Give Star Wars a break for 6 months or more...watch with a critical eye

Cheesy or not i actually prefer them to cgi.  Today the door closing and walls closing in would be i am sure 100% computer generated and no less fake.

I would argue more fake. But that is just my opinion.

Perhaps because it is made out of wood? Exotic space metals were scarce in England in the mid '70's.

Can't say I've ever willingly stuck my head inside a real trash compactor to measure the accuracy of a giant one located on a space station, especially one with a mutant octopus living in it. ;)

It looks weird because the footage was sped up.

So the Empire went with the low bidder on the DS doors, big deal. ;)

Simple solution.

Watch it lo-fi(VHS,Beta,V2000, laserdisc)!

It forces you to focus on the characters and the storytelling and nothing-else.

Effects and sets are obscured by the relatively low quality picture that you have no choice but  to follow the story.

Maybe Star Wars fans have been too obsessed with Pixels and picture quality in the last 17 years(at least since the advent of DVD-1997) that it forbids them from just enjoying the film itself.

I know that the counter aurgument is that the picture quality is so bad(for NTSC VHS in particular) that it is too much of a distraction to enjoy the flick.

Or is that because we are so used to being spoiled in the high -definition era?

I am fortunate enough to  own a 4K Sony 1000 projector.

I can watch the likes of Oblivion,Elisium,Looper,Pacific Rim,Man Of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness on this projector  upscaled to 4K, enjoying every last ounce of pixel information/detail that these flicks have to offer.

They may look fantastic but IMHO all the above are just average movies---great style....but little substance---I re-iterate---in my opinion!

So yeah.....I get more of a kick watching my beat up ol' 1982 1st release(library rental) VHS video tape of Star Wars than watching  any of the above movies in 4K.

Lol---just imagine the likes of Elisium,Pacific Rim and Transformers being released on VHS.

So many of these movies are marketed on just how good looking they are(both for Cinema and Home video).

Take away the good looks courtesy of High Defintion 2K/4K digital Cinema or 2K Blu Ray  and there is not much left.

I can watch Citizen Kane or Das Boot or All Quiet On The Western Front or Star Wars on VHS or a Sony 4K projector..

It makes no difference what the format is.

They are great films.

danny_boy said:

Lol---just imagine the likes of Elisium,Pacific Rim and Transformers being released on VHS.

So many of these movies are marketed on just how good looking they are(both for Cinema and Home video).

Take away the good looks courtesy of High Defintion 2K/4K digital Cinema or 2K Blu Ray  and there is not much left.

I can watch Citizen Kane or Das Boot or All Quiet On The Western Front or Star Wars on VHS or a Sony 4K projector..

It makes no difference what the format is.

They are great films.

 Stranger things have happened. ;)

danny_boy said:

 They forgot to mention Laserdisc and CED! ;)

Ironic the photo of the Falcon's cockpit is cut in half the way that shot would be pan and scanned for home video.

SilverWook said:

danny_boy said:

Lol---just imagine the likes of Elisium,Pacific Rim and Transformers being released on VHS.

So many of these movies are marketed on just how good looking they are(both for Cinema and Home video).

Take away the good looks courtesy of High Defintion 2K/4K digital Cinema or 2K Blu Ray  and there is not much left.

I can watch Citizen Kane or Das Boot or All Quiet On The Western Front or Star Wars on VHS or a Sony 4K projector..

It makes no difference what the format is.

They are great films.

 Stranger things have happened. ;)

 Wow---great find-----think i will have to bag myself a copy!

My 4k projector also has component(RGB) sockets.

It means I could hook my VHS to the projector.

Star Wars VHS in 4K...hell yeah!

*just kidding*

danny_boy said:

Simple solution.

Watch it lo-fi(VHS,Beta,V2000, laserdisc)!

It forces you to focus on the characters and the storytelling and nothing-else.

Effects and sets are obscured by the relatively low quality picture that you have no choice but  to follow the story.

 I noticed all of the 'defects' mentioned (and many more) as a kid watching the VHS. They're all still there. Star Wars was a (fairly) low budget film. Not everything worked perfectly. So what?

Also, It's been 2 years since I've watched any of em. How often do you guys watch the films? Just curious.

EDIT- Just remembered that I did watch Harmys De-Specialized 2.5 when it was released, so I did watch Star Wars this year.

Jaitea said:

It's been a while since I watched Star Wars....so I watched Harmy's excellent Despecialized work, I must say I was still very impressed with the movie, the original despecialized elements looked great.

The only thing that did jump out at me was the wobbly sets on the Death Star,....they really did spoil the experience for me.....enough for me to post this.

The fast door that Luke shuts as he entered the hanger control room....you can see that it bounces or settles weirdly as though it was made of plywood.

The Trash compactor scene looks off because the walls move in non-mechanically, you can tell that theres a group of guys pushing the walls in....

....anyway.....Seasons Greatings 

J

 This isn't watching with a critical eye- 

That is pure nitpicking.

By critical eye I thought you meant plot-holes or flaws or things in the story that don't make sense.

Anyone can watch a film and pick apart the little visual flaws. If we judged films by all the things that look fake, Star Wars would be on the bottom 100.

The reason people like it (or did back then anyway) is because of the memorable characters and well-paced story.

What I'm saying is, bad effects or flimsy sets shouldn't ruin an experience for you. 

^ yes.

danny_boy said:

Simple solution.

Watch it lo-fi(VHS,Beta,V2000, laserdisc)!

It forces you to focus on the characters and the storytelling and nothing-else.

Effects and sets are obscured by the relatively low quality picture that you have no choice but  to follow the story.

Maybe Star Wars fans have been too obsessed with Pixels and picture quality in the last 17 years(at least since the advent of DVD-1997) that it forbids them from just enjoying the film itself.

I know that the counter aurgument is that the picture quality is so bad(for NTSC VHS in particular) that it is too much of a distraction to enjoy the flick.

Or is that because we are so used to being spoiled in the high -definition era?

I am fortunate enough to  own a 4K Sony 1000 projector.

I can watch the likes of Oblivion,Elisium,Looper,Pacific Rim,Man Of Steel and Star Trek Into Darkness on this projector  upscaled to 4K, enjoying every last ounce of pixel information/detail that these flicks have to offer.

They may look fantastic but IMHO all the above are just average movies---great style....but little substance---I re-iterate---in my opinion!

So yeah.....I get more of a kick watching my beat up ol' 1982 1st release(library rental) VHS video tape of Star Wars than watching  any of the above movies in 4K.

I understand your view and I agree to some extent but I don't think Star Wars fans have been obsessed with picture quality in the last 17 years, more like being denied it. The story is what's most important yes, but film is very much a visual medium and a form of visual storytelling, especially in the case of a film like Star Wars. Your signature proudly says;

I saw Star Wars in 1977. Many, many, many times. For 3 years it was just Star Wars...period. I saw it in good theaters, cheap theaters and drive-ins with those clunky metal speakers you hang on your window. The screen and sound quality never subtracted from the excitement. I can watch the original cut right now, over 30 years later, on some beat up VHS tape and enjoy it. It's the story that makes this movie. Nothing? else.

^ If that's all that makes that movie work then why bother when you can just as well pick up the script or the novel of the film and read it instead? I can personally enjoy Star Wars in crude form, we have basically been forced to enjoy it that way since it left the theater but picture and audio quality is definitely important. And it really goes without saying that it's fucking ridiculous that not a decent modern video release exist of these iconic classics either in Special Edition or in Original form. Stop trying to justify the silly George Lucas syndrome.