New to Blu: September 14-20
September 14, 2011 
2 Comments
Star Wars is rocketing on to Blu-ray here days ahead of the rest of the galaxy.
US and UK reviewers who have had a sneak peek say “if you grew up watching these films on VHS you’re going to be blown away” and not just by the image — the audio remastering’s also “a truly remarkable feat”.
Surprisingly, given it was made years earlier, movies in the Original Trilogy earned higher marks than those in the Prequel Trilogy: “The original trilogy certainly gives the best transfers of catalogue titles a run for their money.
“The prequels fare less well, but still have breathtaking moments that more than justify the upgrade.”
The saga is being released here as a complete, nine-disc collection of all six films and as separate Original and Prequel Trilogies.
Complementing their release is the Blu-ray of Robot Chicken: Star Wars Special – Episode 3.
The ‘toon spoof “looks fantastic” in 1080i, with “strong colour reproduction and relatively good detail”, although “the interlaced vs. progressive thing is a bit of an issue”.
Another sci-fi hit new to HD, Source Code, had critics excited over its encoding.
It was hailed as “one heck of a terrific 1080p presentation that pleases one’s eye from the get go” and “a pristinely crisp presentation that includes some ‘wow’ factors worthy of a modern extravaganza” – although another scribe thought it “dazzling but not quite flawless”.
The direct-to-disc sequel, Street Kings 2: Motor City, surprised with its “jaw dropping video qualities” and while the movie may be wanting, “the HD rendering is top-shelf”
Also new are Aftershock and the back-catalogue trio of Freddy vs Jason, The Faculty and Cop Land.
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September 15, 2011 at 7:14 am
Picked up The Complete Saga box set yesterday. These movies look awesome, and sound even better – my subwoofer has never had such a workout, and even the worst looking of the set (The Phantom Menace) looks outstanding. Tons of special features and bonus content. No patronising FBI: Warning while loading the discs! An all-round classy presentation. Impressive… Most impressive. PS – many of the links in the post don’t work.
Thanks for your thoughts, Wiseacre. Will update the links but your comments pretty much sum up the critics’. Here’s hoping 20th Century Fox has allocated more units for this territory than it did of its last blockbuster sci-fi franchise, Alien, when copies of the Anthology collection sold out almost straight away because demand was much higher than anticipated.