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Quintus

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You're mixing it up with Revenge of The Sith

No I'm not that would have a different title, just not sure what it is.

The effects in Two Towers do not hold up.

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I've not seen it for ages, I'll have to check it out.

I remember the cgi being mainly brilliant, with some less accomplished work in there too (Wargs).

Treebeard himself looks absolutely superb; shame about the poor composite work which surrounds him.

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The thing I hate the most about CG effects is that it makes the making of docs so booooring. ;) When you see something about Close Encounters, Blade Runner, even ST: TMP it's always interesting.

Karol - who generally skips the making of special effects bonus material

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Of course it has fantastic effects. Like Q said, the wargs and Treebeard aren't the best effects ever, but are beyond anything else at that time. I mean, come on, the opening with the balrog, the fell beast, the mumakil, the destruction of Isengard, the fully-built Barad-dur, freaking Gollum?

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gollum always looked like CGI, there was no sense of it being real.

I agree, generally it does look like CGI, but what did you expect? There's no way that character could have been achieved as convincingly in any other medium. Do you rail on 1930s Kong for being done with primitive stop motion?

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I think the Balrog holds up the best. It is simply magnificent. I do hope they give the extended versions some TLC. I think fellowship barely looks HD. And I think gollum in Two Towers would look better if they spend some time on them doing a proper remaster. Return looked very good to me, gollum included. There were times in the two towers Blu that gollum literally looks painted on the film, like something out of Roger Rabbit.

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No, he'd say that you're ignoring the issue. The issue isn't that Kong is real and Gollum isn't, because that's factual (aside from the few shots of Serkis in ROTK). The point I'm trying to make is that logistically, CGI was the only real medium suitable for what the character was needed to do, and would not have been as effective if he was a puppet or stop motion, in the same way that Kong would not have had the same effect if he was a guy in a gorilla suit as opposed to an animated character.

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no you miss the point as you often do. Kong was real for PJ, myself and many others. It's more than just the technology involved, Open your mind beyond your eyes.

LOTR films are not films I will convert to Blu. my blu player up converts films to a resepctable look and most of my old black and white films look great without the need to repurchase.

The films I want to repurchase are Ben Hur, Jurassic Park, and a restored Superman the movie with the original sound.

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no you miss the point as you often do. Kong was real for PJ, myself and many others. It's more than just the technology involved, Open you mind beyond your eyes.

lol. I guess this is the going round in circles bit.

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The thing I hate the most about CG effects is that it makes the making of docs so booooring. ;) When you see something about Close Encounters, Blade Runner, even ST: TMP it's always interesting.

Karol - who generally skips the making of special effects bonus material

Here I must disagree... while I like making ofs of 80s and early 90s effects movies/blockbusters as well, the sections on cgi effects are often the highlights of these docs for me these days. But this is probably because I like to do cgi art myself. The only thing that often frustrates me is that filmmakers tell very little about how they actually achieve the effects (I guess they consider these things business secrets); the documentaries could thus often be much more informative and entertaining. Instead we have to watch the actors while they mention how grateful they are to the director, the producer, the costume designer, the cleaning lady, ... ... over and over again ;-)

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Some CGI impresses me. A lot of it doesn't. The human eye detects computer graphics, especially when they try to replace human beings with it. BTS docs about the computer guys bore me. A rare exception was Star Wars prequels. I sat there transfixed, my jaw dropped, unable to turn away from that catastrophe as I witnessed what filmmaking had become.

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it was a train wreck. I'm sure George will do his best to make it look better but he can't hide the fact that his last two Star Wars movies were bad filmmaking.

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The last two were a marked improvement on The Phantom Menace IMO, which I find almost unwatchable now. Admittedly it's not saying much, but at least I can make it through Clones and Sith without falling alseep.

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I think there's no point in making "sucky", "suckier", "suckiest" grading list.

They just all suck big time!

...And not terribly well, at the same time... :P

Karol

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CG Docs were interesting when it was new... the Young Sherlock Holmes stained glass window, the JP Dinos, the T2 T-1000, the Abyss water tentacle. Other than that, Karol is right. I'll never forget watching SPFX: The Making of the Empire Strikes Back, and being filled with wonder.

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I saw a bit of AOTC whilst at the hospital over the weekend. I'd not seen for nearly ten years. It's still horrific.

That colosseum scene is almost dream-like in it's sheer will to be utterly horrible, its atrocities against film arrogantly worn like a badge of honour.

I'm still convinced Lucas should have been put on trial for what he did.

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I always wondered why they didn't use their powers to free themselves and Padme from the handcuffs instead of elaborately and very damn dangerously using the monsters to break the chains. They can open a door, why not Emperor-style undo a pair of handcuffs from a primitive race of bugs. Oh, that's right, the bugs designed the Death Star when they weren't eating their own shit and holding gladiatorial matches with monsters in an arena. *Turns brain off*

Never mind.

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I saw a bit of AOTC whilst at the hospital over the weekend. I'd not seen for nearly ten years. It's still horrific.

That colosseum scene is almost dream-like in it's sheer will to be utterly horrible, its atrocities against film arrogantly worn like a badge of honour.

I'm still convinced Lucas should have been put on trial for what he did.

The 3PO stuff actually makes ME feel embarrassed.

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They just all suck big time!

Starting with Return Of The Jedi; where not only the 3PO stuff was embarrassing.

It's eternally odd why Lucas never tried something new in the sci-fi genre.

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Sorry, it was all just too childish for that.

Barely more than the first half of the original film. For me, the Emperor's throne room business more than composites for the 10 minutes or so in the Ewok village (if that).

Anyhow, with the exception of the last act of Empire, when has Star Wars been anything other than childish?

How old were you when you saw ROTJ?

7.

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They just all suck big time!

Starting with Return Of The Jedi; where not only the 3PO stuff was embarrassing.

It's eternally odd why Lucas never tried something new in the sci-fi genre.

One word, my friend: "KER-CHING!!!!!!".

...or... $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.

Get it?

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The last two were a marked improvement on The Phantom Menace IMO, which I find almost unwatchable now. Admittedly it's not saying much, but at least I can make it through Clones and Sith without falling alseep.

Looking back, TPM is the only one that actually feels like a Star Wars movie. The rest feel like I'm watching some bad, made for Lifetime TV movie about a stalker. With cartoony CGI effects.

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But guys, Lucas made these movies for kids! You just approach them the wrong way! Hahaha. Too bad he doesn't seem to understand what kids like, or that good kids movies can be entertaining for adults too... Well, at least there are still space battles to enjoy... And some awesome cgi making of docs :)

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I remember the cgi being mainly brilliant, with some less accomplished work in there too (Wargs).

I thought the Wargs were one of the lesser effects in the movies.

Generally, with FOTR, I couldn't tell CGI and model work apart most of the time. With TTT and ROTK, you get some more clearly CGI stuff, but that probably comes with the territory, primarily having far more monsters.

Kong was far more effective than Gollum could ever be. Kong was real.

Kong was stunningly real, there were moments when, knowing it was a CGI creation, I still couldn't believe he wasn't real. I think he had a lot of help though by having (extremely well-done) fur as opposed to Gollum's smooth skin, and basically just looking like a gorilla, an animal we all know and consider real. Gollum had to fight our knowledge that he's a completely artificial creature, and I think a good deal of the complaints heaped on CGI in general are attributable to that.

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The last two were a marked improvement on The Phantom Menace IMO, which I find almost unwatchable now. Admittedly it's not saying much, but at least I can make it through Clones and Sith without falling alseep.

Looking back, TPM is the only one that actually feels like a Star Wars movie. The rest feel like I'm watching some bad, made for Lifetime TV movie about a stalker. With cartoony CGI effects.

Agreed entirely there. Most memorable and well-developed score out of the prequels too.

It just feels more organic to me. Particularly the way it was lensed. Not as sterile and 'done entirely with a blue screen'-looking as the following films. Also far less portentous. Just an old fashioned, swashbuckling space adventure film for kids. Which is what STAR WARS is, when you boil down to it.

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