DVD Review *** Official HTF REVIEW & Discussion Thread: Star Wars Trilogy, pt. 1 (1 Viewer)

[Rodrick]

Anyone had problems with their DVD sets.







Mine was since opening day of buying. Im on my 5th exchange cause the store won't just replace with the disc that wasn't working properly.







This rarely ever happens if someone buys used dvd movies like I do. But this case I wanted to buy the brand new ones.

 

[Richard Kim]

quote:Same way Vader knew the force was strong with Luke? He just felt it. I don't think he dispatched midichlorian-counting needle probes from his TIE fighter during the trench battle.

OTOH, Vader had no idea whatsoever that Leia was strong with the Force, even though they spent quite some time together in ANH.

 

[Carlo_M]

quote:OTOH, Vader had no idea whatsoever that Leia was strong with the Force, even though they spent quite some time together in ANH.

Well at that time it had not been decided that she was a Skywalker...

 

[Ricardo C]

Rodrick, try this thread, you'll find all the info you need about the known glitches in the set, and what to do about them

 

[Grant H]

quote:So what your saying is that anyone watching the films in order will have to wait until EPIV to "learn" what the force is?

The best explanations of the Force are STILL in Episode IV and V. The midichlorian stuff DOES NOT tell the audience what the Force is AT ALL. It just explains that the ability to USE the force is tied to genetics. Which in itself didn't need explanation since Empire and Jedi showed us it was genetic (However, if TPM aka Episode ONE IS the first Star Wars movie you watch....), BUT something was needed to help establish Anakin as the Chosen One of the prophecy. His incredibly high midichlorian count supported the notion that he was CONCEIVED by midichloirans, not the old-fashioned way. I take it from what's said in TPM that even if two really powerful Jedi's got it on they wouldn't likely produce offspring with a midichlorian concentration as high as Anakin's.



Sure, the council could sense Anakin was strong with the force, but it would be a much bigger leap for them to use their own intuition to say "he must have been conceived by midichlorians like the one in the prophecy." Now if he'd has some training at that point or knew ANYTHING about the Force and appeared truly exceptional, maybe, but this was basically just a kid who's genetics were doing all the work up to this point. Any padawans his age could likely kick his ass, right?



I'm not saying it's the best story-telling in the world, but I still think the original Star Wars provides the best introduction to the concept of the Force, and the midichlorians were just used to establish Anakin as the one in this prophecy we still haven't heard. That, and it's a supplement to what we already know about the Force and its predispostition to certain family trees.

I'll take this opportunity to again promote my suggested viewing order to preserve secrets the longest and provide the best introduction to the SW universe. Note that this is not the most popular odd viewing order promoted, but one that mixes the two trilogies up a bit more and doesn't give away the Vader/Anakin relationship nearly as early: IV, I, II, V, III, VI. (This can be really shocking to the rare viewer who actually likes Anakin after Ep. II.)Someday, I'll have to watch it this way. It will likely be after I try I-VI. I don't doubt I'll stick by IV-VI, and then I-III for some time, but if I like my order it could be fun. Lide a Tarantino movie.

 

[Rob Gardiner]

I would not be surprised if all references to Midichlorians were removed from some future "Special Edition" of TPM.

 

[Grant H]

quote:I would not be surprised if all references to Midichlorians were removed from some future "Special Edition" of TPM.

While they're at it they should replace Jar Jar with Bill Paxton--"Maybe you're not keeping up on current events, but we just got our asses kicked! Game over, man! Game over!!"

 

[TomWoodward]

Chris has completed the second part of his Star Wars Changes article if you're interested. You can view it here

 

[Travis Hedger]

Can anyone tell me how to access the different menu's? For some reason my player wont randomly load the different menu's at all.







It does the random menues on Episode 1 and 2 though so that is strange.

 

[Phil Carter]

Travis, you can access each menu (with full animation) by pressing 1, 2, or 3 on your remote during the first FBI warning.

If you press 1, 2, or 3 during the second FBI warning, it will skip directly to the disc menu without the intro animation.

As to why it's not showing the different themes randomly, I'm afraid I don't have a clue.

cheers,
Phil

 

[Tim Glover]

quote:I remember when ROTJ opened and me and my friends went to see it opening day and the Vader line "He is not forgiving as me" always seemed to me like that it was more foreboding than comical.

Agreed. Good point.

 

[Harman Hoetink]

Having now watched ROTJ + commentary, I must say [[blasphemy alert!]] that I like young Anakin's ghost appearance better than the old version. Not to take anything away from Sebastian Shaw's performance, but in the original final shots of Jedi, Anakin and Obi Wan both looked like old men. (In 1983, Alec Guiness was 69 and Shaw was 78.)

But Anakin was in his forties when he died. It never made sense to me, he was just too old in that shot! I'd much rather have the current version, in which, with some poetic license (hasn't aged since), Anakin is shown as his adult self. It makes the "full-circle" feeling work better for me.

 

[Harman Hoetink]

On a technical note, as impressed am I am with these DVDs overall, I was taken aback a bit by how often I saw the geometrical "outline" or "shadow" around special effects that have been comped into the image. I don't know the proper name, is it matting? I think they're green, but I'm colorblind, so I can't be sure.

I mean like around some of the spaceships in the Death Star battle in ANH, but also seen in ESB and more so in ROTJ, around the second Death Star and several spaceships in the final battle.

I don't recall seeing these things so clearly in the cinema or in the VHS release. What happened here?

 

[greg_t]

What happened is they took the transfers from a new HIDEF transfer from the negative, re-color timed and tweaked each movies look, then ran them through the Lowery digital "restoration" process and cleaned them up. No other version of star wars went through that kind of treatment. Unfortunatly they are now different movies, where the droids and things look new and shiny instead of like they've been through a civil war. If anyone is interested this months issue of Star Wars Insider has a nice article on the restoration process.

 

[Sam Favate]

quote:I remember when ROTJ opened and me and my friends went to see it opening day and the Vader line "He is not forgiving as me" always seemed to me like that it was more foreboding than comical.

I probably saw Jedi 15 times in the summer of '83 and that line got a big laugh every time. It kicked off the movie on a lighter note, instead of the mystery or dread of ANH or ESB.

 

[Ben Osborne]

Darth Vader has understatements in all three films such as "I find your lack of faith disturbing," "apology accepted," "perhaps you feel you are being treated unfairly," etc. They are humorous on one level, but the dark sarcasm is a large part of what makes him such a cool villian. He speaks in civilized and even gentlemanly language, but the audience knows that when Vader puts something politely, it indicates a threat that is often accompanied by violence. Lines like "he is not as forgiving as I am" and "perhaps I can find new ways to motivate them" are completely consistent with Vader's character.


I agree with Sam's other complaints about ROTJ, however.

 

[Geoff_D]

quote:Unfortunatly they are now different movies, where the droids and things look new and shiny instead of like they've been through a civil war.

I feel the opposite; the high quality of the DVD presentation really exposes the grimy, low-tech production design of the OT - or at least the non-tweaked parts, which stand out in stark contrast to the glossy, expansive sheen of the prequels. While some chose to deride Lucas for not making the prequels look like their memories the OT, I think it's a master stroke. Whether Lucas really meant to, or whether the limits of 1970's movie-making really can't be overcome, the rough feel of the OT now stands out as an actual stylistic choice, one that is deliberately being worked into Episode 3.

And yet despite this classic 'lived in' feel, the astonishing - if not always accurate - colour saturation and fine detail of the OT DVDs is closer to that seen on the prequel DVDs. These Star Wars DVDs have helped to bridge that A/V quality gap between the two sets of films that has bugged me ever since I got Phantom Menace on DVD. And this has definitely added to my enjoyment of the saga as a whole. So, on the one hand, these DVDs have helped to further highlight the visual dichotomy between the two trilogies, and on the other hand they've helped to link the two together in terms of A/V quality! I haven't watched them since I first got them (some of that Star Wars burnout that Ernest mentioned!) but they're due for another viewing very soon.

 

[Grant H]

Still no word from Ron about THX. It appears the outstanding issues have been successfully swept under the rug by Lucasfilm's blanket statement. I haven't even gotten anything acknowledging my letters yet. I expected at least a "Thank you for contacting us. We make every effort to ensure our consumers receive the highest quality product blah blah blah. Rest assured the utmost care was taken in producing this release blah blah blah. We look forward to serving you in the future."



But, so far...nada. I guess the Jedi mind trick is a very real phenomenon. I could play my ANH laserdiscs at the same time, and listen to them while I watch the DVD. Would be a pain to sync it multiple times though. I sure hope if there's any kind of silent update to those discs in future pressings that word hits the forum fast. If they go that route what a pain it will be to get the update without a new purchase.

 

[Greg_C_T]

quote:OTOH, Vader had no idea whatsoever that Leia was strong with the Force, even though they spent quite some time together in ANH.

I beg to differ, sir.

He hinted at something when he said "Her resistance to the mind probe is considerable."




Granted, it wasn't an all out, "The Force is strong with this one", but it's not like she was actively using/channeling it, either.

 

[Steve Bragg]

Lucas has the same Tantive IV set and Star Destroyer bridge sets in Episode 3, so those who say those sets looks 70-ish will be shot down when they are seen looking the same in ep3.