Force Awakens Blu-Ray release set for early April

Force Awakens Blu-Ray release set for early April

Today on StarWars.com Disney and LucasFilm announced the release of Star Wars The Force Awakens on Blu-Ray and Digital HD. After a week of speculation, mostly correctly, the announcement confirmed viewers at home will be able to enjoy the massively new popular movie in early April. The Digital HD will be released first, on April 1st with the Blu-Ray to follow on April 5th.

As may expected the release comes with a plethora of extra’s. The full-rundown can be found below.

• Secrets of The Force Awakens: A Cinematic Journey – For the first time, discover the complete story behind the making of The Force Awakens, revealed through in-depth footage and exclusive interviews with the actors and filmmakers in this feature documentary
• The Story Awakens: The Table Read – Cast members familiar and new reflect on the memorable day they all first came together to read the movie’s script
• Building BB-8 – See how the filmmakers brought the newest droid to the screen, creating an instant fan favorite in the Star Wars universe
• Crafting Creatures – Watch movie magic as the filmmakers bring a cast of new creatures to life
• Blueprint of a Battle: The Snow Fight – Go deeper into the epic, climactic light saber battle between Rey and Kylo Ren
• John Williams: The Seventh Symphony – The legendary composer shares personal insights of his work on Star Wars and The Force Awakens
• ILM: The Visual Magic of The Force – An insider’s look into the remarkable digital artistry of the movie’s visual effects.
• Force For Change – Heroes come in all shapes and sizes. See how the Star Wars: Force for Change initiative has united Star Wars fans all over the globe to help others
• Plus Deleted Scenes

There is a caveat. Those purchasing the digital edition may not get all of the content. I think its just an advisory, probably it won’t be a major issue. Sadly, the same cannot be said for the Blu-Ray release. At this moment Target, Walmart and Best Buy will each be getting their own exclusive release with unique covers and in some cases unique content. None contain a 3D release, that is scheduled for later this year. There is also no word on any Rogue One teasers even though one was supposedly screened just days ago at Disney’s annual shareholder’s meeting.

Now LucasFilm wouldn’t be LucasFilm if they did not also release a trailer to announce the Digital HD and Blu-Ray release. Below you can view the short trailer. Since its release this morning the trailer has set the internet on fire with the brief scene of Kylo Ren searching the Millennium Falcon for Han Solo, but more on that later. I was however a little annoyed by the pompous tone of the announcement. I don’t need to be convinced that The Force Awakens is the movie event of a generation. I already believe that, nor did I need to know about all the raving reviews. I saw TFA in the cinema and I already know its great. I wrote as much in my own review. LucasFilm is skirting too close to the whole ‘Every Saga has a Beginning’ tagline used for The Phantom Menace. Lets just overlook LucasFilm’s sales pitches and take a look at the trailer.

After watching the trailer I am more convinced to buy the Digital HD version than ever before. Yet, I am not that interested in the deleted scenes. Barring a few movies I am not convinced an extended Director’s Cut is better. Lets be clear, this release is not a new cut, the deleted scenes are standalone, but I have no doubt some wizard will manage to create their own extended cut. It’s the extra’s that make or break the release. Sadly, we won’t know if they are up to snuff until the release. With the making-of documentary and other docu’s Star Wars fans will be able to get an impression of the murky road that The Force Awakens took to get released. Other releases such as Blade Runner and Alien gave a fascinating look at the process of how a sci-fi movie is created. With other releases such as The Phantom Menace, I Robot and THX-1138 the documentaries were more interesting than the actual movie. That’s not going to be the case with this release.

See you back in early April for the review. This was Force Awakens Blu-Ray release set for early April.