Orusaka

Okay, so some impressions. I'm in Europe and picked up the set when it was released here on Monday, just to get any potential question of how I obtained it out of the way.

I haven't really gotten around to watching the movies yet, and who knows when I might, but I have watched most of the bonus features, and I'm left with only one singular emotion. Disappointment.  There are 2 reasons I'm disappointed. Firstly, the very vast majority of the content is presented in SD. On the archival discs the material is presented in a pretty tiny window with huge painted mattes around it.

 Secondly, and more importantly, perhaps, is that the content that is there is not very interesting. The interviews that are presented are all taken from various behind-the-scenes documentaries that have been on previous dvd-releases. As for the deleted scenes, they are a bit of a mixed bag. I will agree with the people who have announced them as underwhelming. It's been a long time since I watched any of the prequal-dvds, but I don't remember any of the deleted scenes for those movies on there, so I guess that's something. On the other hand, they presented in very poor SD quality, from what looks like workprint VHS with animatics standing in for visual effects. The deleted scenes from the original trilogy are all over the place. Some are faded black & white, some are crisp black & white, some are fuzzy colour shots. None have been cleaned up in any way. They are scratchy and dirty.

The only good thing I possibly could say is that the new documentaries on the last disc are in HD.

Oh, also, the alternate audio commentaries seem to be resembled mostly from what was left over from the main commentary. As in, because they edited several people who gave full commentaries together to one track, there was obviously a lot left over, and that seems to have been put in the new alternate ones. I watched some of ESB and most of the track is Kershner announcing what's going on.