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I was referring to the bootleg copies that someone mentioned getting on DVD. That would be one's best bet from here to the end of time as far as the original versions of the OT goes. Unless we all get surprised in the next few years.
I don't think any of the five so far films are paced even remotely well. As far as my enjoyment goes, like I said, I'm in it for the cool stuff. I doubt I'll ever sit through Qui Gon's nighttime pontificating ever again. Thank you, DVD Skip Technology. If we're looking at this from a "Good Film" standpoint then the argument is over before it has started. Lucas, structurally, is a terrible storyteller. Melding an operatic structure with Flash Gordon cliffhangery and adventure would and could never result in an engaging an involving twelve hour film.
Why couldn't Dickens have changed parts in Great Expectations before a collected edition? I don't get it. Editorial restrictions?
It breaks any sense of coherence in the films and the universe when a flashy CG scene is intercut with a couple of miniature pans - see the space battle at the end of IV SE for a good example of this. A more sensible option would have been to replace the old stuff entirely or make a better job of dirtying up the new bits.
I'm kind of saving thoughts on this wholly valid argument until everything's finished in 2006. There's an equally valid argument to be made that the original trilogy would look ridiculously out of place when compared with the three movies that were supposed to have taken place before it. Nearly everything seems to have been done in order to avoid that inconsistency.
I didn't mean to intimate that there were views on here arising from "CGI Ludditity". This argument is thousands of leagues more reasoned than most of the arguments that crop up about the Special Editions. I was only saying that those sorts of arguments are silly, not that the overarching discussion here was necessarily displaying them. It was just that "Beginning Of The End" bit. My beef with that has nothing to do with CGI and everything to do with Authorial Integrity. Like or not, it's his story. He never "Began To End" to be George Lucas.
The inclusion of CG creatures and robots in the altered Mos Eisley scenes is a negative mostly because it pulls the audience's attention away from the main characters and their dialogue and instead forces them to focus on incidental, unimportant background details. This is simply bad filmmaking.
Just another example of thousands. To be honest, at that moment I could care less about the characters. I wanted to (and actually can't wait to, this September) pause the movie and paw over every luscious detail in the shot. Completely detrimental to the narrative flow of the film, absolutely, but irrelavent to me. Honestly, what draws me to the films, and what drew me as a mop-haired kiddo, is Lucas' nigh-limetless imagination when it comes to visual detail. C3PO, Ewoks, Cloud City, Jabba The Hutt, Darth Vader, Lightsabers, Doublesided Lightsabers, Battle Droids, Gungans, Podracers, Jawas; these are what fascinate me about Star Wars and the reason I watch the movies. I don't think that makes them well-constructed films in the least. His ability to go back and work on the films allows me to see even more awesome detail and cool little things he and his army of crafstmen have made up for my enjoyment.
I also happen to like that odd CGI walk that all the characters seem to have. After Episode I, I walked around with a Jar Jar lope for like months.
But yeah. I can't complain about a detriment to his narrative techniques, because I never really believed they were there in the first place.
I mean, honestly, from the opening moments of dialogue in Episode IV, you know exactly what you're in for. Leaden dialogue, incredible (in the most literal sense of the word) plots, uneven story construction, completely 2-Dimensional characters, and some of the most riveting visual spectacle you're ever likely to see.
Look no further than the IRIS OUT after Anakin has just SLAUGHTERED an entire VILLAGE. If you use Busby Berkley moves in a Kurosawa scene? You are a bad storyteller! Eeeeugh!
(That should sound like Leia in the Garbage Hatch, by the way, for those of you who hear what you read in your head.) |
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