"Episode I" was on TV (Spike?) the other day, and I was watching a bit of it (it's programmed into my DNA apparently...I can't help it
), and was realizing how "big" it felt, and that was a direct result of the CGI. But it was just so much (too much?) and, after a while, nothing looked real...not even the shadows cast by actors as they walked along corridors.
For all their technical splendor, I found myself so distracted while watching the prequel trilogy because all I was seeing were fake-looking sets, floors, walls, etc. Nothing seemed to have any weight or "place", and on those sprawling cityscapes or lush indoor sets (Naboo or Coruscant), it felt so off.
Contrast that with how so much of the originals seemed to use real sets, lighting and shadows, etc. They just seemed more grounded (but also more "movie-like" at the same time).
I'm sure Lucas sees this newer stuff - and the technology available to him - as a good thing (that's why he's sticking Hayden's Anakin into the end of "Jedi", etc., but it also loses something. Think back to all your favorite parts (or just neat little scenes) in the first couple of movies, and then imagine how Lucas would do them today with this access to "digital technology", and how different it would look. Sometimes the "old way" just looks better, and grounds this stuff.
For some reason, one of my favorite scenes in "Star Wars" is when the Jawas arrive to the Skywalker farm and Luke's aunt calls him over and he runs over and stands on the ledge of that large hole in the ground and is looking down to her as she tells him to make sure his uncle gets a certain type of droid. I just thought that looked so cool, like a little house in the desert, in the ground.
But it was such a quick, simple scene but it was neat because you got the sense of Luke being young and being told things by his aunt, that he lived in a desolate, freaky place with a cool house, etc.
If Lucas did that scene
now, we'd have some godawful fly-by, he'd digitally expand that hole to be about two miles wide, he'd have all kinds of droids and shit flying around Beru down below, Luke would be above her on an invisible "light bridge" (instead of standing on the ledge of the hole), etc.
He'd make a simple thing that "works" into this big complex, ridiculously ornate and cluttered "money shot", endlessly going for the "wow factor". At every turn, whether it's required or not.
That's what he seems to do. And it just rips the charm and appeal from so much of this stuff, it really does. It's "cold". "A New Hope" and "The Empire Strikes Back" just have a feel to them. "Jedi" to a lesser extent (but it's still there). But the prequels are completely lacking it.
I always get excited about the idea of new "Star Wars" projects and stories, but I've been burned enough to know that I should rein that in, and that it's probably going to be more of the same, unfortunately.
It'll be interesting to see what happens when Lucas finally passes. I'm sure this property will remain and be carried on by others. And if so, I'd love to see some guys in their 30's and 40's, who grew up with the originals, kinda "take it over" and - without Lucas' obsession with kids, cuteness, overloaded CGI, etc. added to the mix - make some really neat, well-written, well-shot "Star Wars" tales. Go back a few hundred years. Or explore that space between episodes 3 and 4. Or get off the Jedi/Clone stuff altogether and go tell Han Solo or Boba Fett stories.
It speaks volumes when I've seen modest-budget fan films contain better acting, drama, stories and visuals than the prequels...
So you know the talent and ability is
out there, waiting to do this world justice, and to make a "Star Wars" release that doesn't embarrass anyone, and that anyone would be proud to talk about seeing. That hasn't been the case, really, since 1983.