• threelonmusketeers
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    5 months ago

    When they made Star Wars, Empire, and Return the special effects tech was garbage (clunky, expensive, and time consuming) so they had to rely on good story telling and practical effects

    I’m curious, have you watched the original trilogy with the original practical effects, and not the crappy CGI that George added later?

    • lost_faith@lemmy.ca
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      5 months ago

      Ok, I am being misunderstood. The “practical effects” were amazing by the standards of the day, and are now basically a thing of the past. The ingenuity was second to none, but the light sabers, blaster bolts etc “special effects” were not the best. And yes I did see that atrocity and hate that I can’t find copies without the added crap. If George had waited another 5 or 10 years it could have been better. My main point, and it goes beyond star wars, is much of cinema and TV rely on CGI special effects and the writers hope that will get them over the line.

      Clunky = takes a lot of space, expensive = self explanatory, time consuming = getting models to behave properly

      • threelonmusketeers
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        5 months ago

        Ah, thanks for clarifying. That’s an interesting position. I never found the light sabers or blaster bolts in the original trilogy to look that bad. And the practical effects, models, and sets, certainly look superior to the CGI sets in the prequels.

        If George had waited another 5 or 10 years it could have been better.

        I’m not so sure about this. I think that the limitations George had at the time ended up being part of what made the original trilogy so good. If George had access to better special effects, would we still have gotten scenes like these?

        spoiler

        Or would we have gotten this instead?

        spoiler

        George being able to do “whatever he wants” does not necessarily lead to the best movie.

        and hate that I can’t find copies without the added crap

        Search up “Harmy despecialized” and “4k77”. There are many other Star Wars fans who feel the way you do, and they have taken matters into their own hands :)