I was in denial. I watched it with a girl. She said, "that is the worst special effect". That snapped me out of it.
I find 'A New Hope' hard to watch nowadays
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I was in denial. I watched it with a girl. She said, "that is the worst special effect". That snapped me out of it.
A full four years after the still excellent FX of jurassic park, how could they have got it so wrong?
It's still a great film, yes the special effects don't all look good anymore. The one liners and such are classic. I would agree that certain parts of the movie seem like a base fairytale plot, given the evolution of scifi since.
They tried remaking it. They did it by adding a cringe-inducing Jabba scene, taking away 100% of the coolness of the Greedo scene, and adding lots of random annoying slapstick in between scenes.
They tried remaking it. They did it by adding a cringe-inducing Jabba scene, taking away 100% of the coolness of the Greedo scene, and adding lots of random annoying slapstick in between scenes.
I think the SFX are fantastic. I love the shots as we see a ship POV and we head down to the trench.. and it feels visceral as the camera tilts then rights itself
You notice that's the shot they didn't touch.
The one shot that didn't get altered in all the SEs that bothers me, as they altered so much else, is the brief shot of Vaders' TIE fighter and the two other TIE fighters leaving the Death Star hanger. It always looks bad!
If you take out all the 'comedy' VFX additions and the Jabba scene, you must leave in the new Falcon blast off, it's awesome! One of my favourite additions.
Star Wars, even with its simple plot and occasional hokey dialogue was a game changer, and is a classic. If it's on TV and you catch the start, it should be the law that you watch it!
My mom would sue to change that law :Pon TV and you catch the start, it should be the law that you watch it!
The one shot that didn't get altered in all the SEs that bothers me, as they altered so much else, is the brief shot of Vaders' TIE fighter and the two other TIE fighters leaving the Death Star hanger. It always looks bad!
If you take out all the 'comedy' VFX additions and the Jabba scene, you must leave in the new Falcon blast off, it's awesome! One of my favourite additions.
Star Wars, even with its simple plot and occasional hokey dialogue was a game changer, and is a classic. If it's on TV and you catch the start, it should be the law that you watch it!
Yeah it looks like the other two TIES are attached to vaders ship by an invisible stick or something. It could have done with changing but it's not a deal breaker for me. The updated yavin battle FX in general though are very welcome. I haven't seen the original version in a long time, I remember some of it always looking a bit ropey and I suspect watching it now would be a big downgrade over the SE.
The falcon blast off has always been a favourite scene of mine, the SE improves on it I think.
My only issues with the SE lie with the CGI muppets in mos eisley, han shooting first and jabba really, the rest I think make the film better.
Force sensitive TIE pilots?
i love the original and have no real complaints about any shot. Not even the non-moving Falcon when the TIES attack it.
The closest thing I have to a complaint is the "glitter" asteroids
The closest thing I have to a complaint is the "glitter" asteroids
I saw The Blue Angels taking off a couple weeks ago. They were so stuck together they looked fake. I thought of that shot!
DISCLAIMER
The following is my opinion. I'm not telling anyone their own opinions are incorrect. As I like to say, "the audience is always right about what it likes".
<cracks knuckles>
I saw Star Wars in the theater in the summer of 77 and several times that fall. I saw it twice in one day on re-release the summer of 79. I saw it after Empire when they slapped Episode IV: A New Hope on it. I saw it on TV broadcast and on VHS and on Laserdisc with its various nips and tucks. I saw the awful burn-it-with-lightsabres SE in 1997. In June at the Motion Picture Academy in Hollywood I (along with @Indysolo and @Harvey) I watched a glorious vintage c1984 70mm where really the only tampering was the change to the opening crawl, and what that screening reinforced to me—who lost his rose-colored glasses a long long time ago, was it still works.
Objectively, Star Wars is not a badly made movie. It's mostly beautifully shot, has some really groundbreaking visual effects work (albeit that was a near thing). What it does best is grab the essence of those old movie 30s and 40s serials like Flash Gordon and play those within this then-unique mash-up of samurai epic, western, and old school swashbuckler. That unique formula got lost in all of the sequels, and which—arguably—only Raiders of the Lost Ark ever quite nailed again. Because of that, when you look at the entire panoply of Star Wars movies, the original now looks a bit like a different animal than its progeny.
A quick aside about the look and style of the film. To some people its cinematography feels a bit flat an undramatic today but at the time of its release part of its innovation was that Lucas understood he had to walk this fine line between fantastic and realistic, so he shot it with a "documentary" style camera. He understood that to make this fantasy world be believable he had to ground it in certain ways, that the drama would not work if everything were stylized, weird and fantastic. This is also why the film has that old school swashbuckling Erich Korngold-esque score instead of something more conventional to the 70s or something spacey. It makes this weird world feel comfortable and relatable.
What was terrific about seeing it in a big theater with an audience again is that you see the film in its element. The all-too-apparent-on-video garbage mattes aren't anywhere near as noticeable. The heavily diffused Tatooine outdoors footage looks dry and dusty and real. The action set pieces still work. The jokes land. It manages to be B-movie corny and A-movie serious at the same time. It's quite the high wire act.
Is the film slow after the open? To modern eyes, yeah, maybe, but the film's pacing is part of its brilliance. It opens with this big action packed set piece then slows down and builds up the plot and introduces the players. The bad guys are constantly just one step behind the heroes, and the jeopardy builds. The Cantina is where the film shifts gears into action adventure again and from there forward the pace builds up and the action gets more elaborate. The Falcon's escape from Mos Eisley < the TIE Fighter attack as it escapes < Red leader's squadron drawing the fire < the trench runs culminating in the big Kaboom. There's a reason the editors on this film won Oscars.
Is it flawless? Fuck no. I could rattle off a couple of dozen issues (e.g. the first part of the final battle is too long, and seemed so even in 77), but that's true of most movies and all of Star Wars progeny. But regardless and in spite of them it still works. The audience laughs at the jokes, they hiss at Darth Vader's entrance, they cheer the big moments where the heroes succeed, and roar with approval when Hal blows Greedo away.
It's a big silly (then-)modern throwback and it's still delightful if you can see it for what it is.
IMHO.
The following is my opinion. I'm not telling anyone their own opinions are incorrect. As I like to say, "the audience is always right about what it likes".
<cracks knuckles>
I saw Star Wars in the theater in the summer of 77 and several times that fall. I saw it twice in one day on re-release the summer of 79. I saw it after Empire when they slapped Episode IV: A New Hope on it. I saw it on TV broadcast and on VHS and on Laserdisc with its various nips and tucks. I saw the awful burn-it-with-lightsabres SE in 1997. In June at the Motion Picture Academy in Hollywood I (along with @Indysolo and @Harvey) I watched a glorious vintage c1984 70mm where really the only tampering was the change to the opening crawl, and what that screening reinforced to me—who lost his rose-colored glasses a long long time ago, was it still works.
Objectively, Star Wars is not a badly made movie. It's mostly beautifully shot, has some really groundbreaking visual effects work (albeit that was a near thing). What it does best is grab the essence of those old movie 30s and 40s serials like Flash Gordon and play those within this then-unique mash-up of samurai epic, western, and old school swashbuckler. That unique formula got lost in all of the sequels, and which—arguably—only Raiders of the Lost Ark ever quite nailed again. Because of that, when you look at the entire panoply of Star Wars movies, the original now looks a bit like a different animal than its progeny.
A quick aside about the look and style of the film. To some people its cinematography feels a bit flat an undramatic today but at the time of its release part of its innovation was that Lucas understood he had to walk this fine line between fantastic and realistic, so he shot it with a "documentary" style camera. He understood that to make this fantasy world be believable he had to ground it in certain ways, that the drama would not work if everything were stylized, weird and fantastic. This is also why the film has that old school swashbuckling Erich Korngold-esque score instead of something more conventional to the 70s or something spacey. It makes this weird world feel comfortable and relatable.
What was terrific about seeing it in a big theater with an audience again is that you see the film in its element. The all-too-apparent-on-video garbage mattes aren't anywhere near as noticeable. The heavily diffused Tatooine outdoors footage looks dry and dusty and real. The action set pieces still work. The jokes land. It manages to be B-movie corny and A-movie serious at the same time. It's quite the high wire act.
Is the film slow after the open? To modern eyes, yeah, maybe, but the film's pacing is part of its brilliance. It opens with this big action packed set piece then slows down and builds up the plot and introduces the players. The bad guys are constantly just one step behind the heroes, and the jeopardy builds. The Cantina is where the film shifts gears into action adventure again and from there forward the pace builds up and the action gets more elaborate. The Falcon's escape from Mos Eisley < the TIE Fighter attack as it escapes < Red leader's squadron drawing the fire < the trench runs culminating in the big Kaboom. There's a reason the editors on this film won Oscars.
Is it flawless? Fuck no. I could rattle off a couple of dozen issues (e.g. the first part of the final battle is too long, and seemed so even in 77), but that's true of most movies and all of Star Wars progeny. But regardless and in spite of them it still works. The audience laughs at the jokes, they hiss at Darth Vader's entrance, they cheer the big moments where the heroes succeed, and roar with approval when Hal blows Greedo away.
It's a big silly (then-)modern throwback and it's still delightful if you can see it for what it is.
IMHO.
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Agree.
A colleague from Romania watched it analytically for the first tiem a couple of years ago. Here is what she wrote about the look of the film:
To me it actually looks like a movie. In the homestead, the background props and sets feel real and functional.. a real place. They don't draw too much attention to themselves. The movie is not afraid to spend time there, showing how people actually live.
The sets for the Death Star are even better..
And then the temple sets (the rebel base) feel even better still.. and somehow George did this on a miniscule budget working with people who didn't believe it would work??
A colleague from Romania watched it analytically for the first tiem a couple of years ago. Here is what she wrote about the look of the film:
To me it actually looks like a movie. In the homestead, the background props and sets feel real and functional.. a real place. They don't draw too much attention to themselves. The movie is not afraid to spend time there, showing how people actually live.
The sets for the Death Star are even better..
And then the temple sets (the rebel base) feel even better still.. and somehow George did this on a miniscule budget working with people who didn't believe it would work??
Limitations are a beautiful thing for art. That's why the PT feels so underwhelming. I'm sure many would argue the ST suffers this too, but I think the PT is more so.
Personally, I am of the opinion that Star Wars should have just been Star Wars. No ESB, no ROTJ, no franchise. I would give it all up for just SW.
