but Vader wasn't Vader anymore after becoming so much machine. he let Luke chop his arm off and Luke was barely trained. anakin at Vader's age wouldn't have let that happen. and even though he threw down his light saber beforehand, the emperor was still kicking luke's ass with force lightning. i don't think luke would've had an answer. i think the emperor could take both of them in the state they were in at that point. except palpatine had at least 3 apprentices (maul, dooku, and vader) so he could've gotten a 4th. basically palpatine just seems to kick everybody's ass except windu. even yoda could only fight to a draw with him. and he tricked the whole jedi council all that time.
I'll never forget seeing Star Wars in the theatre, the first day it came out. As an avid science fiction fan, that flick was like a dream come true. Incredible CGI, a great plot, characters you could identify with... it had everything. You'd have to have grown up with the generally lame special effects almost all SF movies had, up until then, to appreciate just how revolutionary it was. 2001 was one of the few exceptions. I couldn't imagine Lucas improving on Star Wars, but then Empire came out. Wow! It raised the bar so high that the rest have been, except for moments here and there, a disappointment. (IMO)
Agree completely but I'd put clones below menace. Darth Sidious at least made the ending of menace ok, but clones sucked from start to finish. Plus it had the absolute worst "romance" (I use the term loosely) scenes ever.
1 - The Empire Strikes Back - Awesome climactic battle between Luke and Vader, culminating in the revalation of Vader as Luke's father. Great battle scene where the Empire routs the rebels from Hoth. Introduction of Lando, Yoda, and the bounty hunters (Boba Fett, IG-88, Bossk, etc.). Finally, the Empire wins. 2 - Revenge of the Sith - Anakins duel with Dooku, where Anakin begins to show his slip to the dark side without a big emotional trauma to blame. The two scenes at the Jedi temple, first where Vader kills the younglings (and that Padawan fights the clones for a bit) and later when Obi-Wan and Yoda come and fight the clones. Anakin's turn against Mace Windu. The machinations of Palpatine. Vader's first duel with Obi-Wan. 3 - A New Hope - Mostly the two parts involving the death star, the first being the rescue of Leia and the ssecond being the final battle. 4 - Attack of the Clones - The Assasination attempt and the chase with the bounty hunter were both solid. The Duel between Dooku and the two jedi where Anakin lost his hand. The arena scene before and after the arrival of Windu, but before Yoda and the clones arrive. 5 - The Phantom Menace - Mostly just the duel between Darth Maul and the two jedi. The land battle was decent until Jar Jar's antics started having an effect. Would have improved 10 fold if Jar Jar was removed as a character, and 10 fold again if they just started Anakin as a teenager, like he is in AoTC. Between Jar Jar and Jake Lloyd, it is hard not to put this at the bottom of the list. 6 - Return of the Jedi - Very solid movie until they land on Endor, when everything starts to turn to ****. Leia gets saved by a teddy bear. Then Luke, Han, and Chewie get captured by teddy bears. Finally teddy bears wipe out "an entire legion of [the emperor's] best troops". Cut Endor out of the movie, and it would probably jump at least 2 spots on this list.
Unless you're talking about the schematic of the Death Star during the Rebel flight briefing there was no CGI in Star Wars.
I agree, the giant leap in effects and design at the time was amazing. I think Star Wars and Blade Runner still hold up pretty well after more than two decades, all things considered. And Blade Runner still has a more convincing atmosphere than most of it's imitators today.
I know but he should respect the geek speak. I agree the special effects were ground breaking for the time but one thing that annoyed me about the rerelease was that the added effects did very little for the movie and to me even pointed out how primitive they were compared today. For instance during the dog fights they would splice in new CGI footage with the original so you suddenly the X-Wings and Tie Fighters would start speeding up and then it would go back to the original and they would look much slower.
I prefer the special effects in the sequels over the CGI in the prequels. They just look more realistic because the ships are REAL and not generated on a computer. Just more creative overall. LOVE the Imperial Walkers in TESB. Can you imagine how lame they would have been if they were CGI? Like the little ones in ROTS? What about the opening scene in New Hope? The Rebel Cruiser being chased by that MASSIVE Imperial Star Destroyer was one of the greatest opening scenes in movie history, for my money. It set the pace for the whole story. Can you imagine if that scene was CGI? To me, CGI is just lazy. It makes the movie look like a video game. And Lucas relies too heavily on them in the prequels.
It wasn't just the battle scenes using CGI that bugged me in the prequels. The CGI sets were a pain in the ass too. Especially ROTS which if I'm not mistaken was shot entirely in front of bluescreens. At least TPM and Episode II used on location shoots which added a little bit of realism to the story.
I refuse to respect the Geek Speak, Yao Ming Kicks Ass!! (and Star Wars came out before Blade Runner, professorjay, but kudos for mentioning The Greatest Science Fiction Movie Ever! )
Exactly... the only time I think CGI is effective is when its used to create things that could NEVER exist that are very vital to the movie (like the dinosaurs in jurrassic park). Half the CGI things in the prequels were just there for the glorification of CGI. The ONLY thing I would have kept was the battle droids... the rest of the time they should have tried to be more realistic (esp. the space fighting scenes... a good mix of models and CGI would have been appropriate).
