Star Wars on DVD. It's About Time

Warning: This review contains spoilers. If you are in the very very very very very very small minority that has not seen the original Star Wars Trilogy, please do not continue.

A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far, away...oh how I've waited to see this preamble on DVD.

In the late 90's, when George Lucas was asked if he planned on releasing the original Star Wars Trilogy on DVD, his response seemed odd. He did not want to put the movies on DVD until he was able to personally inspect the capabilities of the format. The rumor was that he would not spend the efforts until after completing the prequel trilogy, which has consumed much of his time. The oddity was that here is a man that has been committed to only the best in visual and audio technology to tell stories, yet was shunning away from DVD, which quite frankly, is the best thing to happen to movies since the introduction of the "talkie."

Fast forward to September 21st, 2004--the long awaited (by me anyway) release date of Star Wars Trilogy (SWT) on DVD. The original movies have been remastered, aurally and visually, to give the most pleasing version of the films to date.

It should be noted that this version is the SWT:Special Edition that was re-released in theatres in 1997. This of course will upset many "purists" who have chastised Lucas for changing some of his original masterpiece.

What’s in the Box
The box set contains 4 DVD discs.
The original movies:
Star Wars IV - A New Hope
Star Wars V - The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars VI - Return of the Jedi
and a features disc.
All the original movies contain commentary tracks with George Lucas, Carrie Fischer, and other crew members.

The Movies
The first thing I noticed, was the quality of the menus. They have the same "look and feel" as The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones DVD's-The consistency is a nice touch. The menu images themselves are all from the movies, and are all redone and really give the viewer a preview of what they should expect.

The actual footage has been cleaned up significantly. All the scenes are sharp, and have great color saturation. There are a few times where the saturation seemed too much, but it wasn't unbearable. You'll notice a lot more detail in many of the scenes--in the first movie, the Death Star's surface is far less smooth than what appears on the SWT:SE VHS tapes.

There were a few visual peculiarities, which I found interesting. When Obi Wan fights Darth Vader, the lightsabre clashes produce a green flash. When laser blaster hit and causes an explosion, there is a purple tone as well. These colors were a distraction, taking focus off the action and instead trying to figure out why the effects were such colors.

I watched the Widescreen edition, and all the movies are shown in 2.35:1 aspect ration (slightly wider than 16:9). I watched them on the Samsung HD931, which up converts the picture to 1080i, which is then fed to my KV-XBR910 (see my reviews on both) so your visual experience may vary.

Overall, I was impressed with the visual quality of this DVD release.

The sound on the other hand, was not as impressive. At certain points, there was noticeable distortion. I attributed this, to the fact that the original score was 2 channels and was unconverted to a 5.1 mix. Maybe I'm just hoping this is the case, and not that my sound system has picked up problems. I plan to watch these DVD's on my computer, which also has a great sound system, to verify my theory. Along with the distortions, there are times when the vocal track noticeably gets louder. In one cut, two people will be talking, and in the next cut, one voice will be louder. I'm not sure what caused this effect, other than the possibility of some of the audio moving from the front channels to the center channel (which is setup to be louder).

So Whats Changed?
Lucas has made some minor changes to the story to make the story seem more consistent with what his plans are with the prequel trilogy. The actor who plans Anakin in Return of the Jedi's scene with Yoda and Obiwan, has been replaced by Hayden Christiansen’s character. The final celebration scene now includes Naboo as one of the celebrating planets, and the scenes of Coruscant now have the Jedi council tower in the horizon. In the scene where Luke removes Vader’s mask, the eyebrows have been removed to show the severity of his disfigurement. Additionally the funky looking emperor in Empire Strikes Back has been re-shot using the Emperor from Episodes 1,2 and 6.

Bonus Disc
The Bonus disc contains the original trailers, the 1997 re-release trailer, and several TV spots. These are fun to watch, just to compare the original versions of the film to what’s now on DVD.

The DVD also contains a preview for Episode III. I was excited to see this preview, but sadly, it was less of a preview and more of a behind the scenes look at the making of Darth Vader’s Helmut.

There is also a full length documentary for the star wars series, and several featurettes, including the making of a light sabre, previews of upcoming Star Wars game, and a few hidden Easter eggs.

My Final Word
Unless you truly hate the franchise, this is a must own collection. This is by far the best version of the trilogy to date.