Cool News
Latino Review lands a clip from A CHRISTMAS CAROL!
Hey folks, Harry here... Latino Review has landed the first footage I've seen from Robert Zemeckis' A CHRISTMAS CAROL - and I'm not real sure what to think of it. The motion seems a bit herky jerky, and while the scene seems to want to give off atmosphere and creeps, it doesn't. By no means is this a sign of a "problem" - just that I don't think this particular clip is that great out of context and as a first impression. But click on that Latino link above and see what you think! This is due out for the holidays!
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thank you.
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is it late ninetees or what? cg-quality is baaad.
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that "FIRST"-game is boring...
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... yes?
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May 18, 2009 3:10:43 PM CDT
At this point Zemeckis is getting George Lucas stubborn
by industrykiller!
Yup, looks mo-cap craptastic. Even when it's stylised the mo-capping just doesn't work. One of the biggest problems is that mo-capped lighting. It's got ZERO atmosphere to it and seems perfunctory and more artificial than most videogames. The world Zemeckis seems to have created here also looks awfully sparse and undetailed. The guy needs to give it the fuck up. Imagine how amazing this could look if it was real actors and Zemeckis was directing it on a set. Alas Im afraid that guy is gone forever.
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... it's all I have. I lead a sad and somewhat poor existence. I'm homeless, with a dog and a laptop. I dreamed of, one day being first on this site and it's finally happened. Please be happy for me.
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you finally made it! Good! Someday you will be rich, beloved and successfull. But don´t let it go, come on, try harder and hit it again!
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When that guy reviewed Wolverine but it wasn't a real review but he thought it was but he hadn't seen the film yet and then people got mad and then he did go see the film? That was funny.
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certainly much better than the Polar Express zombies.
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This 'photorealistic' mo-cRap doesn't add anything significant to the world of cinema, it's lifeless, shallow, boring and highly DISTRACTING from the initial storytelling
I miss 'Back to the future' Zemeckis -
Zemeckis used to be such a promising director - he had a voice and delivered such vibrant, unique films. After a string of wonderful, or at least very strong, movies, Zemeckis went completely insane and became obsessed with a bullshít storytelling technology that has never entirely worked. Polar Express, Beowulf, now this. He's wasted his career on lifeless tripe instead of delivering dynamic, amusing stories like he used to. Beowulf was a snoozefest, and the whole "dead eyes" thing is dead on. He needs to stop and re-assess his career because the consensus is that he sucks now. Shame.
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May 18, 2009 3:28:25 PM CDT
'Performance capture' must give some kids unbelievable nightmare
by randysavage
As an adult, this technique creeps the shit out of me... it's like casting a film with animatronic wax figures from Madame Tussauds. I won't be going anywhere near this.
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the definition of insanity is repeating the same actions over and over again and expecting a different result. Zemekis has lost it.
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Everytime a new performance capture movie comes out they tell the same bullshit about how groundbreaking this technology is and how awesome the movie will look like, but so far every single one of them looked like crap. And even worse: Only one movie was good so far (Monster House).
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Oh well, so much for the old Robert Zemeckis who used to make good movies. This other 'Zemeckis' clone is all about the performance capture technology and apparently nothing else.
I suspect the same walking doll, dead eye 'look' will bedevil that Spielberg-Jackson Tin-tin thing. -
I would rather see them do the Inferno than a Christmas Carol, anyway. It will never happen, of course. Our society tends to see traditional religious beliefs as evil. What an irony.
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Another version of A Christmas Carol. That's just what we've all been waiting for...
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is it unfinished footage but it feels like there is stuff cut as it's too abrupt they way it is presented. This must be some kind of test footage or something. It looks like ti will be good though...
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that movie sucked donkey nuts.
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I don't see it. I thought it looked pretty cool. Can't wait for the 3D.
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Visually stunning and very imaginative. What's great about the technology is how beautiful it is, but also the filmmakers are only limited by their imaginations... They can do just about anything with it. Like the Polar Express...Looking forward to Christmas Carol.
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One nice thing about perform-cap is its transition into 3D. Still much better than live-action 3D. Can't wait to see those chains flying toward me in the theater!
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A Series Of Unfortunate Events?
It looks every bit as awful... -
Up is just around the corner so I'm pegging this as the intro to whatever trailer they're preparing for the release. Too bad we have this to look forward to instead of some early Toy Story 3 work.
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I thought it looked quite all right. I despised Polar Express and while I dug Beowulf, it was pretty forgettable.
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the first images looked so great. photorealistic yet charicatured, interesting. This clip lookes like the kind of animation that you get in the cheaper CGi kids movies that are coming out of places like mexico and france. just terrible.
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..Events 2. Lame.
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Looks like they want to give exaggerated characters realistic flesh, do stop motion but then manipulate it so it has that snappy cartoon timing. Basically they want to make you feel like you'd like to vomit at how gross and unappealing it all is. Whoever's greenlighting this garbage, whoever's the art director on it, the producers, etc... please find other work. This is complete trash.
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Skip the middleman. Go right to the source of real, good movie news!
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i agree for all their effort to make things extremely detailed, they have also failed to make it moody at all. the direction and editing was as plain as...um...
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I never would have thought that the future of movies looked like a ViewMaster reel circa 1966. I'm still thinking that Tintin can work because it's not supposed to look realistic, but phoaw, there are some roads that fimmakers should just not go down.
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This looks like Nickalodeon TV show ala Jimmy Neutron level animation. Zemeckis needs to come back to the fold.
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I mean, at some point, human beings might need to be creative and not base 100 percent of their work on already thought out premises. Trust me, there are wonderful and fantastic ideas out there, but HOLLYWOOD is shit. TRY HARDER!
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The good parts of Beowulf were the action scenes (Grendel's attack is brilliant). But there's hardly any action in A Christmas Carol, it's hugely dialogue-based (one reason why it's been adapted so many times). I'm sure Carrey and the others have done great jobs but maybe it's gonna feel ultimately pointless. We'll see. We can't judge it by this clip though.
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Soooo much better in Mo Cap! Now with Taste o vision so you can even taste the soap w/ Ralphie!!!
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Zemeckis used to be such a talent. What happened? Who wants to go to the movies to watch a badly designed video game? Fuck.
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looks like about 30 million job. and with Jim Carey being a fallen star right now i could see this happening. and he sounds horribly miscast.
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May 18, 2009 5:26:30 PM CDT
YES!! This film will kill mocap for good. Thank Christ.
by dannyglovers_dickblood
What a soulless piece of shit Zemeckis has become. Shame on any of you that contribute one cent this shit.
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another version of this story. Wonder when Zemeckis will start doing some original stuff again.
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So much potential in this with Jim Carrey, but the mocap thing seems to be ruining any sense of character and atmosphere. Carrey's delivery on the last line is brilliant though.
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Back To The Future was great, but if you look at his other stuff you see a lot of technically interesting but dramtically dull stuff. He's probably the most overrated director to win an OScar in the past 20 years.
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... In my opinion was the script which was executed piss poorly, and mo-cap is partially to blame. It negates any sense of awe and atmosphere it's ridiculous. The actors and the design team did a good job, but the direction felt so uninspired and boring that it killed the movie for me.
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I work in CGI and I've seen these kinds of things hundreds of times. At any given moment there may be three or four versions of a scene floating around for the animators to look at - shader test renders, texture renders, effects passes. You work on it, send it to the render que, get it back and tweak it. Etc. Etc. This looks to me like it still needs a bit of polishing. For example, I didn't see any source lighting or radiosity on Scrooge coming from the ghost. Believe me, still early early days for this film. Wait for an official trailer that will contain final renders of selected shots, then make your call. Still a work very much in progress.
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I have no clue what Gaiman was going for. If you want a good alternative take on Beowulf, read the novel Grendel.
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May 18, 2009 6:17:58 PM CDT
I can give a fuck if its not the final version of the shot.
by dannyglovers_dickblood
Ok....so they add a little extra source lighting and some texture here and there. Who gives a fuck? The point is this short clip demonstrates quite clearly that this film will be yet another soulless mocap shitfest. Because this isn't the final shot in your opinion, I'm supposed to still be excited? Sorry. I've seen all I need to see. I will encourage everyone I know to boycott this shit on principal. If you must see it....pay for something else and sneak in or download illegally. FUCK ZEMECKIS.
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Personally - I can't wait...might have to see it without the kids
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Remake screenplay. I sent it to Harry Quint and Merrick. Hopefully one of them read it. I know how Quint has been about reading these. He wouldn't do it for Halloween or Friday.. Nightmare is the only sour movie taste in my mouth right now. PD and the writer really didn't get it. Not one bit. How can the guy who made such an awesome remake of Cape Fear write that piece of shit..
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I give every version of it a watch. I prefer Patrick Stewart as my favorite version.
Bill Murray's was good too lol. -
dammit
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Beowulf in "real" IMAX 3D was incredible. And the CG and mo-cap animation was spectacular. That final fight with the dragon? Whoa.
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this looks terrible. And why Jim Carrey? Just out of curiosity.
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Looks like the animation quality on a par with THE TALE OF DESPERAUX and the made-for-cheap CGJ (computer generated junk).
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We may not agree with much - I find your name really nasty and gross and unpleasant to see. But I will agree with you here - the movie looks POSITIVELY SOULLESS, and it's very telling to me about how bad-off we are for animation that Harry is happy for this.
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I will not forgive Gaiman for his arrogant butchering of Beowulf. The themes of the original poem are timeless-well not according to Gaimain. He thought that the epic hero really needed to be a tragic one. I guess the original poet got it wrong.
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Robert Zemeckis is dead.
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Felt rather safe, sanitized...Disneyfied. I read the book every year at Christmas and was hoping for the next great adaptation. Looks like Alastair Sim can rest easy that his performance as Scrooge will remain untouchable.
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Test Render or not, it's completely unimaginative from a design point of view, incredibly creepy in an "uncanny valley" sort of way from an animation point of view, and just plain boring from a film making point of view. beowulf was pretty damned awful and immature, but this may take the cake.
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That Christmas Carol game looks great! Oh wait. That footage is from a movie? Never mind.
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Let's see...Alastair Sim, George C. Scott, Patrick Stewart, Rowan Atkinson, Bill Murray...no one's really quite nailed it yet, have they? I'm sure this grotesquely needless thing will do better than all those human beings, and then we'll finally have a decent version of this story. Thank you, Disney.
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It says a lot that brilliant guys like George C. Scott and Patrick Stewart can give great, even flawless performances of Scrooge and Sim still stands like a giant after all this time. Says a lot about what a little respect for the material does, too. I'm not so sure that was a priority here.
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Kevred you are soooo off. George C. Scott was the best Scrooge yet by far.
Does anyone agree with me?
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Just re-release that.
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The ghost of Marley wasn't the least bit scary. Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol had more style.
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Sorry Palimpsest... did you see the Scot version?
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Um, no. Stylized. Yup.
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which was the problem with zemekis' early work in the genre but god...how many times can they remake this?
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is so much in love with the Motion Capture technique. Is it still that groundbreaking in 2009?
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And this looks v promising. And if they have got the script right it will be fantastic.
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and there was great makeup, and a great acting job, as finney played a character 30 years older than himself
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I spoke with my Latino neighbor earlier today, and guess what? LATINO REVIEW hasn't even dropped by to review him OR his family! GUYS, REVIEW ALL THE LATINOS FIRST BEFORE YOU START REVIEWING MOVIES! Damn!
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Is fun to watch
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There is already a kiddy friendly , comedic version of this film .
Its Called "The Muppet Christmas Carol " , and it has Micheal Caine and Muppets of all shapes and sizes.
Oh and some cracking songs too .
Dont really see the point of this .
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Scott is my second favorite Scrooge behind Sim. Two very different takes on the character. Scott delivers the most understated performance I've ever seen in the role. He never cowers in front of the ghosts. In fact, he is practically attorney-like in the way he defends his actions. Sim is all jitters. I give him the edge because he seems all-consumed by his greed...utterly sour. He truly appears to disdain compassion. Scott on the other hand seems uninterested rather than disdainful. Still, two great performances...head and shoulders above the rest.
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If Zemeckis would instead go the 2D route than that would impress me. Beowulf was very well directed. Above average direction actually. BUT...The mo-cap technology just doesn't work and I don't see it ever working in the future. Live action is live action. Animation is animation. Go back to 2D. Not 3D or CG...2 FUCKING D!
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Mo-cap is a huge waste of everyone's talents and time.. just film the damn thing!! Human's look waxy and automoton.. Not that anyone is waiting for a new version of "A Christmas Carol" anyway. I guess they thought they would be bringing their 'unique vision' to life this time, or some such guff. Why then give us the clichéd Scrooge that looks EXACTLY like the one everyone already knows?
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So why put him in a film where all the characters will sound alike?Cg/Mocap would have been an interesting way to create the ghosts, or to create flying effects over a dickensian set bigger than Shepperton Studios, but for the characters, it just seems so much more practical and cost effective to use live actors.
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He knows it to. Fuck him.
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