Scott Kurtz of PvP webcomic "fame" agrees with me today:
(edit: oops... guess this was yesterday, I don't read his comic - P.A. just linked to him today)

Han shoots first again?
Posted on Thursday, May 4, 2006

I'm getting several emails this morning about how Lucasfilm is going to release the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD again. This time the trilogy will be seen as it was originally released in theatres, without all the new edits, special effects "corrections" and additions such as Greedo shooting first.

You would expect that I would be happy about this. Sure, a part of me is very happy about it. But don't you guys feel beat up yet by the lucasfilm camp?. Don't you feel a little bit abused by now?

First of all, as much as we would like to believe otherwise, the prequels were NOT good movies. They were all pretty boring and bereft of the humor, charm and happy mistakes that made Star Wars and Empire such cool movies. Jedi was already starting to retread and slip the tracks in my opinion. Or maybe I was just getting older. Who knows at this point?

But the marketing train over at Lucasfilm has been playing us fans like suckers ever since they started re-editing the trilogy. Hasn't the Lucas camp been swearing on Bibles since the late 1990's that they would NEVER, EVER release the theatrical versions of these movies on DVD? And since then, how many versions of the original Trilogy have been put out for fans to purchase in lieu of what they truly wanted? Two or three at least. And we bought them. What else could we do?

Didn't Lucas plan to give us these original theatrical-release DVD's all along? Of course he did.

I'm reminded of a Simpson's episode where one of Bart's babysitters walked him into a wall by dangling a video game in front of his face. That's how I feel Lucasfilm treats its fans with these DVD releases.

I think the only reason to buy these new DVD's is so that one day, I can sit down with my kids and share with them the same experience I once shared with my father. That's something I've been looking forward to probably ever since 1977.

I certainly don't appreciate, however, how hard Lucas has made me work for that privilege.

Last edited by BrenR; 05/05/06 06:17 PM.