Rating: 
Summary: 3 stars, just for the audacity.
Review: FINALLY, Lucas and Fox are putting the trilogy to DVD! But wait, if the reviews are true, then my excitement quickly turns to trepidation. The Lucas people may be inventing brand new horrors for this "extra-special" edition. Forget the "purist" argument. I can understand the feeling that a project is never really finished, just abandoned. My argument is more one of ethics - just because you can doesn't mean you should. I'm sure this path was paved with good intentions. But Lucas and Co. have seemingly lost all ability to appreciate the aesthetic value of flaws, as they continue to "improve" and polish these films into glossy soulless caricatures. If higher cinematic quality was really the ambition, they'd re-write the cheesy dialogue. But see, it's those gritty, sometimes silly, qualities of the original films that endeared them to us.
So, is this extra-special edition the product of Lucas' ego running wildly out of control like an ADHD kid on a sugar-bender? Or is it the production company's marketing strategy to release endless "new" versions over the years, thus bleeding the maximum cash from the devoted? Perhaps a synergy between the two? Only time will tell. Regardless, in this age of deluxe multi-disc packaging, would it have been so hard to release both versions and make the public happy (c'mon Fox, you did it with the Alien series)? I only wish Lucas, ILM, and Fox would use their collective cash and creativity to make better "new" Star Wars films, rather than waste it on the repeated resurrection and digital thrashing of our old beloved dead-horse.
Rating: 
Summary: The Empire Bites Back
Review: Thank God Matthew, Mark, Luke and John are all dead or Lucas would have them rewriting the gospels with ridiculous special effects. Why can't I have the Star Wars I grew up with? And why couldn't Lucas at least do what Spielberg did with ET and include BOTH versions in the box? Oh wait, that's next Christmas' multimillion dollar release for George so he can make still more money on the only successful thing he ever created. (Except maybe American Graffiti). I will wait until the Classic Star Wars is released on DVD - meanwhile I am keeping my tapes and my VCR. I wouldn't touch this version with a 10 foot light saber.
Rating: 
Summary: Words from a Jedi
Review: I liked that GL restored and cleaned up the classic trilogy. What I HATED was the added Jabba... COME ON!!!! that looked incredibly FAKE and horrible, I liked that overlarge, slimy, fat and evil Jabba of ROTJ... that CGI Jabba was an INSULT to the original crimelord. What was wrong about Han frying Greedo?? The alien was giving two choices to Han: to turn him to Jabba to collect the reward or give him money to forget he saw him. (...) It's annoying that George doesn't want to please his fans with the one thing we've been asking for YEARS... having BOTH versions in the DVD. I mean Steve Spielberg did that with E.T. I'm buying it because I want to have those movies on DVD, but I buy them under protest .
Rating: 
Summary: A MUST HAVE FOR ALL REBELS
Review: Whether you're 30 years old or just turning to 6, you would be a fool not to buy this piece of Sci-fi history. George Lucas practically puts you in the film with the extreme high depth images. You can practically feel the emotion that was there 30+ years ago when Lucas first gave us Episode 4: A New Hope. I think my favorite one was Empire Strikes Back when you saw Luke and Han in the snow and Luke was using the Tauntaun for shelter. I pity the poor man that actually has to do that in the future. But that's just me. I cannot recommend enough that you buy this DVD set except to say that at the very least, you are saving $27.
Rating:
Summary: Why does it have to be special edition?!
Review: The original Star Wars, NOT the special edition, is the true art form and authentic Star Wars experience. As spectacular as the 3 films are with or without revisions, the special edition series adds unessessary footage that may help along the plot, but its still murdering what Star Wars is supposed to be.
However, they still are the best Star Wars films ever made. I will buy this only because its the only set offered, but I beg Lucas to bring back the original films and put them onto DVD.
Rating:
Summary: Boycott with a tear
Review: I am a 29 year old lifelong Star Wars fan. I consider the original films to be as much a part of my personality as the lessons I learned in school or the values I learned from my parents. I cannot conceive of myself or my consciousness apart from the influence of the FIRST trilogy. I've seen them all coutless times, quote lines appropriate to any situation, and I still will drop everything else to watch them when they show up on TV. So needless to say, I was completely thrilled to see them in the theatres back in the 90s. I even tolerated the SE changes, just so long as I could still obtain copies of the originals. How sad I am to hear that the DVD editions, my chance to own these films in a permanent format that I can share with my children and grandchildren, will only be available in the SE versions. How wrong, corrupt, and thoroughly inhuman. Now...here's why. It has been said that the SE versions represent the fulfillment of "the artist's definitive vision" and that Lucas, as the artist, has every right to complete the vision he wanted to but didn't have the budget or technology to do so 1977-83. Thus case closed, apparently. Well, not so. I for one take a different view of art. I think that when great art is released into the public arena, and goes on to prove itself so influential that it becomes a sort of cultural signpost, its form in fact transcends the "artist's vision" and becomes a kind of common property, part of our collective consciousness, and part of us all. To then permanently change it decades later is to do a kind of violence to us all. So, for instance, take "remastering", a common technological alteration to lots of classic records. This can be a good thing. The Beatles records (an appropriate cultural analogy, I think) have all been remastered for CD. They sound better, enhance the nuances of the music, and take little, if anything away. Remastering does not substantially change the art, which I why I can accept some doctored up special effects, and maybe some "restored footage" here or there in the Star Wars films. But THIS, this travesty, this attempt to permanently eliminate the original versions in favor of the sanitized, kid-friendly, "definitive" versions....well, that would be like Paul re-releasing all the Beatles albums in 2004, with new vocals and overdubs added, dropping some of the offensive songs, calling them the "definitive" versions, and making the originals unavailable. Would he have that right? Or does that art belong to all of us? I would call that just what I call THIS: a crime, corrupt and inhuman. Thanks but no thanks, George.
Rating: 
Summary: Are you kidding me?
Review: George Lucas is such a pompous you know what that it is amazing. He is releasing this collection, but only with his modified versions, and not even the ones he released in the theater for the 20th anniversary. They are modified yet again here and he refuses to provide true fans with the original versions that were released in the theater in the 70's and 80's. What is up with that? I can understand that he has a desire to add things he believed were missing, but considering that our money and devotion is what made the originals such a massive success, don't you think we deserve to at least have the choice of viewing and owning them if we want? Unfortunately, the only way to own the true originals is to buy the old laserdisc versions or find some old VHS versions somewhere. Both are woefully inadequate in picture quality and sound quality. Therefore, I cannot give this compilation more than 2 stars (and that is generous) because it is not a truly complete collection and just another way for a pompous director to make more money from his built-in fan base.
Rating:
Summary: the really special special editions...w/ special sauce...
Review: Regarding the whole original versions vs special editions, I don't think anyone would argue that fixing "blue screen effects" would somehow detract from the cinema experience that compelled millions of people to pay money to see Star Wars over and over (thus giving it the place in cinema history it now has). Fixing a lightsaber glow here and there. Sure. Add a few more spaceships to the fleet. Hey, why not. It's "nifty new character and dialogue" ideas thought up by people apparently out of touch with reality (not to mention a colossal fan base) that take these films from "enhanced" to "sharp cheddar". You're watching your favorite movie, marveling at the improved color and sound quality, when all of the sudden it's like "what the crap??". Just as you recover from that one, there's another "what the crap??" moment. You know, that's what it is...too many "what the crap??" moments. Not enough, "oh cool, they fixed/added that" moments to make up for the "what the crap??" moments.
I mean come on. Why can't George Lucas stand by his own work? You didn't see Kubrick going back to "fix" the 2001 late 60's special effects? Now we hear rumors of an "Ultimate" edition with even more "what the crap??" moments coming some time in the future. Lucas made a classic. Nobody is going to revoke that from him just because we don't get to see Jabba until Return of the Jedi. In fact, most of us liked it that way...
But what does it matter? If there is one thing we can all be sure of it's that Lucas will do what he pleases...and I would guess that it would please him to have the original Star Wars trilogy (i.e. the reason people born in the 80's and 90's have heard of Star Wars) vanish from existence. In the words of the Emperor himself, "So be it." P.S. If we can't have the originals, can we at least have a "skip over the 'what the crap moments'" feature"?
Rating:
Summary: George Lucas has gone too far!!!!!!
Review: I just finished viewing the final release to these new special edition DVD and I gotta say that this is George Lucas' vanity run amuck!!! the following are new scenes in the new special edition. 1. Bigg's X-wing fighter being digitally replaced with the Starship Enterprise in the battle to destroy the first death star. 2. The Ewoks now seem to be intelligent and have major speaking rolls. 3. Jar Jar Binks now is in the trilogy as the leader of the rebel forces. (Grand General Binks) 4. Gabe Kaplan has replaced Billy Dee Williams as Lando Calrissian 5. Leia now has a hook hand and is played by Roseanne Barr. 6. Boba Fett has a 15 minute flash back about wanting to be in a show tune and Jango forbidding it. 7. The Death Star in Return of the Jedi looked more like a Borg cube. 8. Triumph the Insult Talking dog has a brief cameo. 9. Mark Hammill wardrobe has been replace with frilly pink lace and alot of silk. 10. Jabba the Hut's breakdance number. WTF!?(...) 11. Darth Vader's shocking announcement that Luke was adopted by him and his "soul mate." As you can see, these changes were made to get more "normal" people to wanna see it, but I say, to hell with normal people, I am a star wars nerd and I want things to remain the same for ever and ever and ever and ever (except for the "not meeting girls" thing). If Lucas wants to change the movies, let him do it in a galaxy far far away...
Rating:
Summary: Where is the "real" Star Wars???
Review: I was in the front row of the first showing of "Star Wars" when it premiered at the Stanley Warner in Paramus, NJ back in '77. There was no hype, no lines, and Lucas hadn't even imagined that there would even be a sequel at that point. Than being said - it truly was a landmark film. What bothers me is that the original masterpiece will never be seen by future generations. For whatever reason, Lucas decided that he would rework it with all the digital wizardry he could muster. Should other landmark film be re-worked? A revised Citizen Kane or 2001 perhaps? Beyond restoration techniques that are utilized to restore a film back to the closest approximation to it's original incarnation, there is no legitimate reason to tamper with a masterpiece, let alone refuse to let the original ever be seen again. The added digital effects and scenes add little if nothing to the story. If anything there is an incongruity with the rest of the film. I had really hoped that the DVD medium would be used to showcase different versions of the film, allowing newer generations to experience the original as well as subsequent interpretations. These DVDs will fit nicely with, but not replace my Laserdisc versions of the "originals"...
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