hipsterthor
Nanite
Doesn't Get These Jokes
God of Taste
Posts: 42
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Post by hipsterthor on Feb 20, 2012 0:52:49 GMT -5
All the special effects for the outside shots in space, involving ships and fighters and whatnot, are actually REALLY good. Like, Star Wars quality good. Some of the best effects seen on the show....but Mike and the Bots make fun of them. Now, I get that they're supposed to make fun of the movies, but insulting something that is so obviously good just comes off as awkward and pathetic. It's especially odd when Joel and the Bots, I recall praising the special effects in Fugitive Alien 2 and the Dragon in the Magic Sword, and the Production values of the Russo-Finnish trilogy.
I did some research, and apparently ALL the special effects involving the outside of the ship were lifted from Battlestar Galactica. Just straight up ripped out. Now THAT is sleazy and cheap. Make fun of the FACT that they STOLE effects from Battlestar Galactica, Make some Battlestar Galactica refrences, or at least POINT IT OUT. I can imagine Tom going, "Hey! That is from Battlestar Galactica! Bad movie! BAD!" It unfair, and insulting to the people who worked on that show to call their effects "crap", while mimicking the 2001 waltz. Especially when the effects easily rival 2001's! I mean what the hell, MST? This is the only time I've ever been mad at you.
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Torgo
Moderator Emeritus 
I am Torgo!
Posts: 11,852
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Post by Torgo on Feb 20, 2012 3:03:23 GMT -5
The Battlestar thing has been brought up many many times. I think they guys were asked about it before, and they just shrugged their shoulders and pleaded ignorance. It's possible there weren't any Galactica fans on staff so it went by unnoticed. I've only ever seen the remake series, so I definitely wouldn't have noticed.
As for making fun of the effects in general, quality is in the eyes of the beholder. They might have just been swept up with the cruddiness of the rest of the effects. Most of their jabs at the ships made reference to 2001: A Space Odyssey, where I suppose it could be argued that they are simply jabbing at the quality drop between one, a highly praised science fiction classic, and Space Mutiny, forgettable direct to video trash. It's a stretch, I know, but it's all 20/20 hindsight 15 years later.
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Post by Dave Walker on Feb 20, 2012 15:16:20 GMT -5
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Post by Treadwell on Feb 24, 2012 11:48:28 GMT -5
The shots were most likely not stolen but paid for, as Universal has a stock footage division.
I agree, though, that even if the Mads missed the Galactica connection, the effects are not "crap". The same people who did Star Wars worked on 'em, for pete's sake.
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Post by TheNewMads on Feb 24, 2012 12:38:32 GMT -5
i'm incredibly old, so i remember when the 70s battlestar galactica was on. it actually got known for having crap special effects, not because the effects themselves were so bad, but because they would REPEAT footage over and over and over again until it made you crazy. So it didn't rankle me too much when MST3k made fun, i bet mike and joel both saw the original show and got annoyed by the same stuff i did.
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Post by Dr. Henry Krasker on Feb 26, 2012 21:58:30 GMT -5
The shots were most likely not stolen but paid for, as Universal has a stock footage division. Exactly. It is not sleazy and cheap to buy stock footage. It's normal and accepted. As the ACEG notes, they were aware that the movie used stock footage from Battlestar Galactica, but for some reason, no jokes about it ever came up. It's a little surprising, but it's not as if they were hurting for jokes during that sequence. They had enough to riff on just from the inserted footage of Bolt Vanderhuge (Calm down! You're in your room!) that they really didn't need to joke about the Battlestar Galactica footage. More to the point, good production values do not a good movie make. How it's used is more important than what was used. The models are good, but the direction, acting, script and editing are all abysmal. On a side note, take a look at that final chase scene with the little electric golf carts. Every time they do a head-on close-up of Blast Hardcheese or Kalgon, the carts aren't moving. They're just getting shoved from side to side by off-screen techs while the camera shakes. It's pathetic. It's directorial sloppiness like that that make this a miserable movie (and a brilliant episode.) |
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Post by Afgncaap5 on Feb 27, 2012 17:33:51 GMT -5
I'll be honest...I make fun of some of the effects in Star Wars from time to time.
Not that they look bad, of course, just that they don't age as well in some places as others. The "force field" beneath the land speeder thing that Luke used in the desert was clever and fun looking, but it still makes me chuckle.
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