Mostly hate both, though cutting is usually the bigger issue. The first time I remember this crap showing up in mainstream action was the original Bad Boys, and more noticeably in The Rock (especially that car chase), so in many ways I hold Michael Bay accountable for making it a trendy technique.

The issue isn't the technique in principal, it's use of it by incompetent directors.
Spielberg used shaky-cam to extraordinary effect in Saving Private Ryan, while still managing to give the audience a complete understanding of the geography of the battle sequences. Ditto for Katheryn Bigelow in the Hurt Locker.

But ya, this stuff seriously needs to go away for awhile. Just show me the fucking stunt, stop trying to put me "in" it.

I love The Rock (the movie.....aaaaand the dude) but that car chase is ridiculously edited. A lot of action films these days (especially Bay's stuff) don't have long takes, you'd be lucky if a single take lasts longer than five seconds. It's not smart, it's not clever, if anything it's actually lazy. It's poor film-making.

Shaky cam doesn't really bother me but it does bore me. They need to give it a rest.

I stopped halfway through. This video managed to make me have an epileptic seizure and be bored at the same time.

Ridley Scott mentions on the commentary for Gladiator that they took out frames during the opening battle to make it more visceral, some of the sword swings etc. are harder as a result, and it works quite well I think. But then they ruin it a few minutes later by doing that smearing rubbish.

I watched Blade last night and was surprised at well it held up - firstly, it has none of that grading crap we're forced to watch these days, and the action was fast paced but clear. The opening club scene is probably one of the best introductions for a character ever.

Mm. Yeah I've noticed the LOTR Extended Blu-Ray re-grade. More stylistic, less real. Not too crazy though.

Personally, I think the bottom pictures are way better.

Aliens was really poor to begin with I believe, whatever transfer they had was in quite bad shape. I would guess that the example with Ripley in the hive was intended to be cold blue in light. It looks practical. Some other example shots I've seen were a huge improvement over older versions. However comparing Newt before/after, my god the new grade looks shitty. Her hair looks like she has been in a chlorine swimming pool for a month. That definitely does not seem like restoration to me. The before picture looks neutral, the new grade looks, just bleh. Would I have given it thought if I hadn't seen the comparison? Probably not.

The Star Wars examples are horrible aswell. "I love film because it has such wonderful dynamic range and smoothness. Let's get a great DP to shoot it so the exposure and balance is just right. Also, can you completely negate all that by dropping shadow detail into an abyss of 0, 0, 0? Lovely."