5th Grade Photoshop or Birdemic(2011)?
Rather, this post will be examining my opinions on movies that I know had budgets larger than my emergency fund and their choices to go with digital effects in the place of practical effects. Specifically, Star Wars: I-III and the Hobbit films. Let's begin...
Now, not sticking to the list order that I established in the prior paragraph, let's talk about the Hobbit and why the visuals just aren't as good as the Lord of the Rings trilogy. First of all, I would like to say that I feel Fellowship, Towers, and King are the perfect balance of practical effects and CGI. Creatures that would be too difficult to make lifelike with practical effects were handled with some awesome computer graphics (i.e. The Balrog of Morgoth), with the same approach being used on hordes of enemies in distant shots where it wasn't quite so easy to see they weren't actually physical beings. My complaint about the Hobbit that isn't a problem in LOTR can be summed up with one word: Orcs. We all know and love Orcs as the Stormtrooperesque cannon-fodder of Middle Earth and that our heroes chop them to bits yet maintain a PG-13 rating since they're not quite human, but there was just something different about them in the Hobbit... Oh yeah. They weren't really there! I will admit that there were some practical Orcs in the movie but that was practically negated by the fact that their merry old band leader Azog the claw handed was a severely bland looking CG monster. Supposedly they filmed everything with Azog as an actual person in makeup but then had to go back over and digitally change him because they didn't like the way he looked. Newsflash: CG Azog isn't much better. Every single Orc in LOTR is unique to itself in one way or another and seems alive and real. You can't tell me Lurtz making a trollface at the end of Fellowship when he's about to blast Boromir in the jugular from pointblank range isn't more terrifying than Azog creepin on the Dwarves.
There's something about a creature being physically there with the actors that makes them even scarier.I thought maybe when Desolation of Smaug came out we might get a breath of fresh air when they introduced Azog's son, Bolg...
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| "Never have I been so wrong..." |
I guess since he was his son I should have known he would be CGI too. I guess it's genetic. The reasoning behind this one was actually just that; "Daddy is CGI so we need to make Azog Jr. bland too." There was actually an actor who filmed the whole movie in full makeup who was just covered up by CGI. He even looked awesome!
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Look at him! He looks frightening! This is an amazing achievement in costume and makeup design! I can't wait to see him in the movie!
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| "Lulz" |
Wait... What? That's it? If I was that actor I would be ticked off beyond belief. "Nah, it's okay. You can completely erase me from the follow up to one of the biggest film trilogies of this generation." What a George Lucas move. Before we move on to our next film, I also want to lay down a side complaint: Goblins. The goblins in Unexpected Journey are a joke compared to the ones in Moria. People are telling me things like "Well they're a different breed." That's cool. Their king also looks like the Ballchinian from Men in Black 2.
One last thing. Lurtz.
Childhood Nightmare Fuel
