$200mil Opening For "The Avengers"

I am in the middle of writing an article about the state of the movie industry. In a section discussing the growing disconnect between the all-time best performing movies and the best opening weekend movies, I made the prediction that with the trajectory as it is, we would see a $200 million opening within the next five years.

Well, I was so incredibly conservative in that estimate that it is now funny. The Avengers just took in $200 million on its opening weekend, essentially guaranteeing it a $1 billion worldwide take. Truly epic. And even if we assume that this movie bucks general trends and only earns 1/3 of its take on opening weekend, that still wouldn't put it in the top-25 all time movies. I see that as a problem.

48fps Will NEVER Look Good

Peter Jackson's The Hobbit is coming for a holiday release, and early previews of the semi-completed film are garnering quite a bit of WTF.

The complaints are coming because of the 48fps process as opposed to the 24fps that is usually used for films.

This is apparently being done because the film is being produced in full 3D straight from the camera, which as far as I know, only a few movies thus far have been done this way. They claim that 3D with 24fps causes issues for many people.

I think that this just goes to show that 3D is total crap, but I digress. There is a good reason why 24fps was chosen for cinema and why it looks more "real" than higher fps film: it blurs like human vision.

Most film is recorded at 24fps with a 1/48th second exposure of each frame, and then 1/48th second of black shutter. Sometimes, they will shoot with faster exposures, creating a hard, defined, and edgy look. You'll see this sort of effect in scenes intended to give a starkly dramatic look, like the beach landing scene at the beginning of Saving Private Ryan.

Human vision blurs the world as it moves around us. 24fps, or more precisely a 1/48th second exposure, does a very good job of capturing that blur on film. Without it, things appear hard and lifeless, because life exists between the frames, not on them.

A Surprisingly Good Poster

Apparently, the movie is awful, but the poster is fantastically inspired. Again, very much in the vein of Saul Bass posters, and it works very well.

All of the elements explain something about the film. You can tell just from the poster that whoever the guy in the hat is the bad guy, his entire presence on the poster being off-putting and creepy. He is apparently a doctor, making his odd silhouette all the weirder. Finally, the woman indicates some female in the movie will be the target of the bad guy, or perhaps be the one who stands against him.

What's important is that the poster says something. And for that, the creators of the film should be commended.

Final Brave Trailer

The third and likely final trailer for Pixar's Brave has been released, and while not as disappointing as the first, it's still among Pixar's worst trailers. Honestly, what were they thinking with this thing?


In one sense, this gives me hope. That they had such a hard time making a happy, h'yuk kind of trailer (which is the kind of trailer for which all of these idiotic studios seem to shoot) leads me to believe that the movie has very few h'yuk kind of moments. It reminds me of Wall-e, where its trailers featured almost nothing from the second half of the film. It was two solid minutes of Wall-e being cute on Earth.

It also gives me hope that we will see something different. Because, man, after Rango, I'm not sure that good ol' cartoon formula will ever sate me again.

A Great Reel Of 80's CGI

It's sometimes impressive to see, one, how far we've come in the past few decades regarding computer animation. But conversely, it's also impressive to see how far along development was back in the 80's. This was a full decade before Toy Story. came out.

Bill Plympton Animates The Simpsons Intro

The Simpsons, created by animation and comic fan Matt Groening, has brought on another underground animation great to do the intro. I only became aware of Bill Plympton a few years ago when I picked up The Animation Show Seasons 1 & 2 on sale. You might not recognize the name, but you will recognize the style instantly. There is a playful, haphazard, almost dark quality to it that positively courses with energy. A work of his has appeared in all four seasons of the Animation Show, which should give you an idea of how respected he is. In fact, in his last full production, Hair High, two of the characters were voiced by Matt Groening and Don Hertzfeldt.

Favorite Movie Poster

When talking about movie posters, one can't avoid talking about Quentin Tarantino. Truly, it's hard to pick out just one of his movies for an example of a great poster. Kill Bill was bright and bold. Reservoir Dogs has become an icon on the walls of frat rooms the world over. I've always loved Pulp Fiction, though. It is an interpretation that seems obvious, but considering the number of obvious movie posters that get ignored every year in modern Hollywood, perhaps obviousness is not something that is very... obvious.

Every element of the film is represented in the poster. The nostalgia, the sex, the violence, even the attitude of the film is represented in Uma Thurman's face. Very few movie posters are this perfect.