Star Wars - The Original Trilogy (Box Set) (DVD)

...movies nowadays, including the new Star Wars films. It’s these special effects that really help make the movie, its them that make the whole fantasy believable, people had to genuinely trust what they were watching which was so difficult at the time. The idea of a kind of worn out future helps the spectacle, a concept that was new at the time with ragged spaceships and ghetto style cities, something that was maybe easier to reconstruct and ...
...my favourite of all the Star Wars movies as, despite being similar in style as A New Hope it was as equally as groundbreaking in its concept. The exceptional effects and action is built upon from the first with further great additional models and sequences, especially with the snow battles on Hoth. The space battles are slightly more complicated as you would expect with additional budget and the climatic light sabre battle is far more exciting and ... more

So its finally been released, 3 of the greatest sci–fi movies ever made complete with an extra special features DVD, a fantastic mix of action, special effects, music and crap puppets make up the most eagerly anticipated collectors box set ever………I would warn of plot spoilers, but then I don’t genuinely believe there is any one alive who have not yet seen these movies.

-------Episode IV: A New Hope------------

7 Oscars
Box office takings :$775,398,000

The movie that started it all an, an absolute genuine cast iron classic. It was pretty much groundbreaking in everything it did at its time, not just the special FX but it had the sounds, the music and the style that completely rejuvenated movies in general. Perhaps he best way to measure the movie would be to compare it to other movies released at the time such as Dune which nowadays, lets face it just look stupid. John Williams music score and the sound effects remain timeless and unsurpassed while even the special effects can measure up to movies nowadays, including the new Star Wars films. It’s these special effects that really help make the movie, its them that make the whole fantasy believable, people had to genuinely trust what they were watching which was so difficult at the time. The idea of a kind of worn out future helps the spectacle, a concept that was new at the time with ragged spaceships and ghetto style cities, something that was maybe easier to reconstruct and believe. Simple camera tricks and superbly detailed models made the film works so well on a relatively tight budget and could act as a lesson to all of the artificial looking CGI effects nowadays. The acting in the plot is always good if not special, all the characters give solid performances and there is always a good relationship between them. There was the banter and jostling for the same woman between Ford and Hammill while Alec Guiness and James Earl Jones (voice) commanding and threatening respectively all adding a good human side to compliment the effects. The plot itself was maybe not outstanding, though everyone enjoys the ‘unite to make better’ philosophy but importantly there was no faffing about – just straight forward flowing action and intensity.

The film translates nicely to DVD, looking very nice and pretty all cleaned up but it is the sound, in all 3 movies that is especially noticeable. The timeless, classical music sounds even better and the noises – light sabres and laser blaster’s which helped make the movie so great the first time round all sound fantastic, even Darth Vader sounds more threatening than he used to. The movie on the DVD is actually the re-mastered version of the film, released in 1997 as opposed to the original and so has one or two pointless extra scenes and slightly flashier fighting which I feel neither really helps or hinders the move overall.

------Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back---------

2 Oscars
Box Office takings $538,375,067

Empire has always been my favourite of all the Star Wars movies as, despite being similar in style as A New Hope it was as equally as groundbreaking in its concept. The exceptional effects and action is built upon from the first with further great additional models and sequences, especially with the snow battles on Hoth. The space battles are slightly more complicated as you would expect with additional budget and the climatic light sabre battle is far more exciting and central to the film as the impact of the lightsabers was realised after the first movie. Irvine Kershner demonstrated he was easily able to carry the Star Wars mantle and there are a couple of good additions to the cast including Billy Dee Williams as Lando and the outstanding Boba Fett.

What makes the Empire so special, and again helps set a new movie mould is its plot and character development. A lot had been made of the on set problems, with so many different people trying to make the movie the way they wanted but it all just combined to provide a great mix that blended perfectly. From Kershners arty approach, to Lucas’s talent for action to Harrison Fords famous ad – libs Empire just manages to take the best bits of everyone involved to make a great picture. The film concentrates a lot more on the character developments and the emotions of the movie – something often replicated in middle parts of trilogies. Instead of forming the film into an action climax there is more of an emotional climax, with Han being frozen and Luke finding out about his father it provides a fitting ending while setting itself up nicely for the final movie. I also enjoyed the dark feel to the film, you can really appreciate the extent and power of the bad guys, more so than in the first and for the good guys to actually end up losing in a film was genuinely unheard of at the time.

Again, as in all three movies the film on the DVD is the new 1997 version and therefore has some pointless additions but it again is the cleanness and superior sound quality that make the DVD really worth buying.

---------Episode VI: The return of the Jedi----------

1 Oscar
Box Office Takings $475,106,177

Episode VI has always been the most chastised of the original trilogy and many people saw it as a bit of a let down, which, compared to the first two may be true. There is no way this can be actually seen as a poor film and I would definitely say it is in its own way a classic. The film again manages to progress the special effects with some exhilarating action sequences in both space and the excellent forest speeder sequence. The plot may be a little disappointing and there does seem to be a bit of rehashing from the first two but I still very much enjoyed the film. One can only wonder what it would have been like had Lucas’s first choice, Steven Spielberg directed but Richard Marquand still did a fair job.

However some of the films flaws to seem disappointingly needless. It just seems that the special effects have finally taken over from the actors. The opening Jabbas palace sequence is a prime example of this. Having been disappointed with A New Hopes cantina scene Lucas wanted to build on the previous puppetry success he had with Yoda in Empire. It was all just trying to be too clever when actors in make up would have sufficed. At times scenes looking like something out of Fraggle Rock undid a lot of the acting and action. There may be no Gobo or Sprocket but I cant stop thinking of them when I watch it, no bad thing when I was little because the fraggles used to scare the crap out of me but now it just bugs me. The Ewoks also seemed so pointless, it just left you wondering where the edginess of the second film went, why on earth replace the original idea of a planet of wookies with those stupid little furry things. Many of the people working on the film wanted to maintain that slightly darker edge, even Harrison Ford wanted to see Han killed off instead of tailing off as a loose end but Jedi ends up squandering the beautiful set up from Episode V.

There are also some very good points to the film however. The special effects are excellent as always and the final space sequence looks fantastic and is just what the audience wanted while the jungle speeder sequence is one of the most exciting scenes in the trilogy. Although Han and Leia tail off Luke really comes into his own and there is a great atmospheric set piece at the end with some great lightsaber action. Indeed the whole 3-pronged extended finale to the film is something that has often been copied, most notably in the second instalment of the Lord of The Rings. On top of this the characters are again well utilised and Boba Fett, the star of any movie becoming slightly more prominent and no one is ever going to complain about Carrie Fisher in more revealing clothing. It all combines to make a very good, if maybe slightly childish and commercially orientated finale to the trilogy.

Again, the DVD is based on the revised version of the movie which, in this case I found some of the additions a little annoying. It is especially evident in the extension of Jabba’s layer sequence, which Lucas tried to make slightly more believable with computer animation but in my opinion it was just more painfully prolonged. There is another noticeable change in the Hayden Christian – Darth Vader in episodes I, II and III- appears as the ghostly figure at the end of the movie, another slightly unimpressive addition.

--------------The Extras------------

Having seen the extras that Lucas produced on the Indiana Jones films and the build up that had accompanied the release of the DVD its was pretty safe to expect an impressive package. The Extras include:

A massive documentary on the making of the original trilogy
3 Featurettes on the characters, lightsabers and
10 Trailers and 10 TV spots
A massive collection of photos from the filming
Posters and promotional material
Trailers and Demo for the Star Wars: Battlefront game and the making of the star wars
DVD –ROM content
A preview of the forthcoming episode III

The DVD has all the extras that you would expect from a complete box set. The special feature is superb - an excellent documentary on the making of the films which goes on for nearly two and a half hours featuring cameos from peter Jackson, Francis Ford Coppola and Steven Speilberg amongst others. The featurettes are equally as impressive with a great documentary on the character development along with sections on lightsabers and the films legacy featuring the likes of James Cameron and Ridley Scott. I was particularly impressed when they showed some of the original casting sessions with people such as Kirk Douglas auditioning for the roles. Unfortunately after the documentaries there is little the DVD has to offer, the trailers are reasonably interesting and the still pictures are good for the magazines but I wanted to see something extra instead of just a basic package. It is a little frustrating that much of what should be a timeless classic DVD is spent promoting games that will soon be obsolete. Although everyone wanted to see a preview of episode III it just adds to the feeling this is a bit of a promotional ploy, almost a stopgap between movies. I also found it a little annoying how Lucas chose to concentrate so much of the features on how he had such a struggle to make the 3 and how it was always against the odds, etc. instead of concentrating more on how the movie was actually made. It often came across as being a little self-indulgent. Having said that though I still feel that this is a very good extras package, and one that would have far exceeded expectations for any normal DVD It really only falters under the wait of its own expectations. Its just a little hard to except that, with Lucas always striving to keep the original films from selling out that this definitive DVD should be so commercially orientated.

- Good, if disappointingly disjointed commentaries feature on each of the separate DVD’s. All the main players are included but there is no banter as each persons commentary is recorded separately, rather than everyone doing one together -

Obviously this is a must buy DVD, since it is the first release of the greatest trilogy of movies in history of cinema. The improved sounds and a much cleaner picture make for some great viewing. Several of the special features including some of the biggest names in science fiction/ fantasy genre today are extremely good to watch, and Ill admit that I was genuinely excited to see the making of Episode III feature. Unfortunately, considering this was meant to be the definitive version of the movie I felt it was a bit too commercially directed, something that George Lucas is meant to be so dead set against. I was just hoping for something a bit special from the extras DVD, such as had been seen previously with The Lord of the Rings and Indiana Jones releases but that just wasn’t evident here.

Released 20th September 2004
Priced £29.99

Directors – George Lucas, Irvine Kershner, Richard Marquand
Starring – Harirson Ford, Carrie Fisher, Mark Hamill, Anthony Daniels, Alec Guiness, Billy Dee Williams, Peter Mayhew, Kenny Baker, David Prowse and James Earl Jones’s voice
 

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