I finally got around to buying Star Wars on DVD (I know - shockingly late but never mind) they were three for £20 with the original and digitally remastered versions 2 disc set or £23 each (crazy)! in HMV.

Anyway - I am happy as I am watching A New Hope knowing that next comes my favourite - Empire Strikes Back. Ooh that music is making my neck all tingly!

Happy Days!

Everyone and every poll rates Empire as the best of the original trilogy, so I hope you enjoy seeing it again, especially if you haven't seen it for a while.

I have to admit that I prefer Return, but then I find Empire just a bit too melodramatic for my tastes and prefer the sense of fun in the final one. Yes I know I'm wrong, but I doubt that anything as trivial as that will alter my preferences.

Just remember that Han shot first!

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

Happiness is good!

We're waiting for them on BluRay!

Are they the remastered ones? With the cgi bits put in?

I definitely liked Empire least of the original trilogy (though I liked it quite a lot!) What can I say--I'm just a sucker for a happy ending.

They are all 2 disc sets with the digitally remasterred version on the first disc and the original theatrical ones on the second disc - many hours of pleasure! I must admit I just love that bit where the storm trooper whacks his head off the overhang! For ages Return was my favourite but then I just love it when Han and Leai get together and Cloud City, Yoda, the Hoth scenes - I just love Empire! I really annoy anyone who sits next to me when watching as I can pretty much go line for line through the second two! I feel sorry for A New Hope as it was the original that started the whole thing off but I just prefer the second two.

Opinions on the prequels?

For myself, I was bawled over by the IV, V and VI which kick started years of obsession, I just wasn't amazed by the prequels and then theres Jar Jar...

I do like Empire, just not as much as the other. I was almost ejected from the cinema when Yoda first spoke. My cry of "It's Fozzie!" sort of spoiled the mood for about 500 people fully immersed in the story.......................

I don't mind the prequels. It is a shame George Lucas forgot that he only directed one of the first trilogy. They have their moments and I can even put up with Jar Jar. He is no more annoying than C3 after all. He was there to sell toys, as were most of the characters and vehicles in the first trilogy. No-one will convince me that the AT-ATs and Chicken Walkers were serious attempts at military vehicles!

I prefer the unenhanced stories, but the picture quality is so much better in the played-with versions.

Finally, I will end up buying them all again when they are available on Blu-ray/HD-DVD assuming that by then I have a good enough, big enough screen to appreciate them. I just hope that GL will stop fiddling with them.

+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

My computer beat me at chess, but I won at kickboxing

In my opinion, the first two prequels were entertaining, but not even close to the originals. The third one was MUCH better than the first two, and had some great scenes, but then they ruined it with one word: "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!"

I must admit, I do have issues with the remastered ones. Although mainly with the bit where Christian Hayden's face was inserted over the scarred Darth Vader face. But I'm a geek and I prefer to watch them on my old scratchy videos with all the lights off so I can better pretend I'm in a spaceship...

I admit that I wasn't happy with the revisionist nonsense of the so-called prequels. The force is a genetic, blood-related thing all of a sudden? Darth Vader started out as an annoying little kid who raced go-carts?

At the very least, Lucas should have gotten a director instead of doing it himself, not to mention a script editor! Nobody in his right mind would have approved the garbage that was the first new movie, the Phantom's Shorts or whatever it was. But the USA is full of people not in their right minds, and Georgie was surrounded by American movie people who knew a cash cow when they saw it, no matter how poorly the script was written (bad scripts are nothing new to Hollywood, after all).

There was of course no excuse for the additional footage. To ruin a great piece of film -- which belongs not to him, but to everyone who paid to see it and made it a classic -- by adding music videos (cf. Jabba's palace) and putting new actors' faces over the originals is the height of creative blasphemy (within its own context), arrogance, wayward sanity and narcissistic disregard for the childhoods of the millions of people who grew up with the real Star Wars films.

Ol' Psycho George was about to screw up Raiders of the Lost Ark in the same way, but fortunately, the South Park guys made an episode about it that caused such a stir, Lucas and Spielberg changed their minds, realizing how many Indiana Jones fans would be angry. Good ol' Matt and Trey.

Um.....what was the question again?

Don't know, have you considered politics?

I must confess that I haven't seen the third new one - hope that makes sense cos I just wasn't swept up by the first two, it is sitting in my room waiting to be watched, I am assured it is much better but still.. maybe that is this weekend's mission. It is strange seeing as Star Wars is acxtually a period of my life - people say oh yeah you really liked Star Wars... then slowly walk away not making eye cotact! Well I am in tonight so I think Empire will be having an outing on the screen after Property Ladder.

I thought the third one was not bad. The best Star Wars is still Lego Star wars.

This was a friend of mine who did some random scenes using stop motion and Lego....

Not too far off either.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Lego starwars rocks!

MuseSusan Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I definitely liked Empire least of the original
> trilogy (though I liked it quite a lot!) What can
> I say--I'm just a sucker for a happy ending.


Empire is my favorite... but it didn't really HAVE an ending, did it? I feel sorry for anyone who actually had to wait for Jedi to be released to find out what happened next. Mean trick.

As for the digitally remasted stuff, I can't comment. George Lucas is a fiend worthy of Goliath and WILL not get any more of my money!!

Ya. But I liked Empire the best.

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

(Empire is fandabbydosey!!!)

GASP SHOCK HORROR!!! I watched the re-mastered Jedi - OMG! Totally unimpressed by the replacement of poor Darth into some pretty boy, but also was about to ponder how come Alec hasn't been Turned into Ewan but then spose it's something to do with their last presence in the light side of the force, but didn't Darth convert at the end? Argh my head is spinning with force related questions!

Lego Star Wars is ridiculously good, but I'd refrain from saying it's the best Star Wars - the original trilogy is still tremendous fun to watch. In original versions. Dunno which is my favourite - Empire is probably the best film, but I still like the other two. I even like (and here goes my reputation) the Ewoks - stupid teddy bears they may appear to be, but at least they're still used in a cheery, amusing way (unlike Jar-Jar). Original Star Wars (and Lego Star Wars) sends me straight back to simple childhood, anyway, so that may help explain it.

The remastered versions are horrific though. They couldn't change Alec Guinness back into Ewan, since he's been Alec throughout the trilogy.

Until, of course, Lucas decides to refilm all the Obi-Wan bits with Ewan and then digitally include him...

Oh, I got the same excellent deal from HMV too. Along with discounted @#$%& Royale and a student discount on top of it all. It's really satisfying, seeing a receipt saying Subtotal: £96.95, Total (after discounts): £38.65

That is nice....

__________________________________
'We're all mad here. I'm mad, you're mad." [said the Cat.]
"How do you know I'm mad?" said Alice.
"You must be," said the Cat, "Or you wouldn't have come here."
- Lewis Carroll, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland

Ooh dear...I've just noticed that the first word in the title of the first Bond book/most recent Bond film/spoof film of the sixties (starring Peter Sellers and David Niven among others) has been automatically censored! Hmmm.

For those who don't know it, it's Cas-ino Royale.

aria Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> MuseSusan Wrote:
> I feel sorry for anyone who
> actually had to wait for Jedi to be released to
> find out what happened next. Mean trick.

That was me and my friends, as kids. I was 12 when Return of the Jedi finally came out. I can't begin to articulate the popularity of that last movie. Just imagine the word of mouth about "how things turned out at the end," after the Star Wars build-up since 1977! Hundreds were packed into movie houses for weeks and weeks. Kids in school used to make things up, taunting those who hadn't seen the film yet. "And it turns out that Chewbacca is the Emperor's nephew." "Really?" "Well, I could be making it up...I might not, though." "Ugghhh!" (Smack)