*** Official STAR WARS Saga (episodes I to VI) Discussion Thread: Part 4 (1 Viewer)

[Brent M]

Tim, you're back!!! Where have you been, man? We were just talking about you in the Indy IV thread the other day.

 

[Ray_R]

Brett! Tim was ABDUCTED BY ALIENS! And of course partied hardcore and such. Well as long as he had fun that's the point!
Ok, this is a bit off topic since this thread is only about the films.
What was the name of that very damn humourous assassin droid in KotOR who always called "you" Master? Damn, that guy made me bust a gut! Also called bioforms "meatbags". Damn, he was great.
More KotOR goodness and action figures! Well, maybe. Isn't there a KotOR comic book?

 

[Chris Atkins]

Tim! You're back my man...please share your thoughts on Indy!

 

[Tim Glover]

What it is Chris?! Missed you man.
Check out my quick thoughts on Indy in those threads.

 

[JediFonger]

re: ray's feelings. i find ur lack of faith disturbing .
it's back to what i posted previously, just like star trek, star wars fans will feel franchise fatigue even now.

 

[Nick Martin]

Has anyone here ever seen a "fan edit" of a Star Wars film?
They are apparently a BIG deal and based on descriptions, range from removing all comedic/silly scenes from Episodes I, II and VI to approximating the original 1977 version to best the non-anamorphic DVD.
I've seen only one of these films, and only because the idea behind it (and enormous praise) was very interesting. It was the 2004 DVD release of ANH, with everything Lucasfilm failed to fix. It's called Star Wars Revisited. This thing has new effects sequences that blend almost perfectly with the originals, full color correction, fixed surround channel music, dialogue from the 1977 mono mix (including Aunt Beru's original voice) fully re-rotoscoped lightsabers and laser blasts, fixed jump cuts....the list is endless. Thankfully it had a subtitle track with a list of changes.
I was shocked at the level of detail and effort put into it (even making Vader's chest panel blink like it does in the other films - that level of insane detail fixed flawlessly) and regardless of how much one would agree or disagree with the alterations (inserting the Imperial March music in certain places) you cannot help but admire the work involved to make Lucasfilm look bad for their DVD release.
According to Digital Bits, it was an edit of Episode I called "The Phantom Edit" that spawned this whole community. I'm curious to know if the more dedicated fans of Star Wars here have kept up on these things.

 

[Ray_R]

YiFeng: I'm experiencing franchise fatigue with "Star Whores"! Seriously, I am...
Uh, Labyrinth was another LucasFilm Ltd. production.

 

[Chuck Mayer]

Regarding fan edits:
I admire the dedication, I really do. But I barely watch the official versions, and wouldn't care to see a fan edit, even were I rabid for it. That's a very slippery slope they are treading. While I have publically lambasted LFL for their treatment of the theatrical release versions, it's their product. They have legal rights to it, and I support that.
In other news, it now appears I might be seeing Clone Wars in theaters. I am against the notion of selling a TV show as a movie to make some extra coin. But my son has been salivating over the Tartakovsky Clone Wars cartoons, so I think he might enjoy the new ones. He doesn't care a ton for the movies, but he loves those cartoons.

 

[Nick Martin]

I get that. Prior to seeing this one altered film, I hadn't watched a Star Wars film in almost a year. It was the only one I wanted to see because it wasn't one of those 'Jar Jar-less' types where entire plots or characters are cut out, but instead upgrades beyond the previously upgraded. That alone was my interest, seeing if someone could actually improve on what was enhanced by a major visual effects studio using a home computer. That the guy who made it largely succeeded was the big surprise.
The rationale behind these is that if you own it already, it's okay to view these creations as long as no one pays for them. It is very tricky territory, which is why I haven't mentioned anything other than the revised film's title. If anyone is curious about seeing it themselves, google is a friend to all.

 

[JediFonger]

when the clone wars trailer came up i heard collective groans from not jus the parents... but under 10 year old KIDZ!!! who is the AUDIENCE!?!?!?!?!? lulz.
anyways, trekkies/ers have experienced this many times over already =D. welcome to the club guys =D.

 

[STARKILLER1138]

when the clone wars trailer came up i heard collective groans from not jus the parents... but under 10 year old KIDZ!!! who is the AUDIENCE!?!?!?!?!? lulz.
anyways, trekkies/ers have experienced this many times over already =D. welcome to the club guys =D.

Funny. I heard excitement.

 

[Edwin-S]

when the clone wars trailer came up i heard collective groans from not jus the parents... but under 10 year old KIDZ!!! who is the AUDIENCE!?!?!?!?!? lulz.
anyways, trekkies/ers have experienced this many times over already =D. welcome to the club guys =D.

I didn't get that vibe from the audience I was sitting with. For the most part, the vibe was positive, even though I still think the animation quality is not theatrical calibre. Hell, I may even go see it myself, just to see if the story is any better than the first three live films.

 

[Brent M]

when the clone wars trailer came up i heard collective groans from not jus the parents... but under 10 year old KIDZ!!! who is the AUDIENCE!?!?!?!?!? lulz.

So, you did a person by person analysis on where each and every groan was coming from in a darkened theater? Good job. :rolleyes

 

[TravisR]

According to Digital Bits, it was an edit of Episode I called "The Phantom Edit" that spawned this whole community. I'm curious to know if the more dedicated fans of Star Wars here have kept up on these things.

Personally, I don't count the anamorphic versions or corrected surround channels as fan edits. That being said, I hate fan edits since the arrogance of someone thinking they are fixing a movie makes me sick. If you hate Episode I, just get a life and move on. If it's not your movie, you don't get to fix it. I don't care if the movie is better or not because I'd rather see the mistakes made by the people who created the movie than the corrections made by someone with too much time on his hands.

 

[Nick Martin]

Personally, I don't count the anamorphic versions or corrected surround channels as fan edits. That being said, I hate fan edits since the arrogance of someone thinking they are fixing a movie makes me sick. If you hate Episode I, just get a life and move on. If it's not your movie, you don't get to fix it.

Yes, there are indeed two categories they fall into, one being actual edits where someone says 'I hate it every time Anakin says 'yippee!' and cuts them all out, and the other is a visual effects/sound effects upgrade. The one I saw was primarily the latter, addressing the green/pink lightsabers, the blue stormtroopers and the like.
I don't agree with cutting things out of a movie you don't like to make it more suitable either. That's why DVDs have chapters! Since I was little I couldn't stand the Jabba's Palace sequence up until the fight to escape the Sarlacc Pit, so I'd just hit the fast forward button on my VCR. Occasionally I'd watch it for the hell of it. I might not have liked it, but it's there and who is anyone to take it out?
On the flipside, I do like seeing cut scenes restored to movies, because I either love a movie so much I want to see literally everything, or because I want to see for myself if the reason the scenes were cut do in fact damage the overall story/pacing, etc.
This thread is beating The Dark Knight thread in post count, but that thread has closely edged out this one in total views. It's a race to the death!

 

[DavidPla]

Personally, I don't count the anamorphic versions or corrected surround channels as fan edits. That being said, I hate fan edits since the arrogance of someone thinking they are fixing a movie makes me sick. If you hate Episode I, just get a life and move on. If it's not your movie, you don't get to fix it. I don't care if the movie is better or not because I'd rather see the mistakes made by the people who created the movie than the corrections made by someone with too much time on his hands.

Agreed 110%

 

[SilverWook]

It's a harmless creative exercise. It's not like they're taking scissors to the original negatives, and forcing you to watch it or something. And Lucas hasn't got a problem with it.
The fan edits that are really cool are things like the romantic comedy trailer for THE SHINING, the Twilight Zone episode of PLANET OF THE APES, and the recent cliffhanger serial version of RAIDERS.

 

[Josh Steinberg]

I think fan edits can be a fun exercise... I would never think of them as a replacement to the original film, and yes, it probably does take a certain amount of arrogance to want to make one, but that's alright. I haven't seen many; a lot of crap out there that eliminates certain parts that the editor might not like, but without really a sense of fluidity or rhythm.
I thought the original "Phantom Edit" that started it all was about as good as one could do; it wasn't a surprise when I found out later that the guy who did it had professional editing experience. More than just having the cuts technically correct, it had a great sense of pacing and it just never felt like parts were missing. Of course parts were missing, and I've seen all of the Star Wars films enough that I'd notice, but the thing flows so well that I was able to go with it and forget that I was looking at a fan edit.
I see fan edits as being similar to what some bands are now doing. Bands like Radiohead, Nine Inch Nails, even Peter Gabriel and I'm sure others have put the raw tracks to some of their songs online, allowing and even encouraging fans to make their own remixes of songs. It doesn't mean that everyone or even most will come up with something worth listening, but if you're a fan, it's a fun way to feel a little closer to the artist and his work.
I actually made (but never distributed) a fan edit of Episode III once. It was more of an exercise; it had been a couple years since I really used Final Cut Pro and wanted to jog my memory, and I found it easier to work on something where I could focus more on how to use the program and less on having to make creative decisions. It was fun to do, and the friends I showed it to enjoyed the result... I don't think it would replace the original for anyone, but for people like me and my friends who have seen it countless times, it was just a fun way to watch Star Wars again with a few surprises, not being entirely sure what might come next.
I wouldn't really consider them fan edits per say, but some fans have taken their favorite films that included deleted scenes on the DVD and reintegrated those back into the film, creating extended editions of their own. There are some films where I'd like to have that and I certainly could do it on my own, but if someone else has already taken the time to do it for me, I won't complain. In those instance, I'm thinking more along the lines of a Harry Potter movie, where the deleted scenes on the DVD had been put back in for a TV broadcast.
Probably anyone that does one of these edits with the notion that they're "fixing" a broken film or making something better than the original artist is gonna be way off base. But for people who love the films, enough that they'd like to play around with them a little and have an alternate telling of the same story, why not?

 

[Brent M]

I agree, Josh. Personally, I think some of the fan edits I've seen are actually better than the original movie. I'm not saying that's true in all cases, but there are a few floating around out there that improve on the original.

 

[Paul Arnette]

Hell, I may even go see it myself, just to see if the story is any better than the first three live films.

One would think that that shouldn't be too terribly difficult, but upon hearing the words, "Kidnapped Jabba the Hutt's son has been..." all hopes of that went right out the window.