I wasn’t quite sure where to post the following; in the ‘Light & Magic documentary’ thread, or one of the relevant ‘Looks like the Prequels are not aging well’ or ‘The Worst Scene/Sequence in Any Star Wars Film’ threads; in the end I opted for its own thread.
Poor quality CGI and CGI-affected shots & scenes in the Prequel Trilogy…
| Introduction… |
|---|
Something the recent Season 2 ‘Light & Magic’ documentary never seemed to mention… was the poor quality CGI throughout the Prequel Trilogy films - along with the reasons for that. This was quite a jarring omittance by ILM / Lucasfilm - and very much in contrast to their highlighting and underscoring of the limitations practical effects (and the supposed end of practical effects) when CGI was starting to take off as covered in Season 1 of their L&M doc.
So, this is an attempt to highlight some of those issue-laden CGI scenes throughout the Prequels… (all in one centralised thread).
Whether the CGI issues were physics-defying, just poorly executed, or somehow unfinished yet - still passing QC (quality control), having that familiar weightless/mass-less CGI effect, or overuse / density of CGI occurring in scenes to the point where the viewer has little to focus on, or the CGI not ‘interacting’ or blending with the human actors, or simply the quality of CGI helping take the viewer out of immersion of viewing the film.
Which is all quite surprising given George himself saw this technology as having reached the levels ready to achieve what he couldn’t previously do with practical effects or CGI effects for what he had in mind for the Prequel Trilogy films…
🔸 During Industrial Light and Magic’s first test shots of the dinosaurs for 1993’s Jurassic Park, George Lucas recalled:-
“It was like one of those moments in history, like the invention of the light bulb or the first telephone call… A major gap had been crossed and things were never going to be the same.”
^ from How ‘Jurassic Park’ Made History 25 Years Ago, Propelling Computer-Generated Animation Forward - a Smithsonian article.
🔸 Also, in this interview with George Lucas…
“…or would I go back at that point and finish Star Wars? Just do this backstory - which I never really intended to do… and wasn’t written as a movie… and which technically couldn’t be done when I finished Return Of The Jedi. But now… 15 years later… I have the technology - ILM had developed digital technology to a point - after Jurassic Park - that I could actually consider doing some of the things that were thought about in the backstory [the Prequel Trilogy].”
🔸 and later in the same interview…
“…this’ll be fun - because this will be doing the Star Wars that I did before - without all the frustration of bumping into the technology.”
^ from How George Lucas Decided To Make The STAR WARS Prequels - a 3 minute youtube video from the AFI youtube channel (the relevant section starts at 1m 17s into the video)…
🔸 ILM’s Creative Director Rob Coleman talking on how the 1996 film ‘Dragonheart’ influenced George to do the Prequels:-
“I found out later on that George was watching from his house - and they were showing him what ILM was doing - and when he saw Dragonheart he then said ‘ILM’s ready to do The Phantom Menace - they’ve now shown me they are ready to do digital characters - we’re ready to go’.”
^ STAR WARS PREQUELS began because of DRAGON(HEART) - a 40 second youtube clip from Star Wars Updated.
Unfortunately, George was mistaken - the technology was not ready - certainly not ready for the sheer volume, quality and quantity he envisioned to be required (or desired) for making the Prequel Trilogy films. Even to the point where George’s own VFX Supervisor was calling for live action scenes with human actors to be used (in practical clone trooper costumes) to take help reduce the demands and workload of the VFX team. Unfortunately, that request from John Knoll was rejected… and the clone troopers remained CGI (as seen in Season 2 of the ‘Light & Magic’ documentary from Lucasfilm).
Certain CGI scenes and shots in the Prequels do indeed look great - and have certainly held up well over time - also meshing well with the human actors. Yet it is obviously more noticeable… more apparent… when scenes with CGI do not blend well, when they do stick out to the human eye, or have that unfortunate ‘CGI effect’ - pulling the viewer out of being immersed in the film.
This is perhaps more conspicuous in the Prequel Trilogy films due to that sheer volume of CGI - and a percentage of it not meeting a ‘quality control’ threshold - yet still released in the final cuts… whereas other blockbusters or ‘big event’ films from the same time - The Matrix films, Lord Of The Rings trilogy, Spiderman, Gladiator, War Of The Worlds, King Kong, and a year later Pirates Of The Caribbean, etc… all seemingly achieved well-received praise and awards for use of CGI or high quality of CGI effects (yet many had featured a blend of both practical and CGI effects; perhaps using CGI effects to enhance scenes where needed… instead of being being in nearly every scene by design, a la the Prequels).
⬇️ • A must watch…
This informative, insightful, and ‘explainer’ type video illustrates the issues, as well as the cause and effect, of having too much CGI in AOTC - much of it also applies to the other Prequel films (inc quality limitations & sheer workload put on the VFX teams)…
Why Does Attack of the Clones Look Like a Video Game? - a 30 minute youtube video from Empire Wreckers.
^ it also highlights the limited time VFX teams often have with shots, QC, issues re the ‘fix it in comp’ approach, volume & workload.
Attack Of The Clones co-writer AOTC Jonathan Hales on the overusing CGI in films…
Problems with CGI in Star Wars Prequel Trilogy - a 20 second youtube clip from Star Wars Updated.
Ewan McGregor highlights just one of his numerous many scenes with bluescreen / greenscreen backgrounds in the PT…
Ewan McGregor On George Lucas hilarious Green Screen Directing - a 40 second youtube clip from Order 66 Collectibles.
and…
^ a screenshot from The Hollywood Reporters’ 2021 article: “I Have the Career I Started Out Wanting”
Ewan McGregor recalls green-screen effects on ‘Star Wars’ Prequels: ‘It was a shame’ - 2016 Business Insider article.
^ a screenshot from a 2024 FandomWire re a 2002 Star Wars Insider interview (Issue #60) with Ewan McGregor.
A Mini-Index…
0️⃣ • Introduction (this post)
1️⃣ • The Phantom Menace
2️⃣ • Attack Of The Clones
3️⃣ • Revenge Of The Sith
More OriginalTrilogy•com threads on the substandard nature and application of poor CGI in the Prequel Trilogy can be found in…
❕ An Index & Help Thread for Beyond the Original Trilogy ❕ - and then scroll down to ‘6️⃣ • The Prequel Trilogy’ section.
There used to be a great image thread from back in the day on here re PT CGI issues - though I can’t find it anymore - plus many of the image links have very likely broken over time (photobucket and other older defunct image sites) - hence this new ‘cenrtralised’ thread.