Expiry, Explosions
Around 5-6 Weeks Left Of Free Movies :(
Having had access to free movies for almost a year it's gotten to the point now where, with the exception of bad-ass summer blockbusters which demand the MegaScreen treatment, the novelty of going to the cinema has seriously worn off. Since the start of this year I've maybe been to half-a-dozen films at most, and unlike when I first started out I'm hardly going to everything on offer. I haven't even checked out stuff like North Country, Zathura, Brokeback Mountain etc. that I'm interested in and could probably wait for the DVDs for some of them and not really give too much of a damn. Meh.
Not to say I don't appreciate having the card; while I remain too lazy to get a job it's nice being able to see all the big films for free when they come out, and going to the movies is about the most fun you can have after lectures within a 10minute walking radius from uni. But still, I think watching 70+ movies in theatres in 10 months has somewhat killed whatever made going to the pictures all that exciting when it comes to regular run-of-the-mill releases, and watching an Oscar-bait drama blown up tall and wide in a big room doesn't greatly improve on sitting at home with the DVD a couple of months later all that much when the novelty of it just isn't there. So when my card expires on March the 31st, I don't think I'll be too worried about it. I'll still watch the things on my must-see list just like I always have every year like MI3, Superman, Pirates 2 etc. but maybe just fill in more time watching pretentious arthouse shit in the AV library.
Most Groundbreaking Visual Effects
With the awards season in full-swing I think now would be the perfect time to look back on the achievements of films from years gone by. Today, a list of what I consider to be the films which have achieved the most in terms of visual effects, whether it be making innovative use of existing technology or pioneering new & unique ways of adding more realistic oomph to blockbusters. The category is not BEST visual effects, or else today's movies would kill all competition. This is rather "achievement in visual effects," relative to how groundbreaking a film was at it's time of release and what it has done for the movie industry. No doubt this list is weighted heavily towards more recent releases anyway, more than anything because of the number of contemporary films I've seen compared to older movies. Also, I'm not putting in that Journey To The Moon movie from 1902 that I saw at uni, however "groundbreaking" it may have been, because it just did things someone would have done eventually anyway.
Anyways, in true Oscar style here is who I'd pick as the best, and "fellow nominees" :p
Winner:
Star Wars (1977)
Nominees:
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Other Movies Considered:
King Kong (2005)
I, Robot (2004)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
The Matrix (1999)
Titanic (1997)
Independence Day (1996)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
King Kong (1933)
The opening sequence in Star Wars stunned audiences back in 1979 as ILM cemented themselves literally overnight as the leading visual effects company in the world, and even now the effects used in the film are not dated to the point of coming across as unrealistic like with most movies of the era. Star Wars paved the way for so much of what has developed in terms of visual effects since, from the shooting of miniatures to methods used to apply seperately captured effects to live-action sequences involving actors, and I firmly believe that the effects team working on this film achieved more with this single project than has been achieved during the production of any other movie before or since.
The only other film even in the same echelon for this category would be Terminator 2 and the way it built upon effects established in Cameron's previous film The Abyss to truly bring CG effects to a level where they could be blended seemlessly (and impressively) into live-action cinema to take films and of course audiences to places they could never go before. Interestingly, if anything will top Star Wars for what it achieved it will likely be the new 3D effects technology being developed by the creators of Star Wars and Terminator 2, George Lucas and James Cameron.
Having had access to free movies for almost a year it's gotten to the point now where, with the exception of bad-ass summer blockbusters which demand the MegaScreen treatment, the novelty of going to the cinema has seriously worn off. Since the start of this year I've maybe been to half-a-dozen films at most, and unlike when I first started out I'm hardly going to everything on offer. I haven't even checked out stuff like North Country, Zathura, Brokeback Mountain etc. that I'm interested in and could probably wait for the DVDs for some of them and not really give too much of a damn. Meh.
Not to say I don't appreciate having the card; while I remain too lazy to get a job it's nice being able to see all the big films for free when they come out, and going to the movies is about the most fun you can have after lectures within a 10minute walking radius from uni. But still, I think watching 70+ movies in theatres in 10 months has somewhat killed whatever made going to the pictures all that exciting when it comes to regular run-of-the-mill releases, and watching an Oscar-bait drama blown up tall and wide in a big room doesn't greatly improve on sitting at home with the DVD a couple of months later all that much when the novelty of it just isn't there. So when my card expires on March the 31st, I don't think I'll be too worried about it. I'll still watch the things on my must-see list just like I always have every year like MI3, Superman, Pirates 2 etc. but maybe just fill in more time watching pretentious arthouse shit in the AV library.
Most Groundbreaking Visual Effects
With the awards season in full-swing I think now would be the perfect time to look back on the achievements of films from years gone by. Today, a list of what I consider to be the films which have achieved the most in terms of visual effects, whether it be making innovative use of existing technology or pioneering new & unique ways of adding more realistic oomph to blockbusters. The category is not BEST visual effects, or else today's movies would kill all competition. This is rather "achievement in visual effects," relative to how groundbreaking a film was at it's time of release and what it has done for the movie industry. No doubt this list is weighted heavily towards more recent releases anyway, more than anything because of the number of contemporary films I've seen compared to older movies. Also, I'm not putting in that Journey To The Moon movie from 1902 that I saw at uni, however "groundbreaking" it may have been, because it just did things someone would have done eventually anyway.
Anyways, in true Oscar style here is who I'd pick as the best, and "fellow nominees" :p
Winner:
Star Wars (1977)
Nominees:
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
Other Movies Considered:
King Kong (2005)
I, Robot (2004)
The Lord Of The Rings: The Two Towers (2002)
AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001)
The Matrix (1999)
Titanic (1997)
Independence Day (1996)
Jurassic Park (1993)
Who Framed Roger Rabbit? (1988)
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
King Kong (1933)
The opening sequence in Star Wars stunned audiences back in 1979 as ILM cemented themselves literally overnight as the leading visual effects company in the world, and even now the effects used in the film are not dated to the point of coming across as unrealistic like with most movies of the era. Star Wars paved the way for so much of what has developed in terms of visual effects since, from the shooting of miniatures to methods used to apply seperately captured effects to live-action sequences involving actors, and I firmly believe that the effects team working on this film achieved more with this single project than has been achieved during the production of any other movie before or since.
The only other film even in the same echelon for this category would be Terminator 2 and the way it built upon effects established in Cameron's previous film The Abyss to truly bring CG effects to a level where they could be blended seemlessly (and impressively) into live-action cinema to take films and of course audiences to places they could never go before. Interestingly, if anything will top Star Wars for what it achieved it will likely be the new 3D effects technology being developed by the creators of Star Wars and Terminator 2, George Lucas and James Cameron.
posted by Steve @ 3:45 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home