Credit: LucasfilmStar Wars has one consistent problem that began long ago that has turned more into an unnecessary myth to blame the Prequel Trilogy and give high praise to the Original Trilogy when it no longer deserves it.
Star Wars: Episode IV — A New Hope (1977) may have kicked off the franchise with a great opening into the Star Wars universe, but the movie was limited due to the technology at the time. That’s why George Lucas continued to mess with the visuals as he made more Star Wars movies because he wanted things to look like they belonged in the franchise.
With the Prequel Trilogy, not everyone agreed with Lucas’s reliance on CGI for a lot of the scenes and characters, but fans may have overestimated just how many aliens were just purely CGI. For example, several action sequences weren’t just a huge blue screen. Places like the Boonta Eve pod race from Star Wars: Episode I — The Phantom Menace (1999) was made up of practical effects and used CGI when needed.
Related: The Prequel Trilogy Receives A Glaring Retcon That Damages the ‘Star Wars’ Franchise
Most alien creatures used prosthetics with CGI to help them feel more authentic but not entirely goofy and unreal. Some fans who loved the practical effects of the Original Trilogy just see the CGI and immediately are uninterested and believe the trilogy is not worth seeing. This led to fans “wanting” more practical effects than CGI, which stirred a new debate years later after Disney believed the myth.
The Original Trilogy myth is that the older movie’s practical effects are how aliens should be portrayed and to use CGI as little as possible. While this has merits, newer shows like Obi-Wan Kenobi reveal why this isn’t good. The Grand Inquisitor is a Pau’an, an alien species from Utapau who was first seen in Star Wars: Episode III — Revenge of the Sith (2005). In the Disney+ series, they use only practical effects and don’t make the actor look very much like the alien species. Still, Revenge of the Sith used a lot of practical effects and CGI to help make the Pau’ans stand out, and even with almost twenty years in between each project, Revenge of the Sith‘s Pau’ans look way better.
Fans point this out as The Mandalorian Season 3 just had a cameo with Zeb Orrelios, which looks amazing as they use CGI to make the iconic Star Wars: Rebels character stand out, but just using practical effects isn’t enough anymore:
Not to add fuel to the fire but.. When you see how well Zeb looked in comparison to the Grand Inquisitor..
Not to add fuel to the fire but.. When you see how well Zeb looked in comparison to the Grand Inquisitor.. pic.twitter.com/UYgS52iy4O
— StarWarsOnly (@StarWars0nly) March 30, 2023
Related: A Guide On the Grand Inquisitor, ‘Kenobi’s Most Controversial Character
Here’s a comparison between the two characters. Here’s a still of Rupert Friend’s Grand Inquisitor:
Here’s a still of Zeb Orrelios in The Mandalorian:
The Original Trilogy helped pave the road for Star Wars and what to expect, but this myth that the Original Trilogy did things better visually might have taken things too far. Practical effects, when done right, are stunning, and we see this in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story (2016) and Diego Luna’s Andor, which uses a mix of CGI and practical effects and keeps the world feeling grounded since almost everything is practical.
Hopefully, Lucasfilm will ensure that CGI is used when needed more often and not allow their limited budgets to cut corners as they did with the Grand Inquisitor, as that was a colossal mistake that still angers Star Wars fans to this day.
Do you think Star Wars needs to rely on more CGI? Do you think practical effects are overused in Star Wars?