Sound points
The soundtrack mix on all six films is DTS Master Audio 6.1. While the tone and characteristics change in line with available budgets and technologies, they’re never less than thrilling. John Williams’ classic score, coupled with the distinctive audio FX and general sound design conspire to create a theatrical sonic experience that is genuinely unique.
Scene menu
From a technical point of view, the last two movies (Episodes II and III) are clearly the best in the box. Both Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith offer peerless video quality with bit-perfect, big theatre audio.
I was impressed when I first saw them presented in a digital theatre, and the impact remains undiminished here. Their colour fidelity and sonic detail borders on the miraculous – the stories I couldn't care less about. If you want to show off your home cinema to visiting Jawas, these platters will certainly do the job.
Props in depth
Three of the nine BDs in the set are devoted to extras. The first two bonus discs are divided by trilogy and broken down by episode. You can peruse interviews – typically an overview of the film plus star chat – and deleted scenes, as well as get in-depth with props and concept art. The discs are rather slow to load, but do contain some lovely trivia.
Menus are neatly animated throughout. However, I wasn’t that enamoured with the way certain assets are handled. The interview elements, which contain fascinating behind-the-scenes footage, are presented in a window rather than full-screen. This affectation is plain irritating. On the plus side, it is nice to rotate models and props and zoom in for fetishistic detail.
Windowed interviews
The third bonus disc is the Saga’s only real disappointment. While it offers no fewer than seven documentaries, these are of assorted vintages and variable interest. The disc inexplicably concludes with a feature-length showreel of spoofs and third-rate references that have cropped up on TV shows and in movies over the years.
Next page: End of story?
COMMENTS
You clearly haven't seen Vader's "No"
If you had, you would realise that it wrecks the scene. As originally presented, Vader's emotional dilemma is made obvious through Dave Prowse's body language. Vocalising it strips away any requirement for subtlety of characterisation. Nothing plotwise has changed, but in terms of quality of presentation it's the sonic equivalent of taking a flying scene from Superman and putting the wires back in.
(BTW, you don't have to be an "obsessed fanboi" to believe that Han originally shot first, because it's blatantly fucking obvious that he did.)
Greedo shooting first
Han's a bad-ass smuggler. Greedo is a bounty-hunter, where bad-assery is more or less a prerequisite. At that range, if either of them pulls the trigger, the other guy is going down.
It's a tense negotiation, with Han being held at gunpoint. Finally, with the gun pointing straight at Han, Greedo fires and takes half the plaster off the wall. What the fuck? Did he bend his blaster or something? He's supposed to be a bad-ass, but he can't shoot an adult human at a range of about 4 feet! That's so ham-fisted, he could make a knuckle sandwich sound quite appealing.
That's the bit that makes no sense. If there was a scuffle, lurching to feet, table thrown over, and *then* Greedo missed, it would be understandable. But to change history to make a shady character look like a nice guy is just stupid. You might as well have had Joseph Stalin in the editing suite...
Han's a bastard. He shot first to make sure he didn't shoot last. He's a smuggler, not a nice guy. That's who he's supposed to be. Put it back.
Is this a good review?
Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo.
Unofrtunately, while the reviewer is not a Star Wars obsessive, a lot of the people that are going to be interested in the boxset *are* and what the review misses is that a lot of key scenes have been altered.
The one that has turned into an internet meme is the fact that now Vader pointlessly shouts "Nooooooooooooooooooooooooo" before tossing Emperor Palaptine down the well, the unnecessary scene in A New Hope featuring an appalling CGI Jabba confronting Han in Mos Eisley, the removal of the "yub-nub" song from Return of the Jedi, placing Hayden Christainsen in the line up at the end of Return of the Jedi, the whole "Han shot first" thing.....the list goes on.
"I have altered the Original Trilogy. Pray I don't alter it any further." - George Lucas.
Not the original trilogy...
Doesn't it at least deserve a mention that these are not the original theatrical versions?
