• usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca
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    8 months ago

    If the original trilogy is anything to go by, George Lucas desperately needs a good editor. I can’t imagine a longer cut will be anything but worse than what we got…

    • Railing5132@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      The “special director’s anniversary editions” or whatever the hell they were called were the worst bullshit insult to those of us that grew up with the original trilogy. Fuck you, George Lucas.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      George Lucas desperately needs a good editor

      Literally his first wife. One reason why New Hope and Empire Strikes Back were so good. Once Lucas got divorced, his screenwriting fell off a cliff.

      Also, incidentally, Carrie Fisher became an acclaimed script doctor towards the end of her career. She was rewriting a bunch of her own dialog in Return of the Jedi. She fixed up the screenplay for Steven Spielberg’s “Hook”. Sister Act, Lethal Weapon 3, Scream 3, Coyote Ugly, and Mr. and Mrs. Smith are also on her resume. She patched up the first Austin Powers movie and saved Mike Myers from himself.

      https://www.slashfilm.com/548436/carrie-fisher-script-doctor/

    • Gabu@lemmy.world
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      7 months ago

      And that’s where you’d be wrong. Quite a bit of the stuff that was cut from RotS is really good.

  • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    Lucas won’t even let you see the original Star Wars without his CGI additions. Lucas has lied to deflect from being criticized for his decisions.

    Harmy and the 4k77 project have illegally done what Lucas refuses to do.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I thought he manually edited the masters, so the original Star Wars without CGI additions no longer exists.

      I do love the Harmy Despecialized editions. Also check out the Anti-Cheese edits of the prequels.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        You can destroy the negatives with extra processing but you can’t destroy the prints. Lucas has original prints and if he didn’t he had the millions to acquire them. If fans did it, Lucas could have.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          The rumor I heard decades ago (so a mountain-sized grain of salt) was that he didn’t want to admit he fucked up the originals when making the specialized editions, and just acted like he didn’t want to release remastered theatrical versions. He was also fiercely defensive of the specialized versions, saying that they were closer to his “vision” than the originals.

          Master negatives can create higher resolutions than what you get from the prints. The fan-made versions did a ton of upscaling from the best quality digital versions they could find.

          • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            The negative is 35mm like the print. There is technically a generational loss between negative and print but that’s far far below the resolution of a 480p DVD when Lucas claimed he couldn’t release the original. 35mm film print is higher resolution than 4k. The 4k77 version does not use upscaling.

            • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Lucas had just re-released the Specialized editions in the theaters, and they did very well. There’s no way they go through the effort of remastering the originals without releasing them to theaters.

            • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              There is the negative that was in the cameras when it was originally filmed. Prints are made from those original negatives of which there are many.

      • seriousconsideration@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        8 months ago

        The cheese is why the prequels are fun to watch though! We’ve all worked through our collective trauma about how trashy the prequels are, now we’re ready for good ol fashioned hate watching.

        • DeathbringerThoctar@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I’m not sure “we’ve all worked though” it, but I’m glad I’m not the only one with this perspective. I tried to explain “rage watching” the prequels to a non Star Wars fan not long ago and they looked at me like I had 3 heads.

      • Gabu@lemmy.world
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        7 months ago

        Also check out the Anti-Cheese edits of the prequels.

        Why would you want that? People nowadays have no appreciation for theatre…

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It likely was. That and the ego of someone who wanted to be Steve Wozniak but was really a Steve Jobs.

        • ours@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          Steve Jobs which coincidentally owned Pixar for a while after it spun off/kicked out of ILM which was owned by Lucas.

          It’s a weird Small World.

    • ki77erb@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I’ve always loved the Harmy version but recently I watched 4K77 without noise reduction. My god… so much grain!

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        I loooved the grain. It made me feel like I was a kid again watching it for the first time in the theatre.

      • dejected_warp_core@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        In hindsight, all of media used to have this “meh, close enough” attitude about it: Vinyl LPs, audiotape, broadcast TV, film, iffy projectors at the local theater, AM radio, it all had limitations well within the range of human perception. Plus, everything the consumer got was a lossy copy of something else. Everything had noise, and everything cost some amount of fidelity no matter what you did. In light of this, “authenticity” is really a No True Scotsman argument, where we argue forever about intent, the optimal fidelity for the time, and what one would have experienced.

        Come to think of it, an easy approximation for a time machine is to buy some aviator frames, smear some Vasaline on the lenses, and stuff your ears with some cotton.

        • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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          7 months ago

          In light of this, “authenticity” is really a No True Scotsman argument,

          4k77 isn’t a no true Scotsman because it is a scan of a print that was played in theaters. If you digitally scanned a photo of the Mona Lisa, it would be a more authentic copy than a Photoshopped version that removed the brush strokes and replaced the blurred background with new high detailed images.

          smear some Vasaline on the lenses, and stuff your ears with some cotton.

          Had you watched movies in theaters before 2013? Film projectors were fine. The sound quality was fine. A movie filmed and projected in 35mm film was higher quality than the 1080p digital version of Phantom that was in theaters in 1999.

  • Blackmist@feddit.uk
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    7 months ago

    At no point watching any of the prequels did I think “man, I wish this was longer”

  • JusticeForPorygon@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    George Lucas? Release an old cut of a movie he made that his fans want to see? Where have I heard that one before?

  • umbraroze@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    George Lucas should screen this cut of the film at Sodankylä Film Festival in Finland.

    That way, he could be feted by the most dedicated of the film buffs. AND experience the Aurora Borealis. Localised entirely on the geographic region he is in.

  • undergroundoverground@lemmy.world
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    8 months ago

    We need a wrath of vader movie.

    For it to work, he needs to keep his mystery. Like, I don’t want to see him collect his laundry. But basically just him going round the galaxy mercilessly hunting down and murdering the crap out of Jedis.

    • KinglyWeevil@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      8 months ago

      I’ve been saying for years that the market exists for an R-rated movie about Vader hunting Jedi, but Disney doesn’t have the balls for it.

    • ki77erb@lemmy.world
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      8 months ago

      I could watch 4 hours of RotS but no way could I make it through 4 hours of Phantom Menace.

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        Honestly, I’d rather just ditch the terrible plots of both movies and just go have fun in Star Wars Battlefront playing with all the cool hovertanks and robots.

      • SpaceNoodle@lemmy.world
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        8 months ago

        It’s got several of them, and that’s the only redeeming quality.

        I re-watched it recently, and was reminded just how bad it was. I only saw The Phantom Menace in the theatre, and the disappointment kept me away from the releases of the next two installments - money well saved.

    • The Picard Maneuver@lemmy.worldOP
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      8 months ago

      I know the prequels have been meme’d to hell and are objectively ridiculous, but I’m not too proud to admit that I really like them.

        • seriousconsideration@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          8 months ago

          Aside from the logical inconsistencies, the plot holes, the (still) bad writing, the over-utilization of green screen that makes the whole production soulless and artificial, and the infamous “NOOOOOOO!” scene, it’s a great movie!

          • Railing5132@lemmy.world
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            7 months ago

            Don’t forget the taking the whole mysticism behind the Force and reducing it to: “wow, you got quite the bacterial load there, bud.”

            The original trilogy. A decade of history and nostalgia. “lol, it’s space flu”.

            Fuck you and everything you know and love, George. You’re dead to me.

            • Gabu@lemmy.world
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              7 months ago

              So what you’re telling me is that you’re just a casual content consumer. Seems like a “you” problem.

        • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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          8 months ago

          I think the resentment from fans came out of a feeling of missed potential. What people wanted was what they eventually put into the Clone Wars series: space adventures, complex characters, and the subtle corruption of a great hero.

          What we got wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t great. There was cheesy dialogue, convoluted storylines, and one-dimensional characters. Star Wars, like a lot of franchise films, benefits from the association with the wider universe. We, the fans, fill in gaps and references to backstory with the things we know without it appearing on the screen. But it also suffers from the comparison and expectations we have.

          Take the reveal of Vader/birth of the twins at the end. Seeing Vader rise from the table, and hearing James Earl Jones’ voice for the “first” time was genuinely cool because we have all seen the original trilogy. The interspersed delivery scene draws parallels between Luke and Leia being born with Vader being born.

          Taken in a vacuum, if you had no idea who Vader was, it would all seem a bit silly, because “Darth Vader” was actually “born” several scenes ago when he killed Mace Windu and then mass-murdered a school full of children.

          At the same time, we know what Vader looks and sounds like. Drawing out the reveal feels slightly overdramatic. Then you get the whole “she’s lost the will to live” and that “Noooooo!” and people are rolling from laughter instead of wiping away tears.

          That’s like the whole movie. Anything good or bad is made simultaneously better and worse by association. How you view the movie depends on how that association makes you feel. If you love Star Wars and want to love the Prequels, you will.

        • can@sh.itjust.works
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          8 months ago

          Was it? Or was it just a breath of fresh air after the other two? And yes I did grow up with it, even saw it in theatre.

          • DeathbringerThoctar@lemmy.world
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            8 months ago

            I also saw it in theatres, and while I wouldn’t call it a breath of fresh air per se, but it was definitely the least bad of the prequels. This is gonna get me down voted to hell, but that 45 minute lightsaber battle at the end was 44 minutes too long in my opinion.

          • illi@lemm.ee
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            8 months ago

            I also grew up with the prequels and yes, RotS was leagues ahead of them but it’s not just that. It has its issues, but I firmly believe it is a really good movie. I also grew up with prequels and saw both Episode 2 and 3 in theatres. But while the first two were quite cringey with some good parts, RotS was just good and stood up the test of time. More than I can say bout New Hope tbh.

            • can@sh.itjust.works
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              8 months ago

              RotS was just good and stood up the test of time. More than I can say bout New Hope tbh.

              I respect your opinion but I can’t say it’s not baffling to me lol. Do you find New Hope is too slow by today’s standards?

            • Optional@lemmy.world
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              8 months ago

              Oh you poor kids. You never knew the world where there weren’t the prequels. Or even the trilogy.

              There were many years - many! - when “prequel” wasn’t even a word! Let alone a real word.

              You’ll just have to trust us when we tell you there was a magical time when there was only one Star Wars and it was glorious.

                • Jarix@lemmy.world
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                  7 months ago

                  Can we stop with the boomer thing? You arent even using it appropriately.

                  Dont get me wrong im fine with you coming back at the person for being so patronizing ( “you kids” ) but dudes unlikely to actually be a boomer.

                  Star Wars

                  episode 4 1977 Episode 5 1980 Episode 6 1983

                  16 years later

                  Episode 1 1999

                  Thats genx/millenial territory

      • supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz
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        8 months ago

        Everything cool about them is despite George Lucas not because of him. Sure the battles are cool, the CGI scenes are cool, but the prequels were wayyyyyy too much a direct implementation of what Lucas thought was going to be good to ever have been good lol.

        The original Star Wars movies were better because Lucas wasn’t famous yet and had to actually listen to the people around him.