An Open Letter to My Fellow Star Wars Fans: We Need to Get Over It!

An Open Letter to My Fellow Star Wars Fans: We Need to Get Over It!

Dear SW Fans,

The last few weeks leading up to the release of the Star Wars Saga on Blu-Ray have been a bit on the tumultuous side. Much of this anger has been aimed at the announcement of "fixes" to scenes in the original trilogy that have been deemed either unnecessary, or just plain stupid. The center of the controversy is a ten second addition to the scene in "Return of the Jedi," towards the end where Vader, watching Emperor Palpatine fry Luke Skywalker with his evil Sith lightning, changes his mind about being a Sith and quietly says "No," followed by his picking up The Emperor and dumping him down the bottomless shaft (there really should be more safety rails in that throne room!) and screaming "Noooooooo!" Stupid? Maybe. Unnecessary? Absolutely! Cause for a boycott of the Blu-Rays? Are you kidding?

The main argument that I have heard has been that it reminds the audience that Vader, intergalactic badass, is still the whiny bitch who hated sand, tried spinning his ship because it seemed like a good idea, and got his girlfriend damp in the nethers after describing his slaughter of the Sand People. I'm sorry, but if you've just watched a full six hours of the same guy pulling Rebel's balls out through their spine and choking his leadership team "just 'cuz," are you really going to equate him with Hayden Christiansen (this is presuming you're watching them in IV-III order, which should go without saying!)?

Folks, we need to get over the changes that are inevitably going to be made every time these movies get released on the next level of electronic media. Lucas has stated since the 1997 release of the Special Editions that he was never happy with the way that the movies turned out, blaming constraints in the SFX technology that was available at the time. And I don't really remember anybody complaining about the MASSIVE amount of tinkering that went on there. Ok, apart from Greedo shooting first....that was just plain stupid!

A good deal of the stuff from the '07 Editions were actually pretty cool. Better perspective of the fighters, cleaner picture and sound, the dramatically better looking Cloud City (and for the record, not one person has mentioned anything about "Empire" remaining unscathed....just sayin'!), spruced up effects, etc. And the stuff that we didn't like, or out and out hated, we just dealt with. To this day, I still despise the change to the Max Rebo Band scene at Jabba's palace, including the constant breaking of the fourth wall, but I deal with it. It hasn't hampered my enjoyment of the original trilogy on the whole.

Part of my amazement about this controversy is that the brunt of the changes have been made to "Return of the Jedi," the movie that has widely been considered the worst in the original trilogy due to it's reliance on slapstick and warrior teddy bears. When did we suddenly care that this movie was getting the lion's share of the edits? I'll add that the coolest scene in the movie, when the Millennium Falcon flies through the hundreds of TIE Fighters during the Battle of Endor (to the day the most complex special effect filmed by traditional means) was sprinkled with a few more TIE Fighters and the shot doesn't appear to be ruined.

Much of the rancor aimed at the changes overall is that George Lucas is pissing all over our cherished childhood memories. That adding all this extra stuff is going to turn the viewing experience into an evening burying our heads in our hands. My childhood memories about Star Wars have all been about the excitement of journeying to far off planets, being chased by enemy fighters, rescuing the princess, and having one shot to save the day. At last check, all of that is still in the movie. So was being forced into retreat by giant walkers, being chased through an asteroid field and feeling exhilarated watching Luke and Vader duel for the first (and second) time. So what if R2 hides behind a few more rocks while Obi-Wan uses an actual, y'know, scary cry to frighten off the Sand People? So what if the door on Jabba's palace is twice it's original 1983 size? So what if the Ewoks can blink their eyes (for the record, that terrifies the living fuck out of me!)? And so what if we can audibly hear Vader have a change of heart and become the redeemed man that Lucas said the objective of the first trilogy was about?

At the end of the day, I'll be into the Blu-Rays for the extra documentaries, the deleted scenes, the vastly improved picture and sound quality, and the all 13 or so hours of the movies. A mere 15 seconds off added nonsense isn't going to affect my enjoyment of that...

....and neither should it affect yours.

Andy

Geek Salad