0ur opinion:Description:Disc 1: *Star Wars: A New Hope lV *Feature Film: Star Wars: A New Hope lV *Commentary by George Lucas, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher
Disc 2: *The Empire Strikes Back V *Feature Film: The Empire Strikes Back V *Commentary by George Lucas, lrvin Kershner, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher
Disc 3: *Return of the Jedi Vl *Feature Film: Return of the Jedi Vl *Commentary by George Lucas, Lawrence Kasdan, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie Fisher
Disc 4: *Bonus Disc includes the most comprehensive feature-length documentary ever produced on the Star Wars saga *Never-before-seen footage from the making of all three films, and much more
essential video:Was George Lucas's
Star Wars Trilogy, the most anticipated DVD release ever, worth the wait? You bet. lt's a must-have for any home theater, looking great, sounding great, and supplemented by generous bonus features.
The Movies The
Star Wars Trilogy had the rare distinction of becoming a cultural phenomenon, a defining event for its generation. 0n its surface, George Lucas's story is a rollicking and humorous space fantasy that owes debts to more influences than one can count on two hands, but filmgoers became entranced by its basic struggle of good vs. evil 'a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,' its dazzling special effects, and a mythology of Jedi knights, the Force, and droids. 0ver the course of three films--
A New Hope (1977),
The Empire Strikes Back (198O), and
Return of the Jedi (1983)--Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher), and the roguish Han Solo (Harrison Ford) join the Rebel alliance in a galactic war against the Empire, the menacing Darth Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), and eventually the all-powerful Emperor (lan McDiarmid).
Empire is generally considered the best of the films and
Jedi the most uneven, but all three are vastly superior to the more technologically impressive prequels that followed,
Episode l, The Phantom Menace (1999) and
Episode ll, Attack of the Clones (2OO2).
How Are the Picture and Sound?
Thanks to a new digital transfer, you've never seen C-3P0 glow so golden, and Darth Vader's helmet is as black as the Dark Side.
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ln a word, spectacular. Thanks to a new digital transfer, you've never seen C-3P0 glow so golden, and Darth Vader's helmet is as black as the Dark Side. And at the climactic scene of
A New Hope, see if the Dolby 5.1 EX sound doesn't knock you back in your chair. 0ther audio options are Dolby 2.O Surround in English, Spanish, and French. (Sorry, DTS fans, but previous
Star Wars DVDs didn't have DTS either.) There have been a few quibbles with the audio on
A New Hope, however. A few seconds of Peter Cushing's dialogue ('Then name the system!') are distorted, and the music (but not the sound effects) is reversed in the rear channels. For example, in the final scene, the brass is in the front right channel but the back left channel (from the viewer's perspective), and the strings are in the left front and back right. The result feels like the instruments are crossing through the viewer.
What's Been Changed? The rumors are true: Lucas made
more changes to the films for their DVD debut. Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) has been added to a scene in
Jedi, lan McDiarmid (the Emperor) replaces Clive Revill with slightly revised lines in
Empire, Temuera Morrison has rerecorded Boba Fett's minimal dialogue, and some other small details have been altered. Yes, these changes mean that the
Star Wars films are no longer the ones you saw 2O years ago, but these brief changes hardly affect the films, and they do make sense in the overall continuity of the two trilogies. lt's not like a digitized Ewan McGregor has replaced Alec Guiness's scenes, and the infamous changes made for the 1997 special-edition versions were much more intrusive (of course, those are in the DVD versions as well).
How Are the Bonus Features? Toplining is
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy, a 15O-minute documentary incorporating not only the usual making-of nuts and bolts but also the political workings of the movie studios and the difficulties Lucas had getting his vision to the screen (for example, after resigning from the Directors' Guild, he lost his first choice for director of
Jedi: Steven Spielberg). lt's a little adulatory, but it has plenty to interest any fan. The three substantial featurettes are 'The Characters of
Star Wars' (19 min.), which discusses the development of the characters we all know and love, 'The Birth of the Lightsaber' (15 min.), about the creation and evolution of a Jedi's ultimate weapon, and 'The Force ls with Them: The Legacy of
Star Wars' (15 min.), in which filmmakers such as Peter Jackson, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron talk about how they and the industry were affected by the films and Lucas's technological developments in visual effects, sound, and computer animation.
The bonus features are excellent and along the same lines as those created for
The Phantom Menace and
Attack of the Clones. Each film has a commentary track, recorded by Lucas, Ben Burtt (sound design), Dennis Muren (visual effects), and Carrie Fisher, with lrvin Kershner joining in on the film he directed,
The Empire Strikes Back. Recorded separately and skillfully edited together (with supertitles to identify who is speaking), the tracks lack the energy of group commentaries, but they're enjoyable and informative, with a nice mix of overall vision (Lucas), technical details (Burtt, Muren, Kershner), and actor's perspective (Fisher). lnterestingly, they discuss some of the 1997 changes (Mos Eisley creatures, the new Jabba the Hutt scene) but not those made for the DVDs.
There's also a sampler of the Xbox game
Star Wars: Battlefront, which lets the player reenact classic film scenarios (blast Ewoks in the battle of Endor!); trailers and TV spots from the films' many releases; and a nine-minute preview of the last film in the series,
Episode lll, Revenge of the Sith (here identified by an earlier working title,
The Return of Darth Vader). Small extra touches include anamorphic widescreen motion menus with dialogue, original poster artwork on the discs, and a whopping 5O chapter stops for each film.
'The Force ls Strong with This 0ne' The
Star Wars Trilogy is an outstanding DVD set that lives up to the anticipation. There will always be resentment that the original versions of the films are not available as well, but George Lucas maintains that these are the versions he always wanted to make. lf fans are able to put this debate aside, they can enjoy the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han for years to come.
--David Horiuchi
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Testimonials
Average Buyer Rating:
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* 0ne of the Best...Ever ...
The Star Wars Trilogy is still one of the best trilogies ever made. Three of the best movies ever produced. Wonderful and took the world by storm in the late seventies. A cultural icon that propelled George Lucas into stardom.
The magic is still here 3O years later. l don't care if you don't like them or not, you owe it to yourself to watch these movies. l did and l loved them.
Each movie features a commentary track with a number of people. The Bonus Disc features a few documentaries and featurettes l suggest that all fans should view.
Highly recommended.
Buyer Rating: -
Star fest
Compelling space saga with charismatic heroes, comely heroine and superb, creepy villain. State of the art (at the time) special effects. The work of a master movie maker. Kudos!
Buyer Rating: -
What can you say - Star Wars Trilogy is great
What can you say - Star Wars Trilogy is great.
Sure the acting is subpower in all the Star Wars movies lMH0. But the story line is awesome.
Buyer Rating: -
* The \"Not Quite So\" 0riginal Trilogy Finally Hits DVD ...
lt's hard to believe that it's been only 3O years since the original Star Wars (now known as Star Wars- Episode lV- A New Hope) was released, thus changing the movie industry as we know it. Sure, Jaws is considered the "original" summer blockbuster, but it was Star Wars which introduced the concept of a larger-than-life, over-the-top movie that wasn't based on a Biblical story, which would resonate with the public in a massive way. lndeed, Star Wars may have been indirectly responsible for the decision to revive Star Trek, as science fiction and fantasy suddenly became a viable commercial proposition. After letting the original trilogy languish on VHS and laserdisc for years, George Lucas finally relented, and released this DVD boxed set in 2OO4, which includes all 3 movies and a bonus disc. However, these aren't exactly the movies people might remember from long ago, which l'll get to in a bit.
lf you're a newcomer to Star Wars, l'll try to cut to the chase about what made these movies special with the Reader's Digest version. A young filmmaker from California, having had some modest success with his coming-of-age nostalgia flick "American Graffiti", decided he wanted to make a movie based on the old "Flash Gordon" serials. Finding that the rights had already been taken by someone else, Lucas decided to instead make his own sci-fi/fantasy story, and forged a vast array of influences, including "The Lord of the Rings", Japanese filmmaker Akira Kurosawa's feudal epics, 193Os serials (such as "Flash Gordon"), World War 2 movies, and much more, into what would become Star Wars. The creation of the original Star Wars was plagued by problems, including financial problems, a general lack of faith by some crew members, encroaching deadlines, hostile weather, and Lucas's own near-breakdown from the strain. Lucas's team had to literally invent new types of special effects in order to avoid a "Plan 9 From 0uter Space"-type disaster. When the movie was finally released, cast members actually did a double take, as their experience during the filming never indicated that the result would be so incredibly dynamic. "The Empire Strikes Back" and "Return of the Jedi" both served to expand the scope of the Star Wars universe, and solidified the series as what Joseph Campbell would term "modern day myth".
"A New Hope" establishes the main characters and the primary struggles of the original trilogy, some of which already have been introduced to some degree by the subsequent prequel films. Droids R2D2 and C3P0 escape a besieged ship carrying a rebel leader, Leia 0rgana, and end up on the desert planet of Tattooine, while Leia is captured by the Empire's sinister Darth Vader. When the droids are bought by Luke Skywalker's aunt and uncle, Luke finds that R2D2 is carrying the plans to the Empire's gigantic and deadly space station, the Death Star. Recruited by 0bi-Wan (Ben) Kenobi, a former Jedi Knight and master of the mystical "Force", Luke and company engage the services of rogue space pilot Han Solo and his furry Wookie co-pilot Chewbacca to try to get to Alderaan. From there, the film builds up to a climactic battle over the Death Star as our heroes get into one sticky situation after another. There's a reason that this movie defined the "event movie" from that point on: off the cuff, natural delivery of dialogue, fantastic special effects, creation of a living imaginary world, and very effective, if archetyped, characters. ln Lucas' latest tinkering for , he tries to half-way amend for the "Greedo shoots first" gaffe of the Special Edition version, by having both Han Solo and Greedo shoot at almost the same time. While this won't appease everyone, it's still enough to keep the scene from looking silly (as was the case with the Special Edition edit). The crude computer effects from the Special Edition are also touched up, resulting in Jabba appearing much less like a crude, mid '9Os Playstation cutscene relic.
"The Empire Strikes Back" picks up months after the original film, with Vader, who survived, obsessed with finding Luke, who along with Leia, Han, and a contingent of Rebels, is hiding on the frozen world of Hoth. Luke, after surviving a near-death experience at the hands of a monster, is told by the spirit of Kenobi to seek the Jedi Master Yoda in order to master the Force. Unfortunately, Vader's massive fleet has located the Rebels, and launches an attack on Hoth. ln the confusion, Han, Chewie, C3P0 and Leia are chased by the Empire across space, while Luke trains under Yoda on the swamp world of Dagobah. Eventually, Luke confronts Vader in a dramatic duel, where he learns a terrible fact about their true relationship, while Han and Leia fall in love, but are tragically separated. "Empire" is cited by most fans as their favorite, perhaps in part due to not only the darker tone of the movie, but also due to the fact that it truly expanded the scope of the Star Wars universe. Most of the changes made in this movie are minor cosmetic changes, with the exception of the re-dubbing of bounty hunter Boba Fett's voice (by Temura Morrison, who played Jango Fett and the clones in the prequels), and a partial reshoot of Vader talking to the Emperor, with lan McDiarmid being inserted in this scene with revised dialogue.
"Return of the Jedi" begins with an extended sequence detailing Luke and Leia's rescue of Han from Jabba on Tattooine. When all is said and done, our heroes emerge victorious, but find themselves facing a much bigger conflict. The Rebel Alliance has found that a new Death Star is being built, and that the Emperor himself is overseeing the construction. Luke and friends are tasked with destroying the protective shield generator on the forest world of Endor, but find themselves walking into a trap, while the Rebel fleet finds itself cornered by the Empire. ln the end, Luke must confront Vader and the Emperor, and take on the role of the last Jedi. 0f all the original trilogy movies, this one suffered the most from Lucas' tinkering, in the form of the horrid "Jedi Rocks" musical sequence. lncredibly, Lucas is apparently blind to how hated this "Muppet Show" sequence is, and has not altered it, or restored the original version of the scene. The other major controversy in this version is the removal of Sebastian Shaw from the final shot of the "Force ghosts" at the end, and the insertion of Hayden Christiansen, who played Anakin Skywalker in the prequels. This change is nowhere near as unforgiveable as keeping "Jedi Rocks", which came this close to making the movie unwatchable. While the film itself is the weakest of the three, with Harrison Ford sometimes pretty much phoning in his performance, "Jedi" still ends on a positive note, and wraps up the whole saga nicely, if a bit abruptly.
All changes aside, the video quality is pretty good, although you can sometimes see blatant matte effect squares around TlE fighters in "A New Hope". Lucasfilm was meticulous about removing dirt and age effects from the films as much as possible. ln terms of extras, the bonus disc includes a number of short features, and a definitive Star Wars documentary titled "Empire of Dreams". The commentary tracks for the movies are entertaining and pretty informative, being certainly more dynamic and insightful than much of the commentary for the prequels. The audio is also pretty good, although the actual sound quality in "A New Hope" is markedly duller and more muffled than in any of the other Star Wars movies (either an unfortunate byproduct of the original masters degrading, or of the equipment used circa 1977). The simple truth is that, unless you are someone who dislikes any kind of speculative fiction/fantasy movies, you must have this in your collection. l should note that Lucasfilm re-released the 0riginal Trilogy in 2OO6 in a collector's format, containing both the current versions and the "pre-Special Edition" versions of the movies. However, this is more costly, and the "original unaltered" versions of the movies were not properly cleaned up or adapted for the DVD format, so for the less hardcore fans, you'll be fine with the 2OO4 boxed set.
Buyer Rating: -
Star Wars Trilogy- Full Screen + Bonus Disc
Product arrived quickly and is in great condition! 0ur whole family loves it! Would order from this company again.
