ATOMIC SUPLEX
Member Since: 1985 Post Count: 3
A loooong time ago, I used to read the manga (when it first started), but got a bit bored with it not really going anywhere fast enough (a very Japanese serial style). I watched a few episodes of the anime in Japan but that was about it. It's a fun enough jaunt in an interesting enough world.
My daughter is now 16 and has been reading it her whole life. She loves it. She went to the cinema to see the films, cried when a ship sank, blah blah. It seems my wife has also still been keeping up with the manga on-line.
So the live action drops on Netflix. I see that it's not a Japanese production and the cast are not Japanese and for some reason this makes me think it's going to be shit. The Netflix Cowboy Bebop was an american production and was pretty much unwatchable . . . but then so was the original anime (no idea why anyone raved about it). Then I also remember that even Japanese live action adaptations of beloved anime are all pretty much total shit so it probably doesn't make that much difference.
Good news. The creator is actually heavily involved, and my daughter tells me that he never intended any of the characters to be Japanese anyway, they are Brazilian, English, French etc etc. Seems like a decent reason for a western cast.
But straight away it looks really really weird. It's obviously expensive but something about it looks really cheap. Is it the lighting? The shots, the film treatment? It looks like a fan film. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The acting is a bit cheesy but it's a cheesy story anyway. I think I actually like all the cast that I have seen so far, ham and all. So what is it?
The only thing I can think of is that it that all the backgrounds are CGI? Is that all it is? They don't look bad, but maybe there is something in that uncanny valley of lighting and angles not being 'quite right'. Is that all it is? Could it have been fixed with another more cinematic picture grade?
It got me thinking about an advance preview copy of a film called Party Monster with Macaulay Culkin. It was shot on DV. The copy I was given (on VHS) had no sound mix (nothing added for atmos or crowds, no music) and no picture grade, just the raw DV footage. It looked insanely cheap. Like armature dramatics filmed on handy cam. I remember saying, "you can't release this, you will be a laughing stock".
Anyway they did release it, and they gave me a DVD. . . but when I watched the DVD it was a different story. It looked like a film (not a great film). They obviously couldn't chance what was shot in camera, but it now looked and sounded like a actual bonafide Hollywood film. I work as an editor for TV so I know what a grade looks like, but the transformation on Party Monster was something else. I wondered if all films started out like this.
Something about One Piece is very flat and cheap. Yes it probably is just the lighting (that they had to do for the cheap CGI 'Knightmare' backgrounds). . . . . Just a shame it has fallen at this hurdle because the story (and some action) actually holds up so far
I could see my daughter give me a hard stare as I began to open my big trap at the embarrassing CGI stretchy arms. . . I got the cue and kept my thoughts to myself. Both my wife and daughter were willing to look past the 'cheap' look. And why not, after all I am quite happy to watch Lexx and 80s Neighbours reruns and look past their wobbly CGI and sets.
Discuss.
My daughter is now 16 and has been reading it her whole life. She loves it. She went to the cinema to see the films, cried when a ship sank, blah blah. It seems my wife has also still been keeping up with the manga on-line.
So the live action drops on Netflix. I see that it's not a Japanese production and the cast are not Japanese and for some reason this makes me think it's going to be shit. The Netflix Cowboy Bebop was an american production and was pretty much unwatchable . . . but then so was the original anime (no idea why anyone raved about it). Then I also remember that even Japanese live action adaptations of beloved anime are all pretty much total shit so it probably doesn't make that much difference.
Good news. The creator is actually heavily involved, and my daughter tells me that he never intended any of the characters to be Japanese anyway, they are Brazilian, English, French etc etc. Seems like a decent reason for a western cast.
But straight away it looks really really weird. It's obviously expensive but something about it looks really cheap. Is it the lighting? The shots, the film treatment? It looks like a fan film. I couldn't quite put my finger on it. The acting is a bit cheesy but it's a cheesy story anyway. I think I actually like all the cast that I have seen so far, ham and all. So what is it?
The only thing I can think of is that it that all the backgrounds are CGI? Is that all it is? They don't look bad, but maybe there is something in that uncanny valley of lighting and angles not being 'quite right'. Is that all it is? Could it have been fixed with another more cinematic picture grade?
It got me thinking about an advance preview copy of a film called Party Monster with Macaulay Culkin. It was shot on DV. The copy I was given (on VHS) had no sound mix (nothing added for atmos or crowds, no music) and no picture grade, just the raw DV footage. It looked insanely cheap. Like armature dramatics filmed on handy cam. I remember saying, "you can't release this, you will be a laughing stock".
Anyway they did release it, and they gave me a DVD. . . but when I watched the DVD it was a different story. It looked like a film (not a great film). They obviously couldn't chance what was shot in camera, but it now looked and sounded like a actual bonafide Hollywood film. I work as an editor for TV so I know what a grade looks like, but the transformation on Party Monster was something else. I wondered if all films started out like this.
Something about One Piece is very flat and cheap. Yes it probably is just the lighting (that they had to do for the cheap CGI 'Knightmare' backgrounds). . . . . Just a shame it has fallen at this hurdle because the story (and some action) actually holds up so far
I could see my daughter give me a hard stare as I began to open my big trap at the embarrassing CGI stretchy arms. . . I got the cue and kept my thoughts to myself. Both my wife and daughter were willing to look past the 'cheap' look. And why not, after all I am quite happy to watch Lexx and 80s Neighbours reruns and look past their wobbly CGI and sets.
Discuss.
