logo Sign In

Fang Zei

User Group
Members
Join date
14-Oct-2006
Last activity
16-Aug-2025
Posts
2,789

Post History

Post
#317441
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317441/action/topic#317441
Time
CO said:

To sorta sum up my post, if the '04 DVD's didn't sell well, can we all agree that the OOT would have been remastered for a nice boxset a year or two after that, cause Lucas would have gotten the memo that nobody wants the SE, they want the originals. But the OT is so powerful, the majority of people will 'put up' with the SE just to have them on DVD. I can't tell ya how many of my friends bough the 04 Boxset and said, "Yeah, the SE changes annoy me, but its SW!"


Well, yea, except that's the thing. Why wouldn't the '04 set have sold as well????? I mean, it was Star Wars on dvd finally. The new formats were still a couple years away and Lucas saw 2004 as the perfect time to do it, not a year later. With blu-ray it'll be a different situation. The ball is no longer in Lucas' court. Maybe I'm reading too much into the Close Encounters release from last year, but the fact that it happened when it did (only a year or so into the new format) and the way it did (all 3 versions) kinda gives me hope that each of the original movies will get one disc for the SE and one disc for the original version.

The 2004 set sold so fucking well because dvd is everyone's favorite format. What I was trying to say is that they did such a good job mastering it that for a lot of people out there it'll probably be the last time they ever buy the movies on home video. With blu-ray, as we've said many times, Lucas can charge us whatever he wants within a reasonable limit and, guess what, we'll still buy it as long as it has the remastered OOT included. That's what we just have to remember. At the end of the day, he knows we'll shell out a little extra money if the set has what we really want in it. If economics dictate to him that it still wouldn't be worth it, well, then so be it. But that's just not what I see happening.

Now, I realize this brings us back yet again to the argument of "well, he's not going to because he knows he can get away with only selling the SE." But that's what I'm talking about here. I can only see his including the OOT as helping any future release, not hurting it.
Post
#317435
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317435/action/topic#317435
Time
The fact that the popularity of the franchise is declining is also why I think we'll get what we want sooner rather than later, zombie. Although I'd have to disagree with you that we'll have to wait until the second blu-ray dip to actually get it.

Why?

-for whatever reason, I get the impression that the movies will all be available individually as well as in a huge 200 dollar set. The '04 set was one of the few times that the original movies have not been released individually, and what ended up happening after all? They released them individually, throwing in the '93 telecine so that even people who already had the '04 got them anyway. Then there's Lucas' "it'll all be released in the end ..... now we'll see how many people want the original versions" comment. And it sold undeniably well, didn't it?

-Those multi-disc sets you mentioned, while they are just single movies and not a huge franchise like Star Wars, have made the treatment Star Wars has received thusfar look pretty bad.

-.....

-actually, at this point I'm kinda rambling so I'll just stop
Post
#317398
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317398/action/topic#317398
Time
The point remains, a lot of people got the '04 set from what I can tell. They didn't do themselves a favor by giving it the state-of-the-art THX mastering it received (Lowry issues aside). But they will be doing themselves a favor if they throw in the original versions on the blu-ray.

I mean, c'mon, the originals, or at the very least Star Wars '77, are considered classics. The prequels just aren't. I would think most people can tell the difference between special effects technology of the late 70's and early 80's and that of 1997.

In any event, May 25th is around the corner. I wonder if they'll use it as an opportunity to announce anything.

edited to add: After reading the article on the restorations of How the West Was Won, I'm giving Lucas less of an excuse if he doesn't finally get around to remastering the OOT for the next release.

Also, anyone else think we might see a trailer for the 3D versions attached to Avatar in December of '09? Given that 2010 is the date currently speculated by Lucas and Sansweet for the live action show, a Spring theatrical release of the movies followed by a Fall blu-ray to coincide with the show would make sense.

Is anything planned for 2009? I guess that was going to be the big year until the writer's strike threw everything off.
Post
#317341
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317341/action/topic#317341
Time
zombie84 said:

Its just a quick cash-in on KOTCS coming to theaters. When Indy IV is on video there will be new boxsets made containing all four films. Thats likely when the Blu-Ray version will be out. I mean why bother doing a Blu-Ray trilogy when you will just need to do another 4-film boxset nine months later?


Yea, I know, it's just that they're really cutting it close with this cash-in if the blu-ray set is only half a year away.

Tiptup said:

Getting George to care about film preservation would be to practically set our hopes in the realm of impossibility.


Not really. If I recall correctly, sometime in the past year it was announced that Lucas, Scorsese et al are overseeing some film preservation organization.

Tiptup said:

Preserving a version of Star Wars that best represents the original film would certainly be the right thing to do, but George has shown that he actually has antipathy towards such an effort. If he comes around it will be to earn more money or to gain acceptance from Star Wars fans, but I doubt that either are a huge concern for him right now.


Well, this is just my opinion, but he is rapidly running out of ideas. He's already doing this Clone Wars show, which seems to be pandering almost exclusively to kids (if the fact that the trailer is being attached to Speed Racer is any indication), and Force Unleashed which I've heard cleverly nicknamed "god of Star Wars." It won't be long before he has no one else to pander to except for the longtime/hardcore fans.

Baronlando said:

Just to make this all more annoying, more and more I'm encountering this mistaken idea out there that old movies would NOT benefit from Hd/blu-ray, so why should they bother buying. Lucas has a golden opportunity here, more than any other single person (or film) on earth, to educate a LOT of people by restoring the 1977 movie and letting people see the difference between the 1993 transfer and today. Wouldn't this benefit the larger film preservation cause?


To be fair, I think a lot of people out there are only planning on getting blu-ray players so that they can stop buying new releases on dvd and upgrade to the new format.

While we're on the subject, I'd like to revise something I said recently. I still contend that people won't notice a huge difference between blu-ray and standard dvd so long as everything is properly set. But it's happened at least three times that I've had to set yet another friend's dvd player to 16:9 so that everything won't look stretched out. How many people out there do you think are under the impression that dvd's are basically just digital laserdiscs, that every one looks like the GOUT? When I keep hearing stories about how even people with widescreen tv's don't care about everything getting stretched out and even get pissed off when someone tries to properly set it, I wonder.

Then again, the difference between anamorphic and non-anamorphic is rather insignificant when compared to the difference between sd and hd.
Post
#317326
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317326/action/topic#317326
Time
doubleofive said:

Have you seen the Indiana Jones Special Edition DVDs with no BluRay in sight? Yeah, I wouldn't put it past Lucas to give us the OOT on DVD again.


It begs the question of just what the situation with Indy on blu-ray is. Paramount has finally gone blu-ray, so that's not an issue. But Spielberg hasn't released a single one of his movies on blu-ray besides Close Encounters.

This double dip I see as nothing but a redux of the '03 set. It's like if Lucas hadn't waited until '04 to release Star Wars and then released it again in '04 anyway to take advantage of ROTS.

At the same time, this kind of points to only one real possibility: we get a day and date blu-ray of Indy IV this fall with the original movies getting the treatment at some later time. Unless of course this really is a collector's market and they're planning on releasing the originals this fall anyway, who knows.
Post
#317277
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317277/action/topic#317277
Time
Baronlando said:

(Plus, Indiana Jones is such an exercise in stroking the nostalgia of 30 somethings, a restored 77-80-83 trilogy with a bunch of old school packaging would fit right in with that)


This is exactly what I'm becoming more and more convinced LFL will eventually do.

Baronlando said:

It is really weird why Lucas won't just put out a great edition of the OOT, and create another fanbase to milk every few years. Think about it, he has the Saga fans that he can keep putting out SE/new changes to the OT/PT movies, and they will keep buying them. He can put out EU books/cartoons that another segment of fanbase will always keep up with. He then has the toys/videogames for kids/teenagers for every new system. Why not remaster the OOT on DVD, and then remaster it on BluRay 3 years down the road and double dip us!


Irony: Fans of Lucas's completed saga constantly demand updates to it.

As for it being released on standard dvd again, I'm convinced that won't happen unless there's a day and date Blu-ray to go along with it. Ya think maybe people are getting tired of double/triple/quadruple dips?
Post
#317139
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/317139/action/topic#317139
Time
is that I'll read reviews of blu-rays saying stuff like "the image is superior to the sd dvd."

....

Umm, I would certainly hope it is.

You do need a pretty big screen to see a really significant difference, I'll give them that. Toshiba definitely thought ahead by throwing in anamorphic widescreen. But then again NTSC is still NTSC and PAL is still PAL.

My point with all this is, it will be hard to get everyone to buy the movies YET AGAIN without throwing in the OOT remastered. Even with a widescreen tv, you're going to need a lot of incentive to rebuy something on blu-ray thanks to the future-proofness of the dvd transfer of the same movie that you already have.
Post
#316922
Topic
What order would you show the Star Wars movies to your kids?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316922/action/topic#316922
Time
The only time I've ever shown the movies to anyone was back in Summer of '05 when a couple friends of mine decided to watch the OT since one of them had never seen it. I brought over my '04 set and we literally watched the entire thing in one sitting.

Now, when it comes to showing kids the OT for the first time, I think it's kind of pointless. I never had a "first time seeing the movies," not really anyway. I echo the sentiments of those who say that it will be hard to keep them away from seeing it until you decide it's suddenly time to show it to them.
Post
#316700
Topic
New 'The Clone Wars' movie trailer
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316700/action/topic#316700
Time
Sluggo said:

Yup, Luke gets to come home to the cheering adoration of friends and family. His loving uncle and aunt, his grandmother, his best pals Biggs and Tank, the adoring Camie, those lovable sand people.

If there was a hero aspect to Luke's return, it was a very shallow one.


This is exactly why it not simply being some random, never before talked about planet that Jabba's Palace is on is just plain stupid. I mean you could make a fan edit replacing it in the opening crawl with some made up name and just leave the viewer to figure out why there's a jawa or two in the crowd. Tatooine's twin suns would suddenly be nothing special, but that's about it. Am I missing anything?

I figure it's Lucas sticking too closely to the Campbellian idea of "the hero returns home at the end." It's been forever since I read Shadows of the Empire, but as I recall, they actually do "rendezvous on Tatooine" at the beginning and then somehow end up back there again at the end.
Post
#316656
Topic
Why is the GOUT not anamorphic?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316656/action/topic#316656
Time
I would think the reason you'd get roughly equivalent picture quality on either the DC laserdisc or the GOUT is the following:

DC laserdisc

pro: It's analog, and therefore uncompressed

con: it's analog, you need a top of the line player to make sure the laser is reading the track as accurately as it can.

GOUT

pro: it's digital, so the laser either reads it or it doesn't.

con: it's digital, so it's a compressed mpeg.
Post
#316599
Topic
Why is the GOUT not anamorphic?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316599/action/topic#316599
Time
I remember reading on wiki that when 24fps movies are transferred to NTSC dvd, they're usually laid on the disc at 23.976. So does the dvd player then apply the pulldown on-the-fly in order to make it 29.97 and then send it off to the tv?

The reason I ask is that I'm wondering what the big deal about progressive scan dvd players are. Is the big deal about the fact that they're able to, um, not apply the pulldown and just send it off to the (presumably HD) tv? How does it all work?
Post
#316397
Topic
Why is the GOUT not anamorphic?
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316397/action/topic#316397
Time
In answer to the copy question, I remember one of the reviews stated that the discs are not copy-protected. Hence Johnboy didn't have to do anything special.

In answer to the original question, it would've saved us the trouble of zooming in but that's about it. Probably the biggest "fuck you" was reading that the fucking menus are anamorphic. It's all beside the point really. LFL needn't bother turning 4:3 into 16:9 when it's all just "bonus material" anyway.
Post
#316391
Topic
State of the Trilogy/ annual SW depression
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316391/action/topic#316391
Time
It is as someone said recently: if we started hearing rumors of the '04 box a good year and half before it actually hit, why in the blazes haven't we gotten wind of the blu-ray yet? Granted, it's also as some of you are saying: the new format is barely two years old and it took seven years just for the OT to hit dvd. But I seriously question the likelihood of that happening again.

Observe:

-They waited until '01 to release TPM because AOTC was less than a year away at that point.
-They did your normal waiting period for a dvd release for AOTC since they had the Clone Wars multimedia thing to move on towards.
-The OT '04 set was used as a buildup to ROTS.

No, I ruled out hearing any sort of news this early a long time ago. But after the crazy year of Indy IV, The Clone Wars and Force Unleashed has come to an end, well, we've got '09. I would actually be shocked if 2010 rolled around and we still hadn't heard any more news on the blu-ray than we have right now. I would also hope by that point we at least have rumors of whether or not the OOT will get an HD transfer.
Post
#316244
Topic
opinions - how the release of the original to theatres was different than the new three films.
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316244/action/topic#316244
Time
Hope I'm not polluting this thread, being of only 22 years of age (as of this writing), but I can only echo the words of the novelization when I say "my discovery of the OT is lost to time and legend."

My earliest definitive memory of watching the movies was popping a vhs tape (recorded from a broadcast) of ROTJ into the vcr at my aunt's place when I was fairly young, probably about 6. Her family had a pretty huge collection of recorded-off-the-air movies, and I picked that one because I thought it was the fist sequel (because it had "return" in the title) and not the actual conclusion to the trilogy. Needless to say, I didn't know what the hell was going on when 3PO goes "look, Captain Solo, and he's still frozen in carbonite."

So, yea, that's the only definitive "first memory" I have. Although I remember an early memory from around that same time of stumbling across the scene of Luke watching the hologram at Ben's hut when Star Wars was being broadcast on TBS.

Those of you who say things like "ROTJ sucks because it caters to the kids," you're absolutely right. Believe it or not, around 4th or 5th grade (when I was around 9 or 10) I actually remember watching ROTJ along with the rest of my class (I went to a small, Catholic, K through 8th school). It was on one of those days where we had nothing else to do, so we'd have a couple hours to watch a movie (don't ask me to explain beyond that, it was so long ago that even I don't remember why that happened). I distinctly remember watching ROTJ not only with the rest of my class, but with the class above ours as well. One of the kids in the class above ours (I still remember his name, how weird is that?) went "Bo Shuda?!" with a laugh after Jabba spoke those lines.

It's funny because I also remember our class gathering in the library for that same kind of "movie time" thing, and we had to vote on what we wanted to watch. One of the choices was "The Empire Strikes Back" (by that point I'd already seen it). I remember my teacher describing it as "the continuing story of Luke Skywalker, (etc)." I don't think we ended up watching it.

Speaking of Empire, my earliest memory of that particular movie is seeing x or y "making of" special where they showed a clip of the "I'll never join you!" scene, and by this point I'd already seen all of ROTJ. I was struck by the whole "oh, so there was another scene in the movie before that where Luke fights Vader, interesting."

Oddly enough, that only leaves the original '77 film, and as I've said my earliest memory is that scene during the TBS broadcast.

Stuff I do have memories of:

-renting the movies (pre-'95), which is probably how I ended up seeing Star Wars and Empire all the way through for the first time
-USA's marathons (by "marathons" I mean something similar to what Spike is doing right now ...... if it was still the early 90's)
-The SciFi Channel showing Empire and Jedi in letterbox sometime around the holidays in the mid-90's. I even recall seeing a commercial sometime in the early 90's saying something like "for the first time, a broadcast of both the fullscreen (they used some other term) and letterbox presentations of the Star Wars trilogy."

Then came the "one last time" release. I even recall seeing the commercials, one of them was Vader looking from side to side during Palpatine's electrocution of Luke at the end of ROTJ with the text "one of the greatest villains ever" against black. Another commercial was 3PO's "and don't let me catch you following me" with some kind of text applying to him and R2, also against black.

Jesus, it it weird that I remember all this?

I ended up getting the THX vhs of ANH for Christmas that year. If you look back in the forums you'll find the thread I started after acquiring the full boxset just this past Fall.

Jump to November of '96. I go to see Star Trek: First Contact by myself while my mother and my sister go to see Jingle all the Way. Afterwards, my mom tells me that one of the previews was for the re-release of Star Wars movies starting "on New Year's Day" or something like that.

Jump to January of '97, I go to see ANH with some friends. Jump to February, I see ESB with my mom. Jump to March, I see ROTJ with some friends.

Ah, the funny thing is that my memories of that first time seeing ANH '97 are really quite vague / almost non-existant. ESB was different though: right at the opening crawl my mom said "y'know, did you ever think of how it takes millions of years for radio waves to get from one side of the universe to the other? So that would be like 'A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away'." I also remember pointing out the addition of the tibanna gas factory in that one wide shot of Cloud City. Later on, I remember naively asking my mom why they were "doing that" to Han Solo and she just replied "it's torture." Jedi '97, oh man: that digital sound really made the activation and deactivation of Luke's saber by Vader in that one scene on Endor especially LOUD. I still remember how that unexpected new Williams music at the end had me feeling (good, in case you were wondering).

Funny, I'd have to credit my mom assuming I'd want the widescreen (silver) vhs boxset of the SE for Christmas (instead of the fullscreen) as part of what actually ended up fueling my interest in movies. That was one fun holiday season, December of '97.

I guess this is as good a time as any to say that all of this is ultimately beside the point, since I was a Star Trek kid first and a Star Wars kid second. The funny thing is that Star Trek was at the height of its exposure in the mass media when I was into it (mid-90's) and yet I was considered really weird for being into it, whereas Star Wars (since it was only three movies from a decade-and-a-half back) was considered cool. That certainly wasn't the case by the time '99 rolled around ......

Which brings me to that whole OT vs PT thing. Let me just echo Baronlando when I say how odd it is that Star Wars went from this classic trilogy of films to this over-hyped "event" that was just one simple film: Episode I.

Of course, it's best to start in that afternoon in November of '98 when I was at the orthodontist's and he for some reason brought up that "they're going to start running the previews (for the new Star Wars movie)." That very night, I watched the teaser on Entertainment Tonight. I still remember it like it was yesterday, and it still gives me goosebumps.

Let me just say something else: 8th grade was hell for me. The fact that I'd be getting a new Star Wars movie for the first time in my lifetime made the light at the end of the tunnel all the brighter. I remember that night in March of '99 watching the theatrical trailer on Access Hollywood and finding out that the release had been pushed up by a couple days.

May 19th of '99 I also remember like it was yesterday. I was even kidding myself to the extent that I said "nah, I'll just wait until later to see it." My mom dropped me off that afternoon, the sun casting an orange glow over everything. By coincidence, a kid who lived up the street from me was walking out of the previous showing just as I was walking in. He asked "you going to see Phantom Menace?" "Yea" I replied, he just kinda smiled and said "it's pretty good." As I recall, the theater wasn't all that crowded. In fact, I remember being surprised that it wasn't sold out already. Guess that was only the midnight showings from the night before, and the showing for that coming night.

The fight club / titan a.e. / anna and the king 20th Century Fox teaser "and now, a look at three projects currently in development" teaser I still remember. Then the Loews Cineplex logo. The the first reel.

The 20th Century Fox and Lucasfilm logos.

That opening crawl, wow, this was something.

I'd already read a third of the novelization so I was pretty much immune to those "bad feeling about this" sentiments early on in the movie. I guess that's why, by the time the lightsaber battle at the end was over, I was pretty much loving this. I saw it again with my best friend (who was so turned off by it so early on in the movie that he started telling a long chain of (admittedly quite funny) jokes to me. Take that story for what it's worth) and a third time with my mother and my sister.

I remember getting the vhs not all that long after it came out in Spring of '00. Rogue Planet I checked out of the library and read all the way through that summer. At some point I remember the website for "Episode II" going up with what everyone thought (and it could've been) concept artwork for the cloning facilities.

October of '01 was something special though. Popping in that dvd was a treat.

I remember seeing monster's inc in order to see the "breathing" teaser for AOTC. May of '02, I skip class along with several other people in order to see the movie in the middle of the day at Union Station in DC. That story I've already told elsewhere, so I'll skip it. I would see the movie a bunch more times throughout the summer, chalk that up to whatever you will.

Then there was the craziness that was Spring of '05. I still remember (heh, it was barely three years ago and I'm saying "still remember") as soon as the movie irised out to the end credits I just went "it was good." Not amazing, not great, just good.

In a lot of ways, I guess it took me until I was 19 to see the prequels for what they really were.

(I might edit this later, but this stream of consciousness will suffice for now).
Post
#316159
Topic
Clone Wars doc's
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/316159/action/topic#316159
Time
This is somewhat off the topic, but I was wondering if anyone knows if the short interviews from this past weekend on spike tv about the force unleashed were recorded and uploaded somewhere. Obviously I've seen the one from the weekend before since it was put up on the game's website, and I caught that half hour show from the next weekend since it was put up on that show's website. I did catch the one on sunday, so basically all I'm wondering is what they showed on friday and saturday.

EDIT: wow, fuck me, nevermind

Sure enough they've put all of them up on the official website. Didn't expect that.
Post
#315865
Topic
Spike TV ROTJ Summary
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/315865/action/topic#315865
Time
The one part of the updated descriptions that I remember really surprising me is on the Empire '04 dvd "while Han and Leia flee to the beautiful Cloud City of Bespin."

Ok, what percentage of people who've watched the movies do you think could name that planet Cloud City is at? Han says it just that one time, and even then Harrison's so in character that you don't even notice or think about it.
Post
#315835
Topic
New 'The Clone Wars' movie trailer
Link
https://originaltrilogy.com/post/id/315835/action/topic#315835
Time
is exactly the issue. Hearing that news in early May of '06 made me so happy. I mean, I was about to go back to working at the Lego store for the summer, and even though I knew I was going to be back at school in September it was still something that made me, I dunno, proud. The dvd release of the original versions and lego star wars: the original trilogy on the same day.

Then digitalbits broke the bad news.

I remember at one point over that summer explaining to one of my coworkers how 16:9-enhanced video worked since I'd learned all about it a couple years earlier. As I said before, I was back at school by the time the release date rolled around. Ever since then it's like there've been fewer and fewer reasons to actually pay for anything Star Wars. Hey, I might've actually been interested in the lego videogame if we hadn't gotten the finger with that laserdisc transfer, but nope, that possibility was now gone. Then, when I'm working over this past winter, we get toys from both Force Unleashed and The Clone Wars a good EIGHT MONTHS before they're due.

Really?

Then just the other day I hear that Dark Times is getting put on hiatus after the remaining scheduled issues, and that was the only comic book I was still following. This show will be on tv, and presumably so will the live action show. Barring the possibility of picking up force unleashed for ps2, I'm pretty much done with it.

The way I look at it is that the more I'm not spending on this stuff is the more I'm saving for the box set that we all know is going to happen eventually.