Special effects making filmmakers lazy?

Originally written the week of Sept. 15th/2003

Some friends and I went to see the Robert Rodriguez film, “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” this week and had mixed reactions to the film. The film was, as fully expected, a bang-bang shoot-em up western for the new millennium. However, it seemed to me that the plot was way too convoluted for an action film. It’s not that I couldn’t keep up with the story or the plot but it seems to me that the majority of people who are going to see a film such as this one are the general malaise of the population that are known as the “general viewing public”. Not to sound insulting, but it has come from my experiences that the majority of the “general viewing public” has an attention span of less than 5 minutes and cannot keep up with an over-the-top convoluted plot line.

Perhaps it is reasons such as this that many people I talked to didn’t particularly enjoy “The Matrix Reloaded”. I personally did not enjoy that film, but it was not only because of the packed plot, but because the film simply was not very good. The Wachowski Brothers are trying to sound intelligent and profound with their existentialism, when in fact they are just thinking of elaborate action sequences and then basing a story around the action, instead of the other way around. But I digress; I will discuss this later in the entry.

Back to “Once Upon A Time In Mexico”. The film was a very effective action film – overlooking the long-winded plot. The movie is filled with mind blowing, as well as brain splattering action scenes, which stay true to that classic Rodriguez nature of the film that we’ve all come to enjoy. The characters were enjoyable, with many different colorful people to meet. The Johnny Depp character definitely steals the show. This seems to be the summer for Depp, especially after riding on the success of Pirates of the Caribbean, which to me was one the most enjoyable big movies of this summer.

There seemed to be a lot of computer assistance in this film, as compared to Desperado. From Dusk Till Dawn had help from computers, but that was a completely different scenario. That film in particular involved vampires doing many crazy things in many a crazy environment - in other words, things that maybe could not have been done in any other way than to use computer effects. However, even that film used many traditional mechanical effects. It seems to me that perhaps the technical support that Rodriguez received in doing the Spy Kids Trilogy made him realize how much easier filmmaking could be with the added help of computer-generated effects. Rodriguez has openly praised the new digital cameras he used to shoot the film, saying they make the film making process much easier and you can get much more done in a shorter amount of time.

That leads me to the next topic I wish to discuss in this journal article: Has computer generated effects made filmmakers lazy?

There is one scene from “Once Upon A Time In Mexico” that comes to mind when I discuss this, and that is when a certain character gets his knees blown apart by Antonio Banderas’ double-barreled shotgun. Now, in the film they used computer effects to generate the knees blowing out and having the bones snap under the weight of the character. Now, it was a very cool scene, as well as a cool effect, but you could obviously tell that it was computerized effects. Personally, I think it would’ve been cooler to have the actual make-up effects of the knees being blown apart. Sure, it might not have looked so stream-lined and pristine, but it would have given it that classic gore that we love. We all remember the good days of gore and violence, such as the comedic yet disgusting scenes in Sam Raimi’s Evil Dead Trilogy. Surely you remember the scene in Die Hard when Bruce Willis blows the bad guys’ knees out with the machine gun?! That wasn’t computer generated and it still gave off the same gut-wrenching effect that it was aiming for.

Here is where one of the problems with The Matrix Reloaded comes in. This is the kind of movie where computer effects are required. They’re not just for looks, although that is a lot of it; they are actually required in order to pull off some of the stunts the filmmakers want done. What struck me as being weird was that the effects seemed to be worse in the supposed “technologically advanced sequel” than they were in the original. I always thought that over time the special effects would get better. But this is where the laziness factor comes in. When the first Matrix film came out, the effects such as the “bullet time” sequence had never been done, so they had to invent it – which means a lot of time and effort. But after they already know how to do it, then the effort is no longer required so they can slack off a bit and get away with it.

The same problem occurred with the Jurassic Park Trilogy. The first film had groundbreaking, never-before seen special effects, but by the time the sequels came out, the technology was old, the filmmakers became lazy and the difference is noticeable when all three films are watched.

I recently read an article with Frank Marshall who will be producing the fourth Indiana Jones film which will re-unite Harrison Ford with Steven Spielberg. The point of the article was that Frank Marshall made an adamant point that there were to be little to no computer effects in the new Indiana Jones film. This came as an exciting surprise to me. He said that he wants the original fans of the first trilogy to be able to go into the theater and watch the film feeling like they did the first time around.

I think more filmmakers need to be following this example. Good films don’t have to be digital films. If a film has a good script and is attached to good actors to bring the dialogue to life, as well as good producers, cinematographers and a brilliant director, than the work will speak for itself. Look at such great films as Pulp Fiction, Fargo, Psycho, and The Godfather, just to name a few. Where were their special effects and computer generation? If a film has to rely on special effects to make it good, than what does that say about the material?