I fully understand the uncanny valley stuff. I just felt this was very far from what I normally consider the uncanny valley effect (ie., Tom Hanks in Polar Express). One of my kids (17) couldn’t even tell initially that it wasn’t a real person. Could I tell it wasn’t real or perfect? Of course. But it seemed very far away from being distracting or immersion breaking - especially at the level some folks have complained about. Even moreso with atrocities like Vader’s costume.
People saying CG Tarkin was distracting are “whiney” but people pointing out Vader’s costume was shoddy are A-OK.
Yup. Sounds like the internet.
That was mostly the point. And the reason for the smiley!
Really, I was just surprised that the CGI wasn’t as bad as I expected based on comments I’d read.
I saw it for the second time Monday. Even knowing this time Tarkin was CGI and looking for it to annoy me, it still didn’t.
I loved it again.
I’d love to see a little more backstory about Vader’s Castle, though.
Well I am pretty whiney about A Force Awakens. Especially the use of ANOTHER DEATH STAR!!! I will whine about that til I die… because using it for a third time IS STUPID AND LAZY. JJ Abrams almost destroys the credibility of the universe… and I hate him anyway, he is a terrible terrible overrated director… and i dont even mind his lensflares!
This CGI argument reminds me of the DVD and BluRay conversations. There’s a group around me that says can’t see the difference between the two, and they don’t understand what the big deal is. Around half of them didn’t notice the CGI either.
I agree about Abrams, and I agree that the doomsday weapon plot device was terrible choice.
That said, despite being a big detractor of Abrams in general, I though he did a tremendous job threading a near impossible needle. The movie has some fantastic elements, crafts some wonderful character bits, and genuinely felt like a good Star Wars film. Warts and all, it did what I thought was an exceptionally difficult task.
Still need to see Rogue One though…
I’m always surprised to hear TFA praised for it’s characters when I thought that was the worst part. Abrams never slows down enough for to get to know anything about anyone, let a lone build an arc. TFA felt a lot like every other Abrams film I’ve seen, a roller coaster ride, which isn’t exactly what I associate with Star Wars.
Well, let’s just put it this way - at least it wasn’t Jerry Bruckheimer. It would have been twice as explodey.
The most annoying part about the CG characters is everyone has to comment on which one(s) they liked. Had to do a lot of scrolling through the thread after I saw the movie the other day. Should’ve made a poll thread for that trash and left this one to real discussion!
It’s in the movie. it’s part of the discussion. Why wouldn’t it be? It’s no different than every celebrity cameo that has less than a one minute scene in a 2 hour movie often gets brought up.
Just a QT3 thing where it’s part of the impressions checklist.
Not exactly. The guy’s dead. Most of the fans know that so they’re going to comment on his presence, and the last one looks weird to anyone who’s able to focus on the screen
The New York Times at least thought the technique was interesting:
Whether you like the attempt or not, what they did is still kind of worthwhile to read about.
I wonder how many people would have noticed if it wasn’t characters that you knew were CGI? Rebel spy master guy, for example? Admittedly, there’s very little reason to do that for that guy, but I wonder how much of the noticeable uncanny valley (which I also noticed) is because we knew that Tarkin and young Leia couldn’t be real? It’s like picking at a scab.
I have the Lego version. : )
But I knew it before then. Soooo nerdy.
Thanks for that! I had a nagging feeling that I have seen K2 somewhere before! Now you helped connect the dot! It’s not a bad thing. I love HK47 as a additional character and I enjoyed his banter.
That scene where he threw the grenade and said, “I should have waited in the ship.” also for some reason reminded me of the “wish we had some had grenades” line from Serenity.
I didn’t know it was CGI until I read this thread. I haven’t seen Star Wars in a long time and I only vaguely remember Tarkin as a character. I figured it could have been the same character, who I didn’t know by name, but I sure didn’t realize it was the same actor.
On Leia’s appearance looking a little uncanny: I thought she looked deathly pale, which of course mirrored how she looked in that Tantivian corridor uploading the plans into a Old Republic war hero.