Jar-Jar and Gollum

Gollum provided some comedy, companionship, even managed to evoke some pity.

Jar Jar is unfunny, useless (his non-existence in AOTC made us wonder why he was in TPM at all), and "popular" for all the wrong reasons that GL didn't even foresee.

 

Anyone who says Jar Jar looked more real than Gollum must be totally frickn blind. Most of the CGI in the prequel movies are cartoony and unrealistic. Even in Attack of the Clowns when Randy Fett and Obi-Wan are duking it out- the CGI shots of Fett were friggn terrible. Like no, ok they are GOOD, but they don't look real. I can tell it's CGI. Thats not a good thing. Yoda has CGI written all over his face. Jar Jar is pitifully bad on all accounts. Gollum in Nerd of the Rings was actually GOOD!! He looked REAL! AND...Pete Jackson knows that LITTLE is better. Lucas DOESNT. CGI Clonetroopers eh? Ya...they look REAL!! Ya they'd look real good in Final Fantasy 35 or whatever. Dont get me wrong I love the movies, they're great- BUT...Nerd of the Rings is better. Sooooo very better. Attack of the Clowns and Phantom Menace are practically cartoons. But still. They be cool.

 

I believe ILM will do a CGI Hulk for the upcoming movie to be directed by Ang Lee. Would be interesting to see whether this one can measure up to Gollum.

"HULK SMASH!"

 

SteveO, how old are you?

 

I wonder why stevo didn't come up with a non funny name for Phantom Menace in that post?

 

It seems that most of you who think that Gollum was a better CG creation than Jar Jar think this only because you dislike the character of Jar Jar. Of course you will disagree on this, but deep down you know I´m right!

(not you, Mace Windy )

 

jar jar is better..all the way around..literally...he is standing in the sun...for godsake.. in the daylight..my niece tought he was a guy in a suit..amazing how other people see it. except lotr fans..


i havent seen gollum..but im sure most of the time he is in the shadows..hiding from people or something..im sure he is not out in the open in broad daylight..and if he was i bet you could tell he was fake..

 

Gollum is out in the open quite a lot and he actually looks quite good.

 

Jar Jar is unfunny, useless (his non-existence in AOTC made us wonder why he was in TPM at all)

I guess you missed the whole "Jar-Jar is responsible for creating the Empire" scene in AOTC.

 

i havent seen gollum..but im sure most of the time he is in the shadows..hiding from people or something..im sure he is not out in the open in broad daylight..and if he was i bet you could tell he was fake..


Perhaps you should see the movie first, and then make a judgement. Gollum is in the sun, in broad daylight, a lot. In fact, he even picks Frodo up out of the water, and it looks great. It's hard to tell that he really isn't there. What's even more impressive is that unlike jar jar, Gollum has real backgrounds behind him, not blue screens like jar jar. Gollum moves better and interacts better with the characters, and just plain looks better, IMO.

 

However, as mentioned above, by actually including Andy Serkis into the shots while filming, a CG character finally interacted with the real characters as he should.

Ahmed Best was there interacting with the other actors as well. He even had a suit and head piece on so the other actors knew where to look. TPM DVD shows us this. As well as in behind the scenes shots from TTT. Gullum not the first time this was done. Not taking away from Gullum. Loved him in TTT. He was added to my fav character list for LOTR. I agree though. It makes it more believable when an actual actor is there.

 

Anyone who says Jar Jar looked more real than Gollum must be totally frickn blind.

I love these kinds of remarks. Because we have an opinion that is not yours we are blind. Grow up and take your banter somehere else. This thread is doing fine without it. We are all having a civilized conversation here.

I thought Jar Jar was very realistic as was Gullum. Gullum also looked cartoony. Its CGI. It is not perfect.

 

However, as mentioned above, by actually including Andy Serkis into the shots while filming, a CG character finally interacted with the real characters as he should.

Ahmed Best was there interacting with the other actors as well. He even had a suit and head piece on so the other actors knew where to look. TPM DVD shows us this.

And the Cg actors performed in the scenes in the case of Watto, Dex, Taun We and Lama Su. And Yoda is considered by many to be the most impressive CG character in SW even though Frank Oz wasn't there to perform to the actors.

 

There were scenes in TPM where there was no blue screen. On Tatooine. The shots there had no blue screen for Jar Jar. Ahmed Best was there and they did the CGI over it just like Gullum. Both directors seem to be trying something new and it worked. Why can't we say they both did a fantastic job. One is not better then the other. They both used the seem techniques to get the same result. I have seen behind the scene shots of the guy playing Gullum at the studios in the blue suit, then the on location shots with Wood in a white suit doing the scenes. Dexter, Jar Jar, Taun We were alll done the same exact way. They all had an actor there to interact with the other actors then placed the cgi over them later on.

Yoda is the exception. They did not have an actor but a ststue of Yoda there. But I still think Yoda looks awesome in AOTC! Just awesome! He and Gullum so far the best CGI characters. Both look real. IMO

 

And the Cg actors performed in the scenes in the case of Watto, Dex, Taun We and Lama Su. And Yoda is considered by many to be the most impressive CG character in SW even though Frank Oz wasn't there to perform to the actors.

Yes! That is my point. Wattos voice actor was there shooting the scenes with Liam, Lama Su with Ewan, Jars Jars voice and physicalness(if it is even a word) with Ahmed Best. The people portraying those CGI characters were there to help ILM and the actors with the performace. Jaskcon was not the first to do this. But I am not taking away from a great job he did with GUllum.

 

What's even more impressive is that unlike jar jar, Gollum has real backgrounds behind him, not blue screens like jar jar.

I'm not sure what you mean by that, but the way i'm reading it, you're completely wrong that jar jar had bluescreens behind him.

 

Actually, a majority of Jar Jar's scenes in TPM are on Tatooine and Naboo. On Tatooine there was no blue-screen at all, and when he's on Naboo (in the swamp/forest), those are real surroundings.

 

I just remember seeing a clip from some behind the scenes thing, I don't know if it's on the DVD or from a TV show or whatever, where Ewan and Liam were acting with Ahmed Best in his little hat and suit, and they were all three in front of a bluescreen. I was under the impression that this was the case for quite a lot of the movie. And yes, I'm aware that Tattooine wasn't bluescreen.

 

I just wanted to make sure

 

This thread is becoming awesome! We've got some very different, but good oppinions.

Any more?

 

I just remember seeing a clip from some behind the scenes thing, I don't know if it's on the DVD or from a TV show or whatever, where Ewan and Liam were acting with Ahmed Best in his little hat and suit, and they were all three in front of a bluescreen.

I can assure you they had to do the same thing with Gollum at times. Jar Jar was integrated into real environments just like Gollum.

 

Peter Jackson's position on CGI is to use it only where absolutely necessary.

From Smeagol to Gollum

The only CGI Gollum is the last one. It is in daylight and looks totally real, to me anyway.

 

"Peter Jackson's position on CGI is to use it where absolutely positively necessary."

Good for him.

 

Is it better to use CG only when absolutely necessary? As long as the films are good, it doesn´t matter how they make them.
AOTC and TTT are both great films!

 

they were all three in front of a bluescreen

There was a combination of techniques in all of the films mentioned here. The Gungan/Droid battle in TPM took place on a real (read not-CG) field. But when the tanks carved the ground up, the overturned earth was CG.

The shot where Padme pulls Jar-Jar's hand out of the pod racer, isn't CG at all, it's Ahmed Best in a suit (note we only see part of Jar-Jar's torso).

I'm not sure that we are all discussing the same point. When we say that we find Gollum or Jar-Jar believable we just mean that it doesn't stand out too much surely? I mean, we don't actually believe that either character is 'real' any more than we believed Jabba or the Jawas were real.

I think an example of bad CGI would be when Anakin rides the Shaak in AOTC because suddenly it seemed so unreal (to me) that it took me out of the SW universe back into my cinema seat. Whereas good CGI would be the scene with Jar-Jar in the senate (AOTC) where I was watching and enjoying the film, and not suddenly 'aware' of CG effects being employed (despite knowing that they had been!)