Sometimes retroactive changes to a film can do some good. Director's cuts have the potential to make awesome films that bit better (The Lord Of The Rings is the best example by far) or turn abominations into something watchable (Daredevil), while more low-key tinkering helps right minor mistakes; for the 2012 rerelease of Titanic, James Cameron fixed the stars in the sky to be accurate to what would have been seen out on the Atlantic that night in 1912. Of course we all know how bad things can go. George Lucas has become a figure of geek hate after he took the beloved Star Wars films and created the Special Editions; versions of the films that not only cleaned up the visuals, removing matte lines and dirt, as a usual remaster would do, but also threw in lots of obvious and, in many cases sacrilegious, changes. What makes the Special Editions (and the subsequent alterations on DVD and Blu-Ray) so bad is that the original versions of the films aren't available. That increases the hate directed towards them and hides the fact there are some other terrible retroactive cuts of beloved movies that flat out suck. Here are ten of those films that do as big a disservice to their respective originals as Greedo shooting first does to Star Wars.
Honourable Mention - Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace
Everyone always harps on about the changes Lucas made to the Original Trilogy, which means that many miss that the prequels were also messed with post-release. The most tinkered with Episode is The Phantom Menace, which hasn't been available in its theatrical cut since the initial VHS release. The most noticeable alteration was replacing the sub-Empire puppet with CGI (done during the production of Revenge Of The Sith), but it's the minor changes that have a negative effect. The second lap of the pod-race has added scenes, fuelling the complaints over the scene's length, and the Coruscant Taxi ride only serves to give more Jar Jar. Of course, as the film wasn't so beloved in the first place it's viewed as less of a crime.
