Special Effects: Anything Can Happen

Director: Ben Burtt
Screenplay: Susanne Simpson, Ben Burtt, Tom Friedman
Narrator: John Lithgow
A Production of NOVA/WGBH Boston

John's Review

Special Effects is a different sort of review for us, for it is not a normal thatrical film. It's an IMAX (70 mm) film. If you've never seen an IMAX film then your missing out. Although Special Effects would be a good place to start. The movie is a 40 minute documentary, but it's shown on a 5 story movie screen.

Unfortunately there is nothing new here. I've seen plenty of film documentaries and making of's, this one really is no different. It basically looks at the making of special effects on four films, the Special Edition Star Wars, Jumanji, Independence Day and (don't ask me why) Kazaam. Granted the scenes that they did especially for Special Effects are nice, but the other ones we've already seen. The making of the extra scenes for Star Wars was interesting as were the pyrotechniques for ID4. Jumanji's Animatronics were somewhat interesting, but Kazaam (have I mentioned that I'm not sure as to why this film is featured) doesn't show us anything interesting or new. It would have been nice to see more of how the CGI's were made or perhaps the model design and building, even more on how the go-motion camera worked, but none of this made it into the film.

This is the kind of movie that you would want to take your kids to. Especially little ones who have never seen the making of any sort of movie before. Overall there was nothing new in this IMAX film, but it was very entertaining to see all of this on a huge IMAX screen. The opening alone was well worth the price of admission. I do plan on seeing this film again with my two five year old boys. I think that is the target audience for this film, mostly children, I'd say 5 to 12 years old. One final note, because of the intense heat of the light, it cannot be any longer than 40 minutes, this is of course somewhat dissapointing, it would have been nice if it could have been longer as well.

Grade: B

Werner's Review

This movie was not the documentary that I had hoped it would be. Instead, it was a propaganda film for Industial Light and Magic. What I did like about the movie, however, was how exciting the IMAX experience can be for other types of movies and not just documentaries. Makes me hope that the rumors of a Star Trek IMAX movie is indeed true and not just fantasy.

Plot:

This movie did not have a plot per se. Instead, it attempted to show us how the special effects used the movies has evolved over time and just what goes into some of the effects that we see today. Narrorated by John Lithgow, the movie showed us how early special effects used to look like and how the old effects (like explosions and such) are being done today in the age of computer generated images.

The Good:

The IMAX experience is always a treat. A five story screen, 13,000 watts of sound, images that you can pick up using your peripheral vision. It takes your breath away as you wind up getting sucked up in the movie that you are watching. Special Effects has now shown that the IMAX experience is even more impressive when using actual movie footage rather than just documentary footage. The scens from Star Wars, Independence Day, and Jumanji were amazing to see in the IMAX format. I now hope that there will be more movies made using IMAX in the future.

Some of the behind the scenes footage that they showed was impressive especially when they would show you how the effect was done and what it eventually looked like in the movie it was being done for. Case in point, the explosions in Independence Day were shown as they were being shot on the set. These explosions did not look that impressive however, as the movie showed, when combined with other elements of movie making (for example slow motion) they looked like the types of explosions that could bring down large metropolitian areas around the world.

I also liked how the movie showed us some special effects footage of the new Star Wars: New Edition movie that just came out. It was interesting when they showed how the new footage was intermingled with the old footage of the film or how they even created all of the new special effects for the movie. I was also amazed when they showed what they claimed was the new and improved beginning of the redone Star Wars movie since the new beginning never showed up in film at all. Being a Star Wars fan, I was really impressed by this part of the movie.

The Bad:

I did not appreciate the pro-Industiral Light and Magic angle that the movie took. While I realize the impact that ILM has had on the movie industry ever since 1977 when it made the effects for Star Wars, I did not want to be smacked in the face with the "ILM is god" attitude that the movie took. Instead of just showing us how special effects are made and how they have changed over the years as technology has improved, the movie decided to tout the importance of ILM in the world of special effects. This got tiring in my opinion.

As a documentary, this movie fell way short of being any good. I have seen other documentaries on special effects on TV and they have provided me with more information about the history and changes in special effects than this movie did. While it did have some nice touches (for example showing us how people's perceptions allow special effects to work) it did not follow through on such touches throughout the movie.

Overall:

As a documentary, I would suggest not seeing this movie. Tune in to the documentaries on the Discovery Channel or PBS that deal with special effects if you want to see the history behind the phenomenon. However, as an IMAX film, this movie is quite enjoyable especially since it allowed you to see familiar film footage in a format that very few have actually had a chance to experience yet. If you have never seen an IMAX film, this is a good one to get you started on.

Grade: B
 
 

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