Star Wars: The Prequel Trilogy (Episodes I-III) [DVD] [1999]

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray ] I'm a first-generation Star Wars fan since 1977, having seen the original versions of the original three films in the theater one time each as a child, then falling in love with them all over again on VHS in 1987. And I've been a huge fan ever since. The Star Wars Saga is the ultimate epic space opera and film series. This isn't actually a review of the movies most of you reading this will have seen one or more versions of dozens of times, although this review will discuss some of the changes made to the films. I actually own the six-film Star Wars Saga blu-ray set linked above, and I reviewed that. The movie discs in this product are 3 of the same discs from the larger Saga set, so I thought I would edit that review down to only discuss the prequel trilogy discs themselves and post it here. This is meant to be an overview with personal observations and select commentary thrown in. DISC PHYSICAL QUALITIES The discs themselves are heavy-duty, yet smooth and well-coated with scratch resistance - the best available in retail products I've seen. The discs themselves do not have any images - they are light grey with blue trimmings. The discs have the previously used logos of STAR WARS with the episode subtitle underneath, both on top of the episode number in the form of a large Roman numeral. THE FILM DISCS This is as good a place as any to mention that there are two audio commentary tracks for each of the films of blu-ray. There are the same ones from the previous DVD versions of these films, and then new commentaries compiled from "archival interviews with cast and crew". I don't enjoy listening to commentaries while watching adventure films, but I will force myself to listen to the new tracks once (as I did for the original DVD commentaries). As I have only had one frame of reference for viewing the blu-ray films, I thought I should first specify what that is, in case my experiences are in any way relative to my equipment and viewing conditions. This may mean more to you than it does to me. My blu-ray player is a Sony BDP-S350. My HD TV is a Sony Bravia KDL-40V4100, a flat-screen LCD with a diagonal of a little over a meter. My blu-ray player and TV are both almost 3 years old. My line of vision is exactly 90° to the plane of the TV screen, and my eyes and ears are at a height equal to about 1/3 up from the bottom edge of the screen. I'm sitting such that the distance of my head to the TV screen is a little more than the width of the Death Star's thermal exhaust port. The Films on Blu-ray All three films sound and look awesome in HD! Even Revenge of the Sith, which had the least room for improvement, is substantially better. All three films sound and look awesome in HD! I fully appreciate all the effort that had to go into improving the resolution of over 6 hours of high-quality sci-fi entertainment, frame-by-frame. Coruscant from space is breathtakingly gorgeous! There is one significant exception in the HD upgrade. A very logical and fitting artistic choice was made in the rendering of the holograms of characters. Throughout the all six movies, it looks like the holograms were not upgraded to HD, now looking somewhat pixilated compared to the surrounding "reality" they are projected into. This of course is easily explained in-universe as they are just not high-resolution transmissions, and I feel this actually works to improve the illusion of the entire scene seeming real. The holograms are now an intentional vestige of the analogue age, left behind to honor the origin and evolution of the Star Wars films themselves which began as motion picture projections but have now become the ultra-realistic-looking digital media. A very nice touch. And the hologram effects also seems more unified between the two trilogies now.) A significant improvement that the HD upgrade also provides is a solution to a common criticism I have ran into since 1999. Over the years I have heard many Star Wars fans express that the addition of GC characters and objects into the films seems unrealistic, in not only the updated versions of the classic trilogy but even the prequels. Ironically, these fans seem to have no trouble accepting the un-reality of rubber muppet characters, but CG is somehow unacceptable in their vision of the Star Wars universe. Well, now muppets, rubber masks, human actors and CG characters can all exist in visual harmony together, thanks to the wonders of HD. The increase in resolution seems to have unified the apparent realities of them all. Now the real-world elements of the scenes have been "raised" to the same level of visual reality of the CG elements, resulting in the CG elements seeming to much more naturally blend in with their surroundings. This adds in a whole new level of visual realism to the films, perhaps being the greatest achievement of these new blu-ray versions of the films. Now I'll go into more detail about some of the blu-ray enhancements and changes specific to each film. Episode I: The Phantom Menace The effect for the Jedi Knights speeding away from the droidekas on the Trade Federation ship has been improved. The original effects error of the two-headed pod race announcer's hand passing through his vest was fixed. The big change that even the die hard purists don't seem to mind so much is the complete and utter removal of that awful imitation Yoda muppet. The TPM muppet bore a vague resemblance to the original muppet from the sequels, but I thought that the TMP muppet could at most pass for Yoda's crazy spice-addicted brother. I know some fans that feel the CG Yoda model from AotC and RotS was not as good as the original muppet, but even they would agree that the prequel CG model looks a lot more like the original muppet than the TMP muppet did. And in blu-ray the CG Yoda in all 3 prequels looks more realistic now, so I'm very happy with this change. Episodes II: Attack of the Clones & Episodes II: Revenge of the Sith These mostly only had minute editorial tweaks like the exact transition between scenes, moving a couple reaction shots and dialogue lines to a slightly different part of a scene. The only really somewhat significant change is adding a line of dialogue in AotC where Anakin is having a nightmare about his mother while staying on Naboo. Shmi Skywalker's voice is now heard pleading for Anakin's help with the echo effect (signifying it is a thought or dream in Anakin's mind). It does accomplish the addition of a little more urgency to the drama of the film. FINAL WORDS You may not agree with all the opinions I expressed here, but if you are reading this then you must be a Star Wars fan of some kind on some level. If so, then do yourself a favor and watch all six films on blu-ray at least once, even if you have no intention of ever owning them. You'll see much more than I could possibly ever hope to describe in words. And if you wish to criticize the blu-ray versions after viewing them, at least you'll then have an educated opinion for doing so. In my first viewing of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, the rich Star Wars multiverse has deepened in a way I couldn't have even imagined before seeing the films on blu-ray. While still not perfect, my favorite films have just gotten an incredible amount better. As impossible as it previously seemed, I'm somehow now even more of a Star Wars fan than I was before. But this blu-ray release has also reminded me that EVERY version of any Star Wars film is awesome! If you have any questions, please feel free the ask. If you have also seen the blu-rays and want to comment on them with respect to my review, please also feel free. May the Force be with you.

Great movies!

Ok, so I was never a huge fan of these three movies. I bought the bluray because I said "Hey, it can only get better right?" Generally speaking I was right. There are a few things that were changes I wouldn't have, however there are more improvements than I can remember and they are much better than their originals(maybe with the exception of III) So here are some of the things I noticed. Episode I: (The best IMO) Jar-jar CGI is better. Still not amazing, but better. Eye lids added to some of the aliens like the Nemoidian Viceroy and the rest of his species. Ships and vehicles have much better CGI including lighting, damage/grit and Engine effects. First thing that blew me away was the beginning shot with the yellow engines glowing spectacularly on the "Ambassadors'" cruiser. Podrace looked better to me Every shot of a city or landscape seems to have been redone and they all look amazing. All effects, weapons and lighting have been enhanced and also look great. Yoda is now CGI. Huge improvement on the awful puppet yoda. Episode II: (I didn't see as much here, but similar things were done.) Small scenes added, effects and landscapes have all been enhanced or redone. Episode III: (the only one with edits I didn't like) There were a bunch of little CGI scenes added, specifically with starfighters involved. (See demise of Plo-Koon at order 66) Certain scenes were re-cut(for example, see the first scene in the begining with Anikin and Obi-wan talking while in starfighters). Some of them were not well done and look kind of butchered, others are ok. Again, graphics and effects redone very well. All in all, improvements, and specifically Episode I has never looked better. I would recommend this to any star wars fan, even if they aren't fond of these movies.

Here is the thing on this i am a recent Bluray guy and a big star wars fan. Of course this will sell like hot cakes. However i disagree with the review earlier about nailing the HD wars. From the looks of it this war will go on for a long long time. But its ok folks i found a nifty little solution for this. Take the one standard that you feel, see, analyzed and understood and stick with it. Invest good money into that player (look for HDMI ver 1.3 on the new upcoming players either HD or Bluray) the alternative format just buy a cheap used player to compensate for those hard to get titles. I had invested good money into a Pioneer elite model Pioneer Elite BDP-94HD - Blu-Ray disc player which does a superb job with my chosen Bluray format. After a few month of savings for HD-DVD i bought a used Toshiba HD-A1 HD-DVD Player which does a nice job with those discs. Conclusion was: i got both formats for less than the new LG combo player which has its own issues. I will tell u this may sound lavish but it isn't. Sometimes the studios and this is a true story, will release thing like Terminator 1&2 in Blueray. However to watch T3 u need an HD player! Now back to Lucas. Knowing how much of an audio person he is (after all the whole THX thing was no joke) and that extra 15gb's on blue will really help the lossless audio on it, i have a feeling they will go Blueray. However a second release would also be available on HD i am sure; Star Wars has a large base all over the world so better please them all. On a side note: in the Middle East and even some parts of Asia, mainly Bluray is whats taking shape. There is no awareness on efforts placed for HD-DVD formats whatsoever. In this part of the world we even saw bluray being sold through chain stores officially but no HD-DVD. Thats a big sign on its own of whats coming.

None of the 3 DVD's would play. When I inserted each one, I got the message on our tv screen saying, " Disc Error ". " Not playable in this area".....( words to that effect ). " Please remove disc ". None of this made sense to me at all. So, I got the idea of using my disc cleaner (also works on CD's and CD Rom discs for computers). Even that gave me the same message. I thought maybe our DVD player didn't need cleaning after all. Then, I tried one of my other movies that I had watched over the weekend and it worked fine. So, I then put the Star Wars movie discs back in and again, the same message... " Disc Error "... blah, blah, blah,etc.............. I really have no choice but to return the movie set and either get a new set or get the amount paid back on my credit card. I also looked up Amazon.com and tried to get a Return Label, but every time I clicked on the link to get a Return Label to print, cut out and send my movie set back, I was sent to a totally different link altogether. I did this three times and got the same results. So, I gave up, hoping I would get an e-mail from you all asking for review. Well, low and behold, here you guys are. I hope I can get some good results from this. I must say, this is the first time I have ever had any problems with a movie that I ordered from Amazon. com. I hope this is the ONLY TIME, PLEASE. Hope you all can help me out. Sincerely Frustrated and Disappointed, Sandy Weaver

Item as described.

They all work. I watched them all to make sure when I got them and no glitches!

Well, I promised myself I'd get me these DVDs as a gift when I finished my youtube video about G-rated shock value ([...])and I ended up doing just that. I actually like these movies better than the original three. Not for the special effects, but for the tragic hero story of Darth Vader's broken love and his turn to the Dark Side. Revenge of the Sith is really the only movie you need to see to get an idea of how this turn took place, but the first two films do add a bit more depth as to how it started small and slowly grew until something had to give. Of course the characters and space monsters are as weird as ever and provide a lot of enjoyment. It might be a bit tough to enjoy Phantom Menace at first since the vast majority of its characters are so far removed from the Luke Skywalker films. But Darth Maul is 10 times cooler than Luke Skywalker anyway. The plots are a bit confusing, especially since a lot of things are talked about but not shown. We only see bits and fragments of the clone wars, so I'm guessing that's why the animated stuff came about later. We hear of the people starving on Naboo but don't see anything to give us a sympatheic impression of such horror. I suppose it wouldn't hurt to give some story spoilers since everyone's seen these darn movies, but eh, I only wanted to talk about Boba Fett and the storm troopers anyway. Not much to say, so I guess I'll be good this time.

いいです

Really great movies - and underrated as heck. Revenge of the Sith is possibly the best Star Wars movie yet (although Rise of Skywalker rivals it).

Excelente producto, llegó antes de lo programado. El formato de las cajas es muy sencillo y el DVD no tiene material extra, salvo el audio y subtítulos, para los que no somos fans pero nos gustan las películas está perfecto el producto, probablemente si eres fan esta no sea la mejor opción.

Product is prima geleverd, maar is niet voor de Nederlandse markt. Zoals in de beschrijving is vermeld is er wel Engelse ondertiteling, maar de rest is oost-Europees. Nederlands staat er niet tussen. Jammer.

I bought this set to replace a dvd set I bought years earlier. Picture and sound are very impressive. As the story goes it's about good and evil. It's about a young boy Anakin Skywalker that is found,and starts out on a path to becoming a Jedi Knight. Anakin becomes a Jedi and eventually over time the Emperor slowly turns him from good to evil.This leads to the creation of the Empire and Darth Vader.