TIGAER-DESIGN.COM_.v5

Comic fans around the world, for a long time thought, that a movie like this one would be impossible. And their concern is quite understandable. Marvel, for the past 5 or 6 years, slowly built up momentum for this movie. They did it with small little scenes in all the superhero movies. Most famous one probably the one after the credits in the first Iron Man movie. Where we get to see a Nick Fury character for the first time. Since then we had similar scenes in Hulk 2, Thor and Captain America.

Especially in Thor and Captain America we finally really knew where it all is heading. The Avengers movie. All of the movies were quite successful and managed it to appeal to a wide audience. Some more… some less. But altogether, quite a lot. So the inevitable, almost impossible had to happen! All of these heroes in oooone big show! I, honestly, had no big hopes. And I didn’t care too much too. I’m not a big comics guy. Even though I enjoy the movies they made. ‘Doubt’ was written all over that Avengers movie.

The name ‘Joss Whedon’ spawned hope though. Some say he’s one of the most overrated guys ever. Others think he is a god amongst men. He’s the guy that brought us Buffy – The Vampire Slayer, Angel and one beautiful season of Firefly. Somehow he knows how to create characters that work great together. His way of writing is able to create a very good chemistry between characters. The one point that spoke against Whedon was the fact that he never directed a really really big movie. Until now. Everyone had a good right to be sceptical. So ultimately Joss Whedon was a perfect and very risky choice.

And well, what’s to say? Joss Whedon literally must be a god amongst men. He managed to get that impossible project right. And he did it all, ALL, right. The Avengers is certainly the best comic movie out there. Right next to The Dark Knight. One thing The Avengers do different though, is the humour. That’s the one component that really makes The Avengers shine. These well dosed moments of refreshing humour. Sometimes very unexpected humour. Perfectly timed. Mixed with action that was quite amazing too. Well… all around great experience.

The actual story of the movie requires a little backstory from the Captain America and Thor movies. But it’s not entirely crucial to know these things. All characters get introduced properly. So that even newbies understand who is who. Ultimately it’s about a bad guy, Thors half-brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston), who wants to conquer Earth. But he needs a mystical energy source that was discovered in the Captain America movie. Nick Fury (Samuel L. Jackson) and his buddies from the ‘Shield’ initiative try to fight that. But they alone surely aren’t enough. That’s why they try to recruit guys like Tony Stark/Iron Man (Robert Downey Jr.), Captain America (Chris Evans) and Bruce Banner/Hulk (Mark Ruffalo). Of course all these characters start out with problems. Especially when Thor (Chris Hemsworth) joins. That’s nice to watch because it also reveals all the little character moments. All of them have their strenghts and weaknesses. And the movie does it right to bring it all into the spotlight. It also gets it right, letting all the characters shine when they work together. Of course they understand, they have to work together, to beat the bad guys.

Loki’s motivation is of course revenge on Thor (for happenings in the Thor movie). Loki wants to attack Earth because Thor gave an oath to protect the planet on all costs. So the best way to hurt Thor would be to attack the beloved thing he tries to protect. So Loki formes an alliance with some evil alien race (that is not further introduced in the movie… possible hint to a second Avengers movie), to lead their army through a gate to Earth. And Loki manages it to open that gate. It’s nice to watch how Loki is following/unfolding his plan. And I admit… I like Loki. It’s a great character and Tom Hiddleston surely gets it perfectly right. Now all the superheroes forged an alliance to cross Loki’s plan.

The movie does a remarkable job, giving all these strong characters all the demanded screen time, all of them really deserve. And because of the fact all the characters are so distinctively different, it’s very easy to set them apart from another. Each one of them has a certain skill and look. Easy to recognize. Which leads to the action sequences. These are done so flawlessly fluid that all the Transformers movies could take a lesson from that. No shaky cam, no lightspeed cutting. All scenes are well choreographed and easy to read. A pleasure. Which leads me to the 3d. The 3d in the movie was really good. A seldom case where I enjoyed the effect. Even though I must admit, that it only works when you look at the screen areas the movie demands you to look at. So it’s hard to study elements of the pictures, other than the intended focussed spots. Nonetheless… the 3d worked fine. They used the right cameras to film it.

The VFX, once again, pretty much flawless. It’s always amazing to see how well they can integrate the live action footage into the cg. Only the Hulk still looks a little too CG. Nonethelss, fun to watch. Again it’s amazing how seamlessly they are now able to blend it all together. Especially in the final big fight in the city.

Pretty much everyone expected a catastrophe of a movie. I had no big expectations too. But they made it right. They did the impossible. Joss Whedon certainly plays a big role in that. But it’s surely not him alone. I guess everything fell into the right hands and places.

Oh and I still like the Pepper Potts (Gwyneth Paltrow) character a lot. This short scene of her with Tony Stark is so fun to watch. Great chemistry between the two. But also in general… the chemistry between all the actors in this movie works so great. Another remarkable achievement that lead to an almost perfect movie.

So yeah… great movie… perfect entertainment. Go check it out! The first big one 2012.

8.5/10

Marvel’s The Avengers on IMDb

The whole time, while watching this movie, I had this question in my mind. Why does this movie function so much better than the first FOUR! movies? It’s actually pretty astonishing. None of the previous films managed to get it as right as X-Men First Class did. X-Men (2000) gets close though. By getting it ‘right’ I mean my personal feeling of watching a good, entertaining movie.

‘First Class’ shows us how all the X-Men thing (according to the story) started in the 1960s. While Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is still studying to become professor, Erik Lehnsherr (Michael Fassbender) is seeking revenge for the happenings in a concentration camp during World War 2. Especially on a person that didn’t really do good things to him, when he was in the camp. It later turns out, that the person Erik is looking for, is a Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon). Who is a mutant as well and planning to overthrow human society, to make place for mutants… to rule the world!

We see Eriks efforts to find Shaw and he eventually meets up with Charles. Charles, in the mean time, got hired by the CIA to find more mutants. Their plans are to create a special mutant department, to make use of their special abilities. And that’s how Charles and Erik find each other. They find out what Shaw is planning and, of course, try to cross his plans.

We pretty early see that Charles and Erik follow different directions and motivations. McAvoy and Fassbender deliver great performances with their characters. Maybe it’s these two actors who make the first three X-Men movies a little more plausible now. I never really got into the Magneto motivation until now. Yeah, I know what he’s trying to do. But without all the backstory we now got with ‘First Class’, all previous movies felt empty in certain areas. At least to me. On the other hand all previous four movies were pretty much ‘Wolverine’ movies, if you ask me. So maybe it’s because of the fact that in ‘First Class’ we see a much broader picture… why this movie works so much better than the rest?

Since the story of the movie is set in the 1960s, it’s of course important to get the mood and tone right. And they did it fine. Even if the X-Men were always super fancy hi-tec people… we now see that they started out from scratch too. There are also some musical choices, in certain scenes that deliver some nice vibes, from the 1960s times. Especially in that one scene where these newly recruited mutant kids party around a little. I liked the scene where the kids showed off their powers. That was fun to watch. And then there was this one short scene, where Charles and Erik come into a bar, and it’s Wolverine sitting there, telling them to fu** off, before they even said a word. That was a nice laugh, I admit it!

Sebastian Shaw’s plan takes shape and he gets everything set into position. And that includes russians placing nuclear warheads on Cuba. What leads the whole X-Men story to a fascinating history twist. So Charles, Erik and the gang are eventually out to stop Shaw and the ‘missle crisis’ that’s about to happen.

What I missed a little is more information about Sebastian Shaw. Maybe I was deaf and really missed it. But… who is this guy? So he worked for the germans. Is he a german? Did they hire him to, I don’t know, follow their idiotic plans to create a super race? Shaw mentioned something about his power to absorb energy and we see it in action numerous times. Does this power keep him young as well? How old is he? It seems like he’s just ‘there’ to be a bad guy. Kevin Bacon’s performance was cool though. Would be nice in general to see some more work from him again. Then there is January Jones as Emma Frost. I just saw her in Unknown Identity and found her way of acting pretty cold. And I had the same impression here. As if she didn’t care much about her character. At least she gives some nice views for the men, when she’s in the picture.

The visual effects left a mixed impression. There are nicely executed scenes. When Shaw is entering that CIA building to get the mutant kids for example. He blows up quite some stuff there. Then there is the scene where Magneto is guiding missles back to their ships. Now when the missles exploded, it looked great. But the missles themselfes looked far far far too clean. That stole a lot of credibility. And that mixed impression went throughout the whole movie.

It’s a good film with some nice acting and action. It manages to leave an impression… and both McAvoy and Fassbender play a big role in that. Their motivations and actions are understandable, and we now know where it’s really coming from. Especially with Magneto who, in the end, becomes very much that what he tried to kill in Sebastian Shaw. A guy with a narrow vision, only looking out for his own kind. That was missing in the other films from my point of view. So this movie gives a little more meaning to all the other X-Men films.

Check it out! It’s a fun one!

7.7/10

X-Men First Class on IMDb

A movie inspired by true events, that only life itself can come up with.
The movie basically is about a family and how a family ties up and can mean everything in your life. It also shows how easy it is to ruin relationships. How careful you sometimes have to be, to keep it all together.

There are these two brothers. Micky Ward (Mark Wahlberg) and Dicky Eklund (Christian Bale). Micky is a professional boxer, waiting for his big shot. Dicky is the older brother and was a professional boxer too. For Micky his brother is a hero. Everything he knows about boxing, his brother taught him. Dicky is also pretty much the local hero of the small town they live in. He got his big shot once and from then on went along the downward spiral. Nothing really worked out for Dicky and he lives from the glory of the past. Micky is now the boxing talent and the whole family is involved in the management. The family pretty much is the management, the training and everything else that has to be done, to keep Micky professionally boxing.

We early on understand that the family, even if it always tries to do the best, often enough fails to do the job right. So Micky gets the wrong fights and starts to question his future as a professional boxer. His brother Dicky, in the meantime became a crack addict and landed in jail, can’t really help his brother. The movie takes a nice trip into both brothers’ lives and we can see how things start to change. Dicky in jail finally gets clean and starts to understand what went wrong all the time. Micky on the other hand falls in love with a girl (Amy Adams) that manages it to open up his eyes. She is the one who tells Micky some truths that, I guess he already knew, but chose to ignore. Like we so often do. It’s hard to accept the truth sometimes. That’s life. Mark Wahlberg plays that part so well here. He has to fight this struggle, chosing between his family or the chance to really get somewhere as a professional boxer.

The family, of course, is against the decision of Micky to go the path alone. First and foremost his mother (Melissa Leo). Of course they all love each other. You can see it really is a close family. Micky’s mother only wants the best. But often enough that’s not enough or the right thing. And it is hard to accept that.

When Dicky gets released from jail he thinks he can join the training with Micky again. To help him prepare for a big fight. Micky’s big chance. Micky though made a deal to keep the family out of his boxingbusiness. That leads all the characters to a point where decisions have to be made. Eventually all the right people find the right decisions.

This movie tells a story that feels so natural and realistic, that for no second you think anything in it did not really happen that way. It is a very convincingly played family drama by everyone involved. Also showing where the characters come from. What milieu built their roots. It, for certain, is not a ‘Rocky’ clone. No way! It stands on its own and deserves every credit. Christian Bale and Melissa Leo received a well deserved Oscar for their performances. Especially Christian Bale and his look in the movie, strongly reminded me on ‘The Machinist’. He really looks worn up and done. Same goes for Mark Wahlberg’s character Micky. Both of them go through some serious crap and it really is visible on screen. That’s how you build a connection with the audience. Believability.

So yeah, a story about how to let go and finding the right paths in life. A straight recommendation.

8.0/10

The Fighter on IMDb

I actually planned to see this while it was in theaters. I did not make it and kind of regret it. It’s a very good movie! I recently read that ‘insert random celebrity name here’ tweeted: “it’s not wise to show this movie on an airplane flight program!”. And yes, after seeing the movie, I can completely understand that statement.

Most of you surely know what the story of the movie is. And honestly… it’s not original. But that’s not what the movie wants to be. The focus is on realism. And that is what sells this movie. It really is realistic. And by that I mean the whole political, scientific aspects as well as the normal people. The scenario as a whole. We get insights international affairs right down to the personal and family related events where people try to cope with the loss of family members. The movie manages it to keep a very good balance, with all the little stories and characters. It’s all connected in some way.

The cast consists of the best that you can get nowadays. All characters had a suitable actor playing them. All of them were pretty much top notch and delivered that too. The characters in that film have to make some really important and hard decisions and it needed actors who can transport the heavy lifting to the audience. All of them managed to do that fine. Good work on that end. By the actors and the casting department.

The movie itself is filmed in an almost documentary style. Almost like all the ‘What If! Earth without people!’ pseudo documentaries that popped up the last couple of years. Of course the movie made all this much more engaging. The characters early on manage to captivate you and make you want to know how it all ends. In some cases it does not end well. In other cases you never know.

I also want to highlight the writing for the movie. The story involves tons of characters, spread throughout the whole planet. The writing held it all together. I never had the feeling I would miss something, because of jumpy cuts, from one place to another. The movie also has a day counter going. The fascinating thing is that we first see day 1 at the end of the movie. The actual story starts with day 2. I found that a good decision that I really appreciated.

On a technical level, the camera is always out to show the audience, how easy a potential virus can spread in todays globalization. When the story leads us into laboratories you always wait for something to happen. That some protection suit gets a hole or some scientist does something stupid. But that never happened. They avoided that cliche and that’s another point for realism. The movie definitely is no Hollywood kaboom! Dustin Hoffman ‘Outbreak’ thing. It’s a quiet movie. It wants to tell the audience something. Without distracting from the message. What is that message?

I think the message is clear. We, as the human race, shouldn’t feel too safe! There is enough unexplored nature left to remove us from the face of the earth. Especially when coincidence comes into play. And… well… maybe that wouldn’t be too bad, for the good of the planet. If something, like the movie’s scenario will happen, we don’t have the best chances.

8.1/10

Contagion on IMDb

“La piel que habito” is a spanish production directed by Pedro Almodovar. Who also took part in writing the screenplay. Whenever I try to think of a category to put this movie in, I seriously cannot find one. But what is this movie about?!

The story of the movie is about a plastic surgeon genius (Antonio Banderas) who is specialized on reconstruction techniques. Fire victims for example. Then we also learn that the doctor lost his wife in a fire. We early on recognize that there is something odd going on with him. As well as the situation at his home. He is keeping a (really beautiful) woman (Elena Anaya) there. But the impression is that he’s not holding her captive. She seems to be there because she wants it. That is one mystery that has to be resolved throughout the movie.

The movie, every now and then, goes into ‘retro-mode’ and shows things that happened in the past. The movie, in fact, jumps around quite a bit. I personally had no big problems to follow it though. We see quite a few disturbing things that happened in the past of our main character. Banderas plays his part pretty cold and almost untouchable. Nonetheless we are always able to see the characters inner workings/emotions through his eyes. Some good work on that part.

Now it comes that the daughter of our doctor is almost getting raped by a young man (Jan Cornet). I personally wouldn’t categorize what happens there under ‘rape’. The young man early enough stops what he’s doing. To me, he seems to be able to understand that he did something wrong. This may be intentional to create a certain mood/setup for this character.However, our doctor is out for revenge and kidnaps the young man. The doctor clearly has a plan.

That’s actually everything I want to tell you about the story. I fear I already told too much and don’t want to spoil it all. The movie offers quite some nice twists and requires the viewer to be up to speed with the things going on. In the later parts of the movie it manages to really play with the viewers perception of the characters. It left a weird impression in my brain and that’s a good thing. It’s a real thought provoking resolution the movie has there. And that’s what I really loved about it.

Beside the really good screenplay, we also have a very nice camera work, to round up the technical aspects of the movie. Acting and performances of all involved worked great too.

I still struggle to put this movie into a specific category. It is an interesting take on ‘kidnapping’ movies. And there we have a ‘sort of’ category for this movie. It constantly keeps us interested in what the conclusion to all the story is. And there will be quite a conclusion!

Normally certainly not my type of movie, but it’s definitely a good thing to be open for new things. Especially with movies. Give this one a chance if you see it somewhere. It’s a pretty good one!

7.7/10

The Skin I Live In on IMDb

This is a movie I absolutely did not have on my radar. I saw a few stills, the dvd cover and it looked like some romantic something movie. Young people and their day in day out shenanigans. However… don’t judge a book by its cover. Same goes for movies. A friend rented the movie and we watched it today.

Storywise it’s settled in England over a course of 30 years. It is about a group of young people that grew/grows up in a special boarding school. Something about the school and how it treats the pupils feels a little odd. We see these kids grow up in this school. We also see that this school certainly doesn’t get treated too well and the kids live not a too privileged life. The movie, in the beginning, does a great job playing with the mystery of that school. Whenever people from outside come in, to do something at the school, they all have a sorry look on their face. Soon we learn that the kids in that school are no normal people. They were basically bred to serve as organ donors for other people. The movie follows three friends. Kathy, Tommy and Ruth. All three grew up together in that school. We see how they first learn what their purpose is. We see how they try to live with it. We see what their hopes are.

Kathy and Tommy become very close friends in school. They build a connection and obviously really like each other. Ruth comes into play and sort of steals Tommy from Kathy. Ruth and Tommy then have a pretty long relationship. Kathy tries to live with it and has a hard time. It takes her a while to cut the bonds and leave the group, to go her own way and leave it all behind. Soon after that, Ruth and Tommy break up. A long time goes by and by accident Kathy finds out that Ruth got picked for her second donation. They meet in a hospital and try to cope with the past. They find out where Tommy is and pick him up. Tommy has already spent an organ too and isn’t in best condition. Ruth opens up to Kathy and Tommy. She feels sorry for stepping between the two. Since, obviously, Kathy and Tommy are meant for each other. Ruth got an address of a woman that may be a chance to postpone any more donations for loving pairs. Kathy and Tommy, happy to finally be together, find the address and want to try their luck.

“This sounds like that Michael Bay ‘The Island’ movie!” – yes it does. The concept is the same… but the execution couldn’t be more different. I admit, the story feels cheesy. I have to say though that, the way it’s shot and played out, feels so natural. It feels realistic. There is no extra sugar coating to make it sweeter. It shows how things normally tend to go in life. That includes painful missed chances, opportunities and not having enough time. It’s a quiet movie. Many things happen in the faces of the actors. The story doesn’t need too many words.

Kathy (Carey Mulligan), Tommy (Andrew Garfield) and Ruth (Keira Knightley) deliver some really good and believable performances. I think after seeing ‘Drive’ and ‘Never let me go’ I became a fan of Carey Mulligan. She’s a talent that is able to express such a scale of emotions with just her face. That’s almost a lost skill these days. She’ll make her way. Andrew Garfield, who’s now the new Spiderman Peter Parker, will hopefully not get wasted on too many big budget movies. He certainly got a range too.

So yeah, ultimately I’m all for this movie. It tells a nice story and keeps you interested in its characters. Yes, it leaves a few questions but I can live with that. You don’t always have to get answers for everything.

For me a 8/10

Never Let Me Go on IMDb

This is the first movie this year that owned a big bright spot on my movies radar. The trailers looked fine and made me interested. It ‘s also always interesting to see what studios and directors can make of a very very old Scifi story. Especially when it comes to design things.

The original story ‘The Princess of Mars’ came out 1917 and was written by Edgar Rice Burroughs. In the following 30 years more books and shortstories spawned. All of them exploring the fantastic world created in the first book. Due to the indeed very old story I found it very appealing to see what Hollywood can make of that material. Also the fact that Andrew Stanton, (creator of Pixar’s Wall-E and Finding Nemo) former animation movie director, is now attacking a live action movie.

The story is actually told rather quickly. A former soldier of the american civilwar gets captured by some of his old army colleagues. They want him to join back into the army. They got their reasons and he surely got his reasons to avoid it. He waits for the right moment to escape. When he finally breaks free he is forced to find a hideout. The only one he finds is a mysterious cave. There he encounters something that transports him to Mars. At first he’s not sure what the hell happened and it takes him a while to understand. On Mars he’s the outsider. He finds a world that is in a war he actually doesn’t want to be a part of. Much like the world he just left. From there on he’s trying to understand this new world and trying to find his way back home. But home is relative… isn’t it?

The feel and the tone of the movie is pretty much an ‘adventure’ one. They market this movie like “a mix between starwars and avatar”. Which is completely useless. There is maybe 10% Starwars and 5% Avatar in it. It is a movie on its own. The design and look of the movie stands on its own feet. And that’s what I liked a lot from early on. Of course you have seen everything anywhere, sometime or somewhere but the movie manages it to keep it fresh. So visually you really get to see something stimulating.

The presentation of the storyline is a little rollercoaster. You have great and impressive battle scenes. A lot of action and speed. Then comes the romantic stuff. And I must admit that there is maybe a little too much of that. But on the other hand it’s exactly this what gives the movie a very certain tone that reminds me of older movies from the 60s or 50s. I don’t know if that was planned by the makers but for me it felt that way. The story of the movie technically plays 1866 and with that comes certain behaviour by certain characters. Last but not least comes the humour. There you can kind of see where the director originally came from. To me it felt like a very Pixar’ish humour.

When it comes to the acting and its quality then there is not much to say. It’s certainly not overwhelming but it was ok. I’m not sure if I will become a fan of Taylor Kitsch (even if his work in this movie was totally fine). Lynn Collins as princess Dejah Thoris was a perfect cast though. She really felt and looked like a true princess. Overall the casting was fine and felt organic enough to leave an overall good impression.

The design and VFX work belongs to the best that’s out there nowadays. The integration of all the CG into the live action footage looked pretty much flawless and convincing. It was a lot of fun watching the action happening. Explosions, huge cities, exotic aircrafts and all sorts of creatures. Creatures that, for once, really felt like there was a thought process behind them. Overall good stuff.

It may be the age of the original story that some parts in the movie feel a little hokey but I would say that this is just a certain charme that most movies are not able to capture anymore. The director kept its movie relatively close to the original material. The charme of an old fashioned Scifi movie. Nowadays everyone is trying to reinvent everything anew. This isn’t necessary! You can create something entertaining too by just using methods that are already there.

If you’re planning to see it on the big screen then try to catch a 2d showing. The 3d isn’t horribly bad but it wasn’t good enough to let me say “yes!”. Otherwise wait for the bluray. I’m sure it’ll look great in HD.

I enjoyed this film.

7.5/10

John Carter on IMDb

When I first heard that title I was thinking “dear lord what can be expected from that?!”. Then I read that Jon Favreau is the director. This guy is pretty good in what he’s doing. The Iron Man movies are entertaining and not too stupid. The first one much better though. Beside that we also have some of Hollywood’s best producers and writers on this movie. Now what’s Cowboys & Aliens about?

It’s about a guy who wakes up alone in the desert. He is not able to remember anything. From then on we follow him trying to remember his past. Soon enough first things clear up when he manages to get into a small town. Last but not least some aliens show up and abduct people from the town. Then our hero and some of the town folks move on to get their beloved friends and family members back.

Yes, the aliens appear out of nowhere without much of an explanation. Until the end of the movie we don’t learn why these creatures are actually on earth. So it’s best you go into the movie without anything… no expectations at all. The title pretty much tells you upfront that it’s pure enterainment and nothing to make your brain think. Much of that can also be found in the screenwriting. There was some weird dialogue happening at certain points that partly took me out of the movie. I was thinking “Who in the world is talking that way?”. Some weird choices there.

Daniel Craig is the main character and I admit he nails his character. He’s the ultimate badass. Kinda like his James Bond interpretation. Then we have Harrison Ford. One of my all-time favs. I grew up with this guy swinging laser guns and whips at bad guys. He’s one of my heroes! Well, in this movie not so much. At first he’s written like a bad guy characters. He kinda gets together with our hero to rescue his son from the aliens. So his character leaves a weird impression and has a strange story arc overall. Sam Rockwell is the only actor in this movie who plays a character I was able to kind of connect to. He plays a saloon owner who is also a doctor. When the aliens come in, they abduct his wife. He wants her back! Beside that he’s just an awesome actor. Adam Beach left a good impression too. This guy should get casted for other movies too. He’s got some potential to do some more heavy lifting roles. Last but not least we have Olivia Wilde. She’s basically only there to be sexy and does that nicely. Ultimately the weird writing of the partly hokey dialogue leaves an overall strange impression of all the characters. I can imagine they had some serious problems to give these characters something to say at all. I bet you could do this movie without a single spoken line!

The VFX work is overall very solid. ILM certainly did a fine job there. When it comes to the concept work for the aliens and related things then it’s also well done and works in context of the movie. But then again I always wonder why the aliens always have to look like us? By that I mean you can clearly recognize a head, two arms and two legs. Star Trek aliens so to speak. I know it would be very difficult to go for a more insectoid or whatever approach… but meh… a little more originality wouldn’t hurt in that department. And don’t get me wrong. I know for certain how much work goes into the design of these aliens. I highly respect the work.

In the end it is a fairly simple movie. Nothing that keeps your brain too busy. It’s popcorn entertainment. Is it good? Well… it’s entertaining for sure! And hey, Olivia Wilde is a cutie in her own way and looks good on the screen. So you want some humans kicking alien ass? Go for this movie.

6.6/10

Cowboys & Aliens on IMDb

FROM HERE I CAN ALMOST SEE THE STARS

For a long time now I have a certain image in my head that I still/yet have to make. The picture we have here brought me a little closer to the image I have in my head. The pic I have in mind is something with a giant huge space port/dock structure. And yes, other artists already have made very awesome attempts on that. But hey, I want my own super cool space port! =D

What we have here is indeed a cool space port kind of thing and I really honestly like the result of my attempt here. I really had some fun playing with the colours. I wanted to go for colours I rarely used so far. So this pic will make a nice addition to my portfolio. I’m still undecided if we have a morning or evening scene in this pic. That’s what I leave to the viewers. Yes the scene is artistically nothing entirely new but I think it just looks sort of soothing.

Technically it’s heavy Vue work again. It started, like so often, playing around with objects and atmospheres. Originally I was thinking about creating a space scene. Then I had this great atmosphere that reacted so nicely with my objects that I couldn’t resist to make it another Scifi cityscape. The rendering happened in various steps again. First the city. Then the clouds. And last but not least the flying little ships. Throughout the Photoshop phase I continued rendering out smaller parts to replace some others I wasn’t to happy with. I still love the Multipass options in Vue. This makes it rather easy to exchange elements.

In Photoshop then happened the compositing of all the different elements Vue gave me with it’s renders. A lot of fixing, texturing and overpainting happened in the next stage. The atmosphere got some pushes too. The final result then really became a moody Scifi scene that allows the viewer to dive into.

This picture is also part of The Luminarium’s 17th artpack release ‘Illuminate IV’. Some pretty amazing and inspiring work there. Info can be found here.

I really had some fun with this one and hope you people dig the view as much as I do!

5000px wide – Vue – Photoshop

Creation Progress Plate
Print Detail

Regards

Here we go again! ‘Illuminate IV‘ is the latest Exhibit release by The Luminarium Artgroup. It’s #17 now and this time there were no defined topics. So this time we have freestyle submissions from all the artists. That lead to a wide range of different artworks to stare at in awe! =D There is a collection of digital art, abstract, digital painting and photography work. So, pretty much something for every taste and profession. My personal submission can be found here. Check it out for some good inspiration.

The Luminarium: Website – Deviantart – Shadowness

Regards