The problem with the Crossgaurd:
1) Size. At nearly 1ft end to end.. its most likely it will cut the user whos swinging it.
2) The Un-Shielded Junction. This is the biggest problem actually. As swords clash... the persons sword will slide all the way down the sword to the cross-junction. However, since the light-bars are a nearly 2" away from the junction... it leaves them to be easily severed off. (The arm of the Op along with it)
If they had a weapons expert in there... they probably would have easily spotted this Face-Palm error.
Neither the Japanese nor Chinese swords have cross members. The disc shaped hand guards are small, yet effectively enough to keep the hand safe from blade-slide. Adding durable extended T-shaped cross members does not really gain you much protection, especially considering that attacks can come from any angle. It merely adds unwanted weight... making wielding slower and more tiresome.
I personally have no issue with modifications and unique weapons... so long as they operate with some sense of believable realism.
All they really had to do to make it more realistic... is to make the beams come out exactly at the edges of the grip.
---
Puppets - vs - CGI
CGI can be done quite convincingly when the right people are given the task, and when allowed the maximum rays to be traced + rendering time ($$$).
However, Lucus's ILM team was just not up to par, and it would seem that they skimped on rays, and render times. Whats even worse... is that these 3d animators were horrible at simulating realistic motions... such as walking, fighting..etc. So you get characters like Jar Jar... and Yoda... that seem to move like there is no such thing as Gravity, acceleration, momentum..etc. No matter how real you make something look... when it does not move realistically... it totally ruins the effect, and caused most people to shun it instantly.
Also, Lucus's CGI was made without any form of realism. Buildings and ships looked like they were just polished by Mr. Clean. It was bad enough that there wasnt enough depth due to the lack of shading rays... but they to make everything sparkle like brand new... was way over the top. The real world is gritty and dirty. The tech and look should have been even more so than the originals.
Puppets actually looked far more interesting (artistic), and moved more realistically than many CGI characters. Even the puppets that looked or moved kinda oddly.. were acceptable, because they were not hyper-realistic in appearance. Each character was a work of art.. and added a real fantasy element to the movie. It also added a lot of comedic relief.. otherwise, Starwars would have been more of a serious drama. It would have lost a lot of its playfulness, heart, and soul.
Ewoks - Love / Hate
It seems that Older generation people didnt like the idea of the Puppets, most especially the Ewoks. Its sort of funny, because R2D2 is about as unrealistic as can be... but he was easily accepted... where as Ewoks were not. Similarly, there are many other puppet characters as well... and again, were accepted. I would guess that was because they were not the main focus... as the Ewoks were.
Of course, its more than merely age, that forms certain polar opinions. There are a lot of Sci-Fi fans that are less about emotions, feelings, drama, and character ... and really just want to see high tech stuff. Space flight, dog fights, explosions, and pure action. They often want hyper realism... because to them, fantasy is seen as sort of childish and is not desired.
These people often feel that Empire is the best of the Starwars films, as a result of that vastly different perspective.
I personally love the Ewoks. But I also love movies like Labyrinth as well. Im a fan of hand made things, and well done puppetry.
Which sadly, is probably not going to be in the new and future starwars episodes. As a result, I feel the series will lose a lot of its character and depth. It will probably become more of a generic and boring series.
Hand Built Ships - vs - CGI
I think a lot of people do not realize the complexity of many of these great ship designs. They Never would have happened, had some boring CGI artist tried to build them from scratch as originals. The originals came to be so good.. because there were made by master model makers. This kind of artists does not usually go into the CGI field.. because the CGI field is far more sterile and quirky. The software and proceedures are far more painful to deal with... than merely to build these things from scratch with real physical materials.
Even beyond this... is the fact that most CGI raytraving is done very poorly.. and so the ships look very flat and unrealistic, compared to photographed models. Add to this a bad animator plotting the flight patterns.. and you have a sterile and unbelievable action scene... that looks fake, and ruins the emotional value of the scene, due to the suspension of disbelief being far more impactful.
Prequels - vs - Originals
Most of what was said above applies to the Prequels. Horribly unrealistic, flat, super-clean, poorly animated CGI. A touch of JARmacan Racism. And adding to that... you have awful monotone acting. None of the characters stood out as likable, nor interesting.
Look at the reactions in the new Trailer. As soon as people see Han, or Chewie... they go berzerk with emotions. That is because these characters gave such great performances. They are memorable and charismatic. You actually Care what happens with and to them. That simply cant be said for anything in the Prequels. Its devoid of any real emotional impact.
A great actor can almost turn a lump of coal, into a Diamond.
When Lucus got full control over SW... he committed some of the worst crimes to it. He went against everything that made SW so memorable and impacting. No more puppets, no more physically built models, and poor quality of comedic relief. Use of no-name actors whom may have looked right... but couldnt act for beans.
New Trailer Opinion
I dont want to say to much about it. Im glad many of the original actors are in it. Im also a fan of some of JJ's works... so it has some potential to at least be "Good". (Unlike Prequels) Some scenes seemed more decorated in realism, rather than mere CGI.. which was nice.
I dont think it will surpass something like ROTJ, from the trailers current looks.
It seems more of a Star Trek style of adventure... based more on realism, than the more fantasy / artsy originals.
I do like the aspect of seeing a Star Wars film is Stereoscopic 3d.
----
Personally, I want to see an IMAX 3d conversion of ROTJ (the Original Theatrical release).
Id pay $30 for a ticket to see that, easily.
Home
Help
Search
Login
Register
Send this topic
Print
Topic: Force Awakens Trailer 3 (Read 7305 times)
