It is a dark time for purist who fear that Star Wars maestro, George Lucas, is at it again, changing bits and pieces of the film for the first time on Blu-ray release of the classic trilogy (and the somewhat "meh" prequels).
The Blu-ray edition, to be released on the 16th of September, does indeed contain changes from the DVD release a couple of years ago, some minor, and some "possibly" frighteningly huge.
One major change, is that you now get to see more of The Phantom Menace, due to improvements in transfer technology, allowing more of the frame (to the left and right) to be seen, and some improvements to ghosting effects visible in the original release. A major, but largely positive change, but it's The Phantom Menace, so nobody cares anyway.
For the films that people do care about, that is the original trilogy, Lucas continues to rewrite history by removing special effect mistakes, such as the infamous Wampa puppeteer arm. Purist will say that these "mistakes" are all part of the charm that was Star Wars, but Lucas obviously disagrees.
There will also be a lot of corrections to the 2004 DVD transfer, which included colour timing problems, and improvements to the back channel mixing for A New Hope.
But the Internet rumours are now running wild with the other possible changes, the most frightening of all seems to be that all puppet Yoda's in the movies will be replaced by digital versions, to match them up to the version shown in the newest two movies. "Ruin the film, you will", seems to be what fans are telling Lucas if he dares to tamper with the classic Yoda we've all grown up with, and perhaps not even Lucas dares to go that far. ILM, in a statement to Bleeding Cool, has indicated "no new material had created for the Blu-ray incarnations of the films" - which sounds like good news, but you never know ...
For a full preview of Star Wars on Blu-ray, head over to The Digital Bits.
Update: Confirmation that Lucas has messed around with Return of the Jedi to change Vader's reaction in the scene where the Emperor is attacking Luke with Force Lightning, which then makes Vader do the right thing. The only thing I have to say about this is "Noooooooo!'
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