Holy $#!+: they fixed the saber clash (ROTJ Blu-Ray)

[Anguirus]

Oh come now, we all have our guilty pleasures. I just re-watched ID4. It is notable for being the apex of miniature work in film alone, right before technology and economics made CGI the only way to go.

[Darth Tedious]

Oh come now, we all have our guilty pleasures. I just re-watched ID4. It is notable for being the apex of miniature work in film alone, right before technology and economics made CGI the only way to go.

It was also a milestone in the development of CGI. The arial battles featured more animated components at once than had ever been used in a film previously.
And ID4 is great fun, it's so good for a laugh, if nothing else. All this talk of it is making me want to watch it now. I wish my brother still had his copy...

[JME2]

Oh come now, we all have our guilty pleasures. I just re-watched ID4. It is notable for being the apex of miniature work in film alone, right before technology and economics made CGI the only way to go.

Don't forget one of composer David Arnold's best film scores, a worthy companion to Stargate.

[Aniron]

I picked up the BD set and I skimmed through TPM. It doesn't look too good; faces are smooth, the image looks soft (non-CGI intensive scenes) and it's completely unfortunate. I'll watch the entire PT this weekend and return with my thoughts on the video quality.

[Aniron]

Yes, the reviews seem accurate about TPM: the transfer is not that great. The black levels range from terrible to insanely deep, creating crush where it's difficult to distinguish different parts of the frame. There is indeed excessive smoothing on faces, landmarks, and even on the Jedi robes. Facial detail is not that strong but there are numerous shots where detail stands out, namely Padme. If you've seen any catalogue titles released by Universal Studios, namely the first two Mummy films and The Big Lebowski, you'll think that they worked on TPM.

Of course the CGI in space looks exceptional but when mixed with live action, especially when we meet Jar Jar, it simply sucks Gungan balls. I'm sure updates could have performed to blend in the CGI with the live action, but it's a mystery why that wasn't done.

The transfer isn't too much of a distraction to render Episode I unwatchable, so that's a major plus. If I have to ascribe a numerical rating to the transfer, it would be a 3/5.

[Mr. Tickle]

The transfer isn't too much of a distraction to render Episode I unwatchable, so that's a major plus

To be honest, I'd consider it a major plus if it did make it unwatchable... "now this is pod racing" ugh...

Ah lucas, you crazy old man. I'm sure he's rich enough already but really wtf he is doing? Everyone hates him enough for doing the Greedo/Han shoots first thing and now this? I mean ffs everyone I know ripped the shit out of Esp3 for the whole "nooooooooo.." scene and so he decided to put some sort of reference to it in this version, and in the bloody climax of the whole film series, which was pretty much perfect to start with.

[Batman]

Heck, they guy isn't exactly a teenager anymore and has more money than he can ever possibly spend. For all we know, he's doing it for the express purpose of laughing at us nerds getting all hot and bothered about it on the internet.

[Aniron]

The transfer isn't too much of a distraction to render Episode I unwatchable, so that's a major plus

To be honest, I'd consider it a major plus if it did make it unwatchable... "now this is pod racing" ugh...

I am now a fan of TPM. I used to dislike it.

[Mr. Tickle]

Code: Select all

I am now a fan of TPM. I used to dislike it.

Really? I still think for the majority of people either TPM/AoTC/RotS are examples of the worst mass market films in existance. It's actually amazing that Lucas was able to make 3 films which could be terrible on so many levels, that takes talent.

Out of curiosity can I ask on what grounds do you judge TPM to be erm.. "good" ?

Quick edit: Ok I'm sorry, that's a pretty vague question. I want to ask how did you switch from disliking it to becoming a fan? What was the trigger?

[Aniron]

Code: Select all

I am now a fan of TPM. I used to dislike it.

Really? I still think for the majority of people either TPM/AoTC/RotS are examples of the worst mass market films in existance. It's actually amazing that Lucas was able to make 3 films which could be terrible on so many levels, that takes talent.

Out of curiosity can I ask on what grounds do you judge TPM to be erm.. "good" ?

Quick edit: Ok I'm sorry, that's a pretty vague question. I want to ask how did you switch from disliking it to becoming a fan? What was the trigger?

How is Revenge of the Sith "terrible on so many levels"?

The trigger was growing up and not giving a shit about how it compares to the original trilogy. Jar Jar Binks is not as bad as I remembered and the humor works for me. The space battles are great too. What do I like most? I like Anakin's innocence that paves the way for his downfall in what I consider to be the third best film in the series. The acting isn't as bad I thought it was either. I haven't seen TPM in over five years and completely forgot most of it, so it was like watching it again for the first time.

[Flagg]

My ranking of the films is

Empire
New Hope
Sith
TPM
Jedi
Clones


TPM is really underrated and over criticized as far as I'm concerned.

[Stark]

Revenge of the Sith is so awful from an acting perspective last time I tried to watch it for a laugh, everyone gave up before they left the Invisible Hand. Banal, lifeless dialogue and phoned-in performances are not a good combination, especially right after the cartoon show of amazing fun.

[Flagg]

Yeah pretty much the entirety of the Invisible Hand sequence is utter shit, but IMO it gets alot better afterwards.

[Executor32]

I got mine from Wal-Mart at midnight the 15th, and I've watched I-IV so far. Buying it from Wal-Mart netted me a sweet full-size poster of bonus disc 1's page art, Boba Fett riding a varactyl.

I must say, ANH sounds much better this release. Almost all the audio quality issues from the DVD release are gone, most noticeably the abrupt changes in clarity during Tarkin's conversation with Leia.

[Aniron]

Yeah pretty much the entirety of the Invisible Hand sequence is utter shit, but IMO it gets alot better afterwards.

Order 66 is probably the best sequence in all of the series to me.

[Dillon]

I got mine from Futureshop on the morning of the 16th, and it got me a whole bunch of awesome extra shit for free, including this, although to be fair there were only one of those. I just got super lucky and won the raffle.

Anyway, I'm waiting for my girlfriend to watch the movies in their entirety in this new format, but I did watch sporadically through TPM and ANH to see what the quality was like, and while TPM does have excessive smoothing in some areas, it's not horrible for the most part. Darth Maul looks badass in 1080p. ANH looks amazing.

One thing that annoyed me in TPM: That completely unnecessary scene that was added to the DVD release where they've just landed on Coruscant in which Anakin looks back to Qui-Gon while going with Amidala and Jar-Jar, well now it's super obvious that Qui-Gon, Obi-Wan and Vallorum were CGI inserts in one of the shots, because they now look pixelated. The same goes for the helicopter shot of the platform, except in this one, every single person on the platform looks pixelated. They obviously did the CGI there with only 480p video quality in mind and I guess didn't think to clean it up for the blu-ray. But whatever, it's pretty minor. Overall, I'm happy with the release and can't wait to introduce my girlfriend to the awesome world of Star Wars.

[Kane Starkiller]

ROTS definitely gets better towards the end.
The scene when Padme is giving birth and dying at the same time and the doctor droid is saying "uuuuuuuuu-baaa, uuuuuuu-baaaa" is probably the most emotional scene in the entire hexology.

[Aniron]

AotC's transfer is a huge step up from its predecessor. While evident DNR and smoothing exists, facial detail is more persistent and the CGI shots are excellent. However, obvious matte paintings are noticeable thanks to the resolution and it's simply ugly. I'm starting RotS now, and from what I've read, it's reference quality and near perfect.

Also, the same thing happened to me with TPM: I am now a fan of AotC.

[VF5SS]

So I guess Han Solo is now Jesus Christ

Man some of these changes are just weird. We've got rocks in front of R2 as he hides from Jawas in a cave which are totally gone in the next shot. The door to Jabba's palace replaced by a bigger CGI door. Among others.

Of course the Special Edition CG is still the same and looks pretty dated lol. This is just getting petty at this point :v

[Aniron]

So I guess Han Solo is now Jesus Christ

Man some of these changes are just weird. We've got rocks in front of R2 as he hides from Jawas in a cave which are totally gone in the next shot. The door to Jabba's palace replaced by a bigger CGI door. Among others.

Of course the Special Edition CG is still the same and looks pretty dated lol. This is just getting petty at this point :v

Those changes are so trivial.

[VF5SS]

Then why even dooooooooo them in the first place :v

Han Solo shining with the light of the saints is hardly trivial in the sense that it's really obviously changed. It is hilarious though. The bit with the rocks is just bizarre. And the new CGI alien on the stairs is pretty half-assed.

I guess Lucasfilm's way of fighting the recession is to burn money on whatever.

So when am I getting the fan edit where they make the sure new rocks are in the next scene?

[Stark]

If Star Wars was as interestingnas Gundam, I'd make you one.

[Aniron]

Then why even dooooooooo them in the first place :v

My point sailed over your head, it seems. These are changes not worthy of incessant bitching.

[VF5SS]

If Star Wars was as interestingnas Gundam, I'd make you one.

Yeah at least in Gundam the space psychics are better pilots.

My point sailed over your head, it seems. These are changes not worthy of incessant bitching.

Well it's like Obi Wan once said, "Who's the more bitchy? The bitcher, or the bitcher who bitches about him?" :3

[Darksider]

At this point, I honestly wonder if the changes aren't just some random ILM employee fucking with everyone and Lucas just isn't paying attention as long as the cash keeps rolling in. From what I've seen in interviews with the production team, he seems to be keeping most of his (admittedly little) focus on the Clone Wars cartoon.

The weird lighting gaffes aren't enough to turn me of to the BD release, but Vader's BigNo in RotJ was the last straw. The laserdisc rips are good enough for me.