I am dissapointed...

[SG]

No I don't like the idea of updating this film.
I'm just against it.

I'm not interested in the least.
Oh well...
Am I a jerk?
Obviously I'm going to get this DVD, but I'm not happy about it.
How about we axe the original version of CITIZEN KANE for an improved version with CGI re-renderings of the effects and make up.  ?
It's the same thing in my opinion.

George, WHATS WRONG WITH IT the way you did it the first time?
OH, I'm such a baby!

[Julien Dupire]

You still have a very simple solution... Get the DivX and rip it on a DVD...  :wink:

[DM Corleone]

No I don't like the idea of updating this film.
I'm just against it.

I'm not interested in the least.
Oh well...
Am I a jerk?

No, you're not a jerk.  I agree that it would be best to leave it as it is.  It was made in the early 70's and it looks like it was made in the late 70's.

Considering the budget, I think Lucas did a kick-butt job on it.

Are there effects that need to be updated?  I don't think so.  It seems to me to be pretty good the way it is.

How would you re-do the scene of THX and the hologram being chased around the rows and rows of "computer" banks.  In today's world, all that computing power could be managed by one computer geek sitting in front of a SUN microstation.  Would they just run around and around this one table?

-Don

[mckevrock]

Just like the Star Wars special edition, GL's gone and shoved in some obvious CG shots. At first I was irritated, but now I'm at least pleased that GL has thought enough of his film to take the time to flesh out what he thought might be missing or impossible in the 1970 version.

Let's hope there's no song-and-dance routines put in or- for the love of God-- Jar-Jar Binks!!!!  :oops:

IMHO Lucas has yet to understand the limitations of CGI. His CGI always appears CHEAP and FAKE. Take a lesson from Spielberg, man!!!!

But it won't keep me out of the theater.

[crs1022]

I can understand how you think that adding effects changes the movie, but really he's just completing the film. He is putting back the 5 min. cut from his original version and just cleaning up the movie. It's easy to see from the trailer that the film looks better. Certainly not 33 years old!

The CGI creates a bigger world and makes it feel even more oppressive. I like seeing more chrome cops and a bigger factory too. It seems more dangerous because the chance of everything exploding is increased by all the activity. I don't think the effects look fake either. Pretty good for a DVD release and a lot better than blockbusters that have been released recently.

I look at changes like these as positives. This film is obviously GL's favorite since he includes it in everything, and I for one will be glad to see his complete vision. If this technology was available then it would have been used so I look at it like the original version.

[OMM0000]

The CGI creates a bigger world and makes it feel even more oppressive

This is one point I respectfully disagree with.  I think the overall tone of the film is one where THX and co. are perpetually stuck in this cramped little world (small quarters, tight hallways, close working conditions) with noplace else to go, and not until he escapes does the outside 'bigness' happen.  It's a nice contrast.  I can't believe he would let this aspect of the picture slip.

The prison/jail sequence kind of cements this for me.  The other prisoners have no concept of a bigger space, and won't venture out past the small area set up for them.

To somehow make the THX-world 'bigger' does it a disservice...

[crs1022]

I see your point exactly, but...

I look at it more like the inhabitants of that world are sheltered mentally more than physically, having no indepenent thoughts or ideas, and that this is what THX realizes when he is accidentally released from his drug induced stupor. That's what he is really escaping. Not the place but the mindset (my opinion at least).

I think that no matter what effects are added, this is the nature of the film and it will still be apparent in the film (I hope).

[PVS 1972]

Hey Everyone

I'm not dissapointed by George's plans to do a directors cut with added CGI.  It'll be an interesting edition.  But personally I don't watch in THX for the SFX.

BUT

I am more upset than I probably should be however that he's burrying the original.  People who think this is a good thing, just seem like madmen to me, talking about visions and the like.  There's no decent reason why the original shouldn't be in the DVD set.  You can't give me one, George Lucas couldn't give me one.

For me all I can compare it to is vandalism, and a dangerous revisionist tendancy.  I don't think films should be *replaced* by constantly updated versions.  Georges' digitally 'tinkered with' Star Wars films already look dated, they are going to be updated again with new story elements in a few years.  These too will age.  George Lucas may be stuck re-editing these movies until the day he dies.  And then, and this is the dangerous bit, the companies will keep updating them after he's dead.  I don't think culture should be endlessly recycled and regurgitated in this way.  You might think it sounds far fetched, but then a society like THX 1138 lives in is far fetched, we hope.

Please note, nobody is saying GL shouldn't do his updated versions, we're just sasking that the originals be kept about.  They aren't shameful or embarressing, they are a part of the history of cinema and and our culture.

Sorry if some of that sounds over the top.  I just give a damn about this movie.

[PVS 1972]

I meant to add, my respect for George would rise immeasurably if he went off and made some new films!  SF or not.

[jack_t]

IMHO Lucas has yet to understand the limitations of CGI. His CGI always appears CHEAP and FAKE. Take a lesson from Spielberg, man!!!!

That's about the dumbest and most inaccurate thing I've ever heard. Lucas is the man that pioneered the effects we see today. Nothing about VFX in Lucas films appear cheap and fake.

[PVS 1972]

There is (or was I've heard since it's been chnaged) a scene in Star Wars where they approach Mos Eisley in the Speeder, all CGI.  When I saw this in the cinema, it looked as fake and out of place as you can imagine.  Other bits did too.  George Lucas has apparently changed that now.  He'll have to change it again in another ten years or people will be saying the same about the new scene.  Special effects such as Stop Motion, Blue Screen and, yes, even CGI date after a while, the audience learns the trick of spotten what isn't real from what is.

My point is that you'll still be comfotable able to 'spot the trick' with a lot of this new stuff in a few years time, then he'll have to re-do the movie again, and change bits.  It just seems to me to be the wasted effort of a man bankrupt of new ideas and inspiration, an obsessive/compulsively re-making his past glories.

I'm afraid George npow comes udner the title of 'Genius or Madman', he's probably one or the other, and it's debatable which.  More often or not I say Madman, you say Genius.  You may well be right.

[DM Corleone]

I have the new DVD, and I have watched it.

I enjoy the running commentary by GL and Walter Murch.  I enjoy the extras on the second DVD.  There are two additions to the film that I do not care for:

1. The masterbator machine.  Why did GL add this machine which descends from the ceiling and pumps up and down while THX watches the black naked woman dancing?  If you could not tell from the VHS version what THX was doing as his eyes rolled back into his head while that music played, you need to quit taking so much etracene!  If THX needs a machine when he has two perfectly good hands, he needs to cut his etracene as well.

2. The video screen above the "violations" box.  It was clear from the earlier edition that THX was filling out a violation card.  It became even clearer during THX's last shift that he had filled out a violation card on SEN.  Why do we need the video screen to spell out what THX is doing?  What is the point of stuffing the card into the collection box, if there is a video record of what THX did?  True, computer punch cards are a thing of the past.  These days we are used to instant input and instant results.  And to add insult to injury, THX does not even look at the screen.  What is it's purpose - to show those in line behind THX what he is doing?

Now, as far as the artwork of the these two additions - I think GL did a great job!  The look is seamless.  If you did not know that they were not there in 1970, you could not tell today.  It is just the whole purpose of these additions that has my undies in a bunch.

-Don