I was happy to get AVENGING FORCE. Hoping for more Cannon/Golan/Globus movies from the 80s (Bronson, Norris etc). Keep up the good work, GATOR and WHITE LIGHTNING look great.
Maybe we are seriously underestimating how much it would cost to bring the new effects up to the quality level of the original Trumbull shots in full HD? At this point I'd be happy if they just conformed the live action as much as possible to the way it is in the Wise cut, call it a special...
Maybe it's a situation like IRON GIANT, where the studio wants to put out a plain version and the director wants to do something more elaborate (in this case, new extras? Polishing effects for the long version?) and won't sign off on anything less, and it's stalemate.
http://youtu.be/Ue7juq5DMf0It's a regular kindergarten.And think about some of the ways the original was promoted. Is there anything kids love more than reading Rolling Stone and watching The Mike Douglas Show?
The shelves are full of blu-rays of movies from the 70s, it's not going to give anyone the vapors to see some matte lines. And if it does, really, who cares.
The negative being permanently altered came directly from Lucasfilm. It was in all the promotional material for the special edition and was reiterated in 2006 when Lucasfilm gave their response to the dvd containing a 1993 laserdisc. And it's true, the new shots were dropped into the A/B rolls...