canofhumdingers

Since people were discussing it in this thread, I checked out the digital copy included with the bluray. Now, I specifically downloaded it via VUDU into the VUDU app on my iPad Air2. It only lets you download the “SD” version for watching offline. Online they offer something called HDX, but I haven’t tried that yet.

That being said, the “SD” digital version on VUDU looks like total GARBAGE. Seriously. YouTube videos look better. It’s a soft, almost blurry disaster of digital compression artifacts. It’s almost unwatchable. For kicks I tried a couple other movies I had codes for and they were the same.

As a comparison, I download stuff from Netflix regularly to watch offline while traveling. Granted, I set it to the highest quality download, but it looks significantly better than what I got from VUDU. Yes you can still see some compression but it’s not so bad as to almost single handedly destroy my ability to enjoy what I’m watching.

All I can say is viva la physical media. I know they’re trying to compromise so people don’t fill up their portable devices with only one movie or a couple of tv episodes, but GEEZ. They’ve got a LONG way to go before digital media can begin to replace physical media (for commercially available products) in my library…

Yeah it wasn’t so much that as it was, “when the heck did they have TIME to do it?” They were in a mad rush to find and retrieve the data file while K-2 was simultaneously helping them search and fending off wave after wave of troopers. At least for Luke and co. it happens in a moment of relative downtime when they aren’t actively running from troops.

It’s not a big deal, just a funny little observation.

I finally got to sit down and enjoy my blu ray of Rogue One tonight. I love this movie more every time I watch it. Even characters that I felt were lackluster (such as Jyn and Cassian) have grown on me a lot. And I flipping love Baze and Chirrut, Guardians of the Whills (that is still SO cool).

I will say the hoops they have to jump through to actually transmit the plans get rather convoluted and are maybe a bit too much. But it’s not bad enough to hamper my enjoyment. Oh, and my wife pointed out that Jyn and Cassian amazingly have time to change out of their imperial disguises and back into their regular clothes while in the vault as K-2SO is fending off waves of Stormtroopers.

But man, that final battle is just spectacular. I can’t get enough of the x-wings, y-wings and TIEs! So much of this film feels like some of the best EU material from the mid '90’s renaissance. Stuff like the X-WING novels, the X-wing computer games, Jedi Knight, etc. It’s great!

And Darth Vader is pitch perfect in this movie. Sure he doesn’t look EXACTLY like he does in ANH, but it’s close enough. And his witty sarcasm is exactly the kind of thing he would say to imperial officers in the OT. And his final scene is just wonderfully fun for anyone like me who has always been a rather obsessive Darth Vader fan.

So has anyone gotten the Target exclusive BD yet? Anything worthwhile in the exclusive bonus features?

It comes with a code inside the box that you can take to a list of websites (iTunes, vudu, and so on) and download a free digital copy to your laptop, tablet, phone, etc.

crissrudd4554 said:

Not to mention the Rebel base temple in Rogue 1 is based off the SE temple not the original.

To me, this is forgivable because it’s not a drastic redesign. They added some texture to the rock face above the hangar door, where on the original it was totally smooth. But the shape of the temple itself is still the same. To me this is equivalent to the differences in Darth Vader’s suit between each film. I.e. - minor cosmetic changes (that many people never even notice), but still generally the same thing.

But if they somehow showed or referenced something dramatically different like Hayden force ghost, sarlacc beak, or Greedo shooting in the one of new movies it would totally pull me out of the film and have the potential to destroy the continuity for me (as someone who only watches and “accepts”, for lack of a better term, the OOT and completely discounts the SE and anything that only exists in those versions.)

Star Wars already has more than two good movies.

That’s a very cool painting. But what is going on with Vader’s arm? It looks like it’s coming out of his waist. And it’s the wrong (ESB style) glove. That I can forgive, but the angle/perspective on the arm itself is just bizarre. It’s kinda ruining the awesomeness of the picture for me cause that’s all my eye is drawn to once I noticed it. 😕

Lord Haseo said:

canofhumdingers said:

Lord Haseo said:

One of the alternate endings would have fixed this issue as Leia was on Coruscant when the battle on Scarif was going down.

On a semi side note that alternate ending is pretty damn bold. Suicide would have been a hard pill to swallow for some but damn it would have been the last thing I expected had this happened.

Can you expand on this? I’ve read a few articles about the alternate ideas/cuts/whathaveyou. But I don’t recall suicide in any of it? Also, that’s the first I’ve heard of an ending with Leia on Coruscant.

.

Cool, thanks. I kinda like his original ending idea with the multiple hyperspace jumps and beaming the plans to leia. But I’m happy with what we got too, and I’m in the camp of “the Vader scene was awesome and totally works” so I’m kinda glad it wound up that way.

Lord Haseo said:

One of the alternate endings would have fixed this issue as Leia was on Coruscant when the battle on Scarif was going down.

On a semi side note that alternate ending is pretty damn bold. Suicide would have been a hard pill to swallow for some but damn it would have been the last thing I expected had this happened.

Can you expand on this? I’ve read a few articles about the alternate ideas/cuts/whathaveyou. But I don’t recall suicide in any of it? Also, that’s the first I’ve heard of an ending with Leia on Coruscant.

Huh. I thought fantastic beasts was one of the better potter-verse movies.

Lol! I’m now picturing Darth Vader’s tactics hunting down each Jedi… lulling them into conversation and then suddenly interrupting them mid-sentence as he strikes them down, shouting, “DARTH VADER!!!” at them.

It’s too bad they couldn’t get the timing of the pieces falling right. I’ve always thought that was such a neat shot and would’ve been really impressive on screen if they got the timing down.

ROTJ really drags in the middle and each time I watch it it seems to get worse. Last night I watched Harmy’s latest DeEd (AMAZING work, probably his best yet!) for the first time and the middle has gotten so slow that I was even finding the speeder bike chase a bit mundane. I still love the speeder bikes, and some of the best shots (like when they zoom around a turn, or Luke takes one out with his saber) are still really sweet and exciting. But the chase as a whole just felt kinda ho-hum. I think the complete lack of a score for the entire sequence really hampers it in this particular case. Some rip-roaring JW chase music might help add the emotional hook the action sometimes lacks.

Thankfully the third act still saves the film for me. The space battle is still mind blowing. The duel is still a gripping tug of war between light and dark; father and son. And the ground battle is schlocky fun.

Next up is TFA. I’ve been slowly working my way through all the films (the ones I count as SW anyway). After my last viewing of R1 in the theater I’ve watched SW SSE, ESB DeEd, and now ROTJ DeEd. I’ll watch the official blu of TFA sometime soon to finish it off. That might be it until TLJ but I’ve got a nice stretch of vacation in November and I’m debating about maybe marathoning them all in short order before seeing TLJ in December if I can get the better half on board…

I haven’t watched the prequels in over a decade. Never bothered with fan edits either. Well, I did watch the auralnauts version of the prequels on YouTube a few months ago which was pretty hilarious. But that’s been my only exposure to the actual films (excepting a few random YouTube clips here and there) since the ROTS DVD came out and I watched it a couple of times.

I’ve been tempted recently by the thought of actually watching all 8 Star Wars movies in chronological order when the Rogue One blue ray comes out, but then I just can’t bring myself to re-live such powerful frustration and disappointment.

Maybe… it’s also possible the film was shown matted to 1.66:1 or 1.85:1 in theaters, then put on home video open matte but re-matted for the bluray. I know that has happened for some ray harryhausen films (laserdisc, VHS, and sometimes DVD were open matte but bluray was back to the theatrical matted AR).

nickyd47 said:

There wasn’t any CGI in the original version.

WRONG!!!

Sougouk said:

CHEWBAKAspelledwrong said:

LOL, that’s an easy Lego kit to make.

Haha. I imagine the instruction sheet being something along the lines of scooping up handfuls and throwing them in all directions.

I actually kinda liked the lightsaber being red for that fight better than when it was blue. But that’s not what makes the edit more compelling. All the edits to the dialogue make that scene work SOOOO much better. It also looks like they edited out some of the most ridiculous lightsaber moves (don’t get me wrong, pretty much NONE of what they’re doing looks like actual sword fighting) which also helps it look more convincing as a fight.

I love the stormtrooper riding the landstrider concept art. We totally need to see that in a movie. Maybe on a fairytale-esque looking forest planet like these? It feels out of place in a desert setting.

Fang Zei said:

Didn’t zombie write an entire article on savestarwars about his trip down to culpeper to help scan in and color-correct the LoC’s prints?

Maybe I’m remembering wrong, I couldn’t find the article on the site.

No that was me who went to culpeper. Nobody was “helping the LOC”. They’re professionals and do all their own scanning, restoration, etc. The trip was just an investigation of sorts to see what they really had in their collection because there was quite a bit of confusion at the time. The article never got finished because there were some disagreements behind the scenes and ultimately it was decided it was better for all to just drop it rather than have any party unhappy with the final publication. There was a preview posted temproarily but it was removed.

Cool. I wonder if they’re counting their digital scans of the films? When I was there they were just getting Star Wars in the pipeline to be scanned on their 2k telecine. Not terribly long ago I saw a little article written by a guy who went to their viewing room at the library on capital hill and watched a copy of the scan of Star Wars, so we know that scan is finished. It wouldn’t surprise me if they’ve also completed a scan of ESB but havent gotten around to ROTJ yet. They prioritize their scanning based on historical significance as well as condition of film (i.e., how long they’ve got before it’s too badly deteriorated). SW and Empire were both significantly faded to red (ESB being the worst by a decent margin). Jedi still looked brand new.

Anyway, I’m not doubting what they told you, I’m just trying to figure out where these additional copies came from and exactly what they are. Because back in 2011 it was very clear they had one print each of the original cuts and one print each of the '97 SE.

Interesting. Did they specify exactly what each of the copies were? Because when I went to their film storage facility years ago, they only had one copyright deposit print of each film.

moviefreakedmind said:

crissrudd4554 said:

Slightly off topic but if the National Film Registry included Star Wars among its selected films in 1989, why did Lucasfilm offer the SE print 8 years after the fact??? Was Lucas intending to change the film(s) as early as '89 and wouldn’t submit a print until the film was ‘finished’???

Seeing as how the Library itself had two copies already and the National Film Registry is essentially just another bureaucratic wing of the Library of Congress, it probably wasn’t much of a priority. Who knows really? I’d be curious to see how many films on the registry don’t have prints submitted.

The library only has one 35mm print of the original Star Wars. Unless you’re also counting the 35mm print of the 1997 SE.

As for the NFR, I really probably shouldn’t say anything but it’s been so long since I heard the story I don’t think it’s a huge deal. The truth is they did try to get a copy of Star Wars by other means after Lucasfilm wouldn’t submit the original cut, but in the end it didn’t pan out. I cant go into details, but I can say that one of the “avenues” they were pursuing wound up being one of the sources for Mike V’s Legacy. So it kinda all worked out the same (the film being preserved but not available for public consumption) in a roundabout way…

The Rogue Squadron games were neat with some great ideas, but I always HATED the control system. Give me true three dimensional flight where I can loop or roll upside down without everything getting totally screwed up. They didn’t let you control it like an actual flying vehicle but more of a “turn left or right, elevate up or down”. But don’t dare try any actual aerobatic maneuvers like an Immelmann, split-s, loop, or barrel roll. I think that’s why I always liked the X-wing game series so much more.