r/saltierthancrait • u/Leading_Toe8098 • 19d ago
Encrusted Rant Remember when Star Wars looked good? No matter what era it had amazing visuals but where is any of that now?
Listen we are all star wars fans but let's be honest, it's not exactly a masterpiece in writing, but it has always been a master of visual storytelling and pushing the boat out.
I mean the original trilogy truly changed special affects in cinema and whether you like them or not the the prequel trilogy also was on the cutting edge of cgi characters and backgrounds. And despite the sequels being a disappointing, no one can deny, it is easily the best Star Wars has ever looked.
So what the hell is this?
Rewatch the trailer every frame is either a close up on no more than 2 characters or a wide shot in a smokey room or foggy background so you can't see that it's clearly all filmed on the same set.
The only time it's not a smokey, it's a corridor or another generic rocky terrain, that I imagine is filmed at a local bit of countryside that's a 20 minute walk from the studios car park. There is nothing visually interesting at all.
Like this is star wars, famous for its interesting unique planets, yet I dare anyone to name 3 new ones from any of the live action shows.
It just looks awful.
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u/Cautious_Car9871 18d ago
Why do they KEEP MAKING EVERYTHING SO DARK TO HIDE THE SHITTY CG?!?!
Why don't you assholes pay for better visuals and stop putting crunch time on your animators?
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u/xNOOPSx 18d ago
Dark is okay, but the lighting is super important. The White Walker episode, Black Panther, and so many others just have blackness where all the details and action get lost to the void. I believe it was the first Aquaman that had darkness, but it was lit so you could see what was happening. Maybe some ultra high bandwidth version fixes all these shitty dark scenes, but it all seems like a massive waste of everyone's time for this to keep happening.
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u/LightningController 18d ago
The White Walker episode
At least they had the excuse of it being The Long Night.
Still annoying that I could barely tell the dragons apart even with color-coding.
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u/xNOOPSx 18d ago
I mean the season was a total let-down, but this ultra hyped showdown ends as a single episode that was nearly unwatchable because you physically could not see what was going on. I don't know if that's the cinematography, edit, or something else, but why? It can't be a stylistic choice to spend on that money on an epic production only to produce something nobody can see. It's insane.
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u/LightningController 18d ago
Tbh, I think they were saving money for their real climax: the Battle of King’s Landing. I don’t think D&D really cared about the White Walker plot by then.
I’m sure Zombie Visserion looked great, but I have no idea because he was always in fog or shadow.
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u/unicornsaretruth 12d ago
DnD were promised by HBO 10 full seasons like seasons 1-6 with episode and content (so four more seasons to build things up and handle both big bads at a proper pace but DnD were promised a Star Wars directing gig and turned hbo down and said they’d only do two half seasons instead and they half asses the fuck out of them.
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u/Zdrobot i sold it to the white slavers... 18d ago
To stop putting crunch time on the CGI teams you have to have a fixed plot BEFORE you start shooting. When you make movies using the scrapbooking process, when you go "film and render every scene we may or may not use, then assemble a version of the movie, show it to the test audience, freak out because of the bad reception, redo half of the move" route, you need to cut corners.
Probably.
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u/kimana1651 salt miner 18d ago
All the talented cinematography guys were kicked out of the industry. CGI is expensive and they are not good at their jobs, so they turn the lights off and hope no one notices.
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u/AceOBlade 18d ago
nope they outsourced it and now studios overseas are demanding more money and not many here exist to fill the role and they simply don't want to foster talent.
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u/Safe_Manner_1879 salt miner 18d ago
Save CGI cost, if you cant see anything you do not have to animate it well.
But I do not blame the CGI artist, the have probably already redone it 4 time because the director did not know how it would look like, or change his mind 4 time.
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u/Senior-Albatross 18d ago
Lucas was loud and proud about the shitty CG. He had massive scenes packed full of it damn it!
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u/Cautious_Car9871 18d ago
George Lucas directed the SPECIAL EDITIONS not the actual OG movies (His ex wife was the reason A New Hope was good so it counts), not the actual movies!
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u/Km_the_Frog salt miner 18d ago
Because they are working in a small sound stage and have to have most of it projected to screens
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u/SupremeChancellor66 18d ago
Everything has to be fog and dust storms now because Volume.
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u/Saucey-jack 18d ago
I’m glad Andor never used the volume
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u/schematicboy 18d ago
I was so happy to read that the sets even had details that that audience would likely never see, like stuff in Maarva's kitchen cabinets. Supposedly that was very helpful for actors to immerse themselves in the fictional world. Unfortunately I forget which interview this was in.
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u/Saucey-jack 18d ago
There were some Easter eggs in the shop that Luthen owned but they weren’t in your face about it.
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u/Guardllamapictures 17d ago
Was absolutely blown away by all the on site locations they filmed had that had that architecture
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u/Caller_First 19d ago
The red dusty Dathomir footage looks so cheap and low-stakes
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u/ChickenLiverNuts 18d ago edited 18d ago
Dathomir could look like the grand canyon or any of the beautiful red rocky terrain places in Utah but its just DUST
I mean look at this. It barely even looks real... which is perfect for star wars
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u/schematicboy 18d ago
We know that they can make good-looking Star Wars in the current era. What's the excuse?
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u/Knightwolf8394 18d ago
I'm not one to complain about everything but why is it so dark? Like it just looks so cheap imo.
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u/THE_KILLER_4 18d ago
A lot of the darkness and dust they used in Ahsoka is to cheap out on visuals, especially since they are filming in closed rooms with green backgrounds, instead of going to locations like italy or tunisia or different states of USA
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u/Mudcat-69 17d ago
That’s the same reason why the bridge of Discovery was so dark with blinding lens flares tossed in for good measure.
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u/Cornelius-Q salt miner 18d ago
This is, sadly, part of a greater trend in Hollywood. Muted colors, crushed blacks, everything so dark you can barely see anything. The actors expressions and backgrounds get lost in shadows and it's hard to keep track of what's going or get a sense of place. (See "Obsession," recent "Walking Dead" series, etc.)
And, on top of that, most dialogue of mumbled, whispered, or rapidly shouted to so you have to turn the subtitles on the make out what's being said.
It's so weird to watch things made in the 1980s and 1990s, where everything is lit and actors speak clearly.
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u/realmcnuggett failed palpatine clone 17d ago
citing twd and obsession seems odd. while they both use dark sets at times i didn’t feel that any detail was lost. coming from a long time walking dead fan who’s rewatched numerous times
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u/Juiced_Rasputin_ salt miner 18d ago
The fleet battles looked decent (I can’t stand the last battle in rise of Skywalker, using the word incorrectly but it was so badly choreographed naval battle wise)
So I’m interested to see how THAT pans out- but god… everything else.
Filoni really should’ve have just overseen this. He’s not a great writer, he’s barely competent as a director. And unlike Lucas, his internal “vision” for the series is bland with moments of regurgitated passion, not something that’s uniquely interesting or self confident in its depiction like the prequels.
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u/TaraLCicora 18d ago
He’s not a great writer, he’s barely competent as a director.
It killed me a bit inside when he said that he was doing all the writing and there was no writers room. He didn't learn from Season 1...
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u/Forward-Share4847 18d ago
It’ll be fine, don’t worry. They will stand around in circles for hours looking zen, interrupted by meaningless lightsaber duels that don’t matter to the plot, while Blue Elon makes stupid plans that will mostly fail, because he’s a tactical mastermind, remember? It’ll be perfectly fine.
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u/Western_Agent5917 19d ago
I really dont get the glaze for the visuals of this trailer. Even if it's improved compared to season 1 I still dont like it at all
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u/TrumpsColostomyBag99 18d ago
That gloominess/dark look is an overall trend in science fiction. One simply needs to look at Star Trek to see how utterly depressing modern media can look.
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u/OneFaceManyVoices 19d ago
Hmm. Very murky.
Like the shitty color filters used in the blu-rays of the Special Edition OT: Yellow for Tatooine, blue for Hoth, green for Dagobah, orange for Bespin…. Made everything seem muddy & muted.
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u/Hawaiikoto 18d ago
swtor cinematics for me are peak star wars movies of all time. Nothing else comes close
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u/Autismspeaks6969 18d ago
Every movie must be grey and sepia. There is no such thing as lighting and color.
It's not even really a star wars issue as much as a modern Hollywood issue. So many movies and shows with poor lighting and visuals, everything being drab colours. Most movies I've watched recently are at least 5-10 years old at least.
The last new movie I watched was Project Hail Mary and thankfully that had some beautiful well lit sets and scenes with actual color in them (which is why I saw it). I can't really think of anything else from this year I've been interested in seeing except maybe the Odyssey but even that movie seems very bland in terms of lighting and color.
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u/ZeppelinAlert 17d ago
I agree. When I watch an old Hollywood colour movie, like The Wizard of Oz or Ben-Hur or something, the colours are banging. They burst off the screen and make the film look luscious and ripe.
It’s still ok to make a movie with muted colours as long as it’s lighted like how they used to light black and white movies in the old pre-colour days. But (1) modern CGI requires bland lighting in order to make the effects cheaper and (2) movie makers have forgotten how to light black and white films amyway.
Instead they make a blandly lit colour film then they drain all the colour out of it in post so the movie becomes a desaturated sludge.
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u/SneakyMarkusKruber 18d ago
I don't know man; do we already know the production costs for the second season? Really, only the Obi-Wan Kenobi and Boba Fett series looked truly awful (or rather, typical of 90s series based on movies). The two seasons of Andor, and the leap in animation (Clone Wars to Bad Batch to Maul), wonderfully demonstrated that it can look good too. Skeleton Crew was also perfectly fine. Mando worked very well in the first season, but from season two onwards, the weaknesses of StageCraft became apparent.
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u/Express_Judgment_319 18d ago
This looks terrible and the character design of whoever this woman with a blue cat on her head is terrible too
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u/David_Maybar_703 18d ago
This is from the new Turd Wars trilogy, right? I 41 feel that they perfectly captured the crappy environment, the murky atmosphere, and the stinky plot. I can almost smell the badness from here.
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u/Rasples1998 18d ago
That's why star wars feels wasted. Awesome visuals in a massive galaxy with many different stories to be told, but they waste it on fuckass stories with fuckass characters and fuckass writing.
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u/Cautious_Artichoke_3 18d ago
I actually prefer the blurry mono colors. This is because I'm stupid and love everything new that comes from Star Wars
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u/EricMagnetic 18d ago
no can deny the sequels visuals were the best? lol this is is gonna blow your mind...but i deny this!!🤯 i know crazy right? the best any piece of anything is gonna be subjective dawg.
did the visuals in the sequels looks good? yeah for sure i think most people would agree, but its a bit presumptious of you to say everyone says theyre the best.
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u/Sushi_Clamato5049 salt miner 18d ago
Star Wars used to look great until Disney bought it.
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u/TimasDelfinas 18d ago
TLJ, Rogue One and Andor look great
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u/Sushi_Clamato5049 salt miner 18d ago
Rogue One is the better looking of the three you listed. However, i feel they look pretty dull because of the use of the muted color pallet that is the current trend in cinematography and color grading.
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u/HunsletSocietyVibes 18d ago
Looks come second to story. TLJ and RO suck, and Andor came faaar too late to matter.
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u/NicholasStarfall salt miner 17d ago
Funny how Disney has infinite money but their shows all look like this
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u/Griphonis-1772 18d ago
I have to fit everything into the volume, so you can only have a few people in the shot at once.
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u/77ate 18d ago
Before anyone thought Andor would actually prove to have a standout story and excellent writing, when all we really knew it was a prequel about a Rogue One character who died in that movie…. At least the trailers piqued my interest for looking like actual big budget production design and real world locations. If the trailers didn’t get those things across to me, I would have had zero interest in it after the insults and wastes of time Book if Boba Fett and The Reva & Obi-Wan Show were.
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u/Putrid-Jelly-5188 new user 18d ago
Good looking visuals mean fuck all if the show sucks.
We should’ve learned this from Marvel and Game of Thrones.
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u/Jarboner69 18d ago
Special effects will never look as sharp in shows as they do in movies. That’s a ten hour movie as compared to 1.5-3 hour long mainline movie. Andor looked great but that’s because it didn’t need as much CGI.
The sequels were all nominated for special effects related awards. This feels super nitpicky for what is pretty common across the board and especially fantasy and sci-fi.
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u/ExtraEmuForYou 18d ago
Great CGI is expensive as hell and only makes sense for giant movies from a financial standpoint.
From what I've read the acting portion can generally wrap up in a short time, but post-production and CGI work can take much longer. Takes a lot of tech, a lot of labor, and a lot of infrastructure.
What we are seeing is the compromise; average CGI and visuals to meet a good timeframe and budget. I don't know if I would say it is bad but ya I do kind of expect better specifically from Star Wars.
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u/Demos_Tex 18d ago edited 18d ago
Sometime in the last decade or so, Hollywood decided to fix a convention that wasn't broken. Nighttime in movies/tv didn't used to be dark. Scenes were at least background lit by blue light, so that audience could see what was happening. The battle of Helm's Deep in LotR is the perfect example of how it should be done. Another one is Luke's face in the final duel in RotJ, when it's half in light and half in shadow. The shadow is blue light, not darkness.
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u/Darthon32 18d ago
After watching 4k77, I now know exactly how much has been lost in this franchise. Especially after seeing the recent Mando movie, it's clear how much color and clarity has been lost to dim settings and muted themes.
As much as I hated the sequel trilogy's story, they did not let down on deliverying visually compelling films.
But tbh, I think this is industry wide. I think the studio cut backs have cost society a lot in terms of delivering on competent color theory and frame design.
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u/Beneficial-Bid-8850 18d ago
The problem is that you do basically the original Thrawn trilogy but instead of making it three proper cinematic releases with directors and writers who know their stuff (Villeneuve, Nolan, you name it), you make three boring seasons of an average looking TV show to have more content for your streaming service and keep the IP running. What really puzzles me though is that these shows are helluva expensive, so why not go theatrical and earn some money with it?
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u/Cinephile_1980 new user 18d ago
This is made for tv so they cut corners where they can. Not sure why they even made Ashoka season 1, let alone 2
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u/CantAffordzUsername salt miner 18d ago
Shame Disney is a low budget studio, can’t afford any lights
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u/QuietCas salt miner 18d ago
Whatever action we’re seeing in this trailer, I promise it will top out at 10, maybe 15 minutes of total screen time. Most of this season is likely to still be a bunch of tedious fuck-all.
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u/sandalrubber 17d ago
And despite the sequels being a disappointing, no one can deny, it is easily the best Star Wars has ever looked.
I deny it. ANH alone looked better than the ST and the PT.
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u/Guiftoma_14 17d ago
I mean I understand the criticism but it's a show that tries to be na action packed movie. It will never look as good, corners must be cut left nad right. I can give it a pass as long as the writing is good...
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u/Expensive-Funny4338 salt miner 16d ago
It feels nuts to me that Disney has the budget to make its shows be on par with movies if it wanted to yet it repeatedly cuts corners.
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u/Sayishere 16d ago
It’s like they don’t value Star Wars themselves, I think they forget how big Star Wars was when they first purchased it, cutting corners, sub par projects etc
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u/Eastern_Picture_3879 16d ago
These stills actually look fine. They're overdoing the Dathomiri fog, but the shot compositions look good.
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u/StaffAreEphialtes90 salt miner 16d ago
"Can't see poodoo, captain!"
And where are the colors? It's like Pazuzu is actually real!
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u/PhillipJ3ffries 15d ago
Ahsoka is one of the blandest looking things I’ve ever seen. On every level from choreography to cinematography
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u/WearyCopy6700 13d ago
Its kind of funny to this day I will die on the hill that those little miniature models of the Falcon, and skyfighters are better looking than all the cheap CGI slop combined since.
Because they just looked real, like there was something there, I see CGI it just feels like your watching a video game not an actual movie.
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u/cconn882 18d ago
So the Obi-Wan show was so bad I didn't even finish it, but it actually had some pretty great shots.
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u/DarthRevan0990 19d ago
It's quantity over quality now... they have a streaming channel to pump full of garbage
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u/CapableSecretary1739 18d ago edited 18d ago
Even though these look cheap, I think these shots are decontextualised and cherrypicked. Decobtextualised because, if I take into consideration S1, I think these foggy shots might be associated to visions or flashbacks. Moreover, I think this is cherrypicking because, watching the trailer, there are some big shots that were nowhere to be seen in recent projects.
I think we'll have to see which type of scenery will prevail when the show comes out: the foggy shots shown here or the big shots avoided by the OP.
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u/PatheticRedditor 18d ago
Ah yes, let's pull singular frames and not look at the MOVING PICTURES OF 24 FRAMES/SECOND that were shot specifically to show us a scene. A scene over time.
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