Originally posted by: mverta
And Peter Jackson can go pound sand as far as I'm concerned. King Kong was 3 seconds of kick-ass monkey eyes and 1,900 "so-so to piss-poor" CG shots. Ditto all those freakin' LotR movies that might as well be surgical anesthetic. I am still stunned that people have had their expectations lowered so much that they actually enjoy watching a digital crowd simulation run for 6 minutes. What's even more sad is that movies are such an important part of our entertainment that people will increasingly watch with their expectations and nostalgia, forgive this stuff or refuse to see it because their eyes and ears and hearts couldn't possibly justify the $10.
And Peter Jackson can go pound sand as far as I'm concerned. King Kong was 3 seconds of kick-ass monkey eyes and 1,900 "so-so to piss-poor" CG shots. Ditto all those freakin' LotR movies that might as well be surgical anesthetic. I am still stunned that people have had their expectations lowered so much that they actually enjoy watching a digital crowd simulation run for 6 minutes. What's even more sad is that movies are such an important part of our entertainment that people will increasingly watch with their expectations and nostalgia, forgive this stuff or refuse to see it because their eyes and ears and hearts couldn't possibly justify the $10.
Now, I'm not going to defend Peter Jackson as a storyteller. He's rather pathetic when it comes to such things. The Lord of the Rings movies were a travesty against the books in my opinion, being reduced to mindless action left and right with meaningless plot points by comparison. Also, while I agree that his version of King Kong lacked in drama and storytelling, it was still one incredibly fun film in its ridiculousness; I enjoyed watching his take on the original.
Where I disagree with you is the attacking of the special effects in those movies. The Lord of the Rings and King Kong were spectacular visual achievements from both a technical standopoint and a purely artistic one. I doubt you're a very visual person if you're attacking them at that point. Even as Jackson tortured the original brilliance of Tolkien, I was still enjoying the artistic talent and emotion that was put into animating the world of middle earth. From the breathtaking locations to the creatures on the battlefield and special foes, the films were very moving. Makes the cgi work done for the Star Wars PT look like the shitty crap it is. The same thing goes for King Kong which was very stunning and well crafted from a visual standpoint.
You talk about watching "digital crowd simulation run for 6 minutes," but how was watching plastic models with little lights popping out of them any less pathetic? The point is the believability and the emotion being conveyed. If combined with the good storytelling you desire, then you are looking at truly great films, but even without that aspect, I can enjoy any well-made, purely-visual art I stumble upon.