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Tanto tempo fa, in una galassia lontana lontana...
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Interessante punto di vista
Argomento: Star Wars - La Saga Completa (9 Blu-Ray)
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By:
Dude
Posted:
04.07.2011 @ 14:52
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Ho letto su Amazon una "review" che mi ha dato da pensare non poco.
Major disappointment
by J. Bongiorno
There are times it's wise to lower one's expectations so that you don't end up disappointed. But then there are times where you can't lower them enough. This appears to be one of those times. At $90.00 (undefined 90,00) (from Amazon after the 30% discount), I can safely say that the upcoming Star Wars blu-ray set is sadly a contrived, corporate cash-grab designed to take advantage of fans.
Disgruntled fans have been claiming this about Lucas for years, but I never really saw it as concretely as now. If you haven't seen the "specs" for this set, they're listed on the official site, and this review is based on those released specs so that fans can better judge whether they want to invest the money in films that have been released quite a number of times in the past. This review will be updated if new information is forthcoming, but since the press release claimed to "reveal all," then it's not inappropriate to discuss exactly what they're selling us, and if it's worth it.
Note: As regards the original version of the classic trilogy, it's not here. While it was made known that Lucas wasn't including them at this time, that information wasn't widely disseminated, so unless you happened upon that interview where Lucas said no original versions at this time, you had no idea that it wasn't going to be included. Frankly, as with this entire set, I think it's a major misfire on his part to continue to court the ire of fans and film purists by not giving them a proper anamorphic widescreen release of the originals, and by claiming it's too expensive to do (disingenuous at best. See:[...]). Now, personally, I prefer the Special Edition versions, so I can't say I'm "missing" the originals, however, even the Special Editions were presented in an inexcusably poor presentation with the 2004 set. (See: [...]). But I am disappointed for those fans who rightly expected the versions they fell in love with in '77, '80 and '83 to finally see a proper release (which the non-anamorphic, filthy laserdisk version wasn't).
Probably the most disappointing aspect of this release is the fact this isn't the Ultimate Edition box set that fans had been teased with and were expecting. This is not the equivalent of the Blade Runner or Aliens blu-ray sets, which contained different versions of the films via branching technology. But it should've been. That set is very likely ready to go, but is being held back because the Lucas Corporation know they can get further milk from fans who will lap up whatever drops from the teats of the Star Wars cash-cow, as well as the casual movie-buyer who doesn't realize he's being taken advantage of yet again.
The major problem with this set, however, is the lack of a new HD transfer, which means one thing. This set is the inferior 2004 transfer. That is a big issue. It means the films will not be presented in the best high-definition quality that's currently available and in use by practically every film that's been released on blu-ray for the last few years. Lucas is again going with the "it's good enough" motto that he's been touting since The Empire Strikes Back (only with that film, the producer and director wisely ignored him to create a masterpiece). Several industry insiders predicted this would be the case, so I can't say I'm shocked. But it's unacceptable. What does it mean to most people? Probably not much. It will likely look better than the DVD versions (which had a number of issues). But not like it should. It could and should've looked spectacular. But taking advantage of the fact that mostly only videophiles know what it means to do a proper 2k or 4k HD transfer, it wasn't done. If you want to learn more in-depth information on Star Wars and its sordid history on video/digital, check out [...].
Additionally, there's no word on whether or not they corrected the many errors that appeared on the 2004 DVD editions. We don't even know if he replaced puppet Yoda in TPM with a digital version, which was assumed would be the case for some time. But, as we can see, it would be foolish to assume anything with this release. What's aggravating is the fact that this information hasn't been put out there. The deceitful press-release, promoted as a "reveal all," was rather a "reveal a little bit more."
Another unsavory aspect of this set is the documentaries. At the very least, I expected some of the 100 hours of new documentary footage that Rick MaCullum excitedly talked about in 2007. But it's all being held back for an as-yet unannounced future version. So, what's on here? There's roughly six hours of interview clips, documentaries about various aspects of the film broken up into a hundred 2-5 minute segments, which, of course, don't allow room for any kind of depth. Not sure why they chose to go that route. There's also an overly short 25 minute documentary about TESB. Then there are some niche documentaries: 84 minutes about the 501st (a group that dresses like stormtroopers and other armored characters from the films). The other is a fluff piece called "Spoofs" and it's 91 minutes of clips from some of the spoofs that have been available online for years! Why is this needed when so many things that should've been put on here weren't? The other two useless documentaries are "Anatomy of a Dewback," which, believe it or not, is about the special effects that went into making the '97 Special Editions. Considering that some of those effects were later redone for the 2004 version (Jabba specifically), this is a completely pointless inclusion. "Here's a documentary about how we did bad CGI back in 1996." The other documentary is Star Wars Tech, which is the shorter (and less interesting) of the two History Channel specials that aired a few years back. Unfortunately, The Legacy Revealed (the superior doc) isn't included.
Additionally, there are some "classic" documentaries: The original documentaries from '78, '80 and '83, namely The Making of Star Wars; The Empire Strikes Back: SPFX, and Classic Creatures: Return of the Jedi. If you're like me, these hold a special place in your heart. I'm glad to see them confirmed on here, as they'd been expected. On the down side, there's no From Star Wars to Jedi doc, no Empire of Dreams, no The Beginning. The former is likely being suppressed as it doesn't conform to the made-up story Lucas likes to tell these days that the saga was always his singular vision of the Tragedy of Anakin Skywalker. The others are likely being held back for the next blu-ray iteration, though it would be appropriate if the fans were informed of this so that they don't have to keep triple and quadruple dipping on these sets. But, of course, that's the idea, isn't it?
Finally, the deleted, alternate, extended scenes: This is really the single major thing that's serving as the lure for fans, and admittedly, the one thing that's tempting me to pick up this set. But I'm nowhere near convinced they're alone worth the price, especially as I suspect that: a) in too many years time, there will be another set that features extended editions of the films, which is how these scenes should be seen; b) some genius will do what Lucas should've done and insert them into bootleg versions of the films. Fans have been expecting the films to have been released as extended editions since before 2004. As it stands, these as-yet unseen scenes represent the major value-related content on this set (though the fact that they'll show up on Youtube in a matter of a day after the set's released diminishes this aspect). There's as yet no detailed listing of the scenes in question besides the one shown at Celebration (and now on Youtube).
Audio: This is being presented in a newly mastered DTS 6.1 audio track, and it's great to finally have DTS, but to nitpick, it should've been 7.1. But I suspect, yet again, this will be for the next set.
The bottom line is that unless I find out that they did a ton of work on the 2004 transfers, what this set currently represents is mediocrity at best, and greed at worst. There was certainly plenty of time to do this one right, rather than wait another six or seven years to release another expensive box-set, probably a 3D one, that will include more dangling carrots, using them--as they are the deleted scenes on this set--as a lure to suck in fans yet again. True, multi-tiered releases have become the rule rather than the exception in this industry. But in the current financial climate, it's a bit obscene. If Lucas was at least forthright, honest and clear that this is a first-run blu-ray set, and that a much more comprehensive one was coming down the pike, at least fans could make a better informed decision as to whether they want to replace the DVD set now or later. Duplicity and obfuscation is not how you honor those who've supported your for decades.
In the final analysis, even IF it turns out that this set has been significantly improved from the 2004 versions, there is still no excuse for this lackluster release, just as there wasn't for the 2004 DVD set, which should've been recalled ([...]). As fans, you have to decide if an inferior HD transfer, worthless documentaries, some good old documentaries, some minor new documentaries, and some out-of-context deleted scenes is worth the $90.00 (undefined 90,00) price tag.
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