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Star Wars Revelations - May the Force Be With You!
n0alpha writes "For all you Star Wars fans out there, if you've been less than satisfied with the last two episodes of Star Wars, fear not. There is a new episode coming out soon -- but I'm not talking about Revenge of the Sith. On April 16th, 2005 the world will be blessed with a brand new episode, Star Wars Revelations. This is an independent film, completely put together by volunteers and organized by Panic Struck Productions, but don't let that fool you into thinking it is sub-par. Visit their website to view a trailer."
Lucas recently said the newest sequel is not for children, and given the quality of the other ones put out since about halfway through Return of the Jedi, it's not for adults, either. Die, midiclorians, die! Die, Ewoks, die! Die, Jar-Jar, die!
lather, rinse, repeat
Dog is my co-pilot.
Okay, the CGI, sound, and effects were outstanding. But the acting and dialogue made me pray I'd be struck by a passing meteorite. Wait a minute, that was a verbatim transcript of my opinions of Ep1 & 2... Maybe these folks are on to something...
The majority of free content created is, of course, subpar.
So what? The majority of non-free content is total crap too. Look how many terrible big-budget movies Hollywood has put out.
This is very nice looking for a fan-made movie. It is , however, subpar to a hollywood production (CG, actors, fight scenes...). But even getting to the level to actually be compared to a hollywood movie is a huge achievement so congratulations to the crew.
I'll be sure to check it out when it comes out.
For a fan production I'd officially say "not bad." It obviously took a lot of work, and I can't denigrate that.
OTOH, it kinda sucked. I've seen cable access shows with better acting. Not surprisingly given the source material, it's pretty similar to most of the scifi crap Lucas, and Hollywood, churn out these days: blow the budged on special effects, look to Ed Wood for directing inspiration.
This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
About the CG: Now, I for one have always played computer and console games, going all the way back to my sega genesis. I do some 3d programming work, so I know how a 3d engine works and feels. I know how real life works and feels.
Getting to the point: In my opinion, there is something wrong about Lucas's CGI. Whatever he uses just doesn't feel right to me. My father describes it as feeling 'flat' - which he gave no such condemnation to Half-Life 2 or Far Cry. I describe it as being 'too smooth' or 'unrealistic' - but I just can't put my finger on it. It's extremly prominent in Episode 2. However, to see it at it's worst, see the original 3 remade - the CGI scenes in that, which are hacked in, REALLY feel wrong to me. Has anyone else noticed this? I think this may play a large part in the rejection of the newer films - the old ones, while a lot of it was nottoogreatlooking, it was still very real.
I find it a bit foolish to insult actors in fanfilms. I doubt the maker of the movie had an unlimited budget and could hire actors fresh out of Hollywood. Give the guy a break, he's trying.
I mean, those guys freaking suck!
(See what I did there?)
Flat is not the word you are looking for. The word you seek is "soulless". There is nothing behind the characters, no life, no personality. Even with the puppets in the first trilogy there was someone behind the mask, behind the strings. That gave them life. And made the characters more believeable. And with the scenes in the original that were updated, the same thing applies. they feel more real because they were. There were spaceships, however small, that were filmed. They actually existed. You can't get the same feel from CGI, yet, as you can from something that exists in the real world, no matter what the scale.
Maybe part of what you're trying to grasp is the lack of atmosphere translating to the CGI. There is the subtle motion blur inherent in all movement filmed with a camera (digital or not), but I think the motion blur effect done with the CGI, when it is there at all, doesn't match up. This causes the CGI to stand out in ways that are hard to pick out during the action.
Somehow ILM got it right when filling in the rest of Mos Eisley, because the atmosphere of the town worked and you could really get a feel for how bad a place it really was. The rest of the CGI just didn't work -- and the Jabba scene in the remake of Ep4 was just painful to watch. I cringed in my seat at the theater and had to look away a couple of times.
You can never go home again... but I guess you can shop there.
By using an established genre, they get more media coverage and potential viewers. This increases the chance that the director, special effects guy, or one of the actors will be noticed by a big name to work on something more substantial. And then they will be able to do their own thing.
I believe that in university-level art classes, you need to turn in paintings in realistic, impressionist, post-modern styles, etc, to pass the course, to show that you have more depth than just one artistic style. Even if you never paint another da Vinci in your life, you still have to prove that you can.
Consider this movie the answer to a film student's exam question: "Create a film in the style of Lucas".
You've never seen Monsters Inc, Finding Nemo, or Shrek, have you?
Do you feel that the characters in the prequels have anything behind the actor? No, there is nothing, even the parts of these movies which are "real" lack soul.
On the other hand, if you watch Finding Nemo, everything feels real, even though it's just CG fish in a CG ocean. What's the difference? Writing, story, acting, perhaps.
The idea that the problem is CG is just absurd. People said the same thing about color movies when they were first released. The problem isn't that you loose something when you use CG for effects, the problem is that you don't gain anything. You can't expect a movie to be good just because it has good special effects.
Go and watch the original movies, the special effects weren't anymore believable. The might have looked more real, but all that means is that Yoda looked like a real puppet, and Jabba the Hut looked like a real bunch of plastic with real people inside. They weren't any more convincing in the roles they were supposed to play. And don't even talk about space scenes, there's no way the space scenes look more realistic in the original movies. The only difference is that they couldn't do as much because of the limitations of using "real" models instead of CG models.
I quite enjoyed episode 1 and 2. I always kept Darth Vader in the back of my mind, and I could gradually see Anakin change - I could understand how he might end up on the dark side of the Force. And the NT constantly foreshadows what inevitably will happen in episode 3.
I think you are too caught up in the fact that the NT is not made the same way the OT is. It's not supposed to! The NT is telling a completely different story on a completely different level.
There was a discussion about Star Wars the other day, and amidst all the +5 insightful "SW used to rock, but now it sucks" comments, I found this gem, where the poster explains how things fit together, and why it's done this way. It makes a lot of sense!
The OT could be watched separately, but the NT is a real trilogy, where you won't get the whole picture, or indeed appreciate it all, until you actually see all the movies.
Presumably :)
Clever signature text goes here.
"Good animation and effects + bad story + bad acting = total flop"
Are you sure that's right? Lucas himself has been using precisely this formula for deacades with amazing success, and he's not the only one either.
That was classic intercourse!
It's called pride of workmanship. Yes, they are fictional entertainment. But why bother writing a series if you are going to change the details in every book/movie? Just make completely seperate works. That whole "People make mistakes" mindset is just an excuse for shoddy work.
Kintanon
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