Douglas Bowker
Animation, Video, Motion-Graphics
I'm a freelance animation, video and motion graphics professional. Whatever the media, my love is of great cinematography, film and the beauty of moving images.
It hardly seems possible that Lorne Michaels even was serious. Was he really? His list of movies are almost all B-grade SNL spin-offs, with a couple of solid ones every 10 years or so. How would they even get the rights to a movie like that anyway? Would it be a satire? Props to Myers for turning him down either way.
The assertion that 3D didn't come back in a big way is incorrect, because it certainly did. It was a HUGE trend for about 10 years almost and only gradually has it faded to almost nothing.
The problem all along was it was badly done in almost all cases, often done with after the fact post effects, and if the projector wasn't up to snuff, looked dark and blurry. Finally enough of the industry realized it was hardly ever adding anything to the story, cost a whole lot more to do even in post, and wasn't really as big a draw as everyone thought. You also started having enough big-name directors outright refuse to use 3D, ever, in their movies that it started to lose its luster.
What was always missing was the Cameron-level attention to detail (and budget) to use it in a truly immersive manner that Avatar demonstrated. Plus, he had a reason for it, and planned it out well in advance. So sure, it might again be great for the sequels; time will tell if the industry again makes all the wrong assumptions yet again.
The movie was excellent for the most part, and the physicality evident in every aspect from beginning to end.
The spear gag: it looked fine, but it was more the "concept" that was problematic. A real warrior just wouldn't have tried to catch it. He'd step aside, let it stick into the ground, pull it out and then throw it back. That's IF he even bothered. On the other hand, it was such a minor part of the overall battle, let alone the story, it's barely worth discussing.
I saw it around the time of its original release, and it sort of made me paranoid to ever visit NYC! Great film in every respect, and the cast absolutely is spot on.
These seem like especially agregious decisions but are not at all out of line with the Apple of the last 10 years or so. One by one they removed useful hardware connections, any and all ports, all while being impossible to fix or upgrade. The cult around the company is truly one of expensive self delusion.
Nice to hear they've rolled this out. Unless it was high-end film capture Arri digital has produced the most beautiful and powerful cinematic images of the last decade.