A portion of prequel fans are upset that SW7N is reporting on practical effects so much

we have a lot of different personalities on the blog to give it a variety of personal interests and writing.I dont think that any of our writers personally follow a trend of promoting a particular sub-genre of star wars fans...purest or otherwise.

We are all just here to share our thoughts and gather all the best star wars news in one place. I say to this person, not to read every article that comes out if it covers a topic that is not of interest to that individual. We have lots of other posts to cover.

 

What's the concern, that we know more.

 

I'm not annoyed in any way that SW7News is reporting this. I'm a bit angry that JJ Abrams is talking about it every time he gets to. I watched the full TFA panel in Celebration on Youtube. He talked about 7-8 minutes about how they used practical effects. I hope he stops talking about it because we heard that hundreds of times.I know it. SW fans know it. @Wookie Moster knows it. You know it too.

 

It's painfully obvious this didn't need it's own thread. "A portion," a portion? What makes you think Mr. Anonymous is actually THE anonymous and is operated by multiple people? Oh right, it's when you were thinking of excuses to bash the PT and people who like them. Some advice: go anywhere else on the internet, where you won't have to try and be discreet when flaming the PT.

 

Hey guys, let's refrain from getting personal here. Maybe a thread about a specific anonymous comment from the main blog isn't the best basis for a thread, but it's definitely not an excuse to start attacking each other. We all have different things we like or dislike about the franchise, leave it at that.

 

The "practical effects" talk (combined with the "it's about the story/characters" talk) isn't aimed at you, SW fans, @WookieMoster, or me. It's aimed at people like the five guys/gals I've been talking TFA with in my office who don't frequent these boards and barely (if at all) know Daisy Ridley's character's name. They may not know stuff we may think is basic, but they know a new Star Wars movie is coming out and the makers are trying to recapture the OT feel, and they are excited. These people all loved Star Wars before but were turned off by the PT's over-the-top cartoony look and obviously rushed and somewhat ridiculous story. There are far more of them then people like those found on this board, and they want to turn them back into fans.

There is one thing I don't think the PT defenders grasp when they argue how "true" fans like the PT or how PT "bashers" are in the minority of fans. The awfulness of the PT turned a lot of people off of SW as a whole and a lot of casual fans moved from enjoying the SW universe to thinking SW is only for crazy, obsessive geeks. Those people may or may not come back for TFA, but they are Disney, KK, and JJ's focus at the moment. I think that is the rub with the folks who dislike the practical effect talk.

 

I wasn't really going to all those places. I was just talking about how I think the marketing for this film is capturing the right tone for the casual and lapsed fans out there, which while I used some office co-workers as an example because I was at work at the time, I could have used my siblings, cousins, friends, college roommates, my parents, their friends, my kid's friends parents, really 90% of the people I know. Most of them know and love the OT and are ready to come back if TFA is any good. Outside of SW boards, in the real world I know one guy over the age of 15 who likes the PT.

 

Honestly, I think the focus on practical effects is based on several different factors.

Firstly, whatever the hardcore Star Wars fan base as a whole thinks, the CGI in the PT is a big negative for most casual moviegoers, and it has not aged particularly well, so yes, in that respect they are distancing themselves from the PT.

Additionally, this isn't something just related to Star Wars, there is a general backlash about CGI that has hit regarding Hollywood's overuse of it in general, the PT is hardly the only offender in this, so they are also basically saying, "hey, we know how you guys are getting sick of the CGI trend in Hollywood these days, but check out our movie, we are making it like movies used to be made with as many practical effects as possible, isn't that cool!"

Third, since they are trying to keep so much of the movie a secret at this point, there isn't much to talk about outside of the practical effects, plain and simple really(the whole reason we got the practical effects reel at SDCC was because they didn't have much else to show us without giving anything away).

Also as for the George Lucas hate, yes I think he may have overreacted to some of the bad reactions from fans when it came to the PT, however I honestly believe that George was trying to make good movies, sadly the man simply lost his touch in that regard. The fact is though, if it weren't for the efforts of a young George Lucas struggling to make the OT, we wouldn't have Star Wars at all, so everything about Star Wars whether it be good or bad(which I think there is much more good than bad) has to be traced back to George's initial inspiration and hard work in getting the OT made in the first place.

Also regarding CGI versus practical effects, while I feel that CGI can be a great tool if used for things that cannot be done without it, if something can be done well with practical effects it absolutely should be. However I honestly feel that CGI had a relatively minor role in most fans accepting or rejecting the PT. The heart of the issue is that most people who watched the PT never connected with the characters in the movie, and therefore didn't care that much about what happened to them. Had audiences connected with the characters and the story, I think the PT would be viewed much differently. Rather than trashing the whole trilogy, most would say that they were good movies that were occasionally hindered by overuse of CGI. Moviegoers will forgive a lot if they care about the characters and story in a film they are watching.

Bonus fact, while reading interviews with Lawrence Kasdan lately, I found it interesting that he was approached to help write the PT, I am very curious to see how the PT might have turned out had George had the assistance of a talent like Kasdan on those films.

 

Ok calm down.

 

The weirdest thing to me about the people who are upset with "practical effects" is that they think this is somehow going backwards. The cool thing about it is not that they are just "using old school technology", its that these technologies have also advanced since 1983/1999.

Just because this isn't going to be a CGI Gore fest ala Transformers doesn't mean its going to look like a move that was made in 80's.

Film Stock is better, Cameras are better, puppets are better, robotics are better, model building is better, and yes, CGI is better. They are spending a ton of money and pushing every limit.

BB8 is a good example. could GL have build BB8 in 77? no. Could JJ have done BB8 in CGI today? yes. Would it be as cool if he did? Are you really going to answer that question yes?

 

I think both eras had flaws, but I do believe the PT misses on many occasions where the OT shined. As for the practical effects, I blame JJ and his somewhat silly Mystery Box. George had a great PT, but nobody critiqued him like in the OT days. He helped write many stories in TCW and was working and was critiqued by people like Dave Filoni, and seeing how popular and critically nominated it was, I think George is still the man, and I thank him for all of the movies. Maybe all he needed was some opponents that brought the best out of him in the PT. This Mystery Box is killing me though

 

I think the talk of practical effects is just a diversion so JJ & Disney don't have to talk about the characters and story.

I actually think they are over doing it with the practical effects talk (even if I 100% agree) but not everybody is a fanboy like us who even notices it.

I talk to co-workers who are casual fans who are excited to see the Big 3 again and not one has picked up on the 'too much practical effects' talk.

I guess what I'm saying is fans like us are following the hype too much and that is really not who JJ is speaking to right now. It's about getting fans on the fence to see it as he knows we'll be there opening weekend.

 

When I saw the first footage of BB-8 I assumed it was an all-CGI character. This disappointed me greatly for some reason... Then I warmed up to him considerably after learning that BB-8 is in fact a REAL prop with some pretty advanced robotics inside.

Acting with/against CGI characters and environments that you cannot see really sucks.