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This topic comprises 4 pages: 1 2 3 4
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Topic: The Incredibles (2004)
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-08-2004 12:46 AM
I really liked "The Incredibles." It rates a solid 3.5 out of 4 stars. I watched it this evening at the Carmike 8, screen #5, DTS (it is a THX screen, though not officially certified).
First, for those who make the gripe about little kids being bored by the movie, this is not a movie for little kids. It is very much a movie for kids at least bicycle riding age or older (as well as us adults who still enjoy things we found very cool as adolescents). There's a lot of humor in this that only adults would appreciate. Please note the PG rating. Kids who liked "Star Wars" should enjoy this movie --well, at least if they don't think computer animated cartoons are only for babies.
My only complaints with the film: the identity of the bad guy is obviously telegraphed in the story. Thankfully they cut to the chase without the narrative collapsing into idiot plot. Also, a few of the segments in the movie seemed to look a tad bit soft. Quite shocking to me, the final render of this film was done on an Intel-based render farm. Gasp! Did Sun's Scott McNealy do something to piss off Steve Jobs?
I loved everything else. Having heard it, I agree with Brad. This is the best audio mix I've heard this year. Nice, aggressive moments and some pretty original sounds. The sound guys even took risks with placing vocals into the surrounds.
I enjoyed the domestic humor of super heroes trying to live as everyday people. Kudos for Pixar in skewering sue-happy lawyers and greedy insurance companies (both subjects are very worsening problems today).
The action sequences were very entertaining. The chase sequence on the island had some great moments (pretty funny ones too at that). I disagree with the Doctor Octopus and Spiderman 2 comparisons. Of note, this movie was probably well along in development and even production before the script of Spiderman 2 was finalized. The big bowling ball robot in this film has its origins derived from more retro sources. The film is very much a send up of both the classic James Bond movies and old comic book serials.
I also enjoyed this film for reasons few can appreciate. The character design and production design of this movie was flat out awesome. Pixar went the correct route in crafting characters more based on style of caricature rather than making them boringly realistic looking. Pixar also stuck well to the visual theme of early 1960's design.
It's obvious these guys poured over everything from architecure books of Frank Lloyd Wright to exaggerated fashion drawings and graphic design of that day to come up with the look for this movie. Pixar even stayed accurate in terms of type design, keeping that relevant for the period. Most films rarely, if ever, do that. If you watch "The Incredibles" again, please check out the trailers before this feature. Nearly every damned one I saw (including the SW EpIII teaser) used Trajan. Lame! Someone needs to fire some of these movie marketing guys for sleepwalking so badly! With that glaring problem noted, I really appreciated it when Pixar chose Microgramma for that giant password screen. They did their homework! The guys at Pixar are real artists. They are into art and design, not just computer programming. It is inspiring to me to see those people go to that extra effort instead of doing that usual good enough to get by shit so many others do. Hell, I want to see the movie again just for the great end title sequence. Bravo, Pixar!
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Dave Williams
Wet nipple scene
Posts: 1836
From: Salt Lake City, UT, USA
Registered: Jan 2000
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posted 11-08-2004 01:48 PM
Ok first of all, great movie, second best of the year, one of the greatest superhero movies of all time.
Ok now to the rendering problem.
I am guessing here, but my guess is that it was in fact rendered as the same resolution as the film burner itself, instead of the normal resolution which is far greater.
If this is the case, then it was done for time constraints. It takes little time to render in standard resolution, where as the normal pixar rendering takes so much longer.
It could also be disney putting its two cents in, or perhaps even pixar themselves getting cheap on the back end of things.
Either way, most didn't notice, and that is the problem. Most need to learn to spot things and say "HEY DAMMIT< THATS NOT GOOD ENOUGH.
SO my twobits..
ciao
dave
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 11-08-2004 02:26 PM
Considering both Pixar and Dreamworks Animation are both publicly traded companies on the stock marketing, I would not be surprised to see the quality of work infected with the typical M.B.A. 2 cents strategy of "do it cheap and only good enough to get by to maximize profits."
In fact, I expect this very thing to happen eventually. Much of this has already taken place in other areas of the film industry, with visual effects houses being an obvious example. Despite enormous advances in technology, more and more of the effects shots we see in movies are very fake looking. Lots of cost and quality cutting is happening, in spite of studio claims certain films are costing $150 million or more. The show may cost that, but the money isn't getting spent on CG. Most is just going into middleman pockets. There's also a lot more in the way of mediocre graphics talent working in the industry and doing so for far cheaper.
Further, I have to wonder if many film critics have taken stupid pills or something. When they exclaim a film has great visual effects, they obviously must be grading on a curve. For example, a good number of critics made remarks that "Van Helsing" had great visual effects. I thought many of the effects in that movie sucked ass. Many of the same people responsible for that one also did "The Mummy Returns," which also had ass-quality visuals.
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