Pros and cons about changes to the original Star Wars movies

Star Wars was and probably always shall have an important place in my life. I saw the first movie a few times now and then with fascination but fully understood it at age seven when my uncle showed me the whole trilogy and also got me my very own set on VHS which were pirated but just as good.

The franchise and it's characters had a kind of familiarity in them like almost no other franchise that you have. From 1993 onwards Star Wars had a place in my heart and soul.

Then I first saw the special edition of Star Wars in 1997 when one of my relatives bought The Empire Strikes Back on VHS for me when visiting from the UK.
This was when I was living in my home city Karachi until the year 2000 when I moved out of Pakistan.

I told my relative I already have it but he explained this is the special edition. I didn't quite understand until I put it on and saw Lucasfilm's short presentation on the special edition and on into the movie with all the changes.
I was thrilled and I immediately wanted to see the other two movies in their special edition versions. Even before then, I recall hearing all the big talk from adults about Star Wars, that it has been improved.

Again I didn't know anything until I viewed my VHS copy of The Empire Strikes Back. Since I loved it and thought the updates were absolutely brilliant, I hoped to get rid of my original trilogy VHS set and have them replaced with these special editions.

At that time any preference of the original versions to the special editions was simply unthinkable. And seeing the 1997 special editions, I still think highly of them. The reason is they were mostly improvements to the empty original versions that really needed improvements such as the mouth of sarlaac in the pit of carkoon in Return of the Jedi.

But purchasing the latest DVD editions as well as reading the history of changes in the original Star Wars trilogy, I started to have second thoughts. While 1997 special editions were a leap forward for the Star Wars trilogy as well as met the standards of a next generation audience, George Lucas did go too far when he actually cut out sounds and dialogue from the original versions.

I totally agree with the improvements in the special effects, some of which the 1997 special editions failed to catch. For example the light sabers in the 1997 releases were still dull color whereas the DVD versions had them polished and glowing all up to the standard to appease the fans.
I simply cannot enjoy the movies unless the special editions to their fullest.

But seeing how at least half of the changes made by Lucasfilms on the original trilogy hurt them more than they improved. If it were up to me, I would have added improvements to the originals, including suitable deleted scenes, while leaving the original footage and dialogue alone.
I however did prefer the newer ending in Return of the Jedi. It's a well suited ending for a well loved and important saga which ended in restoring freedom to an entire galaxy.

Now with the latest news about the blue-ray releases, I may rent it to see if it's worth buying, though I doubt it, especially seeing some terrible changes made to the original triology.

I think if Lucas had just released the 1997 special editions on DVD with a few slight corrections, I doubt we'd have fans screaming today for the original unaltered versions.
Lucky for me I have a pirated DVD copy of the 1997 special edition of The Empire Strikes Back copied from a laserdisc in perfect print and wide-screen format with a laserdisc scene selection menu.

Even the cover art is copied from the laserdisc and the disc itself had the Empire Strikes Back logo neatly printed on it. It's even better than buying an officially released version with poor cover art.

But coming back to deleted scenes and the negative edits, I think Lucas has damaged the originals to the point that there will be no single version loved by all fans which is why I see fans including myself extracting their favorites scenes from the original cuts and the updated cuts and combining them to satisfy themselves.

With modern technology being available to more than just professional filmmakers such a dream is not far away.

Planet of the Apes DVD box set review

I'm not a such strong fan of the Planet of the Apes franchise but at the same time I have a good liking for it. I like the concept, plot lines, philosophy and other themes that make me enjoy and appreciate the franchise. Also given that I love science fiction more than any other form of literature or media.

I have to also admit that I don't get entertained by movies and games as much as I used to, so yes a lot of my spare time can be wasted on boredom.

So once or twice a year I rent/purchase a movie or a game to bring me out of my boredom. Seeing all the classic Planet of the Apes movies almost a decade back on television and on VHS, I thought of it as a good set of films to add to my then limited DVD collection to help keep me out of my boredom during my spare time.

Add to that all the movies were being sold at an affordable price of about forty dollars.
I can't state that I didn't like the DVD box set but at the same time it was definitely not worth my money. I wasn't too crazy about these movies to start with. I actually only liked the first two movies in the series, but I'm not sure if even those two are worth buying.

The problem with the first film Planet of the Apes is while it's filled with good acting, philosophy, dramatic twists etc. it still lacks action and events must take a long time to proceed for the audience to understand the theme of the entire saga.

The problem with the other three movies is they take three intelligent apes from the first two movies back in time to modern Earth using a wrecked spaceship that humans somehow could not repair. If you watch Taylor (played by Charlton Heston) and his crew members monitoring their spacecraft sinking into the lake, Taylor replies "we're here to stay" in response to his crew member reporting their ship has completely sunk.

So one main error of the filmmakers is ruining the saga's realism by giving apes who can barely build towns and guns the ability to pilot let alone repair a ship that can fly at light speed and go backwards in time.
And if it was John Brent's ship that was used to travel back in time, it only hurts the realism even more since that ship was terribly crippled and was beyond repair.

Even if these errors weren't there the whole time travel concept kills the realism of the story just as much.

The story continuing in Escape from the Planet of the Apes not only by this time has taken away the realism from what was supposed to be a science fiction movie series, but also declined the plot and storyline with boring scenes that drag the movie till an ending climax.
This is the same for Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and the Battle of the Planet of the Apes, although I did prefer this one due to it's action sequences.

But aside from that, the last three films are still poor in quality. I found Beneath the Planet of the Apes to be the best one because it balanced out action sequences with dialogue and adventure which the first movie mostly lacked.

So in a box set of five films in which I really end up enjoying one or two films at the most, I answer the question of is it worth buying with a simple no. And since I watch these movies very occasionally or at best in the company of a friend/family, I am not too keen on them and I do plan on selling them soon.

My personal recommendation to readers who are interested in this film franchise is to rent each film and watch them in chronological order to feel the excitement of watching them once. Other than that I do not recommend them being purchased. I don't mean to suggest they are completely bad. As mentioned, there were good things in the series and without a doubt they were far superior to the terrible 2001 Planet of the Apes remake.

But again, even these classic movies are certainly not worth more than a few dollars of your hard earned money.

If you're a hardcore fan, then it's best to purchase them second hand (used) and save money. After all they are the same movies that you saw on TV and/or VHS but in a different format, giving a full improvement in sound and picture quality.
There's also an additional documentary disc included in the set on the making of the series which is interesting to watch once, but not really a must have in my opinion.

If you think you'll be watching these movies from time to time, I still recommend getting them second hand or simply renting them. It is simply not worth buying the DVD box set brand new as I did and for the price I did. You can trust me on that.