Star Wars DVD Box Set Released 536
dealsites writes "CNN reports that George Lucas is releasing the Star Wars DVD box set early on September 21, 2004 due to piracy concerns. Lucas had intended to release the box set of the original 3 movies after Episode III: Revenge of the Sith was released. However, he mentions that due to piracy concerns the profits are being eaten up and there might not be a market for the films at that time. The box set contains the changes that Lucas has made from the original releases. CNN also reports on the top 5 major changes. Lucas is quoted as saying that he never intends to re-release the original 3 movies in the first CNN link."
Sure. (Score:5, Insightful)
Versus, say, producing two completely crap prequels, oversaturating the tie-in market, and then not releasing the original versions that many people want to buy.
George Lucas doesn't need any more of your money, and this seems to be reflected by the decisions he has made as of late.
No Market? (Score:2, Insightful)
HA HA HA HA HA! (Score:2, Insightful)
Yeah, and I'm sure that it has NOTHING to do with
1. The fact that everyone in the world who might want to buy copies of the Star Wars trilogy already owns it
2. The people who love the Star Wars trilogy enough they might buy new copies even though they already own it don't want anything with Lucas's stupid "digital enhancements" on them
It's becoming increasingly the case where ANYTIME anyone says ANYTHING about piracy, all this means is "we can't create a quality product people are willing to buy, and we're going to blame it on others". I mean, people have been talking about piracy for years, but at least at one time the people whining about so-called "piracy" were people whose products were actually being illegally traded online in some small quantity.
Ehm, logic anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
* Fans are screaming after the original, non-Special Edition version.
* Lucas admits he's never going to release the original version.
So, the only way to get the original trilogy, on a decent medium (VHS doesn't count, Laserdisc isn't an option for 99% of the people out there) is through... piracy?
Now, here comes the big irony:
* Lucas releases the Star Wars SE DVDs early, over fear for piracy concerns.
Way to go Lucas!
I don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
Yes I know it isn't the original trilogy. But the SE is damn close to being it. Some of Lucas' "improvements" are *gasp* actually improvements! Yes, I know it isn't what was originally released, but this is Lucas' story and he owns the rights, so he is allowed to tinker with it until he is satisfied.
When I watch the SE, I don't vomit, I don't cry, I don't think about some part of my childhood slipping away. The great parts of the movie are still there. Luke meeting Obi-wan, the sunset, meeting Han, saving Leia, Obi-wan vs. Vader, "I am your father", the final duel, etc. It is all there still, just like it was back in the day.
The movies still give me that chill during certain scenes, where they just touch some part inside that you never knew you had.
Yes it might not be the originals, but I'll take 99% of the original on DVD over nothing. Maybe if you don't agree you should go watch again with an open mind. Instead of saying "why the fuck did Lucas change this! It isn't the same!" ask yourself "there must be a good reason for this."
Now I am going to go watch my copy of the trilogy...on DVD!
Piracy wouldn't be such a problem if (Score:3, Insightful)
I personally had already waited years for the DVD release, and would have happily waited another year and just bought the damn thing. But I've bought the original series THREE TIMES already; on CED videodisc, then twice on VHS (the first one wore out), then I bought the "special edition" on VHS, which was good because it told me I didn't want to ever see THAT again.
All I want is an archival quality copy of the ORIGINAL movies. I would have paid for it even though I've already bought the damn movies 3+ times. But it's not for sale. I hate to call it pirating, it's just that I'm just not buying what Lucas is selling.
Re:We had it yesterday in the UK (Score:1, Insightful)
My feelings on the changes (Score:5, Insightful)
This is a good, it sounded stupid. Kudos to Lucas for correcting a mistake
Again, not a bad for consistency.
Thank god, the SE scene looked incredible dumb. Hopefully they have also removed the Han walking over Jabba's tail bit with some creative editing. Actually, I wish that the whole scene was removed, or greatly shortened since Greedo basically repeats all the information to Han later on.
Fair enough, since we all know by now that Palpatine is the emperor (or do we...)
Everyone seems to be complaining about this, but I think it makes sense. The picture circulating on the net looks a bit stupid though, seeing Christensen smiling untouched at the end looks somehow wrong. He could at least look a bit guilty for wiping out the Jedi. Still the original wasn't much better.
Do these changes really have to be made (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like taking Dracula (the original) and "updating" it so it's got smoother continuity with all of the cheesy vampire moves made over the years.
Guess what - there already is a break between the original trilogy and the 2/3 releases prequel trilogy. If you need to adjust to bring them in line, adjust the new junk to be in line with the classic, not the other way around!
Hopping mad,
=Blue(23)
Piracy (Score:5, Insightful)
This is not to say that piracy is good, but considering how the movie studios treat the customers, I don't feel bad for them one but. Maybe if the movie studio's treated me better I would have more sympathy for them (for example, quit with the half hour advertising before a movie). Oh, and my biggest DVD gripe, STOP WITH THE ADVERTISING THAT CAN'T BE SKIPPED.
BTW, in unreleated news, I was reading that movie studios will now accept advertising in movies. Like in "I, Robot" the studio recieved money for a shoe commercial (converse shoes, I think). What is next? I can just see some of the classic movies, improved with product placement. I can just imagine Citizen Cane where everyone where's nike shoes and drinks Pepsi.
Re:Already in europe (Score:2, Insightful)
Be No Original Trilogy Here.... (Score:5, Insightful)
I hate to disagree, but we did not get the original trilogy. We got a trilogy that has been monkeyed with and, in parts, made worse while in other parts made better. On the whole, I like what he did to the three (even though I have seen the Hayden Christensen thing at the end of Jedi and hugely dislike it), but this is definately not the original trilogy.
Personally, I think that is what Lucas is worried about. Here you have three movies how he wanted them, now complete we can assume. But, a great many people hate the changes. So much so that in recently (like in the last couple of years), those with the laserdisc originals have been painstakenly moving those over to DVD and those are appearing online. I believe this is the piracy that Lucas is talking about. He wants to make those originals go away (he said so [yahoo.com] recently).
Re:I don't get it (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:What's your point? (Score:5, Insightful)
Hollywood has cried "wolf" far too often, using "piracy" as a convenient explanation for any and all problems (even problems that are obviously the result of its own poor products).
Thus, Hollywood claiming to have found yet another "piracy" problem is about as credible as Dan Rather claiming to have found another set of Bush's National Guard records.
Re:We had it yesterday in the UK (Score:5, Insightful)
You know what really makes that edit stupid? Why would Luke recognize the young Anakin as his father?
Only 25 or 30% of what he wanted? (Score:2, Insightful)
Some additional thoughts on the subject:
Usually, when I try to improve upon some art form I've created, I end up obsessing and eventually screwing it up completely. (I'm not really drawing an analogy here, or am I?)
I like the fact that they replaced Boba's voice with Jango's, since they committed themselves to it in the prequels.
Most important prequels question: Will they figure out a way to erase that damnable mitichlorians BS? The Force should not be constrained to biological constructs, IMO.
Re:Ehm, logic anyone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Now, here comes the big irony: Lucas releases the Star Wars SE DVDs early, over fear for piracy concerns.
No, the big irony is making a film [imdb.com] in which people have to buy products for the sake of it, presumably pointing out that this would be a bad idea, then going on to make another film [imdb.com] which you proceed to market toys for, do deals with fast food eateries over, and so on.
Re:Sure. (Score:5, Insightful)
When they released the first one to the big screen, they announced they would never release it to the home market. I saw it on the big screen. Because they would never release it to the home market, piracy couldn't hurt anything. I was overseas and picked up a nth generation VHS copy. (not good quality) Because of piracy, about 4 years later they released a VHS version. They missed the market by not filling the void. They should have sold into the market when the demand was high. It's a case of a company not listening to it's consumers.
Now that consumers may want the original theatrical version, why is a studio going to play the it's not for sale game again.. Will they ever learn.
Some movies I am hesitant to buy simply because it becomes a pig in a poke. Close Encounters of the Third Kind is a good example of this. There are at least 3 versions out. The original big screen version I don't think they ever released to the home market. The re-done one (with out the crazy scene of ripping up the garden, upsetting the lady with the ducks next door, and tossing everyting into the kitchen window) and the extended version with the extra footage of the ship.
Get a clue. Release the uncut big screen version in a timely manner. If I know I can get the full version legaly in good quality, than there is less incentive to look elsewhere.
If you want additional scenes, or an alternate ending, put it in the menu on DVD.
Re:Sure. (Score:5, Insightful)
Personally I have the only digital version released up till now -- the laserdisc version. Still I'm not keen on the two pauses you have to deal with per movie (one double-sided disc, one single sided per movie) so I preordered the box set. There's not a huge number of people with laserdisc players (even at the height of their popularity, such as it was) much less both a player and the Star Wars LDs, everyone else wanting a digital version has been SOL up till today.
While that doesn't really make it right that people have pirated it, I'm not going to be feeling sorry for Lucas. Quite frankly, he brought that particular piracy mess on himself by being stubborn and ignoring fan requests. He'll still make barrel loads of money off the DVD boxset anyway so it's not like he's going to suffer. Neither are those that worked on the original trilogy, he did share profits with the cast and crew on The Empire Strikes Back at least, I believe he did so on Return of the Jedi as well. (For those buying the boxset the new documentary included will tell the details, I caught it on A&E a few weeks back.) About the only "victims" I can see for piracy of the original trilogy would be the stores who didn't have the product to sell in the first place.
And frankly it'd sell well even if he'd made us wait as long as he originally intended, although he may have lost all remaining fan goodwill towards him.
Re:What's your point? (Score:3, Insightful)
Display device ... (Score:3, Insightful)
What you're watching it on will probably be a factor. On a big-screen TV, the difference is really apparent.
Remember, the original film wasn't filmed in VHS. It was filmed in a much higher resolution film format and then downgraded to VHS for release. It was, after all, filmed to be displayed on a 40 foot screen. That actually captures a lot of detail that gets discarded when you format for NTSC.
Sometimes the digital mastering just cleans up the colour palette or removes a lot of grain and artifacts. But it really does have an observable difference on the right display.
Cheers
Re:Ehm, logic anyone? (Score:3, Insightful)
Gimme a call when you change your mind, Lucas, as I'm sure you will.
Re:We had it yesterday in the UK (Score:1, Insightful)
Oh wait: it's the Force, the same plot driver that allows all sorts of heroic and/or sappy things to happen when necessary.
Re:Piracy (Score:3, Insightful)
Yeah, I fully agree. I was pretty outraged when Peter Jackson came to my house with a shotgun, dragged me down to Best Buy, and held the gun to my head while I bought the vanilla edition of The Two Towers.
Nobody's forcing you to buy the movie on DVD. If you don't want to, don't! I've held off buying any of the LotR movies until the boxed set of the extended edition arrives at Christmastime. Nobody's stopping you from doing the same.
As for product placement, there's hardly anything new there. Do you think ET ate Reese's Pieces because Spielberg really really likes them? If Mars Inc. had ponied up more than Hershey, he'd have been happily munching on peanut M&Ms. Do you think that Bond drove an Aston Martin because he loved it? Nope, because Aston _paid_ MGM.
Re:Sure. (Score:2, Insightful)
We give them the sole protected right to charge for their work, on the basis that they will make the work available to the public. Artificially making movies scarce to milk additional profits is the antithesis of the copyright deal.
Given that the three Star Wars films have been out for over a decade, and DVD has been out a while too, and that these are some of the most popular films ever, it is unbelievable that there would be a justification in delaying the DVD release.
In these cases (where a work is deliberately made unavailable, even though it is in demand) the government should revoke copyright protection to the works in question - the studio can still release it anyway they like, but they can't stop anyone else doing likewise. Let's stamp out this copyright abuse!
Re:Piracy (Score:2, Insightful)
They can't release the "best" version first because different people have different ideas of what is "best". Not everyone needs or wants the extra features or footage. Some people don't see the need to spend extra money for special features when they can buy a DVD with just the movie for half the price. Some people consider variety a good thing. Nobody is forcing you to buy every single version of the DVD that is released. Nobody is forcing you to buy a $10 movie ticket, a $5 popcorn or a $5 coke or sit through half an hour of commercials if you want a good seat. Maybe, theatre owners are charging high prices for tickets, popcorn, showing half an hour of commercials, and don't have enough good seats but are the theatre owners being unethical? How are the studios being unethical? Please explain.
Now tell me again, how are the pirates unethical? What money are they taking away from the studios?
In my opinion pirates are being unethical if they copy materials when they have no legal right to do so. Pirates take away money from the studios when they distribute illegal copies of materials to people who would have otherwise purchased a legal copy.
Clearly piracy ain't cutting in on the movie ticket sales, or any of the special edition sets.
I do not see any evidence in your post that "clearly piracy ain't cutting in on the movie ticket sales, or any of the special edition sets". I don't really believe it is actually possible to determine the precise effect of piracy on movies sales. Even if movie sales are down from last year's numbers, you can say for certain if piracy is responsible.
This is not to say that piracy is good, but considering how the movie studios treat the customers, I don't feel bad for them one but. Maybe if the movie studio's treated me better I would have more sympathy for them (for example, quit with the half hour advertising before a movie). Oh, and my biggest DVD gripe, STOP WITH THE ADVERTISING THAT CAN'T BE SKIPPED.
While I dislike the advertising before movies in the theatre, I do not believe that the movie studios can stop the advertising or high prices for popcorn or pop. I believe that the theatre owners have control over the concession prices and any advertising shown before the movie in the theatre. As for advertising in DVDs, I am not exactly what you are referring to. Are you talking advertising prior to the actual movie? Because I can't actually recall such type of advertising on DVD. Can you please clarify.
BTW, in unreleated news, I was reading that movie studios will now accept advertising in movies. Like in "I, Robot" the studio recieved money for a shoe commercial (converse shoes, I think). What is next? I can just see some of the classic movies, improved with product placement. I can just imagine Citizen Cane where everyone where's nike shoes and drinks Pepsi.
As other posters have already stated, product placement in movies has already been around a long time though you may not have noticed it. As for what is next? What about product placement in editoral content in magazines and newspapers? Advertisers have already been pushing for this. It seems to be the next logical step since product placement is already in novels, video games, and television shows.
BTW, when Ted Turner stated that Citizen Kane would be colorized, there was such public outcry
Re:Sure. (Score:4, Insightful)
Look, I don't like Lucas' changes any more than the next guy, but this is retarded. We grant the creator of a work exclusive rights ostensibly to encourage people to create new works so they to can make a mint. Exclusive rights include the right to not release it if they choose not to. I'll agree that these rights should expire after a time, but in this case the author is still living and I believe that it is worthwhile to adhere to his wishes.
You do not have a right to see the original Star Wars. You have a desire to do so. Lucas does have the right to monkey with it, and I have the right to think he's a money grabbing talentless jerk who got lucky once and is desperately trying to prove that it wasn't a fluke (and failing.)
Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here.... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, did we see the same movies? There is a HUGE difference in quality of writing between the original trilogy and the prequels. Lucas cannot write dialogue to save his life. "I hate sand" has got to be the most awkward lines of dialogue EVER. He tries to portray a love between Anakin and Padme but it's just not there. The whole time I'm left wondering how in the hell Padme could fall for some whiny little jerk like Anakin with the way he's written.
The ONLY redeeming value in the prequels is the special effects. Other than that they are a joke, and I refuse to see the third one.
Boxes around X-Wings in final battle? (Score:2, Insightful)
what I want to know is - can you still see the square outline around the ships (X-Wings and T.I.E. fighters) in the final battle around the Deathstar in IV?
It was very visible in the VHS versions.
Re:Be No Original Trilogy Here.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Ok, I have to disagree with this. Anakin never was killed by Vader in any sense of the word. If he HAD been, then Luke couldn't have seen any good in Vader, any remnant of Anakin, and couldn't have turned him back. You can't have it both ways.
Also, a point my friend just made, how's Luke supposed to recognize the young Anakin as his father, he's never met the guy, he's only seen old Anakin.
And finally, young Anakin was an angry, impetuous boy, not a true Jedi. Only old Anakin was a true Jedi at the end, so he should be the nice glowy thing at the end.
Re:Sure. (Score:3, Insightful)
There has to be a REALLY good reason for the public to allow a monopoly... I would guess that if Start Wars lost it's copyright we could procure DVDs of the original for somewhere around five bucks a piece. The fact of the matter is that a thirty year monopoly, and it will inveitably become perpetual, only artifically raises prices, with the only benefactors being the producers. The public does not benefit an inkling from 70+ year copyrights. Copyright should last no more than 14 years, period.
Fuck Star Wars, and fuck Lucas. The movies were cool at one time, but profiteering, and that's exactly what it is, is despicable.
Lucas is lying (Score:1, Insightful)
And, come on: Star Wars (along with The Godfather) has been for years the most frequent DVD search in any online retailer's site.
He's lying. And by holding off for so long, he created the market for the pirates. His choice. His fault.
Re:Sure. (Score:5, Insightful)
The "home market" didn't even exist yet when Star Wars first came out in 1977.
Piracy of the "Original" LD Version? (Score:2, Insightful)