How is the Star Wars trilogy DVD?

[NewJeffCT]

Is it worth asking for as an XMas gift?

[Walt Starr]

1. I liked it, but I liked the movies

Bopught it several weeks ago.

The Firefly DVDs are better, though. ;-)

[Touchdown]

2. Excellent.

Fully restored. Pictures are pristine. Sound has been improved to 6.1. A new trilogy feature documentary is about 3 1/2 hours. I would say they are even cleaner than the 1997 Special Edition theatrical re-releases.

Well worth the wait. The bad...the original 1977, 1980, 1983 versions aren't included, and probably never will be. Lucas doesn't like them anymore.

[Chovexani]

3. Goddamn sacrilege.

(Warning: bitter Star Wars fangirl rant ahead. Prequel lovers will want to skip this.)

Not only are these DVDs NOT the original trilogy, Lucas took the Special Edition and added even more retconning bullshit to pull the good Star Wars movies more in line with the crap currently masquerading as Star Wars movies. The worst offenses:

-Jedi Temple can be seen in the flyover shot of Cloud City in TESB. Because the Empire wanted to eradicate every vestige of Jedi culture and belief, they would leave the temple intact. Whatever, Lucas.

-Hologram of the Emperor now replaced by guy who plays them in prequels

-Boba Fett's voiced dubbed by guy from prequels (the line reading is just terrible, too)

-Celebrations on Naboo stuck into the celebration scenes in RotJ. Because everyone was just dying to know if the Gungans survived. Whatever, Lucas.

But, by far the worst thing Lucas did...remember when Obi-Wan and Vader appeared as apparitions at the very end of RotJ? Well, Lucas stuck Hayden Unclefucking Christiansen in that scene, with a stupid, creepy ass grin on his face.

I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times...Star Wars is dead to me. My widescreen Faces VHS copies are dying, and I've got nothing to replace them with except fan-made bootlegs. </rant>

[Streetdoc270]

5. Well the Jedi Temples

are still around in the books, which as any fangirl/boy should know that the books are considered connon for continuality purposes.

And I felt that the changes in the hologram/voices/dead Vader scenes were nice tie-ins to the prequils

Plus the new ending music for RoTJ is a LOT better than that stupid Ewok jub-jub crapola

[DrWeird]

6. Yikes.

Glad I avoided it.

[Touchdown]

7. Uh', the "guy" is Ian Mc Diarmid, and he was in ROTJ too.

A 1 1/2 minute hologram, compared to an hour of scene stealing in the climax, not to mention 4 films compared to one, I'd say consistency wins out here.

The Naboo celebrations were there in 1997. The Gungans might have been added to the rooftops later. I don't remember.

Bottom line, they're Lucas' movies, not yours. And...your disclaimer at the top doesn't give you immunity of any counter-arguments.;)

[Ravenseye]

8. I liked everything except Hayden in the end

Yeah they're Lucas' movies. I have the originals on VHS that I now have stored so they should last, though I am going to make digital copies soon before they degrade too much.

Everything they added was fine. i hated that Boba Fett's voice was changed, but it makes sense for consistency. Fine. At least they added back in Luke's screaming when he fell away from vader in TESB.

No, all the changes were really fine. I can live with them. Except for Anakin at the end in ghost form looking like a fucked up evil young Anakin. Why didn't they replace Alec Guiness with Ewan Macgregor.

How the hell would luke know who that new kid showing up is? He doesn't look anything like the father he just saw die, not to mention that he's looking at someone younger than he is. Even yoda is the old yoda.

NO that was just plain retarded.

[Touchdown]

9. You have a point, but on the other hand.

The Hayden Anakin was when he was a Jedi Padawan. The old Anakin was when he was a Sith, so can is apparition appear when he was a Sith? Ben and Yoda were always Jedis. Just thinking aloud here.

There are couple of things I don't like... first is the removal of the muppet new wave song "Lapti Nek" in ROTJ in favor of a ridiculous CGI Tina Turner & James Brown rip off (bad song too!). They improved so much space travel/battles of ANH, that instead of this musical abortion, they should have fixed the 8 magically appearing TIE fighters at the start of the Endor Battle (they're still there), and the ramming of the Super Star Destroyer into the Death Star still looks like a tiki torch. C'mon, that ship is big enough for a few explosion rings, isn't it?

However, I accept what he's done, since they are his movies, and the story is still there, regardless of the little gripes I might have.

It's been almost 8 years since the fan boys & girls blew gaskets over Greedo shooting first, among other things, and complaining about revisionist history, and they still won't move on. I'm just tired of the sour grapes after all these years. It's one thing to never get over a stolen election, but Star Wars isn't a democracy. We can't vote Lucas off the island. It's time we got over Greedo, Snooty Tina Turner, Mitochondira (or whatever cells use the Force), Boba Fett being a clone and Young Anakin at the end. It's still one of the best fantasy sagas ever put on film, as imperfect as it is.

[Ravenseye]

10. Oh I agree

I preordered it. I'm a Star Wars nut and have been since before I can remember.

The new song in ROTJ...well I can see why he did this. It was along the lines of the Cantina scene in ANH. Something that he was really disapointed with at first, and when he could upgrade it he did. Look at the Jabba scene from ANH. He filmed it, but they didn't have the money to matte over the human actor there (at first they were just going to put a new head on him I think) so they just cut the scene. He WANTED Jabba in there, but it just didn't fly. So he added him in for the special additions. Really creatively too, with Han walking over his tail. It looked kinda bad though, so he redid it again for these DVD's and it looks much better.

The magically appearing Tie Fighters remind me of Vader and Ben's lightsabers in ANH. I was watching the special addtion and at the end you could see Vader's lightsaber WHITE like in the original. I mean come on, they had time to add in all that new stuff, and Greedo shooting first, but you couldn't make his saber red? Just bad, in a lazy sense.

Whatever. all in all I love them, but just wish Lucas could learn to settle down.

[Enraged_Ape]

15. You're right; they are Lucas's movies

That's why he gets 100% of the blame for the fact that they suck now. It takes REAL talent to take three great movies and fuck them over in such spectacularly creative ways.

[porkrind]

13. Great Post.

The recent computer generated bullshit actually detracts from the magic of the original series. BTW, you will always be able to get the old ones on Ebay. :)

[Deja Q]

14. Ian McDermid was Palpatine in I-II but was Emperor in VI. It's the ONLY

change I like.

But I won't spend a damn penny on the set. Especially if they won't put money into proper acting for re-doing a character's voiceover (re: Fett).

I've laserdisc copies I will burn to DVD.

[RaleighNCDUer]

16. and HAN SHOOTS FIRST!!!

[Downtown Hound]

4. If you're a Star Wars purist, you'll probably hate them

because of all the changes made to them to make them more in line with the prequels. But the picture quality is absolutely fantastic, and so is the sound. Me, personally, I've given up rejecting the changes to them. they really don't affect the overall storyline that much.

[Anarcho-Socialist]

11. I bought it for myself and a I liked it

Apart from the Hayden playing Anakin's spirit at the end of ROTJ (which is already mentioned). It has a really good preview to Return of the Sith, featuring the Vader/Obi Wan lightsaber battle and the making of Hayden's Vader suit.

[lakemonster11]

12. I wish they would release the original versions

as well as the modified versions.

It never occurred to me that the DVDs would be of the Special Edition until I bought them, but I guess it makes sense now that I know.