You'll buy this. Or blag it. Or borrow it. But you will see these movies. Every home that has a DVD player will have these films eventually. It's The Law. Even you.

This is what geeks call The Holy Trilogy. And they're - for once - right.  

So, was it worth the wait? 

It depends on whether you are a fan or Not. Nothing polarises people like Star Wars. For many of us, it was a fundamental part of growing up. We watched the films, we fell in love with the universe of Star Wars, we bought the toys. Star Wars is, in many ways, part of our childhood. And being so universally loved makes it difficult to take a step back and review it objectively. Star Wars is either something you love, or don't care about, and there's little middle ground. 

So how does one review something that means so much to you dispassionately? With difficulty. Difficult to see, dispassionately this is.  

So what are these films? They're not the same way you remember them.   

This is classic film-making : the type of film-making that changed the shape of films and filmgoing. Despite being in the top ten films ever on pretty much every poll, everywhere, these are not the best films ever made. In many respects they're not even good. The dialogue is as awkward as a stripper at a wedding, and is of a comic-book standard; I recognised the foul stench of Lucas' last-minute, rushed dialogue the moment I came aboard. The acting is as subtle as a brick in a sock. And the underlying themes of the trilogy ("Buy toys", "Baddies Don't Win", "Forgive Your Dad") are often writ large across galaxies. These are not and never will be works of art. But they are what they are : greatly entertaining, ambitious works of pop art, tapping into familiar themes and dilemma's that face us all.  

These films aren't "The Godfather" or "Lost In Translation". Or even "Star Trek; The Motion Picture". What this is is vastly superior epic sci-fi the likes of which had never been seen on the cinema screen before, and never equalled since. No one has dared to make a trilogy that even comes close to it's epic scale and balls. Not until "Lord Of The Rings", and those don't really count given that they were successful books in their own right for 40 years before the screen beckoned..

Maybe it's because we grew up watching slavish clones of this film ("Battle Beyond The Stars" anyone?), we forgot exactly how revolutionary these films are. Before it, the blockbuster was a big names-pitted-against-a-plane/building/zee hun type affair. After it, anything went. In this particular instance, it's the good, old-fashioned father-son redemption theme through laser swordfights, stolen plans being smuggled across galaxies, and weapons the size of the moon that can blow up a planet. Got that? Good. Strap yourselves in. It's a bumpy ride ahead.  

The films? Sheesh. You know these already. If you don't, crawl out from under that rock and enjoy the decadent caress of six and a half hour of psuedo-intellectual spaceship related nonsense. (A fact that Lucas alludes to on the commentary, calling the plot of the original film "A blatant McGuffin"). So here we go :

 THE DVD's :

Each film looks perfect. Star Wars has never looked or sounded better (despite what some ubergeeks say about reverse channel-switching on the 5:1 THX 104" surround sound 6 speaker home cinema setups). For the vast majority of viewers, these films will look and sound perfect in every respect. For films that are between 20 and 30 years old, they look as if they were filmed yesetreday. Image resolution and detail is flawless. Only the slight crudity of some of the very original effects, and the haircuts, give away the age of the films.  

But it's certainly one of the cleanest and sharpest looking DVD transfers I've ever seen, and certainly comparable - if not superior - to films only just being issued on DVD 27 weeks after their cinematic release, never mind 27 years. My childhood lied to me : the colours were always were this bright, the effects always so believable, and now, it looks like the fond memories have been vindicated. It's like a dream come true. It's the way I remember it. Almost. Greedo still shoots first.

THE CHANGES.  

Everyone knows of the changes in the 1997 Special Edition. Jabba The Hut. Greedo shoots first. And that Ewok song has been cruelly excised in favour of the risible "Jedi Rocks", that sees Return of The Jedi as much of as musical as it is an epic.  

These versions have been tweaked even more, bringing the Original Trilogy in line with the Prequels : Jabba The Hut (1997) has been replaced by a far more convincing, but no less jarring, CGI puppet. Greedo still shoots first, but Han no longer dawdles, waits, and picks his nose before shooting him back. In this edition, Solo appears to have pre-empted by a rash Greedo by a faction of a second, no longer caught unawares. Short of having Han shoot first (as it always should have been), it's a satisfying change. Minor effects shots, wipes, and sound effects have been updated and in the most part, none of these are noticable. They certainly don't degrade or change the sheer excitement and fun of watching the films again.  

The Empire Strikes Back sees another couple of minor changes : The Emperor, previously an old woman voiced by Clive Revell, has been changed to an altogether more satisfying Ian McDiarmid, reprising his role as Emporer from "Return of The Jedi". This is something that certainly should have been fixed in 1997, and the dialogue has also been changed very slightly, so it now doesn't sit quite as comfortably as it previously did. Previously, I always thought that sense of purpose was that Vader knew he had lost his son, and was trying to find him, using his quest for the rebels as cover, was part of his devious plan to overthrow the Emperor using the combined power of the family bloodline.  

Darth is no longer as cruel and calculating as we were previously lead to believe. Now, Darth looks like a chump who doesn't even know he has a son - despite all his Force powers - whilst the Emperor, his master and confidante for thirty years, suddenly springs it upon him casually in a hologram chat that lasts one minute 48 seconds. And Darth then improvises a "lets take over the universe, father and son, in beautiful tyranny" masterplan in a matter of hours.  

When Darth, Half-Man, Half-Humvee, reveals it to Luke later on in the film isn't anywhere near as revelatory as people think. Darth could, after all, be lying to him. Evil mixes lie with truth in such a way that everything and nothing is believable. Darth's evil, and long-cunning plan then, has been neutered, which removes his turn back from the Dark Side and reduces the sense of moral redemption by undoing the past 30 years where he was just Evil Unthinking, as opposed to Evil with A Cunning Plan. It's a minor change, but one that degrades the moral redemption of the whole trilogy, akin to someone changing the ending of 1984 from the number "2+2= " or "2+2=5" to "2+2=4". 

Temura Morrision, the voice of Jango Fett, meanwhile has revoiced all of Boba Fett's lines. It's a nice link to the prequels, and one I don't care much for, but it doesn't really make sense (unless you revoice all the Stormtrooper dialogue as well): it makes no great difference to the film in the end. Even if I don't know anyone who sounds exactly like their Dad, complete with intergalactic New Zealand accent and all. Boba Fett is still cool as hell - and very likely survives his ultimate fate in "Return Of The Jedi" (he has a rocket pack, after all).  Overall, effects shots have been tweaked again slightly, but not so much that you'll notice too much. There are no new shots that seemed as obviously wrong as the CGI Jawas on speeder bikes in the 1997 editions, and that can only indicate that maybe even Lucas thought he want too far with some of the revisions of the 1997 Special Editions.  

Finally, "Return Of The Jedi" features, again, minor cosmetic changes. The Rancor, for example, no longer looks like an obvious back projection. Matte lines and edge problems have been tidied up. The only major change in this film is the replacement of Sebastian Shaw by Heyden Christiansen at the film's climax. And it stinks.  

If you have never seen "Attack Of The Clones" this is merely baffling. Who IS that guy? If you have seen it, mind you, one either has to perform mental gymnastics (oh, when you return to the Light Side of The Force, you become the age you were when you defected, easy!  DUH! , or ponder how Luke can recognise someone he's never met before as his own father. Oh, yeah, that kid standing next to Yoda and Obi-Wan - he's my Dad! He just doesn't look like him and I've never seen that kid before....  It's bullshit. You half expect Lucas to be waving his hands around performing a Jedi mindtrick on the commentary track saying "This Is The Anakin Skywalker You Were Looking For... Move Along, Move Along. "  

Opinion on these changes are controversial. So much so that several people at Lucasfilm have left, rather than continue to be part of Lucas' revisionist history. I'm no longer surprised by these revelations.  

Like them or not, the changes are here to stay. The bottom line is that these are Lucas' films to use and abuse as he wants. No one seems to have caused a great stink about the loss of the original cuts of Star Trek:The Motion Picture or Superman  or Blade Runner. And ultimately, all our moaning about it isn't going to change anyting much. Yes, it would be wonderful to see the films as they were originally released, but that probably isn't going to happen. As it stands, the 2004 editions of the films are a vast improvement, overall, on the 1997 Special Editions, and I look forward to seeing the whole ‘hexology' of Star Wars films to see how the six films work as one cohesive unit. In the meantime, these films are no less exciting, no less important, and no less enjoyable than they were at their first release. Perhaps what most telling here is that lucas has removed the whole "Special Edition" tag, as if to present these as the definitive and final versions. In his mind, these movies are at last complete, and that means decades of cinematic history has been revised and excised out of existence.If, as Lucas says, those movies we grew up loving were only half-finished, half a movie, then can I have half of all the money I've put in his coffers over the years back then? 

THE COMMENTARY :

Generally the commentaries, are dry fact laden affairs that, like most of Lucas/Spielberg's DVD extras focus on the mechanics of events and not the artistry involved. Carrie Fisher spends most of the Carbonite freezing section talking about how they all had hangovers after partying with The Rolling Stones, and other spend inordinate amounts of time rehashing previous DVD extras with discussions of how they achieved certain sounds by bashing things with hammers. Kershner spends large portions of his commentary telling Exactly What Is Happening On Screen, the ultimate crime of a commentary, and thus, whilst these commentaries are interesting and intriguing at first listen, they fail to have that mysterious X-Factor that makes the viewer want to return to them again. The commentaries were recorded seperately, and so it sounds like you are eavesdropping portions of several monologues at once. There's no sense of interaction or vitality to the yack tracks. They're a nice place to visit, but you won't want to come back again.  

THE EXTRAS  

You all know that you'd end up buying this because it's Star Wars, if nothing else. But what that means is that Lucas could have easily chucked out a vanilla edition with no extra's, and we still would have bought it. Yes, you know you would've...and no one would have to use fore powers to persuade you either. 

Despite the comprehensive nature of the extras - four hours of documentaries on a separate disc -  overall, the Star Wars nutter still feels shortchanged. There's a distinct lack of deleted scenes and replaced footage - most of which resurfaced on a 1996 CD-Rom (and should have shunted off the adverts for videogames that clag up the far reaches of  bonus disc), and at least another five and a half hours (and four separate documentaries) that could easily have fit on the original movie discs. Even the mention of the fact that the films have been changed drastically since their original 1977 release is conspiciously lacking, and a documentary about that would go a long way to pleasing the Jedi Fanboy Geek.  

The jewel in the crown is "Empire Of Dreams", a 148 minute documentary that exhaustively details the film and it's cultural heritage. Archive footage from previous documentaries is cleverly recycled so you don't feel that you are missing out on anything, The documentary cover the trilogy from Lucas' original ideas in 1973 through to the most recent films, and offers a comprehensive overview of Star Wars that has long been lacking.  

Ultimately, though, given Lucas' continual recycling and repackaging of the films, one can't help but feel that it is only a matter of time before all six Star Wars films are repackaged with even more extras, and - as some people have hinted - that the original cinematic cuts are included. Some upcoming Hi-definition "Ultimate Edition" is undoubtably due in a few years time that clear out our pre-Christmas wallets,but only once the format wars of Blue-Ray and Hi-Def DVD have been won....

Overall "The Star Wars Trilogy" is a stopgap package to beat DVD bootleggers and allow Lucasfilm to coin in a bit more cash. And for a stopgap package, this box set is staggering in terms of what it covers, the quality of the bonus material and the first rate quality of the transfers. You won't leave this box set feeling shortchanged.  But hell, if you don't like the films in the first place, all that means nothing. It's a good job then,that the films aren't just historic, but damn good fun too.

No DVD collection should be without these. Sure there's better films out there, sure there's better DVD packages out there, but for now, the Holy Grail of DVD packages has arrived, and whilst it could be much better, it still one of best DVD packages out there on release. Neither visually, aurally, or in terms of entertainment,  does it disappoint.  You won't walk away feeling disappointed with the Box Set. You'll walk away impressed. Star Wars on DVD is frankly, essential viewing. If you don't have a DVD player, buy one just to watch this, because you've never seen the films until you've seen these DVD's.....and If you have a DVD player, and don't buy this, you're someone who just doesn't take film seriously.As Vader himself might say, The force is strong in this one......

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