The Frinklin and Fred Show

The Star Wars DVD set IS worth owning.

Yep, I bought it. This might get me banned from Bill's site from now on, but I couldn't help myself. And to be honest, the movies look great. They're brighter, sharper and sound better than I've ever seen them, and that includes the long-lost Laserdisc version. There are only two really, horribly annoying moments. First, in A New Hope the Mos Eisley cantina scene. It's not inside that sucks, it's outside, as Lucas as CGI-inserted about a half-dozen rontos, giant lizard riding-beasts. Some of them of course, have to do those stupid physical comedy bits that only Lucas and some 8-year olds enjoy. Even worse are the droids. Each Sandtrooper team now comes with a small, hovering droid assistant than swoops in and out of the camera shot. Even worse are the changes to ROTJ. The song in Jabba's palace is, awful. I mean, pray your eardrums burst awful. Sy Snootles is now badly CGI animated and joined with this pinkish bullfrog-looking thing. Neither of the two new voices can sing, and the song is what would happened if aliens discovered bad disco. The new Ewok celebration song is lousy too.

Even with that, every SW fan should get this set for the extras. There aren't many of them, but they're awfully good ones. The bonus disc comes with an extended version of A&E's Empire of Dreams documentary, and three shorts as well. It's in the shorts that we learn that Luke and Leia were initially going to be midget twins. We learn that Han was going to be a giant lizard creature, and that in one early version of the script, it was Leia that became the Jedi and hero of the trilogy. That would have been really interesting, but the first two ideas show that Lucas has always had a brainless streak.

We also see the original teasers and trailers, and honestly, I didn't realize how bad they were. I can see why, after the Star Wars trailer, that most movie-types thought this was going to bomb. It's a long way from "An adventure a BILLION years in the making" to "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away..."

UpdateYep, it seems I'm headed for the gulag.