OVP: Best Visual Effects (2017)
The Nominees Were...
John Nelson, Gerd Nefzer, Paul Lambert, & Richard R. Hoover, Blade Runner 2049
Christopher Townsend, Guy Williams, Jonathan Fawkner, & Dan Sudick, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2
Stephen Rosenbaum, Jeff White, Scott Benza, & Mike Meinardus, Kong: Skull Island
Ben Morris, Mike Mulholland, Neal Scanlan, & Chris Corbould, Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Joe Letteri, Daniel Barrett, Dan Lemmon, & Joel Whist, War for the Planet of the Apes
My Thoughts: By 2017, Makeup was the only category still stuck at three nominations, so we are moving into our five-wide races today with Visual Effects. I will admit that 2017 is a weird year for me in terms of both my own personal Visual Effects nominations and in terms of the Oscar nominations. Usually, when I think of a great year for this category, at least in a knee-jerk way, I think of one truly outstanding winner. Titanic, Avatar, Gravity...movies that totally changed the ball-game in terms of what visual effects were. 2017 doesn't have such a film (in fact, one could sincerely argue that there hasn't been such a film since Gravity came out that totally upended the visual effects world). It does, however, have a very good lineup of movies competing, with only one movie standing apart as "weak."
Take Blade Runner 2049, which some might quibble is in that "industry-busting" mold, but in reality is just standing (high) on the shoulders of its predecessors. The movie is a fantastic look at a futuristic world, totally immersing some of our modern technologies (everything looks like it's plucked from an Apple pitch meeting ten years from now), while also working well with the desert-like production design...it's really beautiful. There's no need to try and ravage the eyes with visual effects at every corner, but instead making sure that it becomes a prime player in the story, but not the only one (the makeup, art direction, & cinematography are all stars as well).
You get something similar from The Last Jedi (which, I'm just saying right now, is my favorite of the latest trilogy, though given 2017's higher echelon of film than 2015 or 2019, it has a harder road to trod when it comes to getting citations on My Ballot). Last Jedi's got, for my money, the best single effect of the year during the Battle of Crait when the ski speeders are giving this gorgeous trail of red behind their rickety ships falling apart in the face of impending doom. Sometimes I think that visual effects work focuses so much on being realistic or being jaw-dropping that it sometimes forgets that its a "visual" effect-it's supposed to look incredible. Nothing else in The Last Jedi approaches this, but that's a high bar-the film itself is top quality from start-to-finish, and if they're going to save their best effect, I'm glad they did for the climax of the movie.
Kong: Skull Island does not have the kind of loveliness that either Last Jedi or Blade Runner 2049 are able to achieve, but you could make a sincere argument that you don't need to. Kong has been at the center of countless effects films, and I don't know that you're going to top Peter Jackson's opus in 2005 in terms of singular achievements. The movie instead goes for a near-Michael Bay level aesthetic to its action sequences, playing in a comical fashion with the audience's expectations, particularly in the cheeky (but violent) air-battle scene where Kong attempts to take on a series of planes as Samuel L. Jackson loses his mind. It's not great cinema, but the effects are strong & continuing the world-building that the recent series of monster movies has leveled up.
Speaking of world-building, it feels downright bizarre that the stellar Planet of the Apes series that brought on a whole new level of visual effects never got a single Oscar for its troubles (I'd have given it in 2014 over all of the eligible films, and amongst Oscar nominees, it won in 2011 for me as well). The nice thing about War compared to the other films is that its effect work isn't just reliant on the incredible motion capture technology that has become the hallmark of the series. While creatures like Caesar & Bad Ape are incredibly lifelike, totally feeling like vessels for the performances of Andy Serkis & Steve Zahn, respectively, we also get battle scenes that stay within the realm of this world, taking on an almost video game-like (in a good way) appeal with the claustrophobic set design.
Our final nominee is the only dud in the group for me. I liked the first Guardians movie a lot (I thought it was fun, and while his offscreen choices deserve a magnifying glass, Chris Pratt is a pretty likable onscreen star), but the sequel didn't do anything for me. The effects in the later scenes feel like an eyesore, as the terraformation becomes just a glob of computer graphics that never stands out in a major way, and honestly takes you out of the movie you're so certain it isn't real. I will say that the Kurt Russell de-aging was (at least at the time) some of the best "de-aging" work I'd seen in a movie, getting as close to away from the Uncanny Valley as a movie seems to be able to get, but that's a small effect in a movie that otherwise can't ground itself.
Other Precursor Contenders: The Visual Effects Society splits its nominations between effects-driven films (the ones that generally get nominated at the Oscars) and the ones with supporting effects (which only rarely get cited with AMPAS, but are usually a more interesting lineup). The effects-driven films went with War for the Planet of the Apes against Blade Runner, Guardians, Kong Skull Island, and The Last Jedi (yes, that's the exact lineup for Oscar with the winner changed), while Dunkirk took the prize against Darkest Hour, Downsizing, Mother!, and Only the Brave for supporting effects. BAFTA went with Blade Runner as its victor, here against Dunkirk, The Shape of Water, The Last Jedi, and War for the Planet of the Apes. In 2017 there were bakeoffs for VFX, so we know that sixth place was either Alien: Covenant, Dunkirk, Ojka, The Shape of Water, or Valerian and the City of a Thousand Planets (I don't remember this movie either), and I'd defer to one of the Best Pictures as the just-miss (probably Dunkirk, given Nolan's propensity for accolades in this category).
Films I Would Have Nominated: Dunkirk for sure-the way that it combines practical effects (by air, land, & sea) with CGI is remarkable, and like I've said a few times in this article, it looks great. That it didn't get this nomination still puzzles me to this day...it felt like a gimme, and honestly the biggest threat to Blade Runner's trophy.
Oscar’s Choice: Oscar rarely gets sentimental about a series coming to an end in the craft categories, so Blade Runner got a layup win against Planet of the Apes.
My Choice: I will also go with Blade Runner of these contenders, just over The Last Jedi (it's close-I always feel like I just barely skip giving Star Wars a VFX trophy) and War in bronze. Behind them are Kong and Guardians in the back.
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? I'm currently 2-for-2 with agreeing with Oscar in 2017...anyone want to stand out by going against Blade Runner? Will the Star Wars films ever win another Oscar or are they just destined to get a cavalcade of nominations? And what was the holdup on getting Dunkirk a nomination here? Share below!
No comments:
Post a Comment