An UPDATE!

Sorry it's been sparse. Busy at work. I don't have the gumption for political ranting. (We're all gonna die. Is that short enough?) I haven't really got any new CG (but I will soon).

Star Trek: Remastered. I saw Miri. I haven't seen Balance of Terror yet. I'll give Miri a C+. I think their biggest problem is lighting. Maybe lighting an materials. It looks like game art from about five years ago. They really have lived up to their intention of just trying to recreate the original effects in a resolution to which the audience has become accustomed. They just didn't do a particularly inspiring job of it. Since there's no newly added WHOOSH factor (again: only Miri so far - so pretty much just planet shots) they invite a more direct comparison between the new version and the original. And they pretty much only got a base hit. (Arrgh! A sports metaphor in my Star Trek!) I think I could have done these effects as well, which is a little sad. That said, they managed a curiously retro-looking Earth. It was a weird mishmash of modern space shot and 1960s effect. I found it charming.

These new versions aren't drastic enough to woo the Star Wars prequel crowd, but they aren't done well enough to grab the attention of the old guard. OTOH, these are still being made. Like a series in production (because it is) they will (hopefully) learn from their mistakes. Whether this means we will see better CG or merely fancier composition remains to be seen. So far we haven't wandered into Star Wars territory. Paramount has been studiously noisy that the originals will remain available. We'll re-enter this debate in however many years time if and when the original eps become unavailable and are replaced with these "remasters".

Speaking of Star Wars (and when do we not?) I got the new DVDs. I got the collector's tin at Best Buy. The tin has painted artwork on it instead of photoshop. (If you went to Wal-Mart they came with comic books. It was a tough call.) In their meager defense, the DVD covers have photoshop on the front and the artwork that the photoship is based on is on the backs. The DVD menus are all original poster art, as well as all of the art on the discs themselves. It's not a bad looking package. They didn't put their best foot forward, but the rest of it was really cool.

It's almost disconcerting to see the titles go right from "STAR WARS" to "It is a period of civil war..." with no Episode IV: A New Hope. This will, of course, only reinforce my 1977 snobbiness. On my (kinda) little TV, the transfers look great. Well, great as ever. I HATE the uber-crisp, over-saturated transfer that the SEs got. The lightsabers and blaster fire looks much better on these "washed out" transfers, in my opinion.

On the one hand I think they could have done SOME clean up work (there's a lot of wiggle in the opening shots) but otoh this looks like Star Wars to me. This looks like it's pre-digital. And everything looks like it was made at the same time, not twenty to twenty-five years apart. That's the biggest thing I hate about the SE changes: They don't look like they're the same movie. They're fun. Some of them are really cool. The Falcon taking off out of Mos Eisley rocks. Just not in Star Wars.

There were about 19 different audio mixes of Star Wars, even in 1977 (70mm Dolby mix, stereo mix, mono mix, Ben Burtt had a boring day and wanted something to do mix). This one STILL doesn't have "Close the blast doors!" on it. I think that mix is lost, since when they "restored" it on the SE its obviously not the same voice. But I can hear Williams' music loud and clear when the X-wings start their attack run.

As I've said before these will not look great on your nice big 16:9 TV set (which I don't have yet) which is what all of the pitchforks and torches are for (this time). But don't worry, by all accounts, Lucas will be making a grab for our wallets again next year for the 30th anniversary. If they don't include nicer copies of the original movies than these, I'm staying home again. Wow, I feel like I have free will again!

I now have Star Wars, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi on my video iPod. That's cool.

BTW, I am now officially a sub-40 fuddy-duddy. The menus load with a very brief animation and then just sit there. I LOVE it. I think there should be some basic rules of DVD menus. They should be clear, basic, let you do everything easily. They should be created with the notion that people will BUY this disc and might watch it more than once. When I boot up my Buffy the Vampire Slayer DVD I don't WANT to watch your stupid little animation. I want to watch my show! Star Trek is worse. The Harry Potter DVDs are of the devil. So is Batman Begins. If I want to watch all the extras, I don't want to play a (*expletive*) GAME to get to my CONTENT. Grrrr. Arrrgh. That Star Wars menus are juuuuuust perfect. Oh, one other thing. If there's a BIG SURPRISE at the end of a movie? DON'T PUT IT ON THE MENUS! Stupid gits. I know people to this day are cheesed that the BIG SURPRISING SPACE SHIP from the end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind is on the COVER of the DVDs. I'm inclined to agree. Someday I'll have to rate good DVD menus and bad ones. I know someone who accidentally left the menu screen running on The Thomas Crown Affair and wound up killing his whole family. Very sad.

Don't forget: Tomorrow is National Talk Like a Pirate Day. Arrrrgh.