Baronlando

I'm worn down enough that any of the possible variations I could live with, but I would prefer a regular, conservative restoration. I'm not even 100% convinced the digital recompositing always looks better or more "real" or whatever. At least sometimes I feel like the extra generations of film is more flattering to the miniatures.

Harmy said:

Well, Blade Runner was also only available on DVD in the DC version for like 10 years. I remember that I bought it on DVD and I wanted to see the original (which I prefer) a could only find it as LD rip (and a shitty one at that, nothing like the quality of LD transfers we're used to here).

But then of course they released a reference quality release of all versions, which may be one of the best home video releases to date.

And Blade Runner even had a good excuse, all the non-92 versions were tied up in legal hassles with Jerry Perenchio for years and years.

SilverWook said:

Between what the AFI, BFI, the LOC, and the mysterious owner of the Boston Technicolor print have, lost isn't really accurate. Suppressed might be a better term.

Don't forget this guy:

http://www.stevehoffman.tv/forums/showthread.php?t=141011

Since the m.o. is based on the idea that the pre-97'ers can piss off because there will always be new blood to replace them, it would be interesting to know what level of interest LFL considers big enough to keep going that way. They must have a rough number in mind, I guess using toy sales and the ratings for clone wars as the main barometer. But from the outside it's hard to tell what that level needs to be. Is the current status good enough? Or does it need to grow? Or maybe it can slip down to Star Trek 2003 levels and still be considered perfectly healthy by LFL? 

I don't even think he gave that shirt a single thought. He always wears the stuff from the company, there must be stacks of everything they put out lying around.

adywan said:

The one thing that really pisses me off though is how the SE's and the PT have split the star wars fandom so much, thanks to Lucas' burial of the OUT. There was never this kind of hatred present within the fan base before all this happened, starting in 1997. You have the PT/ SE gushers on one side and the hard line OUT fans on the other, with the rest of us somewhere in the middle core, but still managing to battle between each other. It use to be fun being a Star Wars fan but now it's just so damn hard work.

What's sad is I'm sure Lucas had no idea that would happen and probably even regrets it. (And could make it go away with a simple catalog blu-ray at the same effort level as SUDDEN IMPACT). But he's so dug in and entrenched now. Reminds me of The Departed: " I'm fuckin' Irish, I'll deal with something being wrong for the rest of my life."

But have you seen the internet? The "hate" in this thread is really, really mild.

zombie84 said:

Erikstormtrooper said:

I saw this at The Digital Bits and just had to post:

In announcement news today, Shout! Factory has finally revealed that the Battle Beyond the Stars: 30th Anniversary Special Edition will street on Blu-ray and DVD on 7/12 (SRP $26.97 and $19.93). Both will include new transfers from the original internegative.

Too bad Lucas can't afford to make a new transfer of Star Wars.

 This deserves to be quoted again.

And again. Roger Corman's been doing this with a lot of his stuff. ROGER CORMAN. The king of cheapness.

none said:

wwdarth wrote: My biggest problem with TPM (besides the obvious objections mentioned above), is that the characters were impossible to relate to.

I always thought this was on purpose.  To show how the Republic got corrupt by having those in charge being relatively stoic and unable to relate to the problems right in front of them.  Much like how people react to real world politicians.  They are often seen as saying one thing to get in power then doing another.  Where I think the PT lacked is there's no sense of the 'General Public'.  Everything is warrior/army/police types up against politicos.  There's no common man represented.

Sure it probably was on purpose. It's too bad the trilogy is 6 effing hours long, which is a long way to go for that fairly bland academic idea. It's a good example of how Lucas, starting around the time of Young Indiana Jones, became the TAKE YOUR MEDICINE director.

No, no, Binks was beloved by all kids the world over.

What's annoying is the set is 9 discs, which is more than enough room for a home run set, so it's not like space was a consideration. (the '97 and '04 would fit on the same disc no problem, and the originals on disc 7-9. Some deleted scenes on all 9 discs, the end.) It's not like I ever need to see another person sitting in a tastefully decorated Skywalker Ranch room talking about Star Wars.

Supposedly, Star Wars presentations at comicon have always been pretty lame. And aimed only at the devoted flock. "Hey guys, do you like BOBA FETT? Here are the housewares he will appear on in the coming year" I can't see them doing anything substantive there, like getting into the nitty gritty of what exactly has been done to the movies this time and why. 

I think Fox has nothing at all now except to be the avenue of distribution when it comes to the actual movies, pretty sure that was part the deal when getting the prequels. Maybe that didn't apply to the tv stuff. (I remember when Fox had sold New Hope to TBS but had no control over Empire and Jedi.If only they still had it... sigh)

Licensing them to criterion would be acknowledging that they have any significance beyond being a curiosity or a footnote. Like an early demo of a song.

Isn't there too much stuff on that last disc for it all to be HD? The thing about spoofs alone is 90 minutes long.

"The haters will always hate, and in the end, they will buy the BluRay."

This always seemed like a weird comment to make. "As long as something isn't terrible enough for our loyal customers to boycott , that's what matters". Way to aim high.

Eh, the cover's ok. If they were going for the paint-y look, wish they used:

Other than that I have nothing to add to this converstion.

starwarsfan8376 said:

dark_jedi said:

It sort of looks like those pamphlets the jehovah's witnesses hand out.

Weird Al is on it, and that's what matters.                   fuck.

Was I the only dipshit who decided to hold off judgment until the trilogy was finished? From about 1999-2003 I was that guy: "Hey come on guys, wait a second, it's not THAT bad is it? Maybe this is going somewhere." Duh. But when young Anakin's head was pasted into Jedi, intended to be the new seamless ending to this entire 12 hour thing, it was so breathlessly retarded I had to give up.

Alexrd said:

 but I will agree with the public concensus that it's not very good.

Again, public concensus is not made of film critics, or a couple of lists made by a couple of people. It's the audience, the general public.

Well, let's put it another way, outside of star wars superfans and little kids, where have you encountered anything that isn't negative about the prequels? (I'm just curious, it's only ever been a punchline in my experience)

Alexrd said: I don't mind people not liking the prequels. What I mind is when some present their distaste/hate as facts.

 

You can't expect people to be constantly prefacing everything with "I am only speaking for myself and from my perception of other's reactions blah blah blah". It just takes too long. When I say "the whole theater was laughing at Attack of the Clones when I saw it", I'm sure that's not literally true, but you get the idea of what my experience was.

Eh, Rotten tomatoes weighs these two reviews equally.

http://cinemawriter.com/2010/09/03/star-wars-episode-iii-revenge-of-the-sith/

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3409/3599348026_5fff9ae3fa.jpg

Monolithium said:

If you want to have fun on blu-ray.com I suggest you read the Star Wars related posts by Beast and Bluyoda.  Good stuff.

My eyes! The goggles do nothing. (What's with that forum? You would think home theater enthusiasts would be more into getting quality product than anyone. Creeps.) 

Yeah the Treks needed a lot of work, it had been handled a lot over 40 years of worldwide syndication. (And there was 80 hours of it to deal with instead of 6!)

Alexrd said:

Or maybe not. The original print of Star Wars was not expected to be in the bad state that they found.

I'm just worried people will get hung up arguing about the exact nature of how the negative works and miss the larger issue, which is that there is literally nothing that could possibly be wrong with the elements that can't be handled. And at a level of effort that is encountered all the time in home video. (And that includes finding that the negative has been chewed by rats or having no negative at all)