I used to have a huge collection of DVDs. For a few years, any time I saw a DVD of a movie I liked priced at under $10.00, I bought it. My DVD collection spanned 4 shelves, easily 300 movies. When it became clear to me that Blu-ray was going to win the HD format war a few years ago, I sold nearly all of my DVDs on eBay, one by one. I did this before Blu-ray was declared the official winner because I knew it would be hard to get decent prices for my DVD collection once DVDs were outdated, and I think it was the right move.

I’m slowly rebuilding my movie collection in Blu-ray, but the main difference between my Blu-ray collection and my DVD collection is that I intend for my Blu-ray collection to be limited. Rather than buying the Blu-ray of every movie I like, I’m only buying the Blu-rays of the films I absolutely love. Many of my DVDs were never watched after purchasing, a few of them were even sold on eBay without the cellophane removed. New purchases are just my favorite films of all time (or at least related, which is why I own Terminator Salvation).

The Last Physical Format

When I was buying DVDs, I knew they’d eventually be replaced. I’ve owned movies on Betamax, VHS, and DVD. No format ever felt like the “final” format. I always knew I’d have to replace any movie with the next version of it at some point. Blu-rays, however, don’t feel the same way.

I believe Blu-rays will be the last physical format of movies I ever buy. It’s clear that the world is moving toward streaming or online storage of movies. Maybe people will ‘rent’ movies via Netflix or Amazon Instant or a similar service forever, or maybe there will be something more iTunes-like where you can ‘buy’ movies and watch them any time. There will be a day, eventually, when buying a film on physical media will seem like buying a CD today.

Between now and then, will anything replace Blu-ray? I highly doubt it. Blu-ray’s big improvement from DVDs was the enormous increase in resolution and quality. Blu-ray is pretty maxed out in this regard – increasing resolution further would be virtually imperceptible to the human eye, so that won’t be the selling point of the next big thing.

The next big advance in film is probably going to be increasing the framerate. But there’s no way to increase the framerate of older films the way we’ve been able to increase resolution for Blu-ray releases. Any attempt to increase framerate would be done by interpolation, which could just as easily be done algorithmically on hardware. With resolution, the data was fundamentally there already, in analog format on physical film, but framerate is fixed. This all means that the next big format can’t use framerate as a selling point, because there’d be no incentive to buy older films.

Most good Blu-ray releases already have the absolute maximum amount of data associated with the film on-disc. Every deleted scene, blooper reel, audition tape, and commentary ever recorded for a movie is usually on the Blu-ray release, having been dug-up from vaults as needed. My Blu-ray of Blade Runner has five different versions of the film. There’s literally nothing Blade-Runner related that could be unearthed to cram onto another release of the film.

For all of these reasons, I’m nearly certain that, when I got the Alien Quadrilogy on Blu-ray, it would be the very last time I purchased it (I owned the box set of 1-3 on VHS, then the quadrilogy box set on DVD). I can imagine an occasional double-dip for some films (my copy of The Truman Show is pretty barebones, I could imagine a later release with more special features), but for the most part when I buy a Blu-ray, it’s meant to be the definitive, final version of the movie. At least for me.

The Pressure of Perfection

The unfortunate side-effect of this attitude toward Blu-ray is that it makes me unwilling to purchase Blu-rays that I don’t consider perfect. When I buy a Blu-ray, I want to be buying, the final, definitive, essential edition of the film. This has led to a Blu-ray collection that is sadly missing some of my favorite films.

Predator

As a simple example, one of my favorite action movies of all time is Predator. I would love to own Predator on Blu-ray, but there are two versions of the film.

The first version, released in 2008, is a simple conversion from the DVD. There’s not much in the way of visual upgrade, but even more importantly, virtually none of the extras from the Widescreen Collector’s Edition DVD (released 4 years earlier) are included. The commentary, deleted scene, and extensive featurettes were all removed for the Blu-ray. If I buy a Blu-ray, it needs to include the union of all possible special features from all DVD releases. Thus, as much as I want to own it, I have to pass on Predator.

Another Blu-ray of Predator was released in 2010, the Ultimate Hunter Edition. This version contains all of the extras the first Blu-ray should have had, porting over all of the content from the 2-disc DVD, and adding a few extra featurettes. Unfortunately, the video itself has been given the Digital Noise Reduction treatment. Digital Noise Reduction is an algorithm that attempts to remove graininess from low-quality source material – a lot of Blu-rays of older films are given the DNR treatment. The problem is, Predator is intentionally grainy – shot with low light in the middle of the jungle, the graininess is part of what gives the film its organic look. Applying DNR, especially with the dial turned up to 11, smooths out way too much.

Look at Carl Weathers’s face. He looks like a porcelain doll. The scenes in the jungle are even worse. I’d rather have the DVD transfer.

If I want the special features, I’d have to get Ultimate Hunter. If I want the better video (which isn’t great either, but at least it’s not in plastic mode), I’d have to get the first Blu-ray. I’m not willing to buy both because that annoys me on principle, so I’m stuck with neither of them.

The Thing

The Thing is one of the greatest pre-CGI special effects films ever made. It’s the gold standard for makeup and effects in a pre-digital age, the movie against which I judge any other. In addition, it’s a damn fine flick.

Unfortunately, the Blu-ray has had almost all of the extras from the DVD completely removed. It retains the best feature, the absolutely phenomenal commentary with John Carpenter and Kurt Russell, but that’s about it. Like with Predator, if I’m going to buy a Blu-ray, it needs all of the supplements from every DVD release, otherwise I feel like I’m not getting the real deal.

I have high hopes that the remake/reboot/prequel will motivate Universal to release a new edition of the Blu-ray with loads of extras, but I also worry that it might get the Predator treatment and have the excellent visual transfer altered.

UPDATE: While researching if The Thing would get a re-release with the remake’s release, I discovered that the UK version of the The Thing Blu-ray actually has all of the special features restored, including the phenomenal documentary (which was previously cut to shreds for a Picture-In-Picture exclusive feature on the US Blu-ray). The disc is region free, and it played just fine in my Blu-ray player. As advertised, it has all of the special features as well as a beautiful high-def video transfer. It also came in a much, much nicer case (with slipcover) than the picture on Amazon implied. Really nice, very happy with it. If you like The Thing, that’s the one to get.

Commando

Schwarzenegger just can’t get any love in Blu-ray.

Commando was the first action film I ever loved. I taped it off HBO and played it so much that it wore the tape out. Every month when the little “HBO This Month” booklet arrived in the mail, I’d look to see if Commando was airing that month so I could tape it again.

In 2007, the Director’s Cut of the film was released on DVD, complete with an audio commentary, some deleted scenes, and a couple featurettes. So can someone please explain why the only Blu-ray version of this awesome one-liner-fest is the theatrical version only and contains only a single special feature, the trailer? Fuck you, Fox.

Lord of the Rings

I would also love to own Lord of the Rings. The films are shot majestically, with wide sweeping landscapes and fantastic visuals. They’re perfect for Blu-ray.

There are two sets of Blu-rays. The first set is the regular theatrical editions, with many of the special features from the best versions of the DVDs removed. Screw that.

Recently, a the Extended Editions were finally released on Blu-ray in a beautiful boxed set, absolutely loaded with extras. I really want to buy it, but I’m unwilling to do so for one simple reason.

Here is a shot from the theatrical edition of the film on Blu-ray. This transfer is of much lower quality than the Extended Edition Blu-ray in terms of resolution and clarity, but what we really want to look at here is the color.

And here is the same shot, from the Extended Edition Blu-ray:

This is somewhat infamous for both Lord of the Rings fans and film aficionados. What’s particularly disturbing is that this green/blue color-tinting ONLY applies to Fellowship of the Ring. The Two Towers and Return of the King are both fine. It seems incredibly clear to me that this was an error in the transfer. The right thing to do is issue replacement discs after fixing the glitch.

Unfortunately, New Line’s attitude is that the colors are correct and Peter Jackson approves of them. Like I said, this is obviously a glitch, but instead of taking responsibility and fixing it, they’re claiming it’s meant to be this way.

Fellowship of the Green

I’m not interested in owning the box set of the theatrical editions, but I’ll never watch Fellowship of the Rings if I feel like I’m watching it through snot-covered glasses the whole time. Once again, another amazing Blu-ray I’m unwilling to purchase.

UPDATE: I borrowed a copy of these films from a friend to see for myself if I found it annoying. There is definitely a green tint to many scenes in the film, but not the entire film, which leads me to believe it was intentional for those scenes. Most of the time the green is within the Hobbit village, and the earthy tones fit there. There were a few scenes where the green didn’t quite seem appropriate, but I had to really be looking for them. Overall, the green is subtler than a lot of the screenshots above imply, and it was never distracting, nor did it affect my enjoyment of the film. It’s not ideal, but the Blu-ray is such excellent quality that it’s ignorable, so I’ve decided to get this set after all.

Star Wars

I would love to own Star Wars on Blu-ray, but I can’t do it for one particular reason.

First off, let me make something clear: I’m not a Star Wars purist. I’m not looking to get the theatrical editions or anything – I actually don’t mind a lot of George Lucas’s changes. A lot of the changes made to the original releases over the years have been vast improvements. The opening crawl re-rendering, the cleanup on matte outlines, the color fixes for lightsabers. All of it vastly improves the appearance of the aging films.

I even don’t mind a lot of the more invasive cosmetic differences that others complain about. The digital Dewbacks in New Hope, even the extra CGI garbage in Mos Eisley, all of it serves to better illustrate the size and scope of the organic life on the planets. The digital erasing of walls in Cloud City to show the sky in the background does a much better job of illustrating the nature of the city. Ian McDiarmid’s Emperor insert is a vast improvement over the original in Empire; the whole “superimposed chimpanzee eyes” thing never looked right to me, I could never tell if the original Emperor had eyes or if I was looking at something behind him. I don’t even care about the most recent addition of Ewok blinking. Let the little fuckers blink.

I even prefer the special edition ending of Return of the Jedi. Specifically, I always felt that the stupid Ewok song was a complete anticlimax. The special edition cuts to various planets celebrating the fall of the Empire. There’s even a scene on Coruscant where the citizens topple a giant statue of the Emperor. These scenes are an enormous improvement over the original ending. The film still ends at a personal level, with Luke seeing his father with Obi-Wan and Yoda, but it also conveys the sheer immensity of the accomplishment across the galaxy, and it nails the celebratory tone.

These changes are all cosmetic-only. They don’t change the story in any appreciable way. The story and characters from the original versions of the film are completely preserved by these changes – the films simply look better.

There are some changes, however, where this is not the case. These changes actually alter the story of the film, and as a result I hate them, because they’re not merely better-looking versions of the same movies, but are in fact slightly different movies.

• Greedo Shooting First – Yeah, yeah, everyone hates this change. When Han shot first in the original, it illustrated he was a rogue character. It showed his primary focus was his own self-preservation and survival. George didn’t like this because it made Han look like kind of a dick. But that’s exactly the point: Han is kind of a dick at the beginning of A New Hope. Over the course of the film, because of the experiences of the film, he comes to see value in things bigger than himself. Rather than flying away from the attack on the Death Star, he comes back and saves Luke. His character completely changes over the course of the film, but having him shoot only in defense ruins his arc. Not to mention no version of his double-joined neck seems to look right. The Blu-ray actually improves this by having Greedo and Han shoot almost simultaneously, but it’s still dumb.
• Jabba’s Visit – After the Greedo scene, Jabba the Hutt confronts Han. This scene is absolutely idiotic.
  

  This looks like a turd.

  First of all, Greedo JUST said that he was basically there to collect the bounty on Han. If Jabba can just waddle his ass over to Han whenever he pleases, why did he hire a bounty hunter? And why is Jabba, who ruthlessly murdered people in Jedi, so nice toward Han, a smuggler who dumped his shipment? Jabba even tolerates Han stepping right on his tail. This is the same Jabba that kept a man encased in carbonite on his wall? Totally changes the character, making a major villain into a cuddly comic foil. Not an acceptable change.
• Hayden Christensen – One of the most offensive changes is the replacing of actor Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen for the ending of Jedi. This changes a huge aspect of character and story. When Vader dies, then shows up as Sebastian Shaw, it’s clear that he was able to become a Force Ghost because he had been redeemed, coming back to the side of good before death, thanks to his son Luke. When Christensen appears, the message is that Vader died still evil, so his younger self was the last “good” version of him. This means Luke partially failed to redeem his father. This completely alters the message of the ending, and is an awful change. Why the hell does Luke even recognize him?

UPDATE: I watched the new Blu-Ray version of Star Wars and I found the whole “Han Shooting First” issue to be much improved. The time between the two shots is so reduced and the entire scene compressed to so few frames that, even as I watched it in slow-motion, I could barely tell who actually shot first. It’s not as good as Han clearly shooting first, but it’s tolerable. I no longer consider that an objection to the special edition.

Those three two changes are my most hated of all of the changes (except one, more on that in a second). If those were fixed, I’d happily take all of the other changes without complaint. But why do they stop me from buying the Blu-ray? After all, those changes were introduced in the DVD versions, which I own.

No, my problem with the Blu-ray comes down to a single scene, exclusive to it. I’m way, way too bothered by Vader yelling “NOOOO” as he kills the Emperor.

My favorite moment in all of Star Wars is when Vader kills the Emperor. Seeing Vader watch his son being electrocuted, then coming back to the side of good, saving his son and simultaneously destroying the Empire and saving the galaxy, is something that makes my eyeballs just a tad moist every time. The feeling of elation I get when I watch that scene is unmatched by any other scene in the series.

It needed to be left completely alone. It was perfect and powerful. Adding Vader screaming “NO!” serves to undercut the drama of the scene, as well as remind me of the inferior prequel trilogy. I could never, ever watch an altered version of that scene and have the same joyful reaction I’ve had to it every time I’ve watched it since I was young. This relatively minor tweak ruined my favorite scene in the entire trilogy.

I know it’s nitpicky to refuse to buy a gorgeous Blu-ray boxed set simply because of 2 seconds of additional audio, but when it’s my favorite 2 seconds of the entire series, I don’t think it’s that unreasonable. It also really irritates me that Lucas would even make such a drastic alteration to a movie that he didn’t even direct. In fact, the original director is dead, so he can’t even tell George what a dipshit he’s being. It’s disrespectful.

In any case, I can’t buy the Blu-ray boxed set of Star Wars, as much as I’d like to own it, because of this change.

Other Movies

I’m stunned that, at this point, there are no Blu-ray releases of the following films:

• The Abyss – In a way, James Cameron’s best movie, because its anti-war message make it clear he’s not just some gun-loving douchebag, which greatly improves his other films.
• WarGames and Sneakers – Two of the best geek-movies ever made. Perfectly capturing the state of technology in the 80′s and 90′s, respectively, and using it to deliver forward-thinking messages. Science fiction that isn’t about aliens or spaceships. Both of these films are lightning in a bottle for me.
• Being John Malkovich – Enjoyable both as a purely surface-level zany comedy and as a deeply introspective philosophical exploration. One of my favorite comedies.
• Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure – I can’t possibly justify liking this movie, but I do.
• True Lies – I liked Schwarzenegger movies a lot growing up, okay? Fuck you, this list is over.

My Sad Collection

If I could own the definitive version of every film I love in Blu-ray, I’d be one happy little boy inside of a man’s body. But while double-dipping seems possible for Commando and The Thing, it’s looking decreasingly likely I’ll ever see an unmolested version of Star Wars or a color-corrected Lord of the Rings. In some cases I think it’s just film studios being lazy, but Peter Jackson and George Lucas maintain an inordinate amount of control over their films, so I think it’s really sad that they refuse to satisfy the very fans that made their films successful in the first place. Lucas is a particularly bad offender, as each version of Star Wars he releases seems to be, on the whole, worse than the last version.

Star Wars: Now With 50% More Rocks!

Back when I was unsatisfied with the DVD release of a movie, I could hold out hope that when DVD was replaced by something, the film would be released again in an edition I could happily purchase. But since I think Blu-ray is the last physical format for film, that means I won’t merely be passing on one version of a film’s release, but I will, in fact, never own it at all. That means I’ll never be able to pop some of my favorite movies in to show my kids, and never be able to experience a classic from a fresh perspective by sharing it with someone else.

Why are studios half-assing it with the format that they themselves herald as the ultimate movie-collector’s dream?

Blu-ray, I am disappoint.