Did I ever say that the changes ruined the films for me? I don't believe so. I did say I'm not buying them, though, so I suppose I owe an explanation for that.
For starters, let me say that I like some of the changes--the background stuff in Cloud City is great, and adds a lot of atmosphere. Fixing the blue screen lines around the Rancor is a winderful idea, and I was very surprised they didn't do it the first time around. Replacing the Emperor in ESB is also a good idea, since those eyes are so distractingly wrong.
Some of the changes are pointless, but don't really bother me, such as the (a little overlong) entry sequence into Mos Eisley. The expanded Wampa stuff is, well, expanded. I can take it or leave it.
Other changes irk me quite a bit. I'd seen the original Jabba footage with the old Scottish guy several times, so I wasn't sad to see that brought back, but they way they did it was an absolute eyesore. I'm glad they're fixing it, but the jury is still out on whether it will look good. I disagree with the fact that Greedo shoots first, and that he misses so wildly from only five away--again, they're changing this a little to make Han dodge, but I predict that it will look pretty hokey to alter the film and the characters so drastically like that. Even if it does look good, though, it doesn't change the fact that Han shooting first was a lot cooler (a little cold-blooded, perhaps, but it added a lot to his character).
The musical number in Jabba's palace is a cool idea, and I admire their audacity for putting it in there, but the original band was so much cooler--it looked better, had more personality, and fit into the look and feel of Jabba's palace so much more smoothly. The new band is jarringly different from the tone of the rest of the trilogy, which was probably part of the point, but I don't think it worked at all.
The most greivous offense of all, at least for me, is the celebration at the end of RotJ. The music is not only terrible, by any measure of quality, but completely removed from any musical them or style we've seen thus far. The ewok celebration worked because it focused on the characters, and it worked musically because of the way it morphed the local ewok song into a majestic human choir right before the credits, thus expanding the celebration to encompass the entire galaxy (and the viewer, thanks to the fact that the choral style and language are recognizably Earth-based). The new ending removes all focus on the characters we've been dealing with for the last three movies, and forces us to watch emotionless long shots of people we don't know and planets we've forgotten about. It was poorly conceived and poorly done on almost every level.
Beyond that, I'm not going to buy the Special Editions because I simply disagree with the notion of a director who can't let go of his work--I see it as a weakness, to be honest, and I'd like him to move on to something new. If you think that's a bad reason then I'm sorry.
And please don't whine and snarl about how much I'm complaining, because I only detailed these complaints in response to your rather direct request. You can counter my ideas if you want, just don't tell me to stop bashing Lucas because, well, you asked me too.
