Pirates of the Caribbean 2 was an over rated film by many people who went into the theater pre-determined to love it. Now don’t get me wrong… I actually enjoyed the movie, enough to see it twice as a matter of fact… but in all reality it wasn’t all THAT good. Fun? Yes. Entertaining? Yes. But so are many films, and to me, the first Pirates film by FAR out classed the second.
Having said all that, the category for best visual effects at the Oscars this year should be an absolute no brainer. John Knoll (That’s him in the picture with me) and his team at Industrial Light + Magic pulled off one of the most remarkable jobs in VFX history with Pirates 2.
And yes… I’ll say it. I’ll say the one thing a lot of people will shit on me for… but I stand by this. Davy Jones FAR surpassed Gollum as a CGI character. Now I know what many of you are saying “But John, Davy Jones wan’t a CGI character”. While it’s true that the CGI in Pirates was BUILT ON TOP of the actor instead of REPLACING the actor as they did with Gollum, the former is actually more difficult to pull off, and the end results were mind blowing! (see the images below).
I really don’t see how much can stand in the way of a VFX Oscar will for Pirates 2. Superman Returns was a great flick… but it’s effects don’t compare. X-3 had some solid VFX, but not in the same league.
However, there are 2 films yet to come out that MIGHT pose a threat depending on how they turn out. Charlotte’s Web and Eragon have potential… but I just don’t see how anything is going to stop John Knoll from grabbing the gold on Oscar night.
DAVY JONES (Actor Bill Nighy) BEFORE THE VFX:
AND AFTER THE VFX:
Case closed.
God site. Thanks!
The visual effects in Pirates in the Caribean 2 is the best I`ve ever seen. Even better than King Kong and Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Whit these caracters you could allways tell that they were cg, but Davy Jones truly looked like a real caracter.
If these effects is not awarded at the academy award, I do not understand nothing.
Thumbs up fir the best visual effects house ILM!
The visual effects in Pirates in the Caribean 2 is the best I`ve ever seen. Even better than King Kong and Gollum from Lord of the Rings. Whit these caracters you could allways tell that they were cg, but Davy Jones truly looked like a real caracter.
If these effects is not awarded at the academy award, I do not understand nothing.
Thumbs up fir the best visual effects house ILM!
Like I said, Gollum was by leaps and bounds the better character and The Two Towers and Retun of the King were by far the better movies, but Davy Jones was the superior example of CGI effects.
Yeah Davy Jones was a more convincing CG Character than Gollum was in my own opinion. I also thought that X-Men 3 had some real good effects also I mean they did make Patrick Stewart and Ian Mckellen look incredibly young that was something incredible to see I think.
pirates 2 HANDS-DOWN. davy jones was the most convincing CG character ever… so much so that many people, including people in the effects industry, did not realize that davy was 100% CG.
Davy Jones was better CG, but Gollum had more to do. He didn’t have to stand in Depp’s shadow in a shitty movie that I hope to never see again.
And the FX department has some big balls to show Davy in broad daylight. Most shitty effects(the Hulk dogs fight, Godzilla In Name Only)are hidden by night and rain.
what I mean by that is I just wasn’t blown away by him….
i loved his shipmates though….
well i guess i just found davey jones to be completely boring to look at then…..
Hey Shane,
Just so you know, Davy Jones’ clothes were CGI too.
Look at the pictures.
Not trying tio be an ass. Just not sure if you realized that.
Gollum was the better character. Davy Jones had better F/X work.
Sorry Alfie, but I gotta side with John on this one. (as much as it pains me to do so)
As fantastic as he was as a character, I never believed Gollum was anything other that a special effect. He always seemed like he was a layer on top of the film, never actually feeling like he was a part of the environment despite the excellent work put into it to make it seem like he was. I really dont know the appropriate words to described the feeling, maybe the texture, maybe the way his “skin” reacted to the light, I dont know.
Davy, on the other hand, never once seemed like he wasnt there in the shot. The clothes, the skin texture, everything. Davy’s “skin” had an opaqueness (is that a word?) to it that made it seem realer than any skin reproduction I have ever seen.
Much better than Gollum’s CGI. But that’s to be expected seeing that it’s four years later. (like john said)
The amount of surface area heavily varied. Gollum 100% whole body, Jones mainly the head. Both have captured skin transluency just perfectly though. Both effects are very impressive.
Well nothing is going to convince me otherwise campea….and I guess the same goes for you…what are the odds of us disagreeing!!!
.I see gollum and it still amazes me..I see davey jones and i see a good effect but it does not amaze me in the same way gollum did….
ZOMG..Jar Jar 4 president…he was 1337z0r..zomgwtfbbq
Anyway, enough of that. Im hard pressed to say one was better than the other. Two VERY different roles, with two VERY different characters…although with the Gollum character there was a large amount of varying (and rapidly in some instances) emotions shown not just through cgi facial expressions, but through body movement and vocals.
I’d say given the range that was required for Gollum, that Andy did a better job at portraying a cgi character overall from an acting (to the point of mime with such heavy and emotional body movements) than Bill.
Hey Alfie,
Goollum doesn’t come anywhere near the quality or detail or perfection or texture mapping that Davy Jones does (Although I like Lord of the Rings and the Gollum Character 10x more)
I’m not going to get into all the technical jargon, but the best way to explain the differences in approach to how they did Jones and Gollum are summed up with the two options for Jar Jar that Lucas was considering.
One way, (which is the way they went with it) was too have the actor sensored up and do motion caputre, AND have him on set interacting with the actors and then 100% digitally replaced with the CGI character. This is what they did with Jar Jar and with Gollum.
The second, which they did with Jones, was to keep the actual actor, while building CG around him and keeping parts of the actor as real. Them almost went this route with Jar Jar, but decided against it at the last minute.
When you se Gollum, you aren’t seeing any actuall pieces of Andy, when you see Jones, it’sa bit of a different story.
Gollum doesn’t come close to Jones visually. not even in the same ball park. The detail, textures, compositing and lighting on Jones all far surpass Gollum.
But that’s to be expected, after all, Jones was done 3-4 years after Gollum.
davey jones did not far surpass gollum.
What did the davey jones character actually do other than stand around and talk?? look at what the gollum character did…in terms of his interaction with the environments and other characters. to me a lot fo how i judge it is on the ambition of the effect and davey jones was a boring character who did nothing…..
but don’t get wrong…as an effect davey jones is definitely up there as it is one of the best effects I have ever seen but it does not in any way “far surpass” gollum…
oh and a lot of gollums stuff was done the exact same way as davey jones especially with andy serkis face so I don’t know what you mean by “the former is harder to do” when they both used the exact same techniques a lot of the time….
Thanks for telling me what I should and should not find overrated
You are my hero :-)
John Knoll did a killer job on this one. My question? Who’s that chick in the picture with him?
Yeah, well Episode II was a no brainer too. But GL wasn’t even nominated. Academymembers have no idea what they’re doing when it comes to F/X.
They also have claimed that they don’t always choose the BEST effects,but the ones that bring the most impact to the movie as a whole. Which is bullshit and why Matrix beat out episode I for effects. Not because they were better, but because they were groundbreaking and made The Matrix a better film overall.
Still, I agree, “POTC 2” SHOULD take the honor this year.
~Drewbacca
MoviePatron.com
PS – You’re not freezing your ass off in line for a PS3?