Editorial Review: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
Amazon.com essential video: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 (1999) and
Episode II, Attack of the Clones (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.
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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, 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 poster 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
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Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
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Star Wars Trilogy
What would you expect, it's the original three Star Wars movies! These three are the best of the series of six! I purchased them used and they are in great shape. No scratches on any of the four DVD's (Bonus disk included).
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Star Wars Trilogy Widescreen
* For Star Wars aficionados. It has the latest special effect additions and better resolution than the same period VHS tapes. Interesting bonus disk. ...
Rating: -
The greatest films of all time, in a great DVD set
The Star Wars Saga changed the face of cinema, and even rewrote modern mythology. The journey of the hero, capitalizing on the imagery of medieval Japan, Flash Gordon, World War 2 and the Old West, comes to life in the classic "Space Opera" trilogy that affected an entire generation, and hopefully with this splendid DVD boxset, generations to come.
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Star Wars Trilogy
* The Star Wars Trilogy are three of my favorite movies. And, the boxed set I have came in excellent condition. All three movies look great in this DVD package. ...
Rating: -
Great Movies
As I'm quite sure you know the basic storyline of Star Wars, I am just reviewing the features of this set. I really enjoyed the quality of the remastered movies. I saw the special editions in the theater, but these include even more updates, such as character continuity with Anakin and Palpatine. I never owned the complete original series before (tho I've always been an avid fan), so I am happy with it.
