My Award Nominations: Best Visual Effects

This is usually one of the tougher craft categories for me to decide my favourites. The photorealism of CGI these days is so evolved that it's hard to assess which effects are "better" than others (unless the effect is noticeably bad).

Inevitably, my own criteria boils down to some vague combination of the effects' technical excellence, their originality, and how effectively they're used to support the much bigger 'effect' of the movie experience. For instance, no one's going to argue that a Michael Bay explosion fest doesn't have highly accomplished effects work, but its always delivered in a visually messy and confusing fashion, essentially wasting the efforts of the hardworking technicians, animators, matte painters, texture artists, etc.

To that end, the following craftspeople nominated for my own Best Visual Effects honour can thank the directors of their respective movies for being filmmakers of taste and substance, who know how to utilize special effects to serve the story instead of distract from it.

One Category at a Time: Visual Effects

I am pleased to report that for the first time in six -- count 'em, six -- years, the Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Best Cinematography will NOT be going to the same film. Huzzah!

A lot of that has to do with this being the first time since the Best Visual Effects category expanded to five, that a Best Picture nominee has not been represented. This means we can't fall back on the reliable 'Best-Pic-nominees-never-lose' rule that has held in this category since the 70s.

But then what yard stick do we use to assess the chances of the five films recognized this year for their sensational illusions?

That 'Best-Pic-nominees-never-lose' rule got me thinking about the directors who have helmed the most recent winners in this category, going back as far as the 2008/09 season:

-David Fincher
-James Cameron
-Christopher Nolan
-Martin Scorsese
-Ang Lee
-Alfonso Cuaron

Guys, that's an impressive list... in fact, that list is more than impressive.
That list is amazing.
That list is better than the list of the six most recent winners for Best Director!

In a Best Visual Effects race in which no Best Picture nominee is present, could it be that the name of the director behind the film holds enough clout to make the difference? If so, then it certainly bodes well for one nominee, whose director is already on that more-than-impressive list...

Review - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

In Rise of the Planet of the Apes – the surprisingly good 2011 reboot of the classic sci-fi franchise – we met Caesar, a super smart lab chimp contemplating his place in a human world that would keep him caged up. In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes – the excellent new sequel which delivers high blockbuster thrills in a story with the dramatic scope of a Shakespearean tragedy – Caesar is older and a bit wiser, but still has a lot to learn about the cruel subtleties of trust and leadership.

Picking up ten years after the events of Rise, Dawn finds humankind all but extinct due to a pandemic outbreak of the same man-made virus that blessed Caesar (Andy Serkis) with heightened intelligence in the first place. Conversely, he and his posse of escaped simian brethren have since flourished into a thriving ape community in the temperate rainforest of northern California, with any humans happily out of sight and out of mind.

My Award nominations: Visual Effects

Let's be honest: For just about everybody, this year's visual effects contest has basically consisted of one movie, and then everything else. But that doesn't mean that the pretenders shouldn't be acknowledged for their stellar work.

So read about the best Visual Effects work of the year (plus the other four) after the jump.

Review - Man of Steel

With wall-to-wall action that moves faster than a locomotive, Man of Steel reinvigorates a wealth of Superman mythos for a new generation, but is far from an unqualified success. The pairing of producer Christopher Nolan and director Zach Snyder is a bit of an anomaly given their very different directorial styles, but if nothing else, Man of Steel certainly gives you a lot bang for your buck.

The script, scribed by Nolan's Dark Knight co-writer David Goyer, covers not only the already well known origin story of an alien baby who escapes the destruction of his home planet and is raised by a kindly Kansas couple, but also the saga of the man of steel's quest for self-enlightenment and his run-in with his Kryptonian enemy General Zod. That's an awful lot of material to cram into one movie – enough perhaps for two movies, one could argue.

Life of Pi and Brave clean up at VES Awards

The Visual Effects Society came through for Life of Pi (like we knew they would), handing it four honours including the Best Visual Effects in a Visual Effects-Driven Motion Picture. The Avengers and The Hobbit were consoled with two wins and one win respectively.

In the animated categories, Brave swept the board, winning all four prizes for effects in animated films. It's a beautiful film with great effects and all, but I gotta say:

ParaNorman = robbed.

Just saying.

All the winners after the jump.

Review - The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

“That seems a bit excessive, doesn't it?” Bilbo Baggins mentions to a particularly rotund dwarf carrying several large wheels of cheese through a snug hobbit hole. It's a throwaway sight gag that plays for a quick chuckle in the first third of the first third (not a typo) of Peter Jackson's The Hobbit, but this insignificant moment perfectly sums up my thoughts on the matter: a 2-hour and fifty-minute movie just for the first 100 pages of a childrens novel? Doesn't this whole enterprise seem a bit excessive?

Preceding the Middle Earth events depicted in Jackson's gargantuan Lord of the Rings trilogy by a good sixty years, The Hobbit takes its excruciating time in setting us up for the adventures of young Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman, excellent in a mostly passive role), a quiet hobbit with no desire to stray from the cozy confines of his beloved Shire. When the meddling but unquestionably good wizard Gandalf the Grey (commanded once again by Sir Ian McKellan) signs Bilbo up to join a company of raucous dwarfs on their quest to recapture their home from a marauding dragon, he is naturally reluctant. But he is finally persuaded, and the unexpected journey begins (a good forty minutes into the film, mind you).

My Awards nominations: Visual Effects

The effects sorcerers were hard at work this year, but aren't they always? Given that effects movies are the only ones studios feel any confidence in producing, there is naturally lots too choose from, but only five could crack my Visual Effects ballot:

Anonymous
(Marc Weigert, Volker Engel, Gerd Nefzer, Greg Strasz):

Here's something novel: A Roland Emmerich movie whose effects are subtle! The recreation of 15th century London is so seamless that in many shots you can't even tell it's an effect.


Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
(Tim Burke, John Richardson, Ferran Domenech, Greg Powell):

As always, the wizarding universe is sensationally evoked by more of Tim Burke's marvelous effects, with extra shiny pyrotechnics for this final action-packed installment.


Rise of the Planet of the Apes
(Joe Letteri, Dan Lemmon, Tony Lazarowich, Daniel Barrett):

The photorealistic motion capture magic of Weta Digital's cinematic sorcerers is completely convincing, giving more breadth to the performances and allowing us to fully sympathize with the CG apes.


Transformers: Dark of the Moon
(Scott Farrar, John Frazier, Scott Benza, Kenny Bates):

As can only be expected of the series, the story is imbecilic, the effects top notch. Bonus points for that uber cool wing-suit sequence. Stunts with minimal CG embellishment are totally the way to go!


The Tree of Life
(Dan Glass, Michael L. Fink, Brian Friedman, Tom Debenham):

The arresting non-CG depiction of the universe's cosmic origins are hypnotic and awe-inspiring. The subsequent evolution of life on earth is handled in beautifully naturalistic ways.


Just missed: Captain America, Hugo, MI4, Tintin

Review - Rise of the Planet of the Apes

I'll be honest: I never really cared The Planet of the Apes. The films were okay at best, but credit for the intriguing premise belongs to Pierre Boulle's novel anyway. All that considered, I was unexpectedly pleased to find that this origin story, while not something worth going ape over, to be a thoroughly enjoyable, at times almost credible, reboot that offers promising options for expanding on the ideas and themes of the original.

One Category at a Time: Best Visual Effects

The extra two slots added to the Best Visual Effects field last year have given us prognosticators more degrees of freedom to work with, and give new hope to some films that probably wouldn't be in the conversation otherwise.

Films like Hereafter, which was by no means a big effects film, but used its effects wisely in a solid supporting role and earned a nomination for it. Perhaps a film that can emulate that this year is Terrence Malick's The Tree of Life, which apparently will be sporting dinosaurs in certain sequences and perhaps other shots that may require interesting effects work. Consider this a reckless wild card pick.

The Harry Potter franchise's final installment lands this summer. Having been nominated for two previous Potter films, including last year's The Deathly Hallows: Part 1, I wouldn't be surprised to see the effect branch give Tim Burke and company one final kick at the can. Maybe the Academy will feel inclined to let them win as a way of honouring the series?

There's always one or two huge summer blockbusters that make it in here, and this summer is at no shortage of effects-heavy potential blockbusters. But many of them are comic book adaptations, which only occasionally hit with the Academy. They tend to be kinder to original material, and that's where I give J.J. Abrams' effects team for Super 8 (who've already proven themselves on Star Trek) an edge over the competition.

But sequels can sometimes score here if their predecessors did, in which case Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides may be sitting pretty. All three previous Pirates films have been nominated here, even as the critics have become progressively less kind to them. The extra two slots are a benefit for films that might otherwise be sunk by bad reviews.

Finally, Joe Letteri et. al. at Weta Digital, who have worked such wonders on the Lord of the Rings trilogy and most recently Avatar, are heading Steven Spielberg's take on Tintin. But will the effects branch go for a completely motion-captured film? Avatar had enough live-action footage to convince the Academy that its effects were effects, but they've never given a second glance to any of Robert Zemekis' motion-capture endeavours. Might they consider Tintin just a glorified animated film?

Predicted five:
The Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2
Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Super 8
The Tree of Life

Also consider: Captain America, Cowboys and Aliens, Green Lantern, Hugo Cabret, Transformers 3, X-Men: First Class, Thor.