Bests & Worsts Reviews from Amazon

Before I had purchased this collection, I had recently bought the Original Star Wars Trilogy Collection in the same type of volume, with three Blu-Ray discs and three normal DVDs. And I must say, I was really amazed with that one: they took movies as old as those and made them look almost like a movie released nowadays without taking away any of it's originality. And considering that the prequel trilogy was released more recently and already had amazing CGI and effects, I expected quite allot from this volume. And I wasn't disappointed in the least. The original DVD releases for each of the prequel trilogy episodes are of pretty high quality in themselves. But here, on Blu-Ray, the quality, picture and sound are just outstandingly amazing. There is no "digital noise" to be seen here, a problem which really bugged me with there previous releases: especially in the first episode, which had the most room for improvement regarding its quality. And even the third episode, which is of the highest quality standards, makes the original releases look like nothing. Allot of the color and hazing problems of the first two episodes (the third one didn't' need any fixing up in this area) have been fixed and updated and now look more vibrant and sharp than ever. Also, several CG mistakes have been fixed, such as the two-headed pod race announcer's hand going striate through his jacket. And several cool deleted scenes have been re-inserted, such as each of the pod racers from episode 1 being introduced by the announcer to the crowed. Other updates include several of the really puppet-looking aliens (like the terrible, cross eyed stone-faced puppet of Yoda) have been replaced by CG versions of them that look just awesome. And the sound quality...in one word, AMAZING! The sound has been balanced quite well, so that you won't need to be constantly turning up the volume significantly at the scenes with more dialogue and turning the volume down drastically at the really intense action scenes. And the sound effects have been greatly enhanced and are just so amazing that it's nearly mind boggling. Especially in the 2nd episode, which has, by far, the great sound effects of the whole saga. This film really deserves the highest honors on it's sound. The only real problem that I have had with this is the lack of bonus features, a factor that I also had a problem with in the other Blu-Ray + DVD release of the original trilogy. The only bonus features that are included here are two different commentaries for each movie: for each one of the movies, one commentary with George Lucas and the crew, and the other one being compiled from archival interviews with cast and crew. And while both of the Audio Commentary tracks are quite interesting, it just isn't enough. Now I know that the reason for this is because the makers want everybody to buy the more-expensive Complete Saga on Blu-ray release, which has three discs filled with bonus features. But I still think that this volume could really benefit with at least a few more bonus features (or at least make it an option to view the unaltered version of each film) that would give it a much greater value. On the physical qualities: the volume comes in a pretty nice slipcover that won't wrinkle or fall apart easily. The case is quite strong and will close up without any struggle and won't fly open if it's simply dropped. But it's still pretty easy to open it manually without any difficulties. It comes, as you probably already know, three Blu-Ray discs and three normal DVDs. The Blu-Ray discs are much thicker and more scratch resistant than normal DVDs, making them more protected if they should fall into the wrong hands (or, in other words, SMALL hands). They also don't bend easily and won't crack under any great pressure. The DVDs are just like normal DVDs, but as you might have figured out as to what I said above, the quality of the prequel trilogy films on them are of much higher quality than any previous DVD release of the prequel trilogy that I have seen. Overall, this is a great volume that will benefit any Star Wars lover's collection. Even though it may not have all the bonus features that the Complete Saga release has, it has its own advantages: the fact that it comes with both Blu-Ray and DVD discs gives it a better traveling value: you can use the Blu-Ray discs for watching in your own living room, and use the normal DVDs for on the go when there are usually no devices for playing movies that support Blu-Ray. The movies look just amazing and the sound quality is of the highest standard. And the DVDs are of the highest quality as well: nowhere near as good as the Blu-Ray discs, but defiantly the highest quality DVD release of all of the prequel trilogy films. A great collection that is worth the money. Star Wars lover or just a regular film watcher, this is sure to please and to be enjoyed by all.