yea... but with CG you expect newer movies to raise the bar. The newest Star Wars is what... a year and a half newer than RotK, I guess I expected something new.

I think Lucas went for quantity over quality, and PJ focused on quality. Not that there weren't a TON of CG shots in the LotR trilogy, but EP3 was wall to wall CG... and maybe that meant he didn't have the time or budget to do REALLY high quality CG (like a Gollum level character)

Ep. I, the hated Jar-Jar movie, had more CG screens than had ever been done before -- topped off with the Droids vs. Gungans crap at the end that everyone hated. Ep. II had hundreds of jedi w/ lightsabers on the screen at once, fighting in concert, which had never been done before. The battle for Geonosis was another landmark. Ep. III took it to the next level, with all the clone and droid CGI. In the meantime, programs like MASSIVE (used in the LOTR movies) had also come onto the scene for man-on-man combat -- and they were a better product. HOWEVER, the scene above Coruscant (with its thin atmosphere) were the first time a space battle of that magnitude had been shown -- and it was shown WELL.

Also, don't forget that, while it looked to be too heavy and obvious on the CGI, the battle on Mustafar was filmed over an eruption of Mt. Etna. This was another landmark -- and perhaps Lucas & Co. over-reached on this one. But, at least he's pushing the bounds of new technology.

I gotta opine that Yoda was not only better, he was less annoying. Those gollum scenes at the end of TTT, complete with his schizo moments, annoy me no matter how often I watch them on the EE DVD. Don't get me wrong -- I LOVE the LOTR movies, but gollum can't stand up a bit to Yoda's bizzatch-ness. ;)

Well I was just considering the CG quality itself, and watching the virtually infinite (and realistic) range of expression in gollums face is pretty darn impressive. The only think that wasn't quite right was his hair, it didn't QUITE move realistically... close... but not quite there. Yoda had FAR less range of expression (or at least the performance did) and what was there was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the face... and while he had hair... it didn't move at all or moved very little (safe way to go).

Character wise I think both Gollum and Yoda had their cheeze moments. With Yoda I have to agree with one of the reviews I read, his annoyance is in the tortured dialog... "a prophecy that misread might have been". I know that's how Yoda is supposed to be but DAMN! Gollum's character isn't particularly likeable, while EVERYONE loves Yoda. There certainly (IMO) is a lot more to Gollum as a character than Yoda. Yoda is the prototypical hero/mentor. He fits the definition of the good guy perfectly. Gollum is the bad guy but his character doesn't quite fit that mold, Tolkien did a good job of sticking with the Epic Fantasy form and yet making his characters a bit deeper than the standard pure good/pure evil formula.

BTW, regarding Yoda-speak, a friend of mine who is not really a SW fan saw the movie, liked it, and had this to say about Yoda: he puts the important words of the sentence up front, and throws the less important words to the end.

I agree Gollum was more complex -- he was schizo, after all, and was at least 2 people. As for subtle, it is gollum's lack of subtlety and cartooniness that drove me crazy -- especially since it was so out of place in the LOTR world.

good point... now I've got to rewatch all the yoda scenes.

I thought he just flipped what we would normally put first, last. Talk like this, he must. (he must talk like this.) You get the idea. ;)

No, get it, I do not.

Did you know that they were thinking of making some New Republic movies? Except that they arnt going to be made by Lucas, theyre going to be made by Fox.That sucks monkey!

I'm sure we can be assured that Star Wars products will be made by LucasFilm once Lucas steps off the helm.