Like many, I was unhappy with a lot the changes that were made for the Special Editions and most recently the blu-rays.
Harmy's Despecialised Editions are great for those that want to see the films exactly as they were when they were originally released theatrically, but some of the changes (especially the updating of special effects) actually make the films better IMHO, so I decided to make 'Semi-Specialised' editions of these films to remove what I considered the bad changes while keeping all the good changes/additions.
With this V5 release I have adjusted a number of scenes in Jabba's Palace where I felt that the colours were a little too saturated, to bring them in line with the rest of the film. I have also adjusted the brightness in a couple of shots.
With this V4 release I have removed all the CG additions that I removed from all of my Return of the Jedi Semi-Specialised Editions prior to V3 but I forgot to implement them in V3. Thank you everybody that got in touch with me about these annoying CG additions still being included in V3. You certainly do keep me on my toes. I also tweaked the audio a little to improve the overall audio syncing and increased the colour saturation of the whole film slightly compared to V3. The CG tentacles and mouth in the Sarlacc Pit sequence remain because i've always felt that they improved the scene compared to the theatrical release, adding menace to the Sarlacc Pit and making it more proactively involved in the fight. The theatrical version seems very static and uninvolved in the fight by comparison IMHO.
The following Special Edition CG additions have been reverted back to how they were in the theatrical release for this V4 release:
1) The huge CG door leading into jabba's palace that was added for the blu-ray release has been replaced with the original door from the theatrical release
2) The over the top carbon defreezing effects added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with the original defreezing effects from the theatrical release
3) The CG Dug added to the blu-ray release that walks down the steps of jabba palace just before Luke arrives has been removed and replaced with the original shot without the CG Dug
4) The creepy CG blinking ewok eyes added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with how they were in the theatrical release
5) When R2D2 gets shot, all the CGI appendages added for the blu-ray release have been removed
With this V3 release I have used the newest Return of the Jedi blu-ray as my main video source because it has far more natural looking colours than the previous bluray that has very oversaturated colours, has a strong blue tint throughout the film and the fleshtones have a very strong reddish magenta push that makes characters look permanently sunburnt.
I have also reduced of the brightness of the new blu-ray because I felt the film was a little too bright overall, negatively affecting the atmosphere of what should be darker scenes on the Death Star in the third act, particularly the fight between Luke and Darth Vader.
I used Star.Wars.Episode.VI.Return.of.the.Jedi.1983.2160p.CUSTOM.DCPRIP.SDR.x265.DTS-HD.MA.5.1-4k83v1.2.2 as my video source to reinsert Lapti Nek and Yub Nub into this V3 release (my thanks to everybody that was involved in putting together this very nice 2160p theatrical reconstruction of Return of the Jedi and sharing it with everybody).I also reduced the colour saturation of the Yub Nub footage to make it more seemlessly match the colour grading of the rest of the Return of the Jedi V3 Semi-Specialised Edition. Enjoy!
Below is a brief summary of the changes made to this film:
Return of the Jedi:
Audio changes:
Han Solo's 'it's alright, I can see a lot better' line from the special edition when he's aiming his gun to free Lando from the Sarlacc's clutches has been replaced with the original line 'it's alright, trust me'
Darth Vader's 'Nooooooooooooooooooooooo!' at the climax of the film has been removed and his silence restored.
New lossless pcm audio track created to fit this semi-specialised edition, based off Belbucus's excellent 1993 Return of the Jedi PCM audio mix
Video Changes:
The huge CG door leading into jabba's palace that was added for the blu-ray release has been replaced with the original door from the theatrical release
The awful CG fest 'Jedi Rocks' has been removed and replaced with the original song from the theatrical release, Lapti Nek
The over the top carbon defreezing effects added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with the original defreezing effects from the theatrical release
The CG Dug added to the blu-ray release that walks down the steps of jabba palace just before Luke arrives has been removed and replaced with the original shot without the CG Dug
The creepy CG blinking ewok eyes added to the blu-ray have been removed and replaced with how they were in the theatrical release
When R2D2 gets shot, all the CGI appendages added for the blu-ray release have been removed
All the CG celebration scenes on the other planets have been removed with the exception of the first, cloud city. Jar Jar Binks and his 'Weesa Free!' is gone, thankfully.
Victory Celebration has been replaced with the original theatrical ending, Yub Nub.
Hayden Christensen and his creepy glare has been removed from the final scene with the jedi spirits and replaced with the original actor from the theatrical release, Sebastian Shaw
Here are some screencap comparisons:
Blu-ray 1:
Regraded 1:
Blu-ray 2:
Regraded 2:
Blu-ray 3:
Regraded 3:
And here are some screencaps:
Regraded 4:
Regraded 5:
Regraded 6:
Regraded 7:
Regraded 8:
Regraded 9:
Regraded 10:
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Codec ID/Info : Advanced Video Coding
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Audio
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Duration : 2 h 12 min
Source duration : 2 h 12 min
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Sampling rate : 48.0 kHz
Frame rate : 46.875 FPS (1024 SPF)
Compression mode : Lossy
Source stream size : 166 MiB (6%)
Title : rotjyn.aac
Encoded date : UTC 2021-03-07 18:11:00
Tagged date : UTC 2021-03-07 18:11:12