Lucas improves original Star Wars movies…again

Updated on August 31, 2011 By Ken Begg 35 Comments

Everyone knows George Lucas has vastly improved as a filmmaker over the years. Just look at how much better and more beloved the new Star Wars prequels are compared to the dumpy, crappy originals from the ’70s and ’80s. Luckily for us all, the Master has heard our hosannas and continues his fixing-up of those embarrassing older movies, no doubt to the further frenzied acclaim of the fanbase that was so riveted by earlier CGI insert shots of monsters and explosion rings and the universally applauded ‘Greedo shoots first’ scene.

Taking advantage of the upcoming re-release of the original trilogy to Blu Ray, Lucas continues his improvements by adding a nifty “Nooooo!” when Darth Vader grabs the Emperor to chuck him off the balcony. Remember how dumb it was when Vader threw him off in the old version while not making any sound at all? Well, problem, meet solution!

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  • Rock Baker

    I got to wanting to see Star Wars again, so I had to hunt down the laserdisc edition from before the ‘Special Edition’ fell upon movie lovers like a plague over Egypt. I meant to get ‘Empire’ and ‘Jedi’ next, but lightning killed my player shortly after I watched Star Wars. Hey, anyone out there have a laserdisc player they don’t use anymore?

    I heard Lucas was thinking of re-releasing the films theatrically in 3D. Anyone know if that’s still his plan?

  • I think it is, but of course they will be the altered versions.

  • I have long since given up on Lucas and the Star Wars franchise. Hes just determined to keep on ‘improving’ his films and public opinion be damned. Hes like a cinematic Colonel Kurtz.

  • Rock Baker

    On the other hand, Sly Stallone gave his audiences exactly what they wanted in the Rocky series and today is much put upon for doing so. Lucas seems to’ve taken the idea of “you can’t please everybody” to heart and decided he’ll just please himself.

  • Rock — Yes, but Sly isn’t going back and reediting Rocky to be more like Rocky 4.

  • David Fullam

    I have my old VHS copies of the original, unaltered trilogy. That’s all I want, that’s all I need.

  • I’ve learned to ignore Lucas and just hold on to the memory of standing in a huge line and seeing the premier of the original Star Wars in Manhattan. Lucas can swim in a sea of his own pathology for all I care…

  • monoceros4

    Thanks for reminding me of the Big Stupid Ring added to the exploding Death Stars. Was there some software package that everybody was using at the time, featuring a Big Stupid Ring plugin?

  • fish eye no miko

    monoceros4 said: “Thanks for reminding me of the Big Stupid Ring added to the exploding Death Stars. Was there some software package that everybody was using at the time, featuring a Big Stupid Ring plugin?”

    It’s called the Praxis Effect (named after a planet in Star Trek VI); and, yea, there kinda was…

  • Robot Chicken did Spielberg’s revised Jaws, where the was a big ring around the shark when it blew up at the end.

  • Ericb

    “Rock — Yes, but Sly isn’t going back and reediting Rocky to be more like Rocky 4”

    I can see it now, he can replace Apollo Creed with a CGI Dolph Lungren and Burgess Meredith with a CGI annoying robot.

  • Gamera

    BAH! When is Lucas going to an ‘improved’ new release of the Christmas special??? Think of how much better it will be with lots of radical CGI! He could even put young Atican and Jar-Jar in it using a flashback!

  • Flangepart

    If the old masters could ‘re-image’ the work they did…would the Mona Lisa have fangs? Would the Sistine Chapel have Mohammed or Budda lurking about? Would the ‘Night Watch’ be smoking armed with Tasers?

    Yeesh…

    George, ye are not playing with a fully charged Lightsabre.

  • Reed

    All people change over time. Some change radically, and some change only slightly, but we all change. Artists are particularly succeptible to the hubris of looking back at their previous output through the lense of the current prejudices and finding it flawed. However, most artists are wise enough to just nod and say, “Yeah, I was into that then, but I’ve changed.” Can you imagine what would happen if Paul McCartney decided that he wanted to re-record Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with his current backing band?

    George, it’s time to learn to leave well enough alone. You can’t go home again, you can’t step into the same river twice, etc., etc., etc. Stop messing with your previous product and try to do something new. I don’t think that your new product will be any good, but I’m sure that the royalties from THX, Skywalker Sound, Industrial Light and Magic, and every other movie production pie your thumb is in will keep you from taking too much of a financial hit even if you pay for an entire film out of your own pocket.

    And take Steven Spielberg with you.

  • Ericb

    “Can you imagine what would happen if Paul McCartney decided that he wanted to re-record Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band with his current backing band?”

    That wouldn’t be terrible in and of itself but if he did that while supressing the original version, now that would be a crime.

  • LukeB

    Oh god, I can’t tell if this is a joke or an actual thing. This is the state that George Lucas has brought the Star Wars films to, an inability to tell apart parody from his real cack handed work.

  • BeckoningChasm

    I bought the DVDs that had the unaltered versions a couple of years back. I played the unaltered versions and never bothered with the “holiday special” editions.

    I wonder why Lucas hasn’t tried to ruin the original Indiana Jones films?

  • Ericb

    “I wonder why Lucas hasn’t tried to ruin the original Indiana Jones films?”

    He probably doesn’t have complete control of the copyright.

  • BC — Yeah, I think either Speilberg co-owns that, or maybe Paramount owns it.

  • KeithB

    What would he do? Make Islamic Terrorists the bad guys instead of Nazi’s? (This could be fun!)

  • alex

    I always wondered why Vader threw the Emperor away like that. Now I know it’s because he disapproved the killing of his son. Thank you Mr. Lucas for clarifying this puzzling scene.

  • Hollywood is incapable of making Islamic Terrorists the bac guys. Even in Iron Man, the ambiguously-Islamic bad guy was careful to explain that it was about power and money, NOT religion.

    Lucas is clearly stark raving mad. Why even BOTHER to add a voice-over to Vader’s big scene? Why is he wasting his time on that?

  • andy80

    Supposedly he’s going to be making changes to the Ewoks too, so their eyes look more realistic. I think that will be incredibly creepy!

  • tim

    he’s going to make the ewoks blink. he’s also redoing yoda in complete cgi for the phantom menace, because the puppet yoda was completely unrealistic, just like the original trilogy. (sarcasm)
    I think lucas thinks he’s making an artistic statement, and that vader screaming no makes a cleaner tie back to the no at the end of sith.
    redlettermedia hit the problem lucas has right on the head. he doesn’t have a single person around him that will tell him no.

  • Mr. Rational

    What tim means to say is that Lucas doesn’t have a single person around him who will tell him “Nooooooooooooo!!!!1!!!1!”

  • PB210

    King Features Syndicate, owners of Flash Gordon, whom Lucas intended to adapt, but could not due to Felini having the rights, prior to diverting his efforts towards Star Wars; King Features Syndicates must feel a little mollified by by the reaction to these revisions.

    Actually, I wonder how many fans would prefer that Lucas just finally make that Flash Gordon film.

  • The Rev.

    “What tim means to say is that Lucas doesn’t have a single person around him who will tell him “Nooooooooooooo!!!!1!!!1!””

    As the kids say, Mr. Rational wins the Internet.

  • think lucas thinks he’s making an artistic statement, and that vader screaming ‘no’ makes a cleaner tie back to the no at the end of sith.

    So Lucas’ brilliant scheme is to alter the original films, which everyone loves, to make them tie in more closely with the prequels, which are almost universally loathed.

    Makes sense.

  • BeckoningChasm

    George Lucas is the Michael Jackson of motion pictures.

  • Mr. Rational

    BC’s thought is absolutely perfect. When Michael Jackson was being handled by other people, and didn’t have total say in a “collaboration,” he was a star. When he started to control his own life and career…well, the money kept rolling in, but everything of value became so altered that by the end he was practically a parody of himself, as uncomfortable to look at as he was impossible to look away from.

  • Flangepart

    as uncomfortable to look at as he was impossible to look away from.

    Mr. Rational said this on September 2nd, 2011 at 4:36 pm

    E-yeah…that kinda gets it. Kinda like Jar-Jar french kissing Nancy Pelosi.
    EWwww….

  • R. Dittmar

    I wonder why Lucas hasn’t tried to ruin the original Indiana Jones films?

    The be fair, it’s hard to imagine Temple of Doom being any worse. Could he digitally insert another annoying Asian kid and another one of Spielberg’s whiney ex-girlfriends?

  • Mr. Rational

    Dittmar, don’t EVEN joke, dude!

  • Marsden

    Hi. Sorry to piss on everyone, but the first 3 star wars movies really weren’t that good. I don’t know why everybody puts them on a pedistal and then feels better about themselves bashing the 3 new ones. It’s like a geek thing to just dislike the new movies, “ha they’re all doing it why don’t we?” This is no different then changing the face of Darth Vader to that Hayden person with cg instead of the previous actor’s face. Really, the first Star Wars is one of my favorite movies but the story is an almost straight redo of a Japanese story, Empire is half a good movie until it just turns to shit and I don’t really care what he makes Vader say in Revenge of the Ewoks. He can make him say “Hey Sailor!” while he’s throwing the Emperor. That movie Sucked. The Vast Empire that ruled the galaxy beaten by those nappy little guinea pigs. And the first part of the movie, Luke single handedly takes out this huge crime boss and his gang. I think he was trying to show how dangerous a Jedi Knight could be but it just looked like Jabba’s thugs were a bunch of assholes that couldn’t handle anything but sitting around looking stupid.

    People say things like Howard the Duck was a fluke and Lucas isn’t that bad, I think it’s the other way around and he just lucked out with the good ones.

  • Rock Baker

    There you have your answer. It’s not so much that the original trio were so good as it is that the prequel films are far worse. Say what you will about the ‘old’ Star Wars movies (I certainly do), but they retain a certain raw energy and sheer comic book sense of fun that’s missing from the newer series. And, frankly, if Lucas wants to continue tinkering with his films, he has every right to. What burns me is that the original films (which, while they might not be classics, were at least fun to watch, and that’s the whole point) are locked away, and we’re denied the choice to watch the version we like best. (I take a similar stand on Japanese movies. I don’t care if Toho wants to release the International versions of their movies, but I want the choice of which version I watch -for example, I’d rather watch Godzilla Versus the Sea Monster than I would Ebirah; Horror of the Deep.)