Now that Star Wars VII is in the making, I thought about addressing some things I've thought. Also, I saw something that had good reasons, and I have used some of them in here, so if things seem familiar, that's why.
Reason one: It’s not the first time Star Wars has been altered.
Now, everyone and their dog knows that Star Wars
has been altered before. What I’m saying is that by now we should
expect this. Besides, none of the changes are really that big. A few
CGI monsters added? So what? The biggest change I can think of is
putting Hayden Christensen at the end of Return of the Jedi instead
of the original actor. While I think this is unnecessary I understand
the reasoning behind it. It’s the same reason they replaced a human
Jabba the Hut with a CGI version before adding that scene back into A New Hope;
Continuity. In any case, if you think about it,
the changes aren’t that big, and even though we can expect more I doubt
the core movie will change that much. Did the plot completely change? If it did, then there would be a reason to be pissed off at some of the changes. Obi-Wan may have a new sound, but
in the end it does the same thing, and that’s scare off the sand
people. And the reason Christensen is at the end of Return of the Jedi is for Anakin to go back to how he was before he went to the Dark Side.
Reason Two: The power of CGI.
I heard somewhere that, originally, stormtroopers rode on camels
while searching for R2-D2 and C-3PO in the desert. I’m not certain how
true that it is, but I know they weren’t riding on those awesome CGI
monsters in the original cut. The CGI tech that made this possible
wasn’t available when Star Wars first came out, but you can’t
deny that its inclusion has made galaxy far far away come alive, more so
than before. I count the imagination more important than the
technology, but the tech certainly helps. Jurassic Park benefited from CGI instead of stop animation to bring dinosaurs to life, which while it would've been cool but the CGI helped a lot, the CGI in Star Wars has been a blessing, especially with that replacement of a puppet Yoda with a CGI character in The Phantom Menace. Seriously, that is a good replacement.
Compared to the lively and expressive puppet from the original (which
I'm glad they kept the puppet) the one from that first prequel
was still and emotionless. It seemed to have lifeless eyes. A dolls eyes. That’s one case where the change is for the
better.
Reason Three: No movie is perfect.
This should go without saying, but I’ll say it anyway. No movie is
perfect. Even the original trilogy, as great as it is, has some flaws. Return of the Jedi opens
with a scene to resolve the ending to the previous movie, and then goes
on to tell the real third story, which is a little awkward. A New Hope
has that rather tedious lightsaber duel between Vader and Obi-Wan (who
was a little old for that sort of thing) and a few shots of X-Wing and
Tie fighters reused. A slight distraction if you ask me. Then The Empire Strikes Back
has that famous scene. Don’t get me wrong, finding out that Vader was
really Luke’s father was a shocking revelation and really effective, but
thinking back on it, I’m surprised Vader didn’t react to Luke saying
that Vader, who was really Luke’s father, killed Luke’s father. Vader
wouldn’t have known that Obi-Wan told him that. Why wasn’t he
surprised, or even amused by this information? I'm surprised Vader didn't try and convince him to think about everything and try to convince him to join the Dark Side better, than just ruling the galaxy. Especially since Luke doesn't seem to care about taking over the Imperial Empire. It didn’t seem to phase Vader at all. Like I said, it was a great revelation, and the movies were
all great, but they weren’t perfect. If George Lucas wants to make
some changes, I say he’s perfectly within his rights to do so. Especially since he created the damn series. Everyone wants the Directors/Creators of movies to have final cut, but if George Lucas does it, he should be burnt at the cross. He should be able to make changes if he wants to.
To a point.
I’ll admit, even I don’t like the idea of Darth Vader crying out:
“No. NOOOOO!!!” But I have a reason for it. Part of the tension and
mystery of that final movie came from what was going on behind Vader’s
mask. Was there some good in him? Was Luke fooling himself? You
didn’t know a clue what Vader was thinking right up until that last
moment. Sure, ‘No!’ might have been what Vader was thinking, but people
who have never seen Star Wars (and I know there are some)
wouldn’t know that, until you spoil it for them. For that reason let
Vader’s thoughts remain thoughts, and keep us in the dark until Vader
makes up his mind. Actions speak louder than words after all. Let him
throwing the emperor into the reactor finally give us the truth, not the
word ‘no.’
In the end the alterations are a double-edged sword. Some can help
the movies, others don’t matter, and some make things less effective.
Even if a change makes things better, there will be people who don’t
like it. There always has to be someone that hates something for no good reason but they will hate it regardless. It's human nature. If everyone liked something, there would then be someone that says "This is so stupid! Why did they do That?!" All things considered there is one thing that validates
changes to Star Wars for me: At the end of Return of the Jedi, once
the good guys have won, it cuts to three different planets all
celebrating the defeat of the Empire before settling down on Endor where
our heroes are. However now that's a lie with new movies after VI, spin-off movies, and Disney owning it, when they haven't made something original in along time, but that's another story. It’s as if, while they celebrate their victory, the
entire galaxy celebrates with them. It’s a party
across the galaxy! And you know something? To
my knowledge it wasn’t in the original version of the movie. Nothing changed that everyone is happy the Empire is gone. If
anything that scene proves that something good can come from changes, no matter how unnecessary some of them were,
but then again, maybe that’s just me.
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