You're watching a $248 million film and not a single green or blue screen was used. The alien is a handmade puppet. The cockpit physically rotates to simulate gravity. I looked at the production tech behind this 95% score, and the engineering is wild.
Phil Lord and Chris Miller, directing their first live-action movie in 12 years, built the entire Hail Mary spacecraft as a real set at Shepperton Studios in England. Not a miniature. Not a digital model. A full-size ship interior you can walk through. Production designer Charlie Wood studied the International Space Station, Russia's Mir station, and the Boeing 747 cockpit to get the look right. He deliberately made the panels mismatched, because real spacecraft are assembled from parts made by different companies. Nothing matches perfectly. That's what makes it feel real.
The cockpit is only about 8 feet wide. It sits on a mechanical platform that can tilt, spin, and shake, so when the ship changes direction or enters different gravity conditions, the whole set moves. Chairs end up on walls. Ladders flip direction. Gosling was suspended inside a spinning ring so he could float and move through the ship for real, reacting to actual hardware around him. No guessing where a wall might be added later.
Then there's Rocky. He's the alien co-lead, and he's not CGI. Neal Scanlan, the creature designer who built the Porgs for Star Wars, spent a full year on this character. Over 300 designs before they landed on the final look. Rocky is a thin, hollow shell, 3D-printed from a digital sculpture, then hand-painted in see-through layers so light passes through him like skin. His arms pop off and swap out depending on the scene: one set has a closed fist for walking, another has tiny motorized fingers strong enough to pick up objects. Five puppeteers (nicknamed the "Rockyteers") operated him in every scene. James Ortiz, an award-winning puppet designer from New York theater, voiced Rocky and controlled him on set. When Scanlan met him, he told Ortiz, "You're Frank Oz, and I'm making Yoda for you." Every reaction Gosling gives to the alien is to something physically in front of him.
Greig Fraser, who won the Oscar for shooting Dune, filmed the space scenes in the larger IMAX format (that taller image you see in IMAX theaters) and the Earth flashbacks in regular widescreen. Then the team did something unusual: they took the digital footage and printed it onto real film strips, twice, using two different types of film stock. Then they scanned those strips back into digital. It sounds redundant, but it adds a texture and warmth that you can only get from physical film. Fraser used the same technique on Dune and The Batman.
Drew Goddard spent six years writing this screenplay. His last adaptation of Andy Weir's novel, The Martian, earned him an Oscar nomination. He described the challenge this way: a screenplay gets about 5% of a novel's word count. The lead is alone for most of the runtime. When he finally gets a co-star, that co-star doesn't speak English, communicates through sounds closer to whale song, and has no face. Goddard called it a screenwriter's nightmare, then said that difficulty was the whole point. He and the directors fought studio pushback to keep Weir's original ending intact.
95% from 212 critics. 98% from over 2,500 audience ratings. And the lead isn't a superhero, a cop, or a soldier. He's just an ordinary middle school science teacher.
I’ve a genuine question for footy fans. Shelve the partisan nonsense, put to one side the schadenfreude and guffawing at a Carlton loss…
Where would you rank Michael Voss in a list of every senior AFL coach?
Feel free to specify where you’d place him below.
#AFLSwansBlues
I cannot fathom that we just conceded 75… SEVENTY. FIVE. POINTS in a quarter.
Just utterly unacceptable.
I can’t believe how quick we can crumble.
When does this nightmare end. Honestly 😩
Not seeing the sudden January surge of newbies at the gym like usual, anyone else noticed the same? Can people just not afford it any more I’m wondering?
“Say hello to your brother.” I just finished Die Hard with a Vengeance (🌟🌟🌟🌟) for the first time in my life & I’m ready to run through a brick fucking wall. I have just two words for you: Bruce Willis. Holy mother of God this man is so charismatic in this film. But obviously, before going further, I want to also address the elephant in the room which is that yes, it’s taken me an embarrassing amount of time to watch this film. If you’re here to slander me for waiting until 2025 to watch Die Hard with a Vengeance, please don’t hesitate. I deserve it. What the hell was I thinking waiting so long to watch this action masterpiece???
Die Hard with a Vengeance is the third installment in the Die Hard series. I’ve seen the two films that came before this & I’ve seen the two films that came after this. But I had never actually sat down to watch Die Hard with a Vengeance. In the third installment of the franchise, John is now broke, jobless, divorced, and drunk as hell living in NYC. John gets the call back to the force when some douchebag who calls himself “Simon” (Jeremy Irons) insists on speaking with McClane, leading to a cat & mouse game between the two that also involves Zeus Carver (Samuel L. Jackson), an innocent but hilarious bystander who joins McClane for the ride- willing or unwillingly.
I’m not sure what it is. Maybe it’s the fact so many recent action films have felt so utterly fake (AI, CGI, green screen, sound stage, etc). Or maybe it’s the fact that so many action stars feel so utterly manufactured by some studio or PR firm. Or maybe it’s the fact that this film is just that damn good. But the quality of this movie left me in total shock. I just can’t believe how good the filmmaking was here- the cinematography, the on-location shooting, and every last action set-piece. If I’m being honest, I was anticipating a way shittier film. But this movie gets the big & little things right.
One big thing this film gets right is New York City. You feel the blood pumping through New York City from the moment this film starts to the moment it ends. It’s impossible to watch this film without recognizing how much energy there was in pre-9/11 New York City. If there’s anything “dated” about this movie, it’s not the technical components of the film (those all hold up exceptionally well), but rather it’s the idea that so many of the explosives or bombs that are set off throughout this film probably wouldn’t have happened after 9/11. There’s just a different feeling to the city in 1995 & this film captures that feeling perfectly.
But man, I think the most memorable thing about this film is the performance from its trio of leading actors: Irons, Jackson & Willis. Every last decision Jeremy Irons makes in this film is interesting. From his walk, his talk, the way he dresses, his goofy-ass bleached hair- hell, even his glasses. It’s because Irons is so self-aware of what he is doing & what he is making. He knows the film that he’s starring in & he nails this performance. To watch this film is to learn more about Jeremy Irons’ immense talent. With that all said- this film belongs to Bruce Willis. The charisma. The timing. The “I don’t give a shit, get out of my way” attitude. Above all, Willis is extremely relatable in this movie. He feels like one of us. Which is paradoxical when you consider it. Willis feels so relatable in this film yet somehow does things that none of us could ever do. It’s why he was such a special actor. And it’s why this is such a special performance.
I’m an absolute idiot for taking this long to see this film.
@cleary_mitch@7NewsMelbourne So because Daicos didn't win, they will change the system to rig it towards him
Fuck me. They just suck him off at every turn
Craig McRae says Collingwood will assess whether the Copeland Trophy currently uses the best voting system or if it’s time for a change.
Right now 5x coaches vote 0-4 for each player per game for a max of 20 votes
More tonight @7NewsMelbourne
Can confidently say this.
Charles looks like he is officially done with this team.
His mannerisms in the cockpit throughout the week and the team radios very much point to this.
Of course he isn't going to throw the team under the bus in the media pen. But he's reached that point