CGI or rubber suits?

[therealmccoy]

Instead of providing numerous examples of bad CG, post numerous examples of well-utilized CG and feel good about it. I get tired of this "CG could ruin Godzilla" attitude. It's really silly. Again I say, if you have the belief that a film is carried solely on special effects, you are in for a lot of disappointments. I could care less what route they take; as long as it's GOOD, it won't really matter to me. Bad special-effects aren't an evil deal-breaker to me.

[Giga Kaiju]

It doesnt matter which effect is going to be used i am still going to watch this movie to be entertained not to complain.

[Tyler]

He's not being a dick, he's being realistic.

One can be a realistic dick, though.

And if they did use suits it's not like it would look exactly like a Toho film. It would look better and who wouldn't want to see that? Even if they do it all CG I personally think something like Gamera 3 done on a huge Hollywood budget scale can happen and would be incredible if someone had enough balls to do it.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

Instead of providing numerous examples of bad CG, post numerous examples of well-utilized CG and feel good about it. I get tired of this "CG could ruin Godzilla" attitude. It's really silly. Again I say, if you have the belief that a film is carried solely on special effects, you are in for a lot of disappointments. I could care less what route they take; as long as it's GOOD, it won't really matter to me. Bad special-effects aren't an evil deal-breaker to me.

Sure, after all I already provided the trailer of Minotaur, a straight-to-dvd low budget film that managed to do so well with its CGI that it blends seamlessly with the practical effects. That should have shown my cautious optimism for CGI well enough, but if you insist.

LOTR. Oooh, I feel better already with the effects of the CGI flame.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=E8gdxPX6_8M
too bad the cave troll was not rendered as well, though.

The heavyweight champ and the one to beat IMHO
Avatar
www.youtube.com/watch?v=5esKccNnpZM
Ironically enough, the only things that looked even a bit off in this film were the lifeless powersuits. Everything that was alive looked, alive.

Hulk 03. The consistency of quality is dodgy, but the sheer realism in the interaction between objects, what hulk drags and pics up, was beyond my expectations of what CGI was capable of in terms of realism.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8wrNMPRriwc

And as for the character assassination, the crack about being crazy, I'll just chock that up to frustration that I pointed out a glaring inconsistency in the quality of the technology in the medium, and how it is has not been helped by either budget or time. If a suit or makeup looks lifeless or stiff, its called out. If stopmotion models look nothing like their live action full-size contemporaries, that gets called out too. CGI should not get a free pass either when it messes up. It is after all the effects medium that revolutionized the way we view cinema after all. It should be held to at least some kind of standard.

Oh, and about miniaturizing water effects, CGI seems to do that exceedingly well, among other things. From what I read, everything about that sequence was CGI save for the up close shots of the men on the ship, and Jack Black, with the exception of the belly blitz.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JXxt3eFhQBQ

[Captain Aktion]

^Yeah, but look at the flooding of Isengard. That was a combination of CG, miniatures, and maquette work that took my breath away. If you can add that kind of CG detail while keeping the tactile grounding of actual props then you've got the future of FX, IMO.

I see no reason that you can't use miniatures and actual suits, not just puffy, fill it in later mo-cap suits, but full Kaiju costuming rigged up to utilize CG elements, to create a real FX extravaganza.

[Ethan]

It doesn't matter. If you honestly think LP's Godzilla isn't going to be CGI (maybe augmented by physical props, but primarily CGI) you're crazy.

Me hopes it won't be shot 100% in front a blue screen like Avatar or Star Wars.

[Captain Aktion]

^Sadly, that's probably, realistically, the best we could hope for.

[Godzilla 2000]

^Sadly, that's probably, realistically, the best we could hope for.

Because creating a CGI Godzilla and pasting him over footage shot on location, in a real city, isnt a realistic probability?

Oh wait, G98.

[Hellspawn28]

As much I would love to see some suit work to used, it's likely never going to happen. Hellboy 1-2 and Where the Wild Things Are where not giant monster movies. Their is nothing wrong with a CG Godzilla since CG was not the reason why G98 sucked.

Are you talking about the movie Predators, if so, that came out either earlier this year or last year.

It came out last July (July 2010).

I thought the Preds in Predators were big rubbery dumbasses. I don't think they looked half as good as the ones in the AVP flicks.

AVPR I could understand but not the first one. Sorry but the Predators in the first movie look awful, one of the main reasons why I hated those movies.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

Well, at least in AVP, they did not have a Predator stupidly doff all of its weapons to demonstrate how inferior it was physically to a Xenomorph, even a mutated one like the Predalien. The weaponry belongs on a predator. the weapons are practically a part of it, almost making a Predator like a cyborg, similar to how Tony Stark is connected to his suit.

From its vision enhancing mask to its personal cloaking device, to weapons like the smart disk, its gear is made to work with the Predator's natural attributes. Without them, Predators are just powerful , tail-less aliens with useless glowing blood and an equally useless but interesting set of jaws pitted against a creature that can kill by being wounded and has sharp weapons built into every corner of its seemingly bio-mechanical body.

AVP2 was crap save for the special effects, and I'd much rather follow Predator:Concrete Jungle's storyline when establishing how Weyland/Utani and Mother came into being. "Miss Utani" indeed, lulz.

[Tyler]

The armor made them a bit bulky but that's about it. The ones in Predators were like giant walking bobble heads.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

I think part of it has to do with the fact that the first two Predators were portrayed by a big guy, Kevin Peter Hall. I think he was taller than Arnold, it was not just a visual trick. In AVP, I think only one of the actors came even close in height, and that was the guy who played the Predator that did not die until the end.

[DaddlerTheDalek]

Cgi & Motion-Capturing. Maybe some Stan Winston stuff.

[Primevalgodzilla V2]

As long as it looks good I don't care.

Although preferably the same balance that Lord of the Rings uses.

[CatfaceFourtoes]

That sounds good. Weta proved that they could even computer generate and miniaturize water in Gulliver's Travels. Their animation of living things is also impressive, from the Wargs in the LOTR series to the V-Rex in King Kong '05 that looked like they could have eaten Anne Darrow at any moment. I especially liked the animation quality that allowed her to hang suspended from one's lower jaw realistically.

[GodGan]

USA think theyre the best at cgi but wait til japan does it... no racist.
Well the movie should be both. It would be epic.

[Legion1979]

USA think theyre the best at cgi but wait til japan does it

We're all still waiting. We've been waiting.

[ManWithNoName]

CGI, suits would make this movie skreeonk dumb to non Godzilla fans, and Toho may as well just pump out another Godzilla cut-all-costs-crap-fest if an American studio does the same with way more money.

[kaiju115]

I'm ok with seeing a CGI Godzilla so long as its done the right way. Though if Toho decides to bring him back to Japan, definitely rubber suits, as a tradition.

[King-Ghidorah]

Gotta go with the consensus of being ok with CGI. Can't see the rubber suits going over too well in this day and age with current general audiences. Unless of course the aim is to present a film that's tounge-in-cheek. Which I sincerely hope is not the case.