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Crossing the Uncanny Valley
Jan. 2nd, 2017 04:54 pm[Trying out posting from DreamWidth. Let's see if everything is configured right.]
Just saw Rogue One. Capsule Summary: not an epic for the ages, but a solidly good Star Wars movie, a good prequel with fine depth of appropriate detail. While feeling like the main saga, this one has the freedom to be a more honest (and dark) war movie, which makes an interesting change of pace. Worth seeing at the big Jordan's IMAX, which is why we didn't see it at Christmas.
But what I hadn't realized until I was there was that this movie was finally going to cross the Co-Starring A Dead Actor rubicon. I've long known this was coming, and I had known that Grand Moff Tarkin appeared in the story, but I didn't realize he had such a significant part. They didn't shy away from the challenge: he dominates several scenes.
Overall, it's a good effort, but they're not quite there yet. It reminds me of starship battles before Independence Day -- while that was by no means a great movie, it was the first time I ever watched one of those scenes and couldn't perceive any seams: it just felt real.
Tarkin *doesn't* quite feel real here. It's ever-so-close -- 90% of the way across the Uncanny Valley -- but something was still just a bit off. I can't put my finger on what, but he looked like a character from a good videogame cut scene, not quite a person.
They'll get there. Having done this in a major movie and not entirely fallen on their faces, I'm sure more movies will try this, and eventually somebody will get all the details right. I wonder how many actors are already writing contracts that involve digital rights to their likeness. (And what the eventual lawsuits are going to look like...)
Just saw Rogue One. Capsule Summary: not an epic for the ages, but a solidly good Star Wars movie, a good prequel with fine depth of appropriate detail. While feeling like the main saga, this one has the freedom to be a more honest (and dark) war movie, which makes an interesting change of pace. Worth seeing at the big Jordan's IMAX, which is why we didn't see it at Christmas.
But what I hadn't realized until I was there was that this movie was finally going to cross the Co-Starring A Dead Actor rubicon. I've long known this was coming, and I had known that Grand Moff Tarkin appeared in the story, but I didn't realize he had such a significant part. They didn't shy away from the challenge: he dominates several scenes.
Overall, it's a good effort, but they're not quite there yet. It reminds me of starship battles before Independence Day -- while that was by no means a great movie, it was the first time I ever watched one of those scenes and couldn't perceive any seams: it just felt real.
Tarkin *doesn't* quite feel real here. It's ever-so-close -- 90% of the way across the Uncanny Valley -- but something was still just a bit off. I can't put my finger on what, but he looked like a character from a good videogame cut scene, not quite a person.
They'll get there. Having done this in a major movie and not entirely fallen on their faces, I'm sure more movies will try this, and eventually somebody will get all the details right. I wonder how many actors are already writing contracts that involve digital rights to their likeness. (And what the eventual lawsuits are going to look like...)