On Dec 15, 2005, at 3:47 PM, Luis Rey wrote:
With the exception of the monstrous (even for a monster movie)
brontosaur stampede (which truly seems about to break the bones of
everybody involved including the spectator), the rest of the high
speed acrobatic antics of the colossal creatures show the design
vices of the CG wizards that made them... all of them seem
virtually weightless so their realism becomes hollow!
The brontosaurs did not have any muscles or bone simulation built
in, which is a travesty. They lost a great deal of weight and
stress, and even intertia because of it. You see them from the
front a lot and it is evident no thoughts about corocoids or
scapulas even crossed Weta digital's mind.
It is nice to have blend shapes (a sculpted musculature in
different phases of strain) that the animator can dial up or down
based on what the action calls for. Of course if you don't
understand the skeletal system, then you have no hope of good
musculature shapes. A lot of these things add up and their
ommision on any level creates a big rubbery mass of animation that
is making many directors shy away from using computer generated
characters.
David Krentz
On Dec 15, 2005, at 3:47 PM, Luis Rey wrote:
I have just survived yet another King Kong... this time is the
most over the top that has ever been made...I'm dizzy with such
relentless, overwhelming action speed, the special effects, the
creatures et al . I don't mind monsters as such but...agreeing
mostly with some of Mike's observations, shall I add that there
IS such thing as the forces of gravity (even for monsters)?!
With the exception of the monstrous (even for a monster movie)
brontosaur stampede (which truly seems about to break the bones of
everybody involved including the spectator), the rest of the high
speed acrobatic antics of the colossal creatures show the design
vices of the CG wizards that made them... all of them seem
virtually weightless so their realism becomes hollow!
On 15 Dec 2005, at 20:07, Michael Skrepnick wrote:
I saw this epic yesterday ( I'm probably one of the few who was
never enamored with the original film ). However, this version
is indeed an epic and although I have some reservations, is well
worth seeing.
As you say, it's unlikely in life that such a gargantuan creature
would be capable of the physical feats it engages in ( trust me,
the trailers don't even begin to describe the "antics" displayed
through the entirety of the movie ).
As I said at the beginning... a multi multi ton ape dancing on air?
Further, you will be left incredulous by the punishing "ride" the
heroine is expected to survive, even when not in the midst of
battles to the death with the other inhabitants of Skull Island.
That is probably one of the most shocking parts of the movie...
the heroine should have had all her bones broken in a second of
Kong's mad ride!
However, it is a "movie" after all, and we are of course expected
to "suspend our disbelief" as usual, no matter how much the
content is in violation of our reason and sensibilities. This is
the only manner in which one can accept the liberties taken in
dinosaurian anatomy in the film, as these are obviously outcast
mutants from a long lost era and as an inbred population might be
expected to suffer many "morphological" changes.
Which unfortunately doesn't include the obvious: inbreeding
population evolving in an island (as is well documented) leads
invariably to dwarfism.
Luis Rey
Visit my website
http://www.ndirect.co.uk/~luisrey