Blu-ray Review: 'Star Wars: Return of the Jedi' (2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment Reissue)
 |
| The cover art for the 2019 Multi-Screen Edition Blu-ray release of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is based on a classic poster from 1983. © 2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
 |
| Publicity photo of nine Star Wars Multi-Screen Blu-ray/Digital Copy home media sets. Note that Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back is not shown, but the two Anthology films (Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Solo: A Star Wars Story) are. © 2019 Buena Vista Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
To entice Star Wars fans into buying new reissues of the Blu-rays that 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment and Lucasfilm introduced eight years earlier and have been repackaged at least three times between 2011 and 2015, Buena Vista decided to include inserts with activation codes for digital editions of the Prequels and the Original Trilogy. This is the first time that Lucasfilm has bundled digital copies of the pre-2015 Skywalker Saga films with Blu-rays or DVDs, even though this is something that Walt Disney Motion Pictures Studios and Buena Vista have done with The Force Awakens, Rogue One, The Last Jedi and Solo.
What's New...and What's Not
Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi was first released on Blu-ray disc (BD) eight years ago, first in the 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm box set Star Wars: The Complete Saga and a separate Original Trilogy box set released contemporaneously with the six-film set. Fox re-issued Jedi and the other five Star Wars films several times over the next four years, the last time being the 2015 Limited Edition Steelbook release timed to hit stores a month before J.J. Abrams' Star Wars: The Force Awakens' theatrical premiere that December.
For its first re-issue of Return of the Jedi, Buena Vista has focused on the packaging rather than the content of the BD. In keeping with the palette for the 2019 Multi-Screen Edition, Jedi comes in a Blu-ray case with a matching slipcover that features a reimagined version of a 1983 poster with Luke Skywalker as the central figure, with the unfinished Death Star II looming in the background. Other characters, including Princess Leia, Han Solo, Yoda, Jabba the Hutt, a group of Ewoks, C-3PO, and Lord Darth Vader, are depicted as well in a foresty-green that evokes the Sanctuary Moon of Endor.
Buena Vista also changed the artwork on the BD's topside label. Instead of a rather plain-looking label with the film's title and the Roman numeral VI, the label now sports a still from Jedi that shows C-3PO and R2-D2 heading toward Jabba's Palace on Tatooine. And even though the 2019 reissue of Return of the Jedi is identical - content-wise - to Fox's earlier releases, all of the indicia associated with the once-independent 20th Century Fox have been deleted. Lucasfilm, which produced Jedi during the company's George Lucas era, gets to keep its logo.
Other than these purely cosmetic touchups, the 2019 reissue of director Richard Marquand's Trilogy-capping film has the same content as of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's 2011 The Complete Saga release. The "program loading" R2-D2 animated icon is there. The 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment start-up screen is there. The Main Menu from the 2011 BD is there. In fact, if you have a BD player that "remembers" where you left off the last time you played a certain movie, it will give you a prompt that says "Resume Playback?" even though you have not played the 2019 disc before on that particular player.
EXPERIENCE THE TRIUMPH OF THE FORCE
The Empire prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star. The Rebel fleet counters with a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel. - Back cover blurb, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
As I've said before in this series of reviews on the Multi-Screen Edition re-issues, this version of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is only necessary if:
What changed my mind was the realization that over the past three years, I've redeemed the codes for digital copies of at least 10 of my movies before those codes expired. I had done that only a few times when I lived in Miami, but I've been more willing to get on board the streaming bandwagon, despite my initial (and unusually strong) resistance to adopting the new medium.
Before this week, the only Star Wars films that I had digital copies of were the first two installments of the Sequel Trilogy (The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi) and the two existing Anthology films (Rogue One and Solo). So while I was on Amazon doing my Christmas shopping for my loved ones, I decided to splurge and get the six films that I did not have digital copies of.
Otherwise, if it was a matter of wanting the Multi-Screen Editions just for the new packaging, I would not have bothered.
I have yet to sit down at my desk and watch any of the Multi-Screen Edition films in its entirety on my computer. I have logged on to Movies Anywhere to redeem the codes for the Blu-rays that have been delivered so far (The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are due to arrive today), so I have checked out some of the content, including bonus features that are exclusive to the digital copy.
I did notice one odd detail whilst giving the movies a brief once-over on two streaming services, Movies Anywhere and Amazon Prime Video: the opening logos are different on each service.
On Movies Anywhere, for instance, the opening logos in the films that were originally released by 20th Century Fox start with that studio's logo and Alfred Newman's iconic 20th Century Fox Fanfare, which was re-recorded by John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra for the original Star Wars film in 1977. That fanfare and the "searchlights" logo still stir up memories for fans of the '77 Generation and are as integral to the classic films as lightsabers, Jedi, Sith Lords, spaceships, and the Force.
On Amazon Prime Video, which automatically adds the digital copies from Movies Anywhere to its members' "My Stuff" library of movies and TV shows, this is not the case. Instead, the Fox logo and Fanfare that precede the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" card have been replaced by the use of Lucasfilm's logo and a snippet from the Finale of John Williams' score for The Empire Strikes Back. (The exception is Star Wars: A New Hope; Lucasfilm wisely left that film's opening logos "as they are.)
Bottom Line: If you are new to the Star Wars franchise and have not yet bought any of the movies either on physical media or digital format, by all means, get the Multi-Screen Editions. However, if you already own them in either format and aren't interested in yet another re-issue, you can skip this reissue.
For its first re-issue of Return of the Jedi, Buena Vista has focused on the packaging rather than the content of the BD. In keeping with the palette for the 2019 Multi-Screen Edition, Jedi comes in a Blu-ray case with a matching slipcover that features a reimagined version of a 1983 poster with Luke Skywalker as the central figure, with the unfinished Death Star II looming in the background. Other characters, including Princess Leia, Han Solo, Yoda, Jabba the Hutt, a group of Ewoks, C-3PO, and Lord Darth Vader, are depicted as well in a foresty-green that evokes the Sanctuary Moon of Endor.
Buena Vista also changed the artwork on the BD's topside label. Instead of a rather plain-looking label with the film's title and the Roman numeral VI, the label now sports a still from Jedi that shows C-3PO and R2-D2 heading toward Jabba's Palace on Tatooine. And even though the 2019 reissue of Return of the Jedi is identical - content-wise - to Fox's earlier releases, all of the indicia associated with the once-independent 20th Century Fox have been deleted. Lucasfilm, which produced Jedi during the company's George Lucas era, gets to keep its logo.
Other than these purely cosmetic touchups, the 2019 reissue of director Richard Marquand's Trilogy-capping film has the same content as of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment's 2011 The Complete Saga release. The "program loading" R2-D2 animated icon is there. The 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment start-up screen is there. The Main Menu from the 2011 BD is there. In fact, if you have a BD player that "remembers" where you left off the last time you played a certain movie, it will give you a prompt that says "Resume Playback?" even though you have not played the 2019 disc before on that particular player.
The Empire prepares to crush the Rebellion with a more powerful Death Star. The Rebel fleet counters with a massive attack on the space station. Luke Skywalker confronts Darth Vader in a final climactic duel. - Back cover blurb, Star Wars: Return of the Jedi.
As I've said before in this series of reviews on the Multi-Screen Edition re-issues, this version of Star Wars: Return of the Jedi is only necessary if:
- You don't already have earlier releases of the Blu-ray
- You have the new Disney-era Star Wars films in Multi-Screen Editions and do not already own the April 2015 20th Century Fox/Lucasfilm/Walt Disney Star Wars: The Digital Collection
- You are a "completist" collector who likes to buy all of the Star Wars re-releases just for the packaging
What changed my mind was the realization that over the past three years, I've redeemed the codes for digital copies of at least 10 of my movies before those codes expired. I had done that only a few times when I lived in Miami, but I've been more willing to get on board the streaming bandwagon, despite my initial (and unusually strong) resistance to adopting the new medium.
Before this week, the only Star Wars films that I had digital copies of were the first two installments of the Sequel Trilogy (The Force Awakens and The Last Jedi) and the two existing Anthology films (Rogue One and Solo). So while I was on Amazon doing my Christmas shopping for my loved ones, I decided to splurge and get the six films that I did not have digital copies of.
Otherwise, if it was a matter of wanting the Multi-Screen Editions just for the new packaging, I would not have bothered.
I have yet to sit down at my desk and watch any of the Multi-Screen Edition films in its entirety on my computer. I have logged on to Movies Anywhere to redeem the codes for the Blu-rays that have been delivered so far (The Phantom Menace and Attack of the Clones are due to arrive today), so I have checked out some of the content, including bonus features that are exclusive to the digital copy.
I did notice one odd detail whilst giving the movies a brief once-over on two streaming services, Movies Anywhere and Amazon Prime Video: the opening logos are different on each service.
On Movies Anywhere, for instance, the opening logos in the films that were originally released by 20th Century Fox start with that studio's logo and Alfred Newman's iconic 20th Century Fox Fanfare, which was re-recorded by John Williams and the London Symphony Orchestra for the original Star Wars film in 1977. That fanfare and the "searchlights" logo still stir up memories for fans of the '77 Generation and are as integral to the classic films as lightsabers, Jedi, Sith Lords, spaceships, and the Force.
On Amazon Prime Video, which automatically adds the digital copies from Movies Anywhere to its members' "My Stuff" library of movies and TV shows, this is not the case. Instead, the Fox logo and Fanfare that precede the "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away" card have been replaced by the use of Lucasfilm's logo and a snippet from the Finale of John Williams' score for The Empire Strikes Back. (The exception is Star Wars: A New Hope; Lucasfilm wisely left that film's opening logos "as they are.)
Bottom Line: If you are new to the Star Wars franchise and have not yet bought any of the movies either on physical media or digital format, by all means, get the Multi-Screen Editions. However, if you already own them in either format and aren't interested in yet another re-issue, you can skip this reissue.
Blu-ray Specifications:
Video
- Codec: MPEG-4 AVC (30.59 Mbps)
- Resolution: 1080p
- Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
- Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Audio
- English: DTS-HD Master Audio 6.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
- French: DTS 5.1
- Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1
- Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
- Note: DTS 5.1@768 kbps - DD 5.1@448 kbps
Subtitles
- English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Discs
- Blu-ray Disc
- Single disc (1 BD-50)
Digital
- Movies Anywhere, iTunes, Amazon Prime Video, Vudu
Playback
- Region A
Comments
Post a Comment