Your Star Wars DVD Reviews!

[Prime]

Well, we've been swamped with hype and fanboy whining about the new DVD version of Star Wars. There has been lots of legitimate and not so legitimate nit-picking about various changes and additions. But up until now all these things have been taken out of context because we haven't seen them as a part of the entire saga. Here is a place for reviews from Lucasforum members after they have had a chance to watch these DVDs in all their glory and/or shame.

 

Just how good or bad is the Star Wars DVD set to you?

[Lynk Former]

*dances around* I just watched the OT Trilogy DVDs, lala la!! :D :D :D :D :D

 

*dances off to watch it again*

 

 

I'm not kidding either ^^

[Sivy]

wow, if its got lynk dancing, then i'm excited

 

 

 

i have them, i just need some time to be able watch them.

 

stupid work

[Lynk Former]

In all seriousness, if you complain about the OT DVDs then you're a freakin idiot. SERIOUSLY. When you watch it, you won't care what version it is... just make sure you watch it on a decent system though

[Kryllith]

Haven't watched them, though I was the first in my local Walmart to buy them. Unfortunately I had to get up a 6am for work, so I was looking at 5 hours of sleep if I was lucky. I considered just staying up all night, but I was already wiped out. Shame I've solo shifts today, else I might have just stayed home and slept and watch them last night.

 

Either way, I guess it's not too much of a problem since they're sitting on my desk and I've a dvd-rom... time to get to watching.

 

Kryllith

[Jan Gaarni]

Originally posted by Lynk Former

In all seriousness, if you complain about the OT DVDs then you're a freakin idiot. SERIOUSLY. When you watch it, you won't care what version it is... just make sure you watch it on a decent system though

Yes, you mean like 4-5-6, then 1-2-3, right?

[ZBomber]

Originally posted by Jan Gaarni

Yes, you mean like 4-5-6, then 1-2-3, right?

 

No, he means whether or not cheesy things were added to the movie.

 

Saw ANH, wasn't disapointed.... but that was the least of my worries. I haven't heard Boba's voice yet, but I think I'll be disapointed. I'll have to watch tommarow.

[Codja X]

I watched my old video copies a couple of weeks ago to get myself hyped up and ready for these dvds - the wait was definitely worth it.

 

The sound and picture quality are astounding and all the fuss about the "changes" is over nothing. All the hoo-hah surrounding the change of Anakin at the end of ROTJ (a lot of it made by myself) seems pretty pointless now - it's a lot better actually seeing it rather than reading about it and it concludes the saga in a satisfying end.

 

@zBomber - Boba's voice isn't that remarkably different - it's obviously temura morrison's, but Temura Morrison playing Boba rather than him playing Jango or a clone (if you know what I mean). It's something you'll get used to in no-time, and would only really notice if you've been told to look out for it anyway.

 

It's nice to actually use the dolby system I have to watch the film that dolby was practically invented for as well. My neighbours now hate me:)

 

The bonus disc is exhaustive AND exhausting. I'm going to have to go back and finish the Empire of Dreams doc - there is a LOT to it.

 

The only thing that bugged me (but only very slightly) is this:

 

http://img55.exs.cx/img55/7568/Starwars.jpg

 

It looks a little green, but that's probably down to the compositing software and that is how it'll probably look in real life (and also the same reason the TIE fighter's lasers are different colours in some scenes, such as near Cloud City).

 

One last thing - does anybody know who did the inside slip/cover paintings? Has anyone uploaded them yet? The ROTJ one would make an awesome desktop.

 

See you all later - i'm off to watch my DVDs again:)

[Kurgan]

Well some will say that "you can't judge them until all the movies are out"... I mean supposedly the replacement of Shaw with Hayden's face in ROTJ "will be explained in Episode III."

 

So we "really" have to wait another 8 months before we can "Judge" the this DVD set by that logic.

 

Me, I don't think so. If we could judge Episode I and Episode II already, without Episode III then so can we judge these movies on their own merits.

 

Also, since the prequels make up their own trilogy, and that one isn't complete, that's fine. But THIS trilogy IS complete, so it stands on its own (as it has for the 16 years between ROTJ and the release of TPM).

 

I don't own the new DVD's yet, but I'll be picking them up by this weekend (barring news of some recall or new editions, heh).

 

I'll withhold final judgement until I can actually SEE them, but the changes sound very minor from the SE, except the "cleaned up-ness" of the films themselves (which is a good thing). To me the changes (other than Jabba, which was a change of a change) really sound like they're unnecessary. Tweaks that should have been made weren't, but again gotta shut up until I've seen 'em myself, so I'll leave off till then...

 

Don't start any flame wars 'till I get back! (or even after I get back!)

[Methos007]

I got and watched all 3 of them last night, and I'm quite happy except with a few things:

 

-The green and orange boxes from the matte that the ties in ANH have flaoting around them.

-Luke's lack of scream as he falls in ESB. It seems kinda pointless to remove it.

-Luke's green then blue saber in ANH.

 

Minor nit-picks, but I still love the movies.

[txa1265]

I went and spent ~$140 on Star Wars today - DVD's, Battlefront and Apprentice of the Force.

 

Watched a bit from each of the DVDs ... wow it makes a pretty major difference. Better than I expected. Way I look at it - Lucas changed everything for me, my friends, and the world in 1977 ... if he needs to tweak things a bit to his liking, I'm willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

 

My take on the Han vs. Greedo thing is slightly different ... I always liked it as it was very similar to the scene with Tuco in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly ... but I have never suffered the religious fervor some do about these little things ...

 

Mike

[Jan Gaarni]

Originally posted by Autobot Traitor

I got and watched all 3 of them last night, and I'm quite happy except with a few things:

 

-The green and orange boxes from the matte that the ties in ANH have flaoting around them.

-Luke's lack of scream as he falls in ESB. It seems kinda pointless to remove it.

-Luke's green then blue saber in ANH.

 

Minor nit-picks, but I still love the movies.

The scream is finally gone again? Yes.

 

The scream was never there, I always thought it was pointless to add it.

I'm glad to hear they took it out.

 

Han firing much earlier this time around, smoothing out stupid Greedo shot. The scene goes so fast by now that to anyone who has never seen the films before SE and the SE before these DVD movies, or heard anything about this before, would probably not notice it.

 

As I was looking thru the Bonus Disc, I cought several times the scene in ANH where Vader strikes Obi-Wan down, and got very disturbed seeing a slightly different, comical infact, way of cutting Ben in half. Thank God they kept it the original way though. /phew

 

I was alittle disapointed that they had not enhanced the sound more, infact I thought it had become quite tame in some places, where in the past it really gave a good punch. Like the opening scene with the Tantive IV and the Devastator.

 

Overall, there was not much new in ANH from the SE really. Stormtroopers have kept their original voices, they've speeded up the Han/Greedo shooting to a more believable and acceptable preformance, enhanced the Jabba scene, and I thought ... was it me or ... have they sped up ever so slightly the sword fight between Vader and Obi-Wan? It's been awhile since I saw the OT.

 

Tomorrow: ESB, and possibly RotJ aswell.

 

Can't wait.

 

 

- Jan, signing off, and going to bed.

[Lynk Former]

Wish they had more time to spend on it though, the video needed A LOT more work, especially for ANH.

 

The audio needs to be improved as well... I mean there are some scenes when two characters are talking and then suddenly it'd go from sounding like "live" to "recorded" and then back. You shouldn't be able to notice things like that.

[Achilles]

Watched ANH last night and was immediately impressed with the image quality. It seems pretty obvious that they put a lot of effort into making the movie look clean and crisp.

 

Had to rewatch the Greedo scene a few times before I noticed a difference. It's still choppy but not as bad as before.

 

The Han/Jabba scene is a million times better, which is one of the things that I was looking forward to seeing the most.

 

I'll editorialize further after I've seen the other two

[Sivy]

i watch ANH last night too. the picture quality was pretty amazing compared to how it used to look. they've managed to really brighten it up and make it so much more colorful.

i was happier with the greedo and the jabba scene, a big improvement on the SEs. the sound was much better, although there were times when quality seem to dip.

 

luke's color changing lightsaber bugged me a bit. sometimes blue, sometimes white and one time its green.

 

but overall i was very pleased with it. can't wait to watch the other two.

[kipperthefrog]

I watched Return Of The Jedi and Return Of Darth Vader last night, got up at 4:30 am and now im doing a review!

 

My dad says that the prequils are not as great as they could have been and episode 3 better be great! I agree with him!

 

First the original, then the thx color version, then the speacial edition, now the DVD! not to mention the vaves of action figures each release!

 

Luca$ gets to cash in again at round 4!!

[Kurgan]

Overall, very nice.

 

There is a lot of hype surrounding these dvd's, but take it with a grain of salt.

 

Yes, the visual quality is amazing. The audio is pretty darn good (with a few glitches, as mentioned on various sites like digitalbits.com).

 

The "fixes" and "tweaks" are few and far between. Hayden as Anakin's ghost is annoying and stupid (Lucas says he'll explain it in Episode III... well this ought to be good... heh), as is redubbing Boba Fett. Totally unnecessary. The other changes are few and far between, but look okay (new Emperor, Jabba).

 

Palpatine's new lines don't sound as good as the old actor in ESB. Like Palpy was hung-over or something. Now we know that Vader was a little confused as to who his son was (or was making an attempt to hide that info from the Emperor by acting surprised in front of him). But the scene plays well enough.

 

Greedo shooting first is silly, but the scene looks a little better than it did in 1997. Jabba looks much better than he did, but the scene is still unnecessary. But at least, unlike the other changed scenes, it doesn't change anything else. After all it's a modification of an added scene in the first place.

 

Overall it's a nice package, but I REALLY wish there had been more extras. Deleted scenes, older documentaries, THE ORIGINAL VERSIONS TO COMPARE, commentary for more people, etc.

 

I mean these are monumental films, the extras were nice, but more akin to what you'd find on a standard blockbuster movie, not one that had been a blockbuster for 20 years in the popular imagination like Star Wars.

 

There are TONS of SFX gaffes and other things that were not touched. So essentially these are the 1997 Special Editions with the film cleaned up and a handfull of cosmetic changes to a few scenes.

 

As with the original SE's, the changes to ANH seem to make the most sense and work the best. The changes to the other movies seem more of an after-thought to cash in and make the whole set "special."

 

One thing I also really thought was stupid was the haphazard way the lightsabers were tweaked.

 

As far as I am concerned the sabers in ESB and ROTJ were perfect. But they had to go and mess with them. Now we get horrible looking animatic style sabers clashing in front of Palpatine in ROTJ and weird pink sabers for Vader and yellow/green cores for Luke. Luke even gets a green saber for most of ANH (but a blue saber in the menu of the same scene on the bonus disc!). Likewise the saber animations that could have been fixed in ANH to look better (Luke's basically) end up looking worse since the cleanup to the film exposes the cheap effects.

 

Then again, Obi-Wan and Vader's duel looks lovely. The sabers never looked better. Still, the obvious gaffe with Obi-Wan's unpainted saber in a few frames is still there (albeit with a slight glow to almost cover it).

 

A good effort, but it looks like they could have benefited from taking a few more months to polish up this release to really make it "special."

 

The documentaries are cool, but too much space is wasted on the disc with the Episode III stuff and the Battlefront and Episode III game stuff. What does that have to do with the OT again? ; p

 

I'm sure Lucas will release a new version someday... hopefully he'll reconsider packing in the Original Versions as an option.

 

If you're a Star Wars fan and you own a DVD player and a good setup, go ahead and buy it. You won't be disappointed (unless you're expecting an "ultimate edition" with tons of bells and whistles or all SFX fixed). As I said before, this is just the Special Edition with some minor tweaks and cleaned up visual quality.

 

At $39 it's a steal. Just be sure you get the Widescreen Version! (silver box)

 

Also check the bottoms of your disc media when you open it up. Wal-Mart in my area has lately been selling runs of bad dvd's with "burn marks" on the surface of the silver and glue seperation. Very unproffessional. I don't know if this is something that happens in the factory or in transit to the store, but its sloppy and undoubtebly shortens the life of the discs.

[Prime]

As you point out, for all the fuss that has gone over these things, very little has been changed from the SE versions.

[Kurgan]

Right.

 

In the grand scheme of things the movies are the same.

 

But the things that were changed (like the Greedo shooting first back in 1997), leave fans like me shaking their heads in bewilderment at what Lucas is thinking.

 

It's like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa.

 

I mean, okay, the rest of the painting is still amazing, but why the goofy change?

[Lynk Former]

Just wait till we all get our RotS DVDs and then we realise... we have them all. Now it's time to watch from ONE to SIX, in numerical order.

[Codja X]

That's going to a fun day - the pizza dude will be on speed dial for that:)

[txa1265]

Originally posted by Kurgan

But the things that were changed (like the Greedo shooting first back in 1997), leave fans like me shaking their heads in bewilderment at what Lucas is thinking.

 

It's like painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa.

In my opinion there are only two things that qualify for that -

- Greedo shoots first.

- Anakin's ghost is Hayden, not Shaw

 

While the explanation of the disappearance of dying Jedi and Anakin's fall to Vader all might really suggest that he 'died' as a Jedi in terms of becoming one with the force, and might come in Ep III in such a way that Shaw being there makes no sense ... it will have to be a compelling argument to 'approve' the change (as opposed to 'oh well'-ing it)

 

As for the Han/Greedo - I put that up there with the changes Spielberg made in the armed group coming to the house in ET. It is making changes to adapt to the changing times. That one never bugged me too much, but I never saw the rationale.

 

The rest I see as 'cleaning the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel, rather than 'painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa'.

 

Mike

[Prime]

Originally posted by txa1265

While the explanation of the disappearance of dying Jedi and Anakin's fall to Vader all might really suggest that he 'died' as a Jedi in terms of becoming one with the force, and might come in Ep III in such a way that Shaw being there makes no sense ... it will have to be a compelling argument to 'approve' the change (as opposed to 'oh well'-ing it)

Actually, I was watching one of the DVD extras last night, IIRC the one about the characters. There Lucas mentioned that Vader is slowly becoming more of a machine (He's more machine now, than man, and so on). Because of that, he is slowly losing his humanity and the ability to think and feel like a human.

 

I was thinking that at Vaders end, even though he has been redeemed from the Dark Side, he is still more machine than man. This implies that he has still lost some or most of his humanity, even if he is no longer evil. So if he is to appear at the end in "Shaw ghost form," that is really a form that is still less than the true Anakin. Only in the "Hayden form" is he really his true self, with his full humanity. So if that logic holds, it may make more sense in the end.

 

I'm not saying that is all correct, and hopefully all will be explained in Ep 3. It was just Lucas' comment that made me think.

 

Has anyone listened to the commentary yet? I wonder if it is explained on there...

[Lynk Former]

Yeah I've watched 100% (realistically) of all DVDs and I agree with Lucas's change with Hayden replacing Shaw.

 

Of course that doesn't change the fact that I want Lucas to release the original Original Trilogy.

[Kurgan]

Originally posted by txa1265

 

While the explanation of the disappearance of dying Jedi and Anakin's fall to Vader all might really suggest that he 'died' as a Jedi in terms of becoming one with the force, and might come in Ep III in such a way that Shaw being there makes no sense ... it will have to be a compelling argument to 'approve' the change (as opposed to 'oh well'-ing it)

 

All I can say is that it better be a darn good explanation! Lucas would have been better off changing the prequels to fit the OT and not the other way around. But I suppose he'll argue for "imaginative freedom" so he can change the story to whatever suites his purpose, even if it means retro-actively changing the other films so they "fit" with his new (rather than "original") vision.

 

The problem I have with the "well he fell to the Dark Side when he was in his 20's so that was the last time he was good guy Anakin" is that, well, he had to have come back to the "good side" when he was an old man, or else how was he able to turn against the Emperor and be "saved" by Luke? If the good man was destroyed then, he couldn't have come back (there was still "good in him"). Since Lucas has shortened the time between trilogies (Shaw was in his 70's, implying the prequels took place a long time ago or else he turned to the Dark Side later in life), it would make more sense to show Anakin's spirit (and face under the mask) as a man in his 40's. Granted, age and the "ravages of the Dark Side" and disease could make him look older, but there's a big difference between a 20 year old and a 40 year old, or a 70 year old.

 

The second problem with the young Anakin spirit is that Luke would not recognize him. After all, he's only see Vader under the mask as an old man (this was not changed in the "definitive" DVD's, only his eyebrows are burned off). At least Shaw's ghost looked the same as before, but with hair and his scars healed. This young Anakin wouldn't be recognizable to Luke. Likewise audience members who haven't watched Episodes II and/or III will have no idea who this guy is. At least in the original version of ROTJ you could tell it was the same old guy, just with his wounds healed.

 

As for the Han/Greedo - I put that up there with the changes Spielberg made in the armed group coming to the house in ET. It is making changes to adapt to the changing times. That one never bugged me too much, but I never saw the rationale.

 

Sort of like Lucas removing various frames of "flame bursts" coming out of the chests of Imperial officers who are shot in ANH to "tone down the violence."

 

Really it has nothing to do with changing times, since other PG films have equal or more violence (including the prequels), but seemingly George's perception of how much violence he wants to show to children (but that's a guess since he hasn't officially spoken about his reasons for that particular change, though I imagine it's obvious).

 

Interesting that he removes some flames from a human's chest, but he leaves the blood shed by humanoid aliens (Maul, Panda Boba).

 

And hey, at least Spielberg acknowledges that his films belong not just to him, but also to cinema history, and made the originals available alongside his modified versions on DVD.

 

The rest I see as 'cleaning the ceiling on the Sistine Chapel, rather than 'painting a moustache on the Mona Lisa'.

 

Mike

 

The cleaning of the Sistine Chapel is akin to restoring the film quality on the DVD's. Of course everyone who created the original paintings is dead, and we've lived with the "remnants" for centuries, which is why some objected to them being "cleaned." At least Lucas is still alive and it's only been about 25-20 years. The Mona Lisa moustache is akin to the actual modifications to the film, ie: the Special Edition & DVD CGI's.

 

PS: I have read some film critics complain about DVD film restorations that go too far, by removing ALL film grain (not just dirt and scratches from wear and tear or damage). This gives movies a non-film and more "video tape" look, which to them, destroys some of the texture and "feeling" of the original print. So far from what I've seen there is still some grain in the films, so it's not that bad (the films don't look like AOTC which is entirely digital, for instance). But, film grain removal is nearly akin to colorization for these folks, and I think they do have a point.

 

But, again, at least it can be argued that it's George Lucas who is making these changes, and he controls the rights to the movies. The producers & directors of the other two films (the ones that are still alive anyway) seem to have given Lucas their blessing in the changes he made to their films as well.