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Note: originally intended as a short comment on The Dark Knight trilogy.
As Scorsese's told it in his Hugo, magic found its way to movie technology in 1900s pioneered by Georges Melies. Men started fighting dragons, soaring through skies, inhabiting Mars, exploring space, and resisting alien invasions ever since. Imaginations, fantasies even, were the main features above all else. The visual tricks didn't fool anyone, but audiences were in it for the out-of-this-world plots, anyway.
Then came the day when fantasies are only bought if bundled with better visuals. Technology came to save these days. When Richard Donner's 1978 Superman poster said 'You will believe a man can fly', it was a statement of visual FX. Though it was still obvious that Christopher Reeve was pasted on to some shots of blue skies, overall, it looked good. Not long after, studios like Industrial Light And Magic, to name one, perfected the art and began to dazzle movie buffs. We started to rack our brains thinking how Millenium Falcon can possibly manneuvered the way it did. This goes all the way to animatronics (remember: Jaws, Jurassic Park) and then CGIs (Terminator 2, Lords of The Ring). We no longer know how they're possible. They're almost sorcery.
After all the CGI frenzy, smarter plots became non-negotiable. Unless you're Tolkien, mere fantasies won't cut it (apology, Tim Burton, even George Lucas didn't quite make it). Even visual cosmetics have habituated audiences. The pretty magic now has to make sense. Favreau did a great job on this with Iron Man. The Dark Knight trilogy most notably raised the bar by many factors. Coming out of a theater, one would believe that certain ordeals would make a Batman out of you. Team Nolan established believability by filling in countless blanks neglected by their predecessors: Bruce's inherited love of Gotham, philosophical combat training, theatrical inspiration into being a symbol, unlimited supply of innovative toys, requirement of alliances, and finally, need for Houdinian exit strategy.
So good luck to whoever signed for the comic icon reboot. On a second thought, good luck to all following flicks.
As Scorsese's told it in his Hugo, magic found its way to movie technology in 1900s pioneered by Georges Melies. Men started fighting dragons, soaring through skies, inhabiting Mars, exploring space, and resisting alien invasions ever since. Imaginations, fantasies even, were the main features above all else. The visual tricks didn't fool anyone, but audiences were in it for the out-of-this-world plots, anyway.
Then came the day when fantasies are only bought if bundled with better visuals. Technology came to save these days. When Richard Donner's 1978 Superman poster said 'You will believe a man can fly', it was a statement of visual FX. Though it was still obvious that Christopher Reeve was pasted on to some shots of blue skies, overall, it looked good. Not long after, studios like Industrial Light And Magic, to name one, perfected the art and began to dazzle movie buffs. We started to rack our brains thinking how Millenium Falcon can possibly manneuvered the way it did. This goes all the way to animatronics (remember: Jaws, Jurassic Park) and then CGIs (Terminator 2, Lords of The Ring). We no longer know how they're possible. They're almost sorcery.
After all the CGI frenzy, smarter plots became non-negotiable. Unless you're Tolkien, mere fantasies won't cut it (apology, Tim Burton, even George Lucas didn't quite make it). Even visual cosmetics have habituated audiences. The pretty magic now has to make sense. Favreau did a great job on this with Iron Man. The Dark Knight trilogy most notably raised the bar by many factors. Coming out of a theater, one would believe that certain ordeals would make a Batman out of you. Team Nolan established believability by filling in countless blanks neglected by their predecessors: Bruce's inherited love of Gotham, philosophical combat training, theatrical inspiration into being a symbol, unlimited supply of innovative toys, requirement of alliances, and finally, need for Houdinian exit strategy.
So good luck to whoever signed for the comic icon reboot. On a second thought, good luck to all following flicks.
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