So, I've been slowly working my way through all of Star Wars new canon lately and have made it up to the point where I watched Revenge of the Sith last night. Therefore, I've successfully made it through all of the prequels (including all other canon material), which I hadn't seen in quite some time. With that said, after watching them again, man, I've developed an even growing disdain for the CGI orgy those films turned into, and REALLY bad CGI at that. It is worth noting that I watched the first two movies on my 40 inch HD TV on blu ray, where they were bad, but not REALLY bad. However, I've since just bought a new curved 65 inch Samsung 4K UHD tv for my new basement, and made the mistake of watching Revenge of the Sith on that with my 4K blu ray player, which upscales normal HD to closer to 4K. Anyway, you expand the detail and stretch that stuff out, it is amazing how clear everything looks. However, at the same time, it greatly expands how crazy awful the CGI looks. I truly say this with all sincerity, but it is amazing how much better the original trilogy has aged than the prequels.
With all this said, there is no doubt I place a lot of blame on George Lucas, but people also need to realize that the prequels were also somewhat a product of their time. Their time was one where CGI was finally just breaking into full-throttle, giving all filmmakers an ability to do many things they previously couldn't, at a fraction of the cost. Consequently, all filmmakers were going way overboard with this new stuff, which was faaarrrr from mastered at the time. Granted, Lucas also somewhat lead the charge of it as well, so he is as much to blame for that monster as anyone. Regardless, times have evolved since then where not only has CGI come a long way, but the public has also realized that most all things, including CGI are good in moderation, but can never fully replace practical effects. Shoot, in all the prequels, how many actual real-life Clone troopers did we ever see? 1? 2?
