Times when nostalgia doesn't actually beat the new stuff

[Extra-Ordinary]

I've been watching the sneak peeks at Alien: Isolation (man, I am so pumped for that game but that's not the point, stay on topic) and went back and rewatched the first Alien, you know, to get in the mood.
And I had a thought:
I prefer a CG Xenomorph.
Here's the thing, a CG Alien can move faster and is much more agile than a person in a suit can be, CG just makes a better Alien in my opinion.
Would I go back and remake the first Alien movies to have CG instead of practical effects? No, watching the Chestburster scene again, I felt it would have been too... clean... if it was CG, you know what I mean? And it's not that I like I think more recent Alien stuff (certainly not Alien 3 and Resurrection, God, no) are better than the classics, no, I just think that in this day and age, with technology that's making computer-generated stuff look so good, a CG Xenomorph is just more appropriate today than a practical one is.
Unless you get Andy Serkis, toss that guy an Alien suit, I'd like to see that.
Oh, and I know it's a game, I know it's all CG but let's not be smartasses about it, c'mon guys, c'mon.

Same applies to the new Godzilla, I like CG Big G. I certainly appreciate the classics, yeah, but the dude in the suit I feel isn't very practical for this day and age.

And I know it probably doesn't matter but I want it on record: I *do* like practical effects over CG, the above examples are just exceptions.

Anyhow.

So maybe you prefer an e-book over ink and paper or maybe you like listening to an MP3 over vinyl (you weirdo), what are the times when the first-is-best clause not applied to you?

 

[Ramzal]

Nostalgia normally isn't that great of a thing for me. I look at it like this personally:

"Hey! Remember the NES? Yeah, that piece of crap that you had to blow into to make it work? Or put a cartridge in the freezer for 2 minutes so it wouldn't crash? Yeah, I don't want to go back to that."

Scientifically speaking, nostalgia is the death of change and evolution. When you get lost in what was and refuse to accept what is/will be/could be because of your attachment of ye-old-days... you tend to be forgotten in the sands of time. Some Cheetahs learned that the hard way.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Well, Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing beats the hell out of Hawks'.

 

[Goro]

When I was a kid all I wanted was the toys from the cartoon Centurions; Power Extreme! I never got one but a little while ago I was a collector shop and the whole set was there. And they were rubbish. I was kinda heartbroken because they were the epitome of cool and now they were poorly moulded/sculpted, the weapon packs were oversized, clumsy and just dumb. I was so disappointed. Although G1 transformers? More! Give me MORE!!

 

[Thyunda]

I've been watching the sneak peeks at Alien: Isolation (man, I am so pumped for that game but that's not the point, stay on topic) and went back and rewatched the first Alien, you know, to get in the mood.
And I had a thought:
I prefer a CG Xenomorph.
Here's the thing, a CG Alien can move faster and is much more agile than a person in a suit can be, CG just makes a better Alien in my opinion.
Would I go back and remake the first Alien movies to have CG instead of practical effects? No, watching the Chestburster scene again, I felt it would have been too... clean... if it was CG, you know what I mean? And it's not that I like I think more recent Alien stuff (certainly not Alien 3 and Resurrection, God, no) are better than the classics, no, I just think that in this day and age, with technology that's making computer-generated stuff look so good, a CG Xenomorph is just more appropriate today than a practical one is.
Unless you get Andy Serkis, toss that guy an Alien suit, I'd like to see that.
Oh, and I know it's a game, I know it's all CG but let's not be smartasses about it, c'mon guys, c'mon.

Same applies to the new Godzilla, I like CG Big G. I certainly appreciate the classics, yeah, but the dude in the suit I feel isn't very practical for this day and age.

And I know it probably doesn't matter but I want it on record: I *do* like practical effects over CG, the above examples are just exceptions.

Anyhow.

So maybe you prefer an e-book over ink and paper or maybe you like listening to an MP3 over vinyl (you weirdo), what are the times when the first-is-best clause not applied to you?

I would both agree and disagree with your Alien example. A person in a suit would look silly trying to be all fast and terrifying in plain sight, and so the original film had to rely on rarely showing the monster and generate the atmosphere from darkness and the potential of the xenomorph. In this case, technological restraints forced the director to be more creative with creating that kind of tension.
If you can digitally render a perfectly realistic xenomorph, you lose the impetus to keep it hidden, and in my opinion - also shared by Alfred Hitchcock and a number of other directors and critics - the monster you don't see is always more frightening than the one you do.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Depends on how well they do things, if you can do it better I really have no reservations to calling it that.
In the case of Godzilla I need to say they were all funky as hell, the old rubber suit was terrible and the new movies while making it look a little better didn't make this monster of doom actually seem imposing at all. I'll take the cartoon version over these movies any day.

And in the case of Alien the shortcomings of suit man made a far scarier monster because they couldn't show it, everything was mysterious about it and hella dangerous. And then as the movies went on that mystery broke down and they were just whacking these scary monsters left and right, looking better didn't do much for the package.

Meanwhile Pacific Rim blows all old mecha stuff out of the water, and if they were written half decently so would the new Transformers... but again a great display where eye candy does not make the movie.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

I used to get bored rigid watching the old Star Trek programs and films (The outstanding Wrath of Khan aside of course), but I absolutely love the new film reboots.

I think that's a very rare exception though. Most film reboots + remakes are pretty awful.

The new Thundercat's cartoon is way better than the old one too. I used to love the old one as a kid, but watching them both next to each other now and there's no comparison, the new one's a different class.

 

[spartandude]

Pokemon. Ok lets be honest both 1st and 2nd edition are both terrible these days, no the content but the actual gameplay. Since the newer generations we've had countless improvments.

 

[happyninja42]

The only one I can think of offhand, is the Karate Kid reboot with Jaden Smith and Jackie Chan. I really did enjoy that movie a lot, more than the original. His more recent movies aside, Jaden was actually very likeable and charismatic in Karate Kid. I really empathized with his problems, and having to live in a new country, and the culture shock, and all that stuff. Not really sure what happened after that movie, other than maybe puberty making things awkward for him.

 

[Something Amyss]

Nostalgia usually isn't that good. I do often prefer practical effects to CG, but that's not universal and not because of nostalgia. CG gets easily dated and often stands out more. When it's done well, it's awesome, but it often isn't. And a mixture is often the best.

I used to get bored rigid watching the old Star Trek programs and films (The outstanding Wrath of Khan aside of course), but I absolutely love the new film reboots.

It's funny. My parents are oldschool Trekkies, but they both really enjoyed the new movies. I think they're wanted for crimes against nerdery in 27 countries.

 

[Danbo Jambo]

It's funny. My parents are oldschool Trekkies, but they both really enjoyed the new movies. I think they're wanted for crimes against nerdery in 27 countries.

Lol. I was blown away by them and thought that both the timeline reset was very well done and a great way to reboot it, and also that the subsequent Wrath of Khan spin in Into Darkness was fantastic. Can;t wait for the 3rd!

 

[Hero of Lime]

Pokemon. Ok lets be honest both 1st and 2nd edition are both terrible these days, no the content but the actual gameplay. Since the newer generations we've had countless improvments.

Exactly, the original Gameboy games, Red and Blue in particular are pretty lame nowadays compared to the new games. Plus we have remakes that make the originals obsolete anyway. At this point the only cool thing about the originals are the glitches, which even then aren't supposed to give the games an extra merit to begin with.

Not to mention, many of the mechanics are flat out broken as this picture will tell you.

Spoiler

And yet they are still regarded by many as the best Pokemon games. :/

It was the first game, so I cut it some slack on the technical level. However, the amount of people who think these are the only "true" Pokemon games with the only "true" Pokemon is a little larger than I would want.

Don't me started on Genwunners, nostalgia at its ugliest.

 

[Rolaoi]

I grew up in the 90's and remember a lot of those things listed in the 90's Kids Lists a lot differently than the people posting with intentions of smug superiority over kids listening to Justin Bieber or whatever it is they listen to now. God, what a stupid decade.

 

[the December King]

Well, Carpenter's 1982 version of The Thing beats the hell out of Hawks'.

Totally true. I was led to believe that the source material was more closely followed as well.