So were most visual effects. It’s more groundbreaking for the future than anything else, which is more how I interpreted the question to be.
They definitely could not have afforded to invent a new theatrical playback system while doing the movie.
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What about storytelling? Innovation of spectacle? Score compositions?
Here is Leo making the same comparison
Sorry for ignoring this reply from a few days ago, I kinda feel bad posting about these movies in a serious way and have been trying not too lol. Anyway, you are wrong. Like I said before, that kids like Star Wars doesn’t make it a kids movie. When I was a kid I liked looking through my dad’s Playboys, so what. Star Wars is clearly a film specifically for people of Lucas’s generation, just like American Graffiti - a film that is more closely related to it than any of the sequels. My reading is that The Return of The Jedi is just a remake of the original that is made for kids (it’s also the only other Star Wars movie I see as an artistic success).
I think the way to see these films is that A New Hope is a movie for adults that is largely hostile to adulthood and the post-Jedi films, especially the Disneys, are movies for children that are largely hostile to childhood. All very cynical and mostly quite bad. (The exception is Rogue One, which is simply dreary, incoherent fan service. Please stop recommending that film to normal people)
I think the majority of people who watch these films are not as rigorous in their analysis of the themes of the movies as the folks in this thread are.
Yes but that is the point of escapist, reactionary filmmaking. You aren’t supposed to think about it! There are tons of explicit clues that you aren’t supposed to get worked up about what you see in the film. The very first thing you see on screen is “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….” and “Episode IV” lol. They are straight up telling you that this is pulp fiction with no grand meaning and you should just turn your brain off. Nothing wrong with this - again, I like the movie! And in an alternate universe where this film was a modest success with no sequels I would likely see it as a small and prescient masterpiece. Didn’t quite work out that way though.
Are there people who think you can divide movies into kids movies and adult movies (and maybe teen movies) and there’s no place for an all ages show that is not for kids and not for adults but for everyone?
Rocky Horror Picture Show
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No , there is no place for something like that. Maybe North Korea.
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This thread is ample evidence that the answer to your rhetorical question is yes, but the extent of such people remains an open question even if existence is solved.
But to elaborate on your second clause, I think that some of the best 'kids movies" are almost totally different movies when you see them before and after having kids yourself. Three that come to mind right away are The Lego Movie, Inside Out, and Coco.
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I’ll say this much, Rogue One appeared like a very pale imitation of Andor after watching the show (watched R1 straight after finishing the show).
Andor is something I’d recommend to even non-SW fans who I think might enjoy a science-fictiony version of a political/fledgling revolution story. While R1, even though I enjoy it quite a bit, I’d never in a million years recommend to anyone who doesn’t specifically love at least the original Episode IV. It’s definitely fan service but does it in a very slick and satisfying way (minus a couple of clunky moments).
It’s only slick in a Star Wars context imo. But yeah, you can definitely enjoy Andor without knowing a ton about the extended universe - a lot of my friends did.
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Kinda just realized this now, but Rogue One is actually a great example of just how detached SW lore is from the actual spirit of the first film. Why did all these people have to go an the universe’s most hopeless suicide mission to get a copy of the plans for the Deathstar? That vulnerability was famously very simple to understand! He could have just told them!
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I wondered the exact same thing on rewatching, haha.
Yeah, and the need to make Jyn’s dad a “hero” of sorts by intentionally putting in a vulnerability is one of the shittiest decisions in that script.
I get why they wanted that, but I feel like there were better ways to do it, maybe he discovers there’s a major oversight and does something behind the scenes to keep it from getting fixed and then manages to get a message out to his daughter just before he dies that there’s definitely something in there the rebellion will want to see, yada yada…not sure what would work without sounding all contrived.
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I didn’t make the Terminator connection, seems so obvious now. I can picture a few exact shots that were lifted.
Yeah it seemed like they opened up more plot-holes than they closed. I also really disliked the human cgi characters. Still I think Rogue One is the best Star Wars movie since RotJ, but that’s largely by default.
It’s the ultimate “this meeting could have been an email” imo.
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If you think R1 is bad, just watch Kenobi for an example of “oops all plot-holes”, lol.
It’s weird, I thought CGI Leia for her 3-second cameo needed work, but wasn’t bothered at all by Tarkin who had much more screen time, while lots of others were like “zomg fakest thing ever totally took me out of the movie”. I think it’s just a very personal thing about how your eyes perceive things, just like how some people insist that if you have motion smoothing enabled on your TV, everything looks hideously like a soap opera or a weird live stage show of whatever you’re watching, while others (myself included) are like “I literally do not know what the fuck you’re talking about and can’t even see a side by side difference”.