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This is pretty much how I picture Teague after making this thread
Teague exists to torment us, this is just something we must accept.
Last edited by BigDamnArtist (2013-10-13 12:29:10)
It's this idea, and this happens for pretty much every big splosion summer flick, that the visual effects are THE selling point, not a cool bonus or added perk, but THE reason to go watch a movie, never minding what the visual effects are actually portraying. Just that the VFX are so so amazing you need to see them. It's just a weird slanty way of the world and at a movie that really doesn't sit right with me.
I completely agree with you., but it took this post to make me realize it. The previous one, not so much.
I do find VFX amazing and spectacular. I don't care that it's become a norm. It's exactly like some people who were saying back when Curiosity landed on Mars, "Hmpft. Who cares. It's been, like, done." So what? Does it suddenly become less epic? Robots landing on motherfucking Mars. It still is a marvel, and it will still be for a long time.
But I find VFX amazing and spectacular when they're in their right place. Which is, helping the film tell its story. Most blockbusters nowadays are VFX enhanched with a story. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
When someone asks me what my favourite movie with VFX is, I answer Children of Men. Of course, probably no one ever came out of the theater after watching it and saying "Wow, the VFX were amazing". Children of Men is good at using VFX and not showing off with it. Cloud Atlas might be a better example. It relies heavily on VFX, but uses them to tell something. Prometheus does it too, mind you. Only the story sucked.
I'll go see Gravity because I believe Cuarón is able to tell me a great story with great directing. If it turns out it's just a spectacular eye candy flick, and nothing more, I'll be very disappointed. Wait and see, right?
Last edited by Saniss (2013-10-13 15:27:19)
+1 
Something, something, iron man 3.
+2
Apparently, you are in the majority now Dave, so your opinion on Iron Man 3 is no longer controversial.
Doesn't Iron Man 3 have like an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes? And compared to Into Darkness, it was really well-received. I only ever saw negative reactions on this forum.
Ya, I think it counts, most people seemed to like it. I remain one of them until I rewatch it and find out if I was wrong. It's kinda the Marvel superhero film for people who hate Marvel superhero films, so it's perfectly aimed at me.
Doesn't Iron Man 3 have like an 80% on Rotten Tomatoes? And compared to Into Darkness, it was really well-received. I only ever saw negative reactions on this forum.
I meant on forums. Including this one. Also, the 
should have indicated that I was being flippant.
I love the film, personally. 
BigDamnArtist wrote:It's this idea, and this happens for pretty much every big splosion summer flick, that the visual effects are THE selling point, not a cool bonus or added perk, but THE reason to go watch a movie, never minding what the visual effects are actually portraying. Just that the VFX are so so amazing you need to see them. It's just a weird slanty way of the world and at a movie that really doesn't sit right with me.
I completely agree with you., but it took this post to make me realize it. The previous one, not so much.
I do find VFX amazing and spectacular. I don't care that it's become a norm. It's exactly like some people who were saying back when Curiosity landed on Mars, "Hmpft. Who cares. It's been, like, done." So what? Does it suddenly become less epic? Robots landing on motherfucking Mars. It still is a marvel, and it will still be for a long time.
But I find VFX amazing and spectacular when they're in their right place. Which is, helping the film tell its story. Most blockbusters nowadays are VFX enhanched with a story. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
When someone asks me what my favourite movie with VFX is, I answer Children of Men. Of course, probably no one ever came out of the theater after watching it and saying "Wow, the VFX were amazing". Children of Men is good at using VFX and not showing off with it. Cloud Atlas might be a better example. It relies heavily on VFX, but uses them to tell something. Prometheus does it too, mind you. Only the story sucked.
I'll go see Gravity because I believe Cuarón is able to tell me a great story with great directing. If it turns out it's just a spectacular eye candy flick, and nothing more, I'll be very disappointed. Wait and see, right?
Yeah, I think you Curiosity rover analogy is spot on. Sure, we have sent robots to Mars before, but the fact that humanity did it again, successfully, is amazing. It took a lot of people, doing several different jobs, to bring that all together and make it happen.
To me, movies are the same way. Sorry, I'm not in the industry, so it still is amazing process to see the different parts of production come together. VFX is just one part of that process. I don't need eye candy for me to enjoy a movie, but I sure do like it when it does happen.
Not being in the industry gives me a different perspective. I can watch a movie, appreciate the eye candy and be amazed, even though I know that they are not real. So, the idea of a movie having "Great effects," actually appeals to me because that means so work went in to the film. Hopefully, the same amoutn of work went in to the script as well.
But I find VFX amazing and spectacular when they're in their right place. Which is, helping the film tell its story. Most blockbusters nowadays are VFX enhanched with a story. Shouldn't it be the other way around?
This is probably a better way to put things.
...still on TV (man, this is liberating!)
1. There's absolutely no decrease in quality between Seasons 1 and 2 of Heroes. They're both appalling.
2. The Battlestar Galactica reboot miniseries and first half of Season 1 are excellent and then after that, with the exception of a couple of upward ticks, it's straight downhill into a Speed Racer car-crash of undergraduate cod-philosophizing, badly-written relationship problems that we don't give a toss about (because of what the writers decided to do at the end of Season 2), and general half-assedness in virtually every respect (the near-constant use of the "24 hours earlier" structure, the few interesting side characters are squandered by clichéd resolutions to their arcs, nothing anyone says or does during the trial of Baltar makes any sense at all, etc. etc. etc.)
3. Dollhouse is a terrific show whose critical reappraisal is already overdue. Just about the only major gripe that's out there that I'll accept is that Season 2 is kind of rushed, and the time spent on various people/arcs doesn't feel quite allocated correctly. (Too much at the beginning of the season, not enough at the end.)
I think the "Doll of the Week" stuff at the beginning of Season 1 works, because it allows you to get comfortable with the universe, and parcels out bits of information (including hints of the gradual "awakening" of Echo) that then start coming together as the season progresses. People who say that Eliza Dushku is weak or that early on you can't establish a rapport with the main character because she's changing personalities are missing the point. It's more at the early stage of having a rapport with or empathy for the situation, for precisely that reason, and I think Eliza Dushku actually does a really good job with the little moments that she has to work with.
I'm thinking of like that bit in one of the first episodes where she's coming back from a "romantic engagement" and talking about it with her handler -- how she normally doesn't go for XYZ type of guy (I think she says he's fat), but this guy was really sweet and she really likes him and wants to tell him how she feels, but she's nervous, etc. On the one hand, of course she's been 'programmed' to feel that way, but Eliza Dushku does a really good job of making it feel real. And so, when you hear the line "Are you ready for your treatment", it's kind of sad in a Roy Batty "all these moments will be lost in time" sort of way. It doesn't matter that on one level it was 'engineered'. It's a happy moment in her life and it's going to be taken away from her.
The rest of the acting is uniformly excellent, the twists and turns are generally great, and it actually makes an effort to be about something. If this were shot in black-and-white, and in French, and shown in art-house theaters in the mid 1960's, people would be all over it.
Yes! Everything you said about Dollhouse! HA!
<yells out over the barren post apocalyptic wasteland>
Hey guys, I found another one! Over here! He likes Dollhouse too!
Other people like Dollhouse?
I just woke up.
Couldn't be arsed taking a new one. Also, see my avatar for a variation
Last edited by Jimmy B (2013-10-14 21:16:44)
Trey wins!
+3
+5
And then Saniss turns the card round which now reads 'help' before a huge boulder falls on his head. Will Saniss ever catch that fucking Road Runner?
And, yeah, Trey wins
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