A New Fan!
Tuesday was the big release day for the Holy Trilogy on DVD and despite some technical sound issues, the movies are great! The picture quality in freakin’ unbelievable. This Lowry Digital has done some astonishing work before (The Indiana Jones Trilogy) but this is the icing on the cake. I can actually enjoy Return of the Jedi as an adult now and wince in pain at some of the terrible optical shots. The completely fixed up Rancor scene is spectacular and the whole beginning of the film during the Jabba sequences is now a sight to behold. There’s so much to compliment on this set that I’d be writing a heck of a long list, so my overall feeling is GO GET THIS SET!
But if some of you want to know what I didn’t like about it, I’ll be happy to oblige. The issues presented over at the digitalbits.com, for the most part are pretty right on. There is a weird reversing of the John Williams soundtrack from the front left/rights to the rear left/rights. If you don’t have the full 5.1, 6.1, or 7.1 surrounds set up you will not notice this issue, but for those that have a good ear for this kind of stuff then be prepared for some unusual sounstrack moments. The most glaring of the three reported problems is the omission of (or incredibly turned down) the massive William’s score right after the moment Red Leader says his lines and the 3 X-Wings swoop down for their attack on the Death Star. The build is there, the massive crescendo of symbols crashing is there, but then……….. no payoff. John Williams score is completely obliterated by new ly added sound effects of explosions and laserfire. Puh-tooey on you, Lucas and Ben Burtt!! This has been a glorious, exciting moment that has survived how many versions of this film for the past 27 years and then bammo it’s gone and Lucasfilm clearly states that any changes that have occured are the creative decisions and there are absolutely no tecnical problems with this release! If so, then I ask why are other countries reporting that the Williams score is clearly present on their releases? The last reported error is a dialog sequence with the actors, Peter Cushing (Grand Moff Tarkin), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia), and James Earl Jones (Darth Vader) and apparently Cushings diolog is pretty messed up with what sounds like the original sounds files had been destroyed and it was pieced together from various sound clips. My disc does not have this issue so I’m thinking it may be an issue with the disc itself. Note: I am noticing another soundtrack issue in the Empire Strikes Back during the carbon freeze sequence where the really great e motional music seems to warble like somebody ran the soundtrack through a Wah Wah Pedal. I’ll test it again tonight to make sure I wasn’t hearing things.
