Okay, having followed the recent revelations about the imminent Blu-ray release of the 'Special Editions', it's pained me to see that this upcoming set is merely another half-baked effort overall, where the treatment of the original trilogy movies themselves are concerned nowadays.

It seems that on top of the more dubious 'creative decisions' of the 2004 dvds remaining in place, that they are now being accompanied by a few more ridiculous howlers.

Most of these latest unnecessary and ill-thought-out changes certainly disapppoint, but what really hacks me off (apart from the still-dreadful transfer colouration, of course!) is the CONTINUED lack of attention given to improving certain flawed scenes and shots with any kind of care and consistency!

This is NOT what I hoped to see from a company that used to pride itself as being at the forefront of technical excellence, and the sad fact is that too many of GL's ideas for 'enhancements' continue to suck big-time. For every decent addition, there's several that have ruined the original versions.

SW, ESB, and ROTJ are now pretty much unwatchable for me in their latest forms, compared to how things used to look (and sound)...and I'm just glad I'm one of the lucky few that knows about the terrific preservations and edits that are available to compensate for this.

So to sum up -

And not to put too fine a point on it - Sorry George, but 'special' editions my ass!