It haunts me still

[thebitterguy]

The first time I saw Jurassic Park, I left the theatre and my date and I could only say "wow" for a few minutes. Now, I know a lot of folks out there will disapprove of my enjoyment of the film (at this point, I wish I smoked, so I could gesticulate with my hands in a mildly disappointing manner). I honestly appreciate their opinions, but fuck

Comments

[anonymous]

Oh no, it's not just you. I've felt this way for a long time, and wondered if I was nuts. It's possible to see in some shots (the raptors in the kitchen, particularly) a little bit of the age of the film's technology, but by and large, the original Jurassic Park dinosaurs have this stately sensation of weight and density that most later CGI monster-messes don't quite capture. Part of it, I suspect, is the slightly cartoony speed and flexibility that has come into vogue with contemporary CGI... look at The Hulk, for example. Zoom in, zoom out. Stretch, flex, distort, etc. It gives things an exaggerated, Silly Putty-esque look

[thebitterguy]

I think that's definitely a point. Maybe that's why Lucas used so darn many static shots in the prequels, to keep his CGI under control.

WRT Fight scenes: Yeah, it's good to see them done at medium length. The River scenes in Serenity were fairly well done mostly close in.

[pxtl]

Dispite the incredibly, mindbogglingly talented people who come out of that school - I blame Sheridan College.

You see, remember the background of CG animators. They're animators. The best of the best come through Sheridan College, who before studying CG, are studying classical animation for 3 years. These people cut their teeth on Spumco-style stuff. I doubt it's easy for them to abandon those instincts and focus on minimalist realism when animating for film. They're trained to make Jar-Jark Binks.

JP didn't use those people for animation - they did modelling and such like, but the animation was done by old special-effects puppeteers. Those special effects guys were focussed on realism and nothing else. Not emotiveness, expressiveness, etc. Just realism.

[scott_lynch]

Whoops. That anonymous comment was me.

[scott_lynch]

It's not possible that the state of the art FX still can't capture the same sensawunda that Spielberg did ten years ago, is it?

Well hey, as far as I'm concerned the space battle in Return of the Jedi stood unequalled for at least twenty-two years. The space battle in Revenge of the Sith was light-years beyond it in terms of complexity, vividness, and technical panache, but it lacked the narrative clarity of the RotJ battle (in which the ships of the Empire and the Rebellion could be clearly distinguished, and in which the goals of the respective sides were immediately clear). It takes something more than raw special effects power to build a scene that grabs you by the metaphorical jiggly bits and yanks you into the screen.

[antikythera]

Star Trek II still has, IMHO, some of the most breathtaking big-screen space battles I've ever seen.

[thebitterguy]

The final battle in TWOK reminds me of a submarine battle. Tension inside, then the shots of the two ships gliding by each other. Very well done.

It is still a high water mark for space battles, that's for sure.

[thetathx1138]

It IS a submarine battle. In fact, the entire movie is handled like a submarine thriller. This is one of the reasons Nicholas Meyer is a genius.

"Khan" is my favorite movie of all time, just for the record. :-)

[mollpeartree]

I happened to see part of JP on tv a few weeks ago, and I think the effects still hold up. I think one thing is that they emphasized the weight of the things so much; that scene where you can tell the dinosaur is coming because of the little waves in the water in a glass was very effective, for example.