Thursday, May 18, 2006

Why fanboys get a bad rap


Damn, listen to the nitpicking complaints about the original Star Wars trilogy being released on DVD. Fanboys are never happy. From Aintitcoolnews,

"Quint here. No one was more excited than I was to hear about Lucas finally relenting and releasing the original un-fucked with Trilogy on DVD. I bitch a lot about the Special Editions and am very critical of the prequels and as a result I could never bring myself to purchase the SE STAR WARS TRILOGY DVDs that finally hit a while back, despite the gorgeous transfer. I found myself watching the DVDs and getting into the movies, reverting back to my childhood self and then being pulled out of the experience every time some cartoon abortion popped up for no good reason.
I have my laserdisc copies of the original films, so I just held out hope that Lucas would realize how much more money he could make when he released the Original Theatrical versions on a better format.

Now he has and I am thankful, although the more and more I hear about the release the less enthusiastic I'm becoming. Let's start with the DVD covers... they're terrible.

When you have someone like Drew Struzan at your disposal... someone who has done brilliant work on the most cheesy STAR WARS novel and did fantastic work on the '97 SE release posters, why go for that Photoshopped crap? Okay, you don't want to spend much money on this new release, don't want to pay for 3 more Struzan paintings... why not use original poster art? StarWars.com claims those above pieces are mimicking the original theatrical campaign, which is rubbish. If you don't want to use the obvious one-sheets, how about the lesser used poster styles for this Limited Edition release? Why not make it feel special for the fans?

But that's all surface stuff. The important stuff is the content. The releases are going to be the 1995 Laserdisc masters and The Digital Bits confirmed today that they won't even be anamorphic widescreen transfers, just the letterboxed transfers, which would mean we're not getting the full theatrical experience. For sound junkies there is no option to listen to a digitally remastered THX soundtrack. We'll get the two-channel stereo. I'm not a stickler on this one. I can't complain on this one. This is how it was originally released and on some films, like JAWS, I prefer the original soundtrack as the 5.1 sound on the first JAWS DVD sounded canned and just wrong.
UPDATE: I was alerted to the fact that all the original STAR WARS films were released as 70mm experiences during their releases, which would mean they did have a 6-channel audio mix originally, so the 2-channel stereo only option on the DVD just became officially ridiculous.

God, I really didn't want this to sound like fanboy whining, but I guess it is going that way, isn't it? I said that if Lucas released the original theatrical versions on DVD by themselves with no extra features whatsoever, I'd pay double to pick them up than I'd spend on a spiffy SE set. I just assumed he'd at least give us an anamorphic transfer for the DVD. As it stands now, the laserdiscs I have now are going to be equal to the quality of the DVDs they're releasing.
Puts me in a bit of a pickle. I'm convinced Lucas is just squeezing this release in while DVD is still going strong and will eventually release a digitally remastered version of the original cuts on whatever the next generation home video will be... blu-ray, HD, whatever. I'm positive of it. However, do I want to take the gamble that this will be the only way to own my favorite Trilogy on DVD (that's not a bootleg, of course)?

Oh, and before I start getting yelled at for wishing for a digitally remastered DVD because then I'd be wanting something more than the theatrical cuts... It's one thing to clean up the original film, it's another thing to have CGI creatures running around. Would you call that brilliant WIZARD OF OZ DVD transfer that came out last Christmas a Special Edition? No, it's just cleaned up and all the original elements were just presented as clear and beautiful as they were photographed to be.
So, this turned into a much longer rant than I intended it to be. What is it about STAR WARS that brings this out in geeks? Sorry about that. Believe it or not, I'm not complaining about the original theatrical editions finally coming to DVD. I'm very happy about that. I just have some problems with the release and felt the need to vent. I'm just getting tired of the way the fans always seem to be getting shafted on the original STAR WARS films. Lucas called the original theatrical versions "work prints" and it seems like he still feels that way. What do you folks think?"

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

He's 100% correct and I'm as pissed off as he is. Letterboxed transfer? And we don't get the cleaned Hoth footage? Are you fucking kidding me? He's just being a dick now.

Anonymous said...

I just went and looked at the boxes and I'm even more pissed. There are two distinct reasons for being pissed:

1) The photoshopped art is BAD, BAD, BAD...just as bad as it was in 1994, when they did this, but in that case he was matching the prequel boxes (which is kind of a cool idea, I suppose). Now we've got the original movies with one of the most famous and memorable series of posters ever...and we get the same shit.

2) People saying that these covers somehow "captures" or "interprests" the visuals of the orginal. "Each cover is an imitation of the classic, painted, original posters for the films." Right. I feel like Michael Corleone: "Don't tell me [that] because it insults my intelligence, and it makes me very angry."

Put the movies on DVDs and sell them. Put the posters onto the DVD boxes. What part of this is so difficult for him to understand? He's like someone who doesn't want to go somewhere who's forced into it and ends up driving real slow.

Octopunk said...

Yeah, I'm with the bitchy fanboys on this one, too. Why are the movies that made the man treated like unwanted stepchildren? Again and again and again with this; I have to process this guy taking a whiz on my childhood just because he can.

Octopunk said...

"I found myself watching the DVDs and getting into the movies, reverting back to my childhood self and then being pulled out of the experience every time some cartoon abortion popped up for no good reason."

Love that!

Anonymous said...

I want to show these movies to my father (who has never seen them) and I don't want to have to keep saying "Okay, this part is new...that's new...I know, it looks incongruous..."

The box art is expecially heinous given that entire $100 art books are dedicated just to Star Wars posters.

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