10 Genius Ways Movies Fixed Their Own Mistakes

4. Different Takes Were Literally Spliced Together - Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge Of The Sith

George Lucas' reliance on digital filmmaking techniques in the Star Wars prequels was largely reviled by his fans, and with damn good reason, but it did also allow Lucas a huge amount of versatility when it came to tinkering with scenes in post-production.

Shooting almost every scene against a green screen allowed him to effectively insert any digital backdrop he wanted, and if Lucas realised a scene wasn't quite working in post, he could employ some cutting-edge wizardry to generate the drama he desired, by literally splicing different takes together with subtle transitions.

This is especially noticeable during the famous Darth Plagueis conversation in Revenge of the Sith, where Anakin's (Hayden Christensen) face subtly cross-fades into another take mid-shot.

It's fair to assume that Lucas loved Ian McDiarmid's delivery as Palpatine at the start of the scene, but presumably wasn't happy with Christensen's reaction, so spliced in a better one from another take.

It's easy to scrutinise almost 15 years after the fact, but given how few people have ever actually noticed it, it's actually kinda genius. Still doesn't justify all that damn green screen, though.