Best Visual Effects of 2003?
 

What film do you think deserves to win an Oscar for Best Visual Effects this year and why?

Return of the King? The Hulk? Matrix Reloaded/Revolutions? X-Men 2? Am I missing any others that could be nominated?

Revolutions.

Well, the Hulk was the most insanely difficult CGI character ever even attempted on the big screen, as well as the most technically impressive. But it won't win. ROTK will win. But the best, most seamless visual effects I've seen this year are from Master & Commander and Pirates of the Carribean. Neither one will win though.

I haven't seen ROTK, so I can't comment. But it will win.

I think the Hulk is the first title character which is 100% CGI right?

But ROTK will win because everything looks pretty. :D

i think ROTK will win bc it has MORE THAN just good CGI. it has incredible model work/bigatures, great sets, etc.

Well...my Nominations list would be:

Hulk
Matrix Revolutions
ROTK
Pirates of the Caribbean

For Win:
I would pick Hulk...it looks incredible...by far the most difficult and best looking CGI creation yet...
but ROTK will win...and its okay...cause theres some amazing work...but I noticed quite a few flaws in the WETA work...whereas the ILM work in Hulk was flawless imo...
POTC and Revolutions had the most seamless FX of the year though...so they have a chance...

Re: Best Visual Effects of 2003?
 

Yes, you're missing Pirates of the Carribean.

Reloaded and Revolutions had some incredible composite work. Blue screen didn't look so painfully obvious in those movies, and that shot of Morpheus slicing the Escalade was seamless. The CG for the Zion battle was incredibly well done also, and while they didn't look great in motion, the CGI humans looked incredible as well, better than the CG humans that the LOTR movies have pumped out. Looking through the Zion Archives on the Matrix site made me appreciate the amount of work the teams went through to build all the sets.

The Hulk looked incredible, but other than that, the movie didn't have as many special effects as the Matrix movies or ROTK. While POTC had some very effective and well implemented effects, there was nothing too dazzling about them.

How about Terminator 3? Large quantity of high quality FX in that film.

I think ROTK is going to win. While it was slighly hit and miss in spots when it was going strong it beats anything else of the past few years hands down.

I'm hoping Pirates can sneak in with a win. The effects were seamless, especially during .

Although I can appreciate the scale of work in ROTK (and the previous films as well) there are too many shots where you can clearly see sub-par effects.

It's not the number of effects in a movie that should be judged, but the quality of them.

After all it's "Best Special Efects" not "Best and Most number of Special Effects"

Wow... I guess I'm in a minority...I thought the POTC effects were just average... nowhere near as cool as HULK (except, the hulk dogs totally blew). I think that T3 had some pretty damn good visual effects but overalll I'd give it to Return of the King. Sure there are a few parts where the effects are only OK, but for the most part, the work is fantastic... ie. when it's good, it's better than anything else this year... so for that reason alone, it'd be my pick.

MATT

One thing that should get Revolutions the award is because of one shot:

*Spoiler*

The end when they do the Bullit Time punch...Its in extreme slow-mo...rain...lightning...and then he punches Smith and the movement of his skin and flesh and jaw and hair...and the camera is only like 6 inches from Smith's face...OMG...no other film has ever gotten that close to that one shot.

This reminded me of the slow-motion shot right after Edward Norton pulls the trigger with the gun in his mouth at the end of Fight Club

yeah kinda...

Return of the King will win the Oscar for Best Visual Effects because Oscar voters tend to vote for the best movie nominated, rather than the best effects.

Hence when TTT won over AOTC...and when The Matrix won over TPM...and Gladiator won over Perfect Storm...Oscars are merely a popularity contest...

I dunno. For me it's a toss-up between the moonlight f/x in Pirates and Shelob. If it comes down to it though, Shelob just looked awesome.

TT had better effects than AOTC. AOTC was essentially an animated feature film with a few human actors thrown in here and there. The Matrix deserved to win over Phantom Menace as well. Gladiator, however, didn't deserve to win (best visuals). However, I did feel A.I. had better effects than Fellowship of the Ring. Also, Minority Report should have been nominated in place of Spider-man last year.

Return of the King deserves to win it this year despite a few bad shots, nothing else really compares to the scope and integration that RotK tried and achieved. Minas Tirith, The elephants, Gollum, some of the battles, and several other things put the effects work in RotK leaps and bounds ahead of the competition (despite a few poor shots here and there), not to mention every single shot in the movie is essentially a special effect - due to the size/heights of the characters in respect to each other and their surroundings (Hobbits, Elfs, Rangers, Wizards were all different heights, and I don't mean by the actors being slightly taller or shorter).

Revolutions had solid special effects as well. Though that hand->face punch is nothing extradordinary, and the overall movie was, well.. yeah.

Reloaded came off as a bit too cartoony in many of the scenes and Pirates of the Caribbean - while seamless with transformation - had relatively poor animation.

Hulk wasn't anything new really. The lead wasn't 100% CG since a good portion of the movie was Eric Bana and not Hulk. Also, many of the shots of Hulk made him look way too much like a little toy running around, but the closeups were phenomenal.

I dunno, I just think there's more to visual effects than CG. The Matrix films have been good throughout but Reloaded just recycled the original's effects, Revolutions did have the relatively impressive attack on Zion as well as a cool ship effect shots, but I think the movie sucking will hurt it's overall chances.

T3
ROTK
Matix Revolutions

T3 had the best effects IMO, but ROTK will probably win because of the amazing way that so many different elements are woven into a near-seamless package.

no matter what the film was...AOTC had better FX than TTT...in terms of sheer quantity...and quality...its seamless in AOTC...TTT had some shoddy FX...and Gollum looked like crap in a lot of places...they fixed Gollum in ROTK though...same with TPM and Matrix..

AOTC was far from seamless, many times it looked like the actors were walking on a picture instead of being in it... many.. many times.

T3 had a few good effects - but wasn't really anything special, but not anything bad either.

X2 also had some good effects as well.

I think Mystic River had the best visual effects....... the great acting seemed so great to do with the effects.... LOL

I don't know who will win the Oscar because the voters frequently give it to the most popular film, etc.

But by far the best effects I've seen this year were in POTC. Terrible movie, but the effects were supperb.

I don't understand all this praise for the POTC effects. Nothing in the movie looked particularly great to me, the ghost pirates looked cheesy.

In terms of both technical bravado and artistic quality, ROTK is the best for me hands-down--just think of the epic shots of Minas Tirith, and that's only one small part!

However, I do acknowledge that the Matrix films, especially Revolutions, had some superb effects work. I have not seen The Hulk. X2 had some very good work in it as well, and people seem to be forgetting that.

Master and Commander. Some excellent effects work in that -- excellent because you don't even realize it is effects.

I thought the Hulk looked like crap, so it being nominated would be disappointing for me.

Academy Announces Films in Competition for Visual Effects Oscar


Beverly Hills, CA - The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences today announced the seven films being considered for Achievement in Visual Effects for the 76th Academy Awards®.

The films in consideration are listed below in alphabetical order:

"The Hulk"
"The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King"
"Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World"
"Peter Pan"
"Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl"
"Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines"
"X-Men 2"

Fifteen-minute clip reels from each of the seven films will be screened for the Visual Effects Award Nominating Committee on January 21. The members will then nominate three of these seven films for Oscar consideration.

The finalists will be announced along with nominations in 23 other categories on Tuesday, January 27, at 5:30 a.m. PST.

Academy Awards for outstanding film achievements of 2003 will be presented on Sunday, February 29, 2004, at the Kodak Theatre at Hollywood & Highland® and televised live by the ABC Television Network at 5 p.m. PST, beginning with a half-hour arrival segment.


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No Matrix???? Wow

OK, I understand many people didn't like the sequels this year, but that is just wrong--especially by all accounts since I heard virtually nothing but complaints about Hulk's SFX. I also neglected to mention that the T3 effects were actually quite good even if they weren't standout. POTC doesn't belong on there.

The pathetic Matrix backlash reaches it's zenith.

Yes it does. POTC most certainly deserves to be on the list, as well as the Hulk. POTC had among the most seamless vfx I've seen this year. So did Master & Commander. Both had better FX than the Matrix Sequels. Hulk, which is no doubt the most insanely and technically difficult CG creation ever attempted, much less pulled off successfully, definitely deserves to be on the list. It's a phenomenal technical acheivement, whether you liked the results or not. The industry professionals sure know that.

You're forgetting one thing. VFX professionals in the VFX industry are the ones who vote on these. They know what they're doing. They know what deserves a nom and what doesn't. Maybe if Joel Silver and John Gaeta kept their damn mouth shut rather than running off about how they were the greatest thing since sliced bread, maybe they would have sneaked a nomination.

Dude, give it a rest. The FX work in AOTC was phenomenal. So was TTT. But both had a few seams. TTT has some unconvincing miniatures as well as some shotty bluescreen. AOTC's main problem was Lucas used to much. Still incredible FX worthy of an Oscar. Matrix should not have beaten TPM though.

I couldn't agree more. Although I disagree with it being a terrible movie. Thought it was a very good movie.;)

I have to agree with POTC's effects just being average. I mean it was a cool flick but the effects weren't anything that seemed so great in my eyes. I much prefer X2's effects over POTC's. X2 to me had the most seamless effects this summer. Minus a few shots everything was prettys seamless in that movie and I wouldn't mind X2 getting a nod for it's achievements. But we all know that ROTK will win because well the effects in ROTK were just mind blowing.

Matrix got shafted. Hate the sequels or not, you still can't deny those fx.

Agreed. That movie gets my vote.

Not mentioned yet but (and here I have to admit I saw it),
Bad Boys II had such quality CGI that I had no idea until I watched the second disc of the DVD release.

For example- the Ferrari on the Highway scene is almost all CGI (except close-ups)! Looks very real

There were a few others that blended so well I didn't even think how they did it- the goal of any visual effects.

ROTK, bar none.

-The Minas Tirith establishing shot with Galdanf riding up to the top....Holy Dogshit.

taking down a Mumakil in the background (easy to miss and one of the most amazing things in the film.)

-The charge of the Rohirim- tell me you didn't get choked up.

But, the best shot in any movie anywhere this year.... My God, that is one scene that is going to go down in history. With that one shot, a perfect combination of miniatures, CGI and location work, Jackson has made a name for himself.

For me, ROTK easily. The scale, the scope, the artistry. I'm just curious what you guys considered some of the 'bad' shots? Don't get me wrong, not being confrontational here- you are entitled to thinking ROTK had some flawed effects. To me, everything looked very tight and polished.

Revolutions floored me with the amount and intensity of the effects. I remember thinking "my god, that must've been expensive" some time around when the big drill thing falls and breaks through the layers of zion. But I still think some of the shots looked awful- the mechs etc. Also, the movie was just terrible (IMO)

I'm glad others agree with what I've thought for a while- the effects work in Master/commander is some of the most 'seamless' I've seen in a long long time. Very good stuff. But I think a lot of credit has to go to Peter Weir for his decision not to have any obvious CGI 'money shots' that's so common these days. (example: the 'san francisco' and 'arriving in harbor' shots in Last Samurai)

I agree with whoever said AOTC looked 'animated'. It reminds me of those old cheesy PC game cinema sequences where they've hired a semi-famous/has been actor in an attempt to help sell their title- everything is so obviously bluescreened (AOTC is much higher quality of course). Very memorably bad is the scene where Yoda, Windu, and Obi-Wan were walking down a hall at the jedi temple- horrible looking stuff.

POTC, I've only seen it once a while back and don't remember any effects being particularly memorable.

Just came back from ROTK again. Shelob is still the best vfx not only of this year, but of all time.

Surprised that the Matrix Sequels were not on there, but the rest of the films on the list were worthy, even PotC. Still need to see Peter Pan and T3, but the few minutes I have seen of each, the effects look pretty damn good. RotK had some excellent shots, but I also thought it had some very sub-par shots that would hurt it in this category (same thiing for Hulk). M & C, PotC and X2 were much more consistent w/ their F/X throughout the respective films, imo.

I would say that the animation of Legolas is slightly below average in all three features. His body seems to lose its skeleton from time to time.