 versions, but how can we tell that that was the real "source" material that Lucas has always wanted? Is the 2004 version not the source material?

Ultimately, I think it somewhat arrogant for fans to claim that they know what Lucas' vision should be, and that they are the ones who are truly able to reclaim the brilliance of Star Wars.
 

Osaka

Did not ask for this tag
Bitmap Frogs said:
Cutting Leia's reaction shot to the alderaan explosion and changing the vader-kenobi duel so obi-wan goes sword first instead of vader waiting him with the sword are much more questionable than the explosion fanwank.

Or how Han-Solo shoots first in the bar, instead of being a super lucky smug.
 

RyanDG

Member
I should be doing hw said:
I've always also wondered why everyone cares about this.


#1 - Because it makes Han Solo out to be a lot more cut throat and ruthless... Gives him additional character - which is a lot to ask for in a George Lucas film. And plus, it was the way it was originally before George Lucas determined that Han Solo needed to be nicer. Or something.

#2 - It provides the reason why Greedo was able to miss Han solo at point blank range while sitting across from him at a table. Otherwise it is kind of just 'dumb'.
 

Osaka

Did not ask for this tag
RyanDG said:
#1 - Because it makes Han Solo out to be a lot more cut throat and ruthless... Gives him additional character - which is a lot to ask for in a George Lucas film. And plus, it was the way it was originally before George Lucas determined that Han Solo needed to be nicer. Or something.

#2 - It provides the reason why Greedo was able to miss Han solo at point blank range while sitting across from him at a table. Otherwise it is kind of just 'dumb'.

I thought the reason was because he wanted to point out that Han Solo wasn't really so super cool, and he could've died right there if he wasn't so lucky.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
gerg said:
Ultimately, I think it somewhat arrogant for fans to claim that they know what Lucas' vision should be, and that they are the ones who are truly able to reclaim the brilliance of Star Wars.

Actually no one claims to know what Lucas' vision should be.

They've just grown tired of Lucas raping the franchise.
 

gerg

Member
Bitmap Frogs said:
Actually no one claims to know what Lucas' vision should be.

I think they very much are. The people doing this don't seem to only want to fix a few continuity or technological errors - they seem to want to try and establish an authority on the films that Lucas should have made. The "Jar Jar dies on Alderaan" scene is testament to this, in fact.

And I agree that there may be a fine line between what constitutes a "useful" change and what constitutes an "unnecessary" one, but nevertheless I would want to establish a distinction between the continuation of old elements, so to speak, and the introduction of new ones. Fixing the trajectory of a gun shot might constitute the former, whereas the death of Jar Jar would be an example of the latter.

Bitmap Frogs said:
They've just grown tired of Lucas raping the franchise.

There's a difference between being frustrated at the quality and/or quantity of new material being released and actively going back and changing old material, however.
 
StarWarsRevisitedIV0502.jpg


:lol :lol
 
gerg said:
As much as I agree that some of the elements that Lucas may have made to the original films are questionable, I'd always side with him as an authority because it is, after all, his film.
Then there's always the argument that films are a collaborative project. How are you to know that even 10% of his vision is what became the original trilogy. By all accounts, plus the enormous amounts of evidence in the prequels (where he has full control), it wasn't.
 

Bitmap Frogs

Mr. Community
gerg said:
I think they very much are. The people doing this don't seem to only want to fix a few continuity or technological errors - they seem to want to try and establish an authority on the films that Lucas should have made. The "Jar Jar dies on Alderaan" scene is testament to this, in fact.

There's a difference between being frustrated at the quality and/or quantity of new material being released and actively going back and changing old material, however.

Aren't you aware that jar-jar binks has become a symbol of what people hate about the new star wars? Putting him to death is not establishing authority on anything, it's outright revenge for a hated character. If anything, its even more fanwank than the rolan emmerich-style planet explosion.

There were three movies a lot of people loved. Now these three movies are not available the way they were when they became icons. As long as Lucas insists on blueballing the fans, the fans will rebel. Do you really think if the original trilogy as it was released on theaters was widely available and if the prequel trilogy wasn't a masterpiece of stupid the fans would be perpetrating those remakes? No, they'd be watching the movies instead.

And finally, something that I feel you should know: a movie is a collective work of art. Sure there are a few people with quite a higher profile and involvement but it wasn't just Lucas that made the trilogy what it became. What made Episodes IV, V and VI what they are was Lucas vision intertwined with the realities of a production and the work and creativity of everybody else. Lucas original vision is irrelevant because what I and a lot of people out there enjoyed wasn't just Lucas's vision - it was Lucas's vision and everything else. So you can't justify the 2004 release with just "oh, but it's what Lucas wants so we must respect it".
 

Wark

Member
PetriP-TNT said:
http://lh4.ggpht.com/_1WBvrwBY-EI/R_JB2JfNX0I/AAAAAAAABCk/hRgEEMC_85k/StarWarsRevisitedIV0502.jpg

:lol :lol

He should have edited in a medal for Chewbacca. :lol I always wondered why Chewbacca was standing there and didn't even recieve a medal.
 

Darklord

Banned
I love how after complaining about all the little unnecessary changes lucas did he goes in and adds a shit ton of unnecessary changes himself.:lol
 

NotWii

Banned
Wark said:
He should have edited in a medal for Chewbacca. :lol I always wondered why Chewbacca was standing there and didn't even recieve a medal.
He did :D
It's one of the things I'm baffled Lucas didn't do
 

gerg

Member
I should be doing hw said:
Then there's always the argument that films are a collaborative project. How are you to know that even 10% of his vision is what became the original trilogy. By all accounts, plus the enormous amounts of evidence in the prequels (where he has full control), it wasn't.

Of course. But I'm not the one trying to edit his films to fully reflect what I think his vision should be.

Bitmap Frogs said:
Aren't you aware that jar-jar binks has become a symbol of what people hate about the new star wars? Putting him to death is not establishing authority on anything, it's outright revenge for a hated character. If anything, its even more fanwank than the rolan emmerich-style planet explosion.

What makes me curious is that, if these changes aren't trying to establish an authority on what should happen on the films, what do they constitute?

I find it hard to consider the death of Jar-Jar as anything other than fans saying "this is how it should happen".

There were three movies a lot of people loved. Now these three movies are not available the way they were when they became icons. As long as Lucas insists on blueballing the fans, the fans will rebel.

There might be an argument to be made that Lucas should make the films available as they were when they were first released. And, I could understand these edits (more) if they simply revert the films back to their 1977-and-so-on incarnations. But I think you're being disingenuous if you argue that that's the only thing these edits exist to do.

Do you really think if the original trilogy as it was released on theaters was widely available and if the prequel trilogy wasn't a masterpiece of stupid the fans would be perpetrating those remakes? No, they'd be watching the movies instead.

Really now. Fans will find an excuse to bitch about anything.

And finally, something that I feel you should know: a movie is a collective work of art. Sure there are a few people with quite a higher profile and involvement but it wasn't just Lucas that made the trilogy what it became. What made Episodes IV, V and VI what they are was Lucas vision intertwined with the realities of a production and the work and creativity of everybody else. Lucas original vision is irrelevant because what I and a lot of people out there enjoyed wasn't just Lucas's vision - it was Lucas's vision and everything else. So you can't justify the 2004 release with just "oh, but it's what Lucas wants so we must respect it".

Be this as it may, this doesn't justify the fans' position either. All it does is shift my argument from "Lucas is the authority on Star Wars" to "Lucas and the entire creative staff of the films, whose views may or may not be represented by Lucas himself, are the authority on Star Wars". It doesn't necessarily mean that the fans then become the authority.

And, in case I overstate my cause here, I don't want to try and represent these fans as some evil force threatening to take over fandom, so to speak. If they really feel so upset about the nature of the films to want to edit them as they do, then that's their pejorative. As I said, however, I find it amazing that they can't accept that these are the films that Lucas made, however bad or good they may be. I guess I really don't understand the necessity of the changes that they make.

Ultimately, it's probably more accurate to say that I find these fans' actions as more stupid than wrong.
 
You know the prequels weren't that bad, if you read the novels and ignore the movies. I imagined all the dialogue done by good actors :lol
 

Jocchan

Ὁ μεμβερος -ου
Bitmap Frogs said:
Not even Lucas has respect for the source material, why should it be asked for fans to have it?

Cutting Leia's reaction shot to the alderaan explosion and changing the vader-kenobi duel so obi-wan goes sword first instead of vader waiting him with the sword are much more questionable than the explosion fanwank.
If they are fans, they should respect it. The author of this revised version has shown to be on the same level as those fansubbers that leave half of the text in Japanese because "it wouldn't be the same if translated!" but add swearing for no reason to show off how matoooor is the anime they watch, thus raping the original content even worse.

gerg said:
I think they very much are. The people doing this don't seem to only want to fix a few continuity or technological errors - they seem to want to try and establish an authority on the films that Lucas should have made. The "Jar Jar dies on Alderaan" scene is testament to this, in fact.

And I agree that there may be a fine line between what constitutes a "useful" change and what constitutes an "unnecessary" one, but nevertheless I would want to establish a distinction between the continuation of old elements, so to speak, and the introduction of new ones. Fixing the trajectory of a gun shot might constitute the former, whereas the death of Jar Jar would be an example of the latter.
I agree 100%.
I'm perfectly fine with them adding guns flashing in the shots where they're missing if all the other scenes show those flashes (which means Lucas intended those guns to flash).
I'm not fine with Angry Greedo, killing off Jar Jar for no reason or cutting away character reactions to add badass scenes of explosions and space dogfights.

PetriP-TNT said:
StarWarsRevisitedIV0502.jpg


:lol :lol
Please tell me this is not real :(
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
gerg said:
It amazes me how people are incapable of accepting a film as it was made by the director, warts and all. Some of the edits reach new heights of banality.
while i do agree, some of the changes made in the special edition are mindblowing stupid, and needed to go...
 
A New Hope Revisited is just ridiculous. I don't mind the minor tweaks, although they feel really unnecessary, but the other stuff [Jar Jar getting blasted on Alderaan? :lol] is beyond unnecessary and goes into smh territory.
 
sankt-Antonio said:
while i do agree, some of the changes made in the special edition are mindblowing stupid, and needed to go...

Just like lot of the stupid changes being made in these revisits.

These people are doing same thing Lucas did.
 

Oozer3993

Member
jaxword said:
I thought that was pretty neat and fun to watch, especially the death of Jar Jar.


If people think that's unjust, realize Lucas gave Jar Jar the final line in the ROTJ special edition JUST to spite fans. Listen for him, he's there...

So it goes both ways.



Does anyone know what happened to MAGNOLIAFAN? He was doing some good SW edits as well...

Last I heard MAGNOLIAFAN was doing edits of the original trilogy. Which is horrifying. His edits of Episodes I and II are awful.
 

adg1034

Member
Great Rumbler said:
A New Hope Revisited is just ridiculous. I don't mind the minor tweaks, although they feel really unnecessary, but the other stuff [Jar Jar getting blasted on Alderaan? :lol] is beyond unnecessary and goes into smh territory.

Jar Jar doesn't get blasted on Alderaan. That video linked above is actually a fan edit of a fan edit. From the superlaser firing to the explosion, the real revisited version's Alderaan destruction scene lasts all of 4 seconds. No on-planet footage, no cracking continents, no Jar Jar.
 

NotWii

Banned
Oozer3993 said:
Last I heard MAGNOLIAFAN was doing edits of the original trilogy. Which is horrifying. His edits of Episodes I and II are awful.
Not surprising, Magnolia was a super trainwreck of a film
 

Speculator

BioWare Austin
adg1034 said:
Jar Jar doesn't get blasted on Alderaan. That video linked above is actually a fan edit of a fan edit. From the superlaser firing to the explosion, the real revisited version's Alderaan destruction scene lasts all of 4 seconds. No on-planet footage, no cracking continents, no Jar Jar.
Can confirm myself. Youtube link of alderaan explosion does a gross disservice to Adywan's cut of the film
 
adg1034 said:
Jar Jar doesn't get blasted on Alderaan. That video linked above is actually a fan edit of a fan edit. From the superlaser firing to the explosion, the real revisited version's Alderaan destruction scene lasts all of 4 seconds. No on-planet footage, no cracking continents, no Jar Jar.

Okay, but even taking that out there's still a number of edits that fit that same category.
 

Keylime

ÏÎ¯Î»Ï á¼Î¾ÎµÏÎγλοÏÏον καί ÏεÏδολÏγον οá½Îº εἰÏÏν
Mr. Snrub said:
http://i48.tinypic.com/zlyirq.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
NOW REVERSE THE IMAGES OMG! :lol

(I could, but I'm not at home)
 
"attack of the phantom" is a shittier name that what it replaced.

i remember when the original phantom edit dropped. it was a big vcd release, predating all the fancy file formats and downloading mediums we have now. still never seen it.
 

MrOctober

Banned
viciouskillersquirrel said:
Then explain it. I agree with him and will do so until I see a reason to do otherwise.

Watch the video linked in the OP that perfectly explains why the new choreographed fights are exceptionally stupid and the ones in the original trilogy are handled right. It really hits the nail on the head.
 

Dyno

Member
Star Wars was my life growing up but boy am I glad Lord of the Rings came along. Now when I want to get all nerdy with a movie I can fixate on a trilogy that was actually awesome from beginning to end.

Star Wars was what it was, Empire was a truly good movie, but even Return was starting to stink a bit. The new movies are bascially shit sandwiches and what passes for Star Wars today is a sad state of affairs for something that once revolutionized the movies.

Star Wars has actually become a metaphor for growing up. As you get older you lose track of old friends and some family members. Your past becomes increasingly irrelevant as you gain new experiences year after year. You start to forget, you start to not care, and surprisingly you are in fact perfectly fine with that.
 

Deku

Banned
The phanton edit, when it first surfaced almost 10 years ago, was mostly just recutting Episiode 1 to edit out most of the Jar Jar portions.

I can understand that, and it's simply a fan work removing a character they didn't like. Though I think Episode I was superior to II in every way in terms of coherence, pacing, edits and sound design. Episode II was just a jumbled mess. George cleatry was unnerved by the intense negative reaction to the 1st and seem to have made a number of sudden changes to put in fan service in II.

The new edits, which goes back to the original material that made us all fans to begin with is essentially is Fan-boy Special Edition of Star Wars and I would never watch it. I don't want people fucking with Greedo's mask, or meddling with some of the camp of the original, which includes the Falcon flying in a straight line despite Han Solo saying otherwise.

The hypocricy of the fan commity is pretty thick here.
 

Keylime

ÏÎ¯Î»Ï á¼Î¾ÎµÏÎγλοÏÏον καί ÏεÏδολÏγον οá½Îº εἰÏÏν
Mr. Snrub said:
http://i48.tinypic.com/2zs0f4p.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]
...and cropped (something I can do with Photobucket) for infinite requotability.

Excellent.

[IMG]http://i13.photobucket.com/albums/a278/Rubxqub/2zs0f4p.jpg
 

Nizz

Member
Anth0ny said:
This is what interests me a lot. I guess I had unfair expectations of what the special editions would bring as far as fixing little visual issues. Like seeing a CGI Tauntaun, CGI Rancor, etc...

I think ILM did some great work on the special editions. But for, let's say the eventual Blu-ray releases, I'd love to see tweaks like ones done in the links for that release.

Some things from the 2004 dvds I thought were kind of strange. Like how Luke's lightsaber when he was practicing onboard the Falcon when Alderaan was blown to bits. It looked green in shots and it still looked sort of jumpy.

Not like how the sabers looked in the prequels. They were rock solid in shots. The compositing/rotoscoping? was ace in the prequels. Other weird things like Vader's lightsaber looking pink in RotJ.

I kind of hope that some tweaks like the ones in the link find a way into the HD disc release. Not exactly a small wish, but would be awesome nonetheless. :D

*edit* Added one shot I was talking about.
StarWarsRevisitedIV0120.jpg
 
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