Included in the four disc set are all three movies in the Star Wars Trilogy: A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. All three movies look and sound great and feature a host of touch ups and improvements on all fronts of the presentation. Especially noticeable are the lightsabers, which look even better than they did in the 1997 Special Editions. Other scenes, which showed the telltale signs of overlay in the Special Editions, have been cleaned up and look much better. However, these changes aren't what have the vocal minority's (and believe me, a few people can make much more noise than a crowd) Luke Skywalker underoos all up in a bunch. Similar to the Special Editions, all three movies have been touched up and had new elements added to them -- both to tie them to the prequels a little better and to just make them look a little better. Some of the "improvements" work, while others would have been better left untouched.
The list of New Hope changes are few. One of the more controversial aspects of the Special Editions, the cantina scene where Han kills the bounty hunter Greedo in cold blood, has again been altered. Much to the dismay of many a Han Solo fan, including myself, Greedo still shoots first. Only now, Han shows off some kind of mad Jedi reflexes and dodges Greedo's shot. Its still not as good as the original, but what can you do? The Jabba scene is also retained but now contains a newer model of Jabba. Unfortunately the new model looks just as bad as the original, so its not much of an improvement.
Empire features one of the two major changes seen in the DVD release. The scene where Vader talks to the Emperor has been completely redubbed and the crummy looking Emperor has been replaced with Ian McDiarmid, the actor who plays Palpatine in Return of the Jedi and the Prequel Trilogy. The redo of the scene makes one of the first real connections to the prequels and even ends up changing the look of future events in both Empire and Return of the Jedi. The gist of the scene is that both the Emperor and Vader know who Luke is -- something that was left as a mystery in the previous editions. This will undoubtedly raise more questions than it will answer (at least among the Rhodes Scholars that inhabit many a chat forum), but its still a neat change. The other big change is that Boba Fett's lines have all been redubbed by Temuera Morrison (Jango Fett and the legions of clones in Episode II). Honestly, if I hadn't had this pointed out to me I probably wouldn't have noticed. This may cast doubt on my standing in the Star Wars fandom, but Boba Fett had so few lines in the movie does this even matter? Again, a good change that makes logical sense and is only likely to tick off the guys already waiting in line for Episode III.
Now we come to the showstopper. The main event. The big change that really got the fanboys going and that has generated the most talk on the mental wastelands of the internet -- Hayden's Ghost. Until now Sebastian Shaw has had one glowing achievement in his life. Since the original release of Return of the Jedi, he has been known as "That Guy" or "The Fat Guy Who Played Vader". Sadly, Mr. Shaw's claim to fame is reserved only for VHS and the fading memories of Gen X'ers as he has been replaced with the current Anakin/Vader, Hayden Christensen. Again, this is just one of those changes that seems to make perfectly logical sense to me, but seems to be eluding people. While I don't understand the primary language of binary load lifters, I do have my moments so if you'll let me weigh in on the issue, otherwise, skip the next paragraph.
Long story short, just like Obi-Wan said, Vader is more machine than man, which suggests that when Anakin became Vader, Anakin died. This means that he didn't age to become a 50-year old fat guy (as in the original release) but instead died as the 20-something guy portrayed in the prequels. Without the fancy armor and iron lung, Vader wouldn't be around. Anyway, this is one of those things that will have certain people arguing about for years, so it?s a waste of time to argue the point. But then again, that's what makes it fun -- right?
Also included with the movies is a fourth disk featuring a load of extras, the more noticeable of them being "Empire of Dreams", a documentary by Kevin Burns on the making of the Star Wars Trilogy. This is something every Star Wars fan needs to see since it sheds so much light on the difficulties George Lucas had in getting the saga put on film. Also included are rare, never before seen screen tests. Kurt Russell as Han Solo? It could have happened. Other features on the disc include things like the birth of the lightsaber and creature creation. The real sad part is that of all the extras that are on the disc, there's still much more that could have been included but wasn't, such as deleted scenes. The absence of deleted scenes was one of the major disappointments I had with the extras, as it would have been nice to see some of the stuff that never made it.
The menu systems on each disc are a lot of fun and worthy of mention. Each movie features three "themes" that load up each time you pop the movie in. For example, if you load up Empire, the menus will show up as either a Dagobah, Bespin or Hoth theme. The menu interface doesn't change, but the presentation does. Its a small thing, but its pretty damn cool at the same time.
Okay, so the movies have been "tweaked", news that has thrown numerous fans? galaxies out of whack faster than any Death Star. While they have every right to piss and groan, there comes a time when you have to ask, "Is the complaining really worth it?". You're still getting the same movies. Its not like Lucas went in, replaced all the guns with radios (like a certain director did with E.T.) and changed the ENTIRE movie. Sometimes you just have to put all the fanboy whining aside and go with the flow. You know you're going to buy it despite what you tell your internet buddies, the guy dressed like Princess Leia waiting next to you in line or the three people listening to your ?show? on the local college radio station, so get over it -- its Star Wars! This is the movie the DVD format was made for.
