Do you think you would still like the PT as much if Lucas used the OT Special Effects?

there are gorgeous and amazing effects, visual sets etc in the prequels.....Alderaan, Mustafar for a sense of contrast - and every shot did include some sort of effect...
However - the prequels ring for me because of the storyline. I would love them all no matter what ILM delivered...or didn't.

 

I think that the special affect in the PT were amazing, but they need to add more LIVE ACTION characters, there were too many imaginary 3d people and animals floating around everywhere. Also, Yoda was a huge dissapointment for me. I really wish they had stuck to the old Puppet scheme. Sure they could have used 3d when he needed to fight and stuff, but I love the muppet version of yoda. I think anamotronics should have been left in PT. It's a form of SE too. And I think it's advanced as well. It gave the OT movies a real life feal to them with all of there REAL scenery and backgrounds. I loved them.

 

so...there just is no pleasing is there?

we want another world - we want new and bizarre planets yet you want realism? How is this accomplished??? Where we you set Coruscant on earth???????? What could possibly be Utapau??


and I loved RotS Yoda - the best ever - thank you Rob Coleman.

 

Absolutely, I thought digital Yoda looked wonderful. How else could you have had the dramatic Sidious vs. Yoda duel without a digital Yoda? Rob Coleman and his team did amazing work on the films.

 

I just finished watching Firefox. (Look it up.)

It has some fabulous motion-controlled fighter jets.

Sometimes the movements are a bit jerky, and the jets don't blend in the the background perfectly, but the intensity and realistic models really pull you into it.

It has some pretty neat pyro and water effects as well.

 

I think I can answer both questions at once: I'm not sure the PT could be possible in its current form without the FX of today. The Battle of Naboo, the Pod Races, the Battle of Geonosis, the Battle of Coruscant...none of that could be done nearly as well without ILM's current technology. Obi-wan's lizard mount in ROTS, General Greivous, and the droid army could not be done either. A large portion of the PT sets are CG as well. The PT would be...unrecognizable with the technology from 1977 to 1983.
However, I think that it might have been better in some ways without today's technology.
There's nothing wrong with the Battle of Endor, FX-wise. The speeder bikes could be adpated for the podracers. The Battle of Hoth did ground combat quite nicely; the battles of Naboo and Geonosis could be made from those techniques. A lot of the PT story could still be done with OT technology.
But if such FX-heavy scenes like those in the PT were prohibitively expensive or time-consuming, perhaps there might be less action and more story. And that's what's really important to me. I do think certain parts of the story would have to change because they couldn't be done, but in many ways that's for the best; among the first casualties would be JarJar Binks. That alone says the PT might be better done in the style of the OT.

 

If the PT was done any differently it would have cost much more money, taken much more time and it would have been much harder to pull off the same story as we got (the one Lucas wanted to tell). Whether or not you like the CGI, it is cohesive. Mixing a lot more live action stuff with the CGI might make people complain just as much that it didn't gell well together. Plus I think there's a lot more model work than is given credit for. Are they supposed to use old modeling techniques to make that match as well? Where's the line? It's definitely not something people will ever see totally eye to eye on.

 

I think I would have preferred the OT special effects to the totally CGI experience of the PT. I'm not kicking the PT when it's down...But I'm saying is it's hard to replace the craftsmenship of model making or the techniques that great films back in the late 70's and early 80's used such as Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Alien, Jaws, etc... The all CGI sorta takes me out of the whole thing a bit because I can still tell it's sort of flat and lifeless...While a model or muppet isn't real in a sense it is still a physical piece and it feels more tangible to me.

I woulda preferred them maybe not completely do as much CGI work as they did, I woulda liked to a see a more balanced marriage of new effects and the ones of the OT.

 

So, like...a Muppet Yoda, but with CG facial features? That'd be...I d'know...kinna nifty. But the fully mobile and articulate Yoda in the PT was pretty awesome in my never-humble opinion. Frankly, they couldn't have done half of what Yoda did with the tech they had in ESB even if you ignore all the Yoda fight-scenes.

 

Yea but when talking Yoda I still think the OT Yoda is more believeable than the PT Yoda...regardless of how much but he kicked. He did look good in the AOTC and ROTS (we are leaving out TPM with good reason here) but he looked good for CGI...

Now you can go say well OT Yoda looked good for a muppet. But the thing is that Luke could reach out and touch Yoda, he interacted with him in a way that felt real. While the CGI Yoda looked good and was awesome, there was still that element of....I dunno what to call it, the green screen acting to nothing, Yoda is added afterward and it looks good and could be real but my mind says no it's not something not quite right... Then I get an ephinany because I know that the muppet Yoda is actually on Hamil's back, I can see every inperfection and my eye sees it as a real object...But the CGI is interacting with the characters but in a sense he isn't at all.

I just can't get past the totally digital Yoda yet...




TPM Yoda looked the worst...Funny how Yoda in the OT looked better than this uhh...thing.

 

The Phantom Menace could have been made in '77. It would look different, but I feel the guys behind A New Hope would be able to get Episode 1 made. That was one hell of a crew.

 

Why should the special effects determine whether I like the PT's story or not?

 

And there in lies the #1 important question.

 

we want another world - we want new and bizarre planets yet you want realism? How is this accomplished??? Where we you set Coruscant on earth???????? What could possibly be Utapau??

Both planets were fine, actually, Coruscant in TPM/ROTS were amazing. There were problems with Tatooine and Geonsis in AOTC, though. They were too monotone, that robbed the realism. In the art of AOTC book they show a proposed painting of Geonsis and it looked great, because it incorporated a wider range of colors (in the realistic, not over the top, sense).


Absolutely, I thought digital Yoda looked wonderful. How else could you have had the dramatic Sidious vs. Yoda duel without a digital Yoda?

Best. Argument. For. Puppet. Yoda. Ever.

Ah, but seriously, the FX for CG Yoda were fine (and I generally agree adding CG Yoda to TPM is a visual improvement). While Yoda is my least favorite PT character, I cannot complain about the FX used to create him.


I think I can answer both questions at once: I'm not sure the PT could be possible in its current form without the FX of today.

Could have been done? Yes, easily. However, would that have been prudent? A stop motion battle between droids and gungans would have been jarring when placed next to anything in the O-OT, for example.

There would need to be a number of changes for the PT to be possible with OT effects, but I see no reason why it couldn't have happened. Gungans would have had to be replaced with an alien like the rodian, or something that could be done with costumes. Planet settings would need to be re-thought. Coruscant would be possible, but the exterior shots would need less screen time to avoid careful scrutiny.

 

(1) If there's one thing I love about the PT, it's the locations.

Coruscant, Kamino, Utapau, Mustafar. Some of the Order 66 planets looked amazing and I wish we could have seen more of them.


(2) Anyway, someone brought up money - Lucas paid the cost of making the films, then FOX distributed the films. He needed to do things as quickly and as cheaply as possible. Blue/green screen and CGI helped keep the cost down.

(3) I think, just as ILM pushed the envelope of physical FX with the OT, they pushed the envelope of CGI in the PT.

(4) People keep comparing the LOTR and SW effects - but it's apples and oranges. Would WETA have done a better job with Kamino or Geonosis? I doubt it. SW was far more ambitious, in a visual sense, than LOTR.

(5) That being said, I think Lucas did become fascinated with CGI, which led to things like the droid factory sequence.

 

I just think he got a little too carried away with the visuals and not enough with the substance I still love the prequels...They are SW after all...But IMO they could have been so much more.

 

I love you, will you marry me?! LOL! In all seriousness though, the PT's fine just the way it is. It didn't fail us, we failed it with our expectactions over 20+ years of waiting. We each had our own vision of what the PT'd be like, what the story of Anakin Skywalker would be like in it's beginnings, and when we didn't get what we wanted..well, we griped and complained. I went into TPM with no expectations, I was 20 years old when the movie came out, it was a birthday gift from my highschool sweetheart. Afterward, I was pleased, and impressed. As I have been with the other two movies. Lucas has told his story the way he wants to tell it. Everyone else needs to simply accept it, and move along. As harsh as that may sound. I like a few others here, am tired of the pointless bickering over this set of effects, versus that set of effects, versus the effects from When Harry met Sally. (and if any one needs that explained to them? I feel sorry for them) People tend to think along these lines: What has Lucas done to my Star Wars?! It's not ours, sure we own copies, and we watch them. The movies, the characters, all of it belongs to George Lucas. Not Joe Schmo, or Jane Doe. And I accept the movies for what they are: one massive story, a 12 hour movie. There is no O-OT, OT, or PT there is only Star Wars.

 

Do you think you would still like the PT as much if Lucas used the OT Special Effects?

No.