Animated 'Snowpiercer' Set Up

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Red Band 'Riddick'

'Riddick' doesn't do much for me. Mostly, it's because movies like this are too dark. Not tonally, just visually. You can't see what's going on because it's not lit well enough. I hate that. It's like bad projection from the 70s all over again even if you're watching on Blu-ray in your own home with great hardware and the lights down. You still can't see.

This new trailer, on the other hand, is beautiful to watch. Nice lighting, well-defined action, easy to watch, and well done in every other way that matters. Didn't care before but, now, I'm looking forward to this movie. Take my money.





















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Reminds Me Of 'Jurassic Park'

The VFX in 'Jurassic Park' were ahead of their time. My jaw dropped. I could not believe what I was seeing. Those dinosaurs looked better than anything that came before and, in fact, most of the stuff that came after. Even today, often, CGI doesn't look as good.

It was quite a ride and, I believe, the reason for that is simple. Steven Spielberg demanded it. He pushed the tech of the day to the limits and constantly asked if there was any way to clean it up, make it more real, make it better. It was the passion of the director that made T-Rex so scary. Other less involved directors did not (and do not) get similar results. 'Jurassic Park' came out in 1993 and even twenty years later we see cheesy effects in movies all the time.

The CGI in 'Pacific Rim' may not be as revolutionary as those in 'Jurassic Park' but, still, you can see the influence and high standards of the director, Guillermo del Toro. These monsters are something to behold and they do look better than I would have expected.

Wonderful work by ILM both technically of course, but also artistically. Yes, this is beautiful. 'Pacific Rim' sets a new standard.




















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Just Looks So Good

My kind of movie. Reminds me of Oliver Stone's 'Savages' but so much more vibrant. 'The Counselor' is amped.





















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Too Action-Packed And Too Melodramatic And So So Good

New trailer for Ron Howard's 'Rush' is an odd blend of loud racing shots with super slo-mo rubber burns, screaming engines and tearing metal, squished with oh so intense talking-head character bits, all jammed together quick quick cut. It's good, no doubt about that, but does it belong in the same trailer?

Who knows...

The observation, however, leads me to wonder why I even noticed such a thing. It's because I was watching so closely. I can't think of another recent film I've been so wound up to see, that looked so good in trailers. Howard appears to have delivered a compelling drama loaded with race sequences that, second to second, will leave the audience breathless. Really, he could could have made 'Rush' either pure character-centric with a sprinkling of racing, or pure racing-centric with a dash of melodrama and it would have worked either way. 'Rush' has both.

I'm thinking that, as soon as you get to know and like the people in this movie it will cut to a racing sequence, and as soon as you get into the racing action and want to see more it will cut back to a dramatic two-shot. Then, you'll get completely caught up in that and...cut to: Next cool shot.

As such, this is a jangly trailer for a movie I'm very much looking forward to. 'Rush' should score. Word of mouth will probably be excellent.





















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