Interview Lucasfilm on Star Wars the Complete Saga Blu-ray: Hands on Report (1 Viewer)

[RobertR]

Conan! What is best in life? "Crush your images, see them edited before you, and to hear the lamentations of the fanboys!"

Everyone knows Lucas has NEVER done anything "for profit or as an exercise of power"

 

[Ricardo C]

An exercise of power, definitely. But the profit motive is suspect when you take into account that he's leaving a large portion of his fanbase unsatisfied. Basically, I think of him as a misguided but very principled artist. He's wrong as all hell, but he's not dishonest about why he's doing what he's doing. He's an obsessive control freak, for sure. And we can play psychoanalyst and try to figure out whether it was studio pressure in his junior years, his marriage, or something else that made him so overzealous about the films. But if he was really the greedy tycoon he's so often painted as, he would be milking the franchise a hell of a lot more. We'd have the SE box, the prequels box, the complete box, the OOT box, the "ultimate" OOT+SE+prequel box, the limited edition black box edition that includes all that plus some new documentaries, and who knows what else. Other than Trek fans, we're probably the movie cult most eager to spend money on this stuff. And I say this as a grown-ass 34-year-old who just bought one of the new toy lightsabers that have the beam light up incrementally

 

[RobertR]

It's true that his actions aren't done solely for profit, but there's no question that he's done things for profit and not for artistic reasons. The endless marketing of toys and other paraphernalia, which can't be attributed to being an "artist", has brought in three times as much money as the movies.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Conan! What is best in life? "Crush your images, see them edited before you, and to hear the lamentations of the fanboys!"

At a screening of the recent Conan film in Texas, someone asked a drunken Jason Momoa, "What is best in life?" He answered, "Not my movie, motherf***er!" In a joking way of course. I'm trying to work it into Carlo's joke by putting it in George's mouth, but coming up short. Maybe, "People who alter or destroy works of art and our cultural heritage for profit or as an exercise of power are barbarians. Call me Conan, beeyatch!" "George, I don't think altering Star Wars is what's best in life." "Not your movie, motherf***er!" I'll work on it some more.

 

[Ronald Epstein]

Gents,


I am out here at Cedia in Indianapolis.


I have had the opportunity to watch clips from the upcoming

Blu-ray release.

These clips were viewed on a THX certified display that was

meticulously calibrated by the company.


The scenes I watched were the opening of Episode IV inside

the rebel ship where R2D2 and C3PO are under attack as the

ship is being boarded by the Empire.


The other scene is the Battle of Hoth.


The verdict? The transfer looks great. I do not believe there

was excessive DNR applied as some have suggested -- especially

since I was able to see a small amount of film grain present in the

transfer.


Outside of the controversial changes that were made, I think

the overall transfer will be pleasing to the fanbase.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

keep doing it Greg,youre going in the right direction. somehow i cannot imagine George saying motherf....

 

[Carlo_M]

keep doing it Greg,youre going in the right direction. somehow i cannot imagine George saying motherf....

Maybe if you were two guys at a meet-n-greet asking about the OOT...

 

[Greg_S_H]

Thanks, Ron. I'm not even conversant enough on the 2004 transfers, having only seen them maybe once, but are the walls of the blockade runner and the Hoth snow nice and white? I basically hate the changes, but wish I had kept my locked-in free shipping Amazon order, especially with it knocked down ten bucks. But, at the moment, it's more not having the $80 to spend. I hope I can find it at that price a short time from now in a store close, close by.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

Some fella is even looking for the OT as a wedding gift on AskMefi. http://ask.metafilter.com/195537/Help-me-score-the-original-Star-Wars-Trilogy-on-DVD people are just happy to provide comments and details of course... Thats the beauty of AskMetafilter,the community is anxious to help. Wonder if George uses a pseudonym on the net

 

[Ronald Epstein]

but are the walls of the blockade runner and the Hoth snow nice and white?

I didn't pay attention to the snow in the Hoth battle.
However, the very thing that stood out in the blockade runner scene
was how white the panels of the ship walls were. So, yes, they were
very white.

 

[highscore]

New poll, on hi-def digest: http://www.highdefdigest.com/blog/star-wars-poll2/ Are You Still Planning to Buy 'Star Wars' on Blu-ray? I'm fed up. I won't buy any of them until Lucasfilm restores the original, unaltered versions of the first trilogy. (58%, 350 Votes) Yes, I'm still in for the full six-film set no matter what. (23%, 138 Votes) I'll buy them, but I won't be happy about it. (14%, 83 Votes) Only the original trilogy box set (Episodes IV - VI) for me. (3%, 20 Votes) I'm waiting for the 3D conversions. (1%, 7 Votes) Only the prequel trilogy box set (Episodes I - III) for me. (1%, 4 Votes)

WOW! According to the current poll results, Lucas just lost $40,000. I know it's just pennies to him. But thats the only way to get him to understand. Of course this is the guy who after poor criticisms of his prequels said, "They can't be bad if they make over $100 mil.).

 

[montrealfilmguy]

really he said that ? Man the first person who should know that ranking in large sums of money at the boxoffice does not equal quality cause,you know.......Transformers 3 can't be bad either. And i'm no Nostradamus but it could probably apply to Battleship also.

 

[Greg_S_H]

Yeah, but at least Battleship has Liam Neeson, unlike the preq . . . oh, never mind.

 

[montrealfilmguy]

And about that poll thing, Of course its only showing those who do answer,not taking into account people who will buy it but not answer and who wont buy it,but dont answer I say the final results of all the polls from everywhere isn't an actual representation of sales in the end. As i said if a million fanboys are reported to be mad,it means its a loss of a million sales. X 80 bucks. you do the math. And George should take out his abacus for this.

 

[Hank E]

I think the only way Lucas will be happy is if he just remakes the films. Why not, they're remaking everything else, right? That would save him the trouble of continuously going back and tinkering with the originals. I want the extras on this set too, but the only way I'll buy it is when I can find a used copy for pretty cheap. It's definitely not worth the release-day premium pricing they're asking. I'm actually hoping there'll be some protests on release day. It would be funny to see that on the news... some guy in a Vader costume... "No. Don't buy it. Nooooooooo!"

 

[Stephen Brooks]

You know, I really think it would be incredibly cool to see all six movies remade as animated movies, using the most photorealistic CGI that ILM could muster. All the complaints about "too much CGI", "fake puppets", "this or that doesn't match", "the technology in the past looks better than the technology in the future", would all be rendered moot. The Saga would flow as one continuous story just like he always envisioned, Anakin could actually look like the same person at different ages instead of 3 different actors, the color throughout the movies could be whatever the hell he wants it to be because he wouldn't have to worry about "how video treats the color space", etc. It could be in fully rendered 3D, have a spectacular 7.1 soundtrack built from all the original sound elements for each movie, and everything would be just perfect. Lucas could make exactly the movie he always wanted to make, and the audience could enjoy them, free from the nitpicky problems that everyone gets so hung up about. And maybe, once his perfect CGI versions had their run in theaters and were sitting in everyone's Blu-ray collection, he'd hire Robert A. Harris to restore the originals, at virtually no effort to himself, and a negligable amount of money in the big scheme of things.

 

[Douglas Monce]

It's true that his actions aren't done solely for profit, but there's no question that he's done things for profit and not for artistic reasons. The endless marketing of toys and other paraphernalia, which can't be attributed to being an "artist", has brought in three times as much money as the movies.

To be fair, the merchandising is what allowed the films beyond Star Wars to be made. I fully understand why toys and other items are marketed. They are a hedge against the ups and downs of the film business. I think Lucas learned this lesson well from Walt Disney, who for instance lost money on the Davy Crockett TV show (because they cost 3 times to make what ABC was paying him) but made up 50 times in merchandising. People think the deal with ABC was what built Disneyland, but it was really the sales of coonskin hats! Doug

 

[highscore]

You know, I really think it would be incredibly cool to see all six movies remade as animated movies, using the most photorealistic CGI that ILM could muster. All the complaints about "too much CGI", "fake puppets", "this or that doesn't match", "the technology in the past looks better than the technology in the future", would all be rendered moot. The Saga would flow as one continuous story just like he always envisioned, Anakin could actually look like the same person at different ages instead of 3 different actors, the color throughout the movies could be whatever the hell he wants it to be because he wouldn't have to worry about "how video treats the color space", etc. It could be in fully rendered 3D, have a spectacular 7.1 soundtrack built from all the original sound elements for each movie, and everything would be just perfect. Lucas could make exactly the movie he always wanted to make, and the audience could enjoy them, free from the nitpicky problems that everyone gets so hung up about. And maybe, once his perfect CGI versions had their run in theaters and were sitting in everyone's Blu-ray collection, he'd hire Robert A. Harris to restore the originals, at virtually no effort to himself, and a negligable amount of money in the big scheme of things.

CGI version? Isn't that what the prequels were?

 

[MielR]

I think the only way Lucas will be happy is if he just remakes the films. Why not, they're remaking everything else, right? That would save him the trouble of continuously going back and tinkering with the originals. I want the extras on this set too, but the only way I'll buy it is when I can find a used copy for pretty cheap. It's definitely not worth the release-day premium pricing they're asking. I'm actually hoping there'll be some protests on release day. It would be funny to see that on the news... some guy in a Vader costume... "No. Don't buy it. Nooooooooo!"

I agree- GL will obviously NEVER be happy with the OT, so he should just start from scratch and totally remake them. Just let us have the '77-'83 originals on blu-ray, and remake, remake, remake to your heart's content, George. http://www.facebook.com/savestarwarsboycotttheblurays

 

[RobertR]

To be fair, the merchandising is what allowed the films beyond Star Wars to be made.

Doesn't change a thing I said. All businesses finance their operations from the revenue they bring in. Of course, when other corporations engage in doing something "for profit or as an exercise of power" (Lucas' own words) that's "evil barbarism" according to him, but when HE engages in the identical activities, they're somehow magically "noble".