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Green screen, CGI and the 'Minute' documentary from ROTS — Page 2

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Originally posted by: Zebonka
Heh.

Well, films these days just blow chunks, it's all freakin' Massive armies and stupid looking digital characters. They're all guilty - take a good long hard look at Lord of the Rings (all 3 of them). The 1st movie had some whoppers in it, I tell you - like that shot on the mountain, the heroic fanfare plays and they walk past badly-composited mountains in the background and it looks like *dreck*.

Then there's The Two Towers, right off the bat you have that silly battle with the Balrog (looks ridiculous, I've never understood modern filmmaking fascination with 'digital doubles') & that pathetic shot of Legolas leaping up onto a horse (what the hell was with that? On the DVD they talked about it like it was really good, I thought they were joking but no - no punchline) and how's about the end battle? Gandalf at the top of a hill (if you look at the grass on the hill, you can see someone has been Clone-Stamping it in Photoshop). Nevermind the shot where he says 'the Battle for Helms Deep is over'. If you want bad compositing, look no further than that shot.

Return of the King... thinking... there was a lot of good stuff in this movie, like the first two, but my word some things were rotten. Like that boneheaded sequence where Legolas takes down the big elephant thing. Again - why do they think I want to watch someone render Legolas out of Poser and make him leap around like an idiot? This guy has absolutely nothing on Errol Flynn. To wit, Errol Flynn (digital or not) would walk onto screen and kick his arse.

I won't even bother with Star Wars, you've all hit the nail on the head already. But I thought I'd remind ye all - the problems aren't confined to one movie. This CGI crap is everywhere.
dude i totally fucking agree

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Originally posted by: Invader Jenny
It almost seems like Lucas only had one or two takes on most of the dialogue in the film. Maybe once for rehersal, a second time, and then a third time to make sure that they said all the words in the script. I don't think that any emphasis was placed on HOW the words were spoken.


Which explains all the looping required later, a practice I considered to be awful. If you can't record the dialogue live, there's something wrong with your scene, that's what I think.
“Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.” — Nazi Reich Marshal Hermann Goering
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"But "CGI crap" is so easy to overlook when watching a well-written, well-played, well-scored movie."

Well written in the Hollywood sense yes, if we're talking about Lord of the Rings. "Let's hunt some Orc"? How about "What does your heart tell you?" I swear I heard that in some other trilogy...

Well played... Sean Astin was far better than he ever was in those screwball shit-fests of the early 90's. In fact, I'll say pretty much most of the cast were dead on. But Orlando Bloom can't act.

Well scored... a lot of it's pretty damned good, but the track they used for the Two Towers trailer was *awful*. I thought it was stock trailer music, but no - it was on the soundtrack. BLECCCH...
Into the West was though, a particularly astonishing piece of music. Don't really like Annie Lennox's voice, but it's one of the prettiest songs I've ever heard.

Seriously, I don't have that much of a problem with Lord of the Rings, but the view that they are the greatest films of our time and that they circumvent the Hollywood template is sheer rubbish. Whether or not they were 'made like independant movies' doesn't stop the end result from being overly predictable and box-office friendly (at the expense of the movies themselves I think).
But anyway, lemme reiterate, they've got a lot going for 'em.
VADER: Let me look on you with my own eyes...

LUKE: Dad, where are your eyebrows?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_S6UgkQk0
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IIRC, TTT's trailer used Mother Africa (Reprise) or Gothic Power. I don't remember the film score being used heavily.
"It's the stoned movie you don't have to be stoned for." -- Tom Shales on Star Wars
Scruffy's gonna die the way he lived.
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"IIRC, TTT's trailer used Mother Africa (Reprise) or Gothic Power. I don't remember the film score being used heavily."

Hmmm... I remember those I think as well. But I swear some trailer (or perhaps a post-release ad of some sort) used this awful track that was in the movie somewhere. Can't recall, it was a few years ago.
VADER: Let me look on you with my own eyes...

LUKE: Dad, where are your eyebrows?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=WO_S6UgkQk0