Star Wars: The Complete Saga (1977-2005)

[HeavyHitter]

Originally Posted by Lyle_JP

I paid $250. In 1993 dollars.

Looks really nice. Does it just hold the three movies or is there other content included?

[Elvis]

Originally Posted by JavaJulien

I was 9 when it came out. Honestly I just remember finding it boring more than anything else. I remember the Podrace being cool and loving the final battle with Darth Maul.

I kinda felt the same way only I was 34 years old then. :P

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Originally Posted by octagon

Didn't Nora Desmond say the same thing about talkies?

I know from my own experience as an artist that the broader the canvas the more chance you have of losing focus and diluting the power and meaning of your piece.

The more limitations I set on myself (or circumstances set on me), they better my work turns out. Some of my best drawings have been doodles on small scraps of paper, while I've thrown out lots of bigger works that simply got out of control.

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by svenge

I've watched them. Honestly, they would've been more effective without the entire deranged narrator bit.

I loved those parts of it, but I have a pretty dark sense of humor sometimes. I do wish he would make re-edits of those reviews that remove those elements to spread them out to a wider audience though.

I've been avoiding this thread because of all the bickering, but I'm glad everyone's playing nice and and actually having discussions about the movies and the potential release of the UOT.


For the record, while I'm most excited about the UOT, I would also think some kind of ultimate Mega-set would be amazing-- properly remastered versions of all six films, including the UOT, the 1997 Special Editions, and Lucas-approved "Final Cuts" of the originals (with more effort and money spent on fixing everything and making it look better).

I'd also like the original 1999 theatrical version of Episode I, which was mercifully lacking that extended podrace sequence. The Episode II color-timing would be fixed, and Episode III would be pretty much the same, since it had a perfectly good transfer and no alterations from it's theatrical version.

[IndyMLVC]

Originally Posted by Lyle_JP

I paid $250. In 1993 dollars.

So did I. From Ken Crane's laserdisc. I COULD NOT WAIT.

Btw...if you use inflation, that same set would cost $481 today.

[Joshitaka]

Originally Posted by BouCoupDinkyDau

I'm not cynical about CGI. When applied with restraint, it can be awesome. The problem is it rarely is.

I just said how Gravity visually impressed me, and 95% of that film is CGI.

The reason practical FX were better isn't because they look good, it's because it limited the filmmakers and forced them to solve storytelling problems creatively in as efficient a manner as they could. Thus, they had to get the most bang for their buck.

This is very intelligent. The only thing I disagree with is that practical effects aren't better because they look good. They do look good, or certainly better than most CGI. When I saw episodes I & II (I never bothered to see episode III), I never believed in anything I was looking at. It was cartoon and live action mixed, and awkwardly so. I felt like I was watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit?

Some practical effects were lacking, sure. But when I watch The Empire Strikes Back, I know Yoda is a puppet….but sometimes I forget. I forget he is a puppet unless I remind myself. You just can't match a real life effect that is in the shot. CGI has not arrived there yet--not to me.

[crazyBLUE]

Originally Posted by Aragorn the Elfstone

Was anybody else here actually a kid when Episode I came out? Seems like many of you guys were already fairly cynical about CGI VFX by the time it came out.

I was 16 when this first came out I am an old man now

I must say I am surprised over all the pages today from yesterday Everyone has been great

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by Aragorn the Elfstone

Just fyi, my 15 year old self did in fact have the latter response to a great many things in Episode I back in good 'ole 1999. To say that the movie was unlike anything I'd ever seen before would be an understatement.

A matter of context and prior experience, I guess. My memories of seeing TPM when it was first released include being impressed by some of the artwork in the vistas of Naboo, but not being in any way moved by them, and overall being fairly bored by the movie. And I also remember having a really visceral dislike of the conception of the character of Anakin. (Not helped by the fact that I've always hated characters, especially kids, who go, "Whoa!" )

Rather than being cynical about CGI, I think part of the problem was that for those who'd grown up on the original movies, especially those who'd been around when they were first launched, there was an enormous expectation that the new movies had to live up to, and they fell far short, in part because the CGI simply didn't have the same clout. I wondered at the time what it would be like to see the movies without the previous experience of the OT with its practical effects, but of course that's impossible for me to imagine. So when I said:

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

CGI still can't give us that same visceral Star Destroyer response. It might have tons of "wow!", but it's got no "ffffflippin' heck!".

I hoped it was clear that I recognised it as a subjective comment, as all perceptions are. I don't know what it's like to see the PT without having seen the OT in its heyday in the cinema, but then a lot of people who've grown up on CGI don't know what it's like to see cinema with practical effects as the current state-of-the-art, either, and I think that makes a difference too.

[Gold Ranger]

Originally Posted by Aragorn the Elfstone

Was anybody else here actually a kid when Episode I came out? Seems like many of you guys were already fairly cynical about CGI VFX by the time it came out.

I was 18. I loved it, It is still my favourite of all 6!
And this is coming from one who had the VCR running the first 3 each and every day for years!

[Aragorn the Elfstone]

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers with the "cynical" comment.

I just meant that when I saw the movie at 15, I didn't really see it as a "bunch of CGI". I was still that wide-eyed kid for the most part, who simply stared at the movie screen and saw worlds and creatures he'd never seen before. I was blown away, honestly.

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Originally Posted by Aragorn the Elfstone

Sorry guys, I didn't mean to ruffle any feathers with the "cynical" comment.

You didn't.

[thegoat]

Originally Posted by Elvis

There funny but they are spot on. Even Roger Ebert said they were great.

And he said the same thing about Episodes I & III.

[wormraper]

I was just graduating highschool at 18, but I was still rather cynical about CGI, seen enough over the years to see the flaws in it. I still remember walking an hour from my house to the nearest theater (I had no car and jogged 4 miles to the nearest theater) and back again just as long so I could get my pre-order tickets when it opened. I still remember coming out the theater experience absolutely devastated (I was young, it was the worst thing that had happened to my little life at the time)...

[BouCoupDinkyDau]

Originally Posted by wormraper

I still remember coming out the theater experience absolutely devastated

I was in denial. I convinced myself its strengths were greater than its weaknesses and fanboi'd out on it until the sequel. But after I saw Clones I had to give it up and accept the reality of the situation.

[octagon]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

(Not helped by the fact that I've always hated characters, especially kids, who go, "Whoa!" )

Even Marty McFly???

[Optimus]

Originally Posted by Aragorn the Elfstone

Was anybody else here actually a kid when Episode I came out? Seems like many of you guys were already fairly cynical about CGI VFX by the time it came out.

I was 7 when it came out but never watched it till I came to Australia, I might've been 9 or 10.

[wormraper]

Originally Posted by BouCoupDinkyDau

I was in denial. I convinced myself its strengths were greater than its weaknesses. But after I saw Clones I had to give it up and accept the reality of the situation.

I actually felt relieved by clones because it was a small bit better than TPM... to this day I can't watch the movie in it's entirety. my buddy and I started a binge of the series last year and ended up fast forwarding every time Jar Jar or little Ani was on screen.

[thebard]

Originally Posted by motorheadache95

For the record, while I'm most excited about the UOT, I would also think some kind of ultimate Mega-set would be amazing-- properly remastered versions of all six films, including the UOT, the 1997 Special Editions, and Lucas-approved "Final Cuts" of the originals (with more effort and money spent on fixing everything and making it look better).

I'd also like the original 1999 theatrical version of Episode I, which was mercifully lacking that extended podrace sequence. The Episode II color-timing would be fixed, and Episode III would be pretty much the same, since it had a perfectly good transfer and no alterations from it's theatrical version.

I would not mind at all having theatrical & blu edition options for at least Episode I (Yoda puppet & all). I have the Japanese laserdisc, and I agree the pacing is much better.

[motorheadache95]

Originally Posted by wormraper

I was just graduating highschool at 18, but I was still rather cynical about CGI, seen enough over the years to see the flaws in it. I still remember walking an hour from my house to the nearest theater (I had no car and jogged 4 miles to the nearest theater) and back again just as long so I could get my pre-order tickets when it opened. I still remember coming out the theater experience absolutely devastated (I was young, it was the worst thing that had happened to my little life at the time)...

Same age here. It took me a couple of viewings to kind of realize that I really didn't think it was any good. That seemed to be a thing going on, at least with my friends and family-- your brain can't really acknowledge that you didn't really like the new Star Wars movie. Then you watch it a couple more times and it kind of sinks in.

I actually have kind of a soft spot for it now-- I still think it's a bad movie, but I like certain parts of it and I have a weird nostalgic experience with it, maybe since I tie the memory of it with a point in my life when I was graduating high school and also getting my driver's license and first car. All of that kind of happened at the same time.

[Aragorn the Elfstone]

Strange thing is - I didn't actually know, believe it or not, that Episode I was as reviled as it was until I started frequenting message boards on the internet a year and a half to two years before Episode II came out.

Just a sign of how things really changed once everybody started hopping on the World Wide Web .