03 June 2005

Effects

Wut up, it's Bill.

This is just gonna be a quickie entry, inspired largely by the baseball gun at the end of the BlueTights clip from a recent post of Don's. Anyways, I agree--let's can up some of them digital effects.


I saw Star Wars again today (Episode III)--my mom wanted to go. Now, understand that my mom is one of those people who, after a sci-fi movie, will ask you questions on the way from the theater to the car that make you sincerely wonder what movie SHE saw, because no way no how was it the same movie YOU just saw. That being said, she made a comment in addition to the questions I was expecting (Who are the Sith? Who are the Jedi? Ewan MacGregor is handsome .. how does he become Darth Vader? How is he related to Mark Hamill?), a comment that made me think about things a little: "I'M SO BORED WITH THESE EFFECTS. IT ISN'T SO FANTASTIC ANY MORE. I MEAN, I REMEMBER BACK IN THE 70s IT WAS A BIG DEAL, BUT NOW IT'S OLD HAT." Or something to that effect.

Anyways, the point is that regardless of how technically superior the new effects may be in comparison to the old ones, somehow the old Star Wars effects still seem more impressive to me. Maybe I just like models and puppets instead of CGI.

That must be it. As a side note I watched Short Circuit last night---yup, I like real effects. They just seem more endearing to me, more genuine in a way. And in movies like Star Wars, where being loyal and moral and whatever the hell else is such a central theme, where the battle between good and evil is ok until somebody gets confused and can't tell one from the other, George Lucas should try to be as genuine as possible.

Don't get me wrong--the effects were well done; Episode I Yoda sucks in comparison to Ep II or III Yoda. But Ep II/III Yoda has nothing on Return of the Jedi Yoda. Let's be serious. It's just that something about Star Wars has become very business, very corporate--not bad, but just a bit less fun.

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