5 ms·

I totally, 100% agree. Gattaca is amazing, and my all time favorite Blade Runner also has outstanding practical effects (flawed, sure, but you stop noticing soo

by the_af 4y ago

I totally, 100% agree. Gattaca is amazing, and my all time favorite Blade Runner also has outstanding practical effects (flawed, sure, but you stop noticing soon enough). One of my favorites that, while very cool in general, suffers from some dodgy effects is Aliens. In general I wouldn't change a bit from it, but some of the dropship scenes are terrible and were pretty bad even back then. Then again, be careful what you (um, I) wish for: if they were to touch up Aliens they wouldn't stop at the dropship and they would ruin it with unnecessary CGI.

lancesells 4y ago
I noticed those dropship scenes on a rewatch a couple of years ago. I think when I watched it as a kid it was on a CRT on cable television and you couldn't see the details as much. Plus, I was a kid. On that note, I just rewatched the original Alien and there's really only one or two shots that looks kind of bad or goofy. Holds up so well for a film from 1979 with what would be a lower range budget in today's money ($44M).
- the_af 4y ago
  Yes, and also: imagine Alien in the hands of a director with access to today's budget and CGI: it would completely ditch any ambience, pace and characterizations in favor of showing one -- nay, thousands -- of monsters and chase scenes.
  - chaostheory 4y ago
    This is exactly why I hated the last half of Will Smith’s I Am Legend. The first half did so well at showing a post apocalypse, and the last half ruined everything with CGI video game monsters. They also butchered the main plot.
  - bigDinosaur 4y ago
    Well you don't need to look far, that's one of the problems with films from the exact same director such as Alien: Covenant.
    - the_af 4y ago
      Agreed. I did learn my lesson after the awful Prometheus and haven't watched any of the rest though.
- rasz 4y ago
  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLBLJOCBg8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLBLJOCBg8 dropship descent and crash are really bad green/blue screen jobs. Writing could also use some work "Ripley, you've blown the transaxle! You're just grinding metal!" what transaxle? M577 APC would have to have 4 independent hub motors, or else be a Tardis :) Besides who cares if you blew a motor if the thing still moves, and why abandon mobile safe house other than to segue into terrible dropship scene ;-)
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    To be fair, even if they had consulted mechanical and automotive engineers in 1985, I'm not sure those engineers would have had enough foresight to predict this. But then again, I think extremely large construction equipment has used hybrid-electric/diesel drives with independent wheel motors for a long time.
StillBored 4y ago
Its a case of "your holding it wrong". These movies (blade runner/etc) should come with screen calibrations to assure that people don't have the brightness on their TV's turned up too high. A problem that is far to prevalent, along with having the contrast set at cartoon levels to make them pop. These old movies were _DARK_. For long stretches you could barely see anything much less all the details of the ships. I read/watched an interview with H.R. Giger many years ago, where he talks about how he created fear in his movies by barely showing anything and letting the mind fill in the horrible details. So, if you can see the details of the drop ship beyond what is being directly lit by the landing lights/etc then your TV needs to be seriously adjusted. Same for the alien itself, it should only barely be visible. And for a movie like Alien this makes sense, between being in the depths of space, or below heavy/dark cloud cover there shouldn't be a lot of light, particularly ambient light.
- Eisenstein 4y ago
  I am curious about this H.R. Giger interview. I am unaware of him making any movies though your wording could just be confusing. Did you mean 'created fear in the the elements of the movies he contributed to' or did you really mean 'created fear in his movies'?
  - StillBored 4y ago
    He was part of the special effects team for Alien. I'm not sure where/what interview it was, may have been some commentary on the movie I remember it from many years ago.. But i'm 99% sure the interview was about the special effects in Alien, and how he intentionally kept the alien mostly hidden. Google yields a lot of results but I'm not going to watch all of them for you :) Anyway, I so I guess he "contributed" the fear since he wasn't the director.
- the_af 4y ago
  Agreed in general but do note the dropship scene is not particularly dark. The dropship is going through the clouds and the "superimposed" image is pretty bad. I'm pretty sure Cameron cringes nowadays when he looks at it. Do note most of the other Aliens SFX stood the test of time very well, and of course, it's a Well made movie with awesome pacing, making it easy to forgive those few effects that aren't very good.
midoridensha 4y ago
>Then again, be careful what you (um, I) wish for: if they were to touch up Aliens they wouldn't stop at the dropship and they would ruin it with unnecessary CGI. I don't think this is fair. Not every director is George Lucas or wants to be like him.
- the_af 4y ago
  True. George Lucas is the worst offender. Though Cameron hasn't shown a lot of restraint lately, and Ridley Scott has turned into the biggest cinematic disappointment in my life!
  - midoridensha 4y ago
    Scott has shown that he's only as good as the script he's given. Give him a great script, you get a great movie. Give him a shitty script, you get a beautiful movie with a shitty plot. He seems to have no ability to judge script quality.

by the_af 4y ago

lancesells 4y ago

I noticed those dropship scenes on a rewatch a couple of years ago. I think when I watched it as a kid it was on a CRT on cable television and you couldn't see the details as much. Plus, I was a kid. On that note, I just rewatched the original Alien and there's really only one or two shots that looks kind of bad or goofy. Holds up so well for a film from 1979 with what would be a lower range budget in today's money ($44M).

the_af 4y ago
Yes, and also: imagine Alien in the hands of a director with access to today's budget and CGI: it would completely ditch any ambience, pace and characterizations in favor of showing one -- nay, thousands -- of monsters and chase scenes.
- chaostheory 4y ago
  This is exactly why I hated the last half of Will Smith’s I Am Legend. The first half did so well at showing a post apocalypse, and the last half ruined everything with CGI video game monsters. They also butchered the main plot.
- bigDinosaur 4y ago
  Well you don't need to look far, that's one of the problems with films from the exact same director such as Alien: Covenant.
  - the_af 4y ago
    Agreed. I did learn my lesson after the awful Prometheus and haven't watched any of the rest though.
rasz 4y ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLBLJOCBg8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVLBLJOCBg8 dropship descent and crash are really bad green/blue screen jobs. Writing could also use some work "Ripley, you've blown the transaxle! You're just grinding metal!" what transaxle? M577 APC would have to have 4 independent hub motors, or else be a Tardis :) Besides who cares if you blew a motor if the thing still moves, and why abandon mobile safe house other than to segue into terrible dropship scene ;-)
- midoridensha 4y ago
  To be fair, even if they had consulted mechanical and automotive engineers in 1985, I'm not sure those engineers would have had enough foresight to predict this. But then again, I think extremely large construction equipment has used hybrid-electric/diesel drives with independent wheel motors for a long time.

StillBored 4y ago

Its a case of "your holding it wrong". These movies (blade runner/etc) should come with screen calibrations to assure that people don't have the brightness on their TV's turned up too high. A problem that is far to prevalent, along with having the contrast set at cartoon levels to make them pop. These old movies were _DARK_. For long stretches you could barely see anything much less all the details of the ships. I read/watched an interview with H.R. Giger many years ago, where he talks about how he created fear in his movies by barely showing anything and letting the mind fill in the horrible details. So, if you can see the details of the drop ship beyond what is being directly lit by the landing lights/etc then your TV needs to be seriously adjusted. Same for the alien itself, it should only barely be visible. And for a movie like Alien this makes sense, between being in the depths of space, or below heavy/dark cloud cover there shouldn't be a lot of light, particularly ambient light.

Eisenstein 4y ago
I am curious about this H.R. Giger interview. I am unaware of him making any movies though your wording could just be confusing. Did you mean 'created fear in the the elements of the movies he contributed to' or did you really mean 'created fear in his movies'?
- StillBored 4y ago
  He was part of the special effects team for Alien. I'm not sure where/what interview it was, may have been some commentary on the movie I remember it from many years ago.. But i'm 99% sure the interview was about the special effects in Alien, and how he intentionally kept the alien mostly hidden. Google yields a lot of results but I'm not going to watch all of them for you :) Anyway, I so I guess he "contributed" the fear since he wasn't the director.
the_af 4y ago
Agreed in general but do note the dropship scene is not particularly dark. The dropship is going through the clouds and the "superimposed" image is pretty bad. I'm pretty sure Cameron cringes nowadays when he looks at it. Do note most of the other Aliens SFX stood the test of time very well, and of course, it's a Well made movie with awesome pacing, making it easy to forgive those few effects that aren't very good.

midoridensha 4y ago

>Then again, be careful what you (um, I) wish for: if they were to touch up Aliens they wouldn't stop at the dropship and they would ruin it with unnecessary CGI. I don't think this is fair. Not every director is George Lucas or wants to be like him.

the_af 4y ago
True. George Lucas is the worst offender. Though Cameron hasn't shown a lot of restraint lately, and Ridley Scott has turned into the biggest cinematic disappointment in my life!
- midoridensha 4y ago
  Scott has shown that he's only as good as the script he's given. Give him a great script, you get a great movie. Give him a shitty script, you get a beautiful movie with a shitty plot. He seems to have no ability to judge script quality.