Originally Posted by RobertR
Damned if he does what, exactly? If ANY other company in 2006 released a widescreen film using a 13 year old nonenhanced laserdisc transfer, it would have been roundly condemned, and rightly so. Yet somehow it's being "unfair" to Lucas to hold him to the same standard? You're being disingenuous in equating "full blown special edition" with "transfer using modern technology". They're not the same thing and you know it.Originally Posted by Russell G [url=/t/315174/save-star-wars/30#post_3857114]
Great post Ethan. I would like to add...
Except he did. We got non-amorphic DVDs of the original films based on the 90's laser discs. That wasn't good enough for the fans. Many of these fans were of the "Just give us the original films! They don't have to be full blown special editions!" type. George Lucas gave them exactly that, spruced up laser disc transfers. Not perfect, not remastered, but basically as good as those transfers can get. Even though he made it really clear that such things would not be released since he prefers the current cuts. And what happened?
The fan base shit the bed and considered it another slap in the face since they weren't total remasters.
Lucas is pretty much in the damned if you do, damned if you don't camp
The difference though is this. Lucas made it really clear that the ONLY Star Wars that would be released is the current SE versions. As a fan service, and for no reason other then to serve the fans, he put out spruced up old LD transfers as a BONUS feature. Not as a stand alone, full retail disc, but as an extra disc to a DVD re-release. It shouldn't of been much of a surprise that he didn't spend millions of dollars to spruce up versions that he would prefer not watched in the first place. I could see being irate about it if it was marketed as a stand alone, but it wasn't. It was marketed as a one time, last chance bonus feature.
And because he does own them means he does have the right to release these however he wants.