Given the progress in computer generated effects over the last 17 years, as well as our better understanding of dinosaur evolution, maybe Steven Spielberg should re-edit Jurassic Park with more feathers.
Here’s what the Velociraptor probably looked like, based on recent fossil discoveries…
There’s a weird pattern in the history of 3-D cinema in that the craze seems to come back every thirty years. Interest in stereoscopic films began in the 1920s, then fizzled out a bit before the war. The first colour feature film was released in the the early 1950s, shortly after which a number of 3-D releases were successful, including a 3-D version of Alfred Hitchcock’s Dial M for Murder.2
In the 60s, cinema-goers got their kicks through the use of psychoactive drugs, making 3-D glasses somewhat redundant. The 70s saw advances in technology making 3-D projection cheaper and easier, which lead to the next craze in the early 80s and culminating in the ultimate in three dimensional entertainment, Jaws 3-D, starring Dennis Quaid.
The thing in common with each of these periods of popularity is that they were all short lived; 3-D projection never became the default way to experience cinema. Maybe people realised that what makes a good film isn’t a rather poor illusion of an extra dimension, but a good plot, a good script and the development of characters you care about.
Now James Cameron’s Avatar is the second highest grossing film of all time largely because people are clamouring to see it wearing 3D glasses. Last week I was one of those people and while I found it quite entertaining in places, no amount of film making technology could mask the fact that this is a film with a weak and mostly silly plot.
On the back of the success of this film, Peter Jackson and George Lucas are said to be re-releasing their films with reworked 3-D visuals3 (I can only imagine that a 3-D Jar Jar Binks will be a third more annoying) and analysts are saying that 3-D will be the default way to see films in a multiplex cinema. I’m sure that cinema-goers in 1983 would have expected more when they future-gazed into 2010.
Is ‘A.I.’ going to be the next ‘The Black Hole’? Hit reload [3 images].
A still from A.I. [including Chris Cunningham inspired – created? – robots]
Stu reports on newvenue.com – “presenting the most innovative ‘new movies for a new medium’ to a world-wide media-savvy community”.
Create your very own Star Wars style light sabre effect! – requires a DV camera and Adobe Premiere.
Don’t know how long this has been online, but there is a teaser trailer for A.I.: the Kubrick film that never was. Spielberg might or might not make a pigs ear of it. [via Stu]
Finally got round to seeing Memento at the weekend. It’s one of those films that leaves you slightly disturbed for reasons you can’t quite pinpoint. The plot unfolds ingeniously though… I did attempt to work it all out but I gave up after a few minutes because my brain was beginning to hurt. If anyone has read any worthwhile interpretations, I’d be glad if you could email a few URLs.
I can’t really see The Incredible Hulk battling gracefully in leafy tree-tops, can you?
It looks as though George Lucas has filmed some of the scenes in the latest Star Wars episode at Legends Nightclub in Newcastle. Hmmmm.
Wouldn’t mind going to see Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon tonight, but I’m playing 5-a-side football instead. I’ve got the choice of a sitting in a nice warm cinema watching an excellent film or running around in the freezing cold for an hour chasing a ball round (occasionally trying to hit it into a net). So which would you rather do?… yes, I know… it’s just that a) I’m slightly bonkers, b) it’s good cardio-vascular exercise and c) I’d feel guilty if I didn’t play because my team would be a man down. Anyway, I quite enjoy it, not that I’m a major football fan or anything -quite the opposite, I don’t really understand the football obsession that afflicts a high percentage of people in this country (especially Geordies).
Went to see an Argentinian film rather forwardly entitled ‘Fuckland’ at the Tyneside last night (as part of the London Film Festival). A detailed review will be here later (I started to write one last night but didn’t quite finish it). I would provide a hypertext link to some info on it, but it isn’t listed at IMDb yet and I can’t find anything else about it (written in English anyway).
Immersive film lab at atom films.
