The Lord of the Rings

2005.12.27 - Tuesday

I spent what turned out to be a good part of yesterday watching the extended version of "Return of the King", and it seems like it's even better than I remember it being. There is certainly no other fantasy film that even approaches the level of the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, and I'd be surprised if we see another one for at least 25 years. Story wise, the films will obviously be excellent, well, forever. I just hope that in 10 or 20 years, we'll still be able to look at the visual effects work and believe it. The original Star Wars films give me hope in this area, since people still enjoy those despite the outdated space ships and laser blasts.

"The Lord of the Rings" really is one of those rare film projects that simply will not go away, will not leave people's memories. I'm positive it's going to be right up there, sharing company with "Gone With the Wind", "The Ten Commandments", and "Star Wars" as an event that people will use to mark history and their own lives. The greatest aspect of such films is their timelessness, their ability to fit into any decade. Other than visual effects and other technical aspects of the productions, there is no way to peg any of those movies as being produced in a certain time. "Lord of the Rings" should enjoy the same longevity, and hopefully be enjoyed by millions for many years.

Do you think people are going to be watching "Attack of the Clones" twenty years from now? Please. Let's direct the cinematic praise and media attention at those who deserve it.

What? No "Sith"?

2005.12.23 - Friday

All over the internet on geek driven film sites the annual "best films of the year" lists are starting to pop up, and all over the internet Star Wars fans are asking and accusing, "where is Sith?"

Well, these would be "best films of the year" lists folks, the key word here being "best", and all three of the recent Star Wars films were horrible. It's pretty much a quantifiable fact now. Every critic that matters has weighed in, and the results are unanimous, "Revenge of the Sith" is a piece of shit.

I can't even laugh at people who like the new trilogy anymore. All that's left for me to give them is cold, unsympathetic pity. There are people out there typing feverishly on message boards trying to convince others that "Sith" deserves to be one of 2005's best films. They'll go on for paragraph after paragraph about how well acted the film was, or how the writing was amazing. Highly descriptive sentences will emerge about how they cried when Anikan was duped into a life of evil, and about how much they "felt" the character's inner struggle.

Do people actually buy this shit anymore? Does anyone really think that any sane, rational person would react to these films this way? I don't think so. I can't possibly see how. They're beautiful examples of imagination gone horribly wrong and a perfect demonstration of why visual effects should never take a leading role in a film. The new Star Wars trilogy is a monument to a new and disgusting way of making movies, where every environment is fake and actors' performances are tweaked in post-production after the fact. The sweet truth is that it's not even going to win the visual effects Oscar, "King Kong" will, because even though I haven't seen it yet, everyone is saying that the effects are amazing and have set the bar for the future.

I have nothing but pity for these people, and very soon, I won't even have that.

Watching Renders

2005.12.21 - Wednesday

Well all of the 3D work is finished on this latest episode of Battlestar, but the renders are not. We've got people watching the farm 24 hours a day until the end of the week, which means I've got the next two days off to finish my Christmas shopping before going in to work from 5pm-1am on Thursday and from 1am-8am on Friday. It was nice to sleep in today at least.

I've got to get caught up on movies in the new year. I still haven't seen Harry Potter, Narnia, and of course, King Kong. It's just been too busy. Hopefully I'll be able to get to all of those before they leave theatres, which shouldn't be a problem as they're all pretty popular and should continue to screen for a while.

Speaking of movies, check out the new trailer for "Apocalypto". I don't know what's going on in Mel Gibson's head these days, but I must admit I'm pleased he seems to have moved away from doing "Lethal Weapon" and "What Women Want" types of movies. This one seems hard to judge right now, but all of the dialogue is supposed to be in Mayan and most likely subtitled. It might be interesting.

Back Up

2005.12.14 - Wednesday

After finishing work on a large episode of Atlantis I figured I should start posting again, only to find that my site wouldn't accept any kind of FTP connection. Wonderful! Now, after a few days of back and forth emails with the tech support guys, it's working again.

Things are busy at the office. There was no break between the Atlantis episode I mentioned and the Battlestar episode I'm working on now, which has to be done before Christmas. I have no idea when I'm going to get any Christmas shopping done. It's going to be last minute, that's for sure.

Doomsday! Again!

2005.12.08 - Thursday

It's called Apophis. It's 390m wide. And it could hit Earth in 31 years time.

How many warnings does that make this year? It's got to be at least two or three. It's not that I don't find it interesting, and yes, I know that someday we will be in the path of one rock or another, but these astronomers have got to start being less alarmist. It's almost like finding the asteroid or comet that's going to hit us is like some kind of Holy Grail to every space scientist and backyard astronomer around. Obviously it's better that they're looking than not, but how about we get some more concrete information before running off to the Guardian about it?

The big problem with scientists is that they assume everyone sees the world the way they do. There are large numbers of people on this planet who still don't understand the basic makeup of our solar system, or even atoms, the basic makeup of matter. Yet every once and a while some article will come out where professor so-and-so from the university of whatever will argue that there's a remote chance, say 1-in-5000, that some distant and unseen space rock might hit our planet and kill some people in 30 or 40 years, and that we should immediately divert billions of dollars into space research to prevent it. Excuse me? Who the hell is going to give a shit? You're talking to the same people who made "Armageddon" a huge summer blockbuster and who probably think that simply because that movie exists, such a scenario would be completely impossible.

You can only scream warnings that the sky is falling for so long before people simply stop listening. That's what's happening today. All we can realistically do in our current society is push for a more robust space program and continue to watch the sky. If someone does see something, then they should make damn sure their math is right before running to the Guardian with a doomsday story and a pet name for the rock they've found, just so they can be first. One day, when we confirm that an asteroid will hit our planet, I'm confident that our civilization will mobilize and prevent an impact.

390 metres is small, anyway. If it were to hit the planet, even with an unrealistic solid iron composition, it would not cause a global catastrophe. A small region of a continent would be severely damaged, assuming it struck land, but this is by no means a threat to our existence.

"Apophis"? These guys are watching too much Stargate.