The Mummy Returns - The special effects.

[ak]

Me and a group of my friends, one or two being on this board, went to see "The Mummy Returns" last night, expecting an enjoyable popcorn film, just like the first. Out of the eight or so of us that went to see it, the three of us couldn't stop laughing at the acting/story, but most of all the SPECIAL EFFECTS!!! There was absolutely nothing special about them at all, they are quite literally the worst effects that i have ever witnessed in a mainstream film.
Seriously, i have never laughed so hard at a film since i watched Wayne's World II years ago. People in the cinema were actually looking at us cause we were laughing so much as to how pathetic each effect was, and, a British film critic Jonathan Ross wasn't wrong when he said they get progressively worse.

When it came to the big massive tidal wave sequence, basically a re-hash of the sand storm in the first, with the Mummy's features in it, i though it would be impressive, but it ended up looking like the worst game effects i have ever seen.
and i won't even begin going into the crappy Rock/Scorpion effect at the end.
Did they rush this film? I think so, in order to escape the onslaught of films with more box office potential, such as the impending Pearl Harbor.

ILM created the special effects for this film, and i know that they have created the special effects for Pearl Harbor and A.I, it just seems that they put all their most talented on these films, and put the "new guys" or "just out of college" people to work on The Mummy Returns.


This is most likely the most dissapointing film i have seen in a long time, and most possibly the worst mainstream film i have ever seen.

[This message has been edited by ak (edited 05-19-2001).]

[chupucabras]

I was there, AK is correct! the graphics were mostly mediocre, but one or two were absolutely dreadful. I laughed so hard I was nearly sick! So i suppose in that it was very entertaining (but for the wrong reason) it is worth seeing!

Dan

[HomerSimpson]

That's the problem with effects these days... they don't look like they're real, they look like exactly what they are: EFFECTS!

What the people who made Mummy Returns didn't realize was that special effects only look scary or thrilling if they look REAL. During the huge wave scene, I couldn't be more bored. Why? Because they were being chased by a giant bubble of... BLUE! That was not water, that was a pathetic-looking imiation of water.

And don't get me started about the computer animated Rock in the end... despite that effect being completely pointless, it was also the most pathetic effect I have ever seen.

In the end, what we end up with is video game quality effects. No, worse - it's below video game effects level, in video games they can at least get the WATER right.

The Mummy Returns was one giant showcase for the (supposedly) spectacular special effects, which, in the end, looked pathetic. By trying to do too much, they forgot how to get ANYTHING right.

[This message has been edited by HomerSimpson (edited 05-19-2001).]

[V dude]

I quite liked The Mummy Returns. It was no where near as good as the original but in my opinion the special effects really just added to the movie. It added that kinda of cheesy effect we had in the Mummy.The downside of The Mummy Returns in my opinion was the lack of cheese and character involvment.

For instance one of the brilliantly funny scenes in the The Mummy is when we see some Americans talking and in the background. Not really the focus of attention is Brendan tying rope around a pillir and each time whipping the fat arab. Very funny.

Or many other countless things.

My rant is actually that countless movies people have put up with space ships being moved on strings and some old special effects, then the moment they say brilliant special effects any new film which doesn't match them automatically has crap special effects.

I felt many of the Special Effects in the Mummy Returns were very good.

And just to make my point I thought the special effects in Matrix were crap and tacky .. I really detest the Matrx. and the special effects in Perfect Storm whilst being quite good were pretty bad as well.

[This message has been edited by V dude (edited 05-19-2001).]

[ak]

Although a rather under mediochre film, The Perfect Storm had rather revolutionary special effects, by making water, well, look like water.
And, plus, i wasn't comparing the effects of the Mummy Returns to any other effects i have seen in films, they were just really pathetic anyways.

I can't believe this film got made the way it was.

[HomerSimpson]

ak, yeah, at least in The Perfect Storm they go the water right...

[V dude]

But they didnt tho it looked like a painting

[bitch tits bob]

The water in perfect storm was very beleivable! All effects are expected to surpass their predicessors but not all do!

The trailer for planet of the apes has better effects than most existing movies and Lord of the rings is deffinatley going to be the film to beat!! not one critic had a bad thing to say about the preview at cannes!!

[ak]

..Yes, now there's a film that's going to have the most amazing special effects of all time. People who saw the effects, such as the Cave Troll and the Balrog say they actually looked real. That sounds impressive. The marker between reality and the un-real is slowly being crossed at last.

[Tuukka]

Spielberg movies always have great effects. I think that CGI should generally be used along with practical effects. Lost World was unbeatable in that sense. The creatures were far more convincing than in, for example, Phantom Menace. They were interacting with their environment, and that's hard to achieve with 100% CGI.

[DaN]

Man, Hollywood is really biting the big one.

[herculeez]

[QUOTE]Out of the eight or so of us that went to see it, the three of us couldn't stop laughing at the acting/story, but most of all the SPECIAL EFFECTS!!!

The 3 of us were Ak, chupucabras, and myself and i can tell you many people were getting really annoyed by our hysterical laughter at what the makers of mummy returns actually tried so call special effects!
I have made effects look better than that with my microsoft paint programme on my computer!!!
You could actually see where the crayons were used to draw the scorpion king at the end!!!
With Ak and chupucabras in the movie, i might have either gone to sleep walked out or KIELED OVER AND DIED!!!
This is possibly THE worst movie i have seen in the cinema (take into mind recently i watched briget jones's diary and Valentine!)

And what was with the kid's accent throughout the movie?! he was meant to be posh english! Granted he pulled it off for most of the movie but othertimes he sounded like a cockney and an ozzie!!!

I give the film 1/10
1 point for RACHEL WEISZ and the outfit that woman wore like in the first mummy revealing quite a bit!!!
/ubb/smile.gif

[ak]

..and to pile on the really crap effects were really stupid scenarios. I mean, what the heck was that thing at the end?
**SPOILERS**
When all the trees begin to get sucked into the Pyramid, i mean, that always had the potential to look crap, there would have been far too much labour to put into that sequence in the schedule they had for the film, so they pulled it off in a really crappy way, which may also have looked pathetic if done in the RIGHT way.

It just seems, from the film, that the effects were mostly impractical, such as the afore-mentioned sequence.
You know, i am going to do computer animation in university this year and it looks so complicated and really hard to actually compete with people and brake into the business, and then you see such films with the worst effects by the best effects company. What's going on?

[This message has been edited by ak (edited 05-20-2001).]

[SnatchBlow6901]

I think "The Mummy Returns" had some great special fx. You people must have seen a diffrent movie. 'Cuz they were the best part of it.

[ak]

You obviously haven't ever seen a good special effects filled film then.

[bitch tits bob]

sounds like i made the right choice to go to work instead of see the movie with all of you then!! :d

[herculeez]

OK, SnatchBlow, if you think that the special effects were the best part that means 1 of these things: -

1) you have never seen a film with good special effects (like ak said)

2) you had your eyes closed throughout the movie

3) you thought that the movie was so utterly shite that you couldn't understand why you even paid to see this shite and the fact you're watching instead of having allready walked out is beyond your own control and therefore due to all these attrosities going on around you you have been brainwashed into thinking that the SFX were actually any good.

Which one was it?