Return Of The Jedi Blu-Ray: FX Weirdness!

What happened to the visual effects in the Death Star battle in Return of the Jedi? When did this happen? How did this happen? What are we even talking about?

We’re talking about the Blu-Ray release of Return of the Jedi. I also noticed this oddity in the Star Wars In Concert series I attended last weekend.

I’ve had my entire home theater system built around watching Return of the Jedi and The Empire Strikes Back. I once did visual effects for a Star Wars fan film. It was the most fun I’ve ever had as a CG artist. I’m a nerd about these sort of things.

When watching and re-re-re-watching the rips of the Jedi Blu-Ray (which I own legally, by the way), I noticed something extremely weird about a few of the shots during the Rebel Alliance assault on the Death Star.

When the superlaser destroys the second Calamari cruiser, the explosion looks weird, almost transparent. And the colors go from pale yellow to intense orange. The GIF below shows two different cuts of the sequence. The top is from the 1080p Blu-Ray, while the bottom is a rip from the 4K UHD version. Note the difference.

The top Blu-Ray version is markedly different from the UHD version. The UHD is probably far more accurate to what audiences saw in 1983 (and I should know, I was one of them).

I feel like the Blu-Ray release was a victim of poor compositing. I don’t know what decision-making process was involved, or how that shot made the final cut for digital release, but there was definitely a lack of oversight.

If this was the only compositing boo-boo, I might let it slide, but it’s not.

Check out this shot from after Wedge destroys the power regulator on the north tower. As before, the top is the Blu-Ray special edition, and the bottom is from the 4K UHD release. The colors of the explosion are a bit more vibrant and interesting, but the real issue is what’s happening with the engines on Wedge’s X-Wing.

Seriously, what the actual HELL is this?

How did this goof end up on a digital release of one of the greatest sci-fi / fantasy adventures of all time?

One more shot that suffers from this amateur-hour compositing is the penultimate one from the reactor core. Again, note the un-subtle shift from blue to yellow to orange as the reactor detonation unfolds. Same with when the TIE Interceptor gets caught in the flak. The top is from the Blu-Ray release, compared to the bottom 4K UHD release.

Aside from the unnecessary color correction towards blue in all these shots, the explosions themselves look positively awful.

When I bought Episode 6 on UHD, let’s just say I was EXTREMELY grateful that these issues were fixed for home viewers. But I was surprised that Star Wars In Concert version of the film was still using this particular cut. One would think Lucasfilm would want to put their best foot forward, but what do I know?

I acknowledge that I’m an outlier and that nobody else is going to pick up on these few frames, but I’m still puzzled that these VFX shots were finalized and approved in this state. Was it money? Was it a rush job? Did someone in the mastering process simply NGAF? I’d love to have more insight on this.

I have spoken.