Star Wars: The Last Jedi – 2017
Here we are with another Star Wars movie, and here I am loving just about everything about it. Why, then, would I give its visual effects only four stars instead of five? Well, it’s all about the CGI characters. As good as VFX artists are getting in creating completely computer-generated faces of CGI motion, they have not become flawless or undetectable.
Now, I’m not talking about the digital body-doubles during action sequences or mechanical or robotic characters. I’m talking about the fully realized organic characters. In some cases, this is due to their slightly goofy designs, as in a few of the aliens in the casino scene, or the tall racing animals call Fathiers. There was an underlying unreality to them that never quite fooled my eyes, especially when they were on the screen with a live actor.
Instead, I’m talking about one of the major villains in the movie, Supreme Leader Snoke. Andy Serkis played the part in a motion-capture suit with facial capture dots all over his face. But as good as the animation was, there was an undeniable unreality about him that didn’t fool my eyes, at least not 100% of the time. There are three things about Snoke that stand out to me every time I watch the movie: His mouth, his hands, and his clothing. When it comes to his mouth, and really, his whole face, there are shots where the flesh looks perfectly real, though in other shots, not so much. The skin seems a tiny bit too waxy or translucent. The motion of the lips looks too deliberate, too fabricated in order to form the words of the dialogue. Similarly, with the hands, the motion is too slow and precise, too contrived. But his gold robe is the most obvious offender. It never looks quite real to me. It doesn’t seem to move realistically. It hangs too perfectly, moves too slowly, and for whatever reason, never seems to blend into its surroundings in a realistic way. It is a good effect, but it isn’t perfect. It catches my eye every time.
Of course, the space battles and the light-sabre fights are always cool. I especially liked the awesome sabre battle in Snoke’s throne room. The Elite Praetorian Guards were pretty awesome. They held various cool-looking weapons that could compete with the laser swords wielded by Rey and Kylo Ren. Such an awesome sequence. There was also a pretty cool battle sequence on the flight deck of Snoke’s destroyed command ship. Captain Phasma and a bunch of Storm Troopers are defeated by Fin, Rose, and BB-8 in a bright and explosive gunfight.
The battle on the white salt plains of the red crystal planet of Crait was thrilling to watch. Other notable effects were the scene where a pretty good CGI Princess Leia is sucked out into space, but is able to rescue herself using the force, and the scene where Vice-Admiral Holdo hyper-drives her small ship through Snoke’s flagship, destroying it, a large portion of the Imperial fleet, and herself. I also love the film’s over-all color pallet of black, white, and red. This movie is packed full of exciting action sequences and some really great visuals!