Mike O

There are plenty of shots in The Two Towers were Weta didn't even get remotely close with blending in Gollum to the environment.



The nightime scenes in Speilbergs JP films with the T-Rex, anyone? Still looks phenomenal almost a decade and a half later. Same thing with Cameron's T2.

Then again, I might just like LOTR more than the PT.

Originally posted by: auraloffalwaffle
Seriously, the CG Yoda was bound to blend in with the CG sets, wasn't he? The CG Gollum had to be integrated with real location shots. I regard the achievement as being much greater on WETA's part.

As for matching the movements of Oz's puppeteering, I don't buy it. That sounds like an excuse. Hell, they'll probably go in and replace the original with their beloved CG version for next year's SEs anyway...

Originally posted by: Mike O
Raul, how many of your "inside info threads have been locked now?

Originally posted by: Cable-X1
Just looking for opinions on this release...

The movies are all great and are exactly as I remember them. The packaging is really nice and all, but I have a gripe with Raiders. Why did they rename it Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark? I know it's just the packaging and they didn't change anything in the actual title sequence in the film, but it's kinda silly, IMHO.

The other thing that bugs me was the lack of vintage documentaries. I've seen a few of them back in the day for Raiders and I've gotten them through the awesome preservationists here on this site, but it would have been nice to have seen them included with this set.

It's nothing major and I'm certainly not getting all bunched up about it...you just wonder why they make these silly little changes. At least the films are the same.....

...but wasn't there an issue with Raiders on the sound or something?

Raiders has some minor changes, nothing as severe as the SEs, mercifully. A few wires were removed and mikes in shots were clean up, that sort of thing. I don't like it, but I don't really expect a new release just because of those minor things, so I can live with it. It's much better than what was done to the Original Trilogy and THX 1138. It's what the OT boxed set should have been, and hopefully will be come the 30th Anniversary box next year.

The only bone of contention with some fans that I'm aware of is the digital removal of the cobra's reflection. It doesn't bother me in the slightest. Greedo shooting first, it ain't.

Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Thanks, I try to keep an open mind, and I try to be aware of the things I don't actually know as much as I can.

I'm similarly impressed by just about everyone here for not just attacking me outright due to my particular point of view.

I am getting this warm and fuzzy feeling that depending on how things go within this next year, the fanbase "rift" can be brought closer together if not closed entirely. We won't all ever agree about everything, but perhaps there will be more tolerance all the way around.

Originally posted by: Raul2106
The powers that be have put me in a very difficult position. Apparently "Mike" a LFL employee that is a resident of this site has been talking to mods and now I am forbidden to post anything regarding next years DVDs. So for all those who were expecting screenshots and new info today I'm sorry. The funny part is I am believed to be a liar, yet nobody is questioning if "Mike" is who he says he is. LOL To all those who DO believe in me you will not be let down. 2007 is not that far off and soon enough the truth will be known to all.

Thank You!

Raul Xavier

Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Holy crap, Lucas was able to make the 30th anniversary last 16 months instead of just 12!

Man this is going to be a great year for Star Wars.

Originally posted by: Go-Mer-Tonic
Yeah thanks Zombie, that was a concise informative read. I tried to get involved as much as I could over at TFN but between that one thread becomeing white noise after a while and the mods arbitrarily banning anyone who said anything that someone might not want to hear (on both sides of the debate) made it rather difficult to follow.

That's part of the reason I came here, seeking out an adult forum that isn't run by kids.

They also say the prints they do have are all in poor quality.

Ah, but this them means that they do in fact have prints, which means that they could be restored.



Ah, but if he has pristeen prints then why would he need to remaster them? The paradox.

Originally posted by: zombie84
The fact that the O-neg no longer conforms to the original 1977 version of Star Wars is a technicality that Lucasfilm has been twisting into confusing people that "the original version doesn't exist anymore" as in "the original version has been destroyed and is not coming back" which is clearly absurd. Aside from the fact that an O-neg scan is by no means the only source of a high-res telecine (in fact only rarely is the O-neg used for releases), various private collectors and public institutions have undertaken preservation efforts, and it has been well documented as well that not only are the original negatives and interpositives still preserved in the LFL archives, but that Lucas himself personally owns specially-made high quality prints, and even lent these to the laboratories who restored the SE as reference guides.

Why didn't they make a new transfer for this release? Because they didn't have to. As can be seen--and the dvds are currently in Amazon.com's top ten sales--they could get just as much money from us by not spending a cent. This way we buy both these and the eventually-released restored versions. Obviously this has nothing to do with personal preference or artistic vision of Lucas, otherwise he would not be releasing them. And besides that, the whole thing was schemed up by Jim Ward, not Lucas himself, who isn't usually too involved with his companies sales. Its simply about getting money from people. 2001 was the first year of Lucasfilm dvd and they had TPM. 2002 had AOTC. 2003 had Indy trilogy. 2004 had the SE. 2005 had another release of teh SE which didn't do too good but it was okay because they also had ROTS. Now they need something else so they throw a LD transfer of the OOT and they have another huge dvd sale. Next year will have the saga box set, which i feel probably wont sell very well unless they include the OOT in a restored form.