Just because something hasn't attracted criticism doesn't mean it can't be improved on. YLee's edit makes the summary more focused and fluent. I do find one problem with itthe reduction of the special effects passage. This now reads in its entirety: "Douglas Trumbull and his effects team were given carte blanche to meet the December 1979 release date." Though not inaccurate as a discrete fact, this rather misrepresents the history of the film's special effects work. While some reference to the previous work should be restored, I'd also argue for recasting the sentence to eliminate "the December 1979 release date." The beginning of the very next paragraph states that the film was "[r]eleased in North America on December 7, 1979." This sort of close repetition should be avoided, especially in the lead summary.

The one other point I could see as significant enough to restoresomewhat abbreviatedis this: "The film came together only days before the premiere; Wise always felt that the theatrical version was a rough cut of the film he wanted to make." (As a minor point, "tightened and new scenes" is a bit awkward; in this case, the previous phrasing"tightened and added scenes"is better and still works grammatically in the sentence's new structure.)