Old versus New

Filmmakers miss the mark as they continue to remaster, reimagine old movies

Magen McMillian, Staff Writer



Over the years since the invention of film, movie producers have made long strides to make movies better in different ways. They added sound, color, computer-generated imagery (CGI), special effects, things that brought movies to the standard moviegoers see in theaters today. Movies like Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe (2005) is a good example of realistic CGI at its best; the lion not only looks scarily realistic, but his face shows emotions that many other movies have failed to portray. Oftentimes people look back at old movies and cringe at the terrible graphics and editing, like the animatronics in Jurassic Park (1993). The movie tried and failed to make the dinosaurs look realistic over the robotic and machine insides of these dinosaurs. However, good CGI doesn’t make a good movie; sometimes a movie with bad CGI and graphics ends up being a better movie than one with realistic CGI and amazing graphics.

Recently, Disney began remaking their old 2D animated movies, the latest being Mulan, Lion King and Aladdin. Because the originals are so loved and close to people’s hearts, there were high expectations for these live action remakes. Especially The Lion King, since the movie had to be completely CGI’d. But once the movie was released, fans were disappointed; many mentioned that the animals showed no emotion throughout the movie despite the story itself being a very emotional story that was told well through 2D animation in 1994. People started to say that, perhaps, 2D animation can be better than extremely realistic, but lacking CGI and special effects in emotional movies such as The Lion King.

Along with this, perhaps “bad” graphics do something to the audience while watching the movie. Jurassic Park is a classic movie, one that almost anyone has watched. It’s easy to tell from watching the dinosaurs move that they’re machines. Also look at Star Wars, which predates Jurassic Park by almost twenty years, which has a lot of special effects, but not very many good ones. Movie fans consider these movie series classics, ones that people have grown up watching and love despite their age (The first Star Wars movie is turning 44 years old this year). But how many people say that their favorite movies from these franchises are the newest ones, Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom (2018), and Star Wars: The Rise of the Skywalker (2019), both of which have amazing CGI and special effects? Probably not very many. 

The fact is, these older movies encompass the nostalgic and cozy feeling that no amount of mind blowing graphics and realistic CGI can replace. Sitting at home watching Jaws and eating popcorn has a different feeling than watching The Meg, a newer shark movie with a different setting. Older movies have a different feel, maybe even because their graphics are so obviously bad and the editing choppy. It’s part of what makes these movies so great–and worth rewatching time and again.