Star Wars on Blu-Ray

foxyboxer

iMax wrote: »

Lucas is a hack. He was lucky enough to write an OK movie that had a phenomenal merchandising take-up & due to the lack of foresight of 20th Century Fox (they thought the $6m budget movie would make about $10m after costs), he ended up owning the merchandising rights, which is what made him his initial fortune.

....and a fantastic score. Imagine watching Star Wars with a weak score?

foxyboxer

Dotrel wrote: »

Nice theory but how does that change the percentage earnings she makes off the movies?

Also Star Wars had 3x editors so wouldn't he be hurting the two other guys as well?

Star Wars won seven academy awards not just 1. The series has won 10 in total.

Finally Lucas actually has an Academy Award of sorts. He was awarded the Irving G. Thalberg Memorial Award in 1992. An honorary award but in terms of the industry winning that award is more significant than a best director or even a best editing award (which for Marica was just a shared award anyway). Compare the list of IGT winners to the list of best director winners and you'll see what I mean. So I doubt he has 'statue envy' either so to speak.

I'm sure Lucas hasn't good feelings for Marcia Lucas but what you describe seems unlikely to the point of recklessness.

The only Oscar won by the 'Lucases' in the series.

G-Money

Picked this up in HMV this morning for the total sum of €11.49. I traded in about 10 or 12 games that I never play so it came to a nice discount.

kiwi_40

Anyone buy on play.com. 84euro. Then i get done by customs for duty, 23 euro, had to send a cheque to ballymount then they sent it, cost me 107 euro, fecking robbery. And how do they work out 23 from 84. Play normally are very good value, got the Beatles remasters for 219 when all in Ireland were charging 300, no duty on that. Whats going on, will have to reconsdier play if this is the way forward.

Sad Professor

Play is based in Jersey which is outside the EU, so you are potentially liable for customs for anything shipping from there.

Dotrel

Don't amazon.co.uk have some jersey connection as well?

Sad Professor

Yeah some of their stuff ships from Jersey. It says which.

TherapyBoy

kiwi_40 wrote: »

Anyone buy on play.com. 84euro. Then i get done by customs for duty, 23 euro, had to send a cheque to ballymount then they sent it, cost me 107 euro, fecking robbery. And how do they work out 23 from 84. Play normally are very good value, got the Beatles remasters for 219 when all in Ireland were charging 300, no duty on that. Whats going on, will have to reconsdier play if this is the way forward.

Nothing really that Play.com can do about it, it's down to An Post. Sometimes they charge duty on them, sometimes they don't. Around last Christmas I got caught for duty charges on a few things having never been charged for the 50 previous items and haven't been charged for anything I bought this year. It's just a crap-shoot.

G-Money

Just finished watching Episode 1. It wasn't as bad as I remembered although I found myself thinking, seeing George Lucas insist's on tinkering with his films, it's a pity he didn't take Jar-Jar Binks out of it completely.

kiwi_40

TherapyBoy wrote: »

Nothing really that Play.com can do about it, it's down to An Post. Sometimes they charge duty on them, sometimes they don't. Around last Christmas I got caught for duty charges on a few things having never been charged for the 50 previous items and haven't been charged for anything I bought this year. It's just a crap-shoot.

I wasnt blaming play to be honest i know exactly where its coming from, whats annoying is a mate of mine ordered the same thing from play and wasnt charged, where is the fairness, all or nothing. In actual fact Amazon.co.uk was cheaper, didnt realize they dont charge P&P for over 25 quid. They do tell you where it will come from alright. This country pisses me off

kiwi_40

G-Money wrote: »

Just finished watching Episode 1. It wasn't as bad as I remembered although I found myself thinking, seeing George Lucas insist's on tinkering with his films, it's a pity he didn't take Jar-Jar Binks out of it completely.

Agreed. However, i have to say the job they did on the first 3 (or 4 to 6) is incredible. I have the DVD which has the original untouched theatrical release version and the difference with this new blu-ray is beyond belief. I just checked a few scenes and my god the blu ray was worth the extra. I know some star wars fans are up in arms as he changed some stuff but i dont care, it was worth it to get the rest "cleaned up". I can watch the DVD if i feel they need to see the 1977 version I seen in the Odeon Cinema on the quays as a 10 year old in 1977.

G-Money

Currently watching Attack of the Clones. There seems to be quite a bit of motion blurring in it, especially the fleshy/earth coloured tones. An example is when Obi-Wan Kenobi is chasing that guy in through the meteors. When the camera is inside the ****, there seems to be a lot of blurring. Episode 1 wasn't as bad for that.

kiwi_40

G-Money wrote: »

Currently watching Attack of the Clones. There seems to be quite a bit of motion blurring in it, especially the fleshy/earth coloured tones. An example is when Obi-Wan Kenobi is chasing that guy in through the meteors. When the camera is inside the ****, there seems to be a lot of blurring. Episode 1 wasn't as bad for that.

You're obviously watching them in chronological order, I'm watching them in the order they were made, not sure why. Will be interested to hear your thoughts on the originals and their quality. Just finished Return of the Jedi, quality remaster alright

G-Money

Yeah I haven't watched the original's yet. I watched all of the prequels yesterday. Episode 3 definitely looks better than Episode 2 and has less motion blurring IMHO.

Looking forward to seeing what they've done with the original 3.

Kinski

Everyone who bought these has succumbed to the dark side...

jaykhunter

Kinski wrote: »

Everyone who bought these has succumbed to the dark side...

i think Chobot from IGN mentioned it topped over a million copies sold in the first few days Not me though. Not at full price

G-Money

Episode 4 A New Hope definitely looks quite cleaned up and crisp on Blu.

Dotrel

I'd just like to applaud them for actually putting a "play all" option on the bonus disks. LOTR DVD came close to this but I think this SW blu-ray set is actually the first set I've ever seen that literally plays every feature on the disk in order.

Whilst I still like my movies to come with special features DVD manufacturers seem to think people enjoy navigating menu after menu and selecting feature after feature. Personally I don't and it's a novelty that had its day 10 years ago. Worst still this branch structure seems to encourage them to throw needless crap onto the disk (eg stuff like tv-spots etc).

Note to producers. Put a PLAY ALL option (that actually IS play-all) on all your new Blu-rays!

Harrocks

Bought the IV, V,VI pack and they sound fantastic the 6.1 mix is the bees knees.

Dotrel

I've finished the set. I think it's a great buy. 6 movies that look and sound great, 15hours of extras and about 25 hours of commentary tracks. It's a lot to get thru.

Even the latest changes like the 2x "nooooooo" aren't that bad and certainly don't pull you out of the movie. Besides I think any chance would have made nay sayers up in arms.

Lucas explains during the commentary that he feels it's his right as the artist to continually change this movies and that if he was working on a canvas for instance no one would have a problem with it. He has a point. I think fans somehow have it in their head that *they* own a piece of the movie and that no change should be made without their consultations. I think this endless desire for the 'original' versions stems from some sort of childhood psychosis. Personally I feel he owns them, he paid for them and he can do whatever he likes with them (including putting a stop to the distribution of previous 'inferior' versions).

Good set anyway and I think real SW fans should pick it up. If you can't handle the changes then stick with your vhs tapes.

Theboinkmaster

Dotrel wrote: »

I've finished the set. I think it's a great buy. 6 movies that look and sound great, 15hours of extras and about 25 hours of commentary tracks. It's a lot to get thru.

Even the latest changes like the 2x "nooooooo" aren't that bad and certainly don't pull you out of the movie. Besides I think any chance would have made nay sayers up in arms.

Lucas explains during the commentary that he feels it's his right as the artist to continually change this movies and that if he was working on a canvas for instance no one would have a problem with it. He has a point. I think fans somehow have it in their head that *they* own a piece of the movie and that no change should be made without their consultations. I think this endless desire for the 'original' versions stems from some sort of childhood psychosis. Personally I feel he owns them, he paid for them and he can do whatever he likes with them (including putting a stop to the distribution of previous 'inferior' versions).

Good set anyway and I think real SW fans should pick it up. If you can't handle the changes then stick with your vhs tapes.

I disagree - look back on this thread and you'll see links whereby he's completely contradicted himself by stating that films can be viewed as cultural works of art and should be preserved, owned by public etc.

I have no problem him changing his films - he can do whatever he wants. The problem most people have is the fact that he won't make the originals available (as same quality). Let us decide what version we want to watch.

PWEI

Well I did the hard part the other day and watched Episode 1, I was putting it off since I bought the boxset. I think the picture is a huge improvement, even more than Episode IV. I have a projector & a 7ft screen at home & the dvd of Episode 1 always looking liked there were lines going through it, especially during the pod race. Maybe it was motion blurring, I'm not sure. That's all gone on the blu-ray now. It's a pity that there's so much Jar Jar Binks in the movie, it would have been a decent film otherwise.

uprooted tradition

Theboinkmaster wrote: »

I disagree - look back on this thread and you'll see links whereby he's completely contradicted himself by stating that films can be viewed as cultural works of art and should be preserved, owned by public etc.

I have no problem him changing his films - he can do whatever he wants. The problem most people have is the fact that he won't make the originals available (as same quality). Let us decide what version we want to watch.

Well that is the problem isn't it? No one actually wants the originals to be released, they want the orginals to be cleaned up, so in other words we want George to make changes but only the ones that we agree with.

Truth be told, many of the changes he has made have improved the overall experience of the movie, for instance seeing more of cloud city expands the universe. The wampa scene on Hoth at last makes sense thanks to the expanded scene. The enhanced explosions of planets and the death star does not degrade the movie. The extra background cgi does not hurt. To me the two biggest things that hurt the movies are HAN SHOT FIRST!!!!!!! and the awful music scene in Jabbas palace., off hand everything else I can live with and nothing he has done has destroyed the films (except possibly jar jar)

Voodu Child

uprooted tradition wrote: »

Well that is the problem isn't it? No one actually wants the originals to be released, they want the orginals to be cleaned up, so in other words we want George to make changes but only the ones that we agree with.

Actually a lot of people would be happy to have the exact originals in the highest possible quality. Cleaning the negative and fixing scratches etc is not the same as inserting a bunch of CGI or cutting people out and replacing them with Hayden Christensen.

uprooted tradition

Voodu Child wrote: »

Actually a lot of people would be happy to have the exact originals in the highest possible quality. Cleaning the negative and fixing scratches etc is not the same as inserting a bunch of CGI or cutting people out and replacing them with Hayden Christensen.

Yes, but there is also a difference between cleaning up the original film and digitally enhancing them. Dont forget that Lucas did release the original trilogy unaltered on dvd a few years ago and people werent happy becuase the sound and picture wasnt great because Lucas didnt remaster those.

Roar

uprooted tradition wrote: »

Yes, but there is also a difference between cleaning up the original film and digitally enhancing them. Dont forget that Lucas did release the original trilogy unaltered on dvd a few years ago and people werent happy becuase the sound and picture wasnt great because Lucas didnt remaster those.

mainly cause they weren't anamorphic, just panned and scanned letterbox ported over from the laser discs

uprooted tradition

Roar wrote: »

mainly cause they weren't anamorphic, just panned and scanned letterbox ported over from the laser discs

As far as I remember it wasn't taken straight from the laser discs but from the same source that were used to create the laserdiscs because I believe the laserdiscs were remastered, but still that is essentially the point I am making.

The original in themselves are not what people want to see, they want Lucas to digitally remaster them convert the sound to Dolby give us a better picture quality but stop the tinkering there. I would love to see Lucas do this too but he just plain old aint gonna no matter how much we complain. If the price of him giving us the original films on Blu Ray with a lovingly crafted transfer is Han shooting first, the Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!, the Jabba musical number well so be it, either live with it or dont buy them, it does really come down to that. As I said earlier those changes I can live with, pretty much the rest of the changes I am OK with.

I bought the blu-ray discs and have sat down with my son to watch each of them in the order they were released and Star Wars has a new fan. He just loves them, blissfully unaware of the changes that have been made to them because he knows no better and despite the changes I find myself still loving them, perhaps more than ever I did before.

Kinski

Dotrel wrote: »

Lucas explains during the commentary that he feels it's his right as the artist to continually change this movies and that if he was working on a canvas for instance no one would have a problem with it.

Yes, because if Picasso had announced in 1970 that his 1937 masterpiece Guernica was unfinished, since he meant to put an octopus in there somewhere, and took a wander with his easel down to the Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid and stuck one up in the top left hand corner of the painting, no one would have had a problem with that.

uprooted tradition

Kinski wrote: »

Yes, because if Picasso had announced in 1970 that his 1937 masterpiece Guernica was unfinished, since he meant to put an octopus in there somewhere, and took a wander with his easel down to the Queen Sofia Museum in Madrid and stuck one up in the top left hand corner of the painting, no one would have had a problem with that.

That is just a totally different situation. The difference is that the painting of which you speak no longer belongs to Picasso. There is one copy of it out there and someone bought and paid (presumably) for it. No matter how many copies of Star Wars in any form we buy, the films will always belong to Lucas to do with what he pleases. We can debate all day long whether or not he should make these changes but there is no argument that he can do it.

There is an even more direct comparrison here as well, how many times does a film get released and then get a "Directors cut", possibly the most famous being Blade runner. Most agree that the "tinkered" version was way better than the original cinematical release. By your argument that version would never have seen the light of day.

Morlar

Dotrel wrote: »

Lucas explains during the commentary that he feels it's his right as the artist to continually change this movies and that if he was working on a canvas for instance no one would have a problem with it.

I think he is wrong on that.

Also, people have already bought the finished picture(s), it's not some unfinished work in his studio, for him to edit, then re-edit then re-edit once more whenever he feels like it, it's out there and accepted by millions of people as is.

He should leave well enough alone. Creatively it's vapid to re-hash the same work over and over. He should move on. No artist would ever make a career out of re-painting over the same canvas again and again and again. My view is that neither should he.