Posted on 02/13/2018 10:49:14 AM PST by Rummyfan
There might have been a moment of late when you sat in a movie theater struggling to remain awake as some entirely convincing space battle between two starships a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away took place in front of you. (It was so convincing, in fact, that you forgot it wasn’t real, which didn’t make it any more interesting.) Then you realized that you had just seen a few other entirely convincing and equally boring space battles happen in some movie about superheroes a month earlier, and would likely find yourself watching another in a month or two. If I am describing your reality – and if you have kids who like the movies or are a habitual moviegoer yourself, this is your reality, my friends – you have every right to stop and ask yourself this question:
What hath the Stained-Glass Man wrought?
There’s a scene set in an otherwise forgettable 1985 film called Young Sherlock Holmes during which a figure pops out of a stained-glass window and walks down a church aisle brandishing a sword. It lasts all of 30 seconds. As it turned out, they were the most revolutionary 30 seconds of cinema since Al Jolson spoke the words “you ain’t heard nothin’ yet” in The Jazz Singer back in 1927, and ushered in the age of the talking picture.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanconsequences.com ...
My children and myself enjoyed “Young Sherlock Holmes” very much and it was how I introduced them to the world of 221B Baker Street. All three have been fans ever since.
Interesting article.
I still don’t get why 1982’s Tron doesn’t get the distinction of first CGI in a movie.
Worst movie reviewer in the world. Also, one of the worst political writers.
Interesting how so many space battles are in two dimensions. ST 2 was an exception.
I watched John Wick Chapter 2 on demand last night, and the movie was one long non-stop CGI-enhanced fight scene.
Interesting how so many space battles are in two dimensions. ST 2 was an exception.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbTUTNenvCY
I wondered if it was the same person and it seems to be.
He is the worst. The advent of Trump has seen him reduced to a teenager posting bitchy tweets. He tweets in real time during Trump’s speeches, which leads to the obvious question: how can he listen to the speech intelligently if he’s tapping away on his phone?
Not just “first CGI”, but first _pervasive_ CGI.
Stained-glass man lasted just 30 seconds.
Tron’s in-world sequence was over an hour.
Exactly!
Not to mention Lightcycles.
Recognizers.
The Solar Sailer.
Syd Mead.
Frisbees that work like lightsabers.
He’s a total product of nepotism.
GCI another acronym gets posted without getting decoded.
CGI stands for computer graphics imaging, doesn’t it?
I’m in a minority, but I think some of the computer graphic special effects look so fake, so obvious, that they themselves detract from a story.
Give me a Harryhausen movie over cgi any day.
Star Wars had some CGI in it with the Death Star plans. The author makes the distinction of the stained-glass man being first CGI person. Tron was definitely first large scale CGI involved movie.
I’d rather watch any of the Marvel movies than most of the dreck he put in his article.
Don’t forget about 1971’s The Andromeda Strain (The computer layout visuals for the Wildfire complex) and 1973’s Westworld.
Kirk doesn't quite escape 2D thinking himself. Note that the Enterprise and Reliant are always oriented with the same side "up." (Apparently Spock's idea of 3D thinking is to hide underneath the enemy. I wonder if Khan was familiar with submarines...)
Ironically, the first 3-dimensional space-battle tactics I recall seeing are in Star Trek: in the finale episode of TNG, the future Enterprise takes on two Klingon cruisers by attacking them from underneath.
Even with the advent of CGI, space battles tend to orient themselves in the same direction (e.g. Babylon 5, although by the time the re-imagined Battlestar Galactica came along, they were getting better at thinking in three dimensions.
Because the Genesis sequence in Star Trek II beat it to theatres by a month. :)
If not the first CGI sequence used in a movie, the Stained Glass Knight at least has the distinction of being the first CGI character.
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