Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[SDon1969]

Originally Posted by P@t_Mtl

I was 9 years old in June of 1977 when I first saw Star Wars, seem only like yesterday sometimes

I was 8 and remember bragging at school that I had seen it eight times. Haha, those were the days!

[quigonjinn]

Originally Posted by joliefan

list of deleted scene's
00:09:06:20 (BATTLE OF ENDOR: THE LOST REBELS)

What's that???
Does it means that we'll have almost 10 minutes of endor space battle deleted footage???
It taht's true, this the true best value of this set.

[Bluyoda]

Originally Posted by Shaft Windu

Wow, these pictures are amazing!!! I hope my set gets dispatched soon! Can't wait to see the entire saga again!!! I don't even know anymore which episode is my favorite!

EPISODE I - To me the most classic Star Wars Episode with a mission of two Jedi in the old republic without that much heavy drama. If someone had never seen Star Wars "The Phantom Menace" is propably the one to show what it's all about. It has good Jedi and wicked Sith, high adventure, a race, space- and lightsaber-battles and all the classic characters like Yoda, Jabba, C-3PO, R2D2 and Obi Wan in it.

EPISODE II - My favorite Episode that I have the fondest memories of. After watching Episode I several times in cinemas, the wait for the sequel was magical. I really loved that film-noir mystery vibe, the dramatic love-story (underlined by the haunting "Across the Stars"), the classic arena-battle and Anakins struggle with Hayden Christensen making the part his own with charme, dignity and a dark edge.

EPISODE III - The darkest, most complex and maybe from an objective point of view the best Episode. It has so much going on without losing its focus - much like "The Dark Knight". To see the fall of Anakin and all the drama surrounding it leaves you on the edge of your seat for more than two hours. It's so emotionally demanding and intense that it is at times hard to watch.

EPISODE IV - The first incarnation of Star Wars did lay much of the groundwork. It's in contrast to the previous Episode very simple and linear. The light-hearted banter between the heroes makes it fun to watch. The trench battle is one of the most iconic sequences in the whole saga. Propably the Episode that works as a Stand-Alone movie too.

EPISODE V - To most fans the best Episode. Here the paths of the tragic villain and the self-doubting hero cross in a dramatic way. And THE big reveal in the saga paves the way to the grand finale. I especially like the calmness of Yodas teachings and the philosophical undertones. Here we learn most about the magic of the the force.

EPISODE VI - Here Lucas masters the hard task to combine the lighter tone of Episodes I and IV with the darkness of Episodes III in the ultimate confrontation of Vader, Luke and the Emperor. Especially with the SE-ending where we see the "good" Anakin restored in the afterlife and get to see the celebrations on Coruscant, Tatooine and Naboo it is a worthy ending to an epic narrative that has yet to meet its match

Pretty much agree with you there, although ROTJ is just unoriginal in many ways, and therefore my least favorite of the bunch. At least towards the end it kind of redeems itself.

Originally Posted by El_Jay

These are opinions I am very interested in.

It's impossible for me to unsee the films and view the OT without my rose-tinted glasses. I mean it's more than a movie for me, it was a part of my life in a lot of ways, so really the PT didn't have a chance in hell to supplant the originals.

With that in mind it's interesting to hear the perspective of people who saw the PT movies first, then went back to see what the fuss was all about, and still liked the originals better.

It's not to say that it's the norm, but it's definitely cool to see that it's not JUST my rose-tinted glasses making me love the OT more than the PT... there are others who've had a completely different introduction to the SW universe and have still come to the same conclusion as I have.

+1

I like them all, but I would probably choose the PT if I had to, as it really brought GL vision to the screen, and the story is so much more epic.

[bboisvert]

Originally Posted by quigonjinn

What's that???
Does it means that we'll have almost 10 minutes of endor space battle deleted footage???
It taht's true, this the true best value of this set.

I'm guessing it's the ground battle.

[aiman04]

I was -36 days old when Star Wars came out to theaters and I remember.. Nevermind. I don't really recall when I watched it the first time, the movie existed in my mind as long as I can remember. But I won't forget when I clicked the link from this site to Amazon.com and pre-ordered the complete saga blu-ray, that was January 7, 2011.

[vargo]

Originally Posted by HeavyHitter

I keep hearing about this degrain/regrain from Lowry. Can you someone link me to the actual work they did on this? Seems weird to completely regrain something then add fake grain to the image? We are seeing fake film grain in these?

It is just something that Lowry did or does.

Any kind of degrain process needs two things:
1) Figure out which pixels are grain/noise
2) Figure out what colour they should be if the grain/noise wasn't there

And they do that with various algorithms that work within the frame (spatially) and also by looking forward and backwards to different frames (temporally).

Temporal de-grain especially is a very risky thing to do. If you overdo it or your algorithms suck then you can end up with smeary artifacts.

I don't know if that is specifically the problem with Lowry's process but certainly many people have noticed weird floaty grain patterns in some of his restorations. I notice it in ANH - there are panning camera shots where the grain pattern is fixed in space for whole seconds at a time.

It doesnt help when you are doing all this process at the same resolution as the final presentation. If you scan at 1080p then each pixel is 18 microns wide, but what if your pieces of dust/grain are only half that? You have to remove the whole pixel, it is a very ham-fisted approach. That's why most high-profile restorations are done at 4k or 8k.

[quigonjinn]

Originally Posted by bboisvert

I'm guessing it's the ground battle.

Not sure. Maybe half space/ half ground.
Don't forget the Mon Cal pilot seen in the deleted scenes trailer. It must belongs to this scene. And there is also the pic of rebel gunner...

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by vargo

It is not just you. They could look so much better if they did a modern 4k or 8k restoration instead of reusing the old Lowry 1.9k transfer from 2004.

Originally Posted by Bukax42

Actually it's from 1995, 2004 DVD transfers are just tweaked versions of the restoration made for Special Edition.

I hope you're kidding. These transfers are 16 years old?! Lucas is a billionaire for chrissakes! I can almost understand him not wanting to spend a dime on restoring the original versions of the Holy Trilogy since he apparently wishes they'd disappear for good, but to half-ass it with the special editions this way is inexcusable. These should be brand-spanking new transfers, not tweaked rehashes.

[Bluyoda]

A bit let down about the DNR in TPM, but detail still looks good, except for the absolutely abominable Qui Gon close-up!!!

The young Anakin shot looks amazing, as does the Coruscant view shot!!
This is the detail I always dreamed of having on my screen!

I pray they have been very selective with DNR.

If it's too much, I'll certainly write to Lucasfilm/Fox about it.

I'd love to see TPM look like the remastered Gladiator BD, but I haven't even seen TPM BD yet, so no need to make any decisions yet.

I think they shouldn't have used filters on AOTC, or at least only applied them in post production.

I agree with Jumpman that ROTS is quite probably going to look and sound the best, and it's also the most powerful SW movie.

I can't wait to see CG Yoda in TPM! He looks awesome!

One quesion to those who already have the BD set:

Did they update the YODA in AOTC??????

The CG Yoda in TPM clearly has the fuzzballs, while the AOTC does not.
Also the translucency of the skin...has been much improved in the ROTS...

Too bad they didn't choose me to oversee the transfers and updates.

I would have done a genius job.

Still excited to finally seeing SW again!!!!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by nagysaudio

Calling on Adywan, or any other long time Star Wars experts...

In Return of the Jedi, there are a few scenes (totaling maybe 5 minutes) where the picture quality on the Blu-Ray suddenly turns from a nice high definition (1080P/1.9K) to an almost SD quality and even sub par DVD.

One of the scenes in question is in the shuttle as the crew prepares to land on Endor. Proceeded by a handful of scenes in the actual forest of Endor. And even at the very end, after Luke cuts off Darth Vader's hand, there's a shot of Luke that's just terrible. These are not the only scenes and there are more throughout the film, but you get the point.

What is the history behind this? Is this part of the OCN, or were these scenes so badly deteriorated/damaged (or even lost) that they had to use them from a lower quality source(s)?

Were these scenes the same on the original unaltered Star Wars: Return of the Jedi Laserdiscs, DVD, HDTV broadcasts, 1997 SE release, etc.?

Thanks for all of the input!

That haggard shot of Luke after he cuts off Vader's hand has always, ALWAYS been there. The neg for that shot must've been damaged, so a dupe (a poor one at that) had to be used.

(It's funny, I remember watching that bit on VHS and the print was so badly scratched during that whole scene it looked like it was covered in blue rain.)

There's definitely something funny going with those Endor shots though. They look like those old Warners encodes which had half the horizontal resolution.

[Shin sam]

Originally Posted by Merlinpants

OT : http://www.millenniumfalcon.com/phpb...pic.php?t=9065

PT : http://www.millenniumfalcon.com/phpb...pic.php?t=9088

Thank you, thank you, thank you! Gonna read through now!!

[Geoff D]

Originally Posted by Adam_ME

I hope you're kidding. These transfers are 16 years old?! Lucas is a billionaire for chrissakes! I can almost understand him not wanting to spend a dime on restoring the original versions of the Holy Trilogy since he apparently wishes they'd disappear for good, but to half-ass it with the special editions this way is inexcusable. These should be brand-spanking new transfers, not tweaked rehashes.

The SE restoration was done on film. The 2004 Lowry masters used the SE negatives for the transfer. Those 1080p masters have been re-purposed for the Blu-ray, which even John Lowry himself said (back in 2004 IIRC) would need to be redone for a proper HD release. Ergo these Blu-ray transfers are 7 years old.

[Jumpman]

Bluyoda,

In theory, I understand why they used filters for Episode II. First time shooting in HD...felt the image was too sharp, so they basically dumbed it down at the time...plus, it's the love story of the Saga, so Lucas wants a more dreamy look to it.

The image might falter a bit on Blu Ray due to the decisions made in the summer of 2000, but it still should be quite great.

[svenge]

Originally Posted by Shallow_

If one really Loves Starwars, then yes it should and does matter.

They are 100% Starwars films, all 6 of em, and those who seek to keep dividing them and help substain the disliking for the so-called prequels can not be considered Starwars fans imo.

It doesn't take a division of the movies into trilogies to sustain disliking the prequels. The prequels' lack of quality does it for us!

Originally Posted by Coov

And if one did not like Superman 3, 4 and Superman Returns, then obviously you are not a Superman fan.

And it also means that if you don't like "Highlander II: The Quickening", "Star Trek V", or "Batman and Robin" (other examples of unnecessary hideous sequels), you're not a fan of Highlander, Star Trek, or Batman

And before you even think of saying it's different because George Lucas made the prequels, the George Lucas of the mid/late 70s and the George Lucas of the mid-90s onwards are completely different people, if not legally then by almost any other measure.

[DarkDune]

Originally Posted by DanzG

Wow what is up with the Green Tint in AOTC's?

Interesting.

This happened in LOTR FOTR on Blu, and people deny it is an issue.

Perhaps they have new "calibrated" monitors at the authoring studios...Teal is the new Blu!

[DarkDune]

8 DAYS TILL US SW BLU RELEASE!!!!

[Adam_ME]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The SE restoration was done on film. The 2004 Lowry masters used the SE negatives for the transfer. Those 1080p masters have been re-purposed for the Blu-ray, which even John Lowry himself said (back in 2004 IIRC) would need to be redone for a proper HD release. Ergo these Blu-ray transfers are 7 years old.

7 years old is still inexcusable. If Lucas had dumped these on Blu-ray at the inception of the format, I could understand not redoing the transfers. But the DVDs came out 7 years ago. The Blu-ray format itself is now over 5 years old. The dude's more concerned with his endless tweaking of the films instead of ensuring that they look as good as possible in 1080p.

[El_Jay]

Originally Posted by svenge

It doesn't take a division of the movies into trilogies to substain disliking the prequels. The prequels' lack of quality does it for us!

Yeah, I've really heard enough of the conspiracy theories that old set-in-their-ways rose-tinted idiots are purposely sabotaging their and everyone else's enjoyment of the prequels for... what?!

If the prequels were as good as the original trilogy, I would like them as much. Simple as that.

I have nothing to gain by going out of my way to "hate" them. Believe me, I wanted to love them as much as anyone who grew up with Star Wars.

[DarkDune]

Originally Posted by Geoff D

The SE restoration was done on film. The 2004 Lowry masters used the SE negatives for the transfer. Those 1080p masters have been re-purposed for the Blu-ray, which even John Lowry himself said (back in 2004 IIRC) would need to be redone for a proper HD release. Ergo these Blu-ray transfers are 7 years old.

Lowry Article on the SW Restoration for DVD at Apple:
http://www.apple.com/ca/pro/film/low...ars/index.html

One quote: "Ward agrees to a point, but suspects he might be calling on Lowry again. 'As the technology evolves and we get into a high-definition platform that is easily consumable by our customers, the situation is much better, but there will always be work to be done.t'"

[Dynamo of Eternia]

Originally Posted by Shallow_

If one really Loves Starwars, then yes it should and does matter.

They are 100% Starwars films, all 6 of em, and those who seek to keep dividing them and help substain the disliking for the so-called prequels can not be considered Starwars fans imo.

Do we really need to start this who is and isn't a "real fan" debate again? It never gets us anywhere and it just goes around in circles.

For many people, Star Wars was one thing for a good 20 years or so, then between the changes to the movies and the creation of the PT, in many respects it became another. Some took well to that, others didn't. It doesn't mean that they don't love what came originally, which is ultimately what made Star Wars the well-known franchise that it is today.

This may not apply to you specifically, Shallow_, but what I find funny is that many of the people who more or less defend Lucas at every turn, claim to love to Saga as a whole and look upon it as one big story and not as 2 separate trilogies, more often than not (whether it is explicitly or implicitly) tend to show more of a general preference towards the PT films. I can't help but find it very ironic that the people who claim that it's all one cohesive story and not 2 separate trilogies tend to show more of a preference for one "half" of that story (aka one trilogy) over the other, and then often go on the chastise those who only like the OT and don't care much for the PT. That's kind of like someone saying that they never drink milk, but they love cow-utter-juice.