Star Wars: The Force Awakens (12/18/15)

[astro666]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Ewoks > Jedi

Why?

Little fuzzy Ewoks slaughtered heavily armed and shielded Stormtroopers in ROTJ!

Stormtroopers slaughtered lightsaber weilding Jedi Knights with O66!

True dat!!!

I was 13 or 14 when ROTJ came out and I really enjoyed the Ewoks. Can't say I would feel the same if I had originally seen it as an adult though.

 

[DPrime]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

The Ewoks get a lot of hate but they've got many redeeming qualities. They were treated a LOT more seriously than most of the "cute stuff" in the prequels, at least.

I know that when I started collecting Kenner figures again, I made sure to get the Ewoks right away. Some of my favourite figures of all time! I would love to get the village playset at some point...

 

[ProgMatinee]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I think if the ewoks were in a film today you all would blast it all to hell.

 

[abake]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I think if the ewoks were in a film today you all would blast it all to hell.

Ewoks were absolutely terrible.
As a matter of fact most of the creatures in ROTJ were crap. I remember when I first saw the movie back in '83, I couldn't disguise the fact that I was disappointed. Jabba's palace was just filled with muppets, it didn't work for me.
Then things seemed to pick up a bit and wham! Enter the Ewoks...

 

[DPrime]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I think if the ewoks were in a film today you all would blast it all to hell.

Well, we'll never know.

At any rate, it doesn't really matter - the movie wasn't really made for 35-year-old me. It was perfect for 6-year-old me, though. I still find it to be the "most fun" to watch, although Empire is by far the best.

 

[DPrime]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Jabba's palace was just filled with muppets, it didn't work for me.

See, this I've never understood. It was the same thing in the Cantina... and the costumes looked a lot worse in SW. I mean, come on, Wolfman???

That said, I hate that they changed them in the SE version. Hate, hate HATE!

And SE Jabba's Palace was a whole lot worse.

 

[pixletwin]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I like Ewoks. To this day.

 

[karamazov80]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

See, this I've never understood. It was the same thing in the Cantina... and the costumes looked a lot worse in SW. I mean, come on, Wolfman???

That said, I hate that they changed them in the SE version. Hate, hate HATE!

And SE Jabba's Palace was a whole lot worse.

In fairness, the Jabba's palace creatures did look more like something Henson's workshop would have put out than the Cantina ones. And I think that's a complement to the Jedi creatures, who were more professional looking and used more innovative technology. The Cantina monsters were great, but they were obviously kinda thrown together and rough looking.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

The ANH aliens were good for the time, but were little more than masks. Almost every shot was a close up. The way they did it was really good. Conversely in Jedi they were able to afford to go big. I thought the featured aliens in Jabba's palace, Bib, Gamorreans, Salicious Crumb, the Rebo band, and Jabba were all done really well.

For me the worst executed alien effect was the Rancor. Some scenes actually looked like early Harryhausen films. Still, there are moments were it was really good.

Guys like Amanaman, squidhead and yakface are throw ins. I thought they were good enough.

 

[BadMoon]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

I like Ewoks. To this day.

Thank you for the privilege of reading this post.

 

[Kamandi]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

The ANH aliens were good for the time, but were little more than masks. Almost every shot was a close up. The way they did it was really good. Conversely in Jedi they were able to afford to go big. I thought the featured aliens in Jabba's palace, Bib, Gamorreans, Salicious Crumb, the Rebo band, and Jabba were all done really well.

For ANH most of the cantina aliens were created by Rick Baker who's a legend in film makeup. Without knowing how old you are, I can tell you when SW first came out the cantina scene was considered a big deal.

Jedi had more money to throw at it's aliens but IMHO it was spent poorly. I've questioned before how did Jabba become a feared underworld boss by employing pigs, bellydancers and muppets? They needed more tough guys in Jabba's palace.

For me the worst executed alien effect was the Rancor. Some scenes actually looked like early Harryhausen films. Still, there are moments were it was really good.

The rancor was animated by Phil Tippet and was considered state of the art for it's time. They expanded on the idea of stop motion animation, which as you point out goes back to Harryhausen, and indroduced a go-motion blurring technique to hide the jerkiness.

Go-motion was employed and refined over the course of the next 10 years. Then Jurassic Park happened and we haven't seen stop motion since.

 

[pixletwin]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

 

[pixletwin]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Thank you for the privilege of reading this post.

 

[darthviper107]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

For ANH most of the cantina aliens were created by Rick Baker who's a legend in film makeup. Without knowing how old you are, I can tell you when SW first came out the cantina scene was considered a big deal.

Jedi had more money to throw at it's aliens but IMHO it was spent poorly. I've questioned before how did Jabba become a feared underworld boss by employing pigs, bellydancers and muppets? They needed more tough guys in Jabba's palace.



The rancor was animated by Phil Tippet and was considered state of the art for it's time. They expanded on the idea of stop motion animation, which as you point out goes back to Harryhausen, and indroduced a go-motion blurring technique to hide the jerkiness.

Go-motion was employed and refined over the course of the next 10 years. Then Jurassic Park happened and we haven't seen stop motion since.

The Rancor wasn't stop-motion, it was a puppet that was shot with a high-speed camera and then slowed down. Go motion is only a technique that allows for camera motion blur, not objects, if there's no camera motion there's no motion blur.

 

[ProgMatinee]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

For me, the worst part of the Rancor is simply you can tell where the film with Luke is merged with that of the Rancor. Not the blurryness or the movement.

Its like if I cut out a magazine photo and pasted it over a tv screen. Too easy to tell what was cut and pasted over the film.

 

[Kamandi]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

The Rancor was a sequence I expected them to re-visit when they did the SEs, I was surprised they didn't. They changed a lot of random stuff, but here's a case where it would have been justified.

 

[abake]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

See, this I've never understood. It was the same thing in the Cantina... and the costumes looked a lot worse in SW. I mean, come on, Wolfman???

That said, I hate that they changed them in the SE version. Hate, hate HATE!

And SE Jabba's Palace was a whole lot worse.

I think the main point is that Jabba's palace and his henchmen weren't in the least menacing. Salacious Crumb was just poor comedy relief, and the Gamorrean guards were just large pigs that looked made of plastic. I remember that moment vividly, seeing those large green pigs and feeling that the magic was gone. And then Salacious crumb laughing and trying to bite Jabba's tail... I was half-waiting for those two old dudes from the Muppets to show up and start throwing stuff at Jabba...
The Cantina patrons, on the other hand, were menacing and somewhat scary, they didn't look like toys.
See, it's a matter of the feel they went for, as well as the execution. In that sense, the SE couldn't really fix anything anyway.
In my opinion, of course.

In fairness, the Jabba's palace creatures did look more like something Henson's workshop would have put out than the Cantina ones. And I think that's a complement to the Jedi creatures, who were more professional looking and used more innovative technology. The Cantina monsters were great, but they were obviously kinda thrown together and rough looking.

Again, I think it's a matter of the feel they went for. Jedi's creatures might have been more innovative, but they chose to make muppets and large green pigs...

The ANH aliens were good for the time, but were little more than masks. Almost every shot was a close up. The way they did it was really good. Conversely in Jedi they were able to afford to go big. I thought the featured aliens in Jabba's palace, Bib, Gamorreans, Salicious Crumb, the Rebo band, and Jabba were all done really well.

For me the worst executed alien effect was the Rancor. Some scenes actually looked like early Harryhausen films. Still, there are moments were it was really good.

Guys like Amanaman, squidhead and yakface are throw ins. I thought they were good enough.

I like Bib and Jabba, because they do look menacing and alien.

For ANH most of the cantina aliens were created by Rick Baker who's a legend in film makeup. Without knowing how old you are, I can tell you when SW first came out the cantina scene was considered a big deal.

Jedi had more money to throw at it's aliens but IMHO it was spent poorly. I've questioned before how did Jabba become a feared underworld boss by employing pigs, bellydancers and muppets? They needed more tough guys in Jabba's palace.



The rancor was animated by Phil Tippet and was considered state of the art for it's time. They expanded on the idea of stop motion animation, which as you point out goes back to Harryhausen, and indroduced a go-motion blurring technique to hide the jerkiness.

Go-motion was employed and refined over the course of the next 10 years. Then Jurassic Park happened and we haven't seen stop motion since.

Agreed.

 

[Khev]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

My point is that Cloud city works well with the alien content (Ugnaughts)

Well great then since that was my point as well. Little ugnaughts milling about in the background are nice ambience that don't gratuitously call attention to themselves and diminish the human drama.

And I already stated that certain alien encounters like Greedo or Yoda are great when done in moderation.

 

[VintijDroidGutzz]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

The Rancor was a sequence I expected them to re-visit when they did the SEs, I was surprised they didn't. They changed a lot of random stuff, but here's a case where it would have been justified.

The initial shot of the Rancor lumbering into the pit is excellent.

The scene where it's got Luke in it's hand & he's trying to shove the bone into it's mouth.. looks pretty dodgy.

It's like two different films.

 

[Kamandi]

Re: Star Wars: Episode VII (2015) Discussion Thread

Luke in the Rancor's hand was terrible.