Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[happydood]

Originally Posted by The Doof

The problem we have now is that Georgie boy has completely f*(ked himself for future releases. The reason I caved and bought the set is because I'm afraid there won't be another next-gen hi-def release.

The prequels can only ever be 1080p. That's it. No upgrades. Ever. In his maniacal and ill-advised need to push the envelop he rushed into a format that was only 10 years future-proof. Given his insane stubborn streak when it comes to his forcing his "complete" saga on us, I can't imagine him ever releasing the OT in better resolution than the PT. I think this is the reason he never went back to 4 or 8k scans of the ON. Also, he would have to redo all the special edition crap.

At this point he has all the money he and his heirs will ever need. ILM is self-sustaining and profitable. All the EU stuff will continue to generate ridiculous wealth. And he is insanely stubborn. I don't think he will care about the revenue he could get from another release of the OT.

4K-Ray or whatever the digital-delivery version is won't have a SW release. This is my prediction.

Most of this is really presumptuous. When all is said and done, he is financing everything himself, and as that's the case, he measures cost of production vs. possible returns, both with film production itself and subsequent video releases. This makes business sense. You may not like the product, but the model is fairly standard.

Also, 'Georgie boy?' Really? You guys friends?

[Beast]

The complaints about Lucas pushing the envelop for advancing technology is funny.

Since it was that exact same desire to push the envelope from the start that led to so many film making technology advancements that are STILL used today in making movies. If he listened to people's comments like that back then, I can barely imagine what movie making would be like today.

[The Doof]

Originally Posted by dookiex

Hey, at least he has the transfers available digitally. He could still much about with it. Plus, the transfer looks WAY better and cleaner than The Godfather 1&2 transfers (though I love my Godfather trilogy dearly).

Yeah, he can muck about and release it all again. On Blu-Ray. What's he gonna do in 5-10 years when we have a new format? If we're lucky, I'm wrong and the OT will survive into the 8k-Ray world and the PT will be relegated to people's basements and landfills.

I cannot fathom the horribly bad decisions this guy makes - all in the name of justifying the horrible mistake that the PT was. It's like when you make a mistake when you are drawing - everyone knows you should just erase and start over. But most times you keep adding to it or drawing over top of it trying to fix it, and it always looks like shit.

I feel the 2004 xfers were a huge f*(k up. I really do. I'm not sure why he suddenly gave them a new look, but I can guess. They did what they could with the sabers, but I think that - short of re-retoscoping them, which is what they should have done - the shots that still look bad are because they literally can't be helped by windowing them in a xfer suite.

[The Doof]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

Only AOTC and ROTS were done in 1920 x 1080. However, TPM was shot in standard 35mm at 4K just like the original trilogy. So if we do see a 4K format in the next decade Episodes I, IV, V, & VI would definitely benefit from the treatment.

But there are two shots in TPM that are digital video. They already look bad.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by The Doof

But there are two shots in TPM that are digital video. They already look bad.

TPM is definitely the weakest link in the BD set in terms of PQ. It would have looked noticeably better had DNR not been used.

[Duffy12]

Originally Posted by Valaquen

I should also note that I love and cherish the old Star Wars flicks, all 3 of them - I wanted nothing more than to have 6 Star Wars flicks to love and cherish. I'll never forget seeing AotC upon its release with my brother; we were in the right age demographic, grew up with the films, but by the Coruscant chase sequence [10-15mins in?] we were slumping in our chairs, bored out of our minds. It was so soulless.

Oh boy, same thing for me too.

I gave AoTC a shot at the theater because of Harry Knowles sneak peak wanking review of it. But right after that city case scene started I was already bored with it and knew that I had made a mistake in giving this series another go.

I just seems that most of the action scenes from the PQs are very monotonous, don't hold my attention, and last way too long. From the pod race, that city case in AoTC, the beginning battle in RotS, and Kenobi's fight with the Gen Grievous.

And speaking of Gen. Grievous, what's with all the goofy names throughout the PQs? I thought that the ones in the OT's were pretty darn cool, but it seems like he took a left turn when naming characters for the new films. It's like he was trying to gear these films to a much younger audience.

.

[The Doof]

Originally Posted by happydood

Most of this is really presumptuous. When all is said and done, he is financing everything himself, and as that's the case, he measures cost of production vs. possible returns, both with film production itself and subsequent video releases. This makes business sense. You may not like the product, but the model is fairly standard.

Also, 'Georgie boy?' Really? You guys friends?

No, we are not friends. He is the Creator.

I wish he was motivated purely by business decisions. But he ain't - he is one stubborn muthaf*(ka when it comes to his prequels. I get it, though, I really do. You can't go for decades being hailed a genius then have the world turn on you overnight. I would be bitter and stubborn too.

[Weirded Wonder]

Originally Posted by El_Jay

Whereas Lucas is known for original ideas and not stealing wholesale from Kurosawa, Flash Gordon, Wayne/Ford westerns, Leone westerns, etc. etc.

Lucas has never had an idea even half as original as say, Strange Days, or The Terminator.

Even Cameron's "brainless action movies" like True Lies are a lot more entertaining than most of his contemporaries.

+1

If you listen to any discussion with Ralph McQuarrie that is not on the blu ray, you'll hear him talk about how he (Ralph) would draw many different drawings of the same character and George would pick out which one he liked.

The same thing is true of the models, paintings, creatures, etc. The builders, artists, whomever would create a bunch of models and show George, and he would pick out the ones he liked.

George took most of the story outline from The Hidden Fortress, the 2 peasants were the storytellers in THF, the droids are the storytellers for the Star Wars saga. George borrows heavily from one of his teachers mythology books and from several other Science Fiction ideas and concepts that he grew up with.

If you read Analog magazine in the 70s you would see a great resemblance to a few of the short stories contained within and quite a few stories dealt with cloning of warriors and the consequences of those created clones.



Does this look familiar?


James Gurney's Dinotopia.

[The Doof]

Originally Posted by Beast

The complaints about Lucas pushing the envelop for advancing technology is funny.

Since it was that exact same desire to push the envelope from the start that led to so many film making technology advancements that are STILL used today in making movies. If he listened to people's comments like that back then, I can barely imagine what movie making would be like today.

The key words are: "back then"

I am an editor and I use the benefits of his vision every day with Final Cut and Avid. So it just baffles me how someone with such creative vision could make such horrible blunders. I really think he just wanted to be first and didn't think shooting on HD Video through.

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by The Doof

Yeah, he can muck about and release it all again. On Blu-Ray. What's he gonna do in 5-10 years when we have a new format? If we're lucky, I'm wrong and the OT will survive into the 8k-Ray world and the PT will be relegated to people's basements and landfills.

There won't be a new format. 8K ray will never exist in homes because it's not practical in the slightest. It's all digital disbtribution with similar blu quality (eventually) after this.

[HD Goofnut]

Originally Posted by Hatter

There won't be a new format. 8K ray will never exist in homes because it's not practical in the slightest. It's all digital after this .

I am not so sure. Unless broadband gets significantly faster in the next decade the optical disc is still going to be around. 4K or 8K certainly has a shot to make it on a physical medium.

[The Doof]

Originally Posted by Hatter

There won't be a new format. 8K ray will never exist in homes because it's not practical in the slightest. It's all digital (max 4K) format after this and

Obviously. Physical media is over after Blu-ray. It's just easier to say 8K-ray. And more fun.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by Hatter

There won't be a new format. 8K ray will never exist in homes because it's not practical in the slightest. It's all digital after this .

I've come to terms with the fact that hovercars and personal jetpacks probably aren't going to show up in my lifetime after all but dammit, I want and fully expect my video wall.

[Shaft Windu]

Originally Posted by Beast

The complaints about Lucas pushing the envelop for advancing technology is funny.

Since it was that exact same desire to push the envelope from the start that led to so many film making technology advancements that are STILL used today in making movies. If he listened to people's comments like that back then, I can barely imagine what movie making would be like today.

In the 80s people were willing to be amazed by filmmakers. In the age of the internet, youtube and film-software on every PC EVERYBODY is smarter than any filmmaker. The Digital Characters in TPM in'99 were groundbreaking - but are largely despised or ignored.

[Shaft Windu]

Originally Posted by The Doof

The key words are: "back then"

I am an editor and I use the benefits of his vision every day with Final Cut and Avid. So it just baffles me how someone with such creative vision could make such horrible blunders. I really think he just wanted to be first and didn't think shooting on HD Video through.

There you go!

[phansson]

Originally Posted by The Doof

The key words are: "back then"

I am an editor and I use the benefits of his vision every day with Final Cut and Avid. So it just baffles me how someone with such creative vision could make such horrible blunders. I really think he just wanted to be first and didn't think shooting on HD Video through.

The fact that Georgie boy thinks that a 7 year old 2k restoration of the biggest movies of all time is still ok and you are saying he didn't have the vision 10 years ago? Have we all not decided that he is either the cheapest person in the history of the world or one of the most ignorant?

It reminds me of when HD DVD was doing their push during the super bowl and they ran the commercial in SD.....

Some companies just don't get it....

[kurtlingle]

Originally Posted by Dynamo of Eternia

...
Some things really just stick out at me and bug me about how the PT doesn't quite line up with some of the dialogue from the OT. Specifically the following couple of bits:

*When Obi Wan tells Luke that his Uncle (Owen) wanted his father (Anakin) to "stay here" (meaning Tatooine) instead of going off to fight in the clone wars.

That same quote also popped out to me last night as I watched ANH (saw the PT last weekend).

The way I look at it - they should edit that scene in the OT and fix it. Maybe dub over his voice? Obviously GL didn't have the whole backstory down in 76/77 so he'd have to fix that now. I think with creative editing he could fix it (in ANH).

[Hatter]

Originally Posted by HD Goofnut

I am not so sure. Unless broadband gets significantly faster in the next decade the optical disc is still going to be around. 4K or 8K certainly has a shot to make it on a physical medium.

But 4K -8K will only start to be noticed at 100". How practical is that for the average consumer?

[The Doof]

Originally Posted by phansson

The fact that Georgie boy thinks that a 7 year old 2k restoration of the biggest movies of all time is still ok and you are saying he didn't have the vision 10 years ago? Have we all not decided that he is either the cheapest person in the history of the world or one of the most ignorant?

It reminds me of when HD DVD was doing their push during the super bowl and they ran the commercial in SD.

Some companies just don't get it....

Not sure what you mean. I was referring to the early 80's when Lucas helped develop EditDroid. Which became Avid. Which lead to FC - thirty years later.

[Jay444]

Originally Posted by dookiex

I think there's a misunderstanding there though. Lucas has the full rights to the titles which were not originally under Fox and Lucas has full merchandising rights, I think the original trilogy however still belongs to Fox though in regards to distribution. Here's the timeline:

http://www.supershadow.com/starwars/history.html

But it is evident that Fox is only making a small amount of the money from distribution.

Here ya go, changed rights shortly after 2000 or so (I thought it was the 19997 release, so I was off a few years) :

Fox obviously agreed to this at some point--when the SE was released in 1997, the prints, posters and video boxes said that Empire and Jedi were copyright Lucasfilm but that Star Wars was copyright Fox. The next time the films were released was in 2000 on VHS, where Empire and Jedi were copyright Lucasfilm--but now Star Wars was copyright Lucasfilm as well. Its no coincidence that between that time a deal was hammered out between the two mega-corporations to give Fox distribution of Lucasfilm's prequels.

http://secrethistoryofstarwars.com/buyingstarwars.html