I was watching the featurette at the beginning of the Phantom Menace Letterbox VHS and i literally laughed out loud when Rick McCallum said its so dense.
Don’t get me wrong i’ve mostly been enjoying my tapes of the prequels warts and all but damn the people interviewed in this tape at ILM are laying it on thick.
James Horner The Rocketeer. Fantastic film scoring.
The 20th Century Records pressing of the Star Wars soundtrack, really great on Vinyl. Empire is almost as good from RSO Records. Finishing with Return of the Jedi, doesn’t sound as good as the other two on Vinyl one record two sides, severely truncated.
I’d love a theatrical version, too bad there never was a laserdisc for this like Phantom Menace.
As for film cels there are a lot of fake ones on Ebay.
I love that one guy who keeps finding the same fake 35mm ones for the sequel trilogy and all the poor sods who keep buying them. Just being a little humorous, i also was almost fooled by that guy.
I’m supporting the official releases on Blu-Ray, i got Mando season 1 and 2, and will get Andor and Obi-Wan. I hope they consider releasing season 3 of Mando, Boba Fett, Ahsoka, all of the Bad Batch, last season of Clone Wars, Visions, Tales of the Jedi, as well as Light and Magic.
Kyle just became another Luke, when he was a Jedi, force sensitive. The same complaint for Dash applies.
I thought Bruce Botnick’s remaster of the score was phenomenal and all the crisp detail i heard for the first time in the Atmos mix. At first the dnr bothered me but i very much enjoyed the new cut of TMP. I really wish they’d have let Shatner finish V, the effects in that one are bad. II-VI could of had the theatrical audio and a new Atmos mix, but no they just used the 2009 blu mixes.
I hope its worthy of seeing, not another remake of the OT, or rearranging the same ideas. Like if they get lazy and desperate they don’t crib something like the dark empire comic.
Do people want a 3 hour remake of Star Wars 1977? Or is the other cut sufficiently different enough to not mirror and follow the original nearly beat for beat.
I’m incredibly disillusioned by Return of the Jedi. I feel like it should have been deeper and more complex than Empire, and darker still. There are elements of it there Luke wearing all black, being tempted to the dark side. But it is also way too light and silly. I feel like Lucas wanted to do the first film again but bigger, with another death star a bigger battle, way more monsters in Jabba’s little kingdom than in the Cantina. I have similar problems with Indiana Jones the Last Crusade, having a lighter more comedic style and derivative of Raiders. and the complete misuse of Sallah and Marcus, and the complete lack of verisimilitude. Some really very bad and obvious model shots.
Like in Return of the Jedi the matte painting standing in for a real set that looks fake even on laserdisc. The Millennium Falcon behind Lando is so atrocious, why didn’t they build it out as a physical model?
Last Jedi is a better made film than Return of the Jedi, and Return is a bad sequel to The Empire Strikes Back.
I might like Lukes’s portrayal more in ROTJ, but its a weak entry.
I knew it was only a matter of time until 4k80 made its way into some jerk’s store. Guy used to be on Ebay and Etsy and now on Ecrater. Not gonna link because he will just get more sales.
I agree the score is great its the only thing i find worthwhile about that film.
Star Trek IV the Voyage Home, very uneven, too much goofy comedy. Some of it still makes me laugh though like the colorful metaphors, Spock neck pinching the guy on the bus, Scotty talking to the computer. I’ve gone back and forth over whether Rosenman’s score is good or awful.
Akira Toriyama. Creator of Dragon Ball. Character designer for Dragon Quest and Chrono Trigger.
Evergreen Laserdisc of Raiders of the Lost Ark fairly decent if old video master which is the same as the original VHS. Audio is digital stereo original 35mm mix.
Empire Strikes Back i think its the first or second pressing from Japan on Laserdisc, very clean looking better than the US release even though the video master is identical. No crosstalk or rot. Full screen and analog audio only.
Both were very fun to watch in Standard Definition on an old 4:3 set.
I also watched a bit of 4K77 on my laptop, and The beginning of the Korean Temple of Doom pressing on laserdisc very orange colored transfer with a heavy amount of grain.
I would have cast Jessica Henwick as Rey. She would have no blood relation to Palpatine or the Skywalker clan. Through her hard work and determination and grit, leaning on her skills as a scavenger she would become a Jedi. Proving herself to Luke Skywalker.
And give Finn an actual character arc. He becomes a Jedi leads a rebellion of stormtroopers. He isn’t a janitor, he isn’t the new trilogy Jar Jar or comic relief. He doesn’t exist to just yell Rey!.
Makes no sense that a pack in to the original version of the film is revised, but i did get them. They are nice, the retro cover makes you think they would be reprints. Well i’ve got the A Long Time ago books which had the first two movies with original colors in Facsimile and the same from Marvel Epic Collection for JEDI.
I think they were a missed opportunity. Its so strange Lucas earlier outline was so good, yes it was very vague but it didn’t mess with OT continuity. Its like he overthought it when he finally started writing Phantom Menace. Added a bunch of not necessary exposition and new characters. The Original trilogy was simple and self contained. Its like he wanted to up his game for the prequel and fell flat on his face. The worldbuilding might be decent but the prequel lore is suspect. Others might disagree, that is fine.
People keep saying the lore is good and deep and well thought out and poorly executed.
What i understood Anakin was the chosen one, there was a bunch of other stuff about the Dark Side clouding the Jedi’s vision. I just don’t see good writing, likable characters. Believable relationships. I wish they were equal to the OT and connected with them, they don’t. Everybody complains about Disney Star Wars, the prequel is where Star Wars died. As a Saga of Cinema. Obviously the animated side, the comics and novels and games were good enough to keep the embers burning.
To me the fatal flaw of the entire prequel trilogy is how Anakin was written, his entire arc. Everyone singles out PM but i think its fine even if it should have started with a teenage Anakin or maybe even in his 20s. AOTC is only somewhat salvageable, ROTS is where it all goes off the rails. Anakin’s sudden turn makes no sense.
I want it to be a good movie. I also can’t pretend i’m going to be there on opening day or buy a ticket for more than one showing. Like i did on Force Awakens. The trailer needs to be really good. I can only ask for two hours of enjoyment, hopefully its not 3 hours long or boring.
Probably Empire Strikes Back 70mm i thought it was a lost cut for sure. My holy grail is a mag print of Star Wars 77 i dream someday it will happen.
That or THX 1138 will actually be preserved or American Graffiti.
4K83 No DNR is probably my favorite though. You would think it was an official release its very impressive.
The Marvels, it was fun even if the villain was weak and the effects weren’t stellar and if you told me it was a made for streaming movie i would believe you, because it doesn’t at all look like a blockbuster that cost hundreds of millions to make.
I got the reprint of the comics adaptation for Star Wars, Empire and Jedi that was given away with the 2006 DVD sets. I wanted to get these to see if they are recolored or as i have been told the original book just reprinted.
I love Charley Lippincott, and how he proved Lucas had nothing planned out. I love the story conference for Splinter and Return of the Jedi for similar reasons. We’ve literally been lied to for decades.
This scrapbook shows the prequel itself wasn’t planned out by Lucas, except in the most vague ways. Ben and Vader duel over the volcano is pretty much all that goes back to the 70s. I love the concept that Palpatine and Yoda were not lightsaber users. The concept that anyone can use the Force, you just need training and discipline to get good at it and the Jedi are able to do that.
I like the idea Leia’s mom follows her to Alderaan and goes into hiding until she dies when she is very young. I like the idea of Vader hunting down the Jedi and the mystery that he was a dual character, a backstaber/ Vader in secret until he openly sided with The Emperor and hunted down and killed them all, no order 66. I like the original concept of the closeness of Obi-Wan with Luke’s mom, and Anakin’s jealously. Probably for the best the love triangle was dropped though the fact the one in the OT was also hamfistedly dropped and Leia made the sister, and how bad the romance scenes are in the prequel its for the best.
The part i know is correct is the original timeline of the Clone Wars being 40 or more years before Star Wars 1977. It makes sense with Ben’s age and Anakin’s age in the OT. 19 or 20 years before A New Hope as these people now call it i don’t, that makes no sense. What is Anakin in his 40’s in JEDI, Shaw doesn’t look 40.
Also we never saw the passionate Anakin who didn’t mind his farming and went on damn fool idealistic crusades. Resolving conflicts with a lightsaber and his skills as a pilot. adjudicator of justice. He never was a good friend slowly seduced to evil by political means and larger ideals. Sure we might consider Filoni’s Anakin closer to that, but i am talking about the movies.
I didn’t like Mando it didn’t feel like Star Wars to me. Good show and enjoyable but it feels like Star Wars adjacent, but so very far away. Its more like one of those old EU things that wasn’t a part of the main story, like one of those books on the Bounty Hunters. or the criminal underworld in one of the anthology books. You know like a show that happens and exists in that world but doesn’t have Skywalker’s Jedi or Sith. At least until Luke showed up,lol.
The show i want will never be made the Luke Skywalker series set in between Return of the Jedi and Last Jedi. Now that Rey is going to rebuild the order Luke’s story purpose is redundant and unnecessary, so too expensive to deepfake Hamill for a series and no reason to.
What happened to Dave Filoni’s Heir to the Empire movie, this isn’t it. To be honest i think this is an awful idea for a feature and i’m a fan of Favreau.