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Yoda, Gollum Take MTV Awards
zoobaby writes "MTV has given the LoTR franchise credit for spectactular work with Gollum. After being snubbed by the Academy Awards, it is nice to see recognition given to one of the most expressive and best acted roles in recent films."
The LOTR makers' work on Gollum was not snubbed by the academy. They did not make Serkis eligible for an Oscar, but they gave the Oscar for visual effects to the WETA team, and (IIRC) showed a Gollum clip as they were walking to the stage.
Ah but he does very much exist... Andy Serkis is a graduate of my very own Lancaster University and did a very marvelous job of portraying gollum.
The animators used actual footage of Serkis acting out the role in a silly skintight body stocking, and the voice is all him. I am particularly impressed by gollum's dialogue with himself
The Academy announced that Serkis was eligible to be nominated for an Oscar (scroll down in link, third paragraph from the bottom). He just did not receive enough votes from Academy members to receive a nomination.
The 2-mile loop cost $2.4 million, not 30. (reference)
And the $100 million special effects are for both movies together.
Interesting. I guess I was surprised he got the award for best male role. Eminem always looked pretty girly to me.
CGI will never look human, because typically the CGI isn't human, not supposed to be human, would be wrong if it were human.
In the clips of the Incredible Hulk, does it look wrong? Yes? Good! The Incredible Hulk is not human. He bounces better, moves differently, is just plain built differently.
Did Spiderman look unusual? Good! A man swinging through a city shouldn't be normal for you.
In fact, your claims that the old effects "looked better" are a backhanded slam against the realism of those effects. Everything moved like a human or a puppet, because everything was a human or a puppet. Both of those motions looked "natural" to you, because you're used to them, but unless they were supposed to be a human or a puppet, that actually means the effect was a poor imitation of what "the real thing" should be.
Do you really think ET's race could have survived long enough to build those spaceships they have if they moved like an eighty-year-old arthritic grandmother? The equivalent of wolves on their planet would have torn them to pieces long before they developed civilization.
This is not to say all CGI is perfect. But you're going to have to either cut them some slack, or watch "Finding Nemo"*-style cartoons for the rest of cinematic history.
In conclusion, I disagree completely. Compared to modern effects the 80s effects are, well, 20 years out of date. They only look better because you're used to them. I've tried to adjust to the modern style, and while it could still use some improvement, compared to the 80s its stellar. If the (non-humanoid) aliens of the 80s are any indication, what the universe needs most from our planet is enormous quantities of Ben-Gay, Aspercreme, and Gold Bond medicated powder, 'cause there sure is an awful lot of joint pain out there.
*: Not meant as a slam against Finding Nemo; I haven't seen it yet but I expect to enjoy it. The point is that it quite deliberately moves like a cartoon, which is another style of movement we're "used to", even though it's totally 100% fake.
Mostly good points but does neo really count? I mean it's not in the 'real' world but rather a simulation of earth now. The guy even flies :)
Also about yoda... what if he wasn't using just his muscles for all that movement? what if he was using the force... the war could be over tomorrow... (slaps self out of matrix)
I meant he's THE jedi master and he can move objects many times his wait by manipulating the force. I'm not a huge star wars buff but can't he manipulate the force around him to move his body or simply aid them in some way?
Hmmm... Pie...