$tar War$: An Open Letter To George Lucas

I can't believe Harrison Ford is 67. That makes me feel old, and I'm not!

http://a.abcnews.com/images/Entertainment/sp_bad_day_harrison_ford_090625_ssh.jpg

I don't think he's got the reflexes to shoot first anymore...

This needs to be re-categorised as "YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH!!!!"
Fucking Lucas man...how far he fell from the arthouse wannabe hiding behind Coppola's legs and quivering.

This really needs to be re-categorised as a rant.

Probably since the times of knights and dragons, as that's when everyone stopped using 800x600.

Ta, that side doesn't display for me unless i scroll over. I've no idea how long thats been there.

"This site needs a "Recent Comments" link somewhere."

Main page, bottom right.

This site needs a "Recent Comments" link somewhere.
There's not much left to say about Star Wars or the beardy whore.

Look at this! Look at it!
http://www.infauxmedia.com

Fucking Star Wars:The Musical
Honest to god. Listen to "Dark Darth Vader" or "Droids of Tatooine"
*cries softly*
I once had a dream, and now that dream is gone

Well, they weren't per se but ended up "experimenting". The two that shaved their heads, "this ain't the army boys" and ended up in The Blue Oyster Bar in the 1st film.
Much like The Cantina, full of exotic creatures who hassle our heroes. Actually, the more I think about it, I'm sure Lucas travelled forward in time and stole the Police Academy best-bits for his movies. It's no coincidence that the new Star Wars films sucked ass because there were no new Academy films to steal from.

Who were the 2 "bald queers" in Police Academy???

I can proudly say I've never seen the Mission To Moscow film, although I can also proudly say I've seen the other six.

Surely Chewie would be Officer Zed? In fact, thinking about it, Lucas probably ripped off the Police Academy series wholesale for Star Wars. Even though it came out first. Greasy bastard.

Like childhood rape trauma, I had blocked that from my memory. Until now. Which makes Han Solo Steve Gutenberg, Chewie is the quiet woman who screams at the end and the 2 bald queers are R2 & C3P0. It's all so obvious

"Star Wars has gone the way of Police Academy movies, without the hilarious black guy that did sound effects."

Er...you've seen Jar Jar Binks, right?

Only if the tv series is each and every character that has ever appeared in any of the 6 films all lining up to punch Lucas in the throat.
Even the ghost of Alec Guiness. And I mean *every character*, even cg ones at the podrace in their thousands.
TV series...I mean come on, Star Wars was always classier than Star Trek simply because it stood as 3 fantastic films.
Star Wars has gone the way of Police Academy movies, without the hilarious black guy that did sound effects.

I take it you won't be watching the Star Wars TV series then? Quite excited about that, to be honest...

I've just seen an advert for insurance or batteries or some shit with Darth Vader. Lucas sold Vader's image to flog stuff on the tv.
You hear that? *cups hand to ear*
That's the sound of a goiter finally bursting with fatcash and shame.
Fucking autistic bearded mongoloid.

Murray1134 Re- \"Apocalypse now: Redux\" etc. Yes other directors engage in director\'s cuts, or special editions. Alien, Aliens and Alien3, Blade Runner, Spartacus, to name a few. But there is a major difference between these \"altered\" films, and what Lucas has done with the SW-OT. In every case, the original theatrical release was expanded, or trimmed (of minor shots), to include original deleted scenes and footage, that were intended to be included, but cut, usually, to comply with theatrical running times. These other \"special editions\" are just that, EXPANDED works, the original film is still there, with nothing altered but the audio and film quality/colour upgraded. It is one thing to add a scene, originally shot during production, into a new print (often they are scenes that were in the original initial release, but cut later), and something altogether different to tamper with the original shot to make Han Solo \"Twitch\" and \"defend himself\", replace Boba Fett\'s voice, insert an actor from a \'prequel\' in place of an \'original\' actor, add CGI \"characters\" and novelties, like Jar Jar Binks into ROTJ, etc etc etc...

Good to see we\'re reaching out across the pond. Far out and stuff.

I think I love you

God, I STILL want to smack that tool who made the rape comment on that asskissing fansite. Jesus, and they were a bunch of tards, \"This is a family site, watch the language\", yeah, now I KNOW to steer clear of that site if I can\'t even properly curse...screw their \"families\", I wanna say FUCK! Allriiight! Wooo!

haha, Ali, I just HAD to register to comment after I looked at the link! Those people have their heads so far up Lucas\'s ass that it\'s unbelieveable! They\'re all bitching and moaning about how \"crude\" Andy/Goatboy is, but the funny thing is how they\'re all a bunch of hypocrites! They bitch about how YOU are not respecting their likes or dislikes, but then they go post comments about how WRONG you are, and how you must not be a fan because you don\'t agree with THEM, because we all know that their opinions are RIGHT, and yours is WRONG. And one tool actually had the NERVE to object to you using the word \"rape\", because they felt it \"demeans rape survivors\". Now, I\'VE been raped TWICE, so I think I have a say here as well, and I\'M not offended in the LEAST, but that\'s probably because I don\'t have my panties all in a wad over your opinion. Hell, if they have such a problem with people\'s opinions, then maybe the Internet isn\'t the place for them to be! I guess they must have a hard time in the real world, especially if they actually have to deal with people who disagree with them on IMPORTANT issues (you know what I mean)! Must be why they don\'t leave their mom\'s basements except to visit the local Taco Smell, Mickey D\'s. Losers. I LOVED your comment, it was spot on, bloody good job, old chap! (Can you tell I\'m an American? LOL) Keep up the good work :)

what absolute spanners they are.

Who\'d have thought my redfaced keymash article would reach a galaxy far, far away eh?
I\'m going to wait for next month\'s re-release of all 6 movies in a shiny metal goitre before parting with anymore cash. Or maybe the following month\'s reissue of the new 3 in a CGI THX certified holobox. Although christmas\'s special release of all 6 plus the Clone Wars cartoons and some pencil sketches Lucas did of space rabbits with commentary from a guy that drove past Skywalker ranch.

Quite an interesting bunch of comments over on the official Star Wars website: http://blogs.starwars.com/bekkara/31/comments

Sad to see how they\'re blinded to the truth.

That\'s your 15 minutes of internet fame over.

Well, I\'ll make it a round 50 by saying thank you to everyone who contributed to the discussion. Good work, nerds.

By \"autistic\", I\'m sure the writer of this letter meant exactly what the root of autisim is. The second definition on Dictionary dot com was this: \"a tendency to view life in terms of one\'s own needs and desires. \" I have a nephew that has autistic learning disorders, and I didn\'t jump when the writer of this letter included the word \"autism\" in his writing. I actually laughed, because it is pretty much nail-on-the-head with how lucas is acting. He only sees his own world. \"life is a sh**storm. The best unbrella out there is humor and clever art.\"

Good letter, BTW. Expresses a lot of what all of us feel. And yeah, bottom line is lucas doesn\'t need more of our money. I sure as hell need it more than him, cause nobody gives me money for nothing, or for re-mixed nothing for that matter.

I like the THX-1138 Special Edition. Except for the CGI monkeys. That part is ass.

As for Star Wars...I\'m done with it. Thank you, George Lucas, for curing me of a 20 year obsession.

Ah, I\'m not the only one who feels like this is just another attempt to milk the Star Wars franchise like Paramount milked Star Trek.

If I had known that this release would have the \"enhanced\" editions, I wouldn\'t have bothered buying any of the others. But my husband\'s a fan so...

You\'ve got to be kidding me? Did you just post that Superman and Apocalypse Now were untouched from the originals? Apocalypse Now Redux ring a bell? How about the fact that Superman is a completely different cut from what was in theaters. Oh yeah, how about Godfather 3?

Lucas isn\'t the only one doing this. Guess what? Lucas only wants your money! He\'s a businessman, and a good one at that. He just happens to make his money by making movies.

You have every right to feel angered by Lucas and his moneymaking schemes. I\'m a huge Star Wars Geek, always have been, always will. I\'ve bought the OT 5 times now and will be happily buying it a 6th. I enjoy the movies, prequels and OT. You don\'t, that\'s cool. I just get tired of reading people whining about it. TPM was 7 years ago and you\'re still whining about it? Get over it already. Watch Battlestar Galatica if you want your dark sci-fi fix.

44 comments from something I wrote about George Lucas - who knew geekdom ran so deep eh? The main thrust of what I wrote was more an annoyance at myself for holding these films so dear to myself when their (partial) creator seems so willing to trash them to eke out more £ for his swollen coffers. Yep, I\'m 100% a Star Wars geek - 1st film I ever saw at the cinema etc etc. And yes I knew the new movies couldn\'t possibly match my own expectations and I knew they were for kids...but watching Lucas smear his own dung over what should\'ve remained a classic trilogy was like discovering Santa wasn\'t real. If he\'d left them alone, they would forever remain iconic achievements in cinema history. I bought Superman 1 & 2 on DVD, the special editions recently and they haven\'t been altered at all. They remain the films that garnered such love and acclaim instead of repolished V1.1 editions. As did the Back to The Future boxset, as did Raging Bull/The Godfather/Apocalypse Now etc etc. All classics of the golden era of creative, new wave Hollywood from Lucas, Scorcese and their ilk. Only Lucas has felt the need to alter what was acknowledged to be classics, and has tarnished with his constant tinkering. but I said my piece aleady and this only serves to inflame. So I shall retreat to my parents\' basement and cry some more over spilt CGI milk. Goatboy/Andy

Don\'t get me on the CGI\'ed-to-Coruscant-and-back piece of rubbish that is the \'new\' THX1138 DVD. This is the same George Lucas who said \"\"I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that the films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them,\" about a colourised version of The Three Stooges on DVD.

Hell yeah we do :-)

Wait.. girls watch Star Wars too?
/closes can of worms

Andy, I came to much the same conclusions as you a few weeks ago. Some of it\'s in my lame-azz blog, but you said it better. I was 11 in 1977, I was pregnant in 1999, and I\'m still ashamed to have exposed our son-to-be to such dreck. I halfway expected Child Protection Services outside the theater, with binders to fit me. At the same time, I was trying to convince myself that it was wonderful, somehow...

I mean, we \'old school\' fans were so excited ! Finally ! With no studio to edit his vision, no bank up his butt about budgets, and the world-class effects studio he built behind him - who knew what wonders God Lucas would show us ?

We weren't expecting the swirling bowl-leavings that was Phantom Menace. Jar-Jar Binks, midichlorians, crap acting of a bad script, and women's leg shaver com-links should have been cut up with a coat hanger and flushed like most big piles of s#it, instead of filmed and sold. I guess restraints – like budgets and studios – are very necessary for some film-makers, lest they become fetid pipe-plumbers instead.

I still have some of my old toys. They don't mean what they used to. But I remember being 11 , and I can forget the rest sometimes, when the old VHS tapes whirr and the magic is back. Don't know if I'll buy the DVDs. It seems like a waste.

Like my 30 years of Star Wars girl-fandom.

DorrieBelle.

Thanks man - I can already tell I\'m going to enjoy that link :-)

http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/review.php?id=74

oh... and I wasn\'t really trying to \"argue\" more like debate... yeah, that\'s it. Debate. hehe

I can see why people don\'t like them and respect it, but I just get the sense that they aren\'t giving the story a chance - and get lost in the technicalities of it all (characters, cgi, plot holes, etc). One line I could do without in TPM though - \"Now This is Podracing!\" I hate that line so much! But it\'s part of the movie, like it or not.
I don\'t find the prequels, Ep. I & II painful to watch, but when you are a Star Wars geek, who is also married to a Star Wars geek.... you end up watching them way too many times, and can pretty much recite the dialogue - and you really do get pulled into the story line. I guess it\'s the same for any movie, series, or saga, or whatever.

But I might have to check around for that \'prequels suck\' argument just for fun :-)

We both know that old chestnut about arguing on the internet, I\'m sure :)

Fair enough, you like the prequels, I don\'t especially like them (though I do quite like Sith). That\'s your opinion and you backed it up. I, on the other hand, haven\'t watched Episodes I or II voluntarily since I bought them on DVD, perhaps only a courtesy watch before III came out. They hurt to watch, actualy, physical pain.

Anyway, this isn\'t a \'prequels suck\' argument. That\'s elsewhere on the site, same writer believe it or not :)

And a flying Artoo - that\'s just awesome! :-)

For those who are purists - oh well - Sorry Charlie!

Continued.....

Ep III - Revenge of the Sith - . No question this ep. has more lightsaber duels than you can shake a stick at, including the one so many fan-boys had been waiting to see.... Anakin vs. Obi Wan - and seeing Anakin actually becoming Darth Vader. But there is more to it than that. You see Anakin still acting like a spoiled brat - always trying to make things his way, and not heeding to his teachings (running theme through entire prequel trilogy), which ultimately was his down-fall and the rise of Vader. Grievious - I wasn\'t extremely impressed with - however the \"chicken robot with a cough\" had it\'s place. If you\'ve seen the Clone Wars cartoon you would know why Grievious coughs like he does. Now, Chewie being there, and them actually showing the Wookiee planet, Kashyyyk - that was important to show exactly how far the war had really gone. The Wookiee\'s were eventually enslaved and used as \'slave labor\' to create the Death Star. (which they do make mention of the wookiees being enslaved in ep. III) About the only thing I have a problem with in Ep. III is that damn \"NNOoooooooooo\" near the end by Vader. But the man\'s grieving - whatever.

The over-use of CGI - some shots you couldn\'t tell were CGI - whereas there were some when that\'s all you could focus on. It\'s a hit & miss medium. You should take a crack at it and see how good you do.
Racial Stereotypes - those are only there if you want to see them there. Not saying that I don\'t see where someone could mistake one species to be representative of a certain human race - but it\'s a friggin\' movie! C\'mon People!

::steps down off soap box:: Okay - I\'m done. Flame away!

Ali at 8:23pm on 11/9/2006
Why are the prequels slated compared to the OT? How about... trade embargoes, a flying R2, Chewie for no reason, videogame action scenes, the greatest movie villain of all time being reduced to a whiny teen, the \"you\'re not like sand\" speech, droids saying \"uh-oh\", a chicken robot with a cough, terrible overuse of CGI, lazy racial stereotypes, ruining the Force (midichlorians my ass) and Jar Jar Binks for starters?

Okay (for arguments sake) - indulge me if you will....
Ep. I - The Phantom Menace - As much as people say it sucks - it is still an important part of the story. The saga IS the story of Anakin Skywalker, and how he became Darth Vader - \"The greatest movie villian of all time\" - and what led him to make the choices he made and his eventual return to the Jedi side of the Force. Lucas also wanted to show how the galaxy was before the Empire ruled with their \'iron fist.\' TPM shows Anakin as a child slave - who was repressed, but happy with his mother. It\'s when he has to leave his mother behind - not knowing if he will ever see her again - that starts his path of uncertainty. Also many other characters and relationships were established. As useless as some people think Jar Jar\'s part is, it was important to the story-line with the Gungans. The trade federation and the senate were being manipulated by Palpatine to gain leverage and eventual control of the senate so it could become his great \'Empire\' in ROTS. But as for midichlorians - you got me... it was just an easy way for them to test Anakin to see if he was the chosen one I guess.

Ep II - Attack of the Clones - IS all about showing Anakin as a whiney teenager. What teenager wouldn\'t be acting like a little bastard if he was told he WAS the chosen one - but couldn\'t do anything he wanted? Teenagers think they know everything - and that\'s exactly how it was portrayed. He loved his mother - and losing her pushed him even closer to the path of the Dark Side when he unleashed his temper and slaughtered the Tusken Raiders. The \'sand\' conversation was also important to the plot - as Jedi\'s aren\'t \"allowed to love\" - But Anakin clearly disobeyed his Jedi mandate by becoming involved with Padme. Also in this part of the saga - Jar Jar plays another important part. He addresses the Senate, and his \'Dellow Felligates\' to give the Supreme Chancelor emergency powers. Which pretty much seals the deal that the galaxy is doomed.

Continued.....

I saw someone mention that \'the hut\' came from Lucas\' mind. It really didn\'t. It didn\'t surprise me that he ripped off his ideas from Dune. Don\'t believe me try: http://www.jitterbug.com/origins/dune.html

I don\'t have the originals on DVD yet, I\'m waiting for him to release the cut scenes version. All the cut scenes, not just jedi crap.

Imperial Forever.

Why are the prequels slated compared to the OT? How about... trade embargoes, a flying R2, Chewie for no reason, videogame action scenes, the greatest movie villain of all time being reduced to a whiny teen, the \"you\'re not like sand\" speech, droids saying \"uh-oh\", a chicken robot with a cough, terrible overuse of CGI, lazy racial stereotypes, ruining the Force (midichlorians my ass) and Jar Jar Binks for starters?

Granted, the entertainment industry is all about money. It comes to no surprise that Lucas would, yet again, re-release the OT [Original Triology] un-altered as the fans had requested so many times in the past. What I don\'t get is why people insist on bitching about it when so many other companies do the exact same thing with all of the new spiffy criterion, 10th anniversary, and \"give us more money\" editions.
The points made in his \'open letter\' are just the opinions of a disheartened fan-boy. Who, by his words, comes off more like Anakin than he realizes; by whining about someone being money-hungry with their \'Empire.\' I personally love the OT, but I also love the prequels. Seeing the movies (OT) from a childs perspective changes your entire view because we tend to idolize movie characters when we\'re young. And it\'s that idolization that stays with us as adults. Nothing else could ever come close to being on that level.
But why is it that the OT is held up on some sort of pedestal, while the prequels are crucified for the same bad acting and writing? Because we\'re adults and our perception has been tainted with the realities of our world since our childhood? Or is it because some people are narrow-minded and refuse to accept things as they are - someone else\'s vision - and most importantly... just entertainment?

Lol, I can\'t say I was not dissappointed with the 3 prequel films. Luckily Farscape was around long enough to fill the gaps for my sci fi fix. I found it amusing that Jim Henson studios came out with hours of better material and effects with much less time and money for several seasons. Unfortunately as you pointed out the redubs and re-releases are inevitable as long as people pay for them.

Thank you Andy. Everything you said was true. I too was young when I saw what will always be the greatest movie to me. Star Wars.
The thing that pisses in my ear, is that asswipe man, Lucas, has every right to do whatever he bloody well fucking whats to do with his own work, and we (who paid for everything) have no voice outside of fine sites like yours.
A smarter man would have let sleeping dogs lie. Obviously Lucas is not a smart man but crazy -- crazy like a fox.

Andy, what are the chances of you naming your kid \"George\".

sigh. lots of good points by lots of people. I\'m not quite so \"emphatic\" with my p.o.v., but in general it seems to me like the original \"letter to lucas\" makes many good points. and those of us who say \"get over it\" or \"man, it\'s just a movie\" miss the point, perhaps... like a con-man offering to sell you gold for an unbelievable deal, Lucas presented his first movie to the world, and we rejoiced at the unprecedented. But with these latest movies, the quality of the gold suffered while the price rocketed, till we find ourselves paying extravagantly for lead. This is the con that sparked the rant, and you tell me, if the situation were literal, would you walk away saying \"well, it\'s only money\" or \"i should have expected the quality to suffer\"? Don\'t think so... you\'d call a cop and get the con-artist arrested, or you\'d resort to vigilanteism... One other note, I found the comment about Star Wars being a Dune ripoff interesting. Not disagreeing, but from my point of view, there is more dissimilarity than similarity between the two, so even if someone could show definitive proof that Star Wars was indeed inspired by Dune, I\'d still have to say \"well, ok, but so what, many great stories have been inspired by earlier great stories.\" There\'s no out-and-out plaigerism that I notice. In the end, I think we can ALL agree that the first three movies have great appeal, but every movie after the original \"Star Wars\" was made specifically to cash in on the now-famous title. American cinema espouses the ideology of \"if it\'s a hit, make a sequel quick! even if it\'s crap, we\'ll nearly double our profit before they figure it out!\" luckily, not every sequel is crap. But with these prequels of Lucases... well, it\'s been said better by those who came before me. Here ends my two cents (worth .001 cent after taking into consideration the inflation of my ego ^^)

meestersmeeth - you are incorrect.

The original release of Star Wars was, simply called, \"Star Wars\". The \"A New Hope\" tag was added for the first theatrical re release to coincide with Lucas\' idea of a united trilogy, but to many of us it represents the horrible beginning of his rampant revisionism.

How the hell did this guy spend 20 years waiting for the technology to develop only to create Jar Jar fuckin Binks? The most depressing part is he had the most talented writers and directors desperate to work on the 3 films. But no, George \'Howard the duck\' Lucas is more talented than them all. Just think what could have happened James Cameron said Star Wars was his biggest influence, David Fincher, Steven Speilberg etc

And for the record, consider this a line drawn under the Star Wars arguments, on this site anyway.

If you\'re wondering where all these people came from, we got posted on Fark.com. (Read the site comments here)

Lots and lots of angry people seem to be saying the same thing: \"they\'re just movies, get a life!\" Newsflash assholes, this is the internet; it was built for bitching about movies. This isn\'t an \'idiotic fanboy rage\' as some have put it, read it again. This is a guy who\'s not only angry at Lucas for his crimes against cinema (which I think no one can really deny) but angry at himself for buying into the bullshit hype, over and over again. Personally, these new DVDs are one step over the line, the thing that made me realise \"Wow, this guy really is a money-grabbing whore.\" Google this if you don\'t believe me, but the guy has said time and time again, the remastered versions were the definitive ones, and the old versions \"were on VHS if anybody wanted them.\" And now these new releases are \"for the fans\"? Fuck that, fuck you and fuck your Empire.

I could not agree more. I have reached your point, I refused to purchase the lastest round of DVDs for Luca$. I have had enough, and I, like you, was a fanboy.

Oh, and another thing... Star Wars is and has always been a rip-off from Frank Herbert\'s \"Dune\".

Haven\'t even seen \"Revenge of the Siths\" and, strangely, I don\'t feel as though I am missing anything important.

Wait, can it be - whining on the Internet?!

Maybe you haven\'t finished all your high school English classes yet but \"by opposing end them\" refers to the speaker\'s suicide, not a sad little rant against a former boyhood idol. Maybe if you understood the quote in the first place this valuable storage space could have been used for something more entertaining, like pop up ads.

Andy, I noticed something. You would actually allow your kids to watch his movies even after you finally realized you have been had? you think your teaching your kids a lesson when all your going to do is buy the Star Wars trilogy again because by the time their old enough to watch it you would have lost the ones you have. Watching these in Blu Ray or HD DVD will make the CGI look even crappier. you can\'t make crap look better by boosting the resolution. Sorry guys but we\'ve been had.

I can see that you thought this out well Andy, I give you credit for that. All I can say is that to me the older Star Wars is more memorable then the new ones. But you have to understand that Movies are two things: entertainment and a product. It\'s only entertainment dude get over it. And George Lucas doesn\'t give a s shit about losing your money either, he still makes money dude and laughs when he gets to the bank. Movies are made a lot of the time to just make money. Lifes too short dude to get your panties in a twist over such things. Get over it! If you didn\'t like it okay, so what, if you liked it, Great! I never took the time to analyize movies to the degree you have sir. I think you either have too much time on your hands or are getting too drawn into the world of analyzing shit too much. Sometimes a horse is just a horse, thats it. So you feel like you got fucked in the ass hard and sideways, so fucking what! Everyone does someday or another. Grow up dude and move on to being more productive in life, maybe it will have more meaning that way. If everyone had the passion you have (so it seems) of analyizing movies, humans would be in other galaxies and we would have our own star wars to deal with.

Hallelujah! Hear, hear. About time someone told the Emperor he was completely naked. Right on, Andy. At 18, I was part of the standing ovation and roaring crowd that watched the ending of the very first movie, at a Toronto premiere. The latest Star Wars offerings are pig swill.

It looks like you really want to use commas. You should find out what they\'re for; you can have all sorts of fun with them once you get a clue! :) Right now, you\'re just raping them. That\'s not nice.

Good! Your hate has made you powerful.

Lucas is a bullfrog-throated whore. I saw the midnight show of Phantom Menace, convinced it was going to be the Gen X apotheosis.

Not so much.

As we say here in the States, \"give \'em Hell!\"

Oh, and \"ditto.\"

Andy, you nailed it..reading your rant was like having my mind read. The one really scary thing was how many times I told my buddy that star wars kicked star treks ass. Years go by, star trek puts out at least a hundred good hour long shows...wheres star wars? unfortunately we found out, I can\'t believe the way we got sold out...

\"No one made you see the prequels, or buy them\" - hence my annoyance. Because I lied to myself, I convinced myself they were good because Lucas couldn\'t possibly fuck up as grandly as he did. But it slowly dawned on me that he did, with CGI smile and rubbing hands. And my desire to watch the new ones diminished to the point I watched a scratchy, shot-in-a-cinema-in-Bangkok copy of Sith rather than spend hard earned on seeing my childhood movies destroyed. Lucas swore blind he\'d never released the originals in their unaltered format, because \"I only got about 40% of what I was after\" and was happy he could tinker - paint a moustache on the Mona Lisa if you will. But since Sith didn\'t sell too well (£3 in HMV at the moment) and he\'s got nothing else to sell...oh look, here come the original versions. Which negates his promise to never let them see the light of day, renders the amount of time and money spent \"restoring\" the orginals pointless. Because the fans demanded? Yeah right, Lucas is well known for listening to fans...These new releases are another £ spinner, just as the versions being released in 3D will be, as will the IMAX versions. A freaking fairytale can upset a grown up because George Lucas raped my childhood and I was dumb enough to give him £ to do so. Which was kind of the point of what I wrote...calling me an idiot after I\'ve done so myself is hardly going to make me cry now is it?

Okay, you are an official idiot. No one made you see the prequels, or buy them. Now, after many fans demans of having the UNALTERED movies on DVD-George gets hell from you?

You didn\'t like the prequels-fine. A hell of a lot of ot people did enjoy it. I\'m looking forward to this release. For you to bitch about it like a whiny brat makes you look like a damn fool. Howe can a freeking fairy tale upset a grown man....especialy one with droids?

Bang on, it was never called \"A New Hope\" until Lucas realised he could make tons of money by releasing a sequel - which he got Lawrence Kasdan to help write because his own writing was awful. And I used the term autistic because Lucas seems unaware of the outside world, he seems to be locked inside his own private fantasy where he\'s an awesome director & writer and nobody can reach him - it wasn\'t meant as an insult, it was an apt description for how I view Old Man Lucas. Just as a sensitive, caring parent would wish to reach their autistic child and help them, I wish I could show Lucas that an old man writing shit is not the same as a hungry man risking all for his vision.

As I said to Ali a while ago whilst he defended his \"possible the most audacious opening sequence ever set to film\", I know what Lucas has in his bullfrog neck - my money and fanboy semen. *shakes fist*
Howard The Duck showed us what an unchecked Lucas could do, we should\'ve listened and learned.

It was originally released only as \"Star Wars.\" No \"A New Hope,\" no nothing. Just \"Star Wars,\" because it was a stand alone movie, and not part of any sort of brilliantly concieved sextology. Same deal as the first movie featuring Indiana Jones being called \"Raider of the Lost Ark,\" not \"Indiana Jones & The Raiders of the Lost Ark.\" Lucas claimed he always meant for it to be that way as this was his second planned trilogy, but the \"suits\" wouldn\'t let him. That is another lie.

People should just stop watching bad movies. No matter how dear the source material, or how much you hate it for that matter, judge each work on it\'s own merits.

George Lucas is an ass and an asshole.

Andy: I\'m not sure how \"autistic\" fits into your otherwise dead-on vituperative against George Lucas. Is that the PC substitution for \"retarted\" these days?

I\'m glad to hear that you\'re expecting a child soon. Hopefully that child will be neither learning disabled nor autistic, and you won\'t have to wince every time you read an insensitive remark such as yours. Arjay

YES. Fuck that fat guy in his big fat folds. He\'s the longest turd in existence. Jabba the Hutt came from his mind, and I\'m sure it\'s only the editing process which displayed him and the Empire in a bad light.
George Lucas, you, sir, are a tooly tool. You are in no way talented, because in fact, talent lies in youth, and you are an old, bumbling fool. I would say these words are blasphemy, just as I would defend the Beatles at any cost, but the fact remains that the Beatles had at least a few ounces of integrity when the members refused to get back together. You not only got back together, so to speak, you d

don\'t forget when all of these wonderful reissues are are released in HDDVD or Blu-Ray. You\'ll have to get more more more!!!!!

and, meestersmeeth, I believe according to wikipedia and scifipedia, not to mention my own memory; it was originally just called Star Wars and then reissued as A New Hope. I distinctly remember the 3D scrolling letters without Episode IV: A New Hope

\"It will be Star Wars (stick the New Hope subtitle up your ass), Empire and Jedi\"




\"A New Hope\" is and always was the title of that first film. If you\'re going to agree that Star Wars 5 was called \"Empire\" and Star Wars 6 was called \"Jedi\" then you can\'t go saying that subtitling Star Wars 3 \"A New Hope\" is some ass-raping violation. Pa-thetic.

I said when the \"new originals\" came out that in a few years the CGI additions would look dated. Now they don\'t just look stupid, they jar like a 2x4 to the head. A simple cleaning up of the original effects and audio (with a nice surround mix) was all we needed to make it an essential purchase. Some bits in Willow are more convincing.

For what it\'s worth, I\'ve decided to boycott these new releases too. I already have them on VHS *and* DVD - same as any other Star Wars fan - yet they market them as the remastered version again, and \"oh yeah, the originals are on there too or something, whatever\". A release of just the cinema version would have sufficed too, yet you have to spend double.

It goes to show the power of my love for Star Wars that I put myself into convulsions, frothing over the prospect of any form of shittiness attached to it\'s glorious legacy. Well, I used to. Now I just can\'t be arsed expending energy, let alone part with my cash, for what is blatantly an exercise in obtaining cash. It has nothing to do with film-making or story-telling as an artform, which is what many of us nerdlingers respected Lucas for in the first place.