Yeah i hate that money grab BS. I will wait till the extended edition LoTR on BD is released. Im not going to buy the theatrical release only to rebuy it in a year when the extended version comes out. Must be a lot of suckers in this world that allow this to actually happen.
Ditto. When I first heard of LOTR on BD, I was ecstatic (I own all 3 extended editions of LOTR). I was so pissed off to hear they would not release the extended versions until later. Clearly a money grab to try to get you to buy the regular versions and then the extended versions. At least you could understand it with the LOTR extended DVD's due to all of the extra work integrating the deleted scenes from the original theatrical release.
When I heard Star Wars was going to be released on BD. I was hopeful it'd include the original theatrical releases as well as the bastardized versions. When I heard the originals were not going to be in, I was pissed off.
I know a lot of you guys were fine with the "re-envisioned" versions of Star Wars but small changes can have a profound effect. The biggest was probably Han Solo not shooting first. As others note, we go from a morally ambiguous scoundrel to a more flat character. There are other nitpicks here and there but it's surprising how so many fans of the originals hated the special edition versions. Contrast this with the Blade Runner versions where things are different but they don't try to change too much and most of the changes are actually well received.
Don't even get me started on the travesty that is episodes 1-3. There is no fucking redeeming value to the episode 1-3 trilogy.