Category: Uncategorized

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.

Today, without any kind of explanation or warning, I found that my account over at Threads had been blocked from posting new content, or responding to any other posts on the site, until October 3.

Why? Who the Zuck knows.

It started when I followed an Instagram link to a certain video. The video was responding to MAGA threats to start shooting liberals. I made a comment (on Instagram) that MAGA was a terrorist movement. WHICH IT DEFINITELY FUCKING IS. That’s a subject for another day.

My IG account was immediately suspended until I could prove I was human, which was easy enough. But hopping back onto Threads, I was unable to respond to any posts there, nor create any of my own. I’m in Threads jail until October 3.

My suspension was given with no warning, no recourse, no explanation, no nothing.

I’m not the only one facing capricious removal of content or suspension of accounts on Threads. Users are seeing posts deleted, accounts wiped away, and generally being shoved aside or buried in an algorithm that is hell-bent on burying the truth.

Last week Threads deemed a comment of mine from the Vietnam era that “we had to burn the village in order to save it” was somehow promoting violence. Which of course was bullshit, but good luck getting the brain-dead idiots working for Meta to understand that. Here are some more examples.

Here’s Threads taking down my post linking to the “Shady Vance” dossier in PDF form because it was flagged as “malware”.

Here’s Threads removing a post that cited a Joseph Goebbels quote.

Here’s Threads removing a post saying we have to vote in huge numbers in November.

Here’s Threads removing a post with a generic expression of just having had enough of human stupidity.

Here’s Threads hiding a post for the goddamned dumbest reason you could imagine.

Threads started out as a nice, easy alternative to the toxic swamp that Twitter had become. It has since been overtaken by the same domineering, fascist elements that look to suppress dissent any way they can. It allows racist and misogynist content to remain on the platform, while capriciously removing speech it perceives as a “threat” and suspending users for reasons that are unclear.

Go Zuck yourself, Mark. And take your stinking social media empire with you.

So there’s this thing going around about a leaked document from a certain political campaign about oppo research. None of it is particularly surprising, except that for whatever reason a certain tech company has an unusual interest in preventing links posted to said document. They are taking action to block any post that links to the document.

Here is that document. Happy reading, everyone!