WALL-E

Great, top-notch animation does not a good film make. It helps certainly, but Pixar's WALL-E suffers from lazy writing, perhaps lazier than the consumer-driven, obese space travelers (read Americans) the film pokes uninspired fun at. Also, the inclusion of a live action Fred Willard doing a thinly veiled George W. Bush seems a desperate production move to finish the film in time for a summer release - Mr. Willard probably shot all of his scenes in one day as opposed to the weeks (if not months) it would take to animate such a sequence. And the integration was jarring - it reminded me of a reverse version of the "Kidd Video" opening from Saturday mornings of the 1980s. As much as I dislike (and that's way too kind a word) #43, it came off heavy-handed and easy. Plus, Pixar had the opportunity to take shots at "W" in 3, if not 4, films before WALL-E, but I guess it wasn't safe then. Nothing worse than a late wink-wink.

The Dark Knight

I hope The Dude will abide if time constraints have forced me "into the whole brevity thing." Here's a short review: The Dark Knight is must-see. The most important part of a film is its ending. It's why films like The Graduate, Lost In Translation, and yes, even Star Trek: The Wrath of Khan, stay with us long after the last frame reflects off the screen. The last 45 seconds of The Dark Knight are perfect and elevate what would otherwise be a good film to a great film. I'll be seeing it again!

Bored yet?

Haven't had a lot of time, so apologies to anyone who looks at this blog and is tired of small tweaks to these stars and planets, but alas, here's yet another. :) Oh, ignore the stars that appear in front of Earth - again, the problem is that Maya applies the glow effect after the render. To fix this, I'll just have to render it in passes and composite in After Effects - like a good professional should anyway. The thing to pay attention to here is the alteration to the camera move during the planet flyby. Still needs adjustment, but this is definitely more dynamic. Sadly, I just saw a clip from "Space Chimps" featuring a similar sequence, but hey, Star Trek really did it first anyway.