That was a tiring weekend
Jul. 19th, 2004 05:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
same_differenceI went up to Oxford this weekend just gone, to see P. At the moment her Mum's boyfriend is moving in so, partly taking advantage of P's sisters being in Switzerland visiting their and P's Dad, and partly because they need to, they are redoing their house. You know painting, filling holes, removing and replacing carpets, consolidating their furniture that sort of thing. So of course when I arrived there was a list of jobs for P and myself to do. I relaxed Friday, having got to Oxford about 5:40, being too tired from my week of work and the 3.5 hours of driving I had done that day to do much else. To be honest all I wanted to was just relax and curl up with P, which in all fairness I got to do. Saturday was busy, I photographed and dismantled two bunk beds (carefully because they were being sold), dismantled a white melemar (sp? you know the chip board that's coated in a white plastically layer) dresser (uncarefully because it was being thrown out*), removed some carpets, rearranged a garage, lugged many mattresses around, etc. Then I made mine and P's dinner, home made pizza, (thankfully they have a bread maker which means the dough is no effort, even if it is really really sticky**) which turned out really well. I also managed to get the whole filled crust thing to work better this time too. And finally got to relax in the evening, and was taken to see Spiderman 2. Sunday aside from a couple of small jobs was spent resting. The thing is I'm still tired. I went to be at 10:30 last night, woke up late, and I'm still fighting the urge to fall asleep.
Hard work, but worth if to spend a weekend with P, and to help her do the tasks she has to.
Spiderman 2 as I expect very few people will have seen it I'll put my opinions behind cuttags, WARNING: there will be big spoilers. In summary though they over used the cgi, which in itself wasn't very good (it all suffered from the annoying shineyness/too-perfectness, you too often get with cgi), and the film was bitty and didn't flow very well.
It wasn't bad, though the first was better. I think they got the right level of toungue-in-cheekness, uber-geek satisfying, info and action in the first one, but didn't manage to pull it off for this one.
It followed the classic superhero/comic book film scenario. Villain is good/normal/brilliant has accident that disfigures/enhances/welds-lumps-of-metal-to him and kills-his love/destroys his-life's-work/ruins-him, goes mad and tries to destroy the world/complete his life's work/committee crimes (or all of the above). With the added bonus of the villains last minute returning to his senses then nobly sacrificing himself to save everybody bit at the end.
They also make a good try at showing the other side of superhero life, with Peter Parker struggling to meet the needs of jobs, studying, friends and fighting crime. The problem is because of this the film hopped about. It kept jumping from fights with Dr. Octopus to other events in his life. They tried to do too much and so the film just didn't flow.
Then the cgi, they animated 'spidey' almost continuously so it went from just when he was swinging around the city (in the first film) to almost all of the time, even down to standing in the elevator talking to someone. As I've said the model was too perfect so it never really looked right.
Having said that Doc Oc's metal arms were good, especially their personalities and the way they moved and 'talked'. Though the operating theatre scene was just over the top. Come on they even did the 'monster attacks someone who's just off screen, who screams in classic fashion, with the action made clear to the viewer by the shadows cast on the wall behind' thing. If you understand what I mean. At least the acting was pretty good, I think they had the right cast for all the characters. And it did have some funny moments too, though mostly in the odd one liner.
Oh yes, the American flag is as prominent in this film, as it was in the first film.
Oh and they have set up the third film villain, the hobgoblin. I wonder if they'll copy the batman films and have a pair of villains for the third one. What do you reckon the Lizard, the Rhino, the Scorpion, the other famous villain I don't know enough Spiderman to mention?
Also, how many people don't know what he really looks like now. Mary Jane, Harry, all the passengers on a train, that's some secret identity.
I have to say CGI in films is beginning to annoy me. We're at the stage now where it seems CGI is the cheapest way to do something, often cheaper than making actual sets/costumes/or setting up stunts. For example take 'Star Wars 2: Attack of the Stupid Film Titles', every single clone 'stormtrooper' was cgi, even the individual ones in certain scenes, because it was cheaper than making even just one suit. The problem is of course while it is cheaper to do it that way, the quality of cheap CGI isn't as it should be. So while the models are good, the textures aren't and everything as I mentioned above looks too shiny, too perfect, which makes it look a lot less real. One of the best films with cgi I've seen is Jumanji, yes it's a good few years old now, but because they wanted the creatures to look less than real, they haven't really dated, compare that with Matrix 2 where they try and make it look real, and it just ends up looking fake, and badly done. Poor Cgi is especially annoying if they don't quite get it right; if it was perfect you wouldn't notice and if it's awful you get used to it and ignore it, but if it's not quite right you just can't stop noticing it. Meh. I'm sure cgi will get better, just like with the early special effects, but right now I just can't generate enough suspension of disbelief to ignore it when it's poorly done.
* It is one hell of a lot easier to dismantle something that's being chucked out, especially if your using a power drill. I undid a few screws, using the drill, to get one side off and then literally pulled the rest apart.
** I thought grease paper wasn't supposed to be stickable too, oh well.
Hard work, but worth if to spend a weekend with P, and to help her do the tasks she has to.
Spiderman 2 as I expect very few people will have seen it I'll put my opinions behind cuttags, WARNING: there will be big spoilers. In summary though they over used the cgi, which in itself wasn't very good (it all suffered from the annoying shineyness/too-perfectness, you too often get with cgi), and the film was bitty and didn't flow very well.
It wasn't bad, though the first was better. I think they got the right level of toungue-in-cheekness, uber-geek satisfying, info and action in the first one, but didn't manage to pull it off for this one.
It followed the classic superhero/comic book film scenario. Villain is good/normal/brilliant has accident that disfigures/enhances/welds-lumps-of-metal-to him and kills-his love/destroys his-life's-work/ruins-him, goes mad and tries to destroy the world/complete his life's work/committee crimes (or all of the above). With the added bonus of the villains last minute returning to his senses then nobly sacrificing himself to save everybody bit at the end.
They also make a good try at showing the other side of superhero life, with Peter Parker struggling to meet the needs of jobs, studying, friends and fighting crime. The problem is because of this the film hopped about. It kept jumping from fights with Dr. Octopus to other events in his life. They tried to do too much and so the film just didn't flow.
Then the cgi, they animated 'spidey' almost continuously so it went from just when he was swinging around the city (in the first film) to almost all of the time, even down to standing in the elevator talking to someone. As I've said the model was too perfect so it never really looked right.
Having said that Doc Oc's metal arms were good, especially their personalities and the way they moved and 'talked'. Though the operating theatre scene was just over the top. Come on they even did the 'monster attacks someone who's just off screen, who screams in classic fashion, with the action made clear to the viewer by the shadows cast on the wall behind' thing. If you understand what I mean. At least the acting was pretty good, I think they had the right cast for all the characters. And it did have some funny moments too, though mostly in the odd one liner.
Oh yes, the American flag is as prominent in this film, as it was in the first film.
Oh and they have set up the third film villain, the hobgoblin. I wonder if they'll copy the batman films and have a pair of villains for the third one. What do you reckon the Lizard, the Rhino, the Scorpion, the other famous villain I don't know enough Spiderman to mention?
Also, how many people don't know what he really looks like now. Mary Jane, Harry, all the passengers on a train, that's some secret identity.
I have to say CGI in films is beginning to annoy me. We're at the stage now where it seems CGI is the cheapest way to do something, often cheaper than making actual sets/costumes/or setting up stunts. For example take 'Star Wars 2: Attack of the Stupid Film Titles', every single clone 'stormtrooper' was cgi, even the individual ones in certain scenes, because it was cheaper than making even just one suit. The problem is of course while it is cheaper to do it that way, the quality of cheap CGI isn't as it should be. So while the models are good, the textures aren't and everything as I mentioned above looks too shiny, too perfect, which makes it look a lot less real. One of the best films with cgi I've seen is Jumanji, yes it's a good few years old now, but because they wanted the creatures to look less than real, they haven't really dated, compare that with Matrix 2 where they try and make it look real, and it just ends up looking fake, and badly done. Poor Cgi is especially annoying if they don't quite get it right; if it was perfect you wouldn't notice and if it's awful you get used to it and ignore it, but if it's not quite right you just can't stop noticing it. Meh. I'm sure cgi will get better, just like with the early special effects, but right now I just can't generate enough suspension of disbelief to ignore it when it's poorly done.
* It is one hell of a lot easier to dismantle something that's being chucked out, especially if your using a power drill. I undid a few screws, using the drill, to get one side off and then literally pulled the rest apart.
** I thought grease paper wasn't supposed to be stickable too, oh well.
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****SPOILERISH****
Date: 2004-07-20 09:49 am (UTC)I'm personally hoping for Venom to be the next baddie, I've thought of a possible way that his appearance has been set up, but we'll see. If it is him then I think the series would go up in my estimation, after all, it's quite a significant departure from the "typical" baddie you've mentioned above. Almost.
As for CGI, look at Underworld for an example of a film with very limited CGI. Most of the film was done using suits and stunts (I've watched the "making of..."). I'm personally not sure which I prefer...