OVP: Best Visual Effects (2022)
The Nominees Were...
Frank Petzold, Viktor Muller, Markus Frank, & Kamil Jafar, All Quiet on the Western Front
Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, & Daniel Barrett, Avatar: The Way of Water
Dan Lemmon, Russell Earl, Anders Langlands, & Dominic Tuohy, The Batman
Geoffrey Baumann, Craig Hammack, R. Christopher White, & Dan Sudick, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
Ryan Tudhope, Seth Hill, Bryan Litson, & Scott R. Fisher, Top Gun: Maverick
My Thoughts: We're moving next into Best Visual Effects (all links to past contests below, and we're on our 21st OVP so that list continues to grow!), and my increasingly complicated feelings about one of my favorite characters. I love Visual Effects as a category because it requires you to get inventive in how you judge past races. Technology advances both realism & magic onscreen and visual effects today should look better than they did twenty years ago. That they don't in many cases is driven by piss-poor cinematography, which is definitely on-display in our first nominee.
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever succeeded where its predecessor did not-getting into the Best Visual Effects contest. Why it did, however, is a genuine question. Black Panther 2's most impressive technical moments come in visiting Namor's underwater kingdom Talokan, when we should be seeing an entirely new universe unleashed, which has been a big part of MCU's effects budgets (everything from Wakanda to Asgard has been in this vein). But the cinematography is so shoddy in this film, most of the underwater sequences are barely visible in a movie screen, and as a result the effects are washed away. This is true of a lot of films lately, but in particular it's a problem for Black Panther because it's the only nominated film to have this problem (even though it's rampant in the MCU/DCEU).
It's certainly not the case for Avatar: The Way of Water, which is a gorgeous reminder that movies are meant to be a visual feast for the eyes. I saw this in a crowded theater and people audibly gasped at certain sequences, like the first unveiling of the water-based Metkayina, and the whales that felt like you were catching a David Attenborough documentary. It's not just technical prowess, we're also getting to see beautiful scenes connected to the story, particularly the sinking ships of the film's final 60 minutes, which read as a retread of Cameron's Titanic sinking in the best way possible.
Top Gun: Maverick also finds a way to blend the real with the cinematic. Here, unlike Cameron's film which is a tsunami of the best CGI known-to-man, we instead marvel at practical effects & stunts. Tom Cruise feels like the kind of actor who might need to visit a therapist given the increasing danger he's putting his body in onscreen, but we still get a spectacular ride in this legacy sequel, as the aerial acrobatics are leaps above the original film, and combined with solid cinematography, we get the framing device of a movie that knows how to hide its CGI.
This is not the case for The Batman. Another film with strong cinematography, we do get a framework for the effects, but here they aren't as flamboyant or interesting as Avatar or Top Gun. This is partially driven by a franchise that has said all it has to say about Batman's primary quartet of villains (all onscreen at once in this picture), and the visual effects reflect that. Explosions, car chases, the Batmobile...it all looks pretty good, but it's not saying anything new.
That's not to say that it's the worst of this bunch (by a longshot). That title goes to All Quiet on the Western Front. One would be forgiven to saying "what visual effects?" and they wouldn't be entirely wrong. The film's visual effects are indistinguishable from what you'd expect from a 1970's war film. The CGI that is employed (like the tank in the trench) looks actively bad, and not realistic at all. This was nominated solely because it was a major film in other categories, which is the laziest approach Oscar can (frequently) take to the categories. A complete dereliction of duty by the VFX branch.
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). For the effects-driven films, they gave the trophy to Avatar, and nominated The Batman, Jurassic World Dominion, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, & Top Gun: Maverick. BAFTA also went with Avatar, and went with the Oscar lineup, except they got rid of Black Panther to include Everything Everywhere All at Once. The VFX shortlist was public, so we know sixth place was either Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore, Jurassic World Dominion, Thirteen Lives, or Nope, and given none of these movies scored anywhere else to give us a hint with Oscar (all of the actual Oscar nominees got at least one other citation), I'm guessing it was Doctor Strange given Jurassic World/Fantastic Beasts had franchise fatigue with AMPAS while the original Doctor Strange got in here.
Films I Would Have Nominated: Yesterday we talked about how The Northman completely missed in WAY too many Oscar categories (not getting in anywhere), so today we're going to mention a film that also got totally snubbed by Oscar. The low-key effects of Nope are everything All Quiet's are not-they're distinctive, they aid the plot, and (particularly the esophageal scene) are incredibly memorable.
Oscar’s Choice: Avatar had this Oscar sewn up the second that James Cameron committed to a release date.
My Choice: Avatar. This is one of those cases where, quite honestly, any other answers are people just being obstinate. There's no comparison. Behind it I'd go Top Gun, Batman, Black Panther, and All Quiet, in that order.
And those are my thoughts-what are yours? Does anyone actually want to stand against Avatar, or are we all ready to move on to Film Editing? Why do you think that Oscar never warmed to the Jurassic World or Fantastic Beasts franchises in this category (they liked Jurassic World and Harry Potter!)? And when are we finally going to start getting comic book movies that you can actually see again? Share below!
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