Keeping it real

Let me talk about one of the little things in life that bugs me, and make a wish.

Back in 1993, Universal released a movie by the name of Jurassic Park. I watched it for the first time sitting in a movie theatre and was completely blown away. Remember the Superman tagline: You'll believe a man can fly? Well watching that movie I believed in dinosaurs. I grew up loving dinosaurs. I used to know all the names. Seeing that movie made me feel young again. Sitting there they made the dino's appear so real you could almost belive that the science was possible. While the acting was so-so at best (except for the wonderfully funny job done by Jeff Goldblum and Richard Attenborough), the whole point of the movie was just watching the dinosaurs. They had them right down to the pores. From the first moment they showed them on the screen to the last shot of the T-Rex roaring I was mesmorized. It was a true marvel of computer magic and special effects bringing them to life. Making them look so real you wanted to reach out and touch them.

Now here it was several years later and the first of the new Star Wars movies came out. I loved Star Wars even more than dinosaurs growing up. I had seen all of them in a movie theatres (and the first at a drive-in). I owned all the toys from all three movies, even the hard to find and rare ones. They wern't worth much by the time I grew up because I played with them, but to me back then they meant the world. I was so excited that they were finally continuing the series. For a little while I could feel young again.
But as I sat there, listening to evil oriental aliens and watching the horror of Jar Jar and trying to ignore so many plot holes that you couldn't cover them with duct tape, it occured to me that everything on the screen looked like a 'Computer Generated Special Effect'. They didn't look real, they looked fake, like a cartoon almost. Almost as bad as the much later to come Hulk movie. I just couldn't understand how Lucas studios, one of the premier special effect studios in the world, could end up making stuff that looked so damn fake. How could Jurassic Park, so many years earlier, have made something that was so beliveable. WTF?!?!

Then the second movie came out, and it was better. But still things looked like something off of Newgrounds.com. So damn animated. Yeah, in the origional they used rubber masks and muppets, yet Yoda as a muppet was still a step above what was on the screen in front of me. I'm not saying I didn't like the movie mind you, just that the creatues and droids and ships looked very fake. So obviously computer made. I've had people try telling me that it's unavoidable, that thats what computer effects look like. Yet I keep coming back to Jurassic Park. It looked real! So damn real! And It was YEARS AGO! They must have gotten more advanced by now! I'm not even going to go into the Lord of the Rings, which looked so good it put Lucas Arts to shame. How could they ruin Star Wars so bad?

Well the 3rd film is coming. I can't wait to see it. I've waited years to see the penultimate battle between Obi and Ani. The fight that lead him to become Vader in the armor. I have my fingers crossed that they won't screw this up. No jap-aliens. No Jar-Jar. No plot holes. No Backstreet Boys (If your a die-hard Star Wars nerd you'll understand the referance). No magic. No rubber masks. No muppets. And NO DAMN COMPUTERS. Just Ani and Obi. It's all I ask. My last wish for the Star Wars movies. Take my breath away one last time. I want to believe, just like I did in dinosaurs for a little while in 1993. Make it look real.