Friday 11 March 2011

Enslaved.

Some wonderful voices and animations in here, spotted throughout the dated gameplay.
A bit hack and slash, but the plot was fantastic, and most of the tech aspects were spot on...bar the textures.
some were great, some were bloated and had TOO much detail, others were blown up and had pixelated from afar. A real shame it wasn't polished...but some gorgeous concepts and levels.

Battle for, what could be, a random US city..

Battle for LA, i know, a somewhat inventive title, was charged.
You can probably guess where the film fell over a little, but my god did it have some pace. Really fast paced and exciting. A little bit of realism helped it through certain scenes, though some of the obvious sfx (explosions with fireworks) let it down a bit.
really fun though.

Rango

Wow. Must say first - fantastic texture work, and very smooth plausible animation.
very impressed. The pot was a little wanting, and some of the characters undeveloped, but it was well worth watching, especially from a technical viewpoint.

(note for me: I think, based on watching these types of films, and my choice in games, im really siding with texturing and animating as a specialisation.)

Tuesday 22 February 2011

The Cobbler and the Thief (the one that stole 1hr and a half!)

Utterly depressing. A complete mess, but a mess that would've mde a wonderful film had it been released on time. such a shame.
This review sums it up better than i can 

Nausica

Now i know Miyazaki has made some truly great works, but this one i felt was lacking a little. Though can fully see the
inspiration that was taken from it for Final Fantasy - there are so many aspects and characters nicked.
I just felt it could have been grander and the main characters evolve a little more. Static Fantasy :(

Grit Ftw

Wow. Ace. Coen bro's. Wonderful. Well done.
As the name susgests, it's gritty. It's lovingly paced and sucks out the action slowly and carefully.
A real western treat.

Definitely Tangled...

Oh Disney..trying hard now are we? Not as dissapointing as i set it up to be, though the unbelieveable characters
still f£$%$ing sing. An average plot, with some gorgeous visuals, mired with good 'ol Disney flourish riding on the
back of shrek's topsy-turvy fairy tales. watchable, barely, though better watched with something physical to do. (hoovering anyone?)

Black Swan

This was gruesomely fantastic. A real thriller (finally!!). Excellent pacing, wonderful cast and so much fun to get
caught up in. I even think there are some 'easter eggs' in there, warranting an extra viewing.

Hornetness

Despite the rubbish trailer, this was better than i expected. A fairly fun romp of action with tired dialogue though
interesting visuals. The designs of the gear and the lighting were probably the better aspects of this film.

Thursday 13 January 2011

Tron Legacy 3D

Ok, so my other reviews have been rocky towards 3D, even avatar managed to irritate me in 3D. But Tron really did add to the overall experience with the 'slight' 3D effects. And i mean slight in terms of not trying to push effects out of the screen too much, and that a good 30% (and possibly more) have no 3D elements in them at all (was sneaky and took the glasses off a few times).
The plot was fairly basic, but in my opinion, needed to be. It was still quite a classic storyline, and managed to deliver it well. The action was excellently paced, with some nice action scenes that were kept low key enough not to overdose on action.
As soon as watching it, and possibly due to having a bee before, thought instantly of comparing it to Indiana Jones and the Lost Ark, or Star Wars A New Hope, as it had this great sense of sci-fi opera, and was a joy to sit and fest in this thorough and strong world.
As much i've read and heard that the film was rubbish/thin/too effect heavy, i thought it worth watching. And was glad i did. More than buyable :)

Tuesday 11 January 2011

Iron Eagle

Wow. Some awesome (possibly post-Topgun) Fighter jet film romp. Wonderful film, imo.
Could really do with a re-make - some polishing on the rubbish effects and repeated explosion frames, because it had this great appealing quality. And there aren't that many decent fighter jet films out there :P

Monday 10 January 2011

The King's Speech

Wonderfully crafted film. Beautiful shots, with really deep images and lovingly good composition. Great acting and a simple story made this a really nice watch. A little slow for some, but some ingenious shots, dialogue and acting made up for the ADHD'ers out there.

The Next 3 Days

Excellent film. Long and winding, and Crowe isn't that bad in this one.
Lots of twists, some lovely use of 'vigilante justice'.
Quite nicely shot, though most shots are simple fare. Nothing to speak of technically, but a decent film, made you feel, was on the edge of my seat :) Recommend.

Sunday 2 January 2011

Narnia

Wow.
Awful film. In a few interesting ways.
Aside from the usual suspects with these films - plot, acting quality, plot, plot, - there was a slightly bigger issue afoot. The '3D' fad effects were fairly basic. And watching the film was quite difficult.
Firstly, the use of 3D (stereoscopic cameras) was only implemented with 3D-space 'place-cards'. Each character was mapped onto a place-card, and lobbed somewhere in 3D space. Or so it looked.
The other serious problem with the 3D was the lack of story-telling direction. There were two focus pulls i noted, both were tiny, and ineffectual. It was a shame really, as this is why 3D should be taking off. Directing the viewer, and allowing flat scenes to be more visually interesting.
The last problem i found with the 3D on this movie (possibly just me), was the fast editing, while having these 3D place-cards. You have to watch the action, note the 3D space they're in, and ignore the odd 'flicker' instead of motion blur, all in an instant.

Not sure this is the way forward for storytelling film.
Didn't even get to enjoy any of the modelling/effects because of the 3D (i'd stopped using the glasses after about 20mins in) and the ADHD editing. :/
Bummer of a film.