Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[bobbyh64]

Originally Posted by steel_breeze

Oof, just made it through ROTS with the wife, on our march toward RISE OF SKYWALKER. Glad that's behind us. So many missed opportunities with the execution, it makes me angry/sad every time I see it; definitely my least favorite of all the STAR WARS flicks.

I've had a tumultuous relationship with the prequels: hated them when they first arrived, learned to genuinely enjoy them in the run-up before FORCE AWAKENS (for some reason that crashed Star Destroyer on Jakku, in those early FORCE AWAKENS trailers, made me embrace the phrase "all STAR WARS is good STAR WARS")... but I gotta tell ya, now that I've hugely enjoyed every single live action thing Disney has done with STAR WARS, the prequels are once again pretty tough for me to get through. They were kinda "okay" for awhile when they were fully half the saga, but now that I include SOLO and ROGUE ONE, and have lovvvvved VII and VIII, and have also just enjoyed the first episode of THE MANDALORIAN... wow, the prequels suffer in comparison to all this. For me. Just for me (well, and my wife); just expressing my opinion in-the-moment, having just finished ROTS and feeling like a weight has been lifted 'cuz the prequels are behind us.

Anyhoo... on to SOLO in a couple days. I can literally declare: "here's where the fun begins".

I’m currently having a similar experience. I’ve been watching the movies with my girlfriend and so far we’ve watched Rogue One, Star Wars, Empire, and just finished Phantom Menace. My opinion of Rogue 1 has increased exponentially while my opinion of Phantom Menace is lower than it used to be. That first hour is very tough for me to get through. The only things I like about the movie are Liam Neeson, Ewan McGregor (although he doesn’t do much in the film), the lightsaber duel with Darth Maul, and John Williams’ awesome score. Most of the dialogue is written in such a boring way and the acting is generally bad, especially from most of the minor characters who only have a line or two. It seems like a lot of them were friends and relatives who wanted to be in a Star Wars movie so they were thrown in there.

I always thought I liked Phantom Menace more than Attack of the Clones but I’m not sure anymore. I’ll have to see when I watch Clones again. There are some things I remember liking a lot and some that I found atrocious, but that’s probably better than boring and uninteresting, which Phantom Menace is for the most part.

[bobbyh64]

I hope Rise of Skywalker will feature a pub called McClunky’s.

[kwisatzhaderach]

Originally Posted by TM2-Megatron

Dear god, I'm glad I wrote these movies off years ago. Now with even more changes. Looks like I may never watch any pre-Disney Star Wars ever again.

Enjoy those Disney efforts

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by Rizor

I posted this over in the Movies thread, but here are my thoughts on the 4K Disney+ presentations:

I've sampled Episodes 1-7 plus Rogue One in 4K. Episodes 1-6 don't look great.

The Phantom Menace, Attack of the Clones, and Revenge of the Sith look very much like the Blu-rays. Basically, that's as good as it'll get with these movies due to the original production methods/early digital technology. The Phantom Menace is still a smeary mess. Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith fair better but digital artifacts abound.

To my eyes, A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi look to be from newer scans than the 2004 DVDs/2011 Blu-rays, probably done around 2012 for the planned 3D releases. Only problem is they share a lot of the same problems as the old masters, just without much of the messy encoding/digital artifacts. Colors are the biggest improvement. These look closer to how they originally did - or rather they don't appear to have the blue and pink color casts from the SE and previous DVD/Blu-ray releases. Unfortunately, it looks like another job from Lowry/Reliance or whatever they call themselves. Moderate DNR, edge enhancement, frozen grain. Close ups look pretty solid, if not a bit soft. But anything wider and you start to see the issues. It's not dissimilar to the Terminator 2 UHD, only they remembered to overlay some texture this time around. Basically, a huge disappointment. I guess there's really no hope that the 4K discs will be much better.

The Force Awakens and Rogue One look okay to me. Grain looks a bit chunky and they don't really pop. But hopefully this is better with the 4K physical disc encode.

This is why I'm arguing it could currently just be a case of using what's available to them for the time being. I'd like to think Disney aren't stupid enough to put these sources on 4K disc.

They'd look like total amateurs compared to the more informed and professional treatment the other studios have given their back catalogue titles.

Did Lucus originally approve these 4k transfers of the original trilogy, and the prequels?

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by steel_breeze

Oof, just made it through ROTS with the wife, on our march toward RISE OF SKYWALKER. Glad that's behind us. So many missed opportunities with the execution, it makes me angry/sad every time I see it; definitely my least favorite of all the STAR WARS flicks.

Yeah definitely overrated as far as the prequels go, the "emotion" is so badly executed you have have zero sympathy with what the characters are supposedly going through.

I still think The Phantom Menace is the best prequel film, but that's not saying a lot

[Scottishguy]

I'll never forget my experience of going on opening night to see Attack Of The Clones. As the audience (myself included) burst into fits of hysterical laughter when Yoda started jumping around in the Dooku duel.

[Rizor]

Originally Posted by Scottishguy

This is why I'm arguing it could currently just be a case of using what's available to them for the time being. I'd like to think Disney aren't stupid enough to put these sources on 4K disc.

They'd look like total amateurs compared to the more informed and professional treatment the other studios have given their back catalogue titles.

Did Lucus originally approve these 4k transfers of the original trilogy, and the prequels?

Pablo Hidalgo at Lucasfilm confirmed Lucas worked on these remasters prior to the sale to Disney.

[Scottishguy]

Originally Posted by Rizor

Pablo Hidalgo at Lucasfilm confirmed Lucas worked on these remasters prior to the sale to Disney.

Surprise surprise.

This is turning into a THX 1138 situation. What exactly happened to the originals of that? Lucas destroy the negative?

[bobbyh64]

He also added a CGI sunset in American Graffiti.

[Bobbyjoe766]

Originally Posted by Mikezilla3k

TBH, the 97 Jabba looks better design-wise. But both of them have awful CGI.

Never did like the oversized moist puppy dog eyes. The 2004 Jabba looks closer to the 1983 beast.

[Roonan]

Originally Posted by Scottishguy

I'll never forget my experience of going on opening night to see Attack Of The Clones. As the audience (myself included) burst into fits of hysterical laughter when Yoda started jumping around in the Dooku duel.

I'll never forget my experience of going to see Attack Of The Clones. As the audience (myself included) cheered when Yoda started jumping around in the Dooku duel.

[CreasyBear]

Originally Posted by Roonan

I'll never forget my experience of going to see Attack Of The Clones. As the audience (myself included) cheered when Yoda started jumping around in the Dooku duel.

Agreed. It wasn't laughter, it was giddy cheering and applause.

[JackStraw]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

Agreed. It wasn't laughter, it was giddy cheering and applause.

I remember that mix of laughing and applause myself. I loved it more than I thought I would.

[Scottishguy]

Note that a Scottish audience is entirely diffrent to an American one. We don't cheer film's, or applaud. Though that's more just typical British rigidity culture.

[Gold Ranger]

I remember my experience with Attack of the Clones...
I was in Manhattan. Found some dude selling a copy on the street. I bought it.
Brought it over to my cousin's house.
We watched it. It was a cam recording. So it was grainy and dirty. It looked like 4,5,6 at the time. Much less clean looking than The Phantom Menace. It helped make the movie seem more Star Warsy.
Anyway, we're watching and it cuts off just as Obi-Wan and Anakin enter the hanger to fight Dooku.
I went from seeing The Phantom Menace in theaters 8 times during it's original run and loving it to hating it over the course of three years. The new movie was okay at rhis point but was annoyed that we didn't see the whole thing.
So a couple of days later, when the movie finally gets released to theaters we go and watch it.
As the movie plays on, I realized how different it looked from the video copy I had was. It was more clean than it looked but seemed to still fit better than The Phantom Menace. The arena scene happens and Anakin says: We came here to rescue you and both my cousin and I say in perfect unison with Obi-Wan: Some rescue!
The guy in front of us turned around with a really annoyed look on his face and turned back around right away.
I thought to myself, don't be mad, you should have seen it at midnight last night. Lol.
Anyway, then we get to the desert chase and hanger and boy, was it both a treat and crap.
Obi-wan gets a little cut and is down for the count while Anakin loses an entire limb and is just out of it (shock)
Then in comes Mr jumpy jumpy and whips out his LightSaber.
The theater goes nuts with hollers and applesauce. Lol.
At first I thought it was gonna be this badass fight, but turned into early 2000s cg carton fight.
I was a bit disappointed.
Overall it was cool, but there were some dumb decisions made and executed.
Par for the course, I guess...

[BuraddoRun]

Originally Posted by JackStraw

I remember that mix of laughing and applause myself. I loved it more than I thought I would.

Call me a party pooper, but I thought the scene was ridiculous. Attack of the Clones is my favorite prequel movie, but Yoda hopping around like a hackey sack was silly. My friends with me in the theater agreed.

[drush9999]

Originally Posted by bobbyh64

He also added a CGI sunset in American Graffiti.

There was a similar change done to the titles of Caravan of Courage when it made DVD, in case people care

[imsounoriginal]

Yoda vs. Dooku is still probably my favorite lightsaber fight, in large part because of my memory of seeing it in a packed theater. I can't remember if it was teased in the marketing, but I had no idea it was coming and it seemed like no one else did, either. The place erupted.

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by CreasyBear

Overall, I'll take the 2011 Blu-ray's over any of these streaming versions and all of the previous versions. I have the Despecialized Editions for nostalgic reasons, but when I marathon or watch them regularly, it's Lucas' preferred versions on the physical media with proper contrast and colors and incredible lossless DTS-HD MA audio.

But these latest (circa 2012) versions ARE Lucas' preferred versions, we just haven't seen them until now. As for "proper colours and contrast" the Blu-rays are horribly overcooked for contrast and saturation, they sure do 'pop' like a mofo which will appeal to those who like such things but they're not to my taste, I sold the Blus years ago.

Originally Posted by MechaGodzilla

Wait, what, you think the '97 Jabba looks better and less like a "PS1 model" than the '04 Jabba?!

Jabba The Hutt | A New Hope CGI Comparison | Star Wars. - YouTube

Right?? The '97 Jabba is so bad it should never have been included in the first place. Poor resolution, stiff animation, terrible likeness, it's awful. I ain't saying that the 2004 version is now The Greatest CG Effect Ever Made but to me it's a hundred times better, for even if people aren't digging the design (which was the CG model from TPM I think?) the actual animation is so much better as he has some character now. I love the 'raising' gesture he does with his hand when he talks about the percentage and how he balls up his fist ready to thwack Han when he steps on his tail, only to look down at his hand and relax it with a smile when Han starts sweet-talking him.

[JackStraw]

Originally Posted by BuraddoRun

Call me a party pooper, but I thought the scene was ridiculous. Attack of the Clones is my favorite prequel movie, but Yoda hopping around like a hackey sack was silly. My friends with me in the theater agreed.

Nah, it was great. The only thing that got bigger cheers from the prequel trilogy during the screenings I went to was the trumpets that kick off the opening theme.