Star Wars Revisited Part 2
Yesterday I sat down and watched the whole edit of Star Wars revisited. It is amazing at how much attention to detail this fan gave the film. There are the obvious new effects, but also the small things. For example, in the Cantina scene several of the aliens now blink their eyes including Greedo. This helps take away from the fact that all of these were masks. The other thing is in this movie the lenses for Darth Vader’s mask had a red tint to them. He has gone through and fixed this, so they are black like the rest of the movies. I hope at some point George Lucas will take the time to make many of these changes himself. Especially if we get the 3D version of Star Wars that he talked about a few years ago.
Finally, I made my own comparison clip of the death star attack at the end of the movie. This shows the official DVD release on the top and the revisited version on the bottom. Yes, I know I spelled revisited wrong. I was in a hurry. 
Star Wars Extra Special Edition
I remember hearing about this project about 2 years ago, but forgot to continue checking up on it. A fan took the time to make his own special edition version of Star Wars: A New Hope. The project took him two years to complete and I must say I am impressed at the quality of the new effects. The title of the edit is Star Wars revisited and I am working on securing a copy to watch. There are several clips on youtube showing some of the additions/changes. Here are a few that stuck out to me.
This first clip is of the first time we see the Death Star in the movie. In the original film we just see this floating orb in space. The new scene now matches more of what I think you would expect it to be. We have the Deathstar in orbit around a planet with several Star Destroyers and Tie fighters flying around with the Imperial March playing. It is very similar to the scene in Empire Strikes Back when we see Vader’s Star Destroyer for the first time.
The next scene is when Ben Kenobi is killed by Vader and the attack of the Tie Fighters on the Millennium Falcon. The music Duel of the Fates has been added from Revenge of the Sith. I’m still trying to decide if I like that change or not, but it does work as a homage to the original duel that the younger Anakin and Obi-Wan had in that movie. During the Tie Fighter attack many changes/improvements have been made. All the outside scenes now have laser fire from the Millennium Falcon which before it was mainly just the Tie Fighters shooting. Also, the targeting computer has some added effects that feel a little more up to date.
Finally, this one is for the Jar Jar haters. Now when Alderaan is destroyed we get a brief glimpse of Jar Jar talking with Bail Organa.
I am really looking forward to seeing the full edit of the film. Also, in this edit Han shoots first again which was pretty much my main complaint of the special editions. This same fan is already working on an edit of The Empire Strikes Back due out later this year.
Click more for an exhaustive list of the changes Continue Reading →
Fanboys Coming to DVD
Well it never did make it to Utah for the theatrical run. Each week they added more cities, I would have even considered a small road trip if we needed to, but it never happened. The DVD release is set for May 19th which is perfect. That day also happens to be the 10th anniversary of The Phantom Menace, which happens to be the movie the characters in the film are trying to see early. I’ll probably rent it first before I decide if I need to buy a copy. Below is the box cover and special features reported on starwars.com
- Deleted Scenes
- Commentary with the Cast and Crew
- The Truth about Fanboys
- Star Wars Parallel
- Four Fanboys and One Fangirl
- The Choreography
- Disturbances in the Force: A Series of Webisodes
Soundwave Update
The tfcc website just updated saying that Soundwave will be version that holds one tape which closer represents the original Soundwave release. I think this is a good move and now makes the figure different from the previous Toys R Us release. It just looks like Hasbro used that previous release to get the pictures out there. Here is an updated pic showing how the tape door looks on this version.
Another Soundwave Reissue
It was just announced that Soundwave will be reissued as an exclusive this year at San Diego Comic Con. He will also included not 1, but 4 cassettes! This definitely makes it the ultimate Soundwave reissue. All the cassettes have been reissued before with the exception of Ratbat who is also going to be reissued this summer in a cassette pack by Takara. This reissue is going to cost $49.99 at the convention and will probably show up at hasbrotoyshop.com after the con like years past. The price is pretty good considering that it costs about that same price just to get 4 of the reissued cassettes from Japan.
This makes the 5th reissue of Soundwave between the U.S. and Japan. I have 3 of these 5, but I just might have to bite on this one too. Soundwave is probably my next favorite Transformer next to Optimus Prime. I am interested to see what kind of packaging Hasbro comes up with the 25th anniversary and all this year. Here are the releases and what they came with in order of release:
TFC Soundwave (original door, Laserbeak) Japan
TFC Soundblaster (Black decko and red door, Door fits two cassettes, Buzzsaw, Ravage) Japan
TRU Soundwave (Door fits two cassettes, Laserbeak, Ravage) U.S.
Encore Soundwave (original door, Laserbeak) Japan
SDCC Soundwave (original door, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Ravage, Ratbat) U.S.
