Special Effects Lessons From JJ Abrams' Star Trek 461
brumgrunt writes "JJ Abram's hugely successful — on many levels — reboot of Star Trek has, for Den Of Geek, brought to the fore a lesson about special effects that many movie makers have been missing. Surely it's time now that special effects were actually used properly?" (The new film is not without some goofs, though only a few of the ones listed by Movie Mistakes' nitpickers are sciency.)
What I learned (Score:5, Funny)
Even in a black hole there are too many lens flares.
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
What's that then, when you move your lens in a particularly talented way?
Or did you mean flare?
Re:Two words (Score:5, Funny)
What's that then, when you move your lens in a particularly talented way?
No, no, no. Lens Flair is the stuff you put on your lens to express yourself. I believe the minimum is 18 pieces.
Re:What I learned (Score:4, Funny)
Amen - the shaky camera ruined it for me, and makes it unwatchable on IMAX.
Michael J. Fox's residual check isn't cutting it so he got a job doing camera work. Cut the guy a break.
Re:Science errors (spoilers) (Score:3, Funny)
Or my favorite: Why drill to the middle of the planet if you're about to create a black hole? Just make the black hole and let it do the rest.
(I suppose if all you have is a mining ship, every problem starts to seem like a drilling issue?)
Re:Science errors (spoilers) (Score:3, Funny)
Someone had to make the Highlander II for the Trek universe. Now we know who that man was.
Re:Two words (Score:2, Funny)
The minimum is 18 pieces, but some people choose to wear more, and we like to encourage that.
Re:Underwhelmed (Score:5, Funny)
I had always imagined Kirk was much more subtle
Shatner? Subtle??
Re:Bigger Fish (Score:3, Funny)
I cast "summon bigger boat"
Re:Enough Shakey Cam! (Score:5, Funny)
"Seconded. I had to leave the theater due to vertigo (I've got nasty seasonal allergies and some blockage in my ears, I think)."
You left the new Star Trek... due to vertigo... caused by allergies...?
*hands you my Geek Card*
Yeah. You get TWO.
Re:summarizing the article for you... (Score:3, Funny)
That's something I wish DS9 had addressed: where the hell do they get new officers when half of them get wiped out in war?
Does the Academy drop its standards through the floor and fast-track the best cadets? Do they have to spread out experienced and made-it-through-the-academy-with-normal-standards officers (even low-ranking ones) so they don't have whole ships being run by these bottom-of-the-barrel types who (like most people, even in the future, surely) can't do warp theory calculations in their heads?
I mean, their main feeder for the officer ranks is a highly-selective school that takes years to complete. It's not like a navy ship where you can have someone competent enough to start doing an ensign's duties in a few months, tops--these starships seem to require leadership and operation by people with a deep understanding of the theory and technology behind their workings, and that apparently takes highly qualified candidates years to achieve. So what do they do? Conscript from merchant fleets? Accept sub-par candidates who will likely never be able to compete for top positions with the much smarter and more talented pre-war officers? Does this cause friction in the ranks post-war (or even during the war)?
Seems to me like the Federation is just asking to get pwned by some species that has figured out a way to design warships that don't require dozens of PhDs in Astrophysics/Warp Theory/Gamma Particle Ray Beam Engineering to operate.
Re:Lens flare and screen whiteouts /= good effects (Score:3, Funny)
You guys criticize the lens flare without understanding why it's in the movie. It's not a visual effect so much as a subtle form of foreshadowing. **SPOILER ALERT!** You see, in the next movie all these Federation vessels start disappearing in the Neutral Zone. After investigating, Kirk and Spock discover that the thing that is causing this is a giant lens flare. They initially try to battle the lens flare using photon torpedos, but this is proven to be counterproductive, because on impact the photon torpedos simply cause more lens flares, which add to the strength of the monster. Uhura tries to communicate with it and it turns out that the lens flare is actually a hyperintelligent being formed entirely of optical artifacts, and they have to decide whether they can negotiate with the lens flare creature, or somehow outwit it, before the entire galaxy is consumed by lens flares.
Re:Effects have gotten worse (Score:3, Funny)
There were no animatronics in Jurassic Park. Hammond confirmed it.
Re:He could have been captain of a bucket (Score:4, Funny)
After all, in the Star Trek universe, the Earth is saved every other week. It's not such a big deal.