10 Things That Will Piss Fans Off About Star Wars: The Force Awakens
8. The Occasional Awkward Mix Of CGI And Practical Effects
One of the biggest grievances fans have with George Lucas are his improvements to the original trilogy, where he sprinkled some computer generated fairy dust over the films, resulting in so-called enhancements that looked badly out of place when combined with the practical effects work. Then he turned the prequels into a green screen nightmare of unconvincing computer generated backgrounds, and fans wept into their Ewok plush toys. Abrams promised to restore balance for The Force Awakens, and utilise a mix of practical and computer generated effects. Hes made good on his word for the most part, and the film contains some beautiful sets and practical creatures (welcome back Admiral Ackbar!). The old problem with combining CGI with practical work crops up again though; randomly mixing real and CG creatures just draws attention to fakeness of the computer generated characters, thus pulling people out of the moment. Snoke in particular doesn't feel right, for all his menace looking a bit naff. Its the same thing with the sets, where lived-in worlds are suddenly invaded with CGI spaceships. This isnt a movie ruining issue, but anything that reminds fans of the Special Editions isnt going to be looked upon favourably. Plus the practical stuff is so good, it makes you wish Abrams had used as much as possible.
