It’s kind of amazing that after putting fans through countless tweaks and changes, a dreadful prequel trilogy, and shoveling mountains of shitty merchandise their way, the "Star Wars" faithful have still supported the filmmaker and turned his sci-fi adventure into a $20 billion industry. George Lucas has always had disdain towards the very people that built up his mountain of wealth, and there’s a reason why — the fans have allowed him to. With every iteration of a "Star Wars" re-release, the faithful grumble and moan and make threats and then hand over their money anyway, so what reason does Lucas have to change anything he’s doing? So it’s no suprise that on the eve of the 3D re-release of ‘The Phantom Menace,’ Lucas has no problem shooting from the hip because he knows that come Sunday night, the movie will have made him a few more million dollars anyway.
You can practically hear him rolling his eyes as The Hollywood Reporter asks him about the fan complaints about the changes he’s made over the years, and he uses the opportunity to discuss the most controversial edit made. "Well, it’s not a religious event. I hate to tell people that. It’s a movie, just a movie. The controversy over who shot first, Greedo or Han Solo, in ‘Episode IV,’ what I did was try to clean up the confusion, but obviously it upset people because they wanted Solo [who seemed to be the one who shot first in the original] to be a cold-blooded killer, but he actually isn’t," Lucas explained. "It had been done in all close-ups and it was confusing about who did what to whom. I put a little wider shot in there that made it clear that Greedo is the one who shot first, but everyone wanted to think that Han shot first, because they wanted to think that he actually just gunned him down."
Not to geek out or anything, but what, Han drew his gun surreptitiously under the table just for the fun of it? The entire awesomness of the (original scene) was that Han got the drop on Greedo who was too busy talking his ear off. And it’s not a matter of Han being "a cold-blooded killer," he was a smuggler saving his own skin, and looking out for his own self-interest. Which is the entire personality of Han Solo in a nutshell. #rantover Anyway, judge for yourself below whether or not Han shot first or if we were all just a bit confused.
But you know what? None of this complaining matters because addicted "Star Wars" fans will keep lining up and pouring money into Lucas’ bank account and he’ll keep tinkering, re-releasing and doing everything to grab more of their money until the end. "Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace" arrives in theaters tomorrow, but if you go see it, you’re a sucker.