Forecasting the Oscars ® since 2003

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VISUAL FX: A GOOD EXCUSE FOR A BAD FILM?

The vastly inferior Spider-Man 3 is the frontrunner in the F/X category right now

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By Kelly Doucette

The use of visual effects is probably the only reason why non-film buffs go to the movies these days. Visual Effects are stunning, mind bogging, and darn right entertaining to watch, but are they the entire backbone to the film. While films such as FORREST GUMP, BABE, TITANIC, GLADIATOR, and THE LORD OF THE RINGS have all gone on to be nominated for Best Picture, others like PEARL HARBOR, STAR WARS EPISODES 1 & 2, and FANTASTIC FOUR have fallen flat. Good visual effects can often be an excuse for a bad film; as long as it looks cool, audiences will forgive a weak storyline, of which they could care less about. When tastefully used, visual effects can often quite surreal and marvelous, but sometimes producers can cram in so much effects into the screenplays that the film revolves around the effects, often cramming in multiple storylines to no lasting effect (just see SPIDER-MAN 3).

When the Oscars were first invented, the visual effects category was labeled as Best Engineering Effects and the first film to win that award was 1927’s WINGS, a silent war drama featuring Clara Bow and a young Gary Cooper; that film also went on to win its sole other nomination, as Best Picture of the “Year”. The following year, that category was left off the list of categories, perhaps because engineering effects weren’t used as often as they are today. Instead, that category was instead transformed into the scientific and engineering award given to persons who contribute to the furthered development of film technology in the motion picture industry.

The visual effects category, as we know it came in to fruition in 1964, when the competing films were the Alfred Hitchcock thriller THE BIRDS, starring Tippi Heddren, Rod Taylor, Suzanne Pleshette, and Jessica Tandy, and the Joseph Mankiewicz historical epic CLEOPATRA, starring Rex Harrison, Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, and Roddy McDowell, competed for the award, only for the latter’s Emil Kosa Jr. to win his first and only Oscar. That effects artist, Mr. Kosa Jr., went on to work on such films as DOCTOR DOLITTLE and PLANET OF THE APES, and while the former won an effects Oscar, Kosa’s colleague L.B. Abbott, who would later win for TORA! TORA! TORA! (1970), THE POSEIDON ADVENTURE (1972), and LOGAN’S RUN (1976), was given the honor.

The Academy loves to nominate superhero films (SUPERMAN, THE MASK, SPIDER MAN, BATMAN RETURNS, SUPERMAN RETURNS), films starring animals (THE BIRDS, DOCTOR DOLITTLE, WHO FRAMED ROGER RABBIT?, BABE, STUART LITTLE…), films that involve outer space (STAR WARS, 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY, CLOSE ENCOUNTERS, ALIEN, WAR OF THE WORLDS…), ghost stories (POLTERGEIST 1 & 2, GHOSTBUSTERS, DEATH BECOMES HER, THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS, WHAT DREAMS MAY COME…), and war films (TORA TORA TORA, PEARL HARBOR, PATTON, WINGS…). The foremost best visual effects artists include Dennis Murren (JURASSIC PARK), Stan Winston (TERMINATOR), John Dykstra (STAR WARS), John Frazier (SPIDER MAN), L.B. Abbott (LOGAN’S RUN), Ken Ralston (Charles Gibson (PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN), son of comedian Henry Gibson, and Richard Edlund (DIE HARD). They work with computer generations and pyrotechnics and hope for the best and usually it pays off. In the end, we are left with great special effects but the movie can go one of two ways: quite good or quite bad, it is really that simple.

So, without further adieu, I give you the films competing for this year’s Oscars:

300 – effects by: Chris Watts, Thierry Delattre, Ray McIntyre Jr

SPIDER-MAN 3 – effects by: Richard Kidd, Ian Hunter, Scott Stokdyk, John Frazier

FANTASTIC 4: RISE OF SILVER SURFER – effects by: C. Strause, M. Venzina, Eric Saindon, Scott Squires

POTC: AT WORLD’S END – effects by: John Knoll, Charles Gibson, Allen Hall, John Frazier

TRANSFORMERS – Richard Kidd, James D. Schwalm, Scott Farrar, John Frazier

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA – Jason Durey, Bill Kent, Matt Aitken, George Port

HARRY POTTER 5 – effects by: Chris Shaw, Craig Lyn, Tim Alexander, Tim Burke, John Richardson

MR. MAGORIUM’S WONDER EMPORIUM – effects by: Lev Kobolov, Rob Sanderson, Ray Gieringer

Can anyone think of more?

I think those nominated will be… HARRY POTTER 5, TRANSFORMERS, SPIDER-MAN 3, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN 3, with the winner being HARRY POTTER 5

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