One more thing. Be thankful? For what? He used masters that are 7 years old (with scanning of film that's ancient), used DNR on Episode I, still didn't manage to fix the mistakes that the 2004 "remastering" created in the first place, added a few new mistakes in the process, added new CGI bits (mostly unnecessary), ported over a couple of older bonus features, and left off the best. On one hand he's willing to spend millions of dollars on 3D conversions of his movies, but on the other he doesn't even go for the best presentation of his preferred versions. He's only doing it for a profit, so why can't anyone be critical?dvdjunkie wrote:If any of you 'moaners and groaners' would listen to any interviews with George Lucas, before the Special Editions came out, or on the Bonus Discs of the Blu-ray set, you would know that the original releases of A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi were way ahead of what was available in the way of Special Effects when they were made.
Lucas explains the changes on the VHS Special Editions prior to each movie, and when you then watch the film, it becomes a lot more enjoyable (at least for me) and I never watch the movies out of order, any more.
I used to watch them the way SpringHeelJack suggests: IV, V, I, II, III, VI, but now watching them in the correct order with those MINOR changes in OT the story is more complete.
I think the major problem here is that those of you who never saw the original trilogy in a movie theater beginning in 1977, don't realize how far advanced special effects were thanks to George Lucas and his fledgling ILM company. After the OT during the re-releases to the theaters is when we got our first taste of the changes. When Lucas announced that he was going to go back and do Chapters One, Two and Three, it was a big challenge for him because of the advancement of SFX in the industry.
On the Special Edition VHS, and Standard DVD's, he introduces each one with notes on why he made the changes, and I have bought into that. Some of those changes grated on me for a while until the "new" chapters started coming out to the theater, and then I realized what Lucas was doing and I rolled with the flow to enjoy the complete Star Wars experience the way the creator had intended it.
Has he gone too far with the Blu-ray releases? You betcha!!! I'll be the first one to ask why the "NO!!........noooooooooooooo!!!" is in ROTJ, but there isn't anything we can do about it, it is truly George LUcas' vision of how he wanted the finished product to be seen.
We can all gripe about 'who shot first', or the creepy addition of Hayden Christianson in the final scenes of ROTJ, or the change in the closing music celebration. But what is done is done, and we all need to take our "happy pill" and be thankful that we finally got it all on Blu-ray, for a reasonable price.
If you own the Special Edition DVD's of the Original Trilogy, then you have the non-anamorphic version of the "original" movies to sit back and watch complete with 2.0 stereo, (add a little sarcasm here), and watching the OT on a Blu-ray player even "highlights" the flaws in the movies.
I will say I wish that George Lucas had given us anamorphic prints of the OT as a bonus feature on the Blu-ray trilogy, but when I watch the 'new' versions of all six movies, I am not the least bit distracted by the changes that have been made. I don't cheer them, but after listening to Lucas' explanation about them, I buy into it and enjoy the movies that much more.
And please, "his vision"? He couldn't let Greedo shoot first in 1977? He couldn't add a "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" in 1983? And what about the changes in the prequels? He directed, wrote and produced those, with his own money, so there would be no reason to alter things that he couldn't do the first time on those. And yet he did.
He constantly keeps changing his mind about a lot of things, and the "explanations" that he gives (if he gives them at all) are usually contradictory. This whole situation is just getting ridiculous. Someone needs to say to him that enough is enough.