Star Wars Movies Questions

1. Why did George Lucas start with Episode IV? I think watching it makes no sense at all if you have not seen Episode I-III.

2. How could the first Star Wars movie have such a great CGI considering it was released in 1977? I thought Jurassic Park was revolutionary in terms of computer graphic but I was wrong because a movie made 20 years earlier already employed the same technology.

Originally Posted by jankren

1. Why did George Lucas start with Episode IV? I think watching it makes no sense at all if you have not seen Episode I-III.

2. How could the first Star Wars movie have such a great CGI considering it was released in 1977? I thought Jurassic Park was revolutionary in terms of computer graphic but I was wrong because a movie made 20 years earlier already employed the same technology.

1. I think the reason he gives is that he couldn't portray the events in the first 3 on the epic scale he wanted to with the technology available to him.

2. The original CGI etc. was good, but bad by todays standards, so they redo it every now and then.

Originally Posted by Serious Spamurai

2. The original CGI etc. was good, but bad by todays standards, so they redo it every now and then.

So the CGI in Episode IV-VI which we see on DVD today are not the original CGI?

No, at least it isn't on mine, and that was on vhs set from years ago, so there is a very high chance that it's new on the DVD. You can tell by one thing, when they're looking around cloud city or whatever, if there's windows in the walls, it's new.

The CGI work, different Cloud City/Coruscant shots, improved explosions and tragic removal of that nice Ewok song all happened in 1993/4 with the 'Digitally Remastered' re-release.
And you don't need to know anything to watch the original films, they stand up well enough to have become the cult that enabled the prequels. In fact, I think it has damaged the Darth Vader character - he is now less sinister, less mysterious.. just 'less'.

I'd be better off not mentioning things like Jar Jar Binks (too late, oops).

Originally Posted by jankren

1. Why did George Lucas start with Episode IV? I think watching it makes no sense at all if you have not seen Episode I-III.

That's not true. I watched the movies starting with 4, 5, 6, and then 1, 2 and 3. And they all made perfect sense to me. What if George Lucas made even more prequels before Episode 1? Does that mean Episode 1 will no longer make sense?

George Lucas went back to make episodes 1-3 because he felt that people wanted to know the backstory.

Originally Posted by jankren

1. Why did George Lucas start with Episode IV? I think watching it makes no sense at all if you have not seen Episode I-III.

originally, I dont think he intended to make the prequels. In fact, when the movie was first released in the 70s, there was no Episode IV, but it was called just Star Wars.

Originally Posted by Last Roman

originally, I dont think he intended to make the prequels. In fact, when the movie was first released in the 70s, there was no Episode IV, but it was called just Star Wars.

I'm too young too know if this is true, the story I heard is what Serious Spamuri said.
The technology back wasn't capable of making the scenes we can see in episode II or III(obviously) and George Lucas wanted too make the prequels epic.

Yup, episode 4 was never considered as part of a trilogy, let alone a whole universe upon its original creation.

And yes. In 1997, as part of the 30 year anniversary, they totally remastered the original trilogy, prior to the prequel trilogy. Including the addition of many, many CGI scenes and effects.

No wonder I was surprised with the epic level of graphic quality displayed on the original trilogy.

I think part of the answer to question 1 is that Lucas felt that the first part of the story was not as compelling as the middle. He had a long story to tell and he decided to tell the most compelling part.

As for the effects, Lucas and ILM pretty much invented most of the effects at the time. They recolutionized motion control technology and used what is called matting to get the ship effects. If anyone still has the original VHS you can see the Matte's in nearly all the space shots, this is mostly due to the fact that we are just so accustomed to matte free effects. Another thing that helped was the level of detail in the models. You have to remember there was no digital modeling or scenery. Everything is either a scaled model or a painting. Its actually a very basic level of cinematography introduced by Milie I believe in Journey to the Moon. But Lucas took and ran with it.

I personally believe pre-quals are too cold feeling simply because they are mostly digital effects, there's this overly pristine feeling to everything and even when we get to the more beat up ships in the Clone Wars and revenge of the Sith they still look cold. Where are the models had some life to them and I think that has a lot to do with how light hits an object and is affected by all the irregularities and varying surfaces.

If you want a great read, get the large tomb of a book about on ILM and Star Wars.

Are Star Wars originally based on sci-fi novels?

I just watched some clips on youtube of the original Star Wars movies and THE LIGHTSABERS HAD NO COLOR! Did they?

I found this hilaious 'deleted scene' off Youtube showing what actually happened to Luke Skywalker's uncle and aunt.

Originally Posted by jankren

Are Star Wars originally based on sci-fi novels?

I just watched some clips on youtube of the original Star Wars movies and THE LIGHTSABERS HAD NO COLOR! Did they?

I don't know about any sci-fi novels, but I'm pretty sure George took inspiration from Akira Kurosawa's movies (Throne of Blood or Rashamon in particular, I forget which - incidently, Kurosawa took inspiration from Shakespeare and other traditional tales, so it's all a big circle).


As for Jabba being human - I've heard the 'crime-boss Jabba' character was originally human, but only in the early stages of drafting.
In the same way, Luke Skywalker was once known as Anakin Starkiller.

I think quite a lot of the background wasn't written when the original trilogy were filmed. Hell, when Obi-Wan said Vader killed Anakin (in A New Hope) it was true - Vader being Anakin was thought of later.

CGI killed it for me when it came to the prequels.

Originally Posted by Juno

CGI killed it for me when it came to the prequels.

What are you talking about? Jar Jar for example looks so real to me not to mention the Droid Commander.

It's overused though. There are things you can only accomplish with CGI but Lucas crammed it everywhere. When you watch some of the making off's, all you see is actors jumping around in front of a green screen.
Best example, I read that there wasn't a single real clone trooper suit made for the movie, meaning every clone trooper we see is CGI and that's just ridiculous. Give it some time and Lucas will remake his movies using only CGI. You don't really need actors for this anyway.

Jar Jar should be shot and hung from somewhere for all i care. What Lucas should do next is the Thrawn trilogy(Timothy Zahn) which is much better than aything he came up with over the years. If you people see Thrawn and Mara Jade on the screen you'll scream "revelation" and start jumping up and down in party sync.

I predict that George Lucas will take one long look at Episodes 4, 5 and 6, and then decide to re-film them.

Originally Posted by Prince_of_Macedon

I predict that George Lucas will take one long look at Episodes 4, 5 and 6, and then decide to re-film them.

There in their 60's man, they won't be able to pull of epic maneuvers.

Originally Posted by Prince_of_Macedon

I predict that George Lucas will take one long look at Episodes 4, 5 and 6, and then decide to re-film them.

Damn straight.