Sorry for the double post but I wanted to keep this separate from my earlier comment. Well, I know it took me longer to see this than the other two, but here are my thoughts about Return of the Jedi. As before, I definitely love the menus: simple and neat. Also, like the others, the music is soothing and not bothersome to leave playing on and on.
To preface this, I must dutifully admit that ROTJ is without a doubt my least favorite of the OT. Isn't it everyone's? Anyway, because of this, I don't watch it often. My NTSC GOUT has probably only been played once, and if I want to see it, I usually go to Spence's final edit or Harmy's reconstruction. I am of the opinion that ROTJ was the OT film truly ruined by the 2004 DVDs. The color timing was unwatchable, creating lightsaber errors and making things look too cool: robbing them of any majesty. Furthermore, the crushed blacks were worse of in this movie; finally, the CGI additions in this movie were the most godawful additions from Hayden to that fake beak...
Anyway, back to the release, this is THE BEST THAT ROTJ HAS EVER LOOKED AND SOUNDED. As amazing as the Project Blu versions of the other two movies looked, this was better. For some reason, I did not notice any DVNR smearing while watching this, and it constantly maintained a filmic look with the occasional, innocuous film artifact. I daresay that this could hold up as a high-end commercial Blu-Ray of today. Dark Jedi, did you use the PAL GOUT as the base for this because it is absolutely amazing!? Perhaps it is a little softer than today's absolute high end Blu-Rays but I didn't mind. The stellar picture let me, for the first time in years, get into ROTJ. It's actually not as bad a movie as I remember since I didn't need to also put up with poorer video quality.
This was the first time that I realized how different a movie ROTJ is from Star Wars, in terms of cinematography. In contrast to Star Wars's vivid, saturated palette, ROTJ is more neutral and subdued, somewhat like ESB. This is the first release that seems to truly show this. Despite, its darkness, this shows ROTJ's detail much more than the 2004 Lowry restoration. Without crushed blacks and a sickish blue tint, this release surpasses Lowry's restoration in every way. Needless to say, contrast and brightness were spot on; though, note that ROTJ does have some dark scenes. The effects hold up better than ESB, which suffered from some color errors because of the dark blue tint that was placed for theatrical release. Anyway, all of the lightsabers are spot on, in terms of color. Vader's lightsaber is completely red and Luke's looks green as always. While not seeming as hand-animated as in ANH, they still managed to seem rougher than ones digitally composited, which in my book, is a very good thing...
Audio surprisingly sounded fantastic. The LPCM of the theatrical stereo was crisp and clear, as well as in sync. Quickly listening to all the audio, I could point out no flaw, undoubtedly the best that ROTJ has ever sounded.
It is strange and somewhat unfortunate that out of all the Project Blu releases, ROTJ looks and sounds the best but I suppose that's the irony of life... Though I must say, I am still astounded by it. It's certainly far better than anything sourced from that bad '04 restoration. So, as this is my last Project Blu review, I will say that Dark Jedi, you've done an extraordinary job on all of them... Turns out you can really polish that disgusting piece of fecal matter Lucas gave us...
