Ben Patterson
Thinking about snapping up a Blu-ray player for the holdays? Wondering which of your favorite movie franchises—think "Star Wars," "Indiana Jones," "Lord of the Rings," and "The Matrix"—have gone Blu, and which haven't? Help is here.It's been about 18 months since I last checked in to see whether some of the biggest titles in film history—like "Star Wars," "Raiders of the Lost Art," "Gone with the Wind," "Lawrence of Arabia," "Transformers," and others—had arrived on Blu-ray yet. Since then, some of those blockbusters have indeed made the jump to Blu-ray, while others remain stubbornly stuck on DVD.
So, where are we now? Read on for the updates (which are by no means comprehensive, by the way; for full Blu-ray release schedules, check out such sites as High-Def Digest, The Digital Bits, and Blu-ray.com).
The "Star Wars" saga
As I wrote back in 2008, the "Star Wars" movies have always been among the last of the big-time movie franchises to make their way to a new home video format, be it VHS, DVD, or Blu-ray. Indeed, the original trilogy didn't arrive as a DVD box set until 2004, a full seven years after the DVD format first debuted.
Although sites like Amazon have long had placeholders for movies not yet on Blu-ray, including "Star Wars," LucasFilm made it clear back in 2007 (when the Blu-ray-vs.-HD DVD format war was still raging) that it had "no plans to release any of the 'Star Wars' movies on Blu-ray or HD DVD," and that "listings on Amazon.com or any other Web site are purely speculative and erroneous." And that was that.
Well, until this past summer, anyway, when a enterprising reporter for Examiner.com cornered Steve Sansweet, head of fan relations at LucasFilm, and asked him point-blank whether "Star Wars" would ever arrive on Blu-ray.
The answer: Maybe, depending whether or not video streaming steals Blu-ray's thunder. "I mean obviously we've been looking at that for a couple of years," Sansweet told Examiner.com's Bryan Young. "I think one of the questions is when is the market penetration there and these days, will there be a market penetration before everything goes streaming?"
If a Blu-ray version of "Star Wars" does happen, though, expect "a complete set of 'Star Wars' movies and lots of extras and deleted footage and anything anyone could ever want," Sansweet said.
In the meantime, if you absoultely must get your "Star Wars" Blu-ray fix right now, there's always the animated "Star Wars: The Clone Wars," now available on BD disc. (Yeah, I've got a bad feeling about it, too.)
The "Indiana Jones" series
There was a lot of buzz last year that Indy and his pals would leap onto Blu-ray thanks to the release of "Indiana Jones and the Crystal Skull"—and indeed, "Crystal Skull" arrived on Blu-ray last October. Unfortunately, there's still no sign of the first three movies.
What happened? Well, Paramount Studios hasn't said for sure, but Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits (via TheBluRayBlog.com) claims that the Indiana Jones Trilogy—which had been slated for release this year, apparently—got pushed back to 2010, at the earliest.
Come to think of it, several of Steven Spielberg's signature titles still aren't on Blu-ray yet. "Crystal Skull" and "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" are, but not "Jaws," "E.T.," "Jurassic Park," "Saving Private Ryan," or even such recent flicks as "Minority Report," "Munich" and "War of the Worlds."
The "Lord of the Rings" trilogy
Talk about a trio of movies that cry out to be seen on Blu-ray ... but more than a year after Peter Jackson himself announced that he was working on the Blu-ray versions of his three-picture epic, we're still waiting for Frodo, Gollum, and Gandalf to go Blu.
For the latest, we turn to Blu-ray.com, which reported in September that "Rings" studio Warner Brothers pushed the trilogy's Blu-ray release back to 2010, potentially for March. The reason? Nothing official, although word is that the suits at Warner Brothers didn't want "Lord of the Rings" to get "lost in the crowd" of other high-profile BD releases from Warners, such as "The Wizard of Oz," "Gone with the Wind," and "North by Northwest." Pity.
The "Matrix" trilogy
The three "Matrix" movies were something of a coup for the now-defunct HD DVD format, which had Neo, Trinity, and Morpheus all locked up in its own box set, with nothing in sight for Blu-ray.
Eventually, Warner Brothers (the studio behind the Matrix movies) gave up on HD DVD and threw its weight behind Blu-ray, but months went by, and still no Neo.
But finally, it happened: A Blu-ray box set of the "Matrix" movies debuted in October 2008, with individual BD discs of the three titles arriving earlier this year.
"Star Trek"
All the "Trek" movies, including the "reboot" from this past summer, are on Blu-ray now. Even better, all three seasons of the original series have been or are about to be released as BD box sets (season three will arrive in stores next month), complete with remastered HD effects, DTS-HD Master Audio soundtracks, and features galore.
The newly restored episodes look amazing (although you can now see just how chintzy some of those props were), and purists will appreciate the fact that you can elect to watch each episode with or without the restored effects, or (if you wish) with the original mono sound.
But if you're waiting for the TV seasons of "Next Generation," "Deep Space Nine," "Voyager," or "Enterprise" to warp onto Blu-ray, well ... still no definitive word. (Fans suspect that the wait for "TNG" could be particularly long, given that it was shot and edited on a mix of film and SD video, which makes the HD transfer that much more difficult.)
"Transformers," part un and deux
I only mention "Transformers" here because (as I wrote last year) it was one of those exclusive HD DVD titles that fanboys used to taunt their hated Blu-ray rivals. Of course, the HD DVD-vs.-Blu-ray thing is now history, and we now have "Transformers"—and "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen"—safely on Blu-ray. For what it's worth.
The "Alien" movies (a.k.a, the "quadrilogy")
The James Cameron-directed "Aliens" is one of the movies that readers asked about the most when I wrote my original Blu-ray post, and I personally can't wait for the original "Alien" to go Blu. Sadly, as with the "Indiana Jones" trilogy, Bill Hunt at The Digital Bits reports that the four Alien movies (and no, I'm not counting the ridiculous "Alien vs. Predator" spin-offs) had been set to arrive on Blu-ray this year, but were pushed back to 2010, at the earliest. (Again, that's all unofficial.)
"Lawrence of Arabia"
One of my favorite movies of all time. I caught Lawrence in 70mm back in 1989—yikes, 20 years ago—when I was an impressionable little 20-year-old, and it ripped my head off. If you haven't seen it in a theater, do yourself a favor, my friend, and go the next chance you get.
In any case, this sand-swept epic demands viewing in HD (it was on HDNet for awhile, albeit only in 1080i), but so far, nothing, despite sporadic chatter of a release this year. Word is that a new restoration of the movie is taking more time than expected (the long-neglected movie got an intial makeover back in the late 1980s), but Sony Pictures hasn't told us anything official yet.
The "Godfather" trilogy
"Fredo, you're nothing to me now. You're not a brother; you're not a friend." I could quote the Godfather movies all day (well, the first two, anyway), and the three films got a spectacular, restored Blu-ray release back in September 2008. I have the box set myself, and all three movies—particularly parts I and II—look and sound terrific.
Unfortunately, the same can't be said for another Coppola masterpiece: "Apocalypse Now," which has yet to arrive on Blu-ray (although there's word of a BD version in Germany ... go figure).
"Gone with the Wind"
It's here, my dear, along with some other huge titles this year: "The Wizard of Oz," "North by Northwest" (the first Blu-ray Hitchcock movie, with more to follow soon, I hope), "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs," and "Sleeping Beauty." Plenty of classics remain unavailable on Blu, however, including "Citizen Kane," "Singin' in the Rain," and others.
So, which movies are you waiting for on Blu-ray? Post 'em below, and I'll try to dig up some info for you.
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