The Star Wars movies are a work in progress. Lucas has been tweaking them and making changes from the re-release of the original movie in the late '70's through the recent Bluray editions of the saga. With the upcoming 3D versions of the movies, it's likely that he will continue to refine his movies to more fully realize his vision, for better or worse.
As Anakin's mom says in Episode I, "You can't stop change." As a long-time Star Wars fan, I'm mostly okay with the changes, many of which are subtle and actually improve and enrich the visual world of the movies. A few changes don't really work (Jabba's scene in A New Hope). And some are just weird and unnecessary (Vader's "Noooo!" in Jedi and his shuttle trip in Empire).
If you hate the changes made to the movies, you should go back and look at the originals some time. We take for granted some of the more subtle improvements that have been made to these movies. Thanks to the Special Editions we are spared the awful landspeeder effects, flimsy light sabers, and the atrocious Rancor blue screening.
Knowing that Lucas will continue to make updates, here's my list of changes I think should be made.
Just because you can show us an alien's tonsils, doesn't mean you should.1. Fix Some of the 1990's CGI (Original Trilogy): If it's going to be in there, at least bring it into the 21st Century. Whether it be the dodgy compositioning and texturing (Sarlacc beak) or the overly ostentatious CGI in the Max Reebo Band number, it's time to go back and do some much needed touch-ups to the early generation digital effects.
2. Add Some Battle Droids to the Background Inside the Sandcrawler (A New Hope). The Battle Droids were ubiquitous in the Prequels but are totally absent from the original trilogy. It would be great to see some old rusted Battle Droids in the background inside the Sandcrawler or even replacing one of the robots in the droid sale. This would be a nice way to visually tie the trilogies together and some evidence of some Clone Wars action that might have happened on Tattooine, which would give some context to the Cantina bartender's line, "Your droids will have to wait outside! We don't serve their kind here."
3. Vader and the Blast Door (A New Hope): Before the Millennium Falcon escapes the Death Star and right after Obi-Wan sacrifices himself, Luke shoots a wall panel causing a door to shut on Vader, locking him out of the hangar. The way I see it, Vader is not going to wait for someone to fix the door, nor is he going to walk around. We need to see his red light saber poke through the door and begin cutting its way into the hangar. This helps establish Vader as an unstoppable bad-ass.
We could even see him step through in time to see the Falcon leave. This would be a nice call-back to The Phantom Menace when Qui-Gon attempts to cut through the door on the Federation cruiser and it also recalls moments when Darth Maul watches the Naboo ship escape on Tattooine and when the Falcon narrowly escapes Vader twice in Empire. (Come to think of it, there are lots of shots in Star Wars in which people frustratedly watch ships take off.)
3. Add Count Dooku to the Jedi Council (The Phantom Menace): One of the problems with Count Dooku as a villain is that he comes out of nowhere in Episode II and we have to listen to a lot of people talk about his backstory. He plays such a major part in the prequels that he should really be visually established prior to Episode II. Since we hear that he is an important Jedi prior to the Clone Wars, why not see him on the Council in Episode I?
Digitally put him in place of the "conehead" Jedi Ki-Adi Mundi and give him that character's one line and then at least we are introduced to him and we actually see that he was an important Jedi rather than having to take Mace Windu's word for it. It gives him a clearer character arc and makes him a more effective villain.
4. Fix Some of the Bad Puppet/Mask Work (Original Trilogy): This is sacrilege for some people, but the Special Editions were not ambitious enough when it came to improving on the bad mask and puppet work throughout the Original Trilogy. I'm surprised Lucas didn't remove more of the cheap masked characters from the Cantina scene with digital characters. Now that the Prequels are over, it would be nice to see some Prequel aliens represented in there. Also in Jabba's Palace, Max Reebo looks like a big ole Muppet.
It's time to play the music...it's time to light the lights...5. Fix Yoda. (Throughout) I'm a bit dissatisfied with Yoda in both trilogies. I like his range of movement and performance in the Prequels but there was something very plastic about his skin. It was a bit too shiny and translucent. I'd really like to see him "reskinned" with a duller tone that is more like the puppet used in Empire and Jedi.
Yoda was never the same after the stroke...That's not to say that I am a huge fan of the puppet. There are some scenes where he works well and some scenes that are painful, such as when he is "emoting" surprise when Luke manages to lift the X-Wing from the swamp. Or the awful Yoda dummy that was in Luke's backpack. Or his death scene in Jedi where Luke pulls a blanket over him, which gets caught on his rubber toe and pulls it back like an empty glove. If there ever comes a day when they can create a CGI Yoda that is indistinguishable from the puppet Yoda, they should go in an fix a few scenes to make Yoda more expressive and lifelike.
Hellooooo dear!6. Fix The Emperor (The Empire Strikes Back): Re-doing the Emperor's sole scene in The Empire Strikes Back with Ian McDiarmid was a great move. The only problem was that he was wearing his weird Mrs. Doubtfire makeup from Revenge of the Sith. Let's fix this so that he looks more like his appearance in Return of the Jedi.
7. Tweak a Few Lines in Jedi: After Sith, there are some lines in Return of the Jedi that stick out as not being very accurate. After Luke expresses his intent to redeem his father, Vader says, "Obi-Wan once thought as you do."
The only problem is that Obi-Wan pretty much had made up his mind to kill Anakin before he even got to Mustafar. It's actually Padme who wants to take Anakin away in the same way that Luke does, so the line could be changed to, "Your mother once thought as you do." This change makes the line more accurate and also more emotionally powerful. With the return of his son, there is no doubt that thoughts of Padme are running around inside Vader's head as he struggles to turn back.
Also, when Luke asks Leia about her "real" mother, she gives a description of her as a beautiful but sad woman which begs the question, who is she talking about? To simplify this, the word "real" should be removed and we can just assume that she is talking about her adopted mother, the one we see her with at the end of Sith, and Luke, trying to ease into the topic, doesn't bother to correct her.
8. Diversify the Rebels (Original Trilogy): It seems like the Rebels are a pretty homogeneous bunch. In the first couple of movies, Chewie is the only alien in their ranks. By the time we get to Jedi, we see some Mon Calamari and some other aliens but it still doesn't seem very representative. I'd like them to make it a little less human-centric to contrast better with the Empire, which is supposed to be the undiverse faction (being diverse in the Empire means you don't have a British accent.) Let's actually see some of those Bothans that Mon Mothma is all broken up about. The Star Wars Galaxy is a pretty diverse place, let's show it off.
And give Chewie his damn metal.
9. Fix the Tauntauns (Empire Strikes Back): While the stop motion work that you see is not too bad, the Tauntauns look much worse when you see them in close and medium shots when they are dead-eyed animatronics. Even worse, when you see them in Echo Base they are often hiding behind ice columns to hide their puppet mechanisms. I'd like to see some CGI in these shots, to make them more convincing and lifelike in the background.
10. Give Ahsoka Tano A Cameo In Sith: As a nod to the popular The Clone Wars series that has brought a whole new generation to Star Wars and is set between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith, let's have a quick cameo from one of its protagonists, Anakin's Padawan Ahsoka Tano. She could be simply strolling down the hallway in the Jedi Temple or otherwise in the background, but it would be a treat to work her into the live action movies.
Here's a bonus one:
11. Take Out The "Nooooo" and "She's Lost The Will to Live." (Revenge of the Sith): There you were in 2005. It was the movie you had been waiting for forever. For the most part, Lucas had not screwed it up. There was no Jar Jar, very fewAnakin/Padme scenes, it was a legitimately satisfying Star Wars prequel, with some of the best scenes and sequences of the entire saga.
You were at the end and Anakin had been rescued from his brutal defeat at the hands of Obi-Wan, in a scene that was surprisingly intense and graphic. Intercut with a scene of Padme dying while giving birth to the twins is a sequence in which Darth Vader is born.
Intertwining these two scenes was a brilliant and haunting choice. Then we get the one-two punch. First, some Jaialai-handed robot tells Obi-Wan that Padme is dying because, "She has lost the will to live." The droid is practically shrugging as it gives this half-assed diagnosis. You just wished Obi-Wan would have split it in half and said, "No dumbass, she was Force Choked!" It was a stupid, awkward moment.
Then we cut back to Vader and he looks a little terrified as that mask is lowered onto his face. sealing him into his suit. There is a beat and then we hear that infamous breathing and we see it displace the mist that his hanging over him. In a clear visual allusion to Frankenstein, his operating table is straightened and he takes his first awkward steps, while telekinetically crushing the droids and equipment around him. He asks, what has become of Padme and when he is told, he lets loose an awful melodramatic "Noooooo!" while the camera slowly zooms out and Palpatine looks on, pleased. This moment ruins the otherwise perfect scene, which was to be the tragic summation of the entire prequel trilogy.
Both of these moments can be easily fixed. First, cut the droid's line and the shot entirely. We already know what happened to Padme. It's goofy and unnecessary.
Second, I agree with the sentiment of "Noooooo!" but not the execution. This is a Tragedy after all, so it's okay that emotions run big but the combination of the line and the camera zooming out is a huge cliche. Let's replace the "Nooooo!" with a scream of rage and loose the zoom out. I would even have him crush the droids after he finds out about Padme, like he's letting loose some kind of Force storm, letting the Dark Side give him power, which pleases Palpy.
Patrick Garone
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Author of City of the Gods: The Return of Quetzalcoatl
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