Star Wars Prequel Trilogy (Widescreen Edition) [DVD]

Star Wars: The Complete Saga (Episodes I-VI) [Blu-ray ]I'm a first-generation Star Wars fan since 1977, having seen the original versions of the original three films in the theater one time each as a child, then falling in love with them all over again on VHS in 1987. And I've been a huge fan ever since. The Star Wars Saga is the ultimate epic space opera and film series.This isn't actually a review of the movies most of you reading this will have seen one or more versions of dozens of times, although this review will discuss some of the changes made to the films.I actually own the six-film Star Wars Saga blu-ray set linked above, and I reviewed that. The movie discs in this product are 3 of the same discs from the larger Saga set, so I thought I would edit that review down to only discuss the prequel trilogy discs themselves and post it here. This is meant to be an overview with personal observations and select commentary thrown in.DISC PHYSICAL QUALITIESThe discs themselves are heavy-duty, yet smooth and well-coated with scratch resistance - the best available in retail products I've seen. The discs themselves do not have any images - they are light grey with blue trimmings. The discs have the previously used logos of STAR WARS with the episode subtitle underneath, both on top of the episode number in the form of a large Roman numeral.THE FILM DISCSThis is as good a place as any to mention that there are two audio commentary tracks for each of the films of blu-ray. There are the same ones from the previous DVD versions of these films, and then new commentaries compiled from "archival interviews with cast and crew". I don't enjoy listening to commentaries while watching adventure films, but I will force myself to listen to the new tracks once (as I did for the original DVD commentaries).As I have only had one frame of reference for viewing the blu-ray films, I thought I should first specify what that is, in case my experiences are in any way relative to my equipment and viewing conditions. This may mean more to you than it does to me. My blu-ray player is a Sony BDP-S350. My HD TV is a Sony Bravia KDL-40V4100, a flat-screen LCD with a diagonal of a little over a meter. My blu-ray player and TV are both almost 3 years old. My line of vision is exactly 90° to the plane of the TV screen, and my eyes and ears are at a height equal to about 1/3 up from the bottom edge of the screen. I'm sitting such that the distance of my head to the TV screen is a little more than the width of the Death Star's thermal exhaust port.The Films on Blu-rayAll three films sound and look awesome in HD! Even Revenge of the Sith, which had the least room for improvement, is substantially better. All three films sound and look awesome in HD! I fully appreciate all the effort that had to go into improving the resolution of over 6 hours of high-quality sci-fi entertainment, frame-by-frame. Coruscant from space is breathtakingly gorgeous!There is one significant exception in the HD upgrade. A very logical and fitting artistic choice was made in the rendering of the holograms of characters. Throughout the all six movies, it looks like the holograms were not upgraded to HD, now looking somewhat pixilated compared to the surrounding "reality" they are projected into. This of course is easily explained in-universe as they are just not high-resolution transmissions, and I feel this actually works to improve the illusion of the entire scene seeming real. The holograms are now an intentional vestige of the analogue age, left behind to honor the origin and evolution of the Star Wars films themselves which began as motion picture projections but have now become the ultra-realistic-looking digital media. A very nice touch. And the hologram effects also seems more unified between the two trilogies now.)A significant improvement that the HD upgrade also provides is a solution to a common criticism I have ran into since 1999. Over the years I have heard many Star Wars fans express that the addition of GC characters and objects into the films seems unrealistic, in not only the updated versions of the classic trilogy but even the prequels. Ironically, these fans seem to have no trouble accepting the un-reality of rubber muppet characters, but CG is somehow unacceptable in their vision of the Star Wars universe. Well, now muppets, rubber masks, human actors and CG characters can all exist in visual harmony together, thanks to the wonders of HD. The increase in resolution seems to have unified the apparent realities of them all. Now the real-world elements of the scenes have been "raised" to the same level of visual reality of the CG elements, resulting in the CG elements seeming to much more naturally blend in with their surroundings. This adds in a whole new level of visual realism to the films, perhaps being the greatest achievement of these new blu-ray versions of the films.Now I'll go into more detail about some of the blu-ray enhancements and changes specific to each film.Episode I: The Phantom MenaceThe effect for the Jedi Knights speeding away from the droidekas on the Trade Federation ship has been improved. The original effects error of the two-headed pod race announcer's hand passing through his vest was fixed.The big change that even the die hard purists don't seem to mind so much is the complete and utter removal of that awful imitation Yoda muppet. The TPM muppet bore a vague resemblance to the original muppet from the sequels, but I thought that the TMP muppet could at most pass for Yoda's crazy spice-addicted brother. I know some fans that feel the CG Yoda model from AotC and RotS was not as good as the original muppet, but even they would agree that the prequel CG model looks a lot more like the original muppet than the TMP muppet did. And in blu-ray the CG Yoda in all 3 prequels looks more realistic now, so I'm very happy with this change.Episodes II: Attack of the Clones & Episodes II: Revenge of the SithThese mostly only had minute editorial tweaks like the exact transition between scenes, moving a couple reaction shots and dialogue lines to a slightly different part of a scene. The only really somewhat significant change is adding a line of dialogue in AotC where Anakin is having a nightmare about his mother while staying on Naboo. Shmi Skywalker's voice is now heard pleading for Anakin's help with the echo effect (signifying it is a thought or dream in Anakin's mind). It does accomplish the addition of a little more urgency to the drama of the film.FINAL WORDSYou may not agree with all the opinions I expressed here, but if you are reading this then you must be a Star Wars fan of some kind on some level. If so, then do yourself a favor and watch all six films on blu-ray at least once, even if you have no intention of ever owning them. You'll see much more than I could possibly ever hope to describe in words. And if you wish to criticize the blu-ray versions after viewing them, at least you'll then have an educated opinion for doing so.In my first viewing of Star Wars: The Complete Saga, the rich Star Wars multiverse has deepened in a way I couldn't have even imagined before seeing the films on blu-ray. While still not perfect, my favorite films have just gotten an incredible amount better. As impossible as it previously seemed, I'm somehow now even more of a Star Wars fan than I was before. But this blu-ray release has also reminded me that EVERY version of any Star Wars film is awesome!If you have any questions, please feel free the ask. If you have also seen the blu-rays and want to comment on them with respect to my review, please also feel free. May the Force be with you.

Came in good condition and works great

It was advertised as "good." I'd say it's "very good." It arrived quicker than expected.

I can say that the Bluray is much clearer than the DVD versions I had for years. I had been holding off on buying the Bluray versions of the prequels simply because I wasn't a fan of them, though I love Star Wars. When "The Force Awakens" was about to come out, I wanted to watch all previous 6 movies in order, and when I started to watch the DVD versions, I couldn't stand it.Visually, the movies are nice. Of course high-profile movies like these get the platinum treatment when it comes to remastering for HD, so don't expect any film-grain or signs of age (especially considering that 90% of it is CGI) Sound quality is superb like you would expect. That's the good part... The bad parts are the movies themselves....********SPOILERS BELOW********The blatant abuse of CGI, lack of any actual comedy or one-liners, bad casting choices, and horrible, HORRIBLE decisions with characters made these movies about as unintentionally-campy as Starship Troopers... Opinions will vary, of course, so I only allowed my opinions of the films to take out one star in my rating. Everything seemed tacked together, characters come out of nowhere, apparently nobody on the set or in the editing room knows what is funny. Let's Take a few of my biggest complaints.Aniken.,.. It's most likely no secret to anyone watching the prequels that Aniken will turn into Darth Vader at some point... But wouldn't it be better if we actually saw a likable side before we saw the transformation? I mean, once we are introduced to Young-Adult Aniken, he's pretty-much already a jerk. At no point during ep II or III do I even remotely like his character.Obliviousness of The Jedi ... How thick were these guys? The prophesy says that Aniken will bring balance to the force, what made them assume that was a good thing for them? There were dozens (if not Hundreds) of Jedi, and even Yoda says "Sith, there is always two, no more, no less" ... So it's some HUGE surprise when Aniken helps to kill all of the Jedi except two, and becomes Darth Vader... Wow, who would have thought 2:2 is balance?...Apparently they should have been teaching Math instead of handing a bunch of 4 year olds Light Sabers at the Jedi Academy...Yoda is suddenly an always-serious, front-flipping, light-saber wielding ninja-turtle... The Yoda we knew was a sarcastic, wise, Humble Force Master that had a sense of humor... The Yoda we see in the prequels is almost the exact opposite, except his annoyingly overused reverse-syntax. The only part where it was REALLY grating was when they decided to make Yoda the Military Strategist/Commander. I'm pretty sure that clear orders are important when telling an army what to do, and leaving out the primary action of an order until the final phrase of a complex sentence isn't the best way to communicate to your troops...Darth Maul was BY FAR the most talented person to ever wield a lightsaber. So instead of giving him any character depth or screen-time, we'll just kill him off in the first episode because... well... just because...NOTHING IN THESE THREE FILMS IS FUNNY... You can tell when they tried to be funny. Goofy CGI visual gags are NOT funny... Jar-Jar Binks is NOT funny... A two-headed race-commentator dancing is NOT funny... I actually felt embarrassed for the makers of these movies when they tried really REALLY hard to add comic relief. They went too far, and relied on the wrong way to add comedy. They had Samuel L Jackson in there, and didn't give him a single quotable line... The same goes for Liam Neison... or even Natalie Portman... All of those people have proven to be able to play a straight-man comic in several roles, yet these MASTERS OF STORY TELLING couldn't give any of them a good line or two... Nope, We'll leave it up to goofy CGI robots that are supposed to be soldiers, or Goofy CGI robots that are supposed to be a pit-crew, or a goofy CGI sports announcer dancing like a white girl, or a goofy CGI character that inexplicably has more screen time than most of the other characters...Misguided or Lazy, it doesn't matter, these movies were terrible...BONUS RANT:"Phantom Meanace Ep I" was JUST as much of a remake of "A New Hope, ep IV" as "The Force Awakens", just in different ways... Female Royalty trying to escape Bad guys... "Young, but still to old to learn the force" kid found on a desert planet (actually the same planet as IV)... Darth (insert name here) Kills the primary force-teaching character while apprentice watches helplessly... Force-kid flies spacecraft, blows up giant space station, saves the day...*************END SPOILERS*************If you are like me and have to possess the complete set, regardless of how you feel about the prequels, then get it. If you have never watched a Star Wars movie before, Don't get it until you have seen episodes IV through VI, and even then, don't get these expecting the same quality of story telling.

Consegna impeccabile. La trilogia iniziale a soli 15€... e non e un sogno! Qualità impeccabile audio-video, i tre dischetti sono contenuti in una sola custodia. Difficile chiedere di più.Se questa recensione ti è piaciuta schiaccia per favore il bottone "utile": non costa nulla e a me fa piacere😁. Grazie

I haven’t seen these films in a lot of years, but I decided to go through them again. For £4 this is a great price regardless of the trilogy’s fluctuating quality, and is light years better than Disney’s trash sequel trilogy.That said, I was surprised by how much my opinion had changed on these films. Upon release AotC was always the weakest and I, like so many others, loved RotS, with TPM sitting somewhere in between. However, I’ve got to say I thought Phantom Menace was the superior film this time around; Liam Nesson is fantastic in it, and I thought the pacing was great. From there though, the other two aren’t as well received. Attack of the Clones is nigh unwatchable for me these days — it’s bloated, boring, and riddled with cringe, contrived love scenes terrible dialogue, and wooden acting. Along with terrible lore choices (yoda and his little lightsaber being one of them). To my surprise, Revenge was pretty bloated and ultimately dull on the whole. It has a nice tone, and the fight scenes are decent, but it didn’t do a whole lot for me by the end credits.Still, for £4 I had a great time going back to these contentious films. As I said, if nothing else, they look like works of art next to the recent trilogy, and Ewan is great as Obi Wan.

Very good trilogy, obviously not as good as the original trilogyThe Phantom Menace didnt live up to the hyoe but was a decent movie (if you ignore jar jar) - 4 starsAttack of the clones improved on phantom but still doesnt hit the heights of any of the originals- 4.5 starsRevenge of the sith is great an underated in my opinion and sets up the original trilogy brilliantly -5 starsBut overall and great box set for any star wars fan

All 3 movies were epic. The Phantom Menence showed how cool Qui-Gon Jinn was. Attack of the Clones gave us the awesome Geonosion arena scene and Revenge of the Sith is just the best Movie that exists. Haters gonna hate

Great films can't wait to watch again just got box set in few days ago but saw years ago Phantom Menace i would give 4 stars just some of dialog could have been better Attack of Clones gets better so 4.5 stars and Revenge of Sith Great movie on par with original movies so would give 5 stars but overall as box set 5 stars as great scenes in these movies will enjoy watching again.