Star Wars Saga Gets A Limited Edition Blu-Ray Re-Release
‘Star Wars’ fans now have something else to look forward to in the run up to ‘The Force Awakens’… with the entire ‘Star Wars’ saga being re-released later this year.
Officially revealed at StarWars.com, the rather awesome limited edition steelbooks will be available for a limited time from 7 November. And pre-orders begin on 7 August.
“Each film comes with beautiful new character packaging that include Darth Maul for The Phantom Menace, Yoda for Attack of the Clones, General Grievous for Revenge of the Sith, Darth Vader for A New Hope, an Imperial stormtrooper for The Empire Strikes Back, and Emperor Palpatine for Return of the Jedi. Star Wars: The Complete Saga will also be released in newly-repackaged artwork on October 13.”
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I have to admit, the new packaging is beautiful… and while there’s nothing new in the way of special features or DVD extras, those character portraits look stunning. Bundled together in a new Darth Vader cover, they’ll look amazing on any ‘Star Wars’ fan’s shelf.
“In addition to the collectible steelbook packaging, each Blu-ray disc features existing audio commentary with George Lucas and the film crew as well as audio commentary from archival interviews with the cast and crew.”
“The Complete Saga includes all six feature films on Blu-ray, along with three additional discs containing more than 40 hours of previously-released extensive special features.”
But this isn’t the first version we’ve seen in stores…
2013 Blu-Ray Steelbooks
That’s right – just two years ago in 2013, the UK saw the release of the entire ‘Star Wars’ saga on two collectible steelbooks. Bundled together into two trilogies – the original trilogy and prequel trilogy – the saga was split down the middle for fans who wanted a nice new collectible for their shelves.
And the Darth Vader packaging was a bit of a high point.
Featuring exactly the same editions and extras as the earlier ‘Complete Saga’ released in 2011, it was yet-another rerelease which gave us nothing more than a simple repackaging.
Still… it looked pretty cool.
1997 Special Edition VHS
The less said about these, the better. This was the first time that George Lucas released his completely remastered (and vastly altered) special editions. And while the addition of cool new visual effects may have dazzled some of us at the time, his additions haven’t exactly stood the test of time.
And then there’s the age old question of whether or not Han shot first…
The special editions not only added in a variety of new scenes, but meddled with existing ones. The most heinous act was ensuring that Han wasn’t the quick-drawing scoundrel we thought he was when Lucas added some gunfire from Greedo during the cantina scene.
That said, the videos themselves were presented in a rather nice black and gold box.
1993 Definitive Collection Laserdisc
Ironically titled the ‘Definitive Collection’, this was one of the last releases before George Lucas decided to mess with the original films… and was released on Laserdisc.
That’s right – Laserdisc was once a thing.
A rather cool collection on 9 separate discs, this edition even included a hardcover biography of ‘Star Wars’ creator, George Lucas. And the discs themselves had a ton of extras including the original theatrical trailers, film-to-storyboard comparisons, interviews with George Lucas, Ben Burtt, and other crew members, tons of behind-the-scenes stills, a look at the sound design on the films, as well as intermittent commentary tracks.
The downside? It cost a rather hefty $250 at the time of release.
1982 Original VHS Release
These are considered the holy grail by most ‘Star Wars’ fans – the original post-cinema VHS release of each of the films. Released in 1982, 1983 and 1986, these original videos contain a completely unaltered version of the movies.
That’s right – the completely untouched versions of the original ‘Star Wars’ movies.
Having said that, the films had already gone through a number of versions while at the cinema, with the original ‘Star Wars’ being given the addition of ‘A New Hope’ to its iconic title crawl.
But for many, these VHS tapes are the closest we’ll get to the pure versions of the ‘Star Wars’ saga that we know and love. Unless Disney ever decides to rerelease them on Blu-ray, that is.
For now, we’ll just have to make do with these impressive new limited edition steelbooks. But I can’t help thinking that a rerelease of the theatrical versions would fly off the shelves.
Let’s just hope we’ll see that happen eventually.
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Picture Credit: ebay, Lucasfilm
