Blu-ray Review: 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi'

On Tuesday, March 27, Buena Vista Home Entertainment (the Walt Disney Company subsidiary that distributes home media products such as DVDs and Blu-rays) released writer-director Rian Johnson's Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Blu-ray disc (BD), 4K UHD Blu-ray, DVD, and digital download copy.

As in previous BVHE releases such as Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Johnson's blockbuster entry in the Sequel Trilogy comes in several combinations, including:

• Target Exclusive Digipack  (BD, DVD, Digital HD) available only from Target
• Best Buy Exclusive SteelBook (2 BDs, 1 4K UHD, Digital Copy Codes for iTunes and Movies Anywhere) available only from Best Buy
• Target Exclusive Digipack (2 BDs, 2 DVDs, Digital Copy Codes) 
• Disney Store Exclusive/Pre-Order Lithograph Set: (2 BDs, memorabilia included)
• Blu-ray + Digital HD Two-Disc Set: (2 BDs, Digital Copy Codes), the wide-release standard edition
• Several other variants exist, including a three-disc Walmart Exclusive with two BDs and one DVD (plus digital codes), but since I own the Blu-ray + Digital HD, I'll dispense with an exhaustive list and refer you to Blu-ray.com, where you can search for the edition you are most interested in buying. 

I reviewed Star Wars: The Last Jedi movie yesterday after viewing it three times, including one sitting while listening to Rian Johnson's audio commentary, so I'll just discuss the Blu-ray set in this post. 

(C) 2018 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 

The Skywalker saga continues as the heroes of The Force Awakens join the galactic legends in an epic adventure that unlocks new mysteries of the Force. It's "everything you could want and more from a Star Wars film!" (Katie Walsh, Detroit Free Press) - Packaging blurb, Star Wars: The Last Jedi

Like all of BVHE's Star Wars home media releases, The Last Jedi wide-release edition contains the feature film in one BD-50 disc (the 50 refers to the 50 gigabytes of storage capacity of the disc) and the extra features in a second BD-50 disc.  Both discs come in a standard blue plastic "jewel box" package with a pressed paperboard slipcover with embossed lettering for the movie title. 

The Feature Film BD features a still shot from the film; it shows Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) facing away from us as he looks toward what seems to be a hangar full of First Order military hardware. The disc label art also bears the Lucasfilm Ltd. logo; the film's running time of approximately 152 minutes, the marketing logo for the film rendered in black, red, and white; the Motion Picture Association of America's rating (PG-13); and various other symbols, including the Dolby Digital logo and the Blu-ray "swirl" graphic. 

The Bonus Disc BD, naturally, features an on-set photograph of Rian Johnson directing a fully-costumed Anthony Daniels, aka C-3PO, in one of The Last Jedi's sets. This disc has no running time information, but it does have all of the symbols, copyright advisories, and logos as the Feature Film disc, albeit in different places on the label. 

And speaking of the Bonus Disc, this is what it contains:

• The Director and the Jedi (1080p, 1:35:23): An intimate, detailed documentary journey that explores the making of the movie from a number of interesting perspectives, packed with raw and honest insight by Rian Johnson and cast and crew, and fascinating footage from sets and rehearsals and production meetings. Broadly, the piece explores, in offset but flowing cadence, scripting, shooting, set and prop building, on-set life, discussions of working with cast and crew, editing, and plenty more. This is a movie and Star Wars fan's dream extra.
• Balance of the Force (1080p, 10:17): Johnson discuses The Force, Luke's motivations in the movie, Rey's place in the universe, the Force connection between Rey and Ren, and the film's final confrontation. Much of this is covered to some degree in the commentary track.
• Scene Breakdowns (1080p): Comprehensive insight into making three of the film's key sequences. Included are Lighting the Spark: Creating the Space Battle (14:23), Snoke and Mirrors (5:40), and Showdown on Crait (12:56).
• Andy Serkis Live! (One Night Only) (1080p, 5:49): Andy Serkis' performance as Snoke in the motion capture suit, prior to the CGI layers that made it into the finished product seen in the film.
• Deleted Scenes (1080p, 23:02 total runtime): Following a Rian Johnson Introduction, the following scenes are included, with optional Rian Johnson commentary: Alternate Opening, Paige's Gun Jams, Luke Has a Moment, Poe: Not Much of a Sewer, It's Kind of Weird That You Recorded That, The Caretaker Sizes Up Rey, Caretaker Village Sequence, Extended Fathier Chase, Mega Destroyer Incursion - Extended Version, Rose Bites the Hand That Taunts Her, Phasma Squealed Like a Whoop Hog, Rose & Finn Go to Where They Belong, Rey & Chewie in the Falcon, and The Costumes and Creatures of Canto Bight.

In its past "wide release" editions of Star Wars feature films, Disney, through its BVHE division, has usually reserved audio commentary tracks to its pricier Collector's Editions, something that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment never did with its Original and Prequel Trilogy DVDs and Blu-rays. As a film buff and Star Wars fan, I've always enjoyed hearing the director (usually George Lucas) and his creative team talk about the challenges of making the Star Wars movies and the mythology of that galaxy far, far away. Such commentaries are not to be found in the "wide release" Blu-ray/DVD sets of The Force Awakens and Rogue One; to me, that was a black mark for BVHE and its creative affairs staff. 

Luckily, the wide-release two-BD edition not only boasts an incredible English 7.1 DTS HDMA audio track mastered by Dolby Labs; it also includes an audio commentary track. Unlike the aforementioned 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment releases of the George Lucas-era Star Wars trilogies, The Last Jedi's commentary track only features Rian Johnson's voice. But even though it can be challenging to listen to one person speaking for two and a half hours, Johnson has a pleasant, easy-going speaking style and he alternates between explaining arcane matters such as the different musical shadings of the main title march by John Williams to the practical effects used to create the fathier creatures on Canto Bight. 

As for the quality of the video and audio: It's superb. Say what you will about Disney, but the company has been in business for nearly 100 years, so they obviously know a lot about the presentation of sights and sound in movie theaters and home media alike. Here, the 1080p high definition images are crisp and clean, with artisan-like attention to even such small details as a porg's feathers or the texture of the wealthy casino patrons' haute couture clothing on Canto Bight (the "casino planet" that Finn (John Boyega) and Rose (Kelly Marie Tran) go to in search of a mysterious codebreaker.

And even though the Dolby Athmos digital sound track is only available on the 4K UHD edition, the various Dolby high definition audio tracks are awesome in the HD Blu-ray releases. Again, as in the other BVHE Star Wars titles, the audio tracks are digitally remastered by Dolby for an out-of-this-world immersive experience. Of course, your mileage will vary depending on how elaborate your video/audio home entertainment setup is. On a TV with only the Blu-ray player hooked up, the sound will be merely adequate. But if you have a reasonably good home theater system with multiple speakers, The Last Jedi will take you right into the middle of the action. Every sound - whether it's the symphonic music by Maestro Williams or Poe Dameron's (Oscar Isaac) smartass quips aimed at "General Hugs" - come in clean and clear, so much so that only the very hard of hearing will need the subtitles.

If you're a Star Wars fan of the 1977 Generation or its successors, you'll want to add The Last Jedi to your video collection. Clearly, the Force is strong with this one!