I think I fully came to this realization when watching a commercial for King Kong the other day. It had all these reviewer quotes about how exciting it is, and how amazing the effects were.
And they were very well done, I admit. Good CGI (for the most part), explosions, things being destroyed in exciting ways, and all that jazz.
But none of it impressed me much, even in the theater. For the vast majority of King Kong, I was bored out of my skull. Especially in the action scenes.
It never used to be this way. When I was a pre-teen, Terminator 2 knocked my socks off. As a twelve year old, I was blown away by Jurassic Park. When I was fifteen, Independence Day had enough eye candy to win me over, even though that's pretty much all it had going for it. The Matrix was probably the last movie where the effects made the movie for me. That was in 1999.
Since then, we've had the other two Matrix movies, both of which I saw in theaters, and both of which bored the hell out of me. Reloaded was bad, but Revolutions was just plain terrible. We've had the Star Wars prequels, where the times I am most bored are the CGI scenes. Every action scene that didn't involve light-sabers bored me, I think. The space battle scenes were especially yawn-fests, as was the Pod-race. The LOTRs movies had wonderful special effects, but it was totally the story that made me love them, I would say.
Even Serenity bored me with its flashy special effects at times. I wanted to see more character interaction, not more ships shooting missiles at each other. I've seen enough CGI space battles to fill three lifetimes I think.
I don't know if its because I am getting older, or because I've seen too much, and so none of it feels new to me. Perhaps we've gotten to the point where directors can show whatever is in their imagination on the big screen, and so we've gone as far as we can go in this medium.
Anyone else feel the same way? Do you think any action movies will ever make me feel the way T2 or Jurassic Park did?
Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
Depends on whether or not the effects serve the story. BTW, "special effects" and "visual effects" are not the same thing. Blowing something up and filming it is a special effect; using computers to make the explosion look like you want it to look is a visual effect.
Posted by Xavier (Member # 405) on :
Okay, I'm not really an expert on the terminology. I guess I'm not really impressed with either "special effects" or "visual effects" though.
Posted by starLisa (Member # 8384) on :
I stopped being impressed with special effects when my apartment burned down and I got a closeup view of a scene from "Backdraft". It looked like movie magic to me, except for the being really, really hot. I figure if life can look like movie effects, it's all the same stuff. Now I only notice it when it's cheesy, like when I recently saw the pilot for the old George Reeves "Superman" show, and the rocket they put little Kal-El in was made of tinfoil.
Posted by Synesthesia (Member # 4774) on :
Perhaps you'd rather watch movies with people drinking tea and developing their characters. One has to admit that flashy for the sake of flashy can get boring after a while. I for one want to see a movie in which they just have CLIMAXES. All EXPOSIONS. Blowing up cars, blowing up helecopters then they end this movie by blowing up a large ship for no reason other than it's cool to blow up a large ship with no people in it.
I kind of like Matrix 2 and 3. In 2 Morpheus had a SAMURAI SWORD.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
I was bored during King Kong only when Kong wasn't on the screen. When he was, I was riveted. The fight with the dinosaurs was my favorite part.
Posted by Beren One Hand (Member # 3403) on :
The fight with the dinosaurs was my favorite part.
When I saw that scene, I thought to myself: This is why I go to the movies.
Sure, I enjoy thought provokers like the Insider and tear jerkers like the Notebook; but the little boy in me just want to see a big monkey smash dinosaurs good. Posted by kmbboots (Member # 8576) on :
As I said, I think it really depends on whether or not effects serve the story rather than the other way around and whether it is a story worth telling. I imagine that there are very few films made without at least some visual effects.
Posted by The Pixiest (Member # 1863) on :
I liked the bugs better. It really creeped me out. Giant monsters fighting does nothing for me. Maybe I've seen too much anime.
Actually, now that I think about it, what really had me thinking "Wow, that's just beautiful" was the 1930s NY shot as the boat pulled away. All of 1930s NY really, but especially that shot.
Not explosions, Not giant monsters, Just a 75 year old picture of a city that's changed completely.
Pix
Posted by Stephan (Member # 7549) on :
I fell asleep during the "epic" battles in Narnia and felt myself doing so in the long chase scenes while still on the island in Kong.
Posted by Farmgirl (Member # 5567) on :
That's what I have heard as well -- that people who saw King Kong mostly liked the way they could "re-create" the 1930's-looking New York City. I don't know whether that is a visual effect or special effect, but it sure impressed some of my friends..
FG
Posted by blacwolve (Member # 2972) on :
I am invariably bored during space battles. I just don't find anything about them at all interesting. There are some times, though, when I find fight scenes interesting. For example, I loved both Neo's fight at the end of the last Matrix and all of River's fighting in Serenity. I don't know why I just think those scenes are beautiful.
Posted by Pelegius (Member # 7868) on :
The best part of King Kong was when Kong wasn't on the screen. I find humans more interesting than giant cgi apes.
Posted by katharina (Member # 827) on :
These were boring humans, sadly. The first hour could have been cut by twenty minutes.
Posted by Zeugma (Member # 6636) on :
Well, the idea of people going to the movies just to see "special effects" was bound to be temporary, anyhow... no one goes to the movies just to see something in color, anymore, do they? :-)
The point of VFX work like in Kong is to be so realistic that people don't even realize they're looking at VFX. So the fact that people are starting to ignore the incredible graphics work and focus more on the story/acting is really a sign that the graphics are doing their job really well, I think.
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