Winston T. Boogie
Senior HTF Member
Yes, Ron, those trailers pretty much capture the gist of what Lucas did. Although, I have to say watching the two versions back to back the way we did really gave me the perspective of a "true fan" of these films. I mean if Stanley Kubrick went back and inserted CGI characters into Dr. Strangelove (a film I've watched probably more than any other) I'd be pretty thrown by it. As a fan of a film you have watched many times you become very aware of every beat of the picture. Watching the two versions of Star Wars back to back allowed me to have a real feel for the original version before I watched the Lucas version.
I know a lot of directors have gone back and changed their films but Coppola creating his longer cut of Apocalypse Now (another of my all time favorite films) is nothing compared to what Lucas did to his film...which as described by the audience that participated in this experiment with me was "aggravating and distracting with no rhyme or reason to all the additional CGI."
Honestly, what I was expecting was something on the level of the changes made to Star Trek the original series on Blu-ray. A sort of upgrading of some of the existing effects using newer technology. The thing is on the Star Trek blu-rays these changes are done so as not to distract or radically alter the episodes and so they are pretty much seamlessly incorporated so you do not focus on them.
The Star Wars changes seem to have been made by a child with ADD and draw your focus from the original scenes to, and I quote here from one of my fellow viewers, "...wondering why there are 30 CGI kangaroo rats jumping (or badly sliding) around for no understandable reason."
It would have been one thing if George added a character riding a dinosaur in the background but instead he inserts dinosaurs all over the place including making sure one passes by blocking out everything else in the scene as if to scream at us "You have to look at all the dinosaurs I've added! I have crossed my film with Jurassic Park! Isn't it awesome!"
Before I watched this I knew that a lot of people were angered at the change of having Greedo shoot first at Han but the truth is that change is tiny in comparison to all of the other nutty stuff he inserts. The additions with the CGI all seem to be made with the specific intent of making us look at all these new creatures or robots whizzing and wandering about. They are not subtle nor do they add to the story or texture of the film...they seem almost like a prank by some high school kid that learned how to insert CGI into a film and did so to annoy the viewers.
I feel like I owe an apology to Star Wars fans for being amused by their anger all these years but until I watched this I never could have imagined how silly the changes George made were.
I know a lot of directors have gone back and changed their films but Coppola creating his longer cut of Apocalypse Now (another of my all time favorite films) is nothing compared to what Lucas did to his film...which as described by the audience that participated in this experiment with me was "aggravating and distracting with no rhyme or reason to all the additional CGI."
Honestly, what I was expecting was something on the level of the changes made to Star Trek the original series on Blu-ray. A sort of upgrading of some of the existing effects using newer technology. The thing is on the Star Trek blu-rays these changes are done so as not to distract or radically alter the episodes and so they are pretty much seamlessly incorporated so you do not focus on them.
The Star Wars changes seem to have been made by a child with ADD and draw your focus from the original scenes to, and I quote here from one of my fellow viewers, "...wondering why there are 30 CGI kangaroo rats jumping (or badly sliding) around for no understandable reason."
It would have been one thing if George added a character riding a dinosaur in the background but instead he inserts dinosaurs all over the place including making sure one passes by blocking out everything else in the scene as if to scream at us "You have to look at all the dinosaurs I've added! I have crossed my film with Jurassic Park! Isn't it awesome!"
Before I watched this I knew that a lot of people were angered at the change of having Greedo shoot first at Han but the truth is that change is tiny in comparison to all of the other nutty stuff he inserts. The additions with the CGI all seem to be made with the specific intent of making us look at all these new creatures or robots whizzing and wandering about. They are not subtle nor do they add to the story or texture of the film...they seem almost like a prank by some high school kid that learned how to insert CGI into a film and did so to annoy the viewers.
I feel like I owe an apology to Star Wars fans for being amused by their anger all these years but until I watched this I never could have imagined how silly the changes George made were.
