urbanamazon (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
urbanamazon) wrote2004-02-15 06:24 pm
urbanamazon) wrote2004-02-15 06:24 pm
Ah, the day of chocolate and commoditized lust ...
So. Spent all of yesterday avoiding the slimy pools of crack-headed male immaturity (aka working at Quizno's), then rented some DVDs to indulge myself and headed home.
Ate macaroni and cheese spirals and watched Underworld. Promptly fell into OMFGSQUEE! mode.
Okay, White Wolf WoD vs Underworld writers lawsuit aside, that movie left me grinning like a total and absolute geek. T'wasn't the story, nor the pretty faces ... it was the delightful featurettes about the absolutely mind-blowing prosthetic make-up.
Y'see, before I wanted to become an illustrator, I wanted to lean towards a proffession of special-effects make-up. As much as I liked cool CG effects in movies and crazy camera tricks, I loved the real, the tangible. For examples of what I'm taking about, see movies like Predator, Aliens, and the like. Take a gander at Farscape for some more creature feature, if you have the chance. I loved the mix of illusion and reality. I liked the challenge to fool every sense a person had, no just their eye. If they could see it, smell it, touch it ... my job was done. And when I watched movies that did the exact same, so perfectly, I was entranced. Like, again, I bring up Predator. That was a guy in a suit. A very pretty suit. We've come a long way since Godzilla.
Underworld had its flaws, but by no way at all were any of these flaws in the visual department. To see the behind-the-scene footage of the werewolf costumes ... oh, the bliss. Again, that was a guy in a very pretty suit. Everything from the digitigrade legs to the musculature to the fluidity ... ah, bliss.
And then there was the Hybrid. That was my reason for the OMFGSQUEE! Not that I consider Scott Speedman to be horribly attractive or anything ... it was the tekMage potential. Seriously. To see images like that on scree, prosthetic and painted and everythinged into full 3D glory .... SQUEEE!!
Spoliers aside, I'll post the caps that I was able to find:
In short, that last half hour was the entire movie, as far as I'm concerned. Gah. It was like seeing the offspring of Seberak and Caine ... which is also a slightly disturbing combination, now that I think about it.
True, I had my personal nitpicks, like my disbelief that werewolves should have such spidery-long fingers ... umm, no. Both my werewolf and my demigod have thick fingers with heavy claws, with flat palms and nearly triangular-shaped cross-sectioned fingers ... like actual large-breed canines. I also didn't like their 'feline' component idea ... werewolf, people. And tails! I need tails!
All in all, I am now cursed with a veritable goldmine of visuals to use as inspiration for more tekMage dreaming ... spent a good half hour last night thinking up a visual for the wings being shifted ... and the birth of a comic strip (or a movie script) called "Restaurant at the End of the World" ... but that's another story.
Ate macaroni and cheese spirals and watched Underworld. Promptly fell into OMFGSQUEE! mode.
Okay, White Wolf WoD vs Underworld writers lawsuit aside, that movie left me grinning like a total and absolute geek. T'wasn't the story, nor the pretty faces ... it was the delightful featurettes about the absolutely mind-blowing prosthetic make-up.
Y'see, before I wanted to become an illustrator, I wanted to lean towards a proffession of special-effects make-up. As much as I liked cool CG effects in movies and crazy camera tricks, I loved the real, the tangible. For examples of what I'm taking about, see movies like Predator, Aliens, and the like. Take a gander at Farscape for some more creature feature, if you have the chance. I loved the mix of illusion and reality. I liked the challenge to fool every sense a person had, no just their eye. If they could see it, smell it, touch it ... my job was done. And when I watched movies that did the exact same, so perfectly, I was entranced. Like, again, I bring up Predator. That was a guy in a suit. A very pretty suit. We've come a long way since Godzilla.
Underworld had its flaws, but by no way at all were any of these flaws in the visual department. To see the behind-the-scene footage of the werewolf costumes ... oh, the bliss. Again, that was a guy in a very pretty suit. Everything from the digitigrade legs to the musculature to the fluidity ... ah, bliss.
And then there was the Hybrid. That was my reason for the OMFGSQUEE! Not that I consider Scott Speedman to be horribly attractive or anything ... it was the tekMage potential. Seriously. To see images like that on scree, prosthetic and painted and everythinged into full 3D glory .... SQUEEE!!
Spoliers aside, I'll post the caps that I was able to find:
In short, that last half hour was the entire movie, as far as I'm concerned. Gah. It was like seeing the offspring of Seberak and Caine ... which is also a slightly disturbing combination, now that I think about it.
True, I had my personal nitpicks, like my disbelief that werewolves should have such spidery-long fingers ... umm, no. Both my werewolf and my demigod have thick fingers with heavy claws, with flat palms and nearly triangular-shaped cross-sectioned fingers ... like actual large-breed canines. I also didn't like their 'feline' component idea ... werewolf, people. And tails! I need tails!
All in all, I am now cursed with a veritable goldmine of visuals to use as inspiration for more tekMage dreaming ... spent a good half hour last night thinking up a visual for the wings being shifted ... and the birth of a comic strip (or a movie script) called "Restaurant at the End of the World" ... but that's another story.
You got Jeep!
And yah ... Lucian is a cool character there ... like I said, worth it for the visuals. otherwise, a bit overrated.
... Celine Dion?
no subject
no subject
Never realized that the wolves, or even the hybrid wasn't CG... great to know though.
And why do you have anything against other "races" of werecritters... I see some serious drawbacks, and the wolf is likly to be the best. But I always figured WoD did very well with adding in the others.. Like Anasi, The Bastet, Ersine, Mokul, .. damnit I'm forgetting many. Oh well you get the point. They made sure that he Wolf was dominant :)
(Made sense to this WoD fan at anyrate).
But from a WoD point of View I have some nitpicks for that movie myself.. But the visuals were great... I think the wolves could have been better still.. (perhaps bigger, spindely little hands are a no). And yeah, the Werewolf(s) should have tails.
**Where did that feline compnent comment come from anyway? Is it in one of the commentaries on the DvD?
As for that Restaurant idea... see if you can throw in a refference to "Alicie's Restuarnt"... and old comedy/story thing done back when my dad bought htings like that. Try and find the MP3 if you can... it's rather long though. I dunno why I thought of that. Just thought it might be neat.
I should learn when to shut-up. And now it's time for Over Tired Jared to silence himself.. (for abit)
Re:
I think the only CG shots of the werewolves were the transformations, that one shot of the werewolf on top of the train, and the wall-crawling (which was shot with the suit-men first, then edited in CG).
And I think that the movie might have been much more of a positive hit if WoD had made it first, despite what the writers claim is a completely original storyline.
Re: