Visual Journal entry #89
Date: September 29, 2012
Art credits to deviantart user Livio27
This is by far the most badass rendition of Darth Vader I’ve seen in fanart terms. The artist painted this in hopes of making a good tribute to Darth Vader in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK by making him as “hardcore” as possible and this painting does that perfectly. In the opening sequence of the movie, the Empire has attacked the Rebel base in the snowy planet of Hoth and after a long battle, the Empire won. This here is an imagined scene right before the Rebel armies lose and Christ on a horse, it’s fucking badass. Vader, being all hardcore as usual, strolls through the battlefield without giving a single fuck for the casualties that dot the background. This painting is great not only because it does its intended purpose well but also because it looks like it was ripped right from the movie; it looks like a legit deleted scene. The color scheme matches the Hoth battle perfectly and the drawing style is realistic enough that the movements of the characters involved are fluid. And yes, Vader is badass.
Visual Journal Entry #85
Date: September 29, 2012
Art by deviantart user liamsharp
To satisfy my sudden need to know more about Judge Dredd after watching the movie DREDD 3D (which I must say is a bit lacking but overall good), I found myself searching for the Judge on deviantart and this is by far the best drawing of Dredd art I’ve seen there. The details and character grouping are great; it makes the characters look like they were yanked out of an animated movie with a budget the size of Russia. The coloring is great; even if it’s all drawn/ colored either digitally or traditionally, the details such as the reflection of light and shadows are realistic. The horizon showing MegaCity 1 being engulfed in flames add to the nature of the comic, which is a dystopian kind of thing and like any 90’s action fan, nothing beats a good explosion. On the other hand, though, the color scheme sucks (I did say that this was the best DRAWN art of Dredd). Judge Dredd, as far as I know, lives in the wastelands of a devastated post-nuclear war America and the colors used for the background don’t do shit to convey this mood. They look way too reflective and peaceful for some reason, which are the exact opposite moods of the chaotic/ anarchy driven comic.
Visual Journal Entry #84
Date: September 29, 2012
Remember that a while back where there was a TOTAL RECALL poster? Where I mentioned some shit about “dissolving effects?” Well this is what I was talking about. While it’s obviously digital, the dissolving effect used here is goddamned right. It fits the context of the movie where in Joseph Gordon Levitt’s character will face off with his future self (played by Bruce Willis) in some crazy time-travel shit. The poster for the movie LOOPER as shown here is really simple as compared to most other extravagant posters but this one takes the cake; without being explicit, the theme of the movie is visualized through the use of only the two stars and some really good CGI rendering near the title.
Visual Journal Entry #83
Date: September 28, 2012
I don’t really hate Superman (though he’s not a favorite of mine) as much as I hate Capt. America but holy shit, this has got to be the funniest drawing of him I ever saw.As the website where I found this said, “Even Superman looks bored by his own comic” and that’s one way of putting it into context. Seriously, if you had the powers of the sun, laser vision, nigh invulnerable skin and a whole lot of other abilities that most probably includes atomic farting or some shit like that, a bunch of 9mm bullets would be boring as fuck to you. Superman’s face sold the damn picture; you could feel the tediousness of shocked oblivious criminals desperately firing boxloads of ammunition at a bored Superman who was expecting Lex Luthor doing some crazy-ass shit when the city police called.
Visual Journal Entry #82
Date: September 28, 2012
Even if there is completely 0 information related to this movie at the moment save for the proposed cast list and a poster here, I’m looking forward to the movie adaptation of KANE AND LYNCH. The poster was enough to convince me about the movie and it’s not only thanks to the cast list but the way the poster was made. Even if there are no faces shown, the poster gives a really badass attitude which suits an adaptation for a videogame that revolves around two hardcore criminals. The strong contrast of colors helps emphasize the elements on the poster and holy shit, it looks awesome.
Visual Journal Entry #81
Date: September 22, 2012
Releasing on the same day (Christmas 2012) as LES MISERABLES 3D is Quentin Tarantino’s new film DJANGO UNCHAINED and holy shit I’d be lying if I said I would kill to see this movie this December (seriously, fuck you MMFF).
DJANGO UNCHAINED is Tarantino’s tribute to the Spaghetti Westerns and here are two versions of his upcoming movie. The first one (the one with two guys) is the “dramatic Western” version while the second one (the predominantly red one) is the “grindhouse/ exploitation Western” and good god I love them both. They both communicate Tarantino’s style that can either go full drama or full black humor and they also do a good job of recreating the time period of the exploitation/shlock movies well (60’s to 80’s), which Tarantino is known for doing in all of his movies. Sad thing though is that these are only fan-made posters; the original studio poster looks like today’s lazy as fuck modern “art” that sells $100,000,000 for a painted square.
Here’s the original poster: http://collider.com/wp-content/uploads/django-unchained-poster.jpg
While you’re at it, watch the trailer for the upcoming awesomeness: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUdM9vrCbow
Visual Journal Entry #80
Date: September 22, 2012
Hey look another movie poster. Anyways, this is the teaser poster for the upcoming 2012 Broadway musical turned movie LES MISERABLES…. IN THREE DEE!!! (PS: We won’t be seeing this thing until January 2013 thanks to the MMFF so while the rest of the world gets a musical, we’re getting ENTENG KABISOTE # WHO GIVES A SHIT).
I expect this movie to be great, I mean just look at the cast… LOOK AT IT. The director is also good (THE KING’S SPEECH guy) and the source material is fucking great (~*~Do you hear the people sing…~*~) but the poster could use some fucking imagination. Alright, it’s just the teaser poster but the DREDD 3D teasers were intimidating as fuck… it worked well in the movie’s context. This, minus the cast listing and other movie details, looks like a 20th Anniversary cover for the book. It’s not only unoriginal, it’s fucking lazy. For a movie that I expect to be a goddamned epic, the poster work could’ve used more effort in giving something to be excited about.
By the way, do yourself a favor and watch the trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xk5UStefYmE
Visual Journal Entry #79
Date: September 22, 2012
So apparently this is turning into “movie remake week” and up next is DREDD 3D, the 3D remake of the 90’s Stallone action vehicle JUDGE DREDD which in turn is an adaptation of the British satire comic. Unlike the previous entries, this one actually looks promising to me (hell I’m watching it this afternoon) so expect less cynicism here.
Now this looks badass… which is the complete opposite of the Stallone vehicle. The 90’s DREDD was crap; it looked like a cheap copy of ROBOCOP and all that stuff about “super policeman in crime ridden hellhole” but a PG-13 version of that story (I’m not going to talk source material since I never read the comics anyways). Or in other words, the first JUDGE DREDD movie was a kiddy affair trying to look mature. It was as cool as a 5 year old swearing at everyone in a vain attempt to look as cool as John McClane. This one on the other hand, has signs that the remake is going to veer as far away as possible from the original movie. It’s badass; there’s a burning city in the back; Judge Dredd looks intimidating as fuck and that tagline up there actually sounds menacing with the foreground imagery. This is the kind of action people like me have been yearning for and this poster, even without spoiling a single detail or even showing a few more characters, communicates that well.
Visual Journal Entry #78
Date: September 22, 2012
My massive anger against this movie’s mere existence and the love I have for the Schwarzenegger original, this poster for the remake of TOTAL RECALL is actually a bit decent. Not masterpiece level but getting there… or at least a sweet as fuck poster if not on par with the STAR WARS ones.
Since the whole point of TOTAL RECALL is an identity crisis in the future alongside action scenes and a three boobed hooker, the whole dissolving protagonist idea for the poster works well in context. Behind Colin Ferrel is the futuristic London and while unoriginal when compared to the likes of BLADE RUNNER, the futuristic British capital is actually sweet looking. My only major beef with this poster, though is, again as seen in today’s “movies,” is an over-reliance on CGI. I bet the poster would make the movie 100000% more interesting if it was hand painted (especially the dissolving effects… done by hand it would be fucking sweet) but instead, bad CGI and photoshop were used. Too bad since I actually liked the poster idea for this shitty movie.
Visual Journal Entry #77
Date: September 22, 2012
Now this isn’t exactly “art” (like paintings and such) but I’ll be talking about the design of this costume so I guess that counts. What you are looking at is the redesigned armor for the ROBOCOP remake that’s currently in the works and love for the original 80’s ROBOCOP aside, this thing looks like total shit.
The old armor, while looking too much like a toy to be taken seriously, was at least distinct and iconic. This one is anything but iconic or distinct. Ok, it may be a wee bit too early to judge the “iconic” part since the movie isn’t coming out until 2013 but whoever designed the new armor obviously watched or played too many video games. There are too many similarities to the HALO armor and even the new Batman costume as seen in BATMAN BEGINS onwards. Hell it even looks like a flatter version of the armors in GI JOE: RISE OF COBRA and IRON MAN combined. There is nothing original about this thing (and don’t give me crap about how “nothing is original” these days; people get points for at least TRYING). In a landscape where the whole future according to science-fiction looks so goddamned smooth as if a toilet company made all the damn furniture, this new armor will have a hard time standing out amongst all the other power armors out there.
