Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi

Kylo Ren actually looks pretty sick.

Rey looks like a Game of Thrones character like that.

Also I don't think Rey is going to ditch the lightsaber.

And I think Kylo Ren is going to eventually get his hands on Darth Vader's lightsaber. Or at least potentially use Darth Vader's Kyber crystal.

Oh and I have a question. How did Ben know that Finn's lightsaber belonged to Anakin?

He had a force feeling

dur!

He recognized it from when he was trying to buy it on Space eBay, but he'd already spent so much buying other Darth Vader memorabilia by then he didn't have enough money and was outbid by Maz.

Wow, I just realized that how many Anakin and Kylo Ren parallels there were.◊

I didn't realize that Kylo Ren screaming "TRAITOR" was supposed to reference Anakin screaming "LIAR"!

edited 28th Apr '17 1:17:56 PM by MadSkillz

I don't think all of those were intentionally shot to reference those Anakin scenes, but I can totally buy the TRAITOR one.

It's treason, then.

You are a bold one.

Wow, that CGI looks pretty low-quality.

Because the video is low quality.

Not that the CG has aged that well over ten-plus years. It's good, but these days I imagine the public is used enough to modern graphic imagery that it's easier to spot the flaws in stuff that looked absurdly real at the time of the prequels.

For starters, look at a video of the opening sequence of Revenge of the Sith. The battle is stunningly animated, but look closer and you start to notice... things. Textures, lighting... damn near everything about the ARC-170 pilots... >_>

AOTC looks kinda wonky even in comparison to the other prequels, though I've heard the style of CGI they used for it was very new at the time.

AOTC was nothing short of revolutionary as far as CGI goes, more or less.

I think it varies. The Clone Troopers look kinda fake but I like their fakeness, it enhances their sense of "inhuman" that they have in the movies.

Grievous looks fine to me, but his (and his ARC Troopers') cape is what looks kinda dated.

AOTC would have benefited from a little less CGI at times. Part of why it looks so incredibly fake is because they have all these incredible locations, but barely any environmental interaction with the actors. Take Geonosis, where it's extremely sunny and covered with red sand. You don't see any of that harsh sunlight reflecting off the actors' skin or clothes, and even in the middle of a battle, you don't have any dirt getting kicked up and getting on their clothes and armor. Like, Padme doesn't get any dirt on her until she literally rolls in it, but she's wearing all white in the middle of a battle — she should be covered in it.

That's why this episode in particular looks like shot after shot of bad Photoshop.

ROTS is a lot better about it, because the technology and expertise were refined, but even here, there are shots that look like bad photoshop.

edited 30th Apr '17 10:38:47 AM by CrimsonZephyr

Basically, CGI is best used to touch up practical effects. The mistake of the prequels was using them to replace effects entirely, up to and including sets. You can really tell when it's just actors standing in front of a greenscreen.

Dex and his corresponding scene is one of my favorite parts of AOTC, but damn does the whole thing look terrible.

Agreed. I absolutely love that scene because it gives an earthy, "live-in" atmosphere to the usually sterile and lifeless Coruscant scenes, but damn does that shit look fake in some scenes.

AOTC was the first Hollywood movie filmed entirely digital, Lucas actually coerced Sony to develop the technology with the promise to do the Star Wars movies with it. One scene in TPM was filmed digitally as a test, Yoda and Obi-Wan in the conclusion. The issue is partially that the camera simply filmed in 1080i, leaving the movie restrained in clarity (depressingly, that means any 4K type remaster will be an upscale, whereas actual film stock looks great). Digital cameras didn't really take off until they could film at about 4K and then downscale to 1080. ROTS looks a lot better for that reason. There was some issues with early digital vs. traditional film projection, as the transfer to film stock tended to be even less clear. Another overall color palette was a lot of flat pastels, good CG needs to replicate light and shadow in order to look good.

The thing a lot of people don't understand is that the prequels used a lot of practical effects, it was rare for the actors to be on a completely blank green screen set and the vistas were rarely 100 percent animated. They had sets and props to interact with, most major vehicles and locations had physical models, some shots included hundreds of extras. Where the prequels went overboard was more about digital composition, there are so many individual elements on the screen you become more aware of the CG. Episode VII in many respects had just as much CG, but you don't see 30 different CG items in the same frame (starships, buildings, characters, etc.)

Who's Ben?

Ben Solo?

edited 1st May '17 6:32:57 PM by TropesForever

That's not his name. Not the one he chose, anyway.

edited 1st May '17 6:35:00 PM by higherbrainpattern

I dunno. After driving away everyone around him, I think he's ben very solo recently.

Wocka wocka!

...

edited 1st May '17 6:43:24 PM by KnownUnknown

Don't even think of trying to mess with John Boyega.

edited 2nd May '17 4:03:37 PM by higherbrainpattern

Ugh, yet another racist asshole.