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Tuesday, June 16, 2009

George Lucas Then vs George Lucas Now

Call me a luddite if you have to, but I miss the days in which science fiction movies were actually done with real gadgets, real models, real robots—even with dwarves inside—and real explosions.

On the left, Lucas surrounded by a ton of stuff from the first Star Wars trilogy, which ended with 1983's Return of the Jedi. On the right, Lucas surrounded by the only object that mattered in his second Star Wars trilogy, finishing with 2005's Revenge of the Sith: A green chroma screen.

There's something about real objects that—no matter how hard they have tried so far—3D computer graphics still have failed to capture. Yes, synthetic images have been evolving as fast as computing power, with new techniques that sometimes fool the eye. But while 1983 Star Wars may look bad at times compared to JJ Abrams' Star Trek, the former still feels... more real even while it looks less realistic, perhaps? I don't know how to define it, but it just feels better.

Certainly better than 2005 Star Wars, and not only because of the awful script. [Uberpix—Thanks Genevieve]

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