Max Jenius Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 Nobody ever mentions that WETA was like "ILM... help us do our special effects!" I dunno, for some reason I like the CG in the SW prequels better than the stuff in LOTR. But that's probably because I like sci-fi better than fantasy. They both look wonderful. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Akilae Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 I like it. It reminds me of the Rocketeer. (which despite popular disliking, i liked and foudn entertaining) Interesting... most people I've talked to thought Rocketeer, while not Academy Award material, was actually a pretty well made film. The soundtrack was awesome though, much better than what you would expect coming out of a movie like that. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Graham Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 I used to love the old black & white Flash Gordon cliff-hanger serials as a kid, so I'm hoping this movie will capture some of their essence. However, I'm not holding out high hopes for it. I've gotta say, I'm getting more and more turned off by what I consider the extreme overuse of CG effects year by year and this movie looks like it's going to be one big bad CG-fest. Somebody bring back actual model spaceships, stop-motion animation and guys in rubber suits.....please! I'm not saying that every CG-heavy special effects movie is bad, but for every good movie, there are a dozen bad ones . And although I haven't seen it yet, the CG monsters in the trailer of Van Helsing look to be a prime example of bad CG IMO. Also, I know I'm stating the obvious and getting OT, but in so many Hollywood movies there is far too much over-reliance on whizz-bang special effects and too little emphasis on a good storyline, decent acting and character development. I don't know maybe I'm just becoming too much of an old fart these days and turning into my parents. A request guys- If I ever reach the stage where I say that Meril Streep stars in interesting movies, please take me out back and shoot me in the head. Graham Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ladic Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 Rocketeer was pretty cool, this movie looks good also. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Solscud007 Posted May 6, 2004 Share Posted May 6, 2004 She looks like a Nazi in that getup. So does every imperial soldier and officer in Star Wars, so do Klingons, so do Turkish military uniforms, so does the North Korean army... Pretty much everyone who has created a military force that was intended to be seen as evil since WWII has been a style knock off of the Nazis. I mean lets face it, Hittler marketed his forces well. People saw them as the scariest army ever to walk the earth. I hear that Hugo Boss designed the Nazi uniforms in WWII. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingNor Posted May 8, 2004 Share Posted May 8, 2004 Also, I know I'm stating the obvious and getting OT, but in so many Hollywood movies there is far too much over-reliance on whizz-bang special effects and too little emphasis on a good storyline, decent acting and character development. yes... yes yes... yes yes yes... yes YES yes yes.. yes yes yes yes yes... YES yes. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Golden Arms Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 She looks like a Nazi in that getup. So does every imperial soldier and officer in Star Wars, so do Klingons, so do Turkish military uniforms, so does the North Korean army... Pretty much everyone who has created a military force that was intended to be seen as evil since WWII has been a style knock off of the Nazis. I mean lets face it, Hittler marketed his forces well. People saw them as the scariest army ever to walk the earth. I hear that Hugo Boss designed the Nazi uniforms in WWII. Yeah I've heard the same. I think I saw it on the History Channel before it became the Jesus Channel. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mechwolf Posted May 9, 2004 Share Posted May 9, 2004 (edited) I'm not saying that every CG-heavy special effects movie is bad, but for every good movie, there are a dozen bad ones . That goes for every type of movie, whether it is made with, or without, CG. A little fyi...Star Wars Episode I had more model ships & miniature sets built for it, than for Episodes IV, V, VI combined. SC&WoT looks interesting. I think it will either be a lot fun, or it will really suck. U.S. Army & Airforce dress uniforms are Nazi uniforms made in different colors & without the armbands. Edited May 9, 2004 by Mechwolf Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ewilen Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 Someone wrote that the flying robots are ripped off from Miyazaki. No--they're ripped off from Max & Dave Fleischer. Specifically, from the "Mechanical Monsters" Superman cartoon, which is known to have influenced Miyazaki. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfx Posted May 14, 2004 Author Share Posted May 14, 2004 Someone wrote that the flying robots are ripped off from Miyazaki. No--they're ripped off from Max & Dave Fleischer. Specifically, from the "Mechanical Monsters" Superman cartoon, which is known to have influenced Miyazaki. That's what I thought...... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Commander McBride Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 Oddly enough, the thing that was most noticable to me was that they ripped off the SG-1 theme for the trailer! trailers are never done by the actual production team. And they allways recyle music for it. you will not see that song in the sound track nor anywhere in the movie. I know that. My mom owns a trailer company. I was just saying that whoever did the trailer "borrowed" the SG-1 theme. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gabe Q Posted May 14, 2004 Share Posted May 14, 2004 If anything, it's the title that's gonna kill this movie. Give it a catchier name and somethin' might happen. Hydrogen bomb? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wolfx Posted September 17, 2004 Author Share Posted September 17, 2004 Review from CNN. http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/Movies/09/...tain/index.html Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsu legato Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 ...and a rave review from CHUD.com as well. One more sleep to go!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robomatt Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 My brother is in the media and we got passes to a prescreening of this movie. I liked the film. Visually it is stunnung. The folks really put a lot of effort into this movie to give it the retro look and feel. Visually it looks like old black and white films that have been colorized. The plot is slightly weak but the clever script and the giant robots and cool planes with special abilities that I won't tell you about (don't want to spoil it for you) are awesome. Angelina Jolie is actually GREAT in this movie. In the scenes she is in she kicks butt and takes names! For those of you that like asian girls there is one in the move that will catch your eye. I give the move a 7.5 out of 10 It is a lot of fun and the ending was a funny suprise. Go check it out. You will most likely enjoy it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EXO Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 robomatt... you suck too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radd Posted September 17, 2004 Share Posted September 17, 2004 I like the title, and I really don't see how anyone who would like this type of movie to begin with would see the title as out of place. I mean, come on! I love the premise, but wasn't holding high hopes until I picked up the Onion this week, and they gave it a good review. I'm starting to hear more and more about this movie, we picked up a free DVD with behind the scenes stuff at BestBuy, and I must say I'm even more hyped about it than when I first saw the trailer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chronocidal Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 (edited) Well, having seen it now, I think it pretty much lives up to the hype. Especially in the visual area.. but honestly, that wasn't what my friends and I noticed most... What we really couldn't help pointing out were... get ready for this one.. all the parodies/references to stuff from Star Wars. It really does have that old Buck Rogers feel to it, almost to the point of something like a graphic novel (the montage scenes of typing and such really were kind of weird at first, but they made an interesting effect). The stylization of some scenes also looked like it came straight out of a war recruitment poster, or something of that sort, and seemed funny acted out, but it seemed to work okay. But we were amazed by all the stuff that seemed to mirror Star Wars.. one line was actually taken directly from it, and I don't mean just the "I have a bad feeling about this." It was mostly in the way of an easter egg, it wasn't a line that most non-Star Wars fanatics would remember at all, much less be able to place. I'd have to see it again to remember most of them, but it kept us laughing for quite a while. One of my friends made a comment though that was pretty interesting to think about.. about 15 minutes in to the movie, during a mid-New York street-level dogfight, he said "Heh.. this movie's only beginning and it's already more like Star Wars than episodes one and two combined!" I had to agree really. The plot was hokey, sure, but at least having seen it, the title makes sense now. It also had a lot of quite funny situational humor thrown in, but it didn't try to be overly funny, which was good. The characters weren't well defined at first, but as the characters gained depth and got on each others nerves, the conversations became the source of quite a few laughs, and some background for the characters. On the down side, the plot really is pretty corny, as well as a good portion of the dialog, but it doesn't really seem out of place. Also, while cool, there is no way the P-40 could survive through the maneuvers it was put through, much less fly from NY to Nepal without refueling. The aircraft were pure sci-fi magic, albeit 1930's sci-fi magic. All in all it was worth the ticket though, it had some really good parts and some really funny humor and references thrown in. Not spectacular, but considering I went in expecting it to pretty much bomb, I was pleasantly surprised, especially by the twist at the ending. Now, keep this in mind, I'm not the greatest reviewer, and I've thought some real trash was decent. I'm pretty easy to please. But my friends all agreed it was pretty good, and we had a fun time. Given that that's the main reason I went in the first place, I wasn't disappointed. Edited September 18, 2004 by Chronocidal Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jawjaw Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 I just saw it last night and not sure what to think. Overall, it was pretty cool and I like films with a lot of style and imagination. But I wasn't sure if some scenes were supposed to be corny or how realistic the creators were trying to be. A lot of stuff just didn't make much sense to me. A couple of young guys next to me were laughing at how stupid some of the dialog was. I also found it interesting that the overall airbrushed look at the beginning of the film was slowly reduced towards the end of the film where there was no effects at all. I did like the characters and most of the dialog. ***********semi spoiler - i guess *******I thought it was cute that Polly kept waiting for something better to take a picture of. With all the crazy stuff going on, I would probably be thinking the same thing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dangard Ace Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 Lenscap. Loved the movie can't wait for the DVD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Noyhauser Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 (edited) Not that I am a mod or any sort of arbiter of truth, but I think you should edit your comment dangard... it reminds me of the time someone ruined the Usual suspects for me in the first minute. Well I think after watching it, its a good movie. The best way I can put it is that it is a movie plot and feel from 1930s but with 2004 movie technology. Much of the plot, as chrono pointed out it hokey, but given that the film was taken from 1930s comic books, it really follows that vein closely. I think many people might be turned off by that, (making it a less easy for some viewers to accept, especially if they are looking for a mindless film), but it increases its artisic value immensely. Most of what we would call hokey is was what was called science fiction 70 years ago. Generally I like the movie. Cringed at times but it was pretty good. Edited September 18, 2004 by Noyhauser Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-ZeroOne Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 (edited) Also, while cool, there is no way the P-40 could survive through the maneuvers it was put through, I thought Pearl Harbour had established that if you want to take on an entire enemy air amarda, then the P-40 is the only thing that you can do it in... Okay, okay, - the P-40 is one of the most under-rated aircraft of all time; they were useful enough that, like the Hawker Hurricane, they made them in the thousands long after they were technically behind the leading edge. Pearl Harbour just irks me because the advice given on how to fight a Zero in one is exactly the wrong thing to do... Edited September 18, 2004 by F-ZeroOne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EXO Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 Nepal to NY??? You should have let that suspension of disbelief kick in when the plane took a dive... I thought it was great, but each part needed a little more. New things kept getting introduced while I was trying to soak in the last thing. It was truly awesome. I thought that the camera thing was a great trick to keep you wondering what could possibly be next. And it ended up to be the funniest moments in the movie. I'm not a big Paltrow fan but I thought her part was kinda essential to the movie, though they forced her presence a bit. But there was a big pay off in the end, when Joe decided he wasn't having anymore of that. It felt more like a TV series premiere (storywise not visually) than a feature film because of the length. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wabbit Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 She looks like a Nazi in that getup. So does every imperial soldier and officer in Star Wars, so do Klingons, so do Turkish military uniforms, so does the North Korean army... Pretty much everyone who has created a military force that was intended to be seen as evil since WWII has been a style knock off of the Nazis. I mean lets face it, Hittler marketed his forces well. People saw them as the scariest army ever to walk the earth. I hear that Hugo Boss designed the Nazi uniforms in WWII. Yeah I've heard the same. I think I saw it on the History Channel before it became the Jesus Channel. That explains why, no simpathies with the regime and its ideas, that the uniforms are quite good-looking. Lose the totenkopf though. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
F-ZeroOne Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 I think someone once described Where Eagles Dare as the ideal war adventure movie because the good guys get to wear the best uniforms...! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KingNor Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 the look on pollys face at the end sold me. my directing teacher hates this movie but i liked its style and un-ashamed randomness. half the laughs we got were from "wtf is that" moments. most movies it woulda pissed me off but this one did it on purpose without feeling forced. very cool. "lenscap".. my new favorite punchline. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Damaramu Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 (edited) Just got back from seeing Sky Captain. I gotta say: I LOVED IT. I'm a big fan of the old Fleischer brothers animation (Superman anyone?) and this film did a really swell job in recreating the look and feel. Sure the movie was light on plot......and yeah, there were some implausible moments, but none of that really bothered me. I had tons of fun watching this movie and will most likely see it again. And I'll recommend it to my friends! score: 8.5/10 Edited September 18, 2004 by Damaramu Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bsu legato Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 Simply awesome. This movie will see lots of play when it comes out on DVD. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montarvillois Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 Best Sci-Fi movie I've seen in years. This one now ranks in my own personal hall of fame sitting right next to Dune and the Fifth Element. That was an awesome experience, truly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Radd Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 So far I've only heard one person tell me they didn't like it, but this was my roommate who also loved Alien Versus Predator, and thinks that Van Helsing is the pinnacle of modern cinema, so I'm looking forward to this movie even more! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
That NOS Guy Posted September 18, 2004 Share Posted September 18, 2004 This movie was a refereshing breath of air, really geeky, but pretty well done. The plot was a little weak but it was mountains above it's contender in Resident Evil: Apocalpyse. -NOS Staring at the spaceship: "THAT'S NO MOON!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Montarvillois Posted September 19, 2004 Share Posted September 19, 2004 This movie was a refereshing breath of air, really geeky, but pretty well done. The plot was a little weak but it was mountains above it's contender in Resident Evil: Apocalpyse. -NOS Staring at the spaceship: "THAT'S NO MOON!" I disagree, The plot is not weak at all. It is purposely light and predictable to make it fall in line with the old theatrical school of the 1930's and 40's. If you ever watch movies like Metropolis and it's likes, you will find the same types of interaction between caracters. I actualy like the way they depicted the tibetans with the exageratly slanted eyes, small mustache and pinch, just like you would see them in comics such as the phantom and flash gordon. These little details make the movie look like an authentic old movie as these "features" if they were used in a contemporary movie, would be viewed as racist and many comments interpreted as racist or sexist which were concepts that did not exist in the 20's and 30's. I don't know if what I'm witting here makes sense to you guys ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gerwalk25 Posted September 19, 2004 Share Posted September 19, 2004 (edited) I saw it yesterday and i'm sold. It's a great flick that has great potential to be a franchise, and why? Lets see; Giant Transforming Robots, Semi Transformable Planes, Sky Carriers and a Comical Loony Toons-esque Rocket i.e all technology before WW2. I see graphic novels (Dark Horse), video games (I see Microsoft/FASA taking the helm on this one or Factor 5), toys (Takara Microman!) and another movie! 7.5 out of 10 on story 8.5 out of 10 on the visuals Edited September 19, 2004 by gerwalk25 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GobotFool Posted September 19, 2004 Share Posted September 19, 2004 Best Sci-Fi movie I've seen in years. This one now ranks in my own personal hall of fame sitting right next to Dune and the Fifth Element.That was an awesome experience, truly. Not sure I'd call it the best sci-fi movie I've seen in a while, but it certainly is one of the best retro style/nostalgia movies I've ever seen. Also it presents one of the coolest CG worlds ever rendered for the big screen. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GobotFool Posted September 19, 2004 Share Posted September 19, 2004 my roommate who also loved Alien Versus Predator, and thinks that Van Helsing is the pinnacle of modern cinema, so I'm looking forward to this movie even more! Gasp! *clutches heart and falls over dead in shock* Just not right....... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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