mommy...no strings

[RobertScorpio]

Sometimes a movie can be brought down by having less than average Special effects, Star Trek V is one I can think of. But are the effects that important or not? If STAR WARS NEW HOPE's space effects had been done with "Last Starfigher" quality of CGI (which was good for their time, but certainly look dated now) would Star Wars have been as big a hit?

Had the alien in ALIEN been done by, oh, Jim Henson Productions (nothing against the muppets) would it have been as big a hit...

In essense; how important were the Special Effects for so called scifi classics?

Rob Scorpio

 

[sojourner]

The Star Wars/Last Starfighter analogy you have answered yourself. Starfighter's effects were very good for their time and would have worked wonderfully for Star Wars.

For Alien, yes, I think Jim Henson, given the designs for the alien drawn by Gieger, would have come up with a very convincing take.

Both of your examples sound more like a question of art design as opposed to effects quality. Now, if Star Wars had used effects of the quality used in "Starcrash", yea, it would have suffered I think.