I didn't really think the degraining was new; I assumed it was part of the Lowry degraining job. Shots like this and that Tatooine shot (which Harmy didn't see anything wrong with) are grainier than other shots, compounded by smoke and haze and other stuff, so when Lowry's algorithms were applied, it's no surprise that they got messed up. It's Harmy's decision on what to do for these problem shots (if he sees any problem with them, that is).

Not as bad as the BDs of Star Trek III-VI or the latest Predator release - I'm actually more surprised at how *few* of the shots you posted have these kind of egregious degraining artifacts. As I've said before, I love the look of shots like "Look sir, droids" and "I suppose you're programmed for etiquette and protocol" (even though I think I can see a teeny bit of the purple-shadow-detail problem on the Sandcrawler?).

The crushed blacks and weird color timing are a bigger issue than the degraining. Oh, and that other problem, the one that this whole project is dedicated to undoing...:)