Comments on: For God’s Sake The Problem With The Star Wars Prequels Was Not Green Screen

By: Pat

Pat — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:15:20 +0000

George Lucas said it best: “A special effect is just a tool…”

The problem with today’s movie-making(and especially George Lucas) is that people design their movies around the special effects in order to impress the audience into seeing the film. Special effects should be there when they’re needed, not looked at as an assumed part of these types of movies.

The problem with the prequels is that the creative focus was so heavily based on graphics and visual action, Lucas never bothered to employ other techniques to tell his story. The green screen ends up being the star of the movies. The script is so poorly written that it drags the actors’ performances down. This leads to them being overshadowed by the amazing visuals going on around them. While they’re standing still and talking about whatever, I find my eyes are drawn away from them to the highly animated CGI backgrounds in almost every scene. These movies are literally a series of computer animated action scenes punctuated by a few live action dialogues. The story is so incoherent, you could reorganize the scenes at random and it would have the same impact.

By: Rick

Rick — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:57:42 +0000

Fucken LOL!!!!!

By: jojo

jojo — Fri, 26 Nov 2010 03:25:41 +0000

WTF?!!!There were already Blue Screen back when the original trilogy was shot (hey do you know how they could have pulled together thousand of models for Death Star II Battle without blue screen and Computer Motion Control?) (not to mention the holographic Death Star plans were Primitive CGI at the time)!!!!

What’s the point of this fuck*n rant?!!!By the way, you can make a CGI looked like a model with depths and way more possibilities than all the things your nostalgia is blinding you about…Prelogy s*cks primarily by its poor dramaturgy and dumb acting direction. Nuff’ said

By: sneeson

sneeson — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 23:25:51 +0000

I have not read all the above comments so I apologise if this has been covered but the problem is not GREEN-SCREEN. The problem is that instead of using good writing, ingenuity and creativity George Lucas has gotten used to saying “We’ll put some CG in later” thinking that that can replace good writing and acting.

By: tzaylor

tzaylor — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 06:33:38 +0000

This is an old post but I’m bored. The title should be “the problem with the prequels is not JUST green screen”. The main point of John’s article is that yes the prequels sucked, but not because of green screen. Uh, yes they did suck because of green screen. But they also sucked because of the screenplay, cast, and direction.

Where I work the prequels are playing on tv’s all day. The CGI is NOT holding up well. Looks more like a cartoon than live action.

I don’t blame Lucas at all for trying to push the technology envelope for his baby. Too bad it didn’t work out for us fans though.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:30:46 +0000

Couldn’t agree more. I actually do think the models looked more real (because they were objects that were photographed) and had more depth than any of the CGI. If CGI is necessary for telling a story then it usually works, but the original Star Wars movies proved that Star Wars doesn’t need that much CGI. I concede that the speed race would not have been possible, but I also disliked that part of the film immensely, so could have done without it.

Laughing at the “raping our childhood” comment.

By: Veronica

Veronica — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:11:51 +0000

LOL. Still laughing.

By: jon humphlett

jon humphlett — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 19:06:34 +0000

People aren’t really saying that GL made inferior stories because he had access to better tools. They’re saying he got distracted by the new, shiny tools and forgot to tell a story. Big difference.

By: Dannyboy

Dannyboy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:03:28 +0000

30 bitches attacked the Death Star?

Commas are an important tool. Learn to use them.

By: matthew c

matthew c — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 07:36:14 +0000

i totally agree with christopher and party marty.

limitations are what bring out creativity. it forces you to consider what you’re doing carefully, and bring to the screen the things that are ACTUALLY IMPORTANT. rather than every fanciful thought you have. more reflections! more ships! more physics! more cloth movement! i’m the best film maker ever!

i also disagree re: pod racing. a scene built for the inevitable game tie-in if ever i saw one. the pod racing shouldn’t have even been in there. it was ridiculous. it could have been alluded to, or shown in part, but i guess that would been ‘restraint’…
we didn’t actually have to see han solo make the Kessel Run in less than twelve parsecs. i’m almost surprised he didn’t add it into the remastered versions…

but you’re right, it’s not all tech. the direction was awful, as was the script. and a lot of the acting. and ALL of the ‘humour’! plus the graphics weren’t even that great. for their time, sure, but boy do they get dated fast. real models/puppets on the other hand actually exist. so the lighting/volume will always be perfect, the details will always be perfect. actors will interact with them perfectly, and they always look like they belong in the scene. they don’t rely on current quickly-dated tech capabilities.

plus i think the second two of the original trilogy were better. because their directors had more reverence for the source material. lucas should have been forcibly restrained, subdued, and replaced, halfway through the filming of ep1:pm.