Star Wars Trilogy review

I have just taken delivery of the (region 1) Star Wars Trilogy Boxset from Movietyme, and sat down today to watch the entire set in one going. I have been waiting years for this to be officially released on DVD and here it is.

The boxset contains four amaray cases within a cardboard box, these contain the three movies and a fourth “Extras” disc. The widescreen packaging is silver in colour and looks really good on my DVD shelves. Be very carefull with the stiker type glue on the outside of the box, you have to take this off to get at the discs. The artwork of the amaray boxes is very good, I have included them below.

There have been many rumours on the web about what would be contained within the films, indeed the films presented here are best described as Special Special Editions, if you get what I mean. We will probably never see the original trilogy released on DVD and the 1997 special editions have been tampered with further in these releases. This is supposedly George Lucas’s final version of the trilogy, bringing it in line which the prequels for a flowing narrative. Many fans will denounce the fact we don’t get the original versions, but this is Star Wars and it’s finally on DVD!!
I don’t have to explain the plots of the three films, I am assuming that most reading this post will have seen the movies at some point in their lives. Starting with Star Wars: A New Hope, we see the majority of the changes to this film, presumably because Lucas did not have the technology in 1977 to achieve his goals. As explained in the Documentary on the forth disc, Star wars never looked like being a success, shooting was delayed, effects were near impossible to shoot and the studio wanted to close the picture down. Nowadays Lucas has the technology, but he hasn’t in my opinion gone over board, let me explain.
In this version of A New Hope there are a few shots which have been tidied up to look more realistic, first of all the added Mos Eisley footage from the 1997 version has been tightened. The speeder looks more realistic and the movement of C3 PO is more natural over the ’97 version. Next up is the new footage of Jabba, finally it looks realistic, yes Han still steps over his tail but it certainly doesn’t look as bad as it did. Jabbas skin texture and movement is much improved. There are other changes within the movie and effects have been cleaned and look more realistic. Lightsabers have the same look as the pre-quel’s, blue screen blurr has been cleaned and laser blasts even look sharper. Moving onto the Empire Strikes Back we are treated to the major change in this movie, the discussion between the Emperor and Darth Vader. Complete lines of dialogue have been changed regarding “Young Skywalker” being the son of Anakin. The emperor’s appearance has also changed to include a more detailed Hologram with Ian McDiarmid replacing Clive Revill in the role. Cloud city footage has also been cleaned up and the effects of the Hoth battle look very good.
Finally we move onto Return Of The Jedi, and the biggest change rumoured turns out to be here, Haden Christenson does appear at the end of the movie as a ghostly figure! To be honest it doesn’t look too bad. Other items have also been added such as the Rancor looks far more realistic with extra texturing to the skin and the old blue screen effects have been removed. There are extra Walkers in the final battle and nearly every effect has been cleaned up.
So how do the films look in terms of video transfer? Breath taking is the reply.
All three films have been totally cleaned and restored, there are no signs of dirt or grain present in the print. The image on all three also looks super sharp, as if they had been filmed yesterday! Skin texture is stunning, details just jump out of the screen, edges are sharp without any edge enhancement being seen. Colours are just so rich and vivid that you just can’t believe all these films are over twenty years old. The clean up work done here is excellent. The most impressive part of this is shadow detail, look at the Canteena scene, look at the garbage compressor, Darth’s breathing chamber and the rancor pit, there is simply a tonne of detail to be seen that I was blown away, totally.
So what about sound? well stand by to hear Star Wars like never before. I had the Dolby Digital Laserdiscs and they sounded good, but the complete soundmixes of all three films have been redone. There are new sounds to discover in each film as well as far better surround effects which extend the soundfield outside your listening position, and that bottom end is just truly wicked!!! Just get ready for 360 degree magic during the escape from the Death Star as the Tie Fighters close in. Or take a listen to the final battle scenes and the final explosion. The Hoth battle just sounds like it was made for your subwoofer and the final lightsaber battle between Darth and Luke just carries total atmosphere. I could go on and on but you get the idea.
And finally onto the extras and there’s more here than I thought there would be. Let’s start with the documentary, we all know the stories behind the scenes, but you haven’t seen the details like this before. What about Chewie talking! And in a Yorkshire accent as well! The fact Georgie boy nearly had a heart attack due to stress. The complete story is all here and it is an epic documentary. Next is the story of the lightsaber which is fascinating in detail and back story. Where does the sound come from, how they produced the effect, well let just say a piece of film projection screen on a rotating wheel and you get the idea. There are trailers for each film including teasers, Trailer and then re-release trails. Picture galleries just have too much to add here, there are also features on the characters of star wars and the legacy the films have had on our culture. Then sit back for a look at the next film due in the saga and the birth of Darth Vader, watch them make the new costume and see Haden and Ewan practice their final battle. Finishing off are video game trailers and DVD-Rom features. I have yet to get through everything here, and most are that good you just have to watch them again.
So was it worth the wait, YES! I can’t get over the quality of the transfers, the sound mixes and the fascinating extras. I can’t get the discs out of my player! I have a feeling I will be watching this one to death and I hope my review and screen grabs have given you an idea of what to expect.
“May the force be with you!”.

[Marv]

Nice Review,

Cant wait for my set to arrive, havent seen all 3 films since 97 wheni saw them at the cinema.

By the way what thx trailer is on the dvds?

The one with the globe and the lightening, which explodes and then forms the THX logo.
By the way, there are multiple menus (don't know how many, yet). Here is another one from Episode IV.
The menus are absolutely awesome! The CGI in them is quite spectacular!

[Jack the lad]

Great review

Did you have any snaggs with the DD Ex soundtrack?

My 3805 didnt recognise it and I only got DD + PLII Cinema. Or am I being thick?

[captaineyecatch]

Still tempted to buy this even though i'm at Lucas for not releasing the original versions.
Whats the Xbox game demo like??

[Erling]

Nice review

Really look forward to get these myself.

One small question: Is your set region 1 or 2 ?

Cheers,
Erling

Great Job! Just one question. Does HAN shoot first? Either way I'll be picking this up, but I'm just curious.

I have pre ordered... cant wait till i get my hands on them

Do you get the original (stereo?) soundtrack as well as the remastered one or has that been taken away from us too?

[Jack the lad]

Vanilla 2 channel is there

can feel a dose of the ****5 coming on mon 20th

[rosemanbridge]

DVD Soon are "Packaging"

[juniper]

Excellent review - been looking forward to whoever posts the first review here, and it seems to exceed all of my expectations at least. Also builds the excitement even more for my own copy to arrive, and in particular they seem to have done great things with the sound as well as the picture. Great job - thanks!

Off our forums and thanks to Terribly Mauled for this....

"Blooper reel activation:

Pop in the bonus disc

Go to 'Video Games and Still Galleries'

Then type:

11 (enter)
3 (enter)
8 (enter)

The reel will start, and run for 4 mins 43 secs..."

[inzaman]

Excellent review - been looking forward to whoever posts the first review here, and it seems to exceed all of my expectations at least. Also builds the excitement even more for my own copy to arrive, and in particular they seem to have done great things with the sound as well as the picture. Great job - thanks!

Totally agree with that, now cannot wait for my set to arrive.