I remember when I was young listening through my bedroom wall into the next door neighbours just to hear glimpses of Star Wars on TV. I remember seeing Jedi on the big screen and getting a big poster adorning my wall for years after. So fast forward to a Saturday night in May of this year and I all I felt was crushing disappointment. The credits had rolled on Episode III and with it went a little bit of everything I'd grown up with.
Of course the new instalments can never rival the original films. CGI ruined the new movies and to an extent it's soured the whole saga. This boxset proclaims to be the Star Wars trilogy, essentially it is but with all the CGI whistles and bells and tinkering it can never truly be the original trilogy and that's what narks me. DVD technology allows there to be more than one version of the film on a disc. Through seamless branching we've seen releases of The Abyss and Independence Day offer both Directors and Theatrical cuts. I don't know how easy to this would have been for the Star Wars trilogy but it would have been nice. But then George Lucas as a reputation for eeking money out of numerous releases and you may see a separate edition in the future.
The films speak for themselves. The original Star Wars for its time was a thrilling blend of fantasy, sci-fi and special effects. A lot of it still holds up to this day despite all the CGI enhancements such as the Jabba/Solo altercation. The assault on the death star is largely still practical effects and the way it's cut together makes it the highlight of the film.
Empire is of course the best of all the six films. It's dark, brooding and ends on a bid downer. Of course the classic revelation from Darth Vader is what defines the films. But what it has is some great characters, the evolvement of the story and the real exploration of the themes and myths of the dark side and the force.
Jedi is the more kiddie friendly entry. You have the ewoks, you have Jabba and you have the emergence of Luke Skywalker as a complete Jedi. Some people don't have a lot of love for this instalment but personally I think it has a lot of great moments. The speedbike chase through the forest, the escape from Jabba in the desert and of course the final confrontation between Luke, Vader and the Emperor. Sadly Lucas saw fit to put Hayden Christiansen into one of the final scenes in the movie that kind of ruins the moment when it was far better with Sebastian Shaw.
One thing you can expect from Lucas is that all three films will be of the upmost sound and picture quality. At this end the DVD release of the trilogy doesn't disappoint. All three films are presented in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen. As expected, the films look pristine and actually put some transfers of recent films to shame. You'll struggle to find much wrong in what you seen on your TV screen and this is as good as you'll ever watch the trilogy in the home cinema enviroment.
Soundwise the films have been given the Dolby Digital treatment with 5.1EX mixes. Again as you'd expect the films offer a great sound experience from all around. Its all pretty crisp and John Williams score will strike pride into the fan's hearts when it starts up. The only negative is that in some of the action scenes the volume appears to increase when it's not really necessary.
Each film has it's own disc in the set. Extras wise you'll find an audio commentary with Lucas as well as some other Star Wars crew. The tracks are informative but a bit bland. This is because it's clear the tracks were edited together and no one was recorded in the same room as each other.
A fourth disc is where you'll find the meat of the extras. 'The Empire of Dreams' is a two and a half hour documentary on the origins of the trilogy and what went into getting them made. There is plenty of behind the scenes footage as well as interviews with pretty much all the major players. We get the insight into how Lucas was able to maintain a lot of the rights to Star Wars and he made it the cash cow it is. Needless to say this kind of thing will never happen again as Fox kissed goodbye to a hell of a lot of money as a result of not taking merchandising rights etc. Overall it's a great documentary for anyone. No doubt the die-hard fans will know a lot of it already but it would be hard to give them something new.
Next are three featurettes that delve into the development of the characters and how the actors were cast. It's all interesting stuff but again fans will probably have heard it all anyway. 15-minutes is spent looking at the creation of the lightsaber from idea stage through to getting that classic sound - cracking stuff. Finally you get a look at the Star Wars legacy on filmmaking in general. It's true to say that the films influenced a lot of what is made today, it certainly pushed cinema to a whole new level.
It's also great to see all the trailers included on the disc for all the films. Many releases now forget the trailers when they are actually what I class as essential extras on a disc just to show who the film was marketed in the first instance. There's some good examples here of how anticipation was built up with each film.
There is also an extensive stills gallery covering posters, concept drawings, character design and more. The presentation of it is well laid out and you'll see some good stuff.
Finally there's a bit on a Star Wars game but I wasn't particularly interested.
So if you like Star Wars then this boxset is an essential purchase for the dvd collection. I wouldn't say it was the perfect release because those of us who grew up with it would probably much prefer to see the original cuts on dvd devoid of any CGI enhancements. But Lucas has said they may never happen. If anything it's best to see these films and remember that Darth Vader was once the badass of the galaxy.
By Episode III he'd become nothing more than a clichéd villain with that immortal cry of Nooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!
More details
Soundtrack
Outstanding
How does it compare to others by the same director?
Outstanding
Value for Money
Good
What format are you reviewing?
DVD
Evaluate this review
How helpful would this review be to someone making a buying decision? Rating guidelines
very helpful
very helpful
very helpful
helpful
helpful
