here's my original reaction to viewing the star wars: return of the jedi special edition when it came out in theaters...

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi

Jedi...do I have to? Ok. Months ago I read that George asked Elton John to write the new song to appear in Jabba's palace. At that point I knew there were going to be problems in the special editions. Then, in the weeks leading up to the release I saw pictures on sites, sequences on MTV, etc. It looked dumb. Then, 2 days before the movie was released my friend got the soundtrack. The first thing we did was listen to the new track called "Jedi Rocks". Even the name is a little weak for a Star Wars movie. We listened to it and cried. They really did something awful to that whole scene. And if the music wasn't bad enough, Sy looks pretty damn awful now. Jabba's Palace will never be the same. If that wasn't bad enough, we then listened to the new song at the end of the movie. I thought my childhood Star Wars experiences were over. After listening to the song at the end SEVERAL times, I found that I could maybe accept it with the new sequences. I think it was that I had to get used to it more than anything. It fits VERY well with new shots. And besides, I'd take it over that "yub yub" song any day!!!(thanks Corey, whoops, I mean Jason :-)...) And why the hell did they add Boba Fett all over Jabba's palace? We already knew he was there, we didn't need 50 more shots of him. He's not that damn good, even George said that in the MTV special. And the penis in the Sarlacc PIT makes it no longer a PIT. It's now more of a creature. And adding that oh so scary rip off of the sandworms from Dune didn't make the scene any more suspenseful. I could see adding a few more animated tentacles, but no beak was needed. Why didn't they touch up some of the awful matte lines in the Ranor sequence? Some of the shots with Luke in front of it looked really bad still. The sequences at the end...they ruled. The music was much more tolerable than I thought it would be. And the computer animated cities looked very cool, except they could have used a different shot of Bespin instead of the same one from Empire. Otherwise, it rocked. I was a little dissapointed that they kept the old shots of the ewoks hitting the helmets and all that crap. After all that, for some reason, I still left the theater very dissapointed. Definitely the worst theater experience of all 3. After the second time, I walked out a little happier. Although Jabba's Palace used to be my favorite part and now it sucks, I kept thinking how cool it would be when I have Jedi on tape so I can watch the new sequences at the end as much as I want. The other 2 were still better, but it wasn't THAT bad...