Digital Envisions

Just a caution ahead of time: This article is made up of spoilers about the new Star Wars Blu-ray collection, so if you want to be surprised with your purchase, then don’t say I didn’t notify you!

For many enthusiasts they had their desires on Lucas finally giving the enthusiasts what they wanted – an original new and uncut edition of the movies along with the earlier deleted moments integrated. And to a certain extent that’s what has occurred. But to a larger extent it’s more like Lucas is testing the devotion of the enthusiasts of the Star Wars universe. Lucas is a visionary – there’s no questioning that. He changed how movies were made and blazed a way that made sci-fi films feasible and profitable for movie studios to make. It’s just that at some point along his movie making journey he seems to have gotten thoroughly and entirely lost. And I wish to share a few examples of precisely how lost he is.

I’m a massive Star Wars fan. Huge! And for me some of the most seminal occasions in movie making history were the last few clips in Return of the Jedi that relied on very little dialogue and the incredible score of John Williams. The lightsaber duel between Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader is among the finest moments in motion picture past right up to the part where Vader finally sees the error of his ways and destroys the Emperor – all without uttering a solitary word.

Now in this cut we have now Vader yelling “Noooooooo!” as unconvincingly as he did at the end of Revenge of the Sith (probably the most cringe worthy sequences outside of a Sex And the City film). And he does this twice so we are able to cringe a second time as he feebly bellows (I know but that is the way it sounds) “Nooooooooo!” A travesty folks….a total travesty.

As for the “Greedo shooting first” edit words fail me. It was bad enough that political correctness meant Greedo has got to shoot first but the CGI used here to attempt to “correct” the earlier footage is amateurish at very best. Lucas isn’t even trying here and it really shows – the edit is careless and not effective in any way and is evidence of why that scene needs to be restored to its initial take where Han takes Greedo out.

But you will find moments to compensate for this and my favorite within those is watching Luke create his own lightsaber right before they visit Jabba’s palace to free Han Solo from his carbonite penitentiary. That left me with a big childish smile on my face that’s still somewhat lingering there. And that’s the sort of footage fans like me really, genuinely enjoy seeing. You could produce the same occasion for yourself with a Force FX lightsaber if you sought to.

With that said the Blu-Ray set is a mixed bag. There are some awesome deleted clips that enthusiasts have been hanging around quite a long time to see. Then you will find CGI addendums to existing footage that have you sitting there thinking “Ummmmm that really never mattered.” And then there are moments like the Vader scene in which you wish to find George Lucas and water board him to understand exactly why he thinks insulting his fans is a clever thing to do.

The truth is that most enthusiasts are going to get this boxed collection – just like all the others eh? And while you’re at it look into the wide range of FX lightsabers too – treat yourself!

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