FORMAL FILM STUDY: Progression of Speical Effects Through the Years

My second Formal Film Study consists of 3 films that showcase the use of special effects through the years. The first is the oldest of the three; Alien was filmed in 1979, and directed by Ridley Scott. The second is The Matrix, filmed in 1999, and directed by the Wachowski Brothers. And lastly I chose a newer movie, Avatar, made in 2009 and directed by James Cameron.

I chose to do my film study on these three films because I have always thought special effects were really cool, and going more in depth on movies that highlight this sounded interesting to me. I also wanted to see how special effects progressed throughout its recent history, by comparing 3 films each from different time periods. Each has obvious differences, but they all have interesting similarities as well.

The first movie of my study was Alien, which was filmed in 1979 and directed by Ridley Scott. I knew this movie was pretty well regarded for its special effects at the time, so I thought watching it would provide me with a good starting point for my film study. The plot of the movie follows Ripley, played by Sigourney Weaver, the warrant officer on a spaceship that is returning to earth. On their way back, they receive a transmission from a derelict alien spacecraft, and go to investigate what exactly it is. The exploration turns bad when they discover a large chamber room filled with eggs, and a creature attacks one of the crewmembers. Unbeknownst to the crewmembers, the creature finds its way back on the ship with them. The alien grows into an enormous killing monster, and kills off the crew one by one, until only Ripley is left. She has to figure out a way to survive and escape the ship, while stranded in the middle of space.

The second movie of my study was The Matrix, filmed in 1999 and directed by the Wachowski Brothers. After seeing a few scenes from this in class, I knew it would fit perfectly into my formal film study and I decided I would watch it. The plot follows Thomas Anderson, played by Keanu Reaves, a computer hacker who goes by the codename “Neo”. He is visited by Trinity who tells him that a man named Morpheus can tell him about something called “The Matrix”. When he finally does meet Morpheus, he gives Neo two options, to continue living normally, or to see what the Matrix actually is. He wakes up to find that his entire universe was fake, that machines actually control everything about his life and humans are not living free lives. Neo and the crew of men on his ship make it their duty to find Zion, the humans refuge in the real world, while fighting off machines in the real world and agent Smiths in the Matrix. Neo gains incredible control over his abilities in the matrix, and defeats Mr. Smith in the end.

The last movie in my study was Avatar, which was filmed in 2009 and directed by James Cameron. I wanted to study this movie specifically because I feel it is the epitome of what special effects can do. It provided a good standpoint of just how far special effects have come since they were first introduced. Because the world has run out of resources, the military has been put in charge of taking over the Planet Pandora, which is rich in unobtanium and inhabited by the blue Na’vi people. The plot follows Jake Sully, a paraplegic marine whose body is used to operate an Avatar on the world of Pandora. Jake gathers intelligence on the Na’vi people, and begins to befriend and sympathize with their culture. This obviously causes problems, when his military is the one who is trying to take over the planet. When the military tries to destroy the Hometree, the Na’vi peoples most sacred and life-giving element, Jake leads a revolt against his own people, the humans. This ensues a large final battle, where the Na’vi defeat the humans, and Jake opts to stay on the planet Pandora.

Differences: In regards to special effects, what I wanted to focus on for this study, I noticed stark differences between the three films. Because of when they were all produced and the technological advancements of each time period, they all have things that stood out, for better or for worse.

Alien was made in 1979, so it is safe to assume it had the most rudimentary special effects of the three. This does not mean it was the worst of the three however. Because computer generation was very limited at the time, all of the special effects of the movie were accomplished through models and miniatures. Iconic things in the film, like the ship Nostromo, the Facehugger, and the Alien itself were all made as props, and used in the actual film with minimal computer editing. In the picture above when the Chestburster pops through a torso, one of the most memorable scenes of the movie, shows a good example of how props were used effectively without any computer generation. Just because they were props did not minimize the scariness or effectiveness of the movie as a whole.

The Matrix was made in 1999, and is regarded for its use of computer-generated effects, which had only recently become popular at that time. In addition to these effects, props were used as well for more basic special effects, such as the Sentinels and the ship, Nebuchadnezzar. One of the movies most memorable uses of computer generation was the “bullet time” sequence, shown above. They used 3D modeling and extremely complicated visual software to produce this effect. It not only provided a memorable scene for the movie, but somewhat set the standard for what effects could be used for in the future. I thought that The Matrix was most effective in its use of special effects, of the three movies.

Avatar was made in 2009, and James Cameron’s use of special effects is this movie has become somewhat legendary in the industry. The movie’s $237 million dollar budget was allotted mostly to its use of special effects, and the movie has set the standard for CGI in modern cinema. Because it is almost entirely a CGI movie, everything about it was a special effect. In the picture of the landscape scenery I posted above, it shows just how much detail was put into each part of the movie. In my opinion, it was the least successful in its use however. It was excessively CGI oriented, and seemed too cartoonish for me. It wasn’t realistic at all, and I thought it went way overboard in its use of special effects. Ironically, the movie with the most modern effects turned out to be my least favorite of the three.

Similarities:

While the three films definitely had distinct differences, there were some interesting similarities I found as well. One of the most prominent of these similarities was the use of a distinct color palate for each film. What I mean by this is that each had their own color scheme, and used special effects to accomplish this. In Alien, the entire movie was really dark, with a lot of green highlights, as you can see in the movie poster. In The Matrix, you can see the emphasis on green as well when neo is in “the matrix”, and when he is not the colors are a normal tint. In Avatar, when Jake is in avatar form, the colors of the planet are all intense electric blues, greens and other bright colors. When he is a normal human, the dull shades of brown and grey and more prominent. In each of these films the tinting of color was used to highlight the change of scenery, or a change of worlds. The three movies accomplished this through the use of special effects.

The most interesting thing I noticed in my study was that the quality of the effects did not determine the quality of the movie. Alien used props, The Matrix used Props and CGI, and Avatar used entirely CGI. Even though Avatar had the most expensive and technologically advanced effects, I liked it the least because it looked too fake and cartoonish. Conversely, Alien’s use of props worked well for what it was used for, however at times the props seemed too fake and brought me out of the experience. I thought that The Matrix executed its use of special effects the best, the mixture of props as well as CGI ended up being my most enjoyable movie experience. I think this could relate to our study of movies transition from film to digital, in that the most modern technology is not always the best.