Just finished watching Star Wars..

[PKerr]

Just finished watching Star Wars for about the billionth time but not in a while and noticed...

Boy is it starting to look dated.

Not complaining mind you but man those old vector graphics made me chuckle.

This is the first time I've watched it in true high def as well and boy can you see some of the really thrown together props and such.

The boxes around the tie fighters were really bad when they attacked the Falcon.

It cracked me up to see how bad the masks were in the bar scene and the black painted Styrofoam floating in the garbage shoot scene.

I'm surprised when they added the extra scenes they didn't clean some of that stuff up, especially the boxes around the tie fighters.

All in all I still thoroughly enjoy watching it, I just never really noticed that stuff before.

 

[Kelthaz]

I've always found A New Hope dated, but Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi hold up remarkably well.

 

[trentman359]

Just wait for the Blu ray! Gonna be awesome!

 

[arch101]

I pull out ANH every May for an annual viewing. Sure, lots of stuff don't hold up. But man, if it isn't one of the most perfect sci-fi films ever made. Not a great film like Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia, but just a really fun and cleverly written movie. Still very entertaining after 32 years (my god, I saw it in the theaters first run -I'm old!)

 

[timelord1010]

I pull out ANH every May for an annual viewing. Sure, lots of stuff don't hold up. But man, if it isn't one of the most perfect sci-fi films ever made. Not a great film like Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia, but just a really fun and cleverly written movie. Still very entertaining after 32 years (my god, I saw it in the theaters first run -I'm old!)

Don't feel bad ARCH101, I was there too on opening day. It was incredible, I had never seen so many people waiting in line to see a movie before this.

I agree some things do look dated but I wouldn't change a thing, it's a classic. Now there are alot of things I would like to change in the prequels and when I would finish there would be only enough footage left for one movie. It would be like Superman The Movie with a half hour dealing with young Anakin and the rest of the movie with Anakin the Jedi.

 

[RandyS]

Just out curiosity Pkerr, which version are you watching? Disk one with the enhanced effects, or the original version on disk 2? I don't remember, but I think the boxes around the TIE fighters were fixed for the special edition. I have both, but it's been a while since I watched either.

I remember being there in 1977 when it was new. I was seven years old, and my mom read the opening crawl to me as it was going. I had never seen anything like that, and couldn't keep up with it. I remember loving the movie though. Have ever since, although Empire Strikes Back is my favorite of the OT.

 

[Klaus]

I was the 2nd person in line on opening day at the theater I was at... age 15, just right. ...and the boxes shocked me when I first noticed them years later too lol.

I may hate the PT but I saw Star Wars 23 times in the theaters lol.

 

[Christopher]

I think it's good that it looks dated. Lucas and the Star Wars franchise ended up getting too full of themselves. The charm of the original movie is that it wasn't some sort of ultra-expensive mega-blockbuster, but more of a rough-and-ready operation, a playful and somewhat cheesy homage to the cheesy, low-budget adventure serials of the '30s and '40s. It managed to pull together some of the top FX artists in the industry and spawn the beginning of a visual-FX revolution, but even so, it was a pioneering effort without the slickness of today. I like the idea that the seams are showing, that it isn't all perfect and modern. I wish the rest of the franchise had stayed truer to its relatively humble beginnings.

And sometimes I wonder if special effects have become too perfect. The charm of old special effects was that they didn't do all the work for you; they suggested an image as best they could, but it was up to your own imagination to take it the rest of the way.

 

[Lindley]

And sometimes I wonder if special effects have become too perfect. The charm of old special effects was that they didn't do all the work for you; they suggested an image as best they could, but it was up to your own imagination to take it the rest of the way.

That's pretty much the essence of the "uncanny valley" effect. I admit I had wondered how long it would be before that began applying to movie CGI.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I think the thing that really dates it is the audio. The visuals still hold up 32 years later, matte boxes notwithstanding, but the audio sounds like it was all dubbed in a tin can. That's because a lot of it was, much of it to replace the bit players' original British accents with American ones. The worst characters in this respect are Aunt Beru, the bartender, and the Imperial officers talking to Darth Vader after they've captured Princess Leia's ship.

As for the matte boxes, those are definately unforgivable after the Special Editions. You spent how much money populating Mos Eisley with crappy CGI robots but couldn't spare a few hours in photoshop to clean up the matte boxes? They're even worse in "The Empire Strikes Back," since that one has far more shots of different Imperial ships overlapping each other.

 

[Christopher]

And sometimes I wonder if special effects have become too perfect. The charm of old special effects was that they didn't do all the work for you; they suggested an image as best they could, but it was up to your own imagination to take it the rest of the way.

That's pretty much the essence of the "uncanny valley" effect. I admit I had wondered how long it would be before that began applying to movie CGI.

No, that's not even remotely what I'm talking about. I'm just being nostalgic for the days when you could see the flaws but were called upon to suspend your disbelief voluntarily, to use your own imagination to convince yourself that the guy in an obvious rubber suit attacking obvious toy buildings is really a terrifying giant monster wreaking havoc across Tokyo, or whatever. It evokes that capacity to imagine, to project your own mental images onto something that only roughly resembles them, that we're all born with and have as children, but that society conditions us to abandon as we get older. These days, nobody wants to use their imaginations; they insist that the images they get onscreen be utterly convincing so they don't have to make any mental effort at all. But I enjoy the childlike sense of play involved in seeing something that's obviously fake but choosing to pretend it's real. And I enjoy being able to see the mechanics of how an illusion is created.

 

[PKerr]

Just out curiosity Pkerr, which version are you watching? Disk one with the enhanced effects, or the original version on disk 2? I don't remember, but I think the boxes around the TIE fighters were fixed for the special edition. I have both, but it's been a while since I watched either.

The Trilogy Box set that came out a few years back.
The Silver one with the 3 movies and the bonus DVD.

 

[sidious618]

I just watched it about a week ago and I thought it held up just fine. Then again, I like the Phantom Menace so what do I know?

 

[Maurice]

Re the garbage mattes: remember these films were made to be projected on film, not on video. When you adjust the contrast and whatnot when you telecine or scan film some variances which would have been difficult to see on the silver screen pop out when the same shot is shown on a TV.

 

[Peter the Younger]

Just out curiosity Pkerr, which version are you watching? Disk one with the enhanced effects, or the original version on disk 2? I don't remember, but I think the boxes around the TIE fighters were fixed for the special edition. I have both, but it's been a while since I watched either.

The Trilogy Box set that came out a few years back.
The Silver one with the 3 movies and the bonus DVD.

I have the same one, I can still see the boxes in a few shots, and the black blob above the Emperor's forehead. Kinda wish they had gone the extra mile with a few of those things.

 

[Skywalker]

Dated? Uh oh.

Somebody get J.J. Abrams on the phone, right stat now!

 

[Blue_Trek]

Well guess what your going to get to see it at the theater again in 3D
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/07/george-lucas-co/

 

[Gepard]

No, that's not even remotely what I'm talking about. I'm just being nostalgic for the days when you could see the flaws but were called upon to suspend your disbelief voluntarily, to use your own imagination to convince yourself that the guy in an obvious rubber suit attacking obvious toy buildings is really a terrifying giant monster wreaking havoc across Tokyo, or whatever. It evokes that capacity to imagine, to project your own mental images onto something that only roughly resembles them, that we're all born with and have as children, but that society conditions us to abandon as we get older. These days, nobody wants to use their imaginations; they insist that the images they get onscreen be utterly convincing so they don't have to make any mental effort at all. But I enjoy the childlike sense of play involved in seeing something that's obviously fake but choosing to pretend it's real. And I enjoy being able to see the mechanics of how an illusion is created.

For whatever reason, your post made me think of this:

 

[Kelthaz]

Well guess what your going to get to see it at the theater again in 3D
http://www.wired.com/underwire/2008/07/george-lucas-co/

Sounds great. All six movies would be fantastic in 3D.

 

[Deranged Nasat]

And sometimes I wonder if special effects have become too perfect. The charm of old special effects was that they didn't do all the work for you; they suggested an image as best they could, but it was up to your own imagination to take it the rest of the way.

That's pretty much the essence of the "uncanny valley" effect. I admit I had wondered how long it would be before that began applying to movie CGI.

No, that's not even remotely what I'm talking about. I'm just being nostalgic for the days when you could see the flaws but were called upon to suspend your disbelief voluntarily, to use your own imagination to convince yourself that the guy in an obvious rubber suit attacking obvious toy buildings is really a terrifying giant monster wreaking havoc across Tokyo, or whatever. It evokes that capacity to imagine, to project your own mental images onto something that only roughly resembles them, that we're all born with and have as children, but that society conditions us to abandon as we get older. These days, nobody wants to use their imaginations; they insist that the images they get onscreen be utterly convincing so they don't have to make any mental effort at all. But I enjoy the childlike sense of play involved in seeing something that's obviously fake but choosing to pretend it's real. And I enjoy being able to see the mechanics of how an illusion is created.

I share these concerns. One thing about modern audiences that irritates me- and I'm quickly going to clarify that this is not in any way an attack on PKerr's comments- is how they sneer and laugh at any special effect that is not seamless, perfect, and so presumably cost truckloads of money to produce. I can't count the number of times I've heard a viewing partner comment dissmissively "that loooks fake", to which I usually reply "that's because it is...". It's yet another reason why I find books preferrable to film. With most books, I play them as films inside my head as I go through, and it's very entertaining and stimulating.