The Criterion transfer was state-of-the-art for its time. It was one of the most natural-looking pictures that had ever been attempted for the format; on a 32" television (which was the contemporary “big screen”), it looked like nothing you'd ever seen before. The image always felt more textured to me than the Blu-ray; the Blu-ray doesn't look like a movie that was made in 1987.

I would mention that the Orion laserdisc had a different mix, a pumped-up audio track that was often used as a demo disc for the format. The Criterion audio is more accurate to the original theatrical mix, but if Criterion is not issuing this disc and a restoration were attempted, it might be an interesting alternate audio option. I have no idea what the state of those discs might be (I never heard they were particularly prone to rot).