STAR WARS ON BLU-RAY - FALL 2011 (1 Viewer)

[Ruz-El]

No christmas special, no sale!

 

[TravisR]

Originally Posted by Kevin EK

There's precious few details here, other than the note from The Digital Bits about higher bitrates for the movie discs, and a repeat of the announcement about deleted and alternate scenes. It sounds to me like they haven't worked out the special features yet, beyond a few basics.

Since the release is 8 months away, did you expect a full list of features already? I could be wrong but if I remember correctly, this is the same basic way that they announced the OT and Indiana Jones on DVD too.

 

[Worth]

Originally Posted by Paul_Warren

The original versions Lucas is holding back he is quite right to do so. If you go back & watch the $250 Trilogy LD boxed Set in A New Hope you will see for almost the entire movie a strange colour shift on reds especially in the tatooine scenes which was caused by the film stock used having a manufacturing error which caused an inconsistent colour shift from frame to frame. Imagine the cost to frame by frame correct that & why so a few unhappy fans can say they have the "pure" version!!! Prequel Trilogy producer Rick McCallum spoke in the past about how bad the original elements are for the non SE trilogy & how they would be very expensive to repair which is one of the reasons why they were offered on the 2 disc DVDs a few years ago as is.

And many rightfully asserted that that excuse was utter bullshit:


http://www.thedigitalbits.com/mytwocentsa120.html#aswrant

Nonetheless (and thankfully), we know for a FACT that beautiful dye transfer prints of the original versions of the films still exist in private hands, and that additional copies are preserved in a number of film archives around the world. What's more, Lucas would have been foolhardy if he didn't keep the original interpositives carefully stored in a climate-controlled vault for preservation's sake. Come on... of course he did. No one is THAT stupid that they'd just trash all the original elements of the films that made them rich beyond the dreams of avarice.

 

[Mike_G]

Prints do exist in private hands. I know that for a fact, and not one of those "friend of a friend" facts.


I never understood the reasoning behind replacing SOME scenes with CGI and not others. The SEs are such an anomaly. On one hand, the shot of the Falcon tearing away from Mos Eisley is awesome and got a ton of applauds at the NY early screening. I still love it. And then you get the scene of Vader landing on his Star Destroyer in Empire reel six with footage from Jedi which kills the tension of that scene. It makes no sense.


The way I see it is this: if you can restore 97% of the film, don't lie to my face and tell me the other 3% isn't up to snuff. That's a lie, and if there's one thing I hate is when corporate tools lie to our faces, especially if they know we're going to buy it anyway. What's worse is that they could have used CGI to simply restore the scenes as close to the originals as possible IF what they said was true about that 3%. Instead, they find a way to sell us the SEs with new CGI.


What are they losing by not releasing the originals? Money? People would buy it in a heartbeat. Embarrassment? Maybe. There's way too much evidence from the last 13 years to support the fact that they could have restored the originals, but didn't. So now they toy with us and keep releasing these SEs.


The worst of it is that (IMO) other than the screwup at the end of Empire, some of the changes aren't THAT bad. In fact, look at some of them and tell me they're not impressive: opening up Cloud City, the Falcon escape from Mos Eisley, the shot of Ben's hut. What I hate are the cuts to the violence as mentioned above, the now-dated look of the CGI (how ironic), and Jabba (redundant..and only used as a selling point).


We've learned in 13 years that even if GL wanted to make SEs, he could have made them better in themselves. Instead he mucked with them just enough to tip people over the fence into not liking them, but we buy it anyway.


Grrr...

 

[RobertR]

Originally Posted by Mike_G


The way I see it is this: if you can restore 97% of the film, don't lie to my face and tell me the other 3% isn't up to snuff. That's a lie, and if there's one thing I hate is when corporate tools lie to our faces, especially if they know we're going to buy it anyway. What's worse is that they could have used CGI to simply restore the scenes as close to the originals as possible IF what they said was true about that 3%. Instead, they find a way to sell us the SEs with new CGI.

The irony is that Lucas wanted to be independent so that he wouldn't be at the mercy of corporate tools.

 

[WillG]

The worst of it is that (IMO) other than the screwup at the end of Empire, some of the changes aren't THAT bad

The thing is, if Lucas was just willing to meet people halfway and just change back some of the awful things he did, most fans would probably be happy. Nobody likes Greedo shooting first, nobody likes "Alert my Star Destroyer......" over "Bring my Shuttle" so why so adamant about keeping those things?

But, I think that the "Revisited" version of ANH blows away Lucas' SE anyway.

 

[Kevin EK]

Travis, you have a good point. My thought was just that Lucas already announced this release for October of this year at the convention last year.

The new announcement sheds very little additional light - he could have either waited to make this announcement until they knew what the materials would be, or they could have given a more thorough accounting. Either way, it doesn't matter. Unless they tell me that he's replaced all of the casts with CGI, I'll pick this up anyway...

 

[johnSM]

By the looks of that trailer - which admittedly MAY not show the finished product - the lightsabers are STILL pink especially in the cloud city fight sequences in Empire, and - for example - that scene where Luke and Vader's sabres clash in front of the Emperor's face (PINK! How threatening is a Sith Lord with a PINK sabre?!), and the colour balance is way off still in some scenes.


Whilst I would love the originals transferred with the same care that went into - for example - the Blade Runner sets, or Close Encounters, many would be happy if they at least made the SEs as good as possible. Instead we get bad 'cartoon colour' timings, pink lightsabers (!), dated CGI in many instances (as someone else here noted, how ironic can one get), lack of 'cgi window views' continuity in corridors in the expanded cloud city segments (some windows disappear in subsequent shots!), jarring edits to make way for new scenes ("alert my star destroyer blah blah" just DESTROYS that beautiful music spoting in that sequence & all the tension) and so on. I'm just amazed nobody appears to notice this stuff at Lucasfilm & mention it - it's basic quality control that you'd get for just about any release (major or otherwise) these days... This isn't Star Wars nerd-moaning, this is basic level quality control one would expect for any classic film.


The irony here is that George said he did the SEs because he wasn't happy with how the films originally turned out due to time and budgetary constraints. Fair enough. He then fixes everything, says he is now happy and how they now represent his original vision (could he not have easily filmed Greedo shooting first then, back in '76... I digress!). Despite saying this, he then changes shots again (notably a V.2 of the poor Greedo shooting first CGI, and the more obvious Jabba re-do) for the 2004 DVDs which must surely indicate that the 1997 versions were NOT complete, and he wasn't happy with those either. Why doesn't he NOTICE the shots are bad to begin with?! The same can be said of the terrible Yoda puppet in TPM - didn't anybody SAY anything back then that he looked nothing like Yoda? Rumor is this puppet will be changed to CGI for the prequal Bluray sets... yet another example of 'after the fact' tinkering to correct mistakes which should have never happened. This 'ah I can fix THAT in a future DVD/Bluray release' makes for lazy film-making in my humble opinion because nothing is ever finished/polished off. George seems to treat each release as a 'service pack' to plug up the flaws with the previous version, ala Windows!


The only reason I'd buy this set is purely for the deleted scenes, but since it appears that the only way to get these is to get the whole set with the terrible prequals too, Lucasfilm have lost a sale from me. If they'd included these extras on the original trilogy sets, and if it looked like they'd listened, took note, and fixed the issues with the 2004 DVD transfers, I'd be extremely tempted to part with my hard earned.


It's a rather depressing sign that some fan edits out there show more care and professionalism than official Lucasfilm product! Anyone who's seen the famous Adywan version of Star Wars (sorry - A New Hope!), or his re-colour timed SEs know how good these films can look...


At this point I WISH Lucasfilm would stop trying to be the jack of all trades, masters of none, and give the entire saga to a company like Criterion who'd do these films full justice.


For those that like the prequals, and/or the SEs, lets hope they at least get everything right with version 3 this time, with no more errors - sorry! - "deliberate creative decisions".....


- John

 

[robbbb1138]

Originally Posted by SD_Brian

I wonder how many people would buy just the prequel trilogy? I guess it's nice those who want it will have the option. Do such people exist?

I know a lot of younger people that prefer the prequels, but I think even most of them would still want all 6 movies. I think most of the people that buy that would just get it because they don't have the cash to get them all at the same time and would probably get the original trilogy at another time.

 

[snoopy28574]

With Star wars coming to the big screen in 3D, I bet the camera negatives will be re examined and scanned. If im not mistaken turning 2D into 3D needs as much clarity as possible.. Moreover, If I were Lucas I would milk every last drop I could from the 90's restoration interpositive and let the new re release fund a full digital restoration. Relax people, were gonna get what we want. And sooner rather than later I hope. I can remember buying a laser disc player well in the DVD era just to have the originals (prior to DVD release). I was a senior in high school and it was a hell of alot of money. I was not happy with the results. I as much as anyone want a proper transfer. I just dont think its coming in september, but it will come. Its worth to much money

Originally Posted by Mike_G

Prints do exist in private hands. I know that for a fact, and not one of those "friend of a friend" facts.


I never understood the reasoning behind replacing SOME scenes with CGI and not others. The SEs are such an anomaly. On one hand, the shot of the Falcon tearing away from Mos Eisley is awesome and got a ton of applauds at the NY early screening. I still love it. And then you get the scene of Vader landing on his Star Destroyer in Empire reel six with footage from Jedi which kills the tension of that scene. It makes no sense.


The way I see it is this: if you can restore 97% of the film, don't lie to my face and tell me the other 3% isn't up to snuff. That's a lie, and if there's one thing I hate is when corporate tools lie to our faces, especially if they know we're going to buy it anyway. What's worse is that they could have used CGI to simply restore the scenes as close to the originals as possible IF what they said was true about that 3%. Instead, they find a way to sell us the SEs with new CGI.


What are they losing by not releasing the originals? Money? People would buy it in a heartbeat. Embarrassment? Maybe. There's way too much evidence from the last 13 years to support the fact that they could have restored the originals, but didn't. So now they toy with us and keep releasing these SEs.


The worst of it is that (IMO) other than the screwup at the end of Empire, some of the changes aren't THAT bad. In fact, look at some of them and tell me they're not impressive: opening up Cloud City, the Falcon escape from Mos Eisley, the shot of Ben's hut. What I hate are the cuts to the violence as mentioned above, the now-dated look of the CGI (how ironic), and Jabba (redundant..and only used as a selling point).


We've learned in 13 years that even if GL wanted to make SEs, he could have made them better in themselves. Instead he mucked with them just enough to tip people over the fence into not liking them, but we buy it anyway.


Grrr...

 

[Adam_S]

More info at this link than anyone wanted to know about exactly why bringing the original to HD home video is not a simple issue of scanning the o-neg. There is no longer a conformed o-neg of the original films. There are probably trims that were taken out of the original o-neg for 1997 and stored elsewhere, but no one really knows if they kept that original footage, no one has ever said they did keep them.


http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/savingstarwars.html


Pretty much every piece of info about Star Wars' modern home video history and restoration history is available at the above link.

 

[MielR]

Include me in the "rental- for bonus features (maybe)" camp on this one.

I just CAN'T plunk down $?? on another set that will sit on a shelf and collect dust.


But, I can't help but be a cautious optimist- maybe after this set is released and the hoopla is over, the work can

begin to restore the Original 1977-1983 trilogy, for the inevitable blu-ray double-dip down the road.


Count me in for that one.

 

[johnSM]

Maybe the 'deleted scenes' footage on the extras that come on the 3-disc set with the entire saga version will contain all the excised original scenes from the original trilogy. Technically they are deleted scenes now...





- John

 

[Shane D]

im curious if phantom menace will have the digital yoda version or the puppet version.


and there are parts of episode 3 that will be very cool in lossless.


hope and empire will be amazing im sure. but yeah, like most im not really super excited either

 

[robbbb1138]

I think ROTS may be the only way that's spared from any FX "fixes", though the DVD release makes me think ESB and ROTJ may only have some matte lines cleaned up. There are probably some digital doubles in TPM and AOTC that will be improved.

 

[Martin Teller]

If I ever start whining about the color of lightsabers, I hope someone will please kill me.

 

[Ruz-El]

I'm excited for the complete collection. I'm fine with the revisions, they don't ruin the movie for me. I just hope those 30 hours of extras are worthwhile. They really should put in the Christmas special and that Donny and Marie episode from the 70's just for fun.

 

[cafink]

If the original versions of the films are included, I'll buy the set. If they are not, I'll pass and stick with the existing DVDs. I have no interest in the series beyond that.

 

[Charles Smith]

That goes for me as well. I'm not a huge Star Wars fanatic in the first place, my only interest being the original three films. I haven't even bought those sucky DVDs yet, opting instead to just pop open the LD collection when I want to see those. If the originals were ever to be issued on BLU, then I'd go for it. But that's the only additional thing involving this entire franchise that will ever get another dollar out of me.

 

[ChadMcCallum]

Originally Posted by Martin Teller

If I ever start whining about the color of lightsabers, I hope someone will please kill me.

Its hardly whining, its a major mistake. Its not like the colour is slightly off on the 2004 edition its way off in some scenes. Luke's saber is green in one scene of A New Hope for no reason and Vader's goes pink, not red but bubblegum pink in Return of the Jedi.