Originally published at: https://boingboing.net/2022/01/05/relive-the-battle-of-yavin-in-beautiful-de-specialized-4k.html
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Completely free of the stupid exploding ring!
(I don’t remember what other stuff needed to be removed, but the ring always bugged me.)
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One of the things that always bugged me about Lucas’s “special” editions is not just the editorial changes he made to the film, but the special effects he didn’t improve. I remember being remarkably disappointed sitting in a theater in 1997 and noting that I could still see visible mat frames around the TIE fighters, and could see through the shades of Darth Vader’s eye screens. It’s like there was a basic level of “good enough” for some of the effects that Lucas didn’t bother to fix. The first time I saw the “despecialized” version I remember noticing that such shortcomings were much less prevalent, either by the care lavished upon the film by the restorers, or it was just less apparent in the original film prints from 1977.
I know I’m in a vanishingly small minority, but I’d honestly love to see a “re-specialized” edition of the films that remains faithful to the original films edit, but fully modernizes the special effects (e.g., the lightsabers and blasters cast a practical glow, cascading large explosions, fixing mat shots to remove visible mat lines and fix lighting, etc.).
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Yeah, there were a lot of odd choices. I remember the mat lines as well. But I have bit of nostalgia for when special effects were laboriously composited via multiple runs through optical printers, requiring tremendous planning, as well as the creation of multiple optical mats for all the elements. So much lab work. So many iterations needed.
The remastered Classic Trek bugs me. They replaced the dips to black from the slide projectors around the top row of displays on the bridge with blue screens, like they were running on Windows or something.
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The dumb cgi dinosaurs roaming around Mos Eisley and Han and Chewie chasing the few stormtroopers into a large hangar full of cgi clones are the two changes that specifically bug me the most.
ETA: I didn’t mention Greedo shooting first as I figured that was a given.
Don’t get me started on RoTJ though. The specialized version is pretty much unwatchable.
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What struck me most about those big “improvements” is that they didn’t bother to stylistically match them to the analog special effects animation and compositing. The CGI stood out like a proverbial sore thumb.
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I laughed out loud when the Gorn blinked.
Yeah, those CGI eyelids really sold that goofy rubber mask as a real lizard-monster.
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Or Lucas just replacing entire scenes with bad cgi for no obvious reason - didn’t bother to even try and match it with the original.
In RoTJ, I simply can’t watch the band scene in Jabba’s liar where he not only replaced the puppet actors with really bad cgi characters but changed the entire f*cking song!
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Right there with you. My wife disagrees, and wishes she could just see the original restored print, warts and all, because she thinks polishing the small blemishes you’ve noted makes it seem too new, like it doesn’t look like it’s from 1977 any more, which I disagree with. It’s possible to fix the matting and color timing without messing with its vintage look.
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I want a version of the movie as it was shown in 1977. ´Nuff said.
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Not buying it unless they removed the sound from all explosions in space.
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To me it’s kinda like cleaning a little stain in a years-old carpet. If you clean the stain area too well then the clean spot stands out sharply from the general background of grime in the rest of the carpet, and ends up worsening the look of the carpet overall. Takes finesse to get it right.
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That’s more or less what I want, too. Put out HD versions of the original films where you can’t see the artifacts of the special effects and no other changes and I’ll be happy. Heck, release them on a set along with totally untouched versions and the special versions, and everyone will be happy. For a franchise that produces so much junk to cater to nearly every whim and passing fancy of its fan base it is frustrating that this one thing nearly every fan wants can’t be done.
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That’s just unthinkable, surely? Even if they did, afterwards they would have to come up with some clever way of convincing people that maybe they aren’t quite as happy as they could be. And then later get them wondering if they were really as happy before as they thought they were. And so on.
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Well sure… Given time they’ll eventually release versions presented in Smell-O-Vision so you can compare how bad a Tauntaun smells on the outside vs. the inside; etc.
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That was very much the case in the “special” edition of THX1138, too. With the new effects simply not matching the design cues of the original film.
I enjoyed watching the Battle for Yarvin again. The action was a lot choppier than I remembered; but the modulation on the radio dialogue is a great effect.
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I’ve got one of those; unfortunately it is stored in my brain, and my memory has become corrupted over the years.
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That was good. I still haven’t gotten the blue ray of the original trilogy, because I am sure as soon as I do, they will finally put out a de-specialized version officially.
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Does It really still exist?
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I’ve thought the same thing about Jaws, it would be interesting to keep everything else the same, but try and make the shark look a little more realistic. (And of course not replace the original version entirely.)
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