These latest scene changes are the final proof that George Lucas has lost his mind, however they are NOT the main reason why I just cancelled my blu-ray pre-order. I had been excitedly counting down the days until this release, but this time George/Lucasfilm has given the whole Star Wars community the middle finger by not correcting many of the problems (color) which plagued the 2004 release. This blu-ray has virtually all of the same issues as the DVD. I'm talking about Vader's bubblegum pink lightsaber, the super high orange or purple explosions opposed to the more realistic white hot/yelow effects. These were especially noticable during the Battle of Yavin, Tantive IV shootout, and the carbon freezing chamber duel. They stuck out to the point to where they were almost distracting. After seeing the prequels, it's hard enough to still view Vader as that ultimate bad a** villian I feared in my childhood, but it's now near impossible to do it when he's chasing after Luke with a pink lightsaber.
Lucasfilm has been made well aware of these issues thru complaints made by ticked off fans since the DVD launched 7 years ago. Now in the last year of hyping up of this Blu Ray release, Lucasfilm has assured us Star Wars fans that our complaints had been heard and addressed in this release, the Blu-Ray would NOT have the same color and audio problems as the dvd's, they went back to the original negatives and spent 3 years fixing these particular problems, they manually went thru frame by frame in the problem scenes fixing and making other color corrections to bring them close again to the original theatrical versions.
Heck Starwars.com displays a screenshot of Luke's fixed blue lightsaber on the Millenium Falcon in ANH, boasting about how they went back and fixed these problems. I have seen the Blu-Rays myself and I can confirm this is NOT the case!! Yes it is fixed for that particular frame and a few other frames, but the next shot of the same scene his lightsaber shifts back to green, just like in the screwed up dvd release, then goes to bright white, then back to a very pale blue color. Yes they fixed ONLY a small portion of that scene, left the rest of it untouched with the wrong color, while implying that the whole thing has been corrected. The lightsaber scenes in the other movies, Empire Strikes Back & Return of the Jedi, are practically UNTOUCHED WITH THE SAME color and timing problems that the DVD's have. It's like Lucasfilm is only willing to put in a half a** effort in anything they release anymore.... and why not?? If it says Star Wars on the box it's going to sell.
Now for the changed scenes:
A New Hope
- When R2-D2 hides in the shallow cave from the Sand People, there have been CGI rocks added in. The new rocks now cover up half of R2's body which makes him hidden better. However when he leaves a few seconds later, he just pulls forward and the rocks simply disappear!! Did they just forget to alter that scene too?
- Obi-Wan's introduction, he scares the Sand People away with a Krayt dragon call, has been redone again and now sounds like a jr. high kid making funny noises in Windows sound recorder. When I first heard it I thought no way, it's someone pulling a joke. It's sounds so bad and is so out of place, they made absolutely no effort to mix it in at all. You'll just have to hear it for yourselves... but sadly it's real. Unbelievable
- Greedo still shoots first. It is alot better than the DVD version.
Empire Strikes Back
- Wampa's arm in fixed. Looks good about time.
Return of the Jedi
- Jabba's Palace has a bigger door... ok?
- New CGI alien walking around in Jabba's palace as everyone sleeps. Poorly done and sticks out worse than a sore thumb... looks like Sebulba from Episode I?
- Ewok's now have CGI eyelids, blink, and sometimes make a clicking noise when they do. (maybe a tribute to Muppets/Fraggle Rock?)
- Darth Vader now screams "Noooooooooooo" as he picks up and throws the emperor, much like the way he does at the end of Episode III.... now twice!! This ruins a great and one of my favorite scenes. It's bad. The voice doesn't even sound like Vader's and it's just lazily pasted over the rest of the audio. Lucasfilm didn't make the effort to blend in at all..... what are they thinking????? If you really feel you need to add something like that, at least attempt a decent job.
This has just gotten laughingly ridiculous. There is no excuse this time for ignoring what the fans want and taking away more of the original magic the movies had back in the 70's and 80's. Besides the deleted scenes, this is not a quality release. I've cancelled my pre-order and I'm done with anything new to do with Star Wars. This includes the new upcoming 3d versions which will no doubt have even more stupid changes and conveniently opens the door for yet another Blu-Ray release. I have my unaltered copies on my bonus DVD and that's all I need.
I urge anyone who feels the same way to NOT fill the pockets of George Lucas anymore!! I don't understand how they think it's necessary tinker with new stupid voiceovers and Ewok eyes, but not fix the more obvious and distracting problems of this and the previous release. All the while Lucasfilm insinuated, just as recently as last week, that they had indeed corrected those problems..... THAT IS FALSE ADVERTISING!! They also claimed to have exhaustively sent this set thru 3 levels of quality control which is either another lie or Lucas has the most elite team of a** kissers ever assembled. I've defended the first two prequels, the Special Editions, and George Lucas himself over the years, but I'm done. For the first time in 25 years they will not be getting another dime of my money.
***UPDATE 9/9/11***
I've viewed the bonus content which the deleted scenes are no doubt the best of all the extra features. As for the Prequels, the previously released DVD deleted scenes are NOT included, so hang onto your old discs. The older movies include scenes that have been Star Wars folklore for years. Some are good and the quality is what you expect for deleted scenes cut over 30 years ago. However some of scenes I particularly had interest in, seem to be made from degraded alternate shots... since there are productions stills and video snippets that Lucasfilm released, over the years in different supplemental products, showing the same scenes taken from higher quality sources. On another note, the deleted ESB content shows the scenes leading up to and the aftermath of the wampa fight with rebel soldiers in Echo Base. The battle itself is completely omitted in this release, which is a shame since the battle scene was filmed and possibly finalized before it was cut from the final release. Luckily there are various stills of this scene still floating around and it was covered by Star Wars Insider years back. The rest of the content is very good and it's great finally seeing some of the other scenes... however after viewing I get the impression Lucasfilm is purposely holding back some of these materials for a future release.
