Star Wars: The Force Awakens [Blu-ray] [2015] [Region Free]

Star Wars: Episode VII, easily one of, if not, the most anticipated film in my lifetime, and the crown jewel of the 2015 blockbusters. Like many fans, I had high, cautiously optimistic expectations. I was not disappointed. The same magic J.J. Abrams worked into 2009's Star Trek by contemporizing the series with a "same-but-different" approach may have instigated controversy by being too derivative of the original trilogy, but revisiting the foundational story elements does serve a purpose in introducing the series to newer audiences, and so that the film can withstand on it's own without relying heavily on its predecessors for context. And now, it on blu-ray.Disney has done a very serviceable job with this initial release. Although not the 3D version, the video quality is pristine, very vivid and detailed, with perhaps the strongest and most varied palette in the saga. Details like the Jakku villagers' clothing and skin textures on aliens like Maz look natural and defined. Like some other reviewers, I noticed some black crush (image aspects like faces seeming to fade into shadows) in some evening scenes, but it's not terribly distracting. Overall, the kind of caliber expected from a modern release.Although not Atmos, we get a perfectly robust DTS-HD 7.1 surround setup. Being a Star Wars film, there is plenty of action to go around. Blasters zipping, engines humming, ships flying, John Williams' score and the dialogue are also evenly balanced and do not suffer from drown-outs.Extras are very good for a standard release, although lacking a commentary, we do get "Secrets of 'The Force Awakens': A Cinematic Journey", a four-part, hour-long, making-of documentary focusing on the most notable, new aspects of the Star Wars universe that this film introduces; such as the LucasFilm-Disney merger, developing the new characters, dramatic story choices, and the return of the original core cast. Several other featurettes running under 10 minutes focus specifically on their eponymous subjects: "Crafting Creatures," "Building BB-8," "Blueprint of a Battle: The Snow Fight," "ILM: The Visual Magic of the Force," and "John Williams: The Seventh Symphony." The most fascinating out of all of these was "The Story Awakens: The Table Read" - Although running four minutes, it's a moving retrospective of the first script reading in London, 2014; a moment J.J. Abrams and the cast and crew recognized as iconic in the franchise's history. Fans may recognize the footage from a photograph of the table read that surfaced online a couple years ago. There is also a neat featurette called "Force for Change," which even though has kind of an infomercial-quality, discusses some very noble charity work and initiatives the cast and crew supported leading up to the release of the film.We also get several deleted scenes, most of them run under a minute and they're not very interesting (mainly character beats), of note though are "Jakku Message", which is an alternative introduction to Leia by her reaction to Poe's disappearance, and it's neat to see Carrie Fisher portray the "no-bull" aspect of Leia's leadership quality. Also, "Snow Speeder Chase", a chase scene with Finn and Rey on the surface of Starkiller Base that's reminiscent of the speeder bike chase from Return of the Jedi.As far as the DVD, both the image and sound quality are impeccable for standard definition and lossy fidelity, but there are absolutely no special features whatsoever.Compared to most current releases, I really should rate this 4 stars, as I'm also not crazy about the packaging (stacked discs annoy me, but I can live with it). However, quality over quantity is a driving factor of this release. The film itself is a great new step forward in the franchise; it's a properly-executed passing-of-the-torch to a new generation, but most importantly, a new beginning with opportunity for stories to head into a different direction.