I went to CC, Target and Best Buy today to see what things looked like. All 3 had lots left, and BB had LOADS of the tins left and they seemed to be selling well, as 3 people in a very short amount of time picked them up while I was looking at them. CC had a lot of movies left but not one mention of the lithographs on the display. When I inquired about them just to see what response I would get, the salesman was clueless. Figures...
Anyway, I held the tin and the movies in my hand in each store but just couldn't bring myself to buy them when I saw (for example) movies like Revenge of the Nerds II and Ghoulies in anamorphic. Holding the SW copy in my hand, I said to myself, "One of the greatest movies of all time, and they won't even give us the same quality as those movies. And not only that, but they are forcing me to buy a copy of the movie I absolutely do not want (referring to the SEs of course)." I dunno, but something in me just clicked and the WEEKS (months?) of being on the fence ended, and I put the DVDs back down and walked away...
See, folks, I have a very unusual problem on my hands with my newer 16X9 DLP TV: not only do I get screwed because these releases are non-anamorphic, but I get screwed doubly because I can't use the Zoom feature if I play the DVD through my component setting! So I will need to use the A/V setting to be able to zoom in, losing even more quality on an already sub-par release AND I will lose most (if not all) of the subtitles too! I've watched movies this way before and it's not *that bad*, but those movies are older and many have since come out with newer anamorphic versions (another point I will touch on in a sec) so I can upgrade at any time if I so desire. But in SW's case, do I want to pay $45+ to be so screwed?!? If I wanted that, I'd be better off taking that money to Las Vegas.
I have absolutely nothing against those that bought this set, I understand where you are coming from, more power to you and I am happy that you are enjoying them so far! But me, I can only buy what I support, and I just can't support this release no matter how I try to spin it. If Lucas would've given me the OUT in anamorphic, I would be one happy camper and he would get my hard-earned money no problem. Heck, even if he gave me a non-anamorphic OUT but released JUST THEM in a boxed set or individually, I would've probably been happy with that also. But I can't help but feel Lucas is giving us all yet another middle finger and laughing at us, and I refuse to buy that man another box of Wookie Cookies.
When I found out recently that they have anamorphic scenes of the OUT in EOD, it tells me something is in the works. And I just read today that LFL is already hyping '07 to be "The year of Star Wars" with all sorts of new video games, movie releases, etc. I'll just wait and see what develops. Since Lucas said we would never see these on DVD and, SURPRISE, we have, I am betting he and LFL are going to follow the lead of the other studios out there (like Disney for example) and squeeze as much out of the consumers as they possibly can, and we will see a better version of the OUT in the very near future. Yes, it may be on the next format, but whatever.
My love for Star Wars runs very, very deep...but my love for what I believe in runs much deeper. I never believed in paying good $ for something that I viewed as low-quality, a trick and a rip-off, and IMO this is a perfect example of just those very things. So with this post I say, "Nice try, George!" and my weeks/months of sitting on the fence are now over, and I will be spending my hard-earned money on something else. Heck, I may even spend some of it on DVDs that actually take advantage of modern technology...a claim LFL used to be able to back up...