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.
Yeah, it’s a real shame that young people aren’t exposed to old stuff as much as before. I don’t know how they handled this in the US, but I remember when Scandinavian Cartoon Network split into two separate channel, one for new programs and one dedicated entirely to old cartoons. I remember thinking at that time that a big shift had just happened in terms of how the next generation would respond to films and TV.
Roughly 20, so we’re all kind of from the post-CGI era. I’d always show them the DeEd until the release of 4K77, which became the standard. Most of the complaints were surrounding some stuff looking weird in the Death Star Attack and half a dozen Falcon shots that looked unnatural.
TESB got no such complaints whenever I showed anyone the film, albeit that didn’t even happen half as many times as me showing someone Star Wars. For TESB I’d use the DeEd 2.0 until Revisited, but I’m thinking only OUT so I’m disregarding the times I showed people Adywan’s version.
And yeah, I totally agree with that! My folks showed me tons of old movies when I was little and I think that’s made me much more susceptible to enjoying stuff with that old feel. Worth noticing that one of the friends I showed Star Wars to said she didn’t really enjoy watching old movies in general because ‘they tend to look bad and be slow’. Can’t argue with her on either but you get the idea.
It really is just a matter of habit, so I’d say that people like us where quite lucky. Seeing old movies and TV doesn’t just give you more stuff to enjoy, I think it makes you much more aware and critical of how they are actually made. I’d say it both makes you appreciate the new stuff more, while at the same time being more critical of it.