REVENGE OF THE SITH DVD Review up and running...(let the flood begin)(SNEAK LOOK POST #146)... (1 Viewer)

[Kevin Lamb]

I was just kidding with you, pretending that for Dooku to take Grievous' place he'd have to do what Grievous did later on in the movie (like fight Obi-Wan with four arms.)

Seriously though, I thought it got the movie off to a pretty powerful start to have one of the main villains get taken out in the opening action sequence. At least Dooku wasn't just locked up in a tower the whole movie with Obi-Wan saying "He has no more power, the filth of Dooku is washing away...."

 

[Greg_S_H]

I still haven't seen the extended ROTK.

Anyway, my way would probably involve Dooku escaping and being chased to Utapau, which would wreck the symmetry with ROTJ.

 

[Kevin Lamb]

Also the movie as it stands has two nice "establishing" lightsaber fights that help build up the duel on Mustafar. Anakin and Obi-Wan vs. Dooku and Obi-Wan vs. Grievous.

Showing Obi-Wan defeated by Dooku before Anakin prevails gives more tension to Obi-Wan's endeavor to challenge an assumedly superior opponent later in the film.

 

[Joe_G]

I have a question for Bill Hunt or anyone else that has seen the dvd or is in the know. I know that the film is the theatrical cut,but I'm curious about 2 scenes.

One of them is the scene during the temple raid where Anakin/Vader walks into the council chamber where the younglings are hiding. When it shows a close-up of Anakin's face, is he teary-eyed? I remember Rick McCallum saying that some prints had Anakin in tears in that scene and other prints didn't.

The other is the Vader noooooooooooo! I also read somewhere that Vader's noooooooooo....was pitched lower.This supposedly was on the Japanese release.

Does anyone know about these two scenes?

 

[GuruAskew]

The novelization that first contained a mention of "The Journal of the Whills" was first published in 1976 as "Star Wars: From The Adventures of Luke Skywalker".

 

[Richard Kim]

Let's not forget that the cyborg Grievous serves as a foreshadow to the half man, half machine that Vader becomes at the end of the film.

 

[PatWahlquist]

Yeah, I knew this. In my original post, I meant that the rumor about Yoda being a Whill started after "Empire"

 

[John Alderson]

Just watched TPM for the first time since seeing ROTS. I appreciate the whole tone of the movie much more now -- it's a great counterpoint to the feel of ROTS; some scenes feel more melancholy now. It was the most fun I've had watching it since it first came out on DVD.

I really love that film. As a Star Wars fan, I feel it's sorely underrated. "Worst" of the six, sure, but I feel more than ever that it's true Star Wars through and through.

I will say, however, that Yoda looks distractingly bad. I can't wait for the version with the fix. I always figured Lucas was going for "young" Yoda, then changed his mind for AOTC. The picture quality is also surprisingly uneven when compared to AOTC, even besides the much talked about EE; some scenes have washed out colors, while others have really poor shadow detail.

Can't wait til 11/1!

 

[Paul McElligott]

Well, he was "only" about 870 years old at that point.

 

[Chris Atkins]

Nah...I think ROTJ is the worst film of the bunch. It has a more linear story and an important character payoff, but the technical elements are so far below the other 5 (excepting the effects work in the end space battle) that it is number 6 overall in my rankings.

I was happy with the reviews above, cause they both at least acknowledged that ROTS was only surpassed by ANH and ESB. That's a growing consensus, particularly on the web.

Some, like myself, put ROTS at #1, but for ROTS to be able to make it to #3 on many people's list is pretty remarkable, considering the PT baggage it carried into the theater this past May.

 

[TheBat]

I list ROTS at number 3 above ROTJ.. I have PM at number 5 and ATOC at number 6.
ATOC was my least favorite of the series.
JACOB

I don't know about anyone else. I felt that you could watch episode 3 without seeing episode 1 and 2 and still get the picture.. true there are some refernces to episode 1 and 2.. but you can use your own visual idea for it.

JACOB

 

[Dale MA]

"Revenge of the Sith" is my favourite of the saga with "Attack of the Clones" in second place

Anyway, really looking forward to this disc. I hope ol' George inserts some of these deleted scenes in a future of the release of the movie because some of them sound amazing

 

[Paul Arnette]

I assume this is something along the lines of the exclusive Kill Bill box that Best Buy had?

 

[Grant H]

There definitely were widespread sound problems theatrically with ROTS. I wonder if the BO numbers would have been even higher were it not for that.

I too found the DLP presentation to have the clearest sound; it wasn't overly loud, but I could hear every nuance and every whispered word with crystal clarity. Perhaps it was partly superior acoustics in that theater, but I also suspect it was a more refined mix. I heard things I couldn't hear in the other presentations unless I really listened for them. The DLP viewing made me aware of those things. My guess is those who had bad sonic experiences with the DLP version were subjected to the inferior analog track, and that happened with the film version in a lot of cases too. Don't know what went wrong. Another thing for Lucasfilm and THX to sweep under the rug. (They're good at that.) I never did get to check out ROTS in a DTS theater. The one near me is what I call "the hot theater", so I didn't go there. I like DTS, but not enough to sweat and nearly pass out, at least if there's another digital presentation available.

My first film version viewing was quite good though. Volume was comfortably loud. All the other film times it was too soft. The last time I saw it in a smaller theater, and it must have been analog because there was barely any surround.

Glad to hear the DVD sounds great. At least the score is higher in the mix compared to the other prequels. Hopefully, THAT is preserved on the DVD while being otherwise superior to the general theatrical presentation.

 

[Tim Glover]

Great review Bill! I only go the The Digital Bits so I only read that one. Bill makes no quams about saying ROTS is the DEFINITVE dvd in terms of video and audio. Wow. That's great to hear and great for consumers.



Nice ranking there Chris. I've mentioned before that I have a hard time ranking ROTS #1 simply because it works so well because of the wonderful tie to the OT. Without the OT, I'm not sure it would resonate so much. Still, I don't want to take anything away from it because it is a great film and my favorite one so far in 2005.

The docs do look ok. Time will tell. Hard to beat the Beginning from TPM. I actually liked the Puppets to Pixels doc though Chuck. :b It will be great to have the entire SAGA on dvd.

After this is released, they should crank out a soundtrack set with ALL the music.

 

[Chris Atkins]

My first viewing (the midnight show) has REALLY soft sound.

Subsequent viewings on film ranged from okay to great sound (the last time I saw it on film it sounded great).

My DLP viewing at the Odeon Leicester Square was superb. Nice sound quality (like you mentioned) but also a great volume.

 

[Tim Glover]

There were more sound related issues with ROTS as noted here. Looks like the dvd though sounds stellar according to Bill Hunt and he even specifically mentions the BASS which was lacking in most of the theatrical viewings I saw. I had it pretty good here in the Dallas area but still less of a punch than usual.

I also felt that this was in part to what the filmmakers wanted. ROTS was a different kind of film. Much more personal and less whiz bang than I & II were.

 

[Kevin Lamb]

For me its:

1. Revenge of the Sith
2. The Empire Strikes Back
3. A New Hope (Star Wars)
4. Return of the Jedi

Then it gets a little weird. I enjoy watching the last 45 minutes of AOTC more than watching TPM in its entirety, but I enjoy TPM in its entirety more than watching AOTC from beginning to end. So I'll just say:

5. The Phantom Menace
6. Attack of the Clones

And for the record I do enjoy TPM and AOTC.

As far as the theatrical sound, each time I saw ROTS the sound was good, but Aslan's roar in the always preceding Narnia trailer always blew us out of our seats in comparison to anything in ROTS.

 

[Cory S.]

Thinking long and hard about it, I'm going this way(eventhough I enjoy all the films as one):

A New Hope
Revenge of the Sith
Attack of the Clones
The Empire Strikes Back
Return of the Jedi
The Phantom Menace

I've very excited to hear about the sound and picture quality on the DVD. One of these days, I'll have the proper set up to really, truly experience the films the way their meant to on DVD. Hopefully, it'll be next year.

 

[Greg_S_H]

I don't much like these endless ranking games, but since I've never done it:

Empire Strikes Back
New Hope
Attack of the Clones
Revenge of the Sith
Return of the Jedi
Phantom Menace