Product Description
-------------------
Includes:
* Episode IV, A New Hope
Commentary by George Lucas, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie
Fisher
* Episode V, The Empire Strikes Back
Commentary by George Lucas, Irvin Kershner, Ben Burtt, Dennis
Muren, and Carrie Fisher
* Episode VI, Return of the Jedi
Commentary by George Lucas, Ben Burtt, Dennis Muren, and Carrie
Fisher
* "Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy," the
most comprehensive feature-length documentary ever produced on
the Star Wars saga, and never-before-seen footage from the making
of all three films
* Featurettes: The Legendary Creatures of Star Wars, The Birth
of the Lightsaber, The Legacy of Star Wars
* Teasers, trailers, TV spots, still galleries
* Playable Xbox demo of the new Lucasarts game Star Wars
Battlefront
* The making of the Episode III videogame
* Exclusive preview of Star Wars: Episode III
.com
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Was George Lucas's Star Wars Trilogy, the most anticipated DVD
release ever, worth the wait? You bet. It's a must-have for any
home theater, looking great, sounding great, and supplemented by
generous bonus features.
The Movies
The Star Wars Trilogy had the rare distinction of becoming a
cultural phenomenon, a defining event for its generation. On its
surface, George Lucas's story is a rollicking and humorous space
fantasy that owes debts to more influences than one can count on
two hands, but filmgoers became entranced by its basic struggle
of good vs. evil "a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away,"
its dazzling special effects, and a mythology of Jedi knights,
the Force, and droids. Over the course of three films--A New Hope
(1977), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), and Return of the Jedi
(1983)--Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill), Princess Leia (Carrie
Fisher), and the roguish Han Solo (Harrison Ford) join the Rebel
alliance in a galactic war against the Empire, the menacing Darth
Vader (David Prowse, voiced by James Earl Jones), and eventually
the all-powerful Emperor (Ian McDiarmid). Empire is generally
considered the best of the films and Jedi the most uneven, but
all three are vastly superior to the more technologically
impressive prequels that followed, Episode I, The Phantom Menace
( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00003CX5P/${0} ) (1999) and Episode II,
Attack of the Clones ( /exec/obidos/ASIN/B00006HBUJ/${0} )
(2002).
How Are the Picture and Sound?
Thanks to a new digital transfer, you've never seen C-3PO glow
so golden, and Darth Vader's helmet is as black as the Dark Side.
In a word, spectacular. Thanks to a new digital transfer, you've
never seen C-3PO glow so golden, and Darth Vader's helmet is as
black as the Dark Side. And at the climactic scene of A New Hope,
see if the Dolby 5.1 EX sound doesn't knock you back in your
chair. Other audio options are Dolby 2.0 Surround in English,
Spanish, and French. (Sorry, DTS fans, but previous Star Wars
DVDs didn't have DTS either.) There have been a few quibbles with
the audio on A New Hope, however. A few seconds of Peter
Cushing's dialogue ("Then name the system!") are distorted, and
the music (but not the sound effects) is reversed in the rear
channels. For example, in the final scene, the brass is in the
front right channel but the back left channel (from the viewer's
perspective), and the strings are in the left front and back
right. The result feels like the instruments are crossing through
the viewer.
What's Been Changed?
The rumors are true: Lucas made more changes to the films for
their DVD debut. Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker) has been
added to a scene in Jedi, Ian McDiarmid (the Emperor) replaces
Clive Revill with slightly revised lines in Empire, Temuera
Morrison has rerecorded Boba Fett's minimal dialogue, and some
other small details have been altered. Yes, these changes mean
that the Star Wars films are no longer the ones you saw 20 years
ago, but these brief changes hardly affect the films, and they do
make sense in the overall continuity of the two trilogies. It's
not like a digitized Ewan McGregor has replaced Alec Guiness's
scenes, and the infamous changes made for the 1997
special-edition versions were much more intrusive (of course,
those are in the DVD versions as well).
How Are the Bonus Features?
Toplining is Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars
Trilogy, a 150-minute documentary incorporating not only the
usual making-of nuts and bolts but also the political workings of
the movie studios and the difficulties Lucas had getting his
vision to the screen (for example, after resigning from the
Directors' Guild, he lost his first choice for director of Jedi:
Steven Spielberg). It's a little adulatory, but it has plenty to
interest any fan. The three substantial featurettes are "The
Characters of Star Wars" (19 min.), which discusses the
development of the characters we all know and love, "The Birth of
the Lightsaber" (15 min.), about the creation and evolution of a
Jedi's ultimate weapon, and "The Force Is with Them: The Legacy
of Star Wars" (15 min.), in which filmmakers such as Peter
Jackson, Ridley Scott, and James Cameron talk about how they and
the industry were affected by the films and Lucas's technological
developments in visual effects, sound, and computer animation.
The bonus features are excellent and along the same lines as
those created for The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones.
Each film has a commentary track, recorded by Lucas, Ben Burtt
(sound design), Dennis Muren (visual effects), and Carrie Fisher,
with Irvin Kershner joining in on the film he directed, The
Empire Strikes Back. Recorded separately and skillfully edited
together (with supertitles to identify who is speaking), the
tracks lack the energy of group commentaries, but they're
enjoyable and informative, with a nice mix of overall vision
(Lucas), technical details (Burtt, Muren, Kershner), and actor's
perspective (Fisher). Interestingly, they discuss some of the
1997 changes (Mos Eisley creatures, the new Jabba the Hutt scene)
but not those made for the DVDs.
There's also a sampler of the Xbox game Star Wars: Battlefront (
/exec/obidos/ASIN/B0001DI6FM/${0} ), which lets the player
reenact classic film scenarios (blast Ewoks in the battle of
Endor!); trailers and TV spots from the films' many releases; and
a nine-minute preview of the last film in the series, Episode
III, Revenge of the Sith (here identified by an earlier working
title, The Return of Darth Vader). Small extra touches include
anamorphic widescreen motion menus with dialogue, original
artwork on the discs, and a whopping 50 chapter stops for each
film.
"The Force Is Strong with This One"
The Star Wars Trilogy is an outstanding DVD set that lives up to
the anticipation. There will always be resentment that the
original versions of the films are not available as well, but
George Lucas maintains that these are the versions he always
wanted to make. If fans are able to put this debate aside, they
can enjoy the adventures of Luke, Leia, and Han for years to
come. --David Horiuchi