Official Confirmation: SW Episode III DVD on November 1st (1 Viewer)

[Brenton]

Already? Why? It's only been a year since the last fixup.

 

[Blake Siefken]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it. I am very concerned about our national heritage, and I am very concerned that films that I watched when I was young and the films that I watched throughout my life are preserved, so that my children can see them. They should leave well enough alone.

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I hear you, Blake, but sadly it's already too late for that, and Lucas will never release the original unaltered trilogy again.

As for the fix issue, the only problem I have with the dvd's are the lightsabers, they look funny, not as bright as they should be. We probably, more than likely, won't see any further changes made until the HD versions are released.

Not counting of course the changes he's making for the 3D versions of all 6 films that he's working on, which we may see on home video, not sure how well they'll translate to the home theater, though.

 

[greg_t]

I sure hope they don't fix any more. They were many things messed up on the OT DVD's. The sound errors, light sabers, and so on. The color is even off to some degree. Check out this link. It's interesting reading.

http://www.x0project.com/articles.php?i=7

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Well, if they don't fix them, then how will they get fixed?

I'm sure that Lucas is aware of the problems with these dvd's, we'll just have to trust that he'll get them right next time.

More changes are coming with these film's, make no mistake about that. From what I understand Lucas will not stop until he get's the entire saga to match visually, meaning completely scrapping every old optical effect from the OT and replacing them with digital recreations of the same action.

Can you just imagine the space battle at the end of EP VI rendered in CGI like the battle over Couroscant in EP III, or the Imperial walker assault on Hoth in EP V? WOW!

It all sounds very cool, but that's just me.

 

[TravisR]

At the risk of continuing a thread that treads dangerously close to the boring Originals Vs. SE debate, I think that's just internet rumor. If he had wanted to make those kinds of massive changes, I think there would've been more changes on the Special Editions or even the DVDs. Plus, what would be the point of changing a shot into the same thing only done with CG?

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

I don't think that it's rumor, I distinctly remember reading that very thing somewhere right around the time EP II came out, and it was in a magazine, Entertainment Weekly I believe.

I won't say anymore after this, I promise, I don't want to mutate this fine thread with that nasty debate, but the point of redoing the same shots in CGI would be to maintain a consistant appearance of all 6 films when one watches them back to back.

Let's face it, EP III looks far technologically superior to anything seen in the OT, to me anyway.

We now return to your regularly schedueld EP III dvd thread.

 

[GuruAskew]

But they do match, the prequels use both models and CGI, so does the original trilogy. The proportion of practical effects to computer effects is obviously different between the two trilogies but in their current incarnations they all use a combination of different effects. Lucas has gone on record as being satisfied with the DVD editions recently at San Diego Comic Con.

 

[Tim Glover]

Interesting link there greg_t.

 

[Michael Ballack]

Gotta love Vader saying "Do Not Want" or Yoda saying "Pregnancy,Pregnancy". Actually, that would really have been funny to hear Yoda say this. And apparently, Obi Wan is for the big.

 

[TravisR]

They should put that translation on the disc as a text easter egg.

 

[Kain_C]

This will be the only PT episode that I will own. Can't wait!

I think the cover art is ok, but I would have preferred Struzan.

And this is very anal and geeky, but I wish Lucas had used the original title fonts for the DVDs. And I wish he would have used similiar fonts for the same numerical entries in the PT/OT, like having "Attack of the Clones" similiar to the "Empire Strikes Back" title font and "Revenge of the Sith" in the same style as the ones for "Return of the Jedi".

I just hate the generic looking fonts now. The old style had such pizazz! It just looked more...fun.

 

[CraigL]

You know what's amazing about the XO project?

The amount of detail that's available on a laserdisc that we may not be aware of. Insane.

I wish I had that player for some transfers of other titles that I have.

 

[Brenton]

Exactly. The space battle at the end of Return of the Jedi is easily my favorite movie climax ever. The part when the ships fly into the Death Star just staggers me in terms of pacing, music, energy, model work, visual effects, you name it. It just blows my mind. It could not be improved upon, not even with CG.

 

[Grant H]

I was speaking of the color issues, particularly explosions and lightsabers, and of course, the horribly mutilated "Star Wars" soundtrack (esp. the 5.1 track) as to what needs to be fixed on the OT DVD's. In those regards, they ARE broken, but still functional. The audio presentation of the original classic is unacceptable IMO. If I watch the DVD, I listen to the stereo track, but since the music is still buried or practically missing at times, I sync up the SE LD for the best of both worlds, but it is a royal bitch to do. Hence, I don't watch the original as much as I would. And I thought I'd watch it more than ever when it was on DVD! I watch ESB most often now. If I don't want to trouble myself with a good ANH presentation why sit through Jedi too? Just watch the best of the trilogy on DVD.

As to other OT changes regarding visual effects, I don't know if they will happen or not. Sadly, I no longer agree that they cannot be improved upon, but I would argue they are probably "good enough." Whether Lucas agrees with that is another matter.

There's still the odd matte box here and there (particularly when small ships fly over larger ships or any light background, as opposed to being against black space), but the larger issue for me is things are starting to look flat to me compared to the visuals in the PT. It didn't really seem that way until seeing the OT on DVD. With the higher presentation quality, yesterday's photographic trickery is starting to show. It seems like an awful lot of work to go back and re-do it all though. My fear is that if anything was re-done with the latest methods, no one will be able to resist the temptation to re-work the FX sequences into more fanciful creations rather than do shot-for-shot recreations with the latest technology. I wouldn't mind the latter, but it would be sad to have the classic scenes fundamentally changed rather than enhanced. It would give us all good reason to hold onto the orignal DVD release. If Lucas ever does go revision-crazy again, I really hope he does a true OOT release, but I don't know if that will ever happen unless they're included as extras in a super-pricey collector's set.

Damn. I think I started the de-rail on this thread.

Ok; back to the Episode III DVD: Will the lightsabers stay pointy or be rounded?

 

[Richard Kim]

Let's not forget the crappy Yoda puppet from TPM being replaced with CG. Hopefully, the new PT DVD boxset will include this.

 

[GuruAskew]

There is no PT DVD boxset. Only the 2-disc widescreen and fullscreen editions of "Revenge of the Sith" are being released on November 1.

 

[greg_t]

The X0, in my humble opinion, would be good for the part of making transfers. It's downside is that it weights 80lbs, is a single side only player, and it's design is more complex than other players. I assume one could still get parts for it, but finding someone qualified to work on it may be a challenge.

Imagine trying to watch the Star Wars definitive editions in the CAV format on the X9. 30 minutes per side, spread over three discs. And no auto side changes. So it would be getting up about 3 or 4 times to flip and swap discs to watch one star wars movie. That to me is the major downfall of the X0. I'd love to see one though to see how much better it is than the X9.

 

[Brenton]

I think he's talking about a hypothetical future boxset down the road.

 

[Blake Siefken]

I wonder how many versions of Episode 3 will be made. There are already five version of Episode 2:

1. Theatrical Film Version
2. Theatrical Digital Version
3. I MAX Version
4. DVD Widescreen Version
5. DVD Foolscreen Version (some shots are different)

Does anyone know if the DVD of Episode 3 will have changes?