This week the complete set of Star Wars movies was finally released on blu-ray. Like the eventual release of the original trilogy on DVD all those years ago, I was of course quite excited.

As is usual with each new release, George Lucas had included a lot of mostly unobjectionable minor changes that might make a little sense, some ones that are completely unnecessary, but also at least one major change that has people scratching their heads in frustration and millions of geeks posting on forums their fury on how their childhood has been ruined (see the 'Han Shot First" article for a summary of one of the first big objectionable changes).

This time around that type of change is making Vader say 'NOOOOOoooo' in Return of the Jedi as he throws the Emperor down the long shaft thingy. See here. Yes it's dumb, yes it soils a perfectly good scene. Will it stop my from buying it and experiencing Star Wars in glorious 1080p high-definition? No.

Here is a common-sense review of the new set.

Of some of the better changes is replacing the creepy Yoda puppet in Episode I with the CG version used in Episodes II and III. The Han vs. Greedo scene is the best edit of Han-not-shooting-first since that scene was changed in the 1997 Special Editions.

I really don't like the artwork of the box for the complete set, but the individual trilogy covers look awesome (all three pictured above).

I still haven't watched all the movies yet, but I can't wait :).