here's my original reaction to viewing the star wars: a new hope special edition when it came out in theaters...

Star Wars: A New Hope

I had mixed feelings going into A New Hope after checking out some of the special edition sites around the net. My first thoughts were that Jabba looked way too silly, and they overdid mos eisley. After coming out, I was very impressed, but still very dissapointed. Jabba was upsetting, the cantina wasn't touched up exept for 2 stupid aliens that really don't fit. When I first heard George talk about redoing them he kept stressing the fact that the cantina was never done right. But what did he do to fix it? Mos eisley was ok, exept it was a little over done with the rontos all over the place. And now there's talk of them being in the prequels too? I don't know. The added space stuff was cool, but there were some old shots that really needed work on that made it into the final cut again. The new and old in the movie really didn't fit. After thinking about it for a while, I'm able to accept the way they worked the whole Jabba thing. He seemed too animated and friendly, and I couldn't understand why he'd be like that. But at that time, Han and Jabba were still working TOGETHER, so they probably would be more friendly. And Jabba's height is about right, look at him next to Bib in Jedi and they're about the same scale. It wasn't the same movie I grew up with, but overall it was acceptable. Actually, I take that back. Boba Fett added to the Jabba scene is the stupidest thing George could have done. First of all, Boba just sucks. He's NOT that cool, or unique. We'll see how cool he is when we see all the other Mandalore Warriors in the prequels...