Star Wars - Original vs Special Editions
Posted: 09 Sep 2006, 13:33
Now that the originals are finally available on DVD, I took the opportunity to miss a Friday in the pub and watch them back-to-back. First time I've ever watched all 3 like that, and there's quite a bit to say, so I'm splitting this off from Currently Watching so as not to hijack that.
Overall Story
The Specials win hands down. There's still plot holes and places where you have to use you own imagination to cope with some of the twisty stuff, but the overall story arc and the continuity is miles better.
Technical Quality
The originals seem not to have been remastered. The colours are flat and washed, blacks (which there are a lot of) look dreadful, and there is some really creaky and obvious looking back-projection. Some of the stop motion is really jerky. At the same time, the lack of gratuitous use of bad 90s CGI stands in their favour, but that's only by comparison to the specials. If the specials had never been released, that would not have been a strength.
The specials are vibrant, rich, deep, and crystal clear, with excellent colours and astounding visual quality. Some of the CGI lets them down badly. Particularly in the first movie, it really stands out and looks too clean, too precise.
Star Wars
This one will be longer than the rest, because more was done to it in the special. My ideal version is the first half of the original with the second half of the special. In the first half, the special adds nothing aside from a few "look what I can with computers" effects. Mos Eisley comes across as a freakshow (the original goes to the other extreme and Mos Eisley is too empty - oh well). Han shoots first, yes, it does define the character better, next! I missed the Jabba scene. It was meant to be in the original and was only left out owing to time and budgetary constraints, so this is one part where the "original vision" argument is valid. A better CGI Jabba in the special wouldn't have gone amiss though.
There's not much to call on the Death Star Scenes, a few nips and tucks, a few more Stormtroopers.
And now the big one. The whole Yavin/Attack on the Death Star scene. This is just so so much BETTER in the special, that overall it makes the special a better movie. It flows better, there's more of a sense of urgency, scale and tension in there. The extra effects make it look better. The X-Wings swinging around the planet look positively iconic compared to the ham-fisted handling in the original. The exterior scenes on Yavin are better, the Biggs scene adds to the movie (particularly as he's mentioned earlier and later in the original). Here's where the idea of the special edition works, and works well.
Empire
The remastering adds to the special, but it would have added to the original too, if it had also been remastered. There's some neat stuff being done with lighting and colours, especially in the Bespin scenes. The exteriors on Bespin are nice to have. The new Emperor scene works better. I'd have marked the special down on the inclusion of 2 legged Walkers in the Snow Battle, but then found that they were also in the original! Overall, the differences in the special edition are not in the same order of magnitude as the first movie, and I'd declare the special the winner here.
Jedi
Not much to call. The absence of the awful shrieky band in Jabba's palace instantly puts the original ahead by a long way. There are a few other minor differences. The Sarlacc has no beak (another small thing I'd forgotten). The mid-section of the movie is much the same, with room for fairly extensive cuts in the Teddy Bear scenes. The ending is a funny one. The Teddy Bear's song in the original is quaint and dated, and having Hayden Christensen in the ghosts scene for the special was a nice touch that I approved of. The extended celebration on the special would need some trimming though. If I was making my own cut (cough cough DVD ripping software cough cough video editing software cough cough) I'd combine Jabba's palace/Sarlacc from the original with the rest from the special, and make those cuts to the Teddy Bears.
Overall Story
The Specials win hands down. There's still plot holes and places where you have to use you own imagination to cope with some of the twisty stuff, but the overall story arc and the continuity is miles better.
Technical Quality
The originals seem not to have been remastered. The colours are flat and washed, blacks (which there are a lot of) look dreadful, and there is some really creaky and obvious looking back-projection. Some of the stop motion is really jerky. At the same time, the lack of gratuitous use of bad 90s CGI stands in their favour, but that's only by comparison to the specials. If the specials had never been released, that would not have been a strength.
The specials are vibrant, rich, deep, and crystal clear, with excellent colours and astounding visual quality. Some of the CGI lets them down badly. Particularly in the first movie, it really stands out and looks too clean, too precise.
Star Wars
This one will be longer than the rest, because more was done to it in the special. My ideal version is the first half of the original with the second half of the special. In the first half, the special adds nothing aside from a few "look what I can with computers" effects. Mos Eisley comes across as a freakshow (the original goes to the other extreme and Mos Eisley is too empty - oh well). Han shoots first, yes, it does define the character better, next! I missed the Jabba scene. It was meant to be in the original and was only left out owing to time and budgetary constraints, so this is one part where the "original vision" argument is valid. A better CGI Jabba in the special wouldn't have gone amiss though.
There's not much to call on the Death Star Scenes, a few nips and tucks, a few more Stormtroopers.
And now the big one. The whole Yavin/Attack on the Death Star scene. This is just so so much BETTER in the special, that overall it makes the special a better movie. It flows better, there's more of a sense of urgency, scale and tension in there. The extra effects make it look better. The X-Wings swinging around the planet look positively iconic compared to the ham-fisted handling in the original. The exterior scenes on Yavin are better, the Biggs scene adds to the movie (particularly as he's mentioned earlier and later in the original). Here's where the idea of the special edition works, and works well.
Empire
The remastering adds to the special, but it would have added to the original too, if it had also been remastered. There's some neat stuff being done with lighting and colours, especially in the Bespin scenes. The exteriors on Bespin are nice to have. The new Emperor scene works better. I'd have marked the special down on the inclusion of 2 legged Walkers in the Snow Battle, but then found that they were also in the original! Overall, the differences in the special edition are not in the same order of magnitude as the first movie, and I'd declare the special the winner here.
Jedi
Not much to call. The absence of the awful shrieky band in Jabba's palace instantly puts the original ahead by a long way. There are a few other minor differences. The Sarlacc has no beak (another small thing I'd forgotten). The mid-section of the movie is much the same, with room for fairly extensive cuts in the Teddy Bear scenes. The ending is a funny one. The Teddy Bear's song in the original is quaint and dated, and having Hayden Christensen in the ghosts scene for the special was a nice touch that I approved of. The extended celebration on the special would need some trimming though. If I was making my own cut (cough cough DVD ripping software cough cough video editing software cough cough) I'd combine Jabba's palace/Sarlacc from the original with the rest from the special, and make those cuts to the Teddy Bears.
