Just finished ROTJ and my first viewing of the Saga in chronological Episode order I through VI complete. Definitely a new experience for the Saga on BD.
I take serious issue with some of the pro reviews I've read out there. There is the oddball soft shot, but RotJ is replete with great detail. You can see plenty of pores on faces, for example, throughout, most notably on Mark Hamil and Ian McDiarmid's makeup. Harrison Ford's face is especially noteworthy on Endor after the Death Star explosion. Also VERY high detail in the makeup of Sebastian Shaw. There is definitely no waxy face here, other than Carrie Fisher's makeup. I never did notice the blood on Han's fingers after Leia gets shot, either. The blinking Ewoks are pretty cool. Very natural and well executed, especially on the baby Ewoks when 3PO is telling his story. Did they do the whole eyes or was the lighting refined for the Blu-ray? I also noticed much more detail when Vader is looking for Luke under the stairwell. My initial impression was brightness/gamma/lighting but it could just be excellent shadow detail. I don't recall seeing the pupils before, either. Most noticeable on Wicket but also on the Chief and a couple others. Audio wise, it's a great mix. Best use of surrounds since TPM. I heards animals, speeder bikes, Ewoks, and blasters. The Battle of Endor. Is. Awesome. Both picture and audio. I would like to see those shrinking TIE fighters fixed one of these days, probably digitally, but it's not as high up on my list as the desire for Lucas to edit in deleted scenes into Extended Special Editions.
WRT the most infamous change, the "noooo" my initial impression actually watching it in the movie wasn't nearly as negative to when I saw it on youtube when the news broke. I was almost in favor of it at the time it actually happened on the first full viewing. Once the credits finished, I was back to wishing he would leave it out, but now I'm back to being conflicted. I really didn't mind it... if I haven't mentioned it before, Vader's "moment of truth" is my single most favorite moment in the entire saga. I've watched it at least hundreds of times at the movies, on VHS, cable/sat/tv, DVD, and now Blu-ray... I would have been really interested in my reaction if I hadn't heard all the angst on the interwebs about it... I remember initially being confused when the SE first came out and was about to start humming the yub yub song and the new Williams score started. I now love that so much better than the yub-yub and think this may have the potential to get there, as well. It wasn't poorly executed as Hayden Christensen ghost looking down and then in a seemingly different direction from Alec Guinness and the Yoda Muppet... I'll give it some more thought and probably watch just that chapter again in the next day or two.
