Oh, I agree with you on the issue of moving away from Endor to look at "Fall of the Berlin Wall" celebrations on a bunch of random planets. It takes the focus off of the heros and what they just accomplished.

Also, "Newt" as in "Newt Gingrich."

SU is understated. GF is a bit overstated. I mean, it is a kid's show, but so is SU. Some of GF's plot points and especially the jokes are hammered in a little too hard.

But the Rivendell elves are just as jolly and fun-loving. They're basically hippies living in a commune.

"It's really hard to, say, reconcile the Elves as seen in Lord of the Rings with the goofballs feasting in the woods and getting hammered on wine in 'The Hobbit'"

The barrel scene actually seemed like it was trying to hard to be LotR - it reminded me too much of the uruk-hai ambush at Amon Hen. But also goofy at the same time as it's supposed to be exciting and perilous?

All of these things.

Bifur having an axe head embedded in his head is very clearly, unmistakably a relic of del Toro's involvement with the series.

I'm pretty sure Ozzel is on the same ship as Vader. He's probably just down the hall.

"Who is this? What's your operating number?"
"Uhhh…"
*blasts microphone*
"Boring conversation anyway. LUKE! WE'RE GONNA HAVE COMPANY!"

Some of the SE changes were actually for the better. (The re-insertion of Luke's reunion with Biggs on Yavin, and the X-wing/TIE fighter dogfights over the Death Star, in particular.)

People tend to make fun of that scene, but it adds a lot of depth to the movie - it shows us that there's actually something real at stake here, and why what happens in these battles actually matters. And, as you said, is really is touching.

Also: a couple years ago, I realized that I'd never actually seen the non-Special Edition original Star Wars films. I first saw Star Wars in '98, so the only versions I ever watched were SE.

If they wanted to re-introduce that scene into ANH, they should have kept the fat Scottish man and re-purposed him as one of Jabba's representatives rather than Jabba himself.

I watched all three films for the first time in my early twenties, and I found "Temple" to easily be the weakest, and "Crusade" to be the best.

This looks like it was released by The Asylum.

That would only be true if films set in non-white lands weren't constantly being cast with white actors.

I didn't read them until 1998, but I'm pretty sure the copies in my elementary school library were the original books published in '77 (hell, half the books in there were from the 50s, it seemed). Yeah, those were pretty great.

I watched it when I was 10 and I felt … mildly disappointed. Let down. It was okay, but it wasn't GOOD. And it certainly wasn't great. Maybe if I'd been seven?

Speaking of "TIE Fighter":
https://www.youtube.com/wat…