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AI in the Movies: Why Robots will never be replaced with CGI
We’ve all been wondering what would become of the modern day robots, we see the theories in movies all the time.
With robots that can walk, dance, play tennis, and vacuum the floor, we’re not far off from the world in which Hollywood portrays everyday.
And it seems every day, the movies create monsters, beings, and robots with the help of real life robots.
Personally as a filmmaker, I prefer a physical creature in front of the camera in real time, than perhaps pulling a James Cameron, and digitally enhancing everything.
Avatar was a film that marked the death of anamatronics. In which mechanical puppets were used to create living beings on the screen before us.
With films like Alien, The Thing, Jurassic Park, King Kong, Iron Man, Terminator, Gremlins, it seems that some of the better movies have always had a magical physical presence to a CGI being.
John Carpenters ‘Thing’ and even the new film both used the technique of physical machines to create the horrifying monsters in the film. The new film even goes as far to create a hybrid technique of CGI and physical puppetry to create the monsters.
Scientists have even found ways to create machines that express emotion, which have been used in films frequently throughout the years. Now, with mo-cap rooms, the little white dots on the faces of actors can easily be tracked and placed onto a new animated body.
Many filmmakers and actors that often express their love for a physical object to react to, makes me question the value that CGI has.
I think we must look back to the time before CGI and what made the films with puppets and animatronics so fluid and real.
And with the technology of creating robots that can work and react independently on their own, who knows what could become of the next revolution in special effects wizardry.
The Thing (2011 & 1982) – Fan Review
Kurt examines one of the Norwegian residents of the ruined camp
Haunted by the screen captures in library books about these monsters that looked like demented people. I never did see the original 1982 ‘Thing’ until I heard of this 2011 pseudo remake-prequel. The Angry Video Game Nerd gave me a summed up preview of what I would expect from the film. Then, about a week before the new one, I watched the original Carpenter B-movie classic. Since I really wanted to see the new one and have a better idea of whats going on.
The Thing (1982)
Just like any John Carpenter movie, it opens with some eerie synth music that Carpenter is most famous for. However, unlike Halloween, its a simple bass note, followed by some simple dark riffs of what seems to be violins. I began this movie, knowing what to expect, but not when to expect it. As it opens with two helicopter passengers frantically trying to kill a fleeing husky, my heart already races. Seemingly, and conveniently the two passengers are misunderstood and so frantic to kill the dog, one blows himself up and the other harms others whilst trying to kill the dog.
Naturally, like any good American, they took the dog in.
The rest of the movie builds up to the dog turning into a bleeding mess of tentacles, insect limbs, and fangs. The crew manages to stop the monster just in time to see that at least three other innocent sled dogs were infected. And thus burned.
It doesn’t take a scientist like Blair to show me that it was trying to eat them. But it soon causes paranoia between everyone, and pretty soon Kurt Russell and the gang all start pointing fingers. One after another, someone they didn’t expect turns into another bleeding mess of tentacles and teeth. To the point where it tries to turn the crew against Kurt Russell. And you don’t mess with Kurt Russell.
Kurt manages to pin the rest of the idiots down with a threat of blowing the whole place up and they give up trying to prove he’s infected. Instead, Kurt manages to come up with a brilliant scheme to figure out who is human.
[Warning, brief nerdy fanboy explanation coming up]
The Thing has the power to assimilate anyone it wants, absorbing memories and personality too. Making it nearly impossible to tell on the outside if one is indeed not human. Kurt Russell realized that if you cut off one piece of a person, its just flesh, and can’t move on its own. Since the Thing doesn’t like heat, and can be cut into millions of pieces and all of those pieces can independently live it will react to the heat if applied to infected blood.
So, his theory works and before you know it, two people end up infected in the process. And the alien has enough, and shuts down power in the middle of the storm.
So Kurt and the last few men he has left decide to get Blair, who turns out to have been the Thing too, and was building a means to fly off Antarctica. Which if it does, according to Blairs computer earlier in the film, will destroy all life within less than a year.
So Kurt and co go after Blair, only for the rest of the men to just die like idiots. And Kurt to kill the Blair monster with one of the best out-of-context lines in B-movie history “Yeah, fuck you too!”.
The film ends dramatically with Kurt and one other man still alive. The two just sit it out, and wait for the fires around them to die. In hopes that the Thing is finally dead.
Easily, this beats out the ‘Alien’ series, and Carpenter skillfully takes you on a tension filled tour of dread and gore. The special effects are amazingly disgusting and convincing for an 80′s flick, all done in such a creative way. As if Hollywood can’t think of enough different ways to kill people off. Easily, one of Carpenter’s best, and Kurt Russell’s, and full of other actors you might know by looking at them or hearing their voice. But I suppose nobody cares enough. A recommended film for those of us who want to be creeped out, grossed out, or permanently paranoid in the event of scientists discovering an alien on our planet.
I personally, give it 5 out of 5
Tensions rise with the crew on the Norwegian cam
The Thing (2011)
Going into this film, having no idea what to expect, only made the scares and special effects all the more terrifying.
In the 1982 film, two Norwegian men frantically chase a husky into the arms of a confused Kurt Russell. Only for one to blow himself, and the helicopter up, and the other get shot in the face over a misunderstanding after accidentally shooting one of the Americans.
This has been described as ‘thier story’
Significantly more eerie and dreadful, and full of some of the best reference to the source material. Clearly this film was directed by a real fan.
The film opens with a trio of Norwegian’s who manage to stumble across a spaceship buried in the ice. So, naturally, they find the best American to help them find it. This person is Ramona Flowers from Scott Pilgrim.
Arriving there she meets the ever so charming American helicopter pilot, who looks a lot like Kurt Russell. Its not long before they dig up the monster, take some samples of its flesh, and leave it to thaw out and escape. Once it does, its presence is known as the newly defined screech of it still rings in my head as I write this.
They manage to find it, and it attempts to eat one of the workers there. And naturally, after this man is killed, the scientists still push to keep it around and not get help. They do a more in depth autopsy and show off a new look on how it assimilates people. And even throw in a new factor to the lore, the creature can’t assimilate in-organic material, like implants and fillings. So it spits them out and regrows new parts. A nice new twist.
Immediately, Kate (aka Ramona) figures out that its still alive and could be anyone, and the whole thing starts over from the original film. People get scared and point fingers.
Soon, its not long before the transforming human carcasses come around, and they easily out-scare the old 1982 transformations.
Kate then decides to round everyone up and check for fillings, in which one of the characters states “So, just because I floss, I’m a suspect?”.
A little bit less thought out than Kurt had, but almost as effective. Yet it doesn’t take long for the body count to go dramatically up around the end of the film. Filling in the pieces that were left in the 1982 film. Ending with a showdown inside the spaceship, and Kate being the last survivor. Reminiscent of the ‘Alien’ series, which the director seems to be a fan of.
The films credits have a small scene with a helicopter arriving to the camp and seeing the mess that creature made, and the only Norwegian who can’t speak english survived and has a gun. He comes out of hiding, and demands to see his teeth. Only to see a dog frantically running away, so he gets the new guy to fly after it. And it ends right where the original begins.
I really love it when directors are huge fans of the source material, and stay true to it while making a much better film. ‘The Thing (2011)’ is a good watch for the Halloween season, and easily one of the better horror films made today. Yet, my hopes for any cameos we shattered, and the title makes things a bit confusing for people. Somehow, I think it would have made things a bit better if they waited a little longer to think up a better title.
Still, I give it a 4 out of 5. Just because it will never be as good as the original.
