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.

Youtube's annoying 'upgrades.'

YouTube is probably my favorite website. It offers so much entertainment that television offered except you don't have annoying adds in the middle or in between shows and the best part being you get to watch what you want when you want.

The advantages a YouTube account offers is more than any video rental/sale store like blockbuster or any other can offer. But then comes the negative part. A negative part that can so easily be removed if it was not for the carelessness of the webmasters.

In the first years of YouTube (YT) gaining popularity, it was somewhat easy to use. All the control panels were clearly visible and easy to operate. But then YT starting going through upgrades to try and make things easier, which were also successful in the beginning.

For example, gaining access to your account controls were simplified. But then these unnecessary upgrades kept going on every few months. Most people did not complain, at least from what I noticed.

In 2009 things started to heat up amongst users when YT introduced the beta channel. This resulted in many users posting videos and petitions protesting the move. Regardless, YT proceeded with the move, but through a different path of individually changing channels.

The 'beta channels' did not turn out to be as bad as perceived, at least in my opinion. I found it saved a person lots of energy by playing the user's videos and favorites directly on the channels.
I'm sure the new comers would find this feature somewhat easier.

But then YT seems to get all excited with their upgrades and decide to further change the site, making it so much more difficult to navigate through. Related videos and other videos uploaded by the user were available in the sidebar. Now, all the other uploads by the user are tucked away on the top with a button to display/undisplay them.

On the right side instead of other uploads by the user and related videos, you have a bunch of adds, which gives an indication of money making. I'm not going to get into the subject of corporate takeover, even though that's what seems to be happening slowly to YT.

But the point is these 'upgrades' actually feel more like downgrades. To rate a comment or reply to it or flag it, you must take your cursor to the comment to do such things. Before all these options were displayed right on the comment.

The video description instead of being placed on the side of the video is also now tucked away below the video screen and required you to press a scroll down bar. By clicking the description and video category drop down, they appear, pushing all the comments and replies even further down.

Before video responses to another video were clearly visible below the video screen. Now, they are found in the heart of the comments! So if you have several responses to a video, you have to search through the video comments to find them.

Then there is accessing your account which requires you to take your cursor onto your user name and click to display options. Previously, all you had to do was take your cursor to your user name and select your options. Navigating through your account options is so difficult.

Your commutations with other users was so simple. But with the latest 'upgrades' (downgrades), selecting the various features such as your in-box, comments, friend invites etc. requires more navigation.

How does YT expect people from an older generation or newcomers to operate within their system? I have been on YT for more than three years (my first uploads were in the summer of 2007) but even I as a regular user have difficulty adjusting to these 'upgrades.' Even if you are not a YT member, you'll find navigating through videos with these 'upgrades' has become more complicated.

Upgrading the site every few months at such a fast pace doesn't seem beneficial at all to me. I feel after their previous updates a few months back, the site was as good as it could get, but with the latest update, it's become a real hassle using the site.
If YT feels it necessary to upgrade, then it should be done once a year at the most, with an explanation of why they're doing it.

Superman Returns movie review

My review on this movie is overall negative and I have more than enough good reasons for it. This is not to say I disliked everything in the movie.
First off the worst part of this story is that is not a remake of the original Superman movies starring Christopher Reeve, but rather a continuation of them.

This in my opinion was the worst part of the movie and the worst mistake of the producers.
Christopher Reeve's Superman was simply a classic, this is agreed by most Superman fans and non-fans alike. Christopher Reeve has everything required for a Superman. He had the handsome appearance, he had the build, he had the voice, he played the role with profession.

Reeve truly became the spirit of Superman and a spirit that was irreplaceable. Most people especially fans saw Superman and Christopher Reeve as one. He came into our minds when we tried to imagine what Superman looked like.

So when you loose the actor who becomes the spirit of the character, it's very rare that you can resurrect him artificially by getting another actor to play the same role.
This is exactly what happened with Superman. When Christopher Reeve departed from the world of the living, so did Superman.

This is why Superman Returns lacked the spirit of the rest of the Superman movies with Christopher Reeve.
Not only was Brandon Routh an artificial attempted replacement for Reeve (I don't even see much resemblance between the two), but he also lacked character and had nothing of Christopher Reeve's Superman in him.

Then there was of course the part of poor storyline. Just about every critic of this move mentions this and rightfully so. This storyline is one who can randomly pull out of just about any Superman comic book.
Nothing special or epic about it. And it is part of a never ending story. Lex Luthor tries something evil, Superman foils it. This goes on and on with no possible ending in sight.

Here are some of the good things. The special affects especially the flying sequences were obviously better, given that we live in a much later time era than Christopher Reeve's Superman quadrilogy releases. I also liked Brandon Routh's Superman suit which seemed to be made of thicker cloth and plastic than Christopher Reeve's thin suit. Having a thicker suit for Superman makes it look more realistic to it not being scratched or damaged when Superman is attacked.

Another final taste added to the dull theme of the movie was the producers giving Superman a son by Lois Lane.
Perhaps this is a sign of continuation of the story from the same cycle of Superman saving the day from another random plot.
Perhaps the story may continue with a "next generation Superman" with the son replacing the father.

I do not recommend people buying this movie on DVD, especially a new unopened copy. Those curious about the movie should rent the movie and if they like, buy a used copy which is cheaper.

Striking similarities between Mark Hamill and Christopher Reeve

Looking through their biographies and the most important characters they have played, I felt it's time for me to share what I see are striking similarities between these two gentlemen who are probably my favorite actors.





Both these actors were born exactly one year apart. Mark Hamill was born on September 25th, 1951 while Christopher Reeve was born on the exact same date on September 25th, 1952 (though Reeve looks like the older one to me).

Both men were born in the same country, except different parts. Mark in California and Chris in New York.
Both men suffered through accidents, except Christopher Reeve's accident was much more severe.

Both men had three children of the same gender ratio. Two sons and a daughter for both except that Christopher Reeve had his second son from his second wife.

Both actors were not famous and mostly unknown until they were cast into their two important roles.
Both their movies were released about a year apart. Star Wars: A New Hope was released in 1977 and Superman in 1978.

Both their famous movies had theme soundtracks directed by composer John Williams.
Christopher Reeve was trained in body building by David Prowse the man who became Darth Vader in the original Star Wars trilogy and worked with Mark Hamill during the dual scenes.

Both men also starred together in Village of the Damned.

Characters:





Both Luke Skywalker and Superman also lead very similar lives. Both were orphans since infancy and were raised by foster guardians which they both lost at early adulthood.
Both characters were raised on farms and helped work on them until adulthood.

Both also reached heroism at early adulthood and left the places where they grew up.

While Luke Skywalker was guided by Obi-Wan Kenobi first in life then in spirit, Superman/Kal El was guided by his father's spirit.
Both turn out to be powerful heroes in their respective story lines.

Both suffered through temporary defeats, Superman at the hands of Lex Luthor and Luke Skywalker at the hands of Darth Vader. Both rise to victory soon after their temporary defeat.

Both the characters and their movies spanned fame on Earth in the same time era throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

Anyone else noticed these similarities? Any other similarities that were missed? Leave your comments.

Most favorited cartoons of the 1980s in Pakistan and the rest of the world.

During the early 1980s up till the mid 90s, a sizable number of epic classic action cartoons were aired in America and the West.
Naturally, they were broadcast in many countries worldwide including Pakistan where access to Western media has been available ever since television was launched from the late forties and early fifties.

These cartoons were perhaps the more adored and admired than cartoons ever have been in history. As I today read and hear of how these cartoons soared in popularity in America, Pakistani channels simultaneously were hit with these same cartoons in the nineteen eighties and early nineties. Their popularity was so great that they even spread to the non-English speaking middle class.

With their soaring popularity in Pakistan, some of these cartoons had to be dubbed in Urdu. Even the opening theme of Ninja Turtles was dubbed. I was born in 1986, so I was pretty much a part of this time era. It was a truly extra-ordinary childhood.

At school in Karachi, my kindergarten classes were filled with chatter of these cartoons. Lunchtime/recess was dominated by the pretense of living in the worlds of the cartoons and playing the roles of the characters featured in them.
Various Pakistani franchises took advantage of the boom and marketed material from sweet wrappings to stickers, lunchboxes and other cheap products.

These cartoons reached their peaks from the mid nineteen eighties till the mid nineties. There were so many various cartoons such as SilverHawks, He-Man, Bionic Six, Turbo Teen, Ninja Turtles, Saber Rider and the Star Sheriffs, The Transformers, Tiger Sharks, Mr T and my favorite one of all ThunderCats.

I believe ThunderCats was also probably the most popular of all cartoons as it was also dubbed into Urdu and aired on various Pakistani channels more times than I can count.
The video rental/sale stores were stacked with VCR tapes of ThunderCats and other cartoons of that time era.

Note that the above cartoons mentioned are only a handful of the cartoons that aired during the eighties and nineties and perhaps the most popular. There were several other animated shows that I was not exposed to until now and still those that I have yet to see or hear of.

My middle class friends in Pakistan knew some of these cartoons even better than I did. Even till today, I have yet to find anything in the media that can match these cartoons. Many people who grew up with them in the same time era as me agree on this.

Watching these cartoons today does not mean simply seeing the action all over again. It actually takes me to the days of my childhood in Karachi. A time where school and friends were amongst the most fun parts of life. A time when life lacked serious responsibilities and was full of happiness.
These cartoons also take me back to a certain familiarity that childhood brings you. Being in an environment in your first decade leaves strong feelings of familiarity in your heart and mind. These feelings will probably be with you throughout life.

The cartoons of the nineteen eighties and nineties were an important part of this "familiar environment."
When you watch these cartoons again as a young adult, you turn on one memory of the familiar environment which automatically turns on all the other memories/feelings of that time.

As already mentioned, watching these cartoons is not just about watching the action. Not then, not now. Because as a child my English was not as advanced as it is now, (Urdu is my native language) I was not able to grasp their themes properly. However as I grew older I began to understand the themes behind most of the ThunderCats episodes.

For instance a big game hunter who goes across the galaxy hunting and imprisoning his targets for fun. He seeks the ThunderCats as his new challenge and puts up quite a bullyish attitude until his defeat shows him to be a coward.

Another episode showed Lion-O the ThunderCats leader, prematurely attack an alien because of the alien's ghastly appearance. This resulted in a battle between him and the alien. Only at the end of the episode, did Lion-O realize his mistake, that judging an individual based on his/her appearance is wrong.
There was even one great episode where Snarf the weakest and powerless of all the ThunderCats managed to rescue all the other ThunderCats from enemy captivity.

The enemies underestimated him and so he managed to catch them off guard and save his friends. Even some of the other ThunderCats were also amazed how he was able to pull-off the rescue. The end scene of the episode left Snarf and Lion-O uttering Lion-O's saying "you never know what you can do until you try."

Just about every episode carried behind it a moral theme or lesson that children and adults could learn from or deeply think about.
Though I did not watch too many episodes of He-Man and the Masters of the Universe, that cartoon too carried themes of morality in it's episodes. Mr T followed along the same lines. At the end of his animated episodes, he would appear live in front of the camera and speak a few lines.

After one of his episodes, Mr T spoke of it's theme and his message "now listen up, this is serious! If you plan on doing something wrong, even if the reasons are good, think twice! Because you may get yourself and everybody else into a whole lot of trouble. Take it from me- Mr T."

SilverHawks was another popular cartoon but worked on slightly different lines. Instead of preaching morality, the cartoon covered scientific facts, particularly astronomy as it was set in outer space. So SilverHawks also had useful themes, except in a different area.

Another extremely positive thing these particular cartoons had in them is that they did not represent any country, at least most of them anyway. Because many of these cartoons took place in outer space or different planets, there was no representation of any single country in them, something that most Hollywood movies seem to lack.

Many Hollywood films are centered around America and have made action heroes such as Superman and Spiderman into American icons. Movies made on the characters often have scenes of the them holding an American flag, possibly to remind the audience which country they belong to and/or are loyal to weather Marvel or DC.

Superman even has had a traditional theme tagged behind him: truth, justice and the American way which is repeated in the cartoons and movies.

Most of the 1980s cartoons had no such themes. They either showed humans and other species working as a team to protect society from villains or simply humans working as a whole to defend the world or in the case of ThunderCats, humanoids fighting evil (ThunderCats appeared to be human with cat-like abilities and characteristics, both physical and mental).
The ThunderCats even had a theme behind them: Truth, justice, honor and loyalty.

Any sign of nationality in that? Various other 1980s cartoons such as Defenders of the Earth, The Centurions and others were simply of characters protecting the Earth outside the boundaries of nationality or ethnicity.

So even when these Western-produced cartoons were aired and dubbed in Pakistan during their peaks, a parent or even adult should not have had to worry about Pakistani youth watching them and having their religious, cultural or political beliefs being manipulated by them.

In fact, these cartoons with their themes would have very much the opposite affect of children upholding core human values of peace and justice that every human society and civilization has struggled to strive for.

These positive, educational, borderless themes combined with excellent quality animation, plots/adventures and dialogue is what made them so special. They were giving children basic knowledge, good values, positive for every nationality- all through the means of entertainment.
Sadly Bollywood and Hollywood have often done quite the opposite.

In North America I have noticed much of fictional materiel from cartoons, movies to video games is discarded within a few years of it's release. When I traveled to North America in the 90s, almost no one had heard of ThunderCats, SilverHawks or similar cartoons.

Even with the rise of newer 1990s cartoons such as Mortal Kombat: Defenders of the realm or X-Men, Spiderman, Batman & Superman (the animated series), the nineteen eighties cartoons still aired on Pakistani channels from their time, the eighties right up till the end of the nineteen nineties. Is it even a wonder why?

These cartoons were a very important and special part in the history of film and animation making and popular culture. Always in the future whether tens or hundreds of years from now when newer fictional material comes out, all film makers and people in Pakistan and around the world must always look back to these nineteen eighties cartoons to learn from.

They had extremely unique, special and important roles in the history of film and animation making as well as human society. Something we can all learn from, regardless of our culture, nationality, ethnicity or race. We must never forget them and their benefits.

People interested in the cartoons of their childhood or those interested in popular media of that generation should visit http://www.back-to-the-80s.com/index.html or other sites such as http://www.80scartoons.net/

There are many groups on social networking sites such as twitter which provide information about these 1980s cartoons as well as video sharing sites as myspace and YouTube which have clips or even some full episodes of these cartoons. If one is lucky some Urdu dubs can also be found.

Those strange terribly made independent movies.

Have readers ever rented movies from movie stores like Blockbuster with titles they've never seen or heard of? Have readers ever searched these "movies" on the Internet with little or no search results?
It has happened to me a few times. I've picked films from Blockbuster with titles I've never heard of and show almost no search results on the Internet.

And every single time, these movies such as Junior Pilot or Stranded are not only unheard of, but are so poor in quality. The worst part of all of this is that I am paying an estimate of the same price that I pay to rent regular movies.

Junior Pilot was so terribly made. A movie about a plane being hijacked by a pair of mad doctors with syringes pointed at anyone who came near them. The plane showed in the movie consisted of different shots of different airplane models. Models as in the type or airplane, not scale models. It's like shooting a video of a racing sports car and then shooting another shot of a regular car and depicting them to be the same car in the movie.

If that's not bad enough, then I don't know what is. Paying the same amount for cheap acting, poor storyline and dialog as a good movie with the opposite quality is simply a rip off.

Is it a wonder why corporate film makers such as Hollywood seem to dominate the film industry? Many defenders of these independent films claim that corporate filmmakers have a larger audience due to massive advertising. I totally disagree.

Corporate filmmakers or any filmmaker who properly invests in their films seems to get a huge audience and profit.
Take for example the first Star Wars movie (A new hope) released in 1977. It became a huge hit in America and the world, not due to the massive advertising, but the money it's makers put into it.

Even the most famous Star Wars fan film, Star Wars: Revelations catches up to the quality of the Star Wars franchise due to money being invested into it. This amount was only a few thousand, but it worked.

Until and unless, these independent filmmakers invest a reasonable amount in their movies, it's unfair for their productions to be sitting on Blockbuster shelves and costing the same approximate amount for rental as a heavily invested movie does.

I urge readers to search a movie on the Internet they see at their local video store if they never seen or heard of it's title before wasting their money on it.