JadedSkywalker

Can someone recommend some science fiction or fantasy?

I haven’t read anything new in a couple decades in these genres beyond GRRM.

Once upon a time i used to read every new book my library brought in. Amazingly i was much more busy back then and still found more time to read than i do now.

Its easy to get comfortable and reread stuff you are familiar with. In Lieu of any such recommendations i’ve began re-reading Mary Stewart’s Merlin Trilogy and Le Morte D’Arthur. I never finished the Winchester version and i figure i might as well finish the second half of that. I’ve read the complete Caxton.

Added

Phantom Menace 2020 remaster digital 1080P version.

Star Trek Generations Japanese Letterbox Laserdisc with Obi and original sleeve.

Star Trek V Japanese Edition Laserdisc with OBI, not sure if pan and scan or Letterbox.

Back to the Future Evergreen With OBI pan and scan Japanese Laserdisc.

DTS full bitrate Japanese edition of Ah My Goddess the movie.

The 93 is pretty good sonically i just cannot stand it because of the smashing glass in the detention block shootout. I never listened to it again for that reason like nails on a chalkboard it is awful.

Rian was right about the story following a natural beat and rhythm and not catering to fan service.

Last Jedi is far from my favorite Star Wars, but i’m also sick of films being bogged down by catering to ancillary merchandise, toy sales and Happy Meals. The story is the story.

I respect an artist, filmmaker or novelist telling the story they want to tell. Even if it isn’t the way i would have done it, even if Rian’s interpretation of Luke doesn’t fit mine.

I also don’t really accept how JJ saw the characters either. Han, Luke or Leia. They did an okay job for the other characters they created. Making Luke a Mcguffin and not a character to begin with was a bad start for episode 7. And JJ relied way too much on Mystery boxes he made up the answers to later. They tricked us with the map for Skywalker what was Luke searching for. What great mystery of the force was it something to help defeat the sith and the first order, no he wanted to die. It does not make sense 7 and 9 are from a different trilogy than 8, completely different visions sharing only the commonality of characters.

Either JJ should have written and directed all 3 or Rian should have.

There are more mixes for Star Wars than any other film in the Saga if you include the 4 Special Edition edits and all the revisions through the years in video releases. I’ve honestly lost count.

Is there a definitive mix?

What mix do you fancy is the real question.

I was most familiar with the 85 mix because pre 1993 that was the one on most versions on tv and video after 1985.

I used to say the 35mm was my favorite but it is quite limited i watched the 4K77 edition with it.

The best the film has ever sounded imho is the 1997 SDDS mix. for the Special Edition. I’ve never had the opportunity to see the 6 track mag 70mm print from 77 i wasn’t even born yet.

Doesn’t the 1997 version still have Wingreen as Boba. I thought the prequelisms were added in 2004 for the DVD release. Like Hayden at the end of Return of the Jedi. Of course that was carried through to the 2011 blu ray, 2020 special edition 4K. So there have been 4 special editions and 3 that had Morrison as Fett.

It is a minor complaint as far as complaints go but i hate the pointed tip of Luke’s green lightsaber in the flashback scene in Last Jedi.

I think Star Wars is the best by a hair, Empire is better in a lot of ways just not as fun. Return is the weakest and uneven but still has its moments.

To me all three films, i mean the real versions are one piece. They tell a complete story i find it hard to consider them separately. Although i know Leia was never intended to be the sister, or Vader Luke’s father. The story of the original film when viewed as a standalone thing is very different from what came later. Star Wars itself not the SAGA is a different beast. A simple happy go lucky comic book movie, not some grand Epic.
A movie serial like Buck Rogers or Flash Gordon. Tells a simple story and is self contained.

The original approach to the Death Star with the X-wings and Red Squadron’s run on the trench in Star Wars. That is my favorite.

The best in terms of number of shots and the difficulty in achieving them technically is the Battle of Endor and the final epic space battle. Then the Battle of Hoth and how painstaking the work was to hand animate the stop motion AT-AT Walkers.

I don’t think they should or would change the canon. It would be much more easy two have 2 different canons if the old EU was continued in a different adjacent timeline. The could even adapt some of the comics, and novels into animation under the Legends imprint.

Would the original cuts of the OT also count as Legends? Since the Maclunky edit is the official canon along with Han shooting second.

I hooked my old Laserdisc player up to my now ancient HDTV and used the zoom button to make it fit the screen. I was watching the Japan Special Collection for Star Wars, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

I found that they look better on my old picture tube TV that is square and 4:3 standard def.

Mark Hamill as Luke. I’m split between whether his best performance was in Return of the Jedi, or Last Jedi.

I also liked Qui Gon played by Liam Neeson, i think he brought a humanity to Phantom Menace. I like Ewan Obi Wan as well in all 3 prequels.

I like Daisy as Rey. She had that same kind of youthful effervescent giddiness that Mark had in A New Hope, or as i call it Star Wars. I like that Rey, despite her humble origins she chooses to be good, and has a good heart.

Added North By Northwest Japanese Rental Laserdisc sealed with OBI.

Star Trek First Contact. Japanese Letterbox Laserdisc English AC3/PCM with OBI and original vinyl cover not sealed.

Return of the Jedi 2011 blu ray had noticeably more DNR than the broadcast.

I was shocked to be honest that passed standards to be pressed to a disc and sent out to stores.

Yeah there is a version in 1080P for Phantom Menace from a 35mm scan but with no English audio at the moment.

They were going to sync an English source later.

This was a preview version with no cleanup, color stabilization.
The previews looked rather nice i just didn’t bother yet because you know no English audio.

That was Rey being the new Luke, being the only one who thought Kylo could be redeemed.

Like Luke was the only one who believed Anakin could return from the darkside.

Rey was right by the way they won the war because Ben Solo was redeemed. He saved her from dying and traded his own life.

I guess you could complain they just recycled episodes IV-VI and the Disney movies offered nothing new.

Ben turning to the light restored the Balance.

It wasn’t a restoration though. They cut up and butchered the negative to conform it to the 1997 edit. The original effects were replaced by either recomped or new cgi shots.

Nobody would be complaining if all they did was restore the faded color, created a new faithful multi track digital mix. Or replaced that Landspeeder shot with vaseline on the lens.

Imagine if Han did not shoot second, if he was the only one who fired.

So many unforced errors, like the worse cgi X-wing shots instead of the original motion control photography.

Tom Voegeli who worked on the Star Wars Radio Drama, Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi also did the Crimson Empire radio drama.

As well as the Dark Forces radio dramas.

I’m still hoping they actually publish the comics version of The Rise of Skywalker at Marvel. But i know its never going to happen.

I always wondered how Jaina left the order to found the Imperial Knights. Now we will never find out. It is one of the left over threads from the EU that will never be explored since they erased the EU from canon.

Part 3 was canceled twice and the project was revived. In fact it was one of the last few books in the last two years Dark Horse had the Star Wars license. At least the TPB came out in 2012 i think.

The 97 35mm scan is damn near perfect, not sure why someone would want to go from that to the horribly compressed Digi Beta tape version.

I was finally able to retire my Laserdisc for that film and no pink tint/orange tint, unlike the LD and no dnr smear like the broadcasts.

Is there a source for the pre restoration Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs?

I’ve searched all the video releases and no such VHS or Laserdisc exists.

If there was ever a bootleg i cannot seem to discover it. I’ve looked at foreign releases.

Mark Hamill is my favorite actor. Followed by Harrison Ford.

I also like Tom Hanks and Tom Cruise.

Daniel Craig is another favorite but not for James Bond. He is my least favorite 007.

At the moment my favorite actor is John David Washington. He was absolutely fantastic in Tenet.

The Star Wars 1997 one is kind of weird since it’s Empire Strikes Back Leia, and Han in Return of the Jedi clothes with A New Hope head.