I'm considering replacing my Director's Cut DVD with the blu-ray, but only if the blu-ray is the Director's Cut. It hard to know what you're buying, looking online on Amazon. The box set of the films from 1979 to 1991 doesn't say one way or the other. Anyone else have it?
Everyone else may be an a**hole, but I'm not! - Harlan Ellison
Bluray of The Motion Picture is theatrical cut only, so keep your DVD. The Director's Cut of TMP has NEVER been released in HD or on Bluray.
The Wrath of Khan Director's Cut was just released on Bluray last week and sales of that will determine if Paramount will spend the money to release TMP Director's Cut on Bluray. The special effects for TMP DC were done in SD only so they have to spend more money to do them in HD and that's what is holding up any HD Bluray release.
So go buy The Wrath of Khan DC on Bluray if you haven't already:
https://www.amazon.com/Star-Trek-II-Directors-Blu-ray/dp/B01AI7QPM6/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1465752042&sr=1-1&keywords=star+trek+wrath+of+khan
God, the reviews on Amazon make TWOK DC blu-ray sound like a technical botch. No rush while that's going on.
Thanks for the advice about TMP DC. I will wait for the proper blu-ray release for that one.
Everyone else may be an a**hole, but I'm not! - Harlan Ellison
That's also the best choice to do with the "Directors Cut" version of TWOK on Blu-ray, not buying it at all and like that force Paramount in to fixing it, so that you get the actual Directors Cut they originally made.
I will also stick to the DVD release i have of it, because its not entirely that version they released on Blu-ray.
God, the reviews on Amazon make TWOK DC blu-ray sound like a technical botch. No rush while that's going on.
I've never really understood this stance from production, other than the blended Vulcan scenes (which could be cut if needed and no one would really notice) the CGI scenes were limited to external shots of the Enterprise, cloud and VGer. Upconverted to 1080p would they really look worse than 1970s practical special effects? I don't think so.
shareIt's totally worth owning the Theatrical Bluray, it looks stunning.
Just don't replace your 00's DVDs for any of the films, they didn't post over alot of the special features. TMP has tons of documentaries that didn't make the bluray and alot of the TV version scenes and trims made the disk.
The Blu-ray of TMP is not fully remastered. If you pay close attention to when the Enterprise leaves space dock, you will notice large black spots in the image.
This a sign that the original negatives actually are damaged.
They chose not to fix that for the Theatrical Blu-ray release which is sloppy, because they did fix it for the Directors Cut DVD.
So why they chose to go with the theatrical release is beyond me - since the Director's Cut was the first to come to DVD (if I remember right), and virtually everyone agrees it improves on the original. Especially when a blu-ray has the capacity to have both on a single disc. The improved CGI FX can't be converted up to 1080p? Sounds flimsy. Work on it, Paramount!
Everyone else may be an a**hole, but I'm not! - Harlan Ellison
The black spots you mention...
I think i'm an exception, but those black spots, and other faults in the print actually don't bother me. On the contrary, those are some things I like in movies: simple errors. It's a reminder that the movie was shot on actual film. I never was a fan of a clean look.
I like faults, grain, black matte lines, jittering text during opening credits, ...
I'm just on my way up to Clavius.