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Star Wars coming to Blu Ray (UPDATE: August 30 2011, No! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!) — Page 62

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I know a lot of you are angry and frustrated about the OOT getting ignored, but is anyone a little bit happy about this announcement?

What I mean is, if these transfers are amazing and the best we'll likely ever see, through the talents of fan editors we can have the best versions of the OOT than ever before.

With the big stuff (SE CGI scenes, ANH Jabba, ANH Greedo Shot, ESB Emperor, ESB Wampa, ROTJ Jedi Rocks, and ROTJ Anakin Ghost...did I miss anything?) cut out and old (best available) put in, I think a lot of us would be happy. Happier maybe. No? I know there are a ton of other little bits and audio issues as well, but that's really what is the core crap. The stuff that wasn't part of what we grew up with that sticks out like a sore thumb.

Personally I have an OOT for ANH & ROTJ that is kinda crap quality, but at least doesn't piss me off when I watch it. And my HDTV edited ESB is awesome.

So I can't help but cross my fingers and hope other fans with more talent than me put out a basic "OOT" of (mostly) Blu-ray quality. :)

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While yes, there is potential for theatrical reconstructions to look better, I'd still say no I am not happy at all.  The difference in quality between the source materials for the OOT and the Blu-rays would cause a lot of problems I imagine.  I am not a fan editor, just an audio guy, but I am willing to bet that the Blu-rays will bring as much frustration at least as they would perhaps bring some joy.

You can keep polishing a turd, and it's still just a turd.  A Blu-ray/GOUT hybrid would be too jarring to both the eyes and ears.  If I'm wrong, then please, one of you editor types, chime in and tell us.

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avoidz said:

generalfrevious said:

In the end, it's all pointless. We are being sold a product that does not contain the product itself.

The only reason we consider the OT good is because we are viewing with nostalgia-colored lenses. If you objectively look at the franchise, SW gets an F based on the PT alone. If you look at the OT itself, it ranges from B+ to D+, depending on your view of ROTJ. LFL is being run by people who should be in a mental hospital; nowadays any DVD they put out is absolute shit. The GOUT is the undisputed champion in having the worst transfer in video history.

I know this may sound tasteless, but maybe GL should have died in that car accident back in '62. We wouldn't have Jar-Jar if that happened.

Very tasteless. The man maybe a shadow of himself these days, but back then he was part of the new wave taking on Hollywood and reshaping it.

And it's not nostalgia; the original movies were great and people loved them at the time, not just years later.

"And it's not nostalgia; the original movies were great and people loved them at the time, not just years later."

I too am sick and tired of people claiming the only reason we love the OT  so much is because of nostalgia and  cause it makes us feel like kids again.  That is such BS.

Even as a kid  of  6 7 8 yrs old I knew  garbage  films from good films.I loved the OT films cause they were not just action pieces full of special effects. They were dramatic and exciting and touching. You fell in love  with the characters and felt a connection to them. Our dad took  my brother and I to see many films when we were kids. I remeber going to see arthur with dudley moore and remember laughing so hard and loving the movie and loving the theme song. The  same held true for time bandits and and 9 to 5, the private eyes with don knotts and tim conway. These films were all good for  many different reasons.  some for great humor some for great drama and characters and some all of the above. Then there were films I felt were total pieces of  crap. Ghostbusters 2,Return to OZ,  Godzilla 1985, He-Man.

 

Kids are smarter then we think. Most of us grow older and become adults and we  forget that as children we  had our own taste and could distinguish between  garbage films and quality films. Some is a matter of personal taste. Others is just out right good vs  bad if one can see past his or her own bias.

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Kenobius Prime said:

You can keep polishing a turd, and it's still just a turd.  A Blu-ray/GOUT hybrid would be too jarring to both the eyes and ears.  If I'm wrong, then please, one of you editor types, chime in and tell us.

LOL Yeah I understand what you're saying. Although to be honest, even if I'm thrown from Blu-ray to a VHS of Lapti Nek, it would be a lot less jarring than having to watch Jedi Rocks. Ditto for all the other crapola. :)

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avoidz said:

Ripplin said:

avoidz said:

Very tasteless.

Then stop quoting him, people! ;)

Did so just for relevance, and to remind me of the post while I reply to it. I'll avoid it in future.

Heh heh. That's ok. We got a cool picture of Han out of it! I think I just get bent out of shape seeing the posts of people I've blocked. :p

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adywan said:

you know what, something just occurred to me. What if a lot of the deleted scenes on the Blu-Ray set for the OT are the scenes/shots taken out by the SE? Because after all these are deleted scenes now, right?.

Sorry Adywan, they never existed.  You need to go back and drink the kool-aid.

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Well, at least we know that one of them (Luke building his saber) is the real deal. :p

I'm sure people would love to see the full Declan/Jabba scene in good quality. Maybe more Anchorhead stuff. The sandstorm, maybe. Just thinking of what they might be.

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It does say "alternate scenes". But, for example there is the ESB alternate Han-Leia Bespin scene. And lots of other stuff like that in the PT because they refilmed half that shit after principle photog. And like they did with Blade Runner, they might just have been including alternate unseen angles on familiar scenes. But "alternate scenes" is slightly tantalizing. Could they be finally giving us the alternate "original scenes" and sort of acknowledging that if fans want to edit together their own original version then that's fine but it will not be officially endorsed?

I guess we will see. Probably I am just being optimistic.

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We're still at least 8 months away from the set's release. I think we all need to take a chill pill and wait before we jump to conclusions, whatever they may be. Will these discs have the OOTs on them? Probably not, but when was the last time a format came and went with only one release of Star Wars, anyway? If no OOT is a dealbreaker for you then you can wait and let fan restorations tide you over.

Lucas had the time and money to either digitally restore the OOT for Blu-Ray, or make bonus features. The general public is more interested in the bonus features, so pragmatically that is what made more sense to focus on. That doesn't mean you'll never get the OOT on Blu-Ray, either. You'll have to wait longer, which sucks, but at this point it does not make sense financially to invest in digitally restoring it. It's a niche product, and like it or not Lucas has to be able to make money off of it.

As for the picture quality problems, again, there's 8 months to go. Let's look at what we know: the footage in the trailer looked largely the same as the 2004 DVD release, except for Episode I which looks to have been cleaned up. Episode I is set to be re-released in theaters in 3D next year, so that means that they are probably already working on the stereo conversion. If that's the case, then obviously they already have restored version suitable for theatrical exhibition. Has anyone considered the possibility that the trailer was rushed together before any of the films beside Episode I (and possibly some other footage, but that would require more analysis) had been restored? Even though a trailer only takes a few days to make, it takes a long time to get it approved and finalized. Point is, there's plenty of time from when that trailer was made to the time they release the actual discs. If they were lazy enough just to use the 2004 transfer at a higher resolution, and therefore there is no work left to be done on the transfer, why do you think it's taking them until September 2011 to release it? That would be pretty half assed, even by Lucas's standards.

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@Timstuff: We're still waiting on Indiana Jones blu-rays, and that movie is also available in HD. I don't see why they wouldn't reuse the sources they already have. Plus, September just seems to be the month of big releases - the original GOUT, the original '04 DVDs, the Beatles remasters etc. (the original '04 dvds were a September release, yeah?)

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Yes the 2004 box set was a September release. Also, to TV's Frink, I'm not Kenkraly.

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Thiefcobbler has been around along time, and certainly has better grammar. Definitely not a sock, Frink.

A Goon in a Gaggle of 'em

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Yes, I know all of that.  I just was observing that Thief's post displayed a kenkraly amount of no-doubt-about it optimism.

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bkev said:

@Timstuff: We're still waiting on Indiana Jones blu-rays, and that movie is also available in HD. I don't see why they wouldn't reuse the sources they already have. Plus, September just seems to be the month of big releases - the original GOUT, the original '04 DVDs, the Beatles remasters etc. (the original '04 dvds were a September release, yeah?)

 

True, but why wait until September 2011, and not September 2010? If they aren't doing anything to make the picture look better than the 2004 release, then there's no reason it should take an entire year to prepare the set for release. Lucas could have just slapped together a hasty re-release with only one bonus feature disc containing a new featurette, and it would probably make the same kind of money that they would a year later with more bonus features. The whole reason that the 2004 discs sucked is because they were rushed for a holiday release, and if that is a compromise Lucas was willing to make for the Blu-Rays as well then I think he would have already released them.

Lucas also implied that there is not probably not enough time or money to transfer and restore both the SE and the OOT in time for the Blu-Ray's release and still have the resources to make the bonus features. That implies that the SE is being restored to some capacity, because otherwise wouldn't it have been easier for Lucas to just say "we're too busy making the bonus features to restore the OOT"? I think it's apparent from his words that something is being done for the picture quality, with the question being "what." Of course, there's a possibility that there will be brand new problems with the transfer, or it could be the best the film has ever looked. We really won't know until we've actually seen how the transfer looks with our own eyes.

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Fuck me.

Just out of curiosity I wanted the read the 1 star reviews and their reasoning on the amazon page.... this guy is everywhere.

 

TV's Frink said:

The shocking thing is that Lucas will let you buy the OT without the PT.

 

That's the first thing I thought upon seeing the announcement. Following this vein if/when the OOT restored and released on blu-ray/new format I won't have to buy the PT. I'm very surprised they're giving the consumer options.

edit: sorry about the length of the screencap and the comment being cut off but we can all probably fill in the gaps.

And way to go Kenneth using your mothers amazon account to post your rhetoric.

"Well here's a big bag of rock salt" - Patton Oswalt

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haraldo23 said:

So I just saw the BluRay announcement trailer and - while I don't know if they used the BluRay footage for this - it looks like they haven't changed anything. Just SE in HD. Nothing more.

I'd say the trailer was put together several months ago from pre-existing SE footage to promote the box set of Blu movies.

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Seriously, Amazon should just freaking stop letting people review products that have not been released. Who exactly benefits from these so-called "reviews?" Just looking at the ridiculous things on both ends of the spectrum that have been posted on the set's Amazon page are enough to make one's head go numb.

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haraldo23 said:

http://www.starwars.com/video/view/001175.html

So I just saw the BluRay announcement trailer and - while I don't know if they used the BluRay footage for this - it looks like they haven't changed anything. Just SE in HD. Nothing more.

Sure, but I'd be surprised if there was nothing more when it came out, even with the OT. They're constantly tinkering with them. They'll surely be the SE'd SE'd SEs, with more 'creative choices.'

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TheForce.net user Chreff allegedly has connections at Lucasfilm, and he's explained why the 2004 DVDs looked so bad, and how the Blu-Ray version will have fixed all the problems that the 2004 transfer had, and he also makes the claim that this is Lucas's "final" version of Star Wars. I kind of doubt that since there's still the 3D release looming ahead, and if Lucas is given enough time I suspect he'll think up new things to tweak, but overall Chreff's post sounds encouraging, not just for the Blu-Ray release but for the digital preservation of Star Wars in general. He even mentions Adywan. ;)

 

Chreff said:

Let me see if I can be more clear. The 1997 SE was a restored version of the original print plus new effects added. What they did in 2004 was completely disassemble the restored film, cleaned it more and scanned everything in the computer separately. THis basically means the celluloid negative will never have to be touched again. They then re-composited the films together back into the SE version with more additions. Because this process is almost like putting a film together again from scratch, the original color timing that was done in 1977 or 1997 was basically erased and had to be redone. The problem is that because they attempted to meet a DVD release deadline they completed the composites but never finished the color, sound and other little things that would normally be done on a full restoration. That's why things that weren't even in the original release in '77 (like the big blue halo around the Death Star explosion in ANH) are seen on the 2004 DVD. The digital transfer is almost too good.

What's good about all this though is that everything is in a computer at super high res quality. They can pretty much dial in a piece of film and the effect and adjust and correct at will. It's far less laborious than trying to redo real film. Instead of having to mess with celluloid they just hit a keyboard. They put all 3 films together for the 2004 release in less than a year. They've now had 6 years to do the same work. There's no question this quality will be the best ever for SW.

I know how this process works because I have experience in digital editing and also follow SW quite closely, obviously. I also know people in the business who are involved and I know the restoration on the SW saga was still being done long after the DVD release. People like to call GL names but he's continued to put a lot of cash into this project for years (as he should since this is where everything started). The blu-ray is essentially the final version of SW.

The lightsabers will be fixed, especially the green one in ANH. That black smudge on the Emperor in ROTJ? Gone. Those boxes around TIE fighters in ANH? Bye bye! The magically appearing TIE's in the ROTJ space battle? I don't know about that one honestly. It's won't be like that Adywan Revisited stuff though. I'm as anxious to see it as anyone to see it all on my 55" plasma!

 

http://boards.theforce.net/the_star_wars_saga/b10456/30885339/p12

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Wow. Hard to believe, but we will see. Still, it would be funny to see if what Kenkraly said would turn out to be the true...

Anyway, I saw this interview on IGN:

http://uk.ign.com/videos/2011/01/07/ces-2011-star-wars-on-blu-ray-revealed

And what surprise me is that Chris Carle, who was at the presentation, mentioned at the end that we will get the SE and not the untouched set "which a lot of fans are looking for". Wow, it's good to now, that there are still people out there who now that SE are not the original version of OT.

This leaves to the one conclusion - there are tausends of people out there who thinks the same as we do, but they propably never heard of this site and our petition. We must do something to get them all here.

 

Kenkraly about this site:

Those trolls at originaltrilogy.com are mean and disrespectfull.

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For the record. When the first Trailer for the DVDs was released on sw.com (via Hyperspace) back in early 2004 it showed '97 SE footage only. A version with the 2004 Transfer came later that year.

And the new TPM Transfer is done for years. So its no surprice its in the Trailer.

I think we should just wait and see. Its rumored that George/Lucasfilm was working on these BDs for years as Timstuff mentioned in his post.

The only thing that is for sure rightnow is the fact that the O-OT wont be included which is very, very sad.