Just finished watching Star Wars..

[Kelthaz]

I've always wanted to see those old Sinbad movies. I grew up watching the shitty 90's Sinbad TV Series (I knew it sucked even as a kid, but it aired an hour before Hercules and Xena. I had no choice), so I've got an interest in the character.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

I don't mind that there have been improvements in FX technology. I just wish that people wouldn't devalue the FX work of the past. I mean, even President Obama disses the original Star Trek's effects work, but that was revolutionary, state-of-the-art stuff for its time, garnering three consecutive Emmy nominations.

It really wasn't. Everyone I've talked to that was a kid at that time said it looked silly and cheap.

Maybe they're seeing it through their present-day filters. Or maybe they're claiming to think that because it's fashionable to mock old VFX and they'd be embarrassed to admit they didn't always hate them. I don't remember hearing any such attitudes expressed until the '90s or so. I have a copy of a 1967 American Cinematographer article describing TOS's effects as "spectacular." The contemporary mainstream media coverage I have access to (mainly TV Guide articles reprinted in a 25th-anniversary magazine I have) don't praise the effects, but neither do they contain any of the "cardboard sets and cheesy effects" boilerplate that's obligatory these days in any mainstream discussion of TOS. Because at the time, by 1960s television standards, TOS's effects were groundbreaking. They did get three consecutive Emmy nominations -- that's a fact. Plus it was cited in a 1967 study as the number one reason why people were buying color television sets that year -- so clearly people were impressed enough by its visuals to be willing to spend money to see them in all their Technicolor glory.

I mean, come on, show me anything else from 1966-9 television that looked as good. What was its competition? Just the Irwin Allen shows like Lost in Space and Land of the Giants, and those looked a lot cheesier.

I'd also add that Star Trek episodes from the late 1960s had better production values than Doctor Who episodes from the late 1980s.

 

[Admiral Buzzkill]

All classic films become dated in terms of technique and technology. "Casablanca," I notice, is in black and white...and you can't get it letterboxed.

 

[Broccoli]

All classic films become dated in terms of technique and technology. "Casablanca," I notice, is in black and white...and you can't get it letterboxed.

Casablanca...sounds more like Crap-ablanca...

 

[Davros]

I pull out ANH every May for an annual viewing.

The version I have is just called Star Wars.

Sure, lots of stuff don't hold up. But man, if it isn't one of the most perfect sci-fi films ever made.

True

Not a great film like Ben Hur or Lawrence of Arabia, but just a really fun and cleverly written movie.

Star Wars is more influential than either of those films.It changed the way movies are made and marketed.

Still very entertaining after 32 years (my god, I saw it in the theaters first run -I'm old!)

It is still the best of the entire series.


PS:Greedo never even got a shot off