Not all of George Lucas' changes to the Star Wars Original Trilogy were welcome, especially these 10…
In 1983, George Lucas tripartite masterpiece was complete.
TheStar Warstrilogy had finished and secured a highly regarded place in the history of cinema.
But Lucas had big plans for his greatest work.
In the years following the release of the films, they were, Id argue, mutilated.
I know Im not alone in this feeling.
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Its a lazy edit, and it just doesnt work, as it isnt removed fromReturn of the Jedi.
It may only be a minor irritant, but its still annoying.
Its like an irritating five-year-old onscreen screaming, Look at me look at me.
Its just a wall of reptilian flesh that covers the entire picture.
It doesnt add anything, and it doesnt really work.
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8.
Putting Extra Stormtroopers on the Death Star
My gripe with this scene is that it just goes too far.
The set-up is basically that Han is chasing a squad of Stormtroopers down a corridor.
In the original release, he finds himself at a dead end with several more Stormtroopers.
In the remastered version, its a hanger with close to a hundred Stormtroopers inside.
The consequence of this scene is that Han runs back down the corridor while sporadically firing at the Stormtroopers.
The original scene with just a couple of Stormtroopers worked fine.
A couple of fascist soldiers is enough to scare the crap out of someone.
Close to a hundred of them is just too much.
This is a case of less is more.
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7.
This is especially shocking as, at some points, the music is purposely drowned out by engine sounds.
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6.
The scene was shot with Irish actor Declan Mulholland playing Jabba.
A stop motion alien was to be put over Mulholland in the edit.
But Lucas deemed the effect unsatisfactory, and cut the scene.
Its not a bad scene in itself but cutting it was good for the film.
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5.
The new songs actually not that bad.
Its not on the same level as Lapti Nek (the original song), but its alright.
Though some of the lyrics are pretty grating.
What is annoying is the horrendous singing gonk monster and the CGI version of Sy Snootles.
The backing dancers are fine.
Mainly because theyre real and blend into the scene practically seamlessly.
The CG Sy Snootles, and that furry singing monster, just dont.
Also, the extra Rancor pit scene is another case of less is more.
Its brilliantly creepy and foreboding with just the pit closing and the sound of a scream.
Putting the Gungans in Return of the Jedi
No!
No, no, no!
The Ewoks werent too bad.
Theyre annoying but theyre sweet and cuddly, and actually show some competence in helping to defeat the Empire.
The point is theyre in there at all.
Even if there was one milling about in Jabbas throne room, it would lower the tone.
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3.
Greedo Shoots First
The most infamous alteration to any of theStar Warsfilms.
Here we see what a skilled gunslinger and crafty bastard Han can be.
Having Greedo shoot first undermines all of that.
The point of character development is that the character changes, though.
Han is supposed to be amoral to begin with and becomes more heroic as time goes by.
To make matters worse, before he sold Lucasfilm to Disney, Lucas madeone last change to this scene.
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2.
Its an even bigger disgrace,as this was Leigh Bracketts final work before she died.
Lucas went tinkering, and not to the benefit of the end result.
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1.
Replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen
So heres number one on the list.
Replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen as the ghost of Anakin Skywalker.
Why not just smear shit over the screen and be done with it?
Replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen ruins the image of a trio of venerable old Jedi masters.
Lucas didnt even bother to get new footage of Christensen.
He just took the head from an early costume test video and superimposed it over Sebastian Shaw.
Clearly, I was wrong.
This article first appeared onDen of Geek UKin 2011.
