CGI in movies
The Pros and Cons
Hello this article is going to be about how CGI both helps and hurts movies today. But before I begin I’d like to say I’m not an expert, I’m not a film student nor am I involved in the making of movies in anyway, I am simply a fan of movies I watch a lot I own over 700 and I’m old enough to remember when CGI broke into the mainstream. So what follows is simply my opinion coupled with a bit of personal experience and some research so I hope you enjoy.
Before I get to the meat of this article I’d like to give u some history on CGI a very brief history. First off CGI stands for computer generated imagery and first appeared in 3d in a movie called Future world where a face and hand where animated. Star wars also used wireframe CGI for the scene with the death star hologram and the targeting computer.
The first movie to use mostly CGI was Tron. In Tron the hover tanks, the light cycles and of course Bit the floating polyhedron where all CGI. Two years later a movie called the last star fighter came out which also used heavy amounts of CGI. Both movies where failures although both have a cult following now and Disney is working on a sequel to Tron.
The failure of these movies caused directors to shy away from CGI unless using it for objects that were supposed to look computer created. That is until of course a movie called the abyss came out and won an award for best special effects for industrial light and magic which has been involved in some of the biggest movies to date.
The next big movie to successfully use CGI was terminator 2 where all the t-1000 morphing effects where done in CGI. This was followed by Jurassic park where all the dinosaurs where done in CGI. Then in 95 we got the first fully computer generated film Toy Story witch unlike Tron did incredibly well at the box office.
Movies continued to use variations of CGI effects then around 1999 – 2000 CGI became the primary application of special effects. So now that you have a brief history on the use of CGI in movies I’d like to go right into how it can help a movie and how it can hurt a movie.
The first major benefit of CGI is that it’s a lot cheaper than physical special effects and can be produced with relative ease, this also unfortunately is also its biggest downfall. Because it’s so cheap a lot more independent films with horribly cheap and bad looking CGI have hit the rental and store shelves.
Now I have absolutely nothing against independent films most original ideas come from them and they can be wonderful. What I do have a problem with are these movie companies that make these b-movie rip offs of popular movies and I believe it’s because CGI is so easy and cheap to produce that they can make these movies in abundance.
One company specifically, the asylum, is notorious for this making such horrible rip offs as alien vs. hunter (alien vs. predator), the day the earth stopped (the day the earth stood still), I am omega (I am legend) and the list goes on just IMDB there name and you will see what I’m talking about.
CGI when used to enhance already present physical special effects is great. Also when used to stylize some scenes or inanimate objects is also good and works well. For example in the first matrix CGI was used to create the bullets and bullet effects for the famous bullet dodging scene however Keanu reeves was actually being held up by wires and photographed this is a good use of CGI. Now in the matrix reloaded during the neo vs. lots of smith fights there’s a part where neo kicks one smith then jumps off of him and kicks a smith behind him neo is made in CGI at this point which seems unnecessary and kind of ruins the moment.
It’s my belief that unless the whole movie is done in CGI that humans should never be produced in whole using CGI it just looks to fake. Inanimate objects such as bullets and cars and such things look decent enough that it doesn’t ruin the movie if they are done in CGI for action scenes.
In a movie like transformers it is only because of CGI that the movie was possible and the animators worked painstakingly on the robots. They had so much detail it took 24 hours to animate 1 second of movement. However this amount of care is not always used and can make production crews lazy.
A good example of this is in 2 fast 2 furious when the cars are drag racing the camera switches to a CGI view of the car’s tires side by side. They could have easily mounted a camera and gotten a much cooler shot of the real cars.
One of the most famous over and more often then not unnecessary uses of CGI was the special editions of the original star wars trilogy. I loved being able to see these movies in theaters since I wasn’t born when they originally where. But all the additions are mostly unnecessary. There’s dancing creatures that do nothing for the story as well as other small things. There is however one great scene between Jaba and Han that was originally cut and added to the special editions. This scene is a good use of CGI.
Other bad uses include the scene in spider man where peter is jumping from roof to roof for the first time. The roof tops are CGI and so is peter until he leaps and his face is real close to the camera. Harry potters Quidich matches are mostly CGI and the characters look fake during them. I could go on forever listing bad uses of CGI but I digress.
It’s not only action movies that have gotten lazy and use CGI horror movies witch traditionally have a history of really cool special effects done by hand through either puppets or animatronics have gone the CGI route and are now even using CGI for blood. I think that with horror movies it should be half and half. One of the more recent horror movies I watched used fake blood and CGI combined nicely. The CGI was used for stylized shot like an eyeball flying at the camera in slow motion. (The movie was midnight meat train).
Usually combos like this work out well but when CGI is relied upon to heavily it takes away from the movie and end up disconnecting u as a viewer. CGI is making huge leaps towards being able to produce a life like human. If u want to see what I mean go to YouTube and watch the “Emily” video the entire video is a tech demo for a technology called image metrics. It is my belief that if this technology is developed further then obviously CGI effects would be a thing of the past.
So those are my feelings on the bad uses of CGI so how about we switch to a more positive view and talk about good uses. First there’s the stuff I already mentioned, bullet time, transformers and the scene with Han and Jaba. There is also the artistic uses of CGI which are used to show a view of something that would normally be unattainable the eye scene I mentioned in midnight meat train is one example.
CGI is also safer then physical effects as no one has ever been killed by a computer image before with CGI u can surround your actor in shattering glass without worrying about him/her getting cut. Fire, explosions, projectiles, bullets and energy effects are all things that I feel have benefited from CGI.
Ok I feel as if I may be rambling now so to sum it all up CGI is good for inanimate objects and partial human parts as well as getting angles not easily obtained with a regular camera. On the other hand CGI is bad when trying to recreate a full on human body in a live action movie and replacing physical effects that are already known how to do.
Saturday, March 28, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Silent Hill review
Silent Hill
At this point we have seen movies for the two other most popular survival horror series, resident evil and alone in the dark. While entertaining these two movies where not that close to the games. Will silent hill fair better? Read on to find out.
Silent Hill is about a mom whose daughter talks of a town while sleep walking. The mom then takes her daughter to the town of silent hill where her daughter disappears after a car crash. While searching for her daughter rose comes across deranged religious freaks, a cop, and all sorts of monsters.
Ok so I’d like to start by saying this is by far one of my favorite video game adaptations ever. This is why it was number 2 in my top ten video game movies. But besides me liking it there’s a ton of reasons why this is good while not exactly following a specific game plot.
The first and most important thing that helps make this movie good is the director. While practically unknown at the time having done one really big movie beforehand (brotherhood of the wolf) Chris Gans who has admitted loving video games put about 5 years of effort into securing the rights for a silent hill movie from Konami. He filmed an interview of himself and explained how much he liked the games and what he planned to do for a movie. Konami was so impressed they gave him the rights.
The director is not the only thing that helps this movie out it’s also the fact that Konami and team silent (the team responsible for the games) where involved from start to finish. A lot of game companies don’t do this most of the time they will just sell their rights off and not care about the movie and count their money. Going back to the director there was a lot of stuff he did to make this movie good. He had the sound designer for the games flown to the set several times to help with the music for the movie. He also hooked up a ps2 and played the original game for the cast and crew to show them how he was going to recreate certain camera angles and scenes.
Now about the plot. The film is primarily based on the first game. Several scenes including the miner tied to the fence and the burning children attacking rose are from the first game. The main plot line of searching for her daughter is also the point of the game although in the game it is a father. The female cop and Dahlia are both characters in the game as well as all the monsters and the religious cult. Other notable things from the game are the transfers to the dark world and item collection every time rose picked up a picture I could see it spinning in mid air saying you have found picture #1.
There are however major changes to the plot like the fact that in the game the religious cult worships the devil and wants to bring a demon to life not kill who they think is a demon. Also in the game it’s a father looking for his daughter not a mother. But despite the changes the movie always has the creepy atmosphere of the games. the monsters use a good mix of practical effects and CGI, from what I found out most of the monsters where physically present then touched up with CGI with the exception of the bugs that follow pyramid head and the barb wire at the end witch where all cg.
The ending is another great part when Alyssa is killing off the cultist with barb wire tentacles. This scene was inspired by one of the very first tentacle hentai’s legend of the over fiend. A hentai is basically a porn anime.
The acting was good you can really feel the concern and worry in Rose for Sharon and it slowly turns from emotional to physical as the stuff she goes through to get her daughter back is harder and harder.
The pyramid heads where done well however in the game they appear when someone feels as if they need to be punished for what they have done so I think in the movie they were just there as fan service and it was great fan service. They looked just like the ones from the game and like the other monsters where actual people.
I believe this movie is a prime example of what happens when the film crew and the video game company both care about the movie and source material. The monsters are attracted by light like in the game and electronic devices such as radios and cell phones produce static when monsters are near.
Konami was so happy with the silent hill that they reference it in their newest game and have already green lit and started working on a second film. However the director and writer both got hired to do work on an Onimusha film so they will not be returning but Gans said he would help by consulting so the look and atmosphere of the first movie is present. Witch game the second movie is based on has yet to be officially announced however it’s rumored that the second game will be the inspiration.
How I would do it. This movie was good I honestly have no real improvements I could suggest except maybe a longer run time.
Over all I give the movie a perfect 10 out of 10 pyramid heads. When I saw the preview I got my hopes way up and this movie doesn’t disappoint it’s great for fans of the games as well as plain old horror fans.
The acting gets 9 out of 10 most everybody was on but the female cop was just a bit over the top.
The plot gets 6 out of 10. Why a low score u ask. Well because to be fair this score is supposed to be how much the movie followed the plot to the game and it’s not exactly one of the games plot but do not let this deter you.
The content how ever gets 9 out of 10 the monsters, some characters, music, locations and atmosphere where all there even the camera angels where right from the game
Ok well its done took a bit longer then I thought hope you enjoy it. Next up is dead or alive a.k.a. D.O.A. it’s a movie based off a fighting game so the review should be quick but I am going to play some dead or alive 2 first and rewatch the movie before I sit down to write.
At this point we have seen movies for the two other most popular survival horror series, resident evil and alone in the dark. While entertaining these two movies where not that close to the games. Will silent hill fair better? Read on to find out.
Silent Hill is about a mom whose daughter talks of a town while sleep walking. The mom then takes her daughter to the town of silent hill where her daughter disappears after a car crash. While searching for her daughter rose comes across deranged religious freaks, a cop, and all sorts of monsters.
Ok so I’d like to start by saying this is by far one of my favorite video game adaptations ever. This is why it was number 2 in my top ten video game movies. But besides me liking it there’s a ton of reasons why this is good while not exactly following a specific game plot.
The first and most important thing that helps make this movie good is the director. While practically unknown at the time having done one really big movie beforehand (brotherhood of the wolf) Chris Gans who has admitted loving video games put about 5 years of effort into securing the rights for a silent hill movie from Konami. He filmed an interview of himself and explained how much he liked the games and what he planned to do for a movie. Konami was so impressed they gave him the rights.
The director is not the only thing that helps this movie out it’s also the fact that Konami and team silent (the team responsible for the games) where involved from start to finish. A lot of game companies don’t do this most of the time they will just sell their rights off and not care about the movie and count their money. Going back to the director there was a lot of stuff he did to make this movie good. He had the sound designer for the games flown to the set several times to help with the music for the movie. He also hooked up a ps2 and played the original game for the cast and crew to show them how he was going to recreate certain camera angles and scenes.
Now about the plot. The film is primarily based on the first game. Several scenes including the miner tied to the fence and the burning children attacking rose are from the first game. The main plot line of searching for her daughter is also the point of the game although in the game it is a father. The female cop and Dahlia are both characters in the game as well as all the monsters and the religious cult. Other notable things from the game are the transfers to the dark world and item collection every time rose picked up a picture I could see it spinning in mid air saying you have found picture #1.
There are however major changes to the plot like the fact that in the game the religious cult worships the devil and wants to bring a demon to life not kill who they think is a demon. Also in the game it’s a father looking for his daughter not a mother. But despite the changes the movie always has the creepy atmosphere of the games. the monsters use a good mix of practical effects and CGI, from what I found out most of the monsters where physically present then touched up with CGI with the exception of the bugs that follow pyramid head and the barb wire at the end witch where all cg.
The ending is another great part when Alyssa is killing off the cultist with barb wire tentacles. This scene was inspired by one of the very first tentacle hentai’s legend of the over fiend. A hentai is basically a porn anime.
The acting was good you can really feel the concern and worry in Rose for Sharon and it slowly turns from emotional to physical as the stuff she goes through to get her daughter back is harder and harder.
The pyramid heads where done well however in the game they appear when someone feels as if they need to be punished for what they have done so I think in the movie they were just there as fan service and it was great fan service. They looked just like the ones from the game and like the other monsters where actual people.
I believe this movie is a prime example of what happens when the film crew and the video game company both care about the movie and source material. The monsters are attracted by light like in the game and electronic devices such as radios and cell phones produce static when monsters are near.
Konami was so happy with the silent hill that they reference it in their newest game and have already green lit and started working on a second film. However the director and writer both got hired to do work on an Onimusha film so they will not be returning but Gans said he would help by consulting so the look and atmosphere of the first movie is present. Witch game the second movie is based on has yet to be officially announced however it’s rumored that the second game will be the inspiration.
How I would do it. This movie was good I honestly have no real improvements I could suggest except maybe a longer run time.
Over all I give the movie a perfect 10 out of 10 pyramid heads. When I saw the preview I got my hopes way up and this movie doesn’t disappoint it’s great for fans of the games as well as plain old horror fans.
The acting gets 9 out of 10 most everybody was on but the female cop was just a bit over the top.
The plot gets 6 out of 10. Why a low score u ask. Well because to be fair this score is supposed to be how much the movie followed the plot to the game and it’s not exactly one of the games plot but do not let this deter you.
The content how ever gets 9 out of 10 the monsters, some characters, music, locations and atmosphere where all there even the camera angels where right from the game
Ok well its done took a bit longer then I thought hope you enjoy it. Next up is dead or alive a.k.a. D.O.A. it’s a movie based off a fighting game so the review should be quick but I am going to play some dead or alive 2 first and rewatch the movie before I sit down to write.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
top ten best and worst video game movies
Top Ten
Best and worst video game movies.
Well I’ve decided to take a small break from reviews and give you 2 top ten lists that’s right act now and you will receive 2 top ten lists for the price of one and what’s that price? Well its free ninety free. Anyway for these lists I followed the same rules as my reviews which are live action movies. So without further delay I bring you the top ten best and worst video game movies (in my opinion)
10. Best: resident evil 1. Worst: resident evil 2. The first resident evil while being completely devoid of any game characters at least had the atmosphere of the games while the second one dumped the horror part and went all action and frankly that’s just a bad move when adapting horror video games.
9. Best: Dead or Alive. Worst: Resident evil 3. Dead or alive succeeds with its well choreographed fight scenes and characters that mirror there video game counter parts even down to the fighting styles which is good because it’s based on a fighting game. While resident evil 3 takes the plot way of course and gets rid of the horror part even more so then part 2 if that was even possible not to mention the ne character from the game isn’t even recognizable until she says her name.
8. Best: Mortal Kombat. Worst: Mortal Kombat 2. Here is another set of movies whose theme varies so much between sequels the first mortal kombat was pretty close to plot and had a handful of characters from the game along with pretty good fight scenes. Part 2 on the other hand had way to many characters crammed into it the plot was still pretty close but the fight scenes where hit or miss and some where pointless if only to include another character.
7. Best: Wing Commander. Worst: Dungeon siege. Wing commander has the advantage of being written by the games creator. Now while not everyone likes Freddie prince j rim certain everyone likes Matthew Lillard and he’s great as the supporting role in this movie couple that with awesome space ship dog fights and you get a great movie. And on the other hand give a bad film maker a bigger budget and you get a bigger flop. Dungeon siege was Uwe Bolls first big budget movie and aside from hiring bigger name actors nothing gets better except the amount of cheesiness in it.
6. Best: Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Worst: Double Dragon. Tomb Raider did great capturing the attitudes of the characters and the atmosphere from the games. As well as a story that might as well have been one of the games then it tops itself off with great action sequences. Then you have double dragon a movie with silly home alone like fight scenes and plot that is equally as silly. Mixed with weird villains and a weird post apocalyptic future makes the move plain old silly.
5. Best: Hitman. Worst: Street Fighter. Hitman had well choreographed fights really cool action a plot similar to the game and a fairly decent lead actor. Street fighter had none of these with the exception of Raul Julia as bison (may he rest and piece and damn his kids for making him do this piece of trash as his last movie)
4. Best: Doom. Worst: Blood Rayne 2. Talk about night and day. Doom was well acted well written and had a historic first person action sequence. Plus almost every weapon and monster from the game. BloodRayne 2 had a ridicules plot cheesy special effects no monsters from the game and bad acting.
3. Best: Max Payne. Worst: Super Mario Bros. both of these movies changed the plot from the game they are based on how ever while max Payne had the same basic theme and action similar to the game Mario was a mess of brothers who aren’t brothers and Dennis hopper as a t-rex.
2. Best: silent hill. Worst: BloodRayne. Silent hills production team worked closely with Konami to produce a movie very pleasing to both, fans of the games and average movie goers alike, Doing such things as recreating camera angles and even getting the composer from the games to do the music for the movie. In BloodRayne case the production team took 2 game characters and filmed pointless and badly directed action sequences for an hour and a half. Could you really expect a movie where even the actors themselves admit it was bad to be good? The answer is simple no.
1. Best: Postal. Worst: House of the Dead. I know what you’re saying how can Uwe Boll take up the best and worst number 1 spots? It’s simple postal was in my opinion the best video game movie ever it makes fun of everyone from politicians, terrorists, blacks, Germans, Jews, the handicapped, gays, midgets, and even Uwe Boll himself. Postal doesn’t take itself seriously and is extremely funny and includes scenes and moments from the game. It also keeps with the theme and attitude of the game if you have not seen this movie go watch it then tell me I’m wrong if you can. Then on the other hand we have a movie with nothing to do with the game except zombies and would have been so much better if it was a comedy because everything was just so ridicules and wasn’t even good for a fan of cheesy movies.
Well that concludes this list I liked making 2 top ten's in one I hoped you enjoyed reading it and I’ve already started working on the silent hill review.
Best and worst video game movies.
Well I’ve decided to take a small break from reviews and give you 2 top ten lists that’s right act now and you will receive 2 top ten lists for the price of one and what’s that price? Well its free ninety free. Anyway for these lists I followed the same rules as my reviews which are live action movies. So without further delay I bring you the top ten best and worst video game movies (in my opinion)
10. Best: resident evil 1. Worst: resident evil 2. The first resident evil while being completely devoid of any game characters at least had the atmosphere of the games while the second one dumped the horror part and went all action and frankly that’s just a bad move when adapting horror video games.
9. Best: Dead or Alive. Worst: Resident evil 3. Dead or alive succeeds with its well choreographed fight scenes and characters that mirror there video game counter parts even down to the fighting styles which is good because it’s based on a fighting game. While resident evil 3 takes the plot way of course and gets rid of the horror part even more so then part 2 if that was even possible not to mention the ne character from the game isn’t even recognizable until she says her name.
8. Best: Mortal Kombat. Worst: Mortal Kombat 2. Here is another set of movies whose theme varies so much between sequels the first mortal kombat was pretty close to plot and had a handful of characters from the game along with pretty good fight scenes. Part 2 on the other hand had way to many characters crammed into it the plot was still pretty close but the fight scenes where hit or miss and some where pointless if only to include another character.
7. Best: Wing Commander. Worst: Dungeon siege. Wing commander has the advantage of being written by the games creator. Now while not everyone likes Freddie prince j rim certain everyone likes Matthew Lillard and he’s great as the supporting role in this movie couple that with awesome space ship dog fights and you get a great movie. And on the other hand give a bad film maker a bigger budget and you get a bigger flop. Dungeon siege was Uwe Bolls first big budget movie and aside from hiring bigger name actors nothing gets better except the amount of cheesiness in it.
6. Best: Lara Croft Tomb Raider. Worst: Double Dragon. Tomb Raider did great capturing the attitudes of the characters and the atmosphere from the games. As well as a story that might as well have been one of the games then it tops itself off with great action sequences. Then you have double dragon a movie with silly home alone like fight scenes and plot that is equally as silly. Mixed with weird villains and a weird post apocalyptic future makes the move plain old silly.
5. Best: Hitman. Worst: Street Fighter. Hitman had well choreographed fights really cool action a plot similar to the game and a fairly decent lead actor. Street fighter had none of these with the exception of Raul Julia as bison (may he rest and piece and damn his kids for making him do this piece of trash as his last movie)
4. Best: Doom. Worst: Blood Rayne 2. Talk about night and day. Doom was well acted well written and had a historic first person action sequence. Plus almost every weapon and monster from the game. BloodRayne 2 had a ridicules plot cheesy special effects no monsters from the game and bad acting.
3. Best: Max Payne. Worst: Super Mario Bros. both of these movies changed the plot from the game they are based on how ever while max Payne had the same basic theme and action similar to the game Mario was a mess of brothers who aren’t brothers and Dennis hopper as a t-rex.
2. Best: silent hill. Worst: BloodRayne. Silent hills production team worked closely with Konami to produce a movie very pleasing to both, fans of the games and average movie goers alike, Doing such things as recreating camera angles and even getting the composer from the games to do the music for the movie. In BloodRayne case the production team took 2 game characters and filmed pointless and badly directed action sequences for an hour and a half. Could you really expect a movie where even the actors themselves admit it was bad to be good? The answer is simple no.
1. Best: Postal. Worst: House of the Dead. I know what you’re saying how can Uwe Boll take up the best and worst number 1 spots? It’s simple postal was in my opinion the best video game movie ever it makes fun of everyone from politicians, terrorists, blacks, Germans, Jews, the handicapped, gays, midgets, and even Uwe Boll himself. Postal doesn’t take itself seriously and is extremely funny and includes scenes and moments from the game. It also keeps with the theme and attitude of the game if you have not seen this movie go watch it then tell me I’m wrong if you can. Then on the other hand we have a movie with nothing to do with the game except zombies and would have been so much better if it was a comedy because everything was just so ridicules and wasn’t even good for a fan of cheesy movies.
Well that concludes this list I liked making 2 top ten's in one I hoped you enjoyed reading it and I’ve already started working on the silent hill review.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
BLOODRAYNE
Well after the decent movie that was doom we take a turn for the worse as Boll pulls back in with the blood sucking crapfest known as BloodRayne. Hey wait is that award winning actor Ben Kingsly and b movie favorite Michael Madsen? It is it is this may be good after all you better read on to find out.
BloodRayne is about a half human half vampire girl who is recruited by the brimstone society to help fight her father Kagen who is the king of the vampires.
Well I lied those 2 actors did nothing for this movie what so ever and even Madsen has been quoted as saying that the movie was bad. First off the only real thing the movie got right was the characters names and of course there were only 2 from the game (Rayne and Kagan) other than that this movie is a mess.
After seeing alone in the dark I thought boll could do at least entertaining movies but BloodRayne really let me down the only real entertaining thing was the blood sprays witch where reminiscent of older samurai movies but if I wanted that id watch kill bill or one of the like 20 Zaotoichi movies.
Honestly the blood is the only thing that they got right from the games. They didn’t get the story line right at all and she doesn’t use any of her powers water hurts her of course but no super speed. When I first saw the trailers I said cool we get to see how Rayne got her start but they screwed it up they made it so Rayne wasn’t nearly as cool as her video game counterpart. And big spoiler ahead she kills her father at the end of the movie I mean in part 2 of the games she is still chasing him around in modern times he was not supposed to die.
When she finally gets her swords they look like rubber and extremely fake. The acting is not the worst but the writing is pretty bad and it seems as if everyone was just phoning it in on this one.
Boll surprisingly enough is not 100% responsible for this one the girl who wrote the screen play is definitely to blame and surprisingly enough her other movies are pretty good and often win independent film awards. Her most famous work is American psycho which is a fantastic movie if you haven’t seen it.
But it is my firm belief that Boll messed up BloodRayne the worst because in the game she is killing Nazis and Boll was pissed about that so secretly his plan was to make people hate Rayne to get her back for killing the Nazis which is why they are not in either movie. Oh yeah that’s right he actually made a sequel to this witch surprisingly was better but that’s another review.
There was one other really good thing about this movie and that’s the pointless scene where the movie goes from being a bad action flick to a bad soft-core porn where one of the characters is nailing Rayne in a jail cell. The only point this scene serves is to show us Kristina Loken's breasts.
The action is bland and unexciting at least alone in the dark had explosions and a few camera tricks but BloodRayne has no saving grace for the action even the blood spills don’t make up for how bad it is. This is sad because Loken can do action she can do martial arts if you have ever seen terminator 3 or mortal kombat conquest you know what I’m talking about.
How I would do it. Well if I was going to go with the origin story I would have had her comfort her father but loose but she would have defeated some kind of boss monster and of course the weapons would have looked real and she would have had some of her powers like super speed. Other then that I would just do the story from the first game.
Overall this movie gets 2 out of 10 pointless sex scenes. It was bad real bad. Bad acting, bad action and nothing redeeming about it at all.
The acting gets 2 out of 10. Even Loken's moans where badly acted and Ben Kingsly must be so well off he can just do a movie for the money and not actually have to act.
The plot gets 2 out of 10. Nothing in this movie besides Kagan being Rayne’s father happens in the games or is even hinted at.
And the content gets 1 out of 10 the only things from the game where Rayne, brimstone and Kagan.
Ok well 3 out of 7 boll films down next we get 2 fairly decent video game movies then its back to stinkers with another boll and the last resident evil movie. Also I’m trying to get these done as fast as possible without losing to much quality I’d really like to be caught up as soon as possible there’s only one more video game movie this year and I’d like to be caught up by the time it hits theaters.
Well after the decent movie that was doom we take a turn for the worse as Boll pulls back in with the blood sucking crapfest known as BloodRayne. Hey wait is that award winning actor Ben Kingsly and b movie favorite Michael Madsen? It is it is this may be good after all you better read on to find out.
BloodRayne is about a half human half vampire girl who is recruited by the brimstone society to help fight her father Kagen who is the king of the vampires.
Well I lied those 2 actors did nothing for this movie what so ever and even Madsen has been quoted as saying that the movie was bad. First off the only real thing the movie got right was the characters names and of course there were only 2 from the game (Rayne and Kagan) other than that this movie is a mess.
After seeing alone in the dark I thought boll could do at least entertaining movies but BloodRayne really let me down the only real entertaining thing was the blood sprays witch where reminiscent of older samurai movies but if I wanted that id watch kill bill or one of the like 20 Zaotoichi movies.
Honestly the blood is the only thing that they got right from the games. They didn’t get the story line right at all and she doesn’t use any of her powers water hurts her of course but no super speed. When I first saw the trailers I said cool we get to see how Rayne got her start but they screwed it up they made it so Rayne wasn’t nearly as cool as her video game counterpart. And big spoiler ahead she kills her father at the end of the movie I mean in part 2 of the games she is still chasing him around in modern times he was not supposed to die.
When she finally gets her swords they look like rubber and extremely fake. The acting is not the worst but the writing is pretty bad and it seems as if everyone was just phoning it in on this one.
Boll surprisingly enough is not 100% responsible for this one the girl who wrote the screen play is definitely to blame and surprisingly enough her other movies are pretty good and often win independent film awards. Her most famous work is American psycho which is a fantastic movie if you haven’t seen it.
But it is my firm belief that Boll messed up BloodRayne the worst because in the game she is killing Nazis and Boll was pissed about that so secretly his plan was to make people hate Rayne to get her back for killing the Nazis which is why they are not in either movie. Oh yeah that’s right he actually made a sequel to this witch surprisingly was better but that’s another review.
There was one other really good thing about this movie and that’s the pointless scene where the movie goes from being a bad action flick to a bad soft-core porn where one of the characters is nailing Rayne in a jail cell. The only point this scene serves is to show us Kristina Loken's breasts.
The action is bland and unexciting at least alone in the dark had explosions and a few camera tricks but BloodRayne has no saving grace for the action even the blood spills don’t make up for how bad it is. This is sad because Loken can do action she can do martial arts if you have ever seen terminator 3 or mortal kombat conquest you know what I’m talking about.
How I would do it. Well if I was going to go with the origin story I would have had her comfort her father but loose but she would have defeated some kind of boss monster and of course the weapons would have looked real and she would have had some of her powers like super speed. Other then that I would just do the story from the first game.
Overall this movie gets 2 out of 10 pointless sex scenes. It was bad real bad. Bad acting, bad action and nothing redeeming about it at all.
The acting gets 2 out of 10. Even Loken's moans where badly acted and Ben Kingsly must be so well off he can just do a movie for the money and not actually have to act.
The plot gets 2 out of 10. Nothing in this movie besides Kagan being Rayne’s father happens in the games or is even hinted at.
And the content gets 1 out of 10 the only things from the game where Rayne, brimstone and Kagan.
Ok well 3 out of 7 boll films down next we get 2 fairly decent video game movies then its back to stinkers with another boll and the last resident evil movie. Also I’m trying to get these done as fast as possible without losing to much quality I’d really like to be caught up as soon as possible there’s only one more video game movie this year and I’d like to be caught up by the time it hits theaters.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
DOOM movie review
DOOM
Well after resident evil and alone in the dark taking there whack at survival horror adaptations universal decided to throw there hat in the game with Doom. Doom 3 had been released 1 year prior and had a horror theme mixed with its traditional action and universal decided to take this route for the movie did it pay off? Read on to find out.
Doom is about a group of marines who go to mars to help evacuate a research facility and while there encounter different kinds of monsters who one by one kill the marines until the final confrontation at the end of the film.
Ok to start off doom does a lot right where other video game movies don’t. First it went for an R rating witch aloud for the movie to keep the violent atmosphere of the games. Second they went with almost 100% practical effects for the monsters instead of cheeping out with cg. The actor that they picked to play Grimm looks almost exactly like the face that is your health meter in the original game.
Every enemy type is in the movie zombies from 3, imps, a baron and the pinky demon. Also just about every weapon from the BFG to the chainsaw is present it seems the only guns that are missing are the plasma weapons. The facility is owned by the U.A.C like in the games.
The acting is pretty good besides the rock it’s mostly b actors but I think they all do a good job getting across the different personalities they are supposed to have. Now while it’s not really scary to people used to watching horror movies the tension and suspense are done rather nicely and not until the end do you really ever see the monsters in full lighting.
The biggest complaint I hear from people is that the monsters are the result of an infection not demons from hell. Now while that is technically true there are several references to mars being hell and the monsters being demons. Goat one of the marines refers to mars being hell and so does Grimm. Now while theses are only metaphorical references still they are there.
There are a few quick references to the game such as Samantha asking for a med kit which is the primary method of replenishing your health in the game also the rock refers to the BFG as a big fucking gun which is what the original acronym stood for in the original game. There is a pretty funny line that the rock has where he says “I’m not supposed to die” while being killed.
Now I’d like to talk a little bit about the coolest sequence in any video game movie ever the first person sequence. About 15 mins until the end of the movie Grimm is injected with the virus that mutated everyone else but because he’s good hearted it gives him super strength speed and healing. So anyway right after he wakes up from the injection the movie shifts to first person witch of course is a throwback to the games.
Right at the start Grimm looks in the mirror witch if you’re like me is one of the first things I do when playing a first person shooter. Then its nonstop action as Grimm wonders the halls taking out zombies and imps then at the end he kills a baron then a pinky demon with a chainsaw. Also during this sequence Grimm reloads which is very similar to the reloading sequence in the games and at one point he shoots his reflection witch again is something I always do while playing a first person shooter.
Now at first I didn’t realize it was a baron that he killed and I thought the rock was supposed to be the baron but after realizing he wasn’t it made the movie even more enjoyable for me. The final fight scene between the rock and Grimm is actually pretty good it uses wires to show off the strength of the two men fairly decent and I wasn’t really disappointed with it at all.
The atmosphere is set up nicely the sets are dark and cold like in the games and they help to amplify the creepiness of it all. By using very little cg and mostly practical effects for the monsters and implementing old school horror techniques like showing the monster in the dark or only showing a hand here or leg there it makes them more mysterious until the full body is finally revealed.
Another thing I thought that was done well was the weapon design. Each marine used a different weapon whether it be the shot gun or assault rifle, SMG, minigun or pistol and when each marine first picks up there weapon it announces there handle or nickname. Two of the characters names are a credit to the co-owners of ID software too.
As far as characters from the game there are 2 plus the monsters. Grimm is supposed to be the hero and is even listed in the credits as doom guy and the rocks character has the same name as the Sarge from doom 3 although his attitude is not the same.
The way Sarge tells the marines of the plan is similar to a video game in the way he states the mission objectives witch I thought was pretty cool. The banter between the marines is also funny at times as almost all types of personalities are present including the newbie, the pervert, silent and strong, and wisecracking and once the rock looses it you have the psycho.
How I would do it. Well there’s not much I didn’t like but the few things I would have changed was probably giving the baron more screen time and changed him to be more like the original game with the horns and what not also I probably would have the monsters come from hell and switched the experiments from science to supernatural which would explain the opening to hell.
Ok so now for the scores. Overall I give the movie 8 out of 10 big fucking points. The atmosphere was great and the first person sequence was amazing.
The acting gets 8 out of 10 as well. I thought all the marines did a good job of acting like their personalities where supposed to be.
The plot gets 7 out of 10. It was based more on doom 3 then anything and was pretty close but they changed it from hell to an infection which is why it didn’t get a ten.
And the content gets 9 out of 10. It had a good portion of weapons and monsters from the games as well as a few in references and the hero kind of looked like the face from the original doom especially at the end when he was all beat up.
Ok so we are making good progress I think. One more boll movie and boy howdy is it a stinker then I get to do 2 movies I thoroughly enjoyed silent hill and dead or alive. Will you agree? Maybe. Will they be 2 of the best video game movies ever? Possibly? Find out all this and more next time on video game movie reviews same review time same review channel.
Well after resident evil and alone in the dark taking there whack at survival horror adaptations universal decided to throw there hat in the game with Doom. Doom 3 had been released 1 year prior and had a horror theme mixed with its traditional action and universal decided to take this route for the movie did it pay off? Read on to find out.
Doom is about a group of marines who go to mars to help evacuate a research facility and while there encounter different kinds of monsters who one by one kill the marines until the final confrontation at the end of the film.
Ok to start off doom does a lot right where other video game movies don’t. First it went for an R rating witch aloud for the movie to keep the violent atmosphere of the games. Second they went with almost 100% practical effects for the monsters instead of cheeping out with cg. The actor that they picked to play Grimm looks almost exactly like the face that is your health meter in the original game.
Every enemy type is in the movie zombies from 3, imps, a baron and the pinky demon. Also just about every weapon from the BFG to the chainsaw is present it seems the only guns that are missing are the plasma weapons. The facility is owned by the U.A.C like in the games.
The acting is pretty good besides the rock it’s mostly b actors but I think they all do a good job getting across the different personalities they are supposed to have. Now while it’s not really scary to people used to watching horror movies the tension and suspense are done rather nicely and not until the end do you really ever see the monsters in full lighting.
The biggest complaint I hear from people is that the monsters are the result of an infection not demons from hell. Now while that is technically true there are several references to mars being hell and the monsters being demons. Goat one of the marines refers to mars being hell and so does Grimm. Now while theses are only metaphorical references still they are there.
There are a few quick references to the game such as Samantha asking for a med kit which is the primary method of replenishing your health in the game also the rock refers to the BFG as a big fucking gun which is what the original acronym stood for in the original game. There is a pretty funny line that the rock has where he says “I’m not supposed to die” while being killed.
Now I’d like to talk a little bit about the coolest sequence in any video game movie ever the first person sequence. About 15 mins until the end of the movie Grimm is injected with the virus that mutated everyone else but because he’s good hearted it gives him super strength speed and healing. So anyway right after he wakes up from the injection the movie shifts to first person witch of course is a throwback to the games.
Right at the start Grimm looks in the mirror witch if you’re like me is one of the first things I do when playing a first person shooter. Then its nonstop action as Grimm wonders the halls taking out zombies and imps then at the end he kills a baron then a pinky demon with a chainsaw. Also during this sequence Grimm reloads which is very similar to the reloading sequence in the games and at one point he shoots his reflection witch again is something I always do while playing a first person shooter.
Now at first I didn’t realize it was a baron that he killed and I thought the rock was supposed to be the baron but after realizing he wasn’t it made the movie even more enjoyable for me. The final fight scene between the rock and Grimm is actually pretty good it uses wires to show off the strength of the two men fairly decent and I wasn’t really disappointed with it at all.
The atmosphere is set up nicely the sets are dark and cold like in the games and they help to amplify the creepiness of it all. By using very little cg and mostly practical effects for the monsters and implementing old school horror techniques like showing the monster in the dark or only showing a hand here or leg there it makes them more mysterious until the full body is finally revealed.
Another thing I thought that was done well was the weapon design. Each marine used a different weapon whether it be the shot gun or assault rifle, SMG, minigun or pistol and when each marine first picks up there weapon it announces there handle or nickname. Two of the characters names are a credit to the co-owners of ID software too.
As far as characters from the game there are 2 plus the monsters. Grimm is supposed to be the hero and is even listed in the credits as doom guy and the rocks character has the same name as the Sarge from doom 3 although his attitude is not the same.
The way Sarge tells the marines of the plan is similar to a video game in the way he states the mission objectives witch I thought was pretty cool. The banter between the marines is also funny at times as almost all types of personalities are present including the newbie, the pervert, silent and strong, and wisecracking and once the rock looses it you have the psycho.
How I would do it. Well there’s not much I didn’t like but the few things I would have changed was probably giving the baron more screen time and changed him to be more like the original game with the horns and what not also I probably would have the monsters come from hell and switched the experiments from science to supernatural which would explain the opening to hell.
Ok so now for the scores. Overall I give the movie 8 out of 10 big fucking points. The atmosphere was great and the first person sequence was amazing.
The acting gets 8 out of 10 as well. I thought all the marines did a good job of acting like their personalities where supposed to be.
The plot gets 7 out of 10. It was based more on doom 3 then anything and was pretty close but they changed it from hell to an infection which is why it didn’t get a ten.
And the content gets 9 out of 10. It had a good portion of weapons and monsters from the games as well as a few in references and the hero kind of looked like the face from the original doom especially at the end when he was all beat up.
Ok so we are making good progress I think. One more boll movie and boy howdy is it a stinker then I get to do 2 movies I thoroughly enjoyed silent hill and dead or alive. Will you agree? Maybe. Will they be 2 of the best video game movies ever? Possibly? Find out all this and more next time on video game movie reviews same review time same review channel.
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