| Going to a film that I worked
on the effects is always exciting, especially when it is a
movie you would have liked to go see even if you had not worked
on it. Since I was busy with the C3 Diorama construction on
the weekend, my friend Lucie and I waited till last night
to go see it. The funny thing was that it was also the night
where the entire fx crew was going to see the film... and
thank god for the cinema... LOL ... if it wasn't for our group
there would have been only 3 people in the theater :P
After the 20 minutes of LAME LAME previews, why do they give
money to make such poop as "Guess Who?" ugh... at
least Sin City looks cool :), the movie starts with a bang.
no 100 credits, we are with 2 friends who get a psychic reading
at the Santa Monica Pier. Soon they will discover their destiny
is to not last to the end of the movie :)
I don't know if many of you are familiar with the nightmare
behind this films release. It was supposed to come out like
3 years ago, they had a preview screening and changed the
ending, more previews, another ending, 2 years later...let's
change the cast... The work we did at Mokko Studios was the
3rd ending and the version you see on screen today. I don't
know what the other 2 were so I cannot compare, but the film
turned out not that bad. But rest assured it is FAR from perfect.
The BIGGEST problem I think (and Lucie noticed also) is
the acting of Cristina Ricci. Yikes. She is B A D in this
film. At least in the beginning. Like watching an episode
of Dawnson's Creek or Gilmoore Girls. Towards the end her
acting is in a different style completely which works a little
better but is hard to make out her style. I think this problem
is mostly due to the fact that there were 3 years of reshoots
and it shows (especially in the more then 20 pound weight
loss of the reshoots LOL). But fear not Ricci fans, She doesn't
win the PooPoo award for acting in this film. That honor goes
to Scott Baio. OUCH. If none of you are old enough to remember
Happy Days or Charles in Charge then you won't know the difference
anyway except to say "who cast that dude?" LOL.
There are several really COOL scenes that keep the horror
tension high, most notably when Ricci hears noise in the house
and goes down the steps to make sure all the doors and windows
are locked ( Kill Bill fans will LOVE this scene :P ) and
the other is the Parking Lot wolf attack. Very well done.
We were all screaming "NO !!! don't stick your head out
you idiot" LOL wonderfull horror film tension there :)
As for the wolf effects, Sony did a cool job but even in
2005, it still looks like a big CGI wolf. Even though the
fur moves well and he looks mean, it just looks weird. I don't
know if it's because I know the tricks and work on these type
of effects but it's very hard to make it 100% realistic. I
think some parts of American Werewolf in London still today
worked better. The transformation although cool, is totally
fake. I heard at a cost of $1 million. Better then a video
game but just not working for me.Maybe because I work with
the techniques and they have lost their magic. I don't know.
How did you like it? Email me, I'd love to know.
For those curious as to what transformations I worked on
at Mokko Studios, it was (highlight for spoiler) the
scene at the end in Ellie's house when they all start to change
at the climax. I did the compositing for Joshua's vein and
wolf eye changes and some morphing on Ellie's brother as he
bites into Joshua. It's all in the dark and goes by
quick so don't blink :P.
Over all, if you like horror films it's not a total flop
and does have some very good moments but not scary enough
for the true horror fans. Too bad it was edited down to PG.
Wait for the DVD if you arent a true Craven fan.
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