The Force Awakens intro

I guess I was one of those people who went into seeing The Force Awakens cautiously, as I didn't know what to expect from Disney and JJ Abrams, but was ultimately left with very mixed feelings about it after seeing it. I loved that JJ decided to go the route of using practical effects, and I also liked seeing the old characters that we grew up with on the big screen again.

That said, my main issues with this movie were as follows:

• The movie concluded with too many unanswered questions and loose ends, more than any of the previous movies by a long shot
• A lot of the themes and plot devices were repetitive and echoed (too closely) those of ANH
• I didn't feel like I liked or connected well to the new characters
• Some of the action sequences were too over-the-top and reminded me of Marvel movies

I don't know if anyone will be making changes to this movie anytime soon, but here is a list of things that I feel could have made the movie better.

Remove Vader's "Noooo"

Why: Up until the BluRay version, Vader was seen as having an internal struggle with himself on whether to help out his son, or whether to be loyal to the Emperor and watch his son die a painful death. Now, that internal struggle isn't so internal anymore because we hear Vader say "No. Nooo!" as he makes his decision to kill the Emperor. The problem with this is that, not only does the new voice sound really corny, it also devalues the meaning of that scene by making it too "in-your-face" and eliminates all traces of intrigue. And for such an important event in the Star Wars saga, it's really a shame to destroy something that everyone has watched and loved up till now. Final decision: get rid of it!

Blu-Ray Changes List

Hey guys, here's a list of the changes made to the movies for the Blu-Ray release, taken from here, and my personal opinion of each change.


Episode I: The Phantom Menace

• A new blurring effect is used when Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan use Force Speed to escape the droidekas

My opinion: totally unnecessary. It looked just fine before, maybe even better than it does now.

• The medium shot of Nute Gunray and Rune Haako observing Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan escaping the droidekas has been replaced with a long shot

My opinion: I don't disagree, but it wasn't something that we needed to see changed.

• After Queen Amidala calls for a vote of no confidence in Chancellor Vallorum, the chant "Vote now!" can no longer be heard in the Senate chamber.

My opinion: Whether or not others in the Senate were also eager to replace Valorum isn't something that the audience was made very aware of, and is IMO irrelevant. I'm completely indifferent about this change.

• In a scene with Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan discussing Anakin's fate on Coruscant, the sun has brightened from orange to white

My opinion: Never really noticed it before... (!!!), but I like it.

• All scenes with Yoda depicted by a puppet have been replaced with a CG model

My opinion: Yes!! We asked for this, and we got it, and I must say I like it. But being the picky fan that I am, I do feel that the CGI version didn't fit into the surroundings as much as it could have, there is one shot where everyone's faces are blurry but Yoda's is crystal sharp. I liked all his facial expressions, they were WAY better than the puppet, but I didn't like the facial expression at the parade at the end, he looked too gloomy for a joyous occasion, even the puppet was smiling.

Episode II: Attack of the Clones

• During the night chase on Coruscant the dialogue and speeder scene are slightly rearranged when Anakin and Obi-Wan pass through the power couplings

My opinion: Better, but not quite there yet...

• During Anakin's nightmare scene, a voiceover of his mother Shmi has been added.

My opinion: I love it!! Glad they listened to reason.

• After Yoda saves Obi-Wan and Anakin from Dooku's falling pillar, the reaction shots of Yoda and then Anakin and Obi-Wan are moved up before the shots of Dooku escaping on his ship and Padme and the clonetroopers arriving and firing at him.

My opinion: I didn't think this was possible, but that change made AOTC even worse. Perhaps they had this change in mind, but that wasn't the way to go about it. After Dooku takes off does look at bit better, but them completely freezing while Dooku's ship is still there is ridiculous. They should have just deleted those shots instead of moving them.

Episode III: Revenge of the Sith

• The scene transition from Padme's ship to Anakin on Mustafar has been changed from a straight cut back to a wipe, restoring the original theatrical release.

My opinion: Never noticed it, but... cool. Goes without saying though.

Episode IV: A New Hope

• Obi-Wan's Krayt Dragon call has once again been changed.

My opinion: Well it is a bit better than the last one, I like the echo effect that goes with the canyons, but I don't get why they changed it from the original in the first place.

• In the scene where Obi-Wan discovers R2 hiding in an alcove, rocks have been digitally inserted into the frame to hide the droid.

My opinion: Completely pointless, and it creates a continuity error. 

• The shot of Han and Greedo firing at each other has been shortened by several frames from the 2004 DVD version.

My opinion: It looks slightly better, but that's not the point.

• Luke's green lightsaber aboard the Millennium Falcon from the 2004 DVD has been corrected and is now blue.

My opinion: Blue? You call that blue? Really...

• The audio errors during the Battle of Yavin in the 2004 DVD have been corrected.

My opinion: Naturally these types of errors should be fixed without saying.

Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back

• In the shot when the wampa mauls Luke's tauntaun, the puppeteer's arm can no longer be seen.

My opinion: Another error that should be fixed without saying.

• In an exterior shot of Cloud City featuring Leia waiting for Han in her apartment, a reflection can now be seen in Leia's window.

My opinion: It does add a bit more realism, so I'm all for it.

Episode VI: Return of the Jedi

• A static long shot of R2D2 and C3PO approaching the door to Jabba's palace has been replaced with an extreme long shot revealing more of the door, as the camera zooms in on the droids.

My opinion: Not bad but it's not something that was desperately needed... If I died and never saw that, I wouldn't have missed anything.

•  There are now brighter flashes of light when Han is released from the carbonite.

My opinion: I have to say I like it, it improves the effect, but not greatly.

• A CG Dug has been added to the scene in Jabba's palace which features sleeping partygoers.

My opinion: Not bad... but it could have been more subtle.

•  A new closeup shot of Han striking Boba Fett's jetpack has been added.

My opinion: A lot more work needs to be done to that whole segment... this barely counts as an improvement.

• Wicket's eyes now have CG eyelids, allowing him to blink.

My opinion: We didn't lose anything and we gained very little. It's almost completely irrelevant compared to changes that need to be done, but I'm not against it.

• When R2-D2 is shot by a stormtrooper, additional CG gadgets fly out of his body as he malfunctions.

My opinion: Not bad, I like it. What is even more impressive is that they didn't screw it up by making him all destroyed in one scene and fixed up in the next... now that is a miracle.

• The lightsaber errors from the 2004 DVD have been corrected and Luke and Darth Vader's lightsabers now have white cores.

My opinion: Another change that goes without saying. Lightsabers going through each other, my God...

• Darth Vader now says "No" while Luke is tortured by the Emperor's Force Lightning attack, and then screams "Nooooo!" as he picks Palpatine up and hurls him into the Death Star's reactor core.

My opinion: The short version. No. No!! The long version... just what the hell was Lucas thinking?! Taking one of the most significant scenes in the whole Star Wars saga and adding Vader talking to himself? Not only does it look and sound completely unnatural, it ruins the whole mood of that scene. I think Lucas has completely lost it... but watch it and decide for yourself.

 

Master Edition Rebooted

Hey all you fellow Star Wars changes enthusiasts, or just ordinary Star Wars fans, or just fans of movies in general, I'm happy to tell you that after a few years of "exile", I've decided to bring Master Edition back... with a vengeance. My main reason for this is due to the release of the Blu-Ray version of the Star Wars Saga, which many of us had hoped would have positive new changes to the movies as well as fixing up or undoing some of the old ones that nobody liked... but instead we got fed more Bantha poodoo.

The Blu-Rays themselves are pretty nice to be honest. The picture looks great, especially TPM which had an extreme makeover and it really shows, they even integrated some changes from the old version of Master Edition, which I personally was really happy to see (almost brought a tear to me eye). Even the colors were fixed to not look like everyone was wearing lipstick :) So for those reasons, I have to say that I like the Blu-Rays.

But our relationship unfortunately doesn't go past "like". And the main reason for this is that some of the really easy-to-implement yet crucial changes mentioned on this site and repeated over and over in unity by Star Wars fans around the world got completely ignored. Moreover, they wasted their time implementing new pointless changes, which I'll get into more detail about in my next post, as well as adding changes that made most Star Wars fans go, "No. Noooooooo!" from how ridiculous they are.

This blog version of Master Edition is here, again, for the fans; this time not just to show ideas that I've personally gathered, but to allow others to post theirs, comment on them, and vote together as a community for which ones have true merit. Last time we did it through e-mail, which got really hard to manage, but I think this new layout will be a lot more accommodating for our purposes. Hopefully this will lead us closer to some kind of consensus, and help those hard working people like Adywan and many others, who have dedicated their time and money to removing the pebbles out of the shoes of Star Wars fans around the world. This site is for you, my friends. Hope you find it useful.

Yours sincerely, aPPmaSTer

Revenge of the Sith intro

Revenge of the Sith, in my opinion, was a huge improvement on Attack of the Clones both acting and editing-wise. I think most of the actors achieved their potential in this movie, especially Hayden Christensen, was practically the star of the show. The movie also contains some amazing scenes, I think even more than AOTC and TPM put together.

Story-wise however, I felt it to be very rushed, especially the whole idea of Anakin turning to the dark side. The whole latter half of the movie seemed to just fly by and a lot of events that tie the prequels with the original trilogy seemed very rushed. A lot of questions were left unanswered and a lot of new questions popped up. That was probably my main reason for disliking anything in the movie.

Now, this list was very hard for me to make because the movie doesn’t contain as many editorial mistakes, but what I feel to be an inconsistency in the tempo. The first half is very long, each scene gets plenty of time, sometimes even more than needed, while the second half of the movie is nothing but new events, drastic character changes, and huge decisions, all within a very short time period.

Also, the list might seem long because I felt some of the editorial mistakes made in AOTC have been repeated here, but anyways see the list and judge it for yourself.

Obi-Wan's lines in the space battle

Why: Ewan’s performance in delivering the first line (as well as a few others) wasn’t very good. I was a bit disappointed with his performance in this movie compared to the outstanding one he gave in AOTC. Anyways, “Oh I see them, oh this is going to be easy,” is not a good line to have as his first one, especially because he says, “Oh,” twice in one line.

Second, the part where he tells Anakin to forget him and concentrate on the mission and the Chancellor is followed by him saying how he’s running out of tricks, which contradicts the fact that he wants Anakin to ditch him.

How: If there is another cut of him saying the first line, a better cut, then replace it, otherwise just cut it because his next line works quite well as a first line.

As for the second part, “I’m running out of tricks here,” it could be moved to another, earlier part of the film or just removed.

Show more of the actual space battle

Why: During the promotion of the movie, we’ve been hearing that the Battle of Coruscant was going to be the biggest space battle in movie history and that it was going to redefine all scales. Well, to be honest, it did look like a big battle, but the problem is that we didn’t see much of it. If you take a shot from the battle and pause it, you’d see that it’s huge and with many ships, but when you’re watching the movie, all the focus is on the Jedi fighters and their adventure, and almost no attention is given to the huge battle around them. This for me was a bit of a disappointment.

How: If there is more footage of the battle, other than anything that has to do with Anakin and Obi-Wan, it would be good to see that, to actually get a feel for the battle.

It would be good to show more of the different kinds of ships so that people can actually differentiate between them.

The vulture droids should also be a little less goofy; removing their voices would fix this problem.

Maybe have a small subplot of what the clone pilots are up to when Obi-Wan and Anakin are dealing with the buzz droids.

Also, it would really be good to know what’s happening in the whole battle in general. Who’s winning, who’s losing, etc.

R2 and the buzz droid

Why: The conversation between Anakin, Obi-Wan, and R2-D2 when R2 is fighting the buzz droid is really corny and unnecessary.

How: Remove Anakin’s lines, “Get him Artoo,” and, “Watch out,” along with all the R2 shots in the middle. Make the only input from the others Obi-Wan’s line, “Hit the buzz droid’s center eye.” This would make R2 dispose of the buzz droid quickly and without any useless input from the others.

"Spring the trap"

Why: Ewan has this weird smile on his face when he says that line. I guess that smile goes with Obi-Wan’s character, but it just doesn’t look right, especially since he has a very stern expression on his face one second later. This one is not a must and has very low priority in my opinion, but it would look better if it was changed nevertheless. How: Use another cut (a better cut) of him saying that line if it exists.

Droid voices

Why: The voices of the vulture droids need to be totally removed in my opinion. They’re too goofy and make the space battle seem a lot less serious than it should be.

Also, the voices of the battle droids and the super battle droids in the movie are a lot different than in the other movies. They’re kind of high pitched and sound very childish. I think they should be made to sound more menacing, especially the super battle droids.

How: Remove the vulture droid voices, and then re-dub the regular battle droid lines with the same lines but in the regular old voices like we heard in TPM and AOTC. Re-dub the super battle droid voices with something deeper and more menacing and maybe more robotic. It might even be interesting if they spoke in tones and sounds, kind of like R2-D2, but also deeper and more menacing.

General Grievous

Why: Out of all the Star Wars characters that came and went, General Grievous is one that I can say I totally despise. He’s totally useless in the whole movie; he’s nothing more than a little touch-up to the story.

I really hate the way he talks, the way he walks, and especially the way he coughs every few seconds. I really want to know what the point was of showing him coughing in every scene he’s in. If you want to show that he’s still part organic, fine…have him cough once, not every little while, and especially not when we see him for the first time.

His walk makes him look like a crippled old man, not a cyborg built for perfection. I think he needs a bit more stature. He’s always slouching and looking really old. The Grievous in the Clone Wars cartoon looks much better, and looks more like an actual threat than someone who’s just there to be a nuisance to the audience.

As for his talk, his accent I can deal with, but some of his lines have to go. In other words, Grievous needs an extreme makeover.

How: There’s one easy way to take care of a couple of problems: make Grievous get injured on the bridge of the Invisible Hand, this way his coughs and his weird walk could be justified. This can include anything from getting hit by one of the heroes, to a metal beam falling on top of him as the ship is falling apart. Of course, lots of bits and pieces of the ship would have to be shown falling along with the one that hits him. His walk should be more upright prior to that incident, and his cough should also be eliminated until after it. A bit of CGI work would be all that’s needed. This would really make the scene of him arriving on Utapau look better because we would know why he walks and breathes like that.

Second, improve some of his lines to make them less cheesy. I’ve pointed them out and made them into individual points that you’ll see later on.

Lastly, his scenes on the Invisible Hand are pretty useless up until the point where he orders for ray shields. They should be played with a bit to look better and have some kind of meaning. I think there’s something in the novelization where he kills one of the neimoidian pilots that makes him angry. This could be added to show off his authority a bit and develop his character.

Destroyer droid rolling sound

Why: The destroyers in TPM and AOTC made a very distinct rolling sound when they moved, but the ones on the Invisible Hand made almost no sound while moving. I think the sound of their movement should be more pronounced, at least to make a voice in the audience’s minds say, “Oh, I know that sound!”

Obi-Wan smiling while destroying droids in the elevator

Why: Again, Ewan gives a weird smile at the wrong time. He’s practically smiling as he’s destroying the droids, which to me just looks like a cut scene they had lying around in some closet somewhere and just decided to use it for whatever reason.

How: Use another cut if it exists, or if Ewan is going to come in for additional shooting (which he just might if you keep on reading), then just re-shoot that little segment.

"Oh, it's YOU!"

Why: When Anakin drops back into the elevator, Obi-Wan actually ignites his lightsaber out of surprise! The first thing that came into my mind was the line from “Alien Resurrection,” “Who were you expecting, Santa Claus?” This part should be cut…cuz he’s a Jedi for crying out loud!

As for the dialogue that follows, I found it a bit un-Star Wars-like, and a bit unprofessional. Maybe it wasn’t the dialogue as much as it was the actors’ performances in delivering the lines. Anyhow, it should be fixed up to look better.

How: If possible, use a better cut of that segment. If not, re-shoot it if the actors are coming in for re-shooting. If not, then just cut the whole segment and show R2-D2’s antics separately.

Dooku's entrance

Why: Dooku entering the room with the Jedi and the Chancellor was a bit too sudden. I felt that a few lines of conversation were missing between the Jedi greeting the Chancellor and Dooku’s entrance.

Secondly, as soon as Dooku enters, Palpatine says, “Get help.” Just where does he expect them to get help from? Go all the way back to Coruscant and bring a bigger group of Jedi while Dooku and Palpatine just sit there singing “99 Bottles of Beer on Wall?” I don’t think so.

How: Add a couple of lines before Dooku enters, like Palpatine saying, “I’m grateful that you’re here; we’d better hurry before they come.” Obi-Wan and Anakin could say a line or two also.

Second, cut the words, “Get help,” but continue his sentence normally.

Duel with Dooku

Why: The duel was fine, but I felt that a lot of really cool parts of it were cut for some reason. The fight starts off very suddenly, and during the fight we barely see any really impressive moves. If there is more footage that was cut, it needs to be re-added because the duel was too short.

It would also have been much better if there was a bit more dialogue between the characters, something to suggest why he let them board the ship and allow them to reach the Chancellor. If something like this was filmed, it should also be re-added.

Obi-Wan doesn't block any of the battle droids' shots

Why: When Obi-Wan engages the super battle droids, they open fire on him, but he doesn’t attempt to block even one shot. He just runs up to them and chops them up. It’s a miracle he didn’t get hit.

How: If it was filmed, show him blocking some of the shots. If not, use Ewan or a double to film a shot or two of Obi-Wan blocking a few shots.

Palpatine cheering for Obi-Wan

Why: Cringe! I thought it looked really goofy when Obi-Wan destroyed the two super battle droids and we saw a close-up of Palpatine going, “Yeah!” A chancellor wouldn’t say “yeah,” plus there was no real need for it. I think it should be cut from the movie as it interrupts the fight and has a high cringe-inducing factor. Actually most of the shots of Palpatine watching the fight are totally useless. They ruin the tempo for no reason.

Anakin looking at Dooku after he throws Obi-Wan

Why: This I consider a very easy and very important change. The shot of Anakin looking at Dooku after he had just thrown Obi-Wan to the ground ruins the tempo of the scene. If that shot was cut, the fight would look a lot more dynamic and lot cooler – and make more sense than it does now, because Anakin hesitates for too long in that shot.

"Kill him, kill him now"

Why: When I first heard this line, I got the feeling that I heard it somewhere before. But besides that, I got the feeling that there was something wrong with it. I think it’s because Palpatines’s laughing while he’s saying his previous line which suddenly takes a twist into a very serious line. If he could be made to say both lines more seriously, without laughing, I think it will be a lot more effective. Also, if more dialogue is added to further convince Anakin that killing Dooku is the right thing, it would really help.

How: If another cut exists of him saying that line and possibly the one before more seriously, use it. If not…well then it might need to be re-filmed.

Also, a think a line like, “Anakin, he has to die!” should be placed just after Anakin says, “I shouldn’t.” A line like this is more of a command than the first one, which Anakin accepts as coming from someone older and wiser and puts away his Jedi ways to obey that command. A perfect beginning for falling to the dark side.