The fine folks over at Alert Nerd have decided to take an off hand comment made by one of the fine folks I follow on Twitter and turn it into a meme. When discussing something Batman related, Dan Faust made a comment that the subject in question was his"Scott & Jean", meaning a subject in which a person's passion/geekiness/**** veers from rationality and becomes something that you simply cannot talk about without swearing repeatedly and eventually having to either fold up in the fetal position or drink heavily (and quite possibly both). Let's face it, we all have one, even if it's not a geek related thing, be it about sports (anytime a person mentions the Cubs' "curse" I want to break something...or them), soap operas (Days without John & Marlena just ain't Days...) or whatever else we choose to obsess about, everyone has a breaking point.As a true nerd, I'm sure I have several, but really there's one that so seemingly minor to most people, but it just sets me on edge, and of course it's all George Lucas's fault. Now, let's all face facts here people, the prequels just weren't made for us children of the 70's, and I've come to grips with that. But I still bitch about them from time to time, hell, I even got yelled at by Church a few weeks ago because I was complaining about how much Attack of the Clones sucked. But ultimately, I've let go of any residual anger about those movies and have even started enjoying them on their own merits (as long as you fast-forward through any of Hayden Christiansen's painful attempts at "acting"). No, my issues lie with the Special Edition re-releases of the original trilogy. Now when these were coming out, we all thought they were an excellent idea, new special effects, new scenes, how could this go wrong? Well, it did, the new effects, though state-of -the-art looked pretty cartoonish when compared to the 25 year-old effects of the original (hell, just look at Jabba in A New Hope SE, that is some bad-looking CGI). But you know, I rolled with it, under that polished veneer, the movies that had shaped my childhood were still there, but then I got to Return of the Jedi and I lost my shit. It was all due to this (go to 4:03 on the video):
Now,if you're wondering what's wrong with that, the original scene* was:
Lando: "Wait, I thought you were blind!"
Han: "Trust me!"
Now, Han's line has been replaced with:
Han: "It's allright, I can see a lot better!"
What the fuck Lucas Why the hell would you change such a perfect line that not only is so fucking Han Solo it's also Airwolf and it also hearkens to Indiana Jones. Why? Well, according to an interview I saw (can't remember if it was with Lucas or one of his lackeys) it was because they had a better audio track for this particular line reading than the old one so they went with it instead. So wait, with everything they have at their disposal, they can't loop one fucking line they can't clean up the audio. What the fuck is wrong with you people? This ultimately confirmed the thing I fear most about Lucas, he's no longer an artist, if he ever was one to begin with, he's now just a technician. A very good one, perhaps one of the best working today in movies, but he's lost the ability to create art he can only create bells and whistles that are certainly pretty and neat, they just don't have any life in them (once again, see the performances in the prequels), and that's what kills me, that's what makes me crazy and that, dear reader, is my Scott & Jean.
*FYI, I did mean to throw up the original scene, but the internets have failed me and it's not on youtube. I did give it the old college try at getting it on youtube myself, but I just couldn't do it, as I ama technological moron.
3 comments:
Not pointed at what could be called a "geek moment" in pop culture but I suppose it's in the same vein. My "Scott & Jean" would be whenever I listen to someone moan and groan over a particular band (i.e., U2, REM, the Cure) no longer being relevant (i.e., cool) because their music is now commercially acceptable and how they should have broken up X amound of years ago. I believe I've heard some people refer to this as "selling-out."
Ususally, my first response
is, "Why? Because they can keep their band together for more than a year?" This is then followed by a, "Then don't listen to 'em; no one sure as hell is forcing you too!" Oh the horror (gasp!), a band trying to make a living doing something they love. In this day and age, there are plenty of outlets for you to turn to should the music of a particular big name band offends you.
It's like this: if a band is making the type of music they want to be making, then who am I to begrudge them that? And while I haven't really cared for any U2, REM or even Cure record (shit...I haven't even bought a U2 or Cure record since '91) in almost 20 years now, I've never gotten the impression that any of those groups weren't doing exactly what they wanted to. I suppose you could currently lump the Stones in with all of this as well along with your Death Cab For Cuties and the Shins 20 years from now.
So there, my "Scott & Jean" moment.
You know, it's really little things like this that make or break a viewing experience. A single line might seem like a tiny thing in the grand scheme of things, but the single lines are what we remember. They're what give epic movies like this their texture.
Like I said before, I'm really disappointed in myself that I never noticed the line change before. Of course, there's so much not to like about the "Special Editions", maybe some things fell through the cracks.
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