[Chefelf]

Just opened the new forum. This is the pinned topic for comments on the articles.

The Nitpicker's Guide to Episode IV: A New Hope

Post all comments here.

[Bohrok Awakener]

This was the first of your articles that I read, Chefelf, and I think it's one of the best. All of your points are spot-on (as always), but you make them pretty funny, too... your analysis of the Mos Eisley scene has opened my eyes (I used to really like it, somehow...), and of course, everyone can agree with you about the CGI Jabba and Greedo shooting first.

One thing though - I was under the impression that, in the Mos Eisley scene, the Ronto dinosaur that passes in front of the camera during the "These aren't the droids you're looking," for scene REPLACED the orange R5 unit in the Special Edition. Yet you show them as both being there at the same time. Did they put the orange droid back in the DVD? I'll have to check...

[Mnesymone]

Chef - I'm surprised at some of the stuff you missed - it's all little stuff but... they did a heckload of sound editing, and they CUT LINES!
"As though millions of voices cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced." and some of Gold Squadrons attack run were cut. In general, not just SW, but the other ones too - things like Slave I having the engine sound from Ep II and stuff like that.
The Emperor appeared in full Darth Sidious rig! In an attempt to redress the continuity of Clive Revill to Ian McDirmid is even worse because Ian looks and sounds completely different between ESB and ROTJ now.
And I was completely blindsided by Temuera's voiceover. New CGI Jabba doesn't improve the scene, Hayden's appearance is mildly nauseating, the Wampa is now a single consistent one, but the original wampa was still better. Film quality is good, but Shaw's eyebrows are the most insignificant change in the history of the world.

[Jedi_Kyre]

. . . I *think* Luke turned on his saber once and it was green in NH but I'm too lazy to check right now.

[BarbaraAnne]

. . . I *think* Luke turned on his saber once and it was green in NH but I'm too lazy to check right now.

Something that bothered me when I went from Episode III to Episode IV is that Alec Guinesses Obi-Wan does not remember who R2-D2 is. R2 shows up with Leia's message, and he says what amazing loyalty in this little droid.

After he shouts instructions to him via cellphone and has him present in all the battles in Episode III? R2, R2, Obi-Wan says. Then he doesn't remember who he is in Episode IV?

Oh well, I guess that's what happens when you do episodes 30 years apart.

[Chefelf]

I always figured that Obi-Wan was just being a jerk and being super literal. "Well, I never owned him, I just had many adventures with him!"

Either that or he's just trying to be sneaky. Why he'd want to be sneaky about this I have no idea.

[Despondent]

Too bad they don't have another orgasmic fanboy RE-introduction. Yet.

I credit it to AG's ability to emote more into the relationship than ever written (or dreamed).

[Alien]

Hey, great article! Like everyone else, I agree with almost everything, but there's just one thing I'd like to comment on.

"He was the best starpilot in the galaxy..."
Obi-Wan's line about Anakin still remains in the 2004 edition. I thought that this line would surely be removed, but it is still there. What I want to know is how Obi-Wan could back this up?

You're right, there isn't too much in the prequel trilogy to back this up, but I think we need to consider that alot of time passes between those movies. There could be tons of examples of Anakin's skill that we just don't get a chance to see. I doesn't need to have been backed up in the prequels, but I guess it could have helped.

Plus there was that lil chase in Episode II, with a few comments from Obi-Wan about Anakin's driving in general.

Oh well, I guess we'll see what new changes they do in their next Special Edition set. Maybe holo-discs? Ooo!

Alien

[Chefelf]

Well, I wrote that well before Episode III was released and it looks like they may have inserted that brief flying sequence in Episode III to back it up. Still, it didn't seem natural.

[Bond]

What, the opening battle of ROTS? Hell, that rivaled ANH in intensity!

"Yeah! We got 'em, Artoo."
"Boop-biddle-bweep boo-bee-eep!"

This post has been edited by Bond: 29 August 2007 - 07:55 PM

[84summers]

When Vader confronts Obi-Wan in the Death Star, Vader says:

"I've been waiting for you, Obi-Wan. We meet again, at last. The circle is now complete. When I left you, I was but the learner. Now I am the master."

When I left you?

I've seen Episode III, and that line should be re-recorded for the 6-vol. set to read more like, "When you last left me limbless and spitting angrily on volcano planet..."

I know that this is because in 1977, Vader was only a corrupt pupil of Obi-Wan's, but with Episode III elaborating on their last meeting, the line just does not ring true.

More so, I would have Vader say something in the style of The Bride, like, "To make the circle really complete, I would have to...throw you in a river of lava and leave you for dead. That would make us about square."

In other words, the fact of Episode III ruins one of the best moments of THE original movie.

[Sailor Abbey]

More so, I would have Vader say something in the style of The Bride, like, "To make the circle really complete, I would have to...throw you in a river of lava and leave you for dead. That would make us about square."

That'd have been bad ass!

[Snake Logan]

I always figured that Obi-Wan was just being a jerk and being super literal. "Well, I never owned him, I just had many adventures with him!"

Either that or he's just trying to be sneaky. Why he'd want to be sneaky about this I have no idea.

I don’t know if someone has mention this before but perhaps he is simply senile?

[Thurkon]

I'm not a Special Edition hater, but there are some additions (Greedo, Jabba, Jedi Rocks) that I would rather not have. I feel the good outweighs the bad, but the additions I mentioned are slightly nauseating.

That said, one has to appreciate the effects clean-up.

ANH: Does anyone miss the matte lines around the ships, or the vaseline smear under the landspeeder? What about the old Yavin meteor blips launch? Compare the old Death Star attack to the new...the new is far superior shot-for-shot.

As a kid I used to look at the Star Wars Storybook, remarking how cool that Sandtrooper looked on top of the Dewback, only to be disappointied in seeing it in the old film as a motionless blob in the distance. I'm glad they actually move now.

ESB: As far as the wampa...the new version is better. As a kid I hated not ever seeing what the heck Luke was escaping from. Leave suspense-building to horror films. This is Star Wars. And I also appreciate the Emperor not being the strange monkey-faced boy. And Cloud City is actually now Cloud City, and not the set from Logan's Run.

That said...the prequels have created a horrible disconnect to the OT, special edition or no. The Luke thing just makes no sense. On the planet Tatooine where Anakin was born, Obi-Wan returns to give Luke away...in secret...to his stepbrother, who lives in the house next to Anakin's mother's grave...which they somehow know Vader will never visit...and seemingly Obi-Wan instructs the Lars family NOT to change Luke's name...I mean, why would they change the name of the secret adoptive child of the Dark Lord of the Sith or even treat him like a son, right?...but it's alright 'cause Obi will be nearby to keep a close watch...way the hell across the Jundland Wastes...in disguise because Vader is hunting down the Jedi...that's why Obi-Wan changed his name to Ben...but he's still gonna wear those Jedi robes and keep the Kenobi surname. Yeeeaaaaaahhhhhh.

This post has been edited by Thurkon: 07 February 2008 - 10:29 AM

[darthwader]

First of all, nice to see a site/forum like this, I've enjoyed reading everything I've stumbled across so far. Second, while I appreciate some of the clean-up, etc. done on ANH (which to me will always be just plain ol' "Star Wars"), crap like new CGI in the cantina scene, ring-alicious explosions, and so forth only served as a big fat message of, "Hey, what was good enough for you in 1977 is laughable now, get with it!" I remember the Marvel comic book having this skinny alien substituting for what was later depicted as Jabba- although it was interesting to see that those shots used by the Marvel artists actually did exist, CGIJabba pissed me off. (Taking my friends to see ROTJ was my 10th b-day present, it just happened to be in the theatre at the same time; you can imagine I never forgot what Jabba 'REALLY' looked like!)
Dewbacks... I had had some of the old "baseball cards", one of which showed the Dewback-mounted stormtrooper- and I could never figure out why I didn't remember it from the movie, heh. I'm sure if I had held onto those cards, somebody somewhere would have paid me for them, but most of them ended up with Stretch Armstrong's red corn-syrup innards glueing them to the bottom of a toy-chest (shrug)
Anyway... yes, in the original ANH, R2's panels were black in some scenes due to blue-screen issues- and while it's nice to see things like that fixed, to me Georgie L. just got too damn carried away with ensuring HIS WILL (rather than the memories of those who directly or indirectly swelled his wallet to Death Star-like proportions) carried the day. Here's a personal nitpick- why was the whole "Kenobi rescuing Luke/Krayt Dragon noise" scene altered? Yeah, OK, the sound was also used elsewhere in the film as propulsive SFX- but at least the original (as I remember it) actually gave a somewhat reasonable excuse for the Tusken Raiders to be freaked out to the point of "getting the hell out of Dodge", and also gave credence to the idea of Ben Kenobi being the kind of someone you just left alone, if you were a simple moisture farmer.
All right, I'm obviously ranting/babbling away; I don't utterly hate the prequels, and I realize not everyone was necessarily a kid, or even alive, when the first movie came out- but: is it so bad to want to see the same movie that I saw in the theatre as a little kid, without more than cosmetic "fixes", and without having to scour Ebay or some other such nonsense, for some ridiculously overpriced VHS cassette? Thanks, George. Thanks for "fixing" everything.
OK, I'm done now. .. And how are you?
;-)

This post has been edited by darthwader: 04 May 2008 - 01:11 AM