Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[Morsoth]

Originally Posted by Beast

To Tie-In to the debut of Season 4 of Clone Wars on Cartoon Network that evening.

Probably the worst decision ever...!!! I mean, after all the wait we'll all get our Star Wars Saga (or Trilogy) on Blu-ray, but we'll have to stop watching those for The Clone Wars Season Four first Episodes!!!!

[chip75]

For those interested here's the EMPIRE review from their October issue.

FROM THE MOMENT A LIGHTSABER CARVES OUT THE BLU-RAY SYMBOL, you know you're in good hands. Even on Empire's Blu-ray player — the R5-D4 of Blu-ray players — Star Wars shines: if the Prequels absolutely fizz with colour, perhaps even more impressive is how the Original Trilogy scrubs up — Lucas' desire for the story to be seen as one seamless story in six instalments has never been closer. Even the blue milk pops.

EXTRAS It never ceases to amaze how Lucasfilm keeps putting its hands down the Star Wars sofa and pulling up bonus-material gold. Save the commentaries repurposed from the DVD release, this offers fresh insight delivered with tender loving care. Discs seven (Prequel Trilogy) and eight (Original Trilogy) are dubbed The Star Wars Archives, and allow you to toggle through interviews, deleted scenes (see page 114), concept art and artefacts organised by locale — the best of these features is The Collection, a gallery of the series' most iconic props viewed in a 360-degree rotation, or in tight detail, or with expert commentary.

Disc nine is the documentary disc. We get three — The Making Of Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back SPFX and Classic Creatures — made at the time that are full of late '70s/ early '80s charms, great on-set footage and the likes of Mark Hamill and Carrie Fisher as hosts. There is a terrific look back at Empire with Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, John Williams and (in his last interview) Irvin Kershner, with particular focus on the creation of Yoda and the Luke-Vader reveal. Also included is one of those could-Star-Wars-technology-actually-happen? documentaries that turn up on Five occasionally, but this is better because it has clips and does a smarter job of marrying the fictional and the factual. After that, you might be ready for the extensive collection of Star Wars spoofs (Spacey as Walken as Solo, Weird Al Yankovic's genius The Saga Begins) and parodies that would take ages to round up on YouTube.

Star Warriors is a feature-length documentary about the 501st Legion, a kind of Star Wars TA who dress up like Stormtroopers mostly for charity. Kevin Burns' film traverses the world, following the troopers hoping to be picked for the Rose Parade in Pasadena (the most American thing ever) presided over by Lucas himself. It could do with some irony, but there are lots of touching, funny, human stories behind the action-figure collections. Helmets off, though, to the Belgian fans: not only do they build life-size snowspeeders, speeder bikes and AT-ATs but their recreations of the films are priceless: "What do you know about the Death Star plans?" "I don't know shit." A fitting collection, then, for movies that Blu-ray was built for.

Ian Freer

FILM ***** EXTRAS *****

[RodChester]

Originally Posted by chip75

For those interested here's the EMPIRE review from their October issue.

That is an awful review. I doubt the reviewer has even seen the set.

[Roonan]

Originally Posted by HD_Aficionado

Will I miss any bonus content if I buy The Prequel Trilogy and The Original Trilogy seperately instead of the The Complete Star Wars Saga?

You will miss 3 full discs of bonus and some money since the Complete Saga is cheaper than both trilogies sets.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by RodChester

That is an awful review. I doubt the reviewer has even seen the set.

It's standard practice for EMPIRE. I'd imagine they've been to The Ranch for tea and crumpets and watched the same presentation as other reviewers. They often have reviews for DVD's and BD's and say the extras weren't available at the time of going to press. Which seems like code for we were sent a screener or we watched it five months ago....

Check out their The Lord of the Rings review:

IN THE TEN YEARS SINCE WE FIRST SAW PETER JACKSON'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS, the initial shock and awe has been dulled by the repetition of imitators, at least in the memory. But watching it now in hi-def reminds you how strong this trilogy is. Peter Jackson's feel for Tolkien's sprawling epic is astonishingly sure; the script, from Jackson, Philippa Boyens and Fran Walsh, is a model of faithful, flexible adaptation; the cast is spot-on. Not to mention the gorgeous New Zealand sets, nor Howard Shore's sweeping score. Even the effects stand up; the cave troll in Fellowship, never the series' finest hour, is still weak in this format, but almost everything else convinces despite the advancing state of the art since.

EXTRAS On the downside, there's nothing new. On the upside, it's hard to imagine what more you could want than all the Special Extended Editions extras. With four commentaries per film, documentary selections that dwarf even the film running times and a plethora of stills and behind-the-scenes shots, this answers any question you ever had about the books, the filmmaking or Jackson's approach to life. These remain the gold standard for special features: thorough, detailed and at times brutally honest.

Helen O'Hara

FILM ***** EXTRAS *****

[Mark Malmstrøm]

have you read this before


http://starwars.com/news/saga_bluray...ion/index.html

[MrJoeKalel]

Originally Posted by chip75

It's standard practice for EMPIRE. I'd imagine they've been to The Ranch for tea and crumpets and watched the same presentation as other reviewers. They often have reviews for DVD's and BD's and say the extras weren't available at the time of going to press. Which seems like code for we were sent a screener or we watched it five months ago....

Pfff, that means WE (forum members) can do the same reviews before the set is released with such ambiguous review.

Still no news on any special goodies by B&M stores besides BB's film cell?

[42041]

Originally Posted by beckmen

It troubles me that we haven't seen any actual Blu-ray shots. They are releasing all of this footage and pictures, and claiming it's not the actual product that we will get. Why use images from an inferior product to sell a superior one? I am not trying to be a doomsayer here, what I am doing is preparing myself for disappointment while hoping for satisfaction. Optimistic pessimism.

It's probably images from the HD master rather than the final encode. I think Lucasfilm has been pretty forthcoming with the technical stuff: they took the transfer they made for the 2004 release and fixed a couple things people were complaining about.

[Silo5]

Originally Posted by Duffy12

Correct.

Which puts it behind the Falcon.



.

Actually, if you look at it carefully, it does look as the group of TIE fighters (4) are in front of the Falcon. Again, I guess it is a matter of perspective and to me, all four appear to be in front. Not that it really matters, because at full speed, are you really going to notice it?

[Falaskan]

Originally Posted by Silo5

Actually, if you look at it carefully, it does look as the group of TIE fighers (4) are in front of the Falcon. Again, I guess it is a matter of perspective and to me, all four appear to be in front. Not that it really matters, because at full speed, are you really going to notice it?

THe answer to that question is "no," in case any of you were wondering. (and the tie fighter is in front, not behind).

[Beast]

I am happy to see that the SNL sketch of Star Wars screentests is included amongst the spoofs. That's a gold one.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/27743/
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/27744/

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Beast

I am happy to see that the SNL sketch of Star Wars screentests is included amongst the spoofs. That's a gold one.

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/27743/
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/27744/

Funny!

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by beckmen

It troubles me that we haven't seen any actual Blu-ray shots. They are releasing all of this footage and pictures, and claiming it's not the actual product that we will get. Why use images from an inferior product to sell a superior one? I am not trying to be a doomsayer here, what I am doing is preparing myself for disappointment while hoping for satisfaction. Optimistic pessimism.

Yeah, I'm not sure why they couldn't have used some of the actual Blu-ray screenshots, but they were probably wanting to avoid risking the screenshot hysteria that strikes every big Blu-ray release just before its release....especially given what happened to LOTR EE.

[m_burlock]

I think Lucas knows what he's going to give us is sith, that's why no one has gotton a copy to review yet. Why kill sales with advance bad reviews? That'd be a dumb move and Lucas isn't dumb. He's just insensitive, apathetic, and self-centered.

[Bukax42]

Originally Posted by m_burlock

I think Lucas knows what he's going to give us is sith, that's why no one has gotton a copy to review yet.

Even the biggest BD releases aren't reviewed so soon, so calm down.

[Exile]

I haven't watched the Star Wars movies in awhile...can someone spell out what is wrong with this picture?

[ladyferry]

Originally Posted by Exile

I haven't watched the Star Wars movies in awhile...can someone spell out what is wrong with this picture?

The Stormtroopers are dancing in the background?

[JasonWard]

There's nothing wrong with it.

[Beast]

Originally Posted by m_burlock

I think Lucas knows what he's going to give us is shit, that's why no one has gotton a copy to review yet. Why kill sales with advance bad reviews? That'd be a dumb move and Lucas isn't dumb. He's just insensitive, apathetic, and self-centered.

A lot of studios don't send out screener copies. Especially for catalog titles. And even ones they do, it's still early.

Plus it's a 9 disc set. So even if screener copies had went out it would take a long time to go through that much content.

You do realize though, that like 9-10 websites were invited to Lucasfilm and shown the most recent check discs?

Sure most of them focused on watching the bonus discs, but they did check out some scenes from most of the movies.

We've also seen those images that represent the various fixes, corrections, and such from the last release.

And besides, given the reviews of the 2004 DVD sets... there wouldn't be all that many bad reviews even if there was a reason.

And they certainly wouldn't discourage anyone. Since evenn with bad reviews most people choose to see for themselves.

[chip75]

Originally Posted by JasonWard

There's nothing wrong with it.

It's just the CGI extensions weren't put into all the shots. Or maybe they closed the blinds?

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