It's all about Greedo

Should've saw this coming.

I went to do some shopping to get some household items for the Mrs. at Wal-Mart today and, sure enough, right in the front of the entrance is a huge display for the Star Wars Trilogy DVD that came out today. I knew it was coming out today (if you didn't know you just came back from Iraq or Napal), but I was thinking if I was gonna buy it, I would get it at Best Buy like I usually do. Besides, I have a birthday coming up.

But it just too tempting. I picked up the box, thought about it for about, um, 1 and a 1/2 seconds and put it in the cart. Price: $37.00 on Debit MasterCard.

When it was first announced that the set was coming out, I was very cynical about it given that Lucas was just gonna put the "special editions" on DVD and not the original theatrical releases. I knew then that if he ever does that, it'll be after Episode III comes out as part of a huge set of the whole saga. So I thought, hey, I don't really need to get this - I have my special edition widescreen VHS of the trilogy and my original release copies on LaserDisc(!!).

But last week I saw the amazing documentary on A&E. That got me thinking about the set given that A&E only showed about half of what was in the box set. And then I give Lucas all kinds of props for "fixing the fixes" such as getting rid of Luke's girlie-man scream in "Empire" and making Jabba look more like Jabba in "A New Hope" instead of the pale slug with eyes that was there in that missing scene in 1997. And the look of the films are the best you'll see yet.

But does Greedo still shoot first? To me this was by far the biggest gaffe of the "special edition". I took it out and watched it. And you know what? Greedo still shoots first, but the shot is redone pretty well. It's much tighter and should be pretty credible to most fans.

Should you get it? Sure, why not. Will Lucas come out with another set next year that includes all 6 films and the original versions? Probably. Will I buy that? Probably.

The Force can have a strong influence on the weak minded.