Light Side or Dark Side? Star Wars on Blu-ray

To buy Star Wars on Blu-ray or not to buy–that is the question we currently face. A review from the Toronto Sun declares the Complete Saga set “nerd heaven.” Writer Bruce Kirkland goes on to say,

The revelation is how splendid each of the originals looks in high definition. The Lucasfilm team has done a painstaking restoration….

Then you get into the bonus materials. Clarity is needed here, too. Only The Complete Saga set has everything. There are separate three-disc Blu-ray sets for each of the trilogies, but the only extras are commentaries.

The Complete Saga is nine discs, with six devoted to the movies and their commentaries. Three bonus discs carry the bulk of the extras, totalling about 980 minutes….Hollywood myth-making has rarely been this much informative fun.

Based on these recommendations you’d think we’d fly to the nearest Target to pick up a copy–980 minutes of Star Wars bonus features is a dream come true. But there are a few annoyances that give us pause. One, you have to buy the Complete Saga in order to get the extras, which means we’ll end up owning the prequels (and no amount of high definition will make Jar Jar disappear). And two, there’s the ever irritating fact that George Lucas can’t seem to leave well enough alone. It wasn’t enough to produce the 1997 “special” editions of the original trilogy and to add a Hayden Christiansen cameo to Return of the Jedi. Now he has to spice things up with gems like the one below.

Oh, yes, because the world needed another Vader “NOOOOOOOO” scene. I’m not sure I want my children growing up with this version of Star Wars no matter how high def it is.