ST Practical or CGI?

That's fine if we just want a handful of them... but difficult if we want to see an army in battle. Something that wasn't possible in the OT... and unfortunately something not probable for the ST too. Although as I said, I'm sure JJ will get a few stormtroopers in costumes guarding doors etc. that seems like a popular compromise.

 

They were mostly CGI for the big battle scenes in TLOTR... but yes I agree - for the close ups, men in masks/makeup were better than the CGI versions.

 

What they could've done was use costumes for the up close action scenes and CGI/replicate the ones in the background to fill out the army. Mixed them in shot to create the army. The ones up close are the main problems.

 

Completely agreed. I remember seeing the first Hobbit film in theaters for the first time and being astounded at how unrealistic the orcs looked in comparison to their LotR counterparts.

 

I prefer the Orcs in The Hobbit. For the most part I think they're more fitting of Tolkien's style of high fantasy than the ones in LOTR, which kind of strike me as something from a horror movie. Clones and Stormtroopers, on the other hand, both hit the Star Wars sweet spot, so I can't say costumes vs CGI was an issue for me.

 

Who gives a crap if it's CGI or puppet... as long as it looks good I could give a rats behind which method was used to realize an alien or creature.

 

Correct. What you guys don't realize is that LFL and Disney are watching this debate closely, and they will base their decision regarding CGI vs. puppets on the outcome here.

 

Of course we know they're watching this thread. Why else would anyone want to express their opinions?.. Just to express them?

lol

 

I certainly hope it will be both and not exclusively CGI. I didn't start the threat to start a fight, of course. I find it interesting to hear the differing perspectives and even arguments on this topic.

For me, I'd like to watch a movie and not a cartoon about a new world. As has been discussed here, some of the CGI gives a cartoon or unrealistic feel (Yoda flipping around, Jar Jar jumping up and diving in the water in TPM, C3PO in the droid factory). I think the better CGI has been for space scenes and backgrounds but not of people or aliens.

What do I know though, I actually can't stand Golum in Lord of the Rings because despite how impressive his is, he still seems like a cartoon character to me.

 

true, but the medium used allowed the actions to be possible.

 

I wanna see puppets, live actors in costume, robotics, scaled models, and CGI.

 

The problem is that CGI 3PO and clone troopers looked fake. That's not a directional decision it is a function of the medium.

 

For years & years fans complained about the "Muppets" in Star Wars (I don't think they realized that Yoda was half-Muppet and the rest were done by ILM) now everyone wants puppets. These are all fads & trends in Fandom, JJA should ignore it all and just do what's right for each character and scene.

 

I don't want muppets, I want machines, robots, animatronics, actual sets.

At least when Episodes VIII and IX come around, and we'll be in the Future with actual robots.

 

I'd believe Artoo, but Chewwbacca had at best 3-4 minutes of screentime. I didn't see any instance of when he's CG. Yes, a lot of other Wookiees were, but not Chewbacca

 

Not a lot of people realized the Clonetroopers were CGI in many shots in AOTC and ROTS. Some didn't find out until well after the films had come out.

 

This was the first I'd heard of it. I mean other than the wide sweeping shots of the armies (they probably wouldn't get that many extras lol), I assumed they were all real.

 

Nope. Temuera Morrison and a few others served as the motion capture frame of reference, but over all, the armor was all CGI. When Cody is seen with his helmet off, that's just Morrison in a green or blue screen suit. Back when AOTC came out, I didn't even know it. I didn't found out until a few months later. And I know others who didn't know that.