Sounds like many of the changes that Lucas made to the original. I was fine with things like tweaking some special effects to make them look better or more realistic, but I hated changes like seeing young Anakin instead of old Anakin and Han shooting first. Those are things that actually change the films in a way that a prettier Death Star explosion does not.
It's a mixed bag really.
I saw the re-releases in the theater. I absolutely fucking LOVED ANH and Empire with the enhancements. I say this as someone who owns Star Wars on laserdisc, VCD and Japanese DVD imports long before they were released stateside
(years).
Also it's important to note that Star Wars has been modified from the original theatrical release long before the special editions, so, this wasn't a new thing for Lucas to do.
He's a .. peculiar director/producer/writer, who likes to control his content. I don't mind him changing certain small aspects of the story. Young Anakin was just stupid though, I mean, it made no sense.
Han shooting first... I know people really invested in Han shooting Greedo first, I get it. The change wasn't done well. But, the problem is that Lucas didn't want to really edit the scene; he couldn't reshoot it, and didn't like how it was done. I never understood how the fuck Greedo could miss at point blank range, which was stupid, or why Han would wait to kill Greedo knowing his intentions.
As I recall they edited Han's head to slightly move, didn't they? Like he casually moved, but the shot still missed like a motherfucker...
I think it's stupid but... I really never understood why it was such a big deal to some people
including Lucas. I understand why he changed it, but he did it poorly. Had it been done well, I wouldn't give a shit about it, While it fundamentally changes Han, it makes him a more heroic figure rather than an anti-hero.
I have to think that the people making the new films are smart enough to know that no one wants Hayden Christensen back.
While this is true, fans do want Vader back. People are clamoring for a Vader film, and you have to ask should that be a mainline film or one of the side stories?
So, if they are to bring back Vader, there is somewhat of a balancing act... That's why I say it'd very likely only be as a brief cameo and if they bring Vader back, Christensen would only play him for a hot second before donning the suit. His cloning might be imperfect, etc.. whatever.. but they'd need to get him in that suit, and that'd mean he'd be fucked up.
It says a lot to me that he starred in two of the hundred highest-grossing films ever and he hasn't starred in anything of note since.
It honestly shouldn't.
He quit acting deliberately. That's actually not surprising.
Dude is straight terrible, although Lucas' godawful writing and nonexistent direction certainly did him no favors.
Christensen's actually not that bad of an actor, all things considered. I mean, you shouldn't use Star Wars as an indication of his ability to act.
The folks that worked on ANH, and Ep.1-3 have all said similar things; that Lucas can't direct people and dialogue. He's considered to be brilliant at most other aspects of filmmaking, but when it comes to putting actors on the screen and getting them to tell a compelling story, which is the primary aspect of being a director, he just falls flat.
Moreover, with the prequels, Lucas instructed the editing and SFX crews to stitch together performances from different takes, so even if you see two actors standing side by side talking, it's very very very likely that you are not seeing a contiguous single shot of them acting - even if the scene doesn't cut away. This, coupled with poor dialogue, poor direction, and a tendency to isolate characters on screen for moments of exposition; creates this awful effect that permeates through the prequel series.
Lucas was trying something "new" with respect to filmmaking, experimenting with Star Wars, again. But he fell flat in this respect at least.
