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Multimedia => The Original Trilogy => Topic started by: Jim on August 27, 2009, 08:39 PM

Title: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on August 27, 2009, 08:39 PM
For anyone who is a huge fan of EPIV but really was not happy with either the SE or the Remasterd Original version released a few years back, then you need to check this out.

http://fanedit.org/517/

I had heard about this several years ago and kind of lost track of it til I found it earlier this week.  Amazing work.  This guy should be hired by LFL.  Wow :o
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on August 27, 2009, 09:19 PM
It's neat, and I'd like to see it, but I find it odd that he says he liked the SE's but yet he removed all the Ronto's from the edit it seems, and he removed the Jabba sequence at Docking Bay 94...  If you liked the SE's, and just wanted to tweak stuff (and I must say the tweak list is extensive, I really want to see it as it adds things I wanted to see personally), why would you remove all the Mos Eisley stuff, basically?  I get it if you don't like it, but if you did, why remove it?  I thought the Jabba sequence adds to the story of Han's hasty departure...  The Ronto's, eh, but I liked them.  I'm disappointed in those things, and that he removed all blue-emblem Rebels because he says there's no "Blue Squadron".

He doesn't take into account that there's also only a couple seen with Red logos in the actual battle sequence...  I could see changing a couple blue-emblem helmets, but not all.  The emblem has zero to do with the squad designation, as is evidenced by the sheer number of helmet decoes and there only being two squads (some argue three, and a 3rd "blue squad" was there flying high "cover" in the new A-Wings which had just come into service and were limited to only a small flight at Yavin, and "out of camera range"). 

Otherwise I really don't think I'd be disappointed in ANYTHING he changed.  It all sounds insanely great.  :)
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on August 28, 2009, 05:46 PM
I was a bit hesitant about this project but once I saw it I was blown away by this guys dedication and work.  I personally put this version above the SE and the original cut (which it most resembles, but adds so many little things).

You really need to see this before jumping to any conclusions.  Like I said, I was hesitant but after seeing I can't understand why some of these things were not taken care of by Lucas for the re-release. 
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on August 29, 2009, 03:21 AM
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

or so my guess goes anyway.   :-\
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on August 29, 2009, 03:58 PM
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

or so my guess goes anyway.   :-\

 ???

This was a fan edit and is available free at the site.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: David on August 29, 2009, 04:34 PM
I don't get it. Is this something I can download and watch now on my computer? I'd like to check it out.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Matt_Fury on August 29, 2009, 07:18 PM
Star Wars: Revisited is worth watching if only to see the extended Alderaan Destruction scene in the Special Features.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on August 29, 2009, 09:05 PM
I don't get it. Is this something I can download and watch now on my computer? I'd like to check it out.

Yes, as are all the movies on the site.  You do need to own the originals to legally view these.  You also need a rapidshare or megaupload account, and a free download (jdownloader) is needed to save the files. Once downloaded just burn the Video_TS folder.  

They have multiple versions available for download but would recommend the DL over the SL.  The site does have some other cool stuff as well.  


There are also a ton of OOP Star Wars Specials available.

Here are the list of changes/additions:

•1 – Star Wars Logo: originally it receded way too quickly so this has been slowed down to match the speed in the rest of the saga.
•2 – The crawl appears slightly earlier now, as it did pre ANH, so it appears at the correct music cue that Williams’ intended, and how I remember it.
•3 – As the camera pans down to Tatooine you now see the 3 moons instead of just 2
•4 – Tatooine now rotates slightly as the ships fly overhead
•5 – Re-coloured all lasers
•6 – Removed the horrible blue hazing as the stardestroyers engine come into view
•7 – Changed the explosion as the Tantive IV is hit to remove a lot of the smoke.
•8 – Added a jerk to the motion of the Tantive IV as it is hit
•9 – Speeded up the star field in that shot so the Tantive IV seems to be moving as fast as it did in previous shots.
•10 – Colour correction of the whole film to remove the blue tint. The Tantive IV’s walls are now white.
•11 – Re-coloured R2’s dome lights throughout the movie so they match closer to the rest of the saga. The front light now blinks from red to blue.
•12 – Re-edited the Tantive IV corridor battle to fix continuity issues where troopers die more than once.
•13- Added blaster flashes to all blasters that have them missing as they fire.
•14 – Added blast flashes to the troopers where they are hit
•15 – Corrected issues where the blasters flash as if they were fired on set but no laser bolts were present. Added the lasers to fix this throughout.
•16 – Fixed the jump cut where 3PO & R2 cross the corridor on the Tantive IV & the doorway explodes.
•17 – When Vader enters the Tantive IV a Stormtrooper lets go of the head of a dead trooper but that you can see that the actor slowly lowers his head. This has been fixed and the troopers head now drops at speed more like a dead body.
•18 – Added blinking lights to Vader’s chest plate
•19 – Vader’s eyes re-coloured to remove the red tint.
•20 – When 3PO is looking for R2 a trooper falls to the floor behind him as if he has been shot but there is no laser fire. Added some lasers & a flash as the trooper is hit.
•21 – Smoothed / fixed the jump cut as R2 extends his third leg and heads for 3PO & the one where he leaves 3PO
•22 – Fixed the error in the scene where Vader is strangling Antilles the trooper in the background changes position in one shot. Originally his legs are closed and his blaster is in a totally different position.
•23 – Fixed an FX issue when Leia is hit by the stun blaster the glow effect is missing on part of her dress.
•24 – In the scene where R2 presses the button to open the pod door you now see his arm retract
•25 – Re-coloured the interior of the escape pod to blue due to continuity issues in this scene.
•26 – As the escape pod blasts off it now begins to rotate as it does in the rest of the shots
•27 – When the imperial commander says “hold your fire” the trajectory of the escape pod has been changed so it is heading downwards and away from the ship instead or just heading straight which caused a continuity error in the next shot as we see the underbelly of the stardestroyer , which means it was heading downwards.
•28 – Changed the stars & stardestroyer view from inside the pod so the ship & stars now recede at different rates
•29 – You now see the escape pod enter the atmosphere of Tatooine.
•30 – Every FX shot has been either touched up or redone in some form or another, but too many to mention every one.
•31 – On Tatooine the escape pod canopy has been re-coloured to remove the odd blue colour
•32 – In the some scenes the sky has been changed to match other shots.
•33 – Added the sandcrawler from the OUT to replace the static shots when 3P0 thinks he is rescued
•34 – Completely new canyon wipe so the rocky surroundings that R2 travels through matches closer to what Tatooine looks like in the PT. Also brightened the scene slightly
•35 – Fixed a shot of R2 after he is captured where you see the mark of a restraining bolt before it is attached. In some previous shots it is also somewhat visible but I was unable to fix this.
•36 – Fixed a placement continuity error with the restraining bolt that the Jawas fix to R2
•37 – Added a battle droid to the scrap inside the Sandcrawler. Also brightened up the inside scenes Fixed
•38 – Fixed R2’s eye dome in the shot inside the sandcrawler where it looks like you can see Kenny Baker inside.
•39 – Inside the sandcrawler 3PO’s eyes blink as he stands. Fixed
•40 – Re-coloured the sky in the SE shots of the sandtroopers & Sandcrawler so the colour the sky is less saturated and closer matches the sky we see at the homestead.
•41 – When Beru calls to Luke as they are about to inspect the droids, bushes appear & disappear from shot to shot. Removed the bushes from the shots of Luke to fix this error.
•42 – Removed a wire visible coming out of 3PO’s neck while Owen talks to him at the sale
•43 – Removed the repeated shot of R2 & the red R5 unit to fix a continuity error. Replaced with a new shot.
•44 – Fixed the pink sky effect just before this scene fades out.
•45 – Added the missing glow from R2’s holo light in the garage.
•46 – Brightened & desiderated the sunset scene.
•47 – Fixed the colour problem in the shot where 3PO jumps as Luke activates the restraining bolt in the garage. In the 2004 DVDs this shot was sepia. An example of some very bad colour problems with these DVDs.
•48 – As Luke races out of the Garage to use his macrobinoculars I have added 3PO running out of the doorway to fix an error that he suddenly appears out of nowhere.
•49 – New macrobinocular graphics that add in 3PO. All other macrobinocular graphics changed too.
•50 – Removed the droids tracks from a previous take make it look like it is being pulled along by a cord.
•51 – When Owen shouts Luke the Treadwell droid is in a totally different place than the previous shot and a fly lands on the camera lens. Fixed both issues.
•52 – In the shot where the Tusken raiders see Luke’s speeder travelling through the canyon the speeder suddenly seems to speed up towards the end and looks unnatural. Recomposited the speeder to fix this.
•53 – Re-coloured the sky in some shots when Ben rescues Luke so it is more blue instead of very grey/ white, which it isn’t in the shot where Ben scares the Tusken raiders.
•54 – Smoothed the jump cut where Luke ignites the sabre in Obi-Wan’s hut
•55 – Added the missing ornament on Ben’s table in the shot of Leia’s hologram.
•56 -Added the missing cloak on the wall behind Luke as he ignites the sabre.
•57 – Re-edited the whole “Ben’s Home” not only to fix the continuity errors but also because the conversation about the force and Luke’s father is now all together and flows better instead of being split into 2 separate conversations. It now starts off with the viewing of the hologram and fixes the continuity problems.
•58 – Added a new death Star sequence prior to the conference room scene to give the death star a better reveal. It now orbits a planet in all shots up until it is reported that it is fully operational.
•59 – Changed the torture droids syringe arm. Removed the writings and added a laser effect.
•60 – Mos Eisley approach re-edited. Removed some of the creatures on the first shot & extended the path of the landspeeder so it now fully enters the town.
•61 – Completely removed the Ronto/ Jawa sequence.
•62 – Removed the probe droid hit but the worker droid.
•63 – Removed both Rontos from the checkpoint scene.
•64 – Removed the probe droid from this scene also
•65 – Fixed the ship that flies in front of the vaporator making it look tiny.
•66 – When Luke looks over to the cantina it is heavily cast in shadow but as they approach there are no shadows. This has been fixed.
•67 – Added facial movements to some cantina creatures.
•68 – In the shot where you see Ponda Babba’s severed arm I have removed the blood & replaced the hand with the hoof like one we see him with in other shots.
•69 -More facial movements & blinks for Greedo
•70 -HAN SHOOTS FIRST!! Greedo no longer shoots either.
•71 – Removed the Jabba scene
•72 – As they approach docking bay 94 you see R2 at the side of 3PO but as the camera pans and he goes out of shot you suddenly see him appear again from a different direction, which would be impossible for him to appear so quickly. Fixed this error
•73 – Re-added the fade wipe as they approach the falcon.
•74 – Added the falcons dish in the docking bay shot and expanded the docking bay.
•75 – Slightly re-edited the docking bay shootout to fix some continuity issues
•76 – Fixed the issues with Hans “wobbly” wrist as he fires
•77 – Added the missing middle strut to all the Falcons cockpit window scenes.
•78 – Added the blue glow back to the Falcons engines.
•79 – As the falcon escapes Tatooine it now actually does some manoeuvres instead of “listing lazily to the left”
•80 – New Alderaan for all the viewscreen shots
•81 – New Alderaan explosion
•82 – Re-rotoscoped all lightsabres and fixed Luke’s green & wobbly sabre during the training session.
•83 – Re-composited the holo chess character so they look more like holograms now.
•84 – In close-up shots of R2 the background has the control light from the Death Star interior. These shots now have the correct background.
•85 – Fixed the jump cut as Luke turns off his sabre.
•86 – Added the colour to the remotes laser that was missing from the 2004 DVD’s
•87 – In the scene where Vader says “I told you she would never….” he gestures after he has stopped talking. This has been fixed.
•88 – More asteroids when the Falcon reaches the Alderaan system
•89 – New docking bays for exterior shots to match the new interior ones.
•90 – Removed the blue screen pole that is visible as the Falcon enters the docking bay and the girder crane in the top left which isn’t there when you see the interior of the docking bay
•91 – Added a glow to the shield light to all shots of the docking bay interior.
•92 – Added the censored shot of the officer being hit as they break into the control room.
•93 – Re-coloured the displays in the control room so they are no longer black & white
•94 – The Death Star’s interiors are now metallic grey instead of the horrible blue.
•95 – When Han, Luke & chewy wait at the elevator a trooper walks past them wearing a light coloured uniform but in the next shot it is a dark uniform. Re-coloured the light uniform to fix this.
•96 – Added the censored shot of the officer being hit in the detention cell shootout.
•97 – In the final shots of this sequence a trooper falls down the stairs but only the scenery was hit. The trooper now gets hit.
•98 – In the scene where the stormtroopers are about to blast their way into the detention cell, the elevator door has visible signs that it has been rigged for to blast apart and looks a mess. Fixed this issue.
•99 – New tractor beam matte shots.
•100 – Recomposited the SE shot of the many stormtroopers as Han chases them to look more natural
•101 – New wider shot of Luke & Leia as they swing across the chasm. They now look to be a lot higher up.
•102 – Re-edited the lightsabre duel to give it a faster pace
•103 – The lightsabre impact flashes cover both characters even though it should only be visible in front of the character closest to the camera. This has been fixed
•104 – Removed the visible power cable from the lightsabre up Ben’s sleeve
•105 – As Han & chewy reach the docking bay you can see the shadows of Luke & Leia awaiting their cue. Removed the shadows.
•106 – Replaced the dummy of Ben as Vader kills him. You now see his face and Vader actually slices through him and you see him disappear.
•107 – Removed the bar holding R2’s legs in place when the droids head for the falcon
•108 – When Luke blasts the control panel the door blast door closes, but in the next shot it closes again. This has been fixed.
•109 – As the Falcon leaves the docking bay it originally left very slowly even though the engines ignite and it should have accelerated faster. It does now.
•110 – Fixed the wobbly holotable as Luke gets up to head to the gun port.
•111 – Removed the horribly bad motion blur from the shots of Luke & Han in the gun port as the TIEs approach
•112 – Redone the TIE battle sequence so the falcon no longer appears to be just sitting there and added a few new shots.
•113 – Brand new explosions for TIES in this sequence
•114 – Added a faster moving star field to all interior window shots of the gun port including shots that were missing a star field.
•115 – When 3PO is entangled in the wires after the battle, again the close up of R2 has the death star interior background. It now has the correct Falcon corridor background.
•116 – After the battle you now see the falcon enter hyperspace.
•117 – Added the Hyperspace wormhole to the cockpit sequence.
•118 – The Falcon now can be seen exiting hyperspace as it approaches Yavin.
•119 – In the shot of the Falcon as it flies over the trees on Yavin IV the clouds have been changed to matched the rest of the sequence. I’ve also added the falcons shadow on the trees as it flies over.
•120 – New interior shot of the Hanger bay. Removed the cardboard fighters and given the hanger greater depth.
•121 – Fixed the following flip shots as they step off the transport vehicle.
•122 – New Death Star schematics.
•123 – Darkened the rebel briefing scene and once it is over the lighting becomes brighter.
•124 – New up to date briefing room graphics for the display.
•125 – A lot of the Rebel pilots have Blue insignias on their helmets but there is no blue squadron in the final draft. Re-coloured all blue insignias to red.
•126 – The shot of Yavin & the Death star following the briefing room scene has been changed so that Yavin matches the SE Yavin
•127 – When we see Han loading up his reward the Y-wing in the background is missing one of its engines because only half the ship was built. This has been fixed.
•128 – Fixed the horrible jump cut of R2 as he is loaded into the X-Wing while Luke talks to Biggs & Red Leader.
•129 – Added an extra stripe to one of the high view X-Wing shots to remove the repeated red leader X-Wing shots
•130 – As the X-wing lifts off it now flies forward and not just straight up.
•131 – As Luke leaves the temple you can now see the exterior of the temple from the rear cockpit window.
•132 – Re-edited all Rebel command centre shots to fix issues where the image has been flipped (you can tell because 3PO’s dent on his head keeps swapping sides) Also Leia keeps changing position.
•133 – Added Yavin to the rear cockpit windows of the fighters as they report in and to various shots throughout the battle.
•134 – Ships engines are now again red and not pink.
•135 – Re-coloured R2 so his dome is now blue and not black in all space shots.
•136 – Fixed few flip shots of various pilots during the battle (the microphone keeps swapping sides)
•137 – Added new shots throughout the sequence including a whole new TIE battle sequence
•138 – The rebel command centre table now includes holograms
•139 – The death star countdown clock & viewscreen is also a brand new updated display.
•140 – The window at the back of Vader’s cockpit has been blacked out because there should be no window.
•141 – Fixed issues where ships were missing in numerous scenes in the trench run when they should be in view. This includes both TIES & X-wings
•142 – Fixed the issue with the Trench approach where the shots clearly change from a flat matte to a model shot after the flash and really jumps out at you. It flows together between both sources better now. Also both times we see it they used the same shot. Each one now has slight differences to them.
•143 – When Vader fires at Luke and hits R2 he is actually firing beneath the X-wing but then next shot he hits R2 which would have been impossible. This issue has been fixed
•144 – When R2 Is hit the next shot you can see no smoke or damage through Luke’s cockpit window. This has been fixed
•145 – Added damage to R2s body to match the shot where he is unloaded from the X-Wing later.
•146 – Re-coloured bit X-wing & TIE targeting displays
•147 – A lot of shots throughout the Death Star battle the cockpit shots just have a plain black background. All cockpit shots now show what should be visible outside.
•148 – When Red Leader is killed I’ve you see an explosion but nothing makes it. I’ve added the x-wing hitting the surface.
•149 – Removed all of the “swinging TIES2 seen in the rear cockpit windows. The TIEs now more naturally according to the scene
•150 – A very slight edit to the Biggs death scene. Luke now reacts better to the death of his friend.
•151 – When the Falcon comes to the rescue and hits the left hand TIE fighter the laser both never actually hits the TIE fighter. This has been fixed
•152 – You now see the death star begin to fire as it explodes
•153 – New death Star explosion shot that integrates brand new footage and OUT and removed the shock wave ring.
•154 – When Vader spins out of control you can now see stars through his cockpit windows.
•155 – Chewie now gets a medal
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on August 31, 2009, 02:29 AM
$$$$$$$$$$$$$$

or so my guess goes anyway.   :-\

 ???

This was a fan edit and is available free at the site.

This, not the fan edit...  I meant LFL.

Quote
I can't understand why some of these things were not taken care of by Lucas for the re-release.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Angry Ewok on September 11, 2009, 12:53 PM
Can we get a step-by-step tutorial on how to download and watch this thing?  ???
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: David on September 11, 2009, 08:58 PM
Can we get a step-by-step tutorial on how to download and watch this thing?  ???

What he said.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Nicklab on September 13, 2009, 08:25 PM
Now are we talking about Adywan's "A New Hope Revisited"?  I've seen that and it's definitely very cool.  Just the shots of the Death Star orbiting Alderaan alone are worth the download.

The Star Destroyers in formation making their way away from the planet as the Falcon leaves Tatooine is very cool.  As is the Falcon's escape from the Death Star, as you get to see more of the exterior of the Falcon being hit by blaster fire from the TIE Fighters along with fire from the dorsal and ventral turrets.

But IMHO, the best revisions are in the space battle.  You see SWARMS of TIE fighters.  And one of the most notable things is that you see both foreground dogfighting and background dogfighting.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on September 16, 2009, 07:53 PM
Can we get a step-by-step tutorial on how to download and watch this thing?  ???

download a program called jpdownloader (just do a google search, they have there own site I believe and it is free).  Download the rar program which is similar to winzip. Buy a rapidshare account (I usually buy 1 month at a time, and it is not reoccuring, around $7 I believe).  Download the link on fanedit.org and you can now download the file. Once done you will have a video_ts dvd file.  Burn and away you go.

I would advise downloading the Dual Layer version if possible.  If you are still stuck just pm me and we can do it the easy way.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on September 17, 2009, 12:58 AM
Here are some screenshots for the doubters. It compares the SE against this version.

New space battle above the Death Star.

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBU6qnymI/AAAAAAAABuU/ZhL29KYhPfU/s1600/SWR_dsbc.jpg)

And other various shots.

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBVKqnyoI/AAAAAAAABuk/xs5mZGONc70/s1600/SWR_007.jpg)

(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBUqqnylI/AAAAAAAABuM/A_DwDt3JoDw/s1600/SWR_005.jpg)

(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBUKqnykI/AAAAAAAABuE/JOLsj3jktS8/s1600/SWR_004.jpg)

(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBraqnytI/AAAAAAAABvM/AbqMrRdMiVA/s1600/SWR_003.jpg)
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on September 17, 2009, 01:00 AM
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBrKqnyrI/AAAAAAAABu8/JTpyVJu2BLM/s1600/SWR_002.jpg)

(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_jv-vx0HDjF0/R-iBq6qnyqI/AAAAAAAABu0/Cg0V9zYvgaA/s1600/SWR_001.jpg)

Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Darth_Anton on September 17, 2009, 10:24 AM
Wow, I didn't think anyone would really bother. I'll have to check it out when I have the time.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Matt_Fury on September 17, 2009, 09:21 PM
Can we get a step-by-step tutorial on how to download and watch this thing?  ???

What he said.

You could also send me a PM....I can make copies if interested, but I will require you send me a dvd to burn it to.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on September 18, 2009, 12:25 AM
I just got finished watching the special features and you will be happy to know that there is a deleted scene of Alderaan and we get to see an aged Jimmy Smits and Jar Jar bite the dust.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Angry Ewok on September 28, 2009, 12:12 AM
Can I just PayPal someone a few bucks to mail me a DVD?  :-*
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on September 28, 2009, 02:33 AM
Someone in this thread, and I'll just say his name begins in J and ends in M, was REALLY kindly willing to help out...   :-X   :-*
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on October 8, 2009, 12:15 AM
I've been wanting to type this up real quick...

Jim was able to see to it I got a copy of the SW: A New Hope Fan Edit, and I appreciate that tremendously as it's a really neat thing to have.  Here are my thoughts on the edit and what I liked and didn't like...

-I enjoyed the overal clean-up of the film.  There still seemed to be sound quality issues, and I think only maybe LFL could clean that kind of stuff up, so nothing held against the editor for that.  I do think he did a fantastic job on just generally cleaning up the movie in general.  The halls of the Tantive IV are crisp white, the Death Star looked remarkable, the streets of Mos Eisley looked great, the skies were extra blue on Tattooine...  I was just impressed with this aspect, as it's something LFL should've done and lazily didn't.  It almost makes you offended you paid for a copy of the films and they sort of screwed you on it.

-I LOVED the updates to graphics...  Small, but a HUGE thing that again I think LFL should've done.  The pre-flight briefing on Yaving IV?  It's spectacular.  It meshes completely with the PT now, it doesn't look like technology was backwards in the universe...  Again, how could LFL not do this stuff?  Lameness on their part. 

I think the cockpit graphics were nice on the Falcon, very updated...  I thought the TIE and X-Wing cockpit graphics could've been better, but were updated enough to look far superior to their original designs.  I would've dug maybe seeing him try to match the video game graphics for the fighters HUD systems and stuff...  It would've just been neat, just from my personal love of the video games, but regardless these were big (though apparantly not difficult) updates.  The Yavin IV briefing is really, really neat now...  The little things too, like "bringing up the lighting" at its conclusion was a nice touch too.  Also the in-battle following of the fight via holographic table was insanely cool as well, and much-needed.

The Death Star also got some in-battle graphic updates so their countdown looked normal...

-I didn't necessarilly like all the edits in Mos Eisley...  Namely the removal of Jabba's Docking Bay 94 sequence.  I felt that added to Han's character more than detracted from the story flow.  I don't see a need to remove it honestly.

I also felt cleaning up the streets of Mos Eisley wasn't always good...  I personally liked the Swoop cutting off the Ronto.  It added, I felt, to the busy nature of the streets and things.  I can see cutting out the ASP-7 smacking the mini-probe droid, and I liked the removal of some of the animals as Luke/Obi drive into the outskirts of town, but really I felt removing the Swoop and Jabba were mistakes IMO.

-Han shooting first...  How can you complain about this?  Han's back to being a cold-hearted killer now.  I like that about his character's early basis, and so I like seeing it back in.

-Alderaan extended scene...  To see the extended Alderaan sequence is to almost have a tear come to your eye.  First, it kind of visually gives you the method by which the Death Star actually destroys a planet.  It's like it drills its beam into the planet's core, and overheats the core till it explodes outward, thus blowing the planet into a nice new asteroid ring (more onthe ring in a minute).  I loved this, but it's an "extra" on the DVD and not part of the actual film.  I would've liked seeing it actually in the film personally...  The final moments with Organa and Jar Jar were neat.

-The extended and updated flight from the Death Star is great...  The fighters are doing more daring maneuvers, they're coming from all angles and it almost seems like there's more than 4 now.  Also the Falcon is diving, weaving, and being something more like we see in ROTJ than what it was in ANH originally...  Which this reminds me too on something else...

-The extended exit from Mos Eisley...  The Falcon's doing maneuvers, and the Destroyers are now actually trying a real looking maneuver to pin the Falcon in with their  large ships, and tractor beam it.  It escapes based on the ship's maneuverability and speed, so that makes the Falcon escape that much cooler now. 

-Added Hyperspace Tunnels...  Very cool, plus the cockpit of the Falcon's dimly lit with a blue hue now.  Very small, but really nice touch. 

-Deaths are more violent...  More "explosive" blaster hits are a nice thing to see.  The "toned down" crap LFL decided to do sucked, so it's great seeing them made violent and big blasts when guys get shot.  Yay.

-The Yavin Battle...

How can you describe it?  Hmmm...  Fantastic?  Glorious?  Beautiful?  All of the above and more?  It's everything I would've done short of adding a couple early-model A-Wing fighters to tie it slightly to EU ("Arrowhead" fighters are at Yavin according to EU, which ties to the X-Wing games, and Arrowheads are the original A-Wing design).

They added dogfighting all around the background, lots of TIE's and X-Wings and Y-Wings are duking it out in the background of any given sequence.  The TIE Fighters arrive in a huge, grand fashion too.  The brief cut of deep Imperial March music plays as a literal SWARM of fighters arrives to the battle to unload a huge 50 gallon drum of whoopass on the Alliance...  Guns can't do it?  **** 'em, we're bringing in the entire Imperial Fighter Corps at our disposal! 

There is high-altitude fighting going on, there are teams of ships working in little tandems like real fighters would try doing (wingmen).  You see Y-Wings diving the surface while X-Wings are dodging and weaving throughout.  There's men getting shot down left and right on both sides...  It looks like a real furball up there going on, rather than the old edit's somewhat ho-hum limited fight.  The Alliance looks like THEY can dish it out, and so does the Empire.  It looks like I always envisioned it.

-Luke & Biggs...  This is really something not many seem to mention about it, but this made a huge impact with me...  Luke actually reacts to Biggs getting hit!  Yes, the cold-heart of Luke Skywalker is gone and he no longer silently lets Biggs fall behind and croak.  Now Luke cries into the mic after Biggs is shot down, "Biggs?  Biggs!?" while Leia and the other staff look on with their concerned faces knowing that Luke's friend and last line of defense from the pursuit fighters has died...  Luke says this over the mic, so you only see the command staff's faces, not his, till it cuts back and he does look concerned.  That always, always, always bugged me about that scene, and now it's fixed.  I love that.  It may be my single favorite "little" fix.

-Now, the one thing I really didn't like, but did like at the same time...  The duel with Vader and Ben.  I love the upgraded duel edit because it speeds it up slightly, but believably...  THe sabers are fixed and colorful, Ben's death is updated and great, but I don't dig the music.  The editor REALLY crowbarred the Duel of the Fates thing from ROTS and their last fight.  I don't like it at all. 

I don't like it because, even though the editor has made their duel more "speedy", it's still slower than Ben and Vader went at it on Mustafar...  The pace of the music doesn't match the pace of the fight despite it being increased.

Now, I love the duel...  It's improved 100%.  Vader and Ben really seem more capable, both of them, but they still aren't back at Mustafar levels of ass-kicking which is nice because Ben is older now, and Vader's a more slow/lumbering but physically dominant character.  I look back at the Mustafar duel as two men in their primes trying to kill one another, and those days are gone, so I like that this turned out just as I would've dug...  But I wouldn't have had that music.  That music is paced to those characters, and not their future selves which are invariably slower and which I would've used the old music I think.  That's me though.

So, to summarize...

I like 90% of the edits, more or less...  I think the 10% I don't like are annoying, but I love this edit and it's, to me, the new definitive ANH.  That said, it's obviously not canon, but to me in my mind it always will be the way Star Wars "is", if that makes sense.  I'm pretty much spoiled now on the LFL cuts and don't want to watch that copy of ANH anymore.

I'm incredibly anxious to see the other two films...  ESB's next year I think.  I can only imagine they're going to be impressive as this was.

And again thanks to Jim (Rebeltrader) for the help, otherwise I'd have been looking for a copy I could buy somewhere (a guy at the Toy Show is always selling them and a bunch of bootleg crap, i'd have likely bought there).

Get a copy of this, it's well worth it!
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Matt_Fury on October 8, 2009, 01:08 AM
No one should buy it.  It's actually illegal to sell a copy of Star Wars: Revisited...it's even in the disclaimer when you put the disk in the dvd player.

Jesse, great review, but I have to disagree with you on the music in the Vader vs Obi-Wan duel.  I thought it was fantastic and works well with the scene, as well as a tie-in the ROTS.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on October 8, 2009, 02:06 AM
I liked the attempt at the tie-in, don't get me wrong.  I appreciated what was attempted, but like I said the speed didn't match the characters anymore.  Regardless of the attempts to speed up the edit as he did, and they worked to speed it up some, the fighting isn't near the ROTS level which this music was sort of attuned to...  It just felt forced then, mixing in the music for its intended purpose.

I agree, nobody should pay for a copy if you can avoid it.  It's a hastle to go through the process to get it downloaded, but worth the hastle IMO.  I was able to have a friendly hand get me a copy for free, so I was quite fortunate as it saved me doing the download and things, plus I have such an old computer that I don't quite know how a dl would've played on my PC and I don't have a DVD-ROM either to burn it properly.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jim on October 8, 2009, 12:36 PM
I was reading some notes on the editor and there was one scene that was to be added but never happened.  It was the sequence after Vader kills Ben and the Docking Doors are closing.  Originally Vader was going to use his saber to punture the blast door ala Qui-Gon in TPM.

Glad you liked it Jesse, it really is a definitive version.  At some point I am going to add back in the Jabba scene and the deaths of Bail and Jar Jar.  Still learing the editing software myself.   

Regarding the ESB edit, it is due out next year on the 30th Anniversary.  There wont be any major changes compared to this version because the editor like so many others already feel this is perfect. 
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on October 8, 2009, 03:48 PM
Quote
Originally Vader was going to use his saber to punture the blast door ala Qui-Gon in TPM.

YES!

This was on my mind actually, as I watched the new edit.  There's something about Vader now that makes you think he's a juggernaught, and wouldn't have just stopped.  You really almost felt now like you were secons from seeing a spot on the door start melting as he tried to cut his way through before the Falcon could escape.

It's insanely funny that you mentioned that Jim, and I would've really liked that addition.  As it stands now, he just sorta gives up.

Of course that could be attributed to the homing beacon plot device too.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Scott on December 30, 2014, 10:25 PM
Anyone have a copy of this on DVDs they could get me a copy?
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Jesse James on December 30, 2014, 11:19 PM
Scott, I'll try to get it together.  If I can't, I think I know someone on here who could.
Title: Re: Fan Edit Ep IV - A Must See
Post by: Muftak on January 3, 2015, 12:08 PM
Anyone have a copy of this on DVDs they could get me a copy?

Second that. I was looking a few months back to download this finally and can only find dead links. Any help would be appreciated.