Blu-ray Disc Releases : Best Blu-rays in terms of features?

With emphasis on audio commentaries and multiple versions of the film. Thoughts?

Fearless has 3 different cuts of the film. Apocalypse Now has both cuts and a lot of good extras on the 3-disc version, all the Alien films have both cuts and multiple commentaries plus a ton of extras on the 6-disc version.

V For Vendetta, Crank, Crank High Voltage and Gamer all have excellent PIP video commentary features. These seem to have become scarce recently, they were used as a selling point for earlier BD releases. Total Recall 2012, despite being a rather average film, has a nice BD treatment with PIP feature, two very different cuts of the film and an extra disc of behind the scenes. All four of the Transformers films BDs have very comprehensive behind the scene features.

I buy a bluray based on the movie. I rarely watch the commentaries.

Wonderland Exile

Thanks for that exceptionally useful contribution.

Alien Anthology.

Terminator 2-Skynet Edition:

It has both theatrical and director's cut editions of the film, oodles of commentaries and very comprehensive behind-the-scenes stuff. As much as the T2-Ultimate Edition DVD? Debatable...

The Star Wars Episodes I-VI Saga

Although painfully absent from the blu-ray is the excellent Empire of Dreams documentary and all the making-of web documentaries found on the DVDs, quaint Star Wars Holiday Special and Hardware Wars, which would've been fun to have, thankfully it includes The Making of Star Wars, SP-FX-The Empire Strikes Back and Famous Creatures-Return of the Jedi TV specials, two commentaries per film, on Episodes IV-VI anyway, and oodles of goodies from Skywalker Ranch as well as numerous spoofs.

As far as multiple versions of the films, sadly, so far we're stuck with just George Lucas' latest "revised", "tweaked" versions, which thankfully settle the "Who shot first, Han or Greedo?" debate in the Cantina Bar of Mos Eisley in New Hope with a nice trim and add blinking eyes to the lead Ewok Wicket in Return of the Jedi. In this latest version of ROTJ, Lucas unfortunately also adds Vader screaming "Nooo...NOOOOOOOO!!!" in reaction to the Emperor zapping Luke with Force lightning bolts, a "line" that was never there before, much to the disdain, even horror, of die-hard fans throughout the galaxy.

Maybe now that Disney has acquired Lucasfilm and all its assets including Star Wars, they'll finally give the fans what they want, pristine high-def transfers of perfect prints of the original, unaltered 1977-1983 versions of Episodes IV-VI.

Blade Runner-The 5 Disc Edition

5 versions of the film plus Ridley Scott's commentary track on the Final Cut plus screen tests, design artwork and oodles of other making-of goodies.

If Lucas is to be believed, the original negatives were destroyed in the process of making the "special" editions. So unless a decent interpositive can be found, there's bugger all chance of the original Star Wars films ever seeing a BD release. Even if they do, the quality will likely be far from pristine, they'll probably look like those rubbish recycled DVD masters that were fobbed off on us during the early days of the format.

Okay, tricky balancing act here, so drum roll please ...

I don't want to sound like I'm bashing the guy, but *is* Lucas to be believed?

The thing is, he's made a lot of sweeping statements over the years, usually phrased as absolute fact, that contradicted things he'd previously said (and that still existed in print), or were later contradicted by new statements he then made. An example is his claim that "the Saga was never intended to be nine episodes". Well, codswallop. "Nine episodes" is exactly what he said when the first film came out, and then he became adamant when he made the prequel trilogy that the story was complete in six; and now that he's sold the franchise to ->shudder!!<- Disney, it's being implied that three more films will complete "his vision", but with no reference to the "saga" thing at all (that I've seen, at least). A parallel contortion was that in the time of the original trilogy the story was, and always would be, about the Jedi, and the fall and reinstatement of the Force. Then he seemed to have a new revelation when he started the prequel trilogy that the story was really about the fall and redemption of Anakin specifically. (Which might explain why the Jedi in the PT were merely perfunctory story elements, and the Force became a biological infestation.)

He's allowed to change his mind, of course. My point is that he has had a habit of making sweeping, absolutist statements at almost every juncture, and then appearing to get cross when people point out he's contradicted himself.

So if I remember, the claim that the source material had been cut up to make the SEs was made when the SEs were coming or came to DVD, and people were hassling him for the originals. He shouted often that they were his films, dammit, and that the SEs were the way he wanted people to watch them ... I'm sympathetic with his position, frankly, but I wonder if the line about the source negatives was a desperate comment made as a desperate attempt to get people off his back. As far as I'm aware (though I don't exactly follow all this avidly), he's refused since then to clarify it either way, but he has made his bitterness and frustration known about The Fans wanting to second-guess him and not being satisfied with what he gave them. So I wonder if there isn't really some source material stashed away somewhere, that he could use to make at least a decent stab at an HD transfer of the original cinema versions, and he's simply backed himself into a corner and made it impossible to admit. Disney ->shudder!!<- is genius at marketing, though, and will find a way out of that particular bog, should they ever decide to release the originals again.

Apologies. I didn't mean that to be so long. 



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

Well, I wouldn't complain if they somehow did manage it, that's for sure! Trouble is, 20th Century Fox still has the distribution rights for those films (the recent reissue of the BD box set is still from Fox, unlike Disney's recent reissues of all the Marvel back catalog titles) and they might not be too keen to allow it since any BD release of the proper versions would heavily impact on sales of the existing release. It's a bit of a bloody minefield! :(

The Alien Anthology blu-ray comes to mind.

When I became a man I put away childish things, including the fear of childishness.

Got it.