Time to tackle the color grading for Episode IX.
Now, I’ve said that I like this movie, but one thing I will agree on is this. The color grading for this film is terrible! Terrible! Horrible! It looks like every movie made in the last ten years combined into one, resulting in a film that looks so… Unnatural (Insert Exegol lightning sound effects here). I think I know why too. Here’s the opening shot of Exegol as taken from my blu-ray:
Notice that lightning bolt in the background. On my waveform and parade scopes, this lightning bolt is a teal green color. No, I’m not making that up. The green is slightly more prevalent than the blue. While my main objective in the color grading is to give it a more film-like grade (Just like with VII and VIII), I feel the color scheme needs a makeover. Fortunately, most people should be okay if I go with the blue film look that I mentioned in my Episode VII color grading. Which changes the color scheme from teal green…
…To blue.
I think it works, especially since I attribute it to ESB, the crown jewel of the franchise. I also think it looks more accurate than the original. The only challenge I’ve had is making sure the skintones don’t look too reddish. Otherwise, I think this is an improvement. But as usual, someone could prove me wrong. You may see the rest in the spoiler tag below. Let me know if anything needs improvement.
And on a side note, no, I didn’t go with HAL9000’s idea of changing Exegol to white, and the reason is simple. I don’t like it. I understand the desire to change Exegol to a different color scheme, but it suffers from the same problem that I mentioned with the original. It looks unnatural, and the slight reddish tint only adds to the whole thing looking off. So, my apologies to HAL9000 fans everywhere, but I don’t like it, and I don’t want to do it. You may PM your complaints about Exegol to me, which I will happily ignore. Anyway, on with the screencaps:
