Rating: 
Summary: The Film 1000+ stars; the DVD release 1 star (...)
Review: Let me start off by saying that Star Wars is my favorite film of all time. Nothing else even comes close. Let me also point out that it is the most watched film of all time in the theaters (most tickets sold) despite Titanic "outgrossing" it in dollars. How can anyone compare 1997 ticket prices to 1977 ticket prices. I read the figures somewhere, and can't recall the exact numbers, but the number of theaters Titanic opened in when it first came out was in the 10,000+ range, while I believe Star Wars in 1977 opened on about 500 screens. Then, if Star Wars ticket prices were about $2.50 back then, and it still was able to come in just behind Titanic in grossed $'s, (where Titanic tickets sold at an average of $7.50) that makes the number of tickets sold, and the number of patrons who actually saw and paid for Star Wars in the theater, astronomically higher than any other film in history. Now, onto the DVD release. I give it one Amazon star for the fact that the original released films are not going to be available. Only the "special edition" footage within are the ones coming out on DVD. With all the technology avaiable to Lucas, you mean he couldn't offer both versions!!!! Even have the option of pressing the "MULTI ANGLE" feature at the time where a change has been made, to let us be able to switch back and forth between both versions. The technology is there, but Lucas chooses not to use it. I only hope Ep. III can return SW to it's original glory. A glory that AOTC stole. If not, I'll be sticking to my VHS widescreen non-special edition videos and my Phantom Menace DVD. One last note, this release gets -5 stars and not even a rating if Lucas leaves out what myself and millions of fans have been waiting for forever!!!! THE UNSEEN FOOTAGE FROM THE ORIGINAL FILMS NOT PUT BACK INTO THE SPECIAL EDITIONS. These deleted scenes had better be on this DVD or I will not even purchase it. I'm talking about scenes like the originally filmed opened scene to Star Wars where Luke, Biggs, and a female friend are hanging out on Tatooine. It was filmed, it exists, and if it doesn't make it's way onto this DVD release, we shall never get to see it!
Rating: 
Summary: The Star Wars Trilogy
Review: This three-pack is a must have. It includes all the REAL "Star Wars" movies (the ones that tell the story of how Luke Skywalker gets to be a Jedi Knight, like his father), and by Episode VI all the loose ends are answered. Truly great cinema, with great special effects.
This three classics must not be missed!
Rating:
Summary: Greatest Sci-fi trilogy-coming in september!!
Review: Yes, LOTR has become the greatest movie trilogy. Star Wars is a must own on dvd. I know some of Lucas's changes and methods are very frustrating but this is the best he is going to give us. To have these films in brilliant widescreen with booming surround sound is going to be great. The extra's will be very interesting as well. Star Wars is a brilliant beginning to the trilogy. Empire Strikes back is the best of the series, a great story, fantastic acting, full of emotion and great battle scenes. Return of the Jedi, whilst still being wonderfully entertaining is the weekest of the series. Buy, and let your surround sound take you to a galaxy far, far away!!
Rating:
Summary: Yes, it's finally coming to DVD, but ignore the rumors.
Review: Well first off LucasFilm has offically confirmed that the Star Wars trilogy is coming to DVD. It will be in a four issue DVD disk boxed set (similar to the Indiana Jones DVD boxed set). Containing the 1997 rereleased films of Star Wars, Empire, and Jedi with the new footage and new effects work done on them. It is false that these movies will be twerked yet again for the DVD release. The movies are finished and the version of them we all saw at theaters in 97 is the final cut done with wach movie.(...)
Rating: 
Summary: Not-So-Special Edition
Review: I hate the new 'Special Edition' versions of these three films. The original versions should have been left how they were. Anyways, the first two movies are great and both deserve five stars. Return of the Jedi, however, deserves three stars at the most. The final and concluding film has unfortunately already been made, and no matter how good any of the prequel films are, it is still frustrating that it ends with Return of the Jedi. First of all, I love the Emperor. He is pure evil. What I can't stand about Episode Six is this: They are so incredibly unoriginal and without any decent idea that they make another Death Star, and blow it up AGAIN! The same thing we already saw in Episode Four! Very unexciting and anticlimatic to see it done a second time. They should have failed to blow it up in Episode Four so that it was still a menace, and then they should have had it blowing stuff up in Episode Five with it looking hopeless that it could ever be defeated, and THEN in Episode Six they should have finally blown it up. That would have changed the story quite a bit but it would have been a lot better. Think of Lord of the Rings if in the first movie they got rid of the ring, but then Saruon came back to power and they got rid of it again. That is kind of how this Star Wars trilogy is to me.
Rating:
Summary: The "new" Special Editions on DVD
Review: OK, first of all, for all you folks who puke on the '97 Special Editions, you're really not gonna like the new DVD versions. Word has it that the crew at Skywalker Ranch have continued to tweak and improve these classic films. Meaning that the '97 versions were mearly "work in progress" releases. And even after they're released on DVD this September, they'll continue being tweaked for the rumored Ultimate Editions that will come out later in an ultimate 6-movie box set. Now don't get me wrong, I was born 3 years before the original Star Wars film hit theaters in May 1977, and I welcomed the Special Editions in '97 with open arms, because unlike many film purists, I feel I'm the true 'progressive' on these matters and I'm a Republican. Imagine that! I have always felt that the original films needed cleaning up and brought up to date with the emergence of computer enhanced effects. I don't know, call me crazy for not wanting to see flashing "blue screen" boxes around the TIE Fighters as they streak across the screen. I feel the one thing that kills realism in the movies is bad blue screen effects. So I was more than happy that Lucas and ILM cleaned up the blue screen artifacts. I also welcomed the additional CGI shots dispersed through-out the films. The additional Mos Eisley shots, although they probably need additional work on them to clean them up a bit as the CG work was a bit primitive at the time in ~'96. However the additional shots of X-Wings 'n stuff from the Battle of Yavin IV were especially cool. But being fair and balanced, I did have a few objections to a few changes, like for instance some dialogue changes and other scenes, but at the same time, I wished they had added more scenes in certain places. But enough about the SE contraversy. So what about the DVDs? Well, as I said before, these DVD versions will still yet again be different than the '97 versions. What has changed? Well, rumors have it that the light sabre effects have been enhanced. One thing that always bothered me about ANH was the seemingly "white-looking" light sabre that Luke used in Obi-wans home and in the Falcon during the remote drone training. So instead of the white blade, we might be getting a solid glowing blue sabre. Another thing that bothered me was the 'dated' computer screens on the Death Star and on Yavin IV. I mean they screamed 1977! Much like the TV screens in the series Babylon 5 that screamed early '90s. I'd like to see (if possible) new screens that would go along more with established continuity in the Prequal movies.
Rating:
Summary: Choice george please!!!
Review: look i'm excited for the trilogy to come out on dvd, but i want to have choice which version i watch. how hard can it be to put out two versions of film? sources say that you plan on using the special edition version of your films , but please for those of us that grew up with these films, put out the original versions that weren't tampered with.! i've got the stargate ultimate edition so i know it can be done . so do it for the fans that grew up with these films instead of the ones that came after. A fan ! oh well i'm thankful i still have thx mastered vhs copies of the original films , because i'll probably be watching those. i never was a very big fan of special edition expect for adding the jabba the hutt scene in the first film, besides that tweaking these classic films was a sin my book . but like i said include both versions in the same case! it's a just an idea.
Rating:
Summary: Clarification and theory of SE changes.
Review: 5 Stars for the 1989 VHS remastered sound original version. 0 for the upcoming DVD's. I was going to give the upcoming DVD's at least a half star, but considering the history of the "editions" in the 90's where the TV commericial for the updated efx edition(the editions >before< the Special Editions where the TV commericials said verbatim: "Buy the trilogy one last time!"), and all the travesty Lucas continues to heap on the memories of the originals etc. I'm joining the boycott. Some things on the SE changes. In ANH SE, Jabba was superimposed over a pudgy irish type Jabba(proto for Watto?). Besides the confusing Biggs scene in the later part of the movie, there was another scene near the beginning where Biggs talks to Luke about joining the rebellion presumably in Anchorage or near Luke's home. The scene is in Lucas' original movie-tie-in novelization and also in the kids' picture books. Sorry, I still don't see the "improvements" in the Death-star battle. The "ring" explosion of the Death Star is vintage ST:TNG CGI type of explosion. A soldier reports to Moff Tarkin that they count 20 or so fighters so it's not exactly a "bigger" looking battle, unless that line was cut from the movie as well.
As to why Lucas sticks by these SE versions? My theory based on reading biographical details on the making of SW(some could turn out to be just rumor so I could be wrong just like there are so many autobiographical books on Star Trek by many different cast members and assorted writers) , is that Lucas really didn't have the final say on a lot of ANH and ESB. Marcia Lucas and others had a say on how the editing and scriptwriting was done for ANH. For example, the scene where stormtrooper says "Looks sir, Droids!" and holds up that metal ring was supposedly decided to be done that way by Marcia Lucas to cut things short when Lucas wanted to do a full efx shot with dewbacks moving around instead of the still in the original. And guess what? The SE has the CGI dewbacks wandering about after all. Looks like Lucas got the final say after all after 18+ years. This and many other changes to the whole trilogy SE style could be Lucas' taking back from many others who contributed to the original and stamping his new version as totally his. Even to the point of discrediting the efx folks who did great memorable efx shots like the original explosion of the Death Star. Maybe Lucas had to compromise and now 20 years later he's doing everything he wanted, or just changing it enough to make every production decision his own. My 2nd theory is that Lucas knew LOTR was being made and he wanted to "upgrade" the efx to make the SW OT as a efx competitor for LOTR movie generation. Of course he probably didn't realize LOTR would be *that* good and now he's forced to release the DVD's just to do some "business" as his usual before it's too late and LOTR becomes the overwhelming choice of fantasy.
It should also be clarified that Lucas in the months writing the script for ANH researched Tolkien to write his "space fantasy" with Gary Kurtz. Thanks to the decades long commercialization of SW and efx movies in general, people have forgotten that SW stems and borrows very heavily from LOTR the book. Take a very close look at the sets and situations in ANH and you can just find about anything LOTR inspired. Luke's farm home looks like a hobbit mound. Many characters are similar to LOTR characters. The "superstructure" of the Death Star and Destroyers look like small cities themselves when in fact Minas Tirith was described as a city built from the stone mountain. The Cantina scenes where more characters meet echo Bree. Darth Vader is described much like Sauron. Dark *LORD* of the sith indeed. Early scripts for ANH feature three "rings" of force power. The exhaust shaft to the "reactor" core is akin to the Cracks of MT. Doom where the ring has to be tossed. The "throne room" scene at the end is remniscent of Aragorn's crowning, otherwise why did John Williams call that track the "Throne Room and End Credits"? Interesting that some have said ROTK should have ended right after Aragorn's ceremony and ANH happens to do just that kind of an end. The Oliphaunts were described in much the same way as AT-AT walkers also serving as troop transports. And of course hobbity Ewoks which Lucas called "strength of heart of the 'small' folk" in ROTJ documentaries back in the early 80's. SW borrowed from LOTR, not the other way around due to 20 years indoctrination of Lucas efx movie driven legacy where we got jaded to all kinds of efx heavy yet script deficient movies i.e. ID4.
Rating:
Summary: Still Star Wars
Review: A lot of people complain about the special editions, some as if
they where completely different films from the originals. I for one like the changes and additions for the most part, most of all, the Jabba The Hutt scene with Han Solo in the first film.
After all, it is the way George Lucas intended it to be, and they
are his films. And I can't wait for the DVDs in September.
Rating:
Summary: An accurate review of The Star Wars Trilogy.
Review: The first principle of 'star wars' is to see man out in space..this movie(successfully) starts this way; and then attempts to focus on the wit and sarcasm, of the players as heroical archetypes of the the present era. As I understand this effort-it is to present the 'so-called reality' of people, as they play themselves:in those real life situations that have somehow become their fate. As they attempt to grow wiser and more serious..while at the same time, the grade is such that they must also accept their responsibilites.('..by joining the academy next year.')We already know them, but this is what they are like, what they are 'made of' and what they do as they assist mankind in it's quest for greater-glory.
The whole idea behind capsualising any concept as great as Stars Wars into a moment that can be used as a relief, appeals to me enough to write this short essay. These annecdotal characters, their fights,altruism,egos,and goals culminate in such a way:in order to act as a guideline for this transcendental and natural quintessence of thinking-which is altogether apparent in the media today.I think that is GOOD.
By asking for -Stars Wars you will get, everything that Luke Skywalker, along with his self-evident companions and friends have to give. You will.. 'key in with the force.' You will have the 'advantage of their insight.' It is valuable knowledge and it is rewarding. The teleplay for this series is always changing for me. The various situations are like trial and error. I stayed with star wars, Where is the DVD?..and 'who would head into a meteor shower'..I am asking you. Put a quarter into the machine and rock on.If they say no to star wars..say yes-in order to say Yes.mfd Please Say Yes.DVD for the Star Wars Trilogy by Mark Hamill.
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