Comments on: Emmerich Brings Destruction (Again)

By: swarez

swarez — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:49:54 +0000

Wouldn’t this film be a great double feature with The Road? Start with the destruction of 2012 and then end it with the drama of The Road.

By: swarez

swarez — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 15:25:26 +0000

There are no shortages of stunt men and crumbling miniatures in these modern films. ID4’s destruction scenes were all models and physical effects. The Poseidon remake was all physical sets, water and fire. Emmerich is a fan of model work and knows how to use them with CGI augmenting the look, more debris and stuff like that. Wouldn’t surprise me that most of the destruction scenes in 2012 were miniatures because there are some things that computers still can’t do realistically.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 14:08:30 +0000

@Lee “Kurt you have a cold heart dude, no tension what about the Shelley Winters swimming scene in Poseidon that tore me up back in the day (Oscar nom as well for that role, not that it means much, but means more than it does today)”

Well, sure, even in a mountain of mediocre there are moments of brightness.

I prefer the SCTV Parodies sketches of these films. Joe Flaherty slapping the back of his neck and declaring “DAMN! WHy do they have to build these things so high!” for the Towering Inferno takedown.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 13:06:56 +0000

Maybe it has little to do with nostalgia, but not for those movies per se but for practical effects and for the art of the stunt man. The CG spectacle just leaves me cold and even within this shoddy genre there was a kind of microcosm of humanity displayed in those early disaster movies that really isn’t present in these newer versions.

I’m not a CG hater or an Allen defender for that matter, but if it’s a quiet Sunday afternoon and say it was Poseidon adventure against the Day After Tomorrow on TV I think I’d have more fun going old school, and isn’t that the point within this genre. CG is a great tool when used correctly but it’s rare to see it as a tool among others rather than the primary tool.

Kurt you have a cold heart dude, no tension what about the Shelley Winters swimming scene in Poseidon that tore me up back in the day (Oscar nom as well for that role, not that it means much, but means more than it does today)

Anyway I’m off to see Transformers 2 (not really going to catch ‘Looking for Eric’ for the second time, which I can’t recommend enough)

By: kurt

kurt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:06:27 +0000

There are some films that really benefit from practical effects, the old Allen pictures look cheap despite their stars, and the tension isn’t there. You can hear the ka-ching of the paycheck for those actors back then, too.

By: kurt

kurt — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 12:04:13 +0000

Have to agree with Swarez on Irwin Allen. Those movies were dreck back then, and their modern versions are pretty awful too. In away, the gaudiness of the modern incarnations are more tribute than insult to Allen’s legacy.

By: swarez

swarez — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 11:26:23 +0000

No. They are exactly the same thing, just better done these day.
This is just nostalgia talking.

By: Lee

Lee — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:13:11 +0000

“Oh please. If he had the tools back in the day this would be exactly what he wanted to pull off.”

There is a charm and visceral action that is at the heart of these movies that Emmerich cant even come close to, a broader canvas of this type distances the relation of the charcters to the the actual goal set by the the event, and as a consequence it’s really hard to care. There is also the fact that these movies are spectacle as with Allen’s movies to be fair but CG actually kills any tension and watching these actors get a big fat pay check and not having fire and falling rumble all round is pretty lame.

By: swarez

swarez — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 09:04:33 +0000

“Irwin Allen is spinning in his grave…again.”

Oh please. If he had the tools back in the day this would be exactly what he wanted to pull off.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:46:06 +0000

Examples of art where the meaning is absolutely despicable, but the aesthitics are such that I surrender to them:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cr_iNfxZl0I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCSgWPZeNjc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BddVfcQX-v4

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P8SPeR60lRI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P93cI_u1mng

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0P6bmfhLO1E

By: Henrik

Henrik — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:04:35 +0000

In The Happening I was thinking of the gunscene, as being particularly vicious. The Lion Attack is vicious enough, but seems a bit like a joke, not very effective, just entertaining. Shyamalan has a problem with balancing his newer films, it seems he always tries to throw something in to entertain the masses, but his sense of humor is inappropriate for his sentiments, and his sense of timing is way, way off.

His films are still interesting though.

By: Henrik

Henrik — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 02:02:15 +0000

…

Are you saying that Kubrick does not fetichize the beauty of soldiers in uniform marching in Barry Lyndon? He may use music and voice-over contrapunctually (I have no translation for this danish word, let me know if you do/do not know what it means), but there is no question that Emmerich stole images from Lyndon, just like SS stole from Strangelove. The difference, for me at least, is that Emmerich does so with love and affection for the childish fascination of the beauty, and SS tries to replicate the harshness reality, but does so with computer effects, sound effects, music and whatnot, completely missing the point, more than negating the effect.

Kubrick was a visualist, he saw the fucking potential beauty in the uniforms, just like in the spaceships, and created iconic images on screen. You are too caught up in trying to decipher the meaning, solving the riddle of the story and sensations, to see the obvious exploitation on display in Barry Lyndon. Exploitation used ironically, in The Patriot used unironically, but exploitation none-the-less. And, in the end – to quote Leni Riefenstahl (another unironic filmmaker, one of the best ever) – “You see only beauty.”