Tempering my excitement... it could suck, you know

I blame the poor acting from great actors on badly written dialogue, and a director with a real weakness in that area. Actors like to work with directors that know how to pick their best performances and fit them together. I don't think Lucas knows how to do that.

I've seen plenty of actors give very strong green screen performances Gravity and Interstellar come immediately to mind.

 

I feel that some of the CGI was part of the problem with PT. As well as the items you listed. Plus things many other things.

But that's just my opinion.

 

This is, obviously, just my opinion, but in a cinematic era filled with amazing vocal performances in computer animated movies where the actors had no sets at all, it's hard for me to accept the argument that the CGI was responsible for the sub-par performances by such high caliber actors.

 

I think it's worth mentioning that at the time of the PT, CGI was still relatively new. Whereas many films at the time would use it to enhance practical effects, the PT heavily relied on it to create everything; ROTS was one of the worst culprits, nearly every backdrop was created in post-production. Nowadays, we can take this for granted; many blockbusters use similar techniques as it is generally more cost-efficient. Thus, many of the actors in the PT were pioneers of green-screen acting, learning as they went, and over a decade later it really shows.

2002, AOTC: with a few exceptions, the majority of the effects are created post-production with CGI.
2002, LOTR (The Two Towers): almost entirely made with practical effects, CGI used sparingly (looking at you, Gollum)

Point being, it wasn't the use of CGI that did the PT in, but the overuse.

 

good cgi usage involves using physics simulation before creating the texture modeling and not the other way around in my opinion

please tell me witch cgi scene feels more realistic ...
this ?

or this ...

 

@Max Rebo

I think all of the OT actors came off better when Lucas wasn't behind the director's chair, and had help with the scripts. And certainly it's still possible to come of okay under Lucas - Ewan McGregor came out of the PT looking pretty good.

I'm not really seeing what kind of techniques exist for voice acting that wouldn't still apply to acting in front of green screens. And as far as reacting to nothing, the acting in the PT was bad even when it was between two real actors reacting to each other. Stage actors have done it without sets for hundreds of years, and without the benefit of multiple cuts.

I complete agree that some actors need more help in such environments, but that just gets back to my point that the problem lies with the director - not the CGI.

Anyway, I wasn't really looking to turn this into a long thing. I think the increased practical effects are a good idea for TFA in as much as they are trying to capture more of the look of the OT (along with shooting the movie on film rather than digitally). But as it relates to this thread, I don't think less CGI will have any baring on the ultimate quality of the film.

 

Hence why Ian McDiarmid, a stage actor, had some of the best performances in the PT.


Also, this is an aside, but ever since seeing The Winter Soldier, I've thought that Sebastian Shaw (the guy who plays that titular villain) would have made an excellent Anakin/Vader. Alas, we're stuck with Hayden....

 

that is why im glad james cameron keeps perfecting his work untill it looks good and i think jj is a perfectionist in the same way for that type of cgi.

 

I'm not tempering my excitement.

I'll be going into the theater fully expecting to be blown away. I want to escape, and be 10 years old again.

I'm not going to worry about the possibility of the film being bad. If it turns out bad, it turns out bad.
I'll deal with crossing that possible bridge on December 18th as I'm leaving the theater.

 

I think the film will be really good film as such. I think it will easily top the prequels (at least for me) because haveing seen JJ's films there is nothing as embarassing as a lot of the stuff in the PT. But I think it will lack that good old OT feeling. It's just a feeling I have since watching the teaser for the first time. It lacks the pulp factor of the OT which I love. I think this retro trailer nailed it better:

BUT to be fair one has to say this retro version only works because of the footage produced by JJ. It would propably not work as well with PT footage.

 

Great pics of the spaceship adversaries.

 

I can't knock him too much, he is our Anakin afterall, but have you seen Christensen in other movies (Jumper, for example)? I'm sorry, but the man just is not a very talented actor. As previously pointed out in this thread, a bad script does not necessarily equate to bad acting; you either have the chops or you don't.

 

That video of Ewan McGregor is funny but also very sad at the same time. And could somebody please tell him it's B-B-B-eru??Not Peru

 

I have been reading on other threads lately how people are seeking comparisons with The Force Awakens and A New Hope.
This bothers me greatly. People are also saying that from what we know so far TFA seems very derivative and unoriginal. It worries people that JJ Abrams is at the helm of this movie because he isn't known for original works. That he has borrowed so much from the OT and very little seems new about it.

For one I don't know how people can make these assumptions. We know very little about the movie because we have largely and purposefully been kept in the dark about it all.

However from what I have read and seen we will be seeing things that we have never seen before in a star wars movie. Of course certain elements will be familiar to us in order to reassure us that we are indeed in the star wars universe. I'm sure there will be echoes of the past and certain examples of history repeating itself but on the whole this will be a new trilogy and a new story with new characters pushing the story forward.

Of course we know there will be old characters too. They won't be quite the same characters we knew thirty years ago as age and life has a tendency to do that to you.

If we keep on drawing comparisons to the OT or expecting it to be as good or better than the OT then we risk episode 7 falling before it's even had a chance to blossom.

To me it's like if you keep comparing your first love to the person you are currently going out with - It's a recipe for disaster.

I say let us give The Force Awakens a fighting chance to be the success we want it to be.