Plot Details: This opinion reveals no details about the movie's plot.

I have never been so excited about the release of a DVD as I was about the original Star Wars Trilogy. I have the original and the Special Edition on VHS, but I’m on such a DVD high that I had to have it in this new format. Was it worth it? Absolutely! Is it everything I hoped for and more? Not exactly.

Let’s start with why it’s worth getting. First, it contains the entire original Trilogy. I’ve written 4 page reviews of each movie so read them for more details. Suffice it to say for the sake of this review that just having them in the matchless quality of DVD is exciting. There is a continuity of style and a touch of the artistic that I like. It’s very similar to the style on the other two episodes making them look like the 5 of them belong together.

What I want to focus on in this review is the packaging of the box set and the features on the bonus disc.

There are 4 DVD cases (one for each movie, one for bonus features) with unique art on the front, inside, and the DVD itself. My one complaint there is that I don’t like the smudgy style of chalk art on the inserts. These cases are in a fully enclosed box. It’s black and either silver or bronze depending on Widescreen or Pan & Scan (Widescreen is silver). The box is a little flimsy which is not to say it’s poor quality, I just expected something more rigid.

The case for the bonus disc is not like a tacked on afterthought; it is full-sized with a creative, unique cover and DVD image. The insert is actually bigger than any other one with details about the features and chapter listings where applicable.

All the interfaces are fun with 3 animated themes per movie (see the movie reviews for more details). The bonus disc has plenty of animation of its own with a Millennium Falcon theme. I enjoyed exploring the different part of the ship as I was going through the menus.

My favorite feature is actually the Easter Egg. Like Episodes 1 & 2 a short video of DVD credits mixed with outtakes is hidden. Go to the documentaries menu and enter the 1138 code (+10, 1, pause, 3, pause, 8). It’s great fun! See Chewbacca catch on fire, Billy Dee flub his lines, the various shots used to create the scene of Vader pulling the blaster out of Han’s hands, and Fett hunting an Ewok on the Death Star! There are other outtakes and deleted scenes scattered throughout the closing credits of the various documentaries including shots from Futurama (I claim my set of Futurama reviews to be the most complete on epinions) and Simpsons.

If there is one extra that stands out it is Empire of Dreams. This 2 and a half hour documentary covers virtually every aspect of the life of Star Wars. It looks at what the world and the movie industry were like before and after the release of the first movie, plus writing, planning, funding, staffing, running, making, and reflecting on each of the movies. It includes interviews with numerous people and behind the scenes footage. It offers several chapters and a chapter selection menu. It is quite possibly the best single documentary about Star Wars ever made, and is a must see for fans.

There are 3 other shorter, more focused behind the scenes features. The longest (about 20 minutes) is about the characters. It offers in-depth interviews about creating the various characters and personalities.

Another deals with lightsabers. It’s mostly interviews focused on the concept and development of the weapon. I would like to have seen more detail on the styles of the handles and materials that comprised them.

Lastly is a collection of interviews focused on the impact Star Wars has had on other filmmakers. The interviews are mostly with people that have nothing to do with Star Wars and include several big name directors. It’s unusual to see celebrities of this caliber discussing a movie to which they are not connected. It goes to show in still more detail the effect Lucas had on the film industry.

I lied a moment ago. There are actually another 2 behind the scenes features; they just don’t deal with the original Trilogy. One is a look at the character of Darth Vader as it applies to Hayden Christensen. See him practicing his duel with Ewan and being fitted with the new Vader costume. It was exciting to see what’s to come.

The other one deals with Episode 3 the game. It features a very interesting look at sword fighting and makes the game look exciting.

Speaking of games there is a Battlefront demo for X Box. Play as the Rebels or Empire in the battle of Endor. The game itself is fun; I enjoyed shooting Ewoks and driving an AT-ST. It’s a little confusing though, because you’re one person in a huge battle. I kept getting lost. Basically your team is trying to shoot as many opponents as is necessary to take over a series of points. The first group to take all the locations or kill a certain number of enemies wins. I ended up playing 4 or 5 games. However, since I don’t and most likely won’t ever own an X Box it will be a rare occasion for me to play. I think DVD space for console games would be better used for other things. At least if it were on a demo disc of its own I could give it to someone who could play it. If nothing else offer a PC version for those of us who don’t have that console. If we get hooked playing it on PC we’re more likely to want to buy the console to play the whole game. That’s why I bought a Playstation. I got hooked on playing Resident Evil. So bottom line is this is an enjoyable demo but with a limited amount of usefulness. There’s a video preview of it, also.

Moving on, there are numerous trailers. Each movie has 3 movie trailers: a teaser, a launch, and a re-release including a Revenge of the Jedi trailer. The trailer for the 1997 release is included. There are 11 TV spots. The sound on some of them is really bad and some aren’t full frame. It’s really interesting to see these old trailers since they are so different from more contemporary ones. It’s a great bit of nostalgia.

Another terrific feature is the production gallery. There is a separate gallery for each movie, and they’re all pretty big. These are truly some rare moments, not just stills from the movie that you would get to see anyway. They focus mostly on the cast and director and include outtakes, deleted scenes, completed production, and plenty more. There are 2 viewing options: captions displayed and larger images with no captions. The captions are often clever and amusing. I don’t think they could have possibly done a better job with this gallery!

Another one that’s maybe less exciting but still very well done is the Posters gallery. It contains a collection of promotional posters from around the world. It offers 3 angles: 1 is the entire image, the other 2 are close ups. I guess it serves as a kind of rudimentary zoom feature. I enjoyed seeing the artwork.

The final features are web links. One is to the regular starwars.com site while the other is to supposedly “exclusive” content for DVD owners. This actually takes you to the New Hope site (there’s one section for each movie). But given the lack of impressiveness of any of the 3 exclusive sites, I guess it doesn’t much matter where the bonus disc link leads. Go look around if you want to, but don’t get your hopes up. Several of the links don’t even work. Considering the strong web presence of Lucas Arts and Star Wars, I expected much better. Not that starwars.com isn’t worth visiting, I just mean the “exclusive” content is not impressive.

Now that you have an idea of what is included and heard some of my praise, let me offer some criticisms. For starters, though I enjoyed the Episode 3 movie and game features, I would have gladly given them up for additional features for the original Trilogy. The galleries, videos, and trailers are all terrific and well done, but after waiting this long and with the amount of material out there from years gone by I expected more content. I know there’s enough material in existence to fill multiple DVD’s so why the slim pickin’s? After seeing some of the creative features DVD’s like Men In Black have been able to produce (video editing workshop, multi-angle special FX deconstructions, etc.), I had hoped for something other than videos and pictures from Star Wars.

I wanted to see more on the music. If you read my reviews of the movies you may remember me talking about some songs that were changed for the Special Edition. Unless you have a copy of the old soundtrack box set (I’ll try to write a review on it sometime soon so you can get more info on that) I don’t think there’s another way you can get those in digital quality. Those songs would be awesome to have in some form or fashion on the DVD. Some more time with John Williams in general would have been nice. I felt like I barely saw him at all.

In fact, a whole section dedicated to the different versions would have been great. Put the reworked scenes side-by-side with the originals, at least the ones with major changes, anyway. I loved seeing some of the lower standard shots in the documentaries just for nostalgia. Yes, the movies themselves are improved with the corrections and additions, but the old stuff brings back pleasant memories.

We get to see some stills from the famous deleted Biggs scene, but where is the actual scene? I really thought there would be a deleted scene section with some of that kind of stuff.

How about a look at the various movies and parodies? They host movie contests (by “they” I just mean someone affiliated with Lucas Arts) with some impressive entries. Have you ever seen “Troops”? It’s awesome! Don’t forget “Hardware Wars” (which I’ve already reviewed). There are numerous other impressive, fan-made tribute videos. Maybe it would have been too much to include some of the actual videos, but a look at that phenomenon would have been great.

I could go on and on about material I think should be on here, and I bet you can write your own list. Recognizing, though, that there is so much out there they couldn’t possibly include everything everyone wanted, I’m glad they did such a good job with Empire of Dreams and the galleries. I’m sure there will be other releases and hopefully maybe even a collection of the best fan-made videos. I’ll be miffed, though, if they release the ultimate Star Wars DVD collection next year with all the stuff I wanted this time. I haven’t bought the Spider-Man 2 DVD because I’m betting they will release a better version of it somewhere down the line. I’m sure it will be right after I decide to go ahead and buy it that they’ll do that. Isn’t that how it always happens? I swear there are new and better versions of half the DVD’s I own. But I’ve gotten off topic. Sorry.

Back on track. Even though I’ve pointed out some room for improvement, I’m still thrilled to have this Trilogy set. I can highly recommend it to anyone with any interest at all in seeing the movies more than once. Sure, if you can rent them for long enough to go through all the features you can save some money, but the movies themselves and most of the extras are worth going back to over time. The quality and impact of these movies make them worthy of any DVD collection. I guess my complaints can be summed up by saying that with a few specific exceptions, it did not exceed my expectations, however, it did, aside from a few specific exceptions, meet them. I would do myself a disservice to give it anything less than 5*.


Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Fit for Friday Evening
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children Age 9 - 12