Every time I show the original film to any of my friends the reaction is the same: “pretty cool, but slow and several effects look dated”.
Which is a silly complaint. Every FX laden movie is going to look dated eventually, except 2001: A Space Odyssey of course. 😉
Compared to how many tend to react I’d that’s a fairly reasonable reaction. Unfortunately too many people just outright dismiss old films because some elements of them are dated.
Though just out of curiosity Omni, which version did you show them? And if you don’t mind me asking, how old (roughly) are you and your friends?
Even though I pointed out earlier that my friends didn’t react negatively to the FX in the OT, I’m sure most of them only saw the SE versions. I think I was the only exception. Of course the Indy films never had SE’s and were just as popular, but then again they weren’t as FX heavy as SW. I’m curious if there could be some kid of generational thing going on. I don’t really know exactly what kids have been watching in the last decade or so, but old cartoons were pretty commonly broadcasted right alongside newer cartoons when I was a kid in the 90’s and early 2000’s. So we were at the very least somewhat exposed to older things on a pretty regular basis. I’ve been getting the impression that it’s not so common anymore. Also the post CGI-era kids might just have a harder time adjusting to the overall look of old effects, while my generation grew up during the transition so both techniques seemed normal to us.
I remember when ANH was perceived as a SPFX milestone with breakneck pacing. Of course these days, especially to kids, it seems cheap and slow paced.
Really? It didn’t bother me or any of my friends when we were kids during the release of the PT movies. There were plenty of modern films to compete with, yet as far as we were concerned the OT was as good as it gets. (Ditto on the orig. Indy movies.)
I’m not saying everyone was/is bothered by it, but the perception obviously changed as the films and the technology evolved. In its day Star Wars felt the way something like Infinity War might feel today - just huge and fast and mind blowing. Now of course it seems so much simpler.
My two boys (ages 3 and 5) thought Star Wars was pretty huge and fast and mind blowing when I showed them 4K77 in February. Certainly quite far from simple.
Maybe it’s because at such an early age they’d seen nothing as mind blowing as Star Wars yet?
I’ve always found it interesting how much of a difference there is between people who were shown old films when they were kids compared to those who weren’t. They usually have an entirely different relationship with movies and entertainment in general.
In the '70’s, it was mostly old movies on tv. The Home video market was still a few years away, and unless you had something like HBO, recent movies didn’t air until about three years after they were in theaters. Since infomercials took over the airwaves, stations rarely run old movies anymore. There’s so much competing for eyeballs now, it’s no wonder old movies get short shrift.
I’d like to believe today’s technically savvy kids know bad CGI when they see it.