How I realized I was over Star Wars completely

[anarky]

I can't actually do it, but the best change would be from Empire Strikes Back:

Rebel: Your Tauntaun will freeze before you reach the first marker.
Han: Then I'll see you in--
Completely different Han voice: About five minutes.

[jjreason]

I purchased the blu-ray set, all 6 movies. I was dead set against it too - but there was an online deal up here - $74.99 for the full set plus a one day sale of 15 percent. The whole thing got delivered to my door for less than $12 per film. The deleted scenes are on a separate archives disc and are not woven into the movies. For interest's sake, the Toschi station (long version, including the full dialogue with Biggs), Sandstorm and Luke finishing his saber sequences are worth a few of these bucks (the scenes themselves were better left out of the films mind you, though heavily-reduced/edited snippits of them could have fit in nicely).

So wait - this doesn't help me realize I'm over SW at all.

[Ran]

So if I end up buying a blue ray device and get the Original Trilogy, will I get the deleted scenes?

Is there a list of deleted scenes?

[anarky]

I believe the deleted scenes are only on the full set.

I've watched ANH and ESB on DVD lately, and am more than satisfied with the quality of the image. No need to drop $80+ on deleted scenes I'll eventually be able to see somewhere.

And I have no doubt that, in 2013, there will be some "new" format that makes all these early-adopters drop blu-ray and jump to whatever the hell it is.

[jjreason]

It's my understanding you need to purchase the whole saga to obtain the archives discs (deleted scenes & other fun stuff). I also read that the BluRay discs were written from the same source as the DVDs, so as far as "overall" movie quality goes, there isn't such a massive disparity. The newly added or newly fixed stuff looks, well newly added or newly fixed. Vader talking to Moff Jerjerrod to start ROTJ looks much the same on blu as it does on DVD, in my opinion.

The deleted scenes I've watched are as follows (OT only):

ANH - Toschi Station long sequence, complete with Luke being called Wormie, him wearing the floppy hat, him seeing the battle in the sky (twinkles basically) & calling their attention to it, discussing with Biggs going to the Academy & joining the Rebels. It's about 10 minutes long and in a quality that would approximate watching the "theatrical release" (non-SE) DVD of ANH. Interesting for interest's sake, but it would have ground the movie to a halt for sure.

ESB - a bunch of really funny deleted Wampa in the Hoth base sequences of piss-poor quality. Laughable really. No WAY in hell this should have been in the movie (but then the same was said about the Cantina footage in the beginning, and we know how that turned out). Also some extended bantering between Leia & Han in the corridor and a bit more with Luke in the Bacta that's not too bad.

ROTJ - The Sandstorm bit is presented with the sound "as shot" (loud fans blowing, voices largely inaudible) as it was never re-voiced. The costumes are really neat, but the acting is no screaming hell. I guess about 10-15 seconds of them going to ship in the sandstorm would have provided an interesting slice but not much more than that would have fit nicely.

The Luke finishing his sabre sequence could have been used in small part, possibly to create a sense of wonder in the audience as to just which way he was going (he looks quite dark). This bit includes some also unseen R2 & C3PO footage for you droid fans out there.

There is also quite a bit of extended Rebels into the Endor Bunker footage, showing an unused firefight from a few different angles. Han's reply to being called Rebel Scum is included, and fairly humorous. Again, for pacing this works WAY better the way it's presented in the film.

Some footage featuring General Madine performing the actions of Admiral Ackbar in the final battle, which if I read properly were created in case the costume didn't look right when he was moving around.

There are likely some other things on there, but that's what comes to mind right now - I can post again later if I find or remember something else.

[Ran]

No scene where the Royal Guards kick someone's ass? I thought there were stills from the scene.

There is no way I'm buying the entire trilogy. If I get a PS3, I doubt I even get the OT only set if there isn't anything new on it. I have the original dvd release of the OT, which is fine. Never bought the updated dvd version with the original unedited version of the movies.

[jjreason]

That was my last version too - the first set of dvds. Like I said, I was absolutely NOT buying these, ESPECIALLY NOT the full saga... but when they hit me over the head with the sexy price I was helpless.

[anarky]

$80 to get another copy of Attack of the Clowns is not a sexy price, jjreason.

[jjreason]

$72, taxes & delivery included biznatch. In my mind that $24 each for the OT movies with a free bonus discs which include the PT

[Ran]

I bought the prequel DVDs as they came out thinking I would like them better if I saw them a second time. It sort of worked for TPM. The other two seemed to get worse after each viewing.

[Senor JabbaJohnL]

It's my understanding you need to purchase the whole saga to obtain the archives discs (deleted scenes & other fun stuff). I also read that the BluRay discs were written from the same source as the DVDs, so as far as "overall" movie quality goes, there isn't such a massive disparity. The newly added or newly fixed stuff looks, well newly added or newly fixed. Vader talking to Moff Jerjerrod to start ROTJ looks much the same on blu as it does on DVD, in my opinion.

Yup, it seems that the trilogy sets don't have any extras aside from the two commentaries per film, included on each disc.

Being written from the same digital masters still means that the Blu-rays are significantly less compressed than the DVDs. DVDs display 480 lines of resolution in an image while Blu-rays display 1080. There's something of a difference in the image on my TV, which is a 4:3 clunker from 2004, and the Blu-ray player won't even play anything above 480, and it still looks a bit better due to the fact that it simply has more image information.

No scene where the Royal Guards kick someone's ass? I thought there were stills from the scene.

There's a lot of deleted Moff Jerjerrod material from ROTJ, including where two Royal Guards are behind him, force pikes out and all, while Vader chokes him for not letting him through to see the Emperor. That's all the deleted Royal Guard material on there, except for a ROTS animatic where Yoda disposes of them in a different way.

Here's a good rundown of most of the deleted scenes in the set. The scenes themselves are more interesting from a "what could have been" perspective than actually "good," so to speak. I mean, there's a reason most of them were cut. Some of them are quick and goofy, but some are downright fascinating (particularly one where Leia visits Luke after his wampa attack). It's clear that the most interesting prequel scenes were already used on the DVDs, and most of the effects are nowhere near finished, but again, it's fun to see the evolution of these kinds of things.

Aside from the deleted scenes, there's an insane amount of material organized by movie, and then by planet, including interviews, concept art (a lot of which I've never seen, or at least not for a long time), and incredibly in-depth looks at props, costumes, concept models, and that sort of thing, most of which have featurettes with the people who created them and related anecdotes. Even after all the stuff that's been released over the years, how there is still so much to be shown is amazing.

As for the films themselves, I've only watched the prequels, but have skimmed through the OT to check out the changes. Indeed, if you're not on an HD setup, there's not a hugely noticeable difference in picture quality. That's true of every film except for TPM, where they got rid of the shitty, blurry, red-tinted, zoomed-in DVD transfer and present the film as beautiful as it was ever supposed to look (hell, maybe better). CGI Yoda is a huge improvement as well. If you don't buy this set, but like this film at all, you owe it to yourself to check out this version (and compare it side-by-side to the DVD, it's pretty awesome).

The audio is another standout part of the set. Again, my setup is far from state of the art, but there's a much more noticeable "punch" to the films in that the loud parts are, uh, significantly louder than the quiet ones. The difference is much greater than on the DVDs, and much more dynamic. Basically, it fucking rocks.

So if you can suck it up and deal with the combined total of two minutes of changes (most of which is CGI Yoda), then you should look into this set a little more seriously. If not now, then at some point in time. I'm not saying you have to buy it, but at least check it out wherever you can.

[Sleazer]

I agree with JJL...

Really guys, it's ~$80 for a 9 disc set with TONS of extra goodies. This is not a huge investment...

[anarky]

When you've got two kids and a mortgage, and no blu-ray player, it kinda is.

[jjreason]

Again, my setup is far from state of the art, but there's a much more noticeable "punch" to the films in that the loud parts are, uh, significantly louder than the quiet ones. The difference is much greater than on the DVDs, and much more dynamic.

We watched TPM today, and I really liked the change in Yoda. Noticeably better. The audio levels were REALLY dynamic though - like so dynamic I had to keep the remote on hand to turn it up & down about 98 times over the course of 2hrs. ><

[Rollo Tomassi]

I don't have a Blu-Ray player yet, so I'm in no rush to buy these or any other bluRay sets. And truthfully I'm not sure the last time I watched StarWars. Any of them. I think my son had it in a couple years ago and I was bored by it. It was ROTS.