Geeek Day Review Part II
And now the thrilling conclusion to my review of the Star Wars DVDs.
Episode IV: Return of the Jedi
Synopsis: The non-frozen gang members go to a slug gangster's place to retrieve their frozen member. They then go to a forrest-covered moon inhabited by teddy bears to thwart the plans of the bad guys to build another super big bad weapon. Along the way, they make friends witht eh teddy bears, farm boy confronts his dad, good guys destroy the weapon and farm boy's dad turns from good to evil. HUZZAH!!!
Memories of yore: This was the one that I remember the best, obviously. I must have talked about tis one for about 6 months before it came out thanks to the pre-release of an Emperor toy from Kenner that you could only get in exchange for points from the boxes of other toys. I loved this movie when I saw it and I still think it's fantastic today. It is my least favorite of the 3 now (though at the time, it was probably my favorite). The only complaints you can make are that Lucas got to cute, but at the time, that worked fine for me. And I loved me some happy ending. Of course, by this time, I began to fully appreciate the toys. Loved them before, now I needed them. Lived off them, really. I still remember the 2 hardest ones to find, for us, were the Gamorrian Gaurd and Wicket the Ewok (not that my brother wanted him [but I did]).I had to have seen this one in theaters at least 6 times from the time of it's initial release to the time it finally came out on video. The re-release of this movie was one of the first things I saw after moving to Florida (at the twin theater by the Holliday Springs bowling alley. The theater was a changed to a dance club for a while and very well may be a church now).
Old School vs. New School: The major changes in here are unforgivable. The musical sequence and Jabba's Palace and the song at the end of the picture are completely different. Yes, Sy Snoodles and the band looked very stiff and cheesey. So what you SHOULD do, if you feel the need to revamp it, is spice up the band a little. There is no reason at all to completely change the song. The new song sux. It's absolutely retarded. The CG characters all look like cartoons, like all of the sudden we're in Mary Poppins or Song of the South. The old song at the end of the film, Nub-Nub, was one of my favorite bits of non-Imperial March music in all 3 films. Falls somewhere between 5 and 7. To completely remove it and replace it with with a nice, yet wholly forgettable, peice of instrumantal stuff that does not the least bit fit what you would expect to hear from Ewoks is silly. I understand that they wanted to add shots from cities around the galaxy, and I actually REALLY like that idea because it provides a lot more closure to the whole series. But there's no reason taht can't be done to the tune of Nub-Nub. Stupid. I also hate the Sarlac Pit Monster (or should I say Audrey II) that they added. Not knowing what the monster beneath the sand is, only seeing the tentacles, is far more menacing. And if it weren't for the fact that all the other changes piss me off to no end, I am certain that I would ahve really liked the change of using Hayden as Anakin at the end. But as it is, the other changes piss me off so much taht I can't judgge it rationally, so it sux, too.
Final Anlysis: Still better than Cats. I'd see it again and again (but from now on, I might just slip the tape in and watch the old version). 21 stars out of 5 .
Bonus Disc:
The 2+ hour documentary about the release of each of the initial 3 movies make owning the set well worth it. I'd pay 50 bucks just for that one disc, no questions asked. It rocks. Basically, it spends about an hour on the lead up to the first one then 20-30 minutes on teh aftermath of the first one then 30 minutes on the 2 subsequent films. It's really interesting to hear about all the things they wnet through on the original movie. Most of it I had never heard of before. In the past, Star Wars documentaries were usually the following:
No one gave Lucas a chance.
He got his chance.
There were a couple technical problems.
He made a wonderful movie that changed the course of movie making.
This one is more like:
People thought Lucas was criminally insane.
One guy thought, "Hey, there might be something here, and at least it's differrent."
There were major problems all along the way, including his friends starting to think he was criminally insane.
He made a life altering movie that change the course of history for a generation.
Basically, the highs and lows are more pronounced. In the past, I don't think Lucas liked to acknowledge the geniune impossibility of the task taht he tackeled in making Star Wars. I think he always down played the problems and gave an air that he expected it to be great. Obviously, the storm in Tunisia is well documented, and how some of the effects were tough to bring together. But this time, because you get a better sense of the problems, I think you get a better sense of why this film is so one-of-a-kind and why any comparissons of subsequent Star Wars films to the first one are unfair. And one step further, why comparrisons of the subsequent trilogy tot he first one are also unfair. Unfortunately, Lucas brought those comparissons upon himself by going back and fucking with things like Nub-Nub. So I do not try to defend him or the new trilogy. I like them and I don't think I need to explain why. Nor do I wish to have that discussion with any nay-sayers.
I didn't watch the whole Bonus Disc. A bunch of featuettes that I skipped. But I did watch the preview of Episode III (basically a making of Hayden's Darth Vader suit) and original theatrical trailers. Pure gold, those are.
There it is folks. I am not a Lucas apologist. I'm just a super huge Star Wars fan. I don't hate Lucas for what he has done, nor do I think others should. I feel bad that he felt the need to do it. And I feel bad that he felt the need to water down teh new trilogy. But the fact remains that the original takes place at a darker time. And it was released at a time when we were all far more innocent. And it was genuinely a unique endevour. Therefore, it cannot be matched. Anything after it - from the Black Hole to Revenge of the Sith - is not going to have the same magic. That's what made it so perfect.
Episode IV: Return of the Jedi
Synopsis: The non-frozen gang members go to a slug gangster's place to retrieve their frozen member. They then go to a forrest-covered moon inhabited by teddy bears to thwart the plans of the bad guys to build another super big bad weapon. Along the way, they make friends witht eh teddy bears, farm boy confronts his dad, good guys destroy the weapon and farm boy's dad turns from good to evil. HUZZAH!!!
Memories of yore: This was the one that I remember the best, obviously. I must have talked about tis one for about 6 months before it came out thanks to the pre-release of an Emperor toy from Kenner that you could only get in exchange for points from the boxes of other toys. I loved this movie when I saw it and I still think it's fantastic today. It is my least favorite of the 3 now (though at the time, it was probably my favorite). The only complaints you can make are that Lucas got to cute, but at the time, that worked fine for me. And I loved me some happy ending. Of course, by this time, I began to fully appreciate the toys. Loved them before, now I needed them. Lived off them, really. I still remember the 2 hardest ones to find, for us, were the Gamorrian Gaurd and Wicket the Ewok (not that my brother wanted him [but I did]).I had to have seen this one in theaters at least 6 times from the time of it's initial release to the time it finally came out on video. The re-release of this movie was one of the first things I saw after moving to Florida (at the twin theater by the Holliday Springs bowling alley. The theater was a changed to a dance club for a while and very well may be a church now).
Old School vs. New School: The major changes in here are unforgivable. The musical sequence and Jabba's Palace and the song at the end of the picture are completely different. Yes, Sy Snoodles and the band looked very stiff and cheesey. So what you SHOULD do, if you feel the need to revamp it, is spice up the band a little. There is no reason at all to completely change the song. The new song sux. It's absolutely retarded. The CG characters all look like cartoons, like all of the sudden we're in Mary Poppins or Song of the South. The old song at the end of the film, Nub-Nub, was one of my favorite bits of non-Imperial March music in all 3 films. Falls somewhere between 5 and 7. To completely remove it and replace it with with a nice, yet wholly forgettable, peice of instrumantal stuff that does not the least bit fit what you would expect to hear from Ewoks is silly. I understand that they wanted to add shots from cities around the galaxy, and I actually REALLY like that idea because it provides a lot more closure to the whole series. But there's no reason taht can't be done to the tune of Nub-Nub. Stupid. I also hate the Sarlac Pit Monster (or should I say Audrey II) that they added. Not knowing what the monster beneath the sand is, only seeing the tentacles, is far more menacing. And if it weren't for the fact that all the other changes piss me off to no end, I am certain that I would ahve really liked the change of using Hayden as Anakin at the end. But as it is, the other changes piss me off so much taht I can't judgge it rationally, so it sux, too.
Final Anlysis: Still better than Cats. I'd see it again and again (but from now on, I might just slip the tape in and watch the old version). 21 stars out of 5 .
Bonus Disc:
The 2+ hour documentary about the release of each of the initial 3 movies make owning the set well worth it. I'd pay 50 bucks just for that one disc, no questions asked. It rocks. Basically, it spends about an hour on the lead up to the first one then 20-30 minutes on teh aftermath of the first one then 30 minutes on the 2 subsequent films. It's really interesting to hear about all the things they wnet through on the original movie. Most of it I had never heard of before. In the past, Star Wars documentaries were usually the following:
No one gave Lucas a chance.
He got his chance.
There were a couple technical problems.
He made a wonderful movie that changed the course of movie making.
This one is more like:
People thought Lucas was criminally insane.
One guy thought, "Hey, there might be something here, and at least it's differrent."
There were major problems all along the way, including his friends starting to think he was criminally insane.
He made a life altering movie that change the course of history for a generation.
Basically, the highs and lows are more pronounced. In the past, I don't think Lucas liked to acknowledge the geniune impossibility of the task taht he tackeled in making Star Wars. I think he always down played the problems and gave an air that he expected it to be great. Obviously, the storm in Tunisia is well documented, and how some of the effects were tough to bring together. But this time, because you get a better sense of the problems, I think you get a better sense of why this film is so one-of-a-kind and why any comparissons of subsequent Star Wars films to the first one are unfair. And one step further, why comparrisons of the subsequent trilogy tot he first one are also unfair. Unfortunately, Lucas brought those comparissons upon himself by going back and fucking with things like Nub-Nub. So I do not try to defend him or the new trilogy. I like them and I don't think I need to explain why. Nor do I wish to have that discussion with any nay-sayers.
I didn't watch the whole Bonus Disc. A bunch of featuettes that I skipped. But I did watch the preview of Episode III (basically a making of Hayden's Darth Vader suit) and original theatrical trailers. Pure gold, those are.
There it is folks. I am not a Lucas apologist. I'm just a super huge Star Wars fan. I don't hate Lucas for what he has done, nor do I think others should. I feel bad that he felt the need to do it. And I feel bad that he felt the need to water down teh new trilogy. But the fact remains that the original takes place at a darker time. And it was released at a time when we were all far more innocent. And it was genuinely a unique endevour. Therefore, it cannot be matched. Anything after it - from the Black Hole to Revenge of the Sith - is not going to have the same magic. That's what made it so perfect.
posted by RauluaP at 1:25 PM
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