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Is Lucas trying to make a point?

I hope so anyways. The originals look like crapola compared to the new releases:

http://www.starwars.com/episode-v/release/video/f2 0060901/20060901_picview/pictureviewer.html?imgNum =1&world=episode-v

Don't let your childhood memories of these movie cloud your judgement... let's stop whining and be glad that he could afford to go back and fix them!

However, that doesn't make sense, for a couple reasons. For one thing, the announcement explicitly notes this will include the actual original version of the original movie, i.e., from back when it was just "Star Wars" as opposed to "Star Wars - Episode IV: A New Hope" (the title was extended to its present full version only after it became clear the dream of a whole series of these would be viable, since at the time the first one was made, no one realized how successful it would be). It got the full title with its April '81 reissue, and its first video release was more than a year after that, in August of '82; every home video release ever offered has had the extended, full title. The '77 version has never been released before, not even on the laserdiscs whose masters are supposed to be used for these DVDs, but these DVDs are supposed to feature the '77 movie complete with its original short title.

Also, a bunch of pre-SE versions of shots from the movies (including even the old title, in fact) are already presented in anamorphic in the documentary material on the 2004 DVD set. If there's enough material available to do anamorphic transfers of some of these shots, including several of the ones changed for the special editions and the later DVD release, why couldn't they do the whole movies?

Or he can be a Star Wars fan, and have had the sense to go to Starwars.com and seen that Lucas set up an area on his own website for Fan Films. Not only that, the area for the best of them is listed as "George Lucas selects & Audience Choice". No lawyers are needed. Lucas likes fan films.

You are a troll. Troll's never seem to get it.

X-Wing?!

I'm not sure precisely what choice you'd call proper, but if you lament the DVD unavailability of the Star Wars trilogy as originally released, from September through December such a product will be available here.

this guy:
http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/darthva der/

While you may have gotten that impression, it was wrong. Sorry.

Jabba the Hutt presides over the Boonta Eve Podrace.

I trust I'm not the only one noticing that the screenshot they use in TFA is particularly relevant?

Suffice to say it features two important characters, both holding guns...

I trust I'm not the only one noticing that the screenshot they use in TFA is particularly relevant?

Suffice to say it features two important characters, both holding guns...

I trust I'm not the only one noticing that the screenshot they use in TFA is particularly relevant?

Suffice to say it features two important characters, both holding guns...

I don't know if you're being serious, but the answer is yes. That is probably one of the prime factors people think of in terms of original vs SE, and if they claimed it was the original and didn't have that, they would just be shooting themselves in the foot. But I guess the foot would have to shoot at them first, missing horribly.
Anyway, one of the first images you see at starwars.com says
This September: Original Unaltered Trilogy on DVD
See Han Solo shoot first

http://www.starwars.com/databank/technology/lights aber/?id=eu
br> Once unleashed, the power channels through a positively charged continuous energy lens at the center of the handle. The beam then arcs circumferentially back to a negatively charged high energy flux aperture. A superconductor transfers the power from the flux aperture to the power cell. As a result, a lightsaber only expends power when its blade cuts through something. So efficient is the blade, that it does not radiate heat unless it comes into contact with something.

http://www.themovieblog.com/archives/2004/10/star_ wars_tv_series_a_go.html
and
http://www.iesb.net/tv/tvt92804.htm
and
http://www.starwars.com/community/event/celebratio n/f20050419/indexp17.html
not to say that lucas won't decide to do everything himself, but i'm hopeful

It looks like it's full of Jawas.

I assume you are talking about http://www.starwars.com/clonewars/

More Star Wars http://www.starwars.com/databank/starship/tiefight er/

Looks like we're halfway there....

That's neat! Now if we could hook up two of these babies together, and perhaps add solar panels for additional power, we'd get space craft with twin ion engines. Hrm. Twin ion engines... where have I seen that before?

It means that google will one day become the Jedi Temple Archives:

The Jedi Temple Archives contained possibly the single largest source of information in the galaxy. Within the polished architecture of the Temple, incredible amounts of data were stored electronically and holographically.
http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/jediarch ives/img/movie_bg.jpg

Collective sigh...

George Reeves remains the manliest Superman ever.

Does Hollywood not care that "Superman" is supposed to be "super", i.e., more-than, a "man"?

You don't androgynize Superman. You don't play the surprise card when it comes to his power. You put out there a man who looks like a man and represents exactly what he is: the strongest, fastest, least-vulnerable humanoid on the planet.

If I wanted irony in my superhero, I'd make a movie about Underdog, or Yoda.

This is just a waste of the symbolism to turn a profit on the name-recognition factor.

Some potatoes are quite different from other potatoes.

Once the war erupted, such subtlety was lost and Grievous was tasked to take worlds by force. The Invisible Hand, leading the charge of a Microsoft flotilla, grew to be feared in the distant Outer Rim and other unprotected regions of space.

The original script called for Bossk to be a "slimy, tentacled monster with two huge, bloodshot eyes in a soft baggy face."

You got so many Bossk details right... but he doesn't have tentacles and I don't think his face is soft or baggy. What gives? He's more like a lizardman. Which begs the question, why would he be slimey? I think he was just sweating a lot. =] http://www.bothan-online.com/IMG/jpg/bossk.jpg http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/bossk/

Episode 3 was shot at 1K, not 4K. Yep, 1920x1080, the same as HDTV. There are 4K cameras available, such as from Dalsa, but they haven't been adopted by Hollywood in part because there aren't 4K projectors in theaters. The only reason digital projection looks pretty good these days is the lack of jitter, which blurs away the extra detail in standard 35mm projection.

The last picture sent to earth before they lost communication indicated a new species of life that lives in the vacuum of space.

I can pretty safely say no rootkit type trash is involved. I just watched it on my Mac and was not prompted for any installs or admin rights. Of course I expect its encrypted like they usually are. I also notice the DVD had a title of "Charlotte" and then found the reason here.

More pictures here.

Um, isn't lightsaber one word?

At first glance I would agree with you. However, I can envision an extreme (EXTREME!) surgery where the patiant was bombarded with hormones from the opposite sex, then had their genitals totally removed, with the hopes that genitals from the opposite sex would grow back naturally. Pretty freakin' crazy eh? Of course if you cut your lip during the healing process you may end up looking like this.

Does it worry anyone that the Google Copernicus "A brave new frontier in search science" graphic looks like a DeathStar?

One modern example (The Thing) does not a conclusion make. I would point out the difference between the old-school Yoda muppet and the new shiny Yoda. The old one has the unmistakeable look of reality and life. The new CGI Yoda, not so much.

You do have a point when it comes to Terminator, where the transitions (particularly in the first one) are horribly jarring. But Aliens is a much different experience.

It's funny about Predator -- I happened across the end of Predator 2 over the weekend. There was a scene where a bunch of Predators materialize in a foggy room. I swear, even for 1990 the transition was awful. A hard thing to animate, but something that would be undoubtedly handled by a fully CGI scene these days.

One modern example (The Thing) does not a conclusion make. I would point out the difference between the old-school Yoda muppet and the new shiny Yoda. The old one has the unmistakeable look of reality and life. The new CGI Yoda, not so much.

You do have a point when it comes to Terminator, where the transitions (particularly in the first one) are horribly jarring. But Aliens is a much different experience.

It's funny about Predator -- I happened across the end of Predator 2 over the weekend. There was a scene where a bunch of Predators materialize in a foggy room. I swear, even for 1990 the transition was awful. A hard thing to animate, but something that would be undoubtedly handled by a fully CGI scene these days.

NASA should turn it into the world's first commerical spaceport, something like Mos Eisley. :P

You mean Coruscant? . . .

*resets geeksters geek points to zero*

damn mynoch ... always munchin on the power cables.

...this means that Count Dooku shall be denied an escape vehicle!

...this means that Count Dooku shall be denied an escape vehicle!

Most likely a reference to the HK-47 unit in the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic series of games. The way he speaks in the game is quite similar to how grub wrote "Sheer conjecture:" and then the rest of his statement. Really amusing character to speak with, especially when you start bothering him and he lets you know. "Exasperated statement:"

People passionately want to believe in faster-than-light travel. Why?

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but I want to screw Mission Vao. Altought that might require time travel as well - "long time ago in a galaxy far, far away"...

Seriously, it's in our nature to want to explore and expand our domnion, and FTL travel is needed for interstellar exploration (and to keep any interstellar empires we might build together).

Personally, I think that FTL travel is possible. To declare it impossible implies that we have a complete understanding of the nature of reality, and I see no reason to assume that.

If there's money to be had, a Neimoidian will be nearby. So says a common spacer stereotype, justified by the species' reputation for excelling at business. While Neimoidians are generally a cowardly lot, in financial issues, they can be bold and aggressive.

Replace the word "Neimoidian" with "Jew" and let's see how happy people would be to find that in an encyclopedia. Lucas is a racist.

It had 123 hyperdrive engines working together.

http://www.starwars.com/databank/location/deathsta r/?id=eu/

I'd go with a TIE Advanced.

From StarWars.com databank:
The term Kessel Run came to encompass a number of smuggler methods designed to separate spice cargoes from licensed Imperial shippers. One particular method saw the quick distribution of spice along a slowly moving train of cargo freighters, while another approach was just a pure contest of raw speed that skirted dangerously close to the black holes of the Maw Cluster. A smuggler that managed to shave off a sizable portion of the 18-parsec Kessel Run had bragging rights indeed.

It's like Johnson, or Williams.

http://www.starwars.com/databank/character/wedgean tilles/?id=bts

Although an uncommon man, Wedge has a common name. A number of characters in Star Wars stories have had the last name "Antilles," but very few of them are related. Interestingly enough, in the early draft scripts of Star Wars, Wedge was a young human pilot named "Chewie."

to get us to watch the movie again to boost sales? the article is hosted on http://www.starwars.com/ and tells us of all the goodies we missed. the storyline and battle sequences were great and all, but i dunno if i can handle the poor acting again. maybe if they stripped away all the acting sequences and only put on the battle sequences.

yah! they should make a battle only star wars ep iii dvd. i'd so buy that!

th the promise of new powers attainable by tapping into the hateful energies of the dark side, it was only a matter of time before the order self-destructed. Internecine struggle by power-hungry Sith practioners dwindled their numbers.
One Sith had the cunning to survive. Darth Bane restructured the cult, so that there could only be two -- no more, no less -- a master, and an apprentice. Bane adopted cunning, subterfuge, and stealth as the fundamental tenets of the Sith order. Bane took an apprentice. When that apprentice succeeded him, that new Sith Lord would take an apprentice.

From Yoda's Databank page on starwars.com :

Not only had many Jedi died on Geonosis, but the very nature of death itself was now unclear to the wise old master. While meditating, Yoda had felt a traumatic event befall young Anakin Skywalker. At that very moment, he also heard the voice of Qui-Gon Jinn, a Jedi Master slain a decade previous. It was impossible for a Jedi to retain his identity after becoming one with the Force, yet he had heard it.

It was another dangerous and disturbing puzzle for Yoda to solve while the Republic collapsed around him.

Anyone who would settle for the generally poor quality of bootleg movies probably in not a big spender on theaters to begin with.

Or, perhaps you're unlucky enough to be visiting the ONLY F'ing country who's not opening the movie until a month and a half later... Oh yes, the BitTorrent packets will be flying around Japan this weekend.

This is not a coincidence
(Slow breath in mask)
The Death Star will be built. Resistance is futile!
(Slow breath in mask)