Iron Man Three - Or How Markus Got His Mojo Back

It's April twenty-fifth, twenty thirteen, twenty-two past five in the morning and I just got back from watching the UK midnight premier of Iron Man Three.

Before we start this whole thing, keep in mind that there might be things described and discussed in this post that you will consider spoilerific, if you are worried about those sort of matters I'd advice you to stop reading and maybe come back after you've actually watched the film.

I've always been a fan of comic books, but I've rarely had the patience to sit down and read a long series of them, so if you're looking for a fellow comic book aficionado's opinion you will not find it here. The love of the stories in comic books have however lead me to watch many of the animated series and films which as a kid I ate up in as huge chunks as I could find. You could imagine my glee when the X-Men film first came out in 2000, I couldn't wait to see all my favourite characters from X-Men: The Animated series and X-Men: Evolution come to life on the big screen. I watched in awe at the characters, what they did and tried to figure out why they did what they did, little did I know that I was witnessing the birth of a new wave of films.
Few years later my favourite character from my favourite cartoon showed up in the form of Tobey Maguire in Sam Raimi's Spider-Man, I couldn't stop watching it. I thought about him all the time, how special he was, what he stood for, and how I wanted to be like him. Not just have the powers, but be good like him. To be a hero. Few films have shaped my as much as Spider-Man did in its day, and it still holds a place in my heart as one of my favourite films.

I was always excited to see superhero films, but for a while I weren't the fanboy that I used to be. I started my cinematic discovery phase, akin to how some more free spirits may travel the world to find themselves, I watched films. All films I could watch I would watch, I wasn't discriminative. I went from watching maybe a few films a month at best to watching at least a film a day, or at the very least every other day. I thought myself somewhat higher on the rank of film watchers than those around me, that my opinion was better because I had based it on a wider spectrum of films, I had seen what ranked between amazingly beautiful to horrendously hideous. It was towards the end of this period that the company that stood behind several of my favourite childhood superheroes started making their own films.

In 2008 Marvel Studios released the film simply titled Iron Man. Up to this point I had actually heard surprisingly little about this superhero considering how much time I had spent watching men and women in tights fight bad guys, but I tried it out. I didn't like it. All around me people were hailing it as the saviour of the superhero film genre, that finally someone had got it right and hit the jackpot. I couldn't really care less about the film, I found it to be alright, perfectly acceptable for what it was, but not for me. It was just another film to add to my spectrum.

Disregarding my criticisms Marvel went ahead and released more films, The Incredible Hulk was released the same year as Iron Man, in fact a mere month later. I enjoyed it more than Iron Man, but I didn't really understand why they'd had to go back and change so much about how Ang Lee's Hulk worked. I liked how it was set up, its goofiness, its comic book style, it reminded me of X-Men and Spider-Man. The new Hulk film was too different for my taste, it was gritty, it was dark, it had some humour in there of course, but the overall tone put me off, it wasn't to my liking.
My experiences with Iron Man and The Incredible Hulk lead me to never watching Iron Man 2, I just skipped it, I figured I wouldn't like it, I figured I would save myself the trouble, there were plenty of other films to add to my spectrum.

Then one tiny, insignificant, inconsequential thing happened, I joined Twitter. I joined Twitter originally to keep up with updates on the then-in-pre-production series Stargate Universe, but I discovered that I could also use the networking site to keep up to date with other projects, news, and even make a few friends. One thing lead to another and I ended up following Ashley Edward Miller and Zack Stentz, two science-fiction screenwriters who at the time had just finished writing a film called THOR. They shared a lot of how they had written it, what they thought of, and Zack in particular shared many an amusing tale from Norse lore that I absolutely adored. I had long been a keen watcher of Norse mythology, but never studied it much beyond what was required for me in school, but Zack got me really interested. The fact that him and Ashley were going to have a superhero film out about a superhero based upon the most famous of Norse gods really sprung my interest. I bought a ticket for the premier and went in with high expectations to a studio which had twice previously let me down. Nearly two hours later I left the cinema, and I was amazed, it was the most spectacular and fantastic superhero film I had seen. I fell in love.

I didn't just fall in love with Thor and his story, I fell in love with superheroes all over again, I fell in love with Marvel. The following few weeks I spent most of my free time on iTunes renting and buying everything that Marvel had released, and what I couldn't find there I got at my local video store. There was so much to take in, so many films that had been made, so many series that had been created, and I wanted to watch it all. I ploughed through all of Marvel Animation's films and TV series, the Spider-Man films, X-Men films, Daredevil, Elektra, everything that had been released since my birth in little more than a week. And I was hungry for more. I turned my head back towards what had lead me off of superhero films for so long, Iron Man. I typed Iron Man into the little search bar on the iTunes film store, clicked the rent for 3.99 button that at the time was extremely dear to me, I waited a few seconds for the film to buffer, and I hit play.

Two hours later all of my previous notions were shattered, I did no longer find Iron Man to be a mess of a film, I didn't think it was far beneath the likes of Spider-Man and X-Men, I did not think it was a disgrace to what I had hoped it would be; I discovered that it was greater than I had ever even considered it could be. It was what a superhero film should be like, at least in this day and age, it had a few rough edges, but what I saw it had meant to superhero films ever since was tremendous. Without Jon Favreau's Iron Man from 2008 the superhero scene would be far, far from what it is today. And not just Marvel's library of films, all films, be they the nemesis DC or other third-party competitors. It's the biggest change of heart I have ever had about a film, I went from loathing a film to loving it. Iron Man was in a class of its own, it was the truest I had seen of any comic book film adaptation, it was glorious. I quickly put on Iron Man 2 to see what I had missed out on there, but I fear that perhaps my over-excitement over Iron Man tainted my experience and has ever since. Iron Man 2 is a decent superhero film, but there are many that are better, it felt very standard and mediocre, it had managed to stale a new type of superhero films just a few years after its birth, but luckily THOR changed it up again.

Two months after having first watched THOR I was sat at the cinema again, waiting for the premier of Captain America: The First Avenger, which in my opinion is the best film Marvel Studios has made that isn't a team-up film, when it got its home release I watched it several times in a few days, I just loved it, and it had been months since my initial love spurt, it proved to me that what Marvel was doing was indeed something special, at least to me.

Fast forward to April of last year, just over a year ago, I was sat at Bergen cinema watching one of the very first screenings of Avengers in the world. I had had very high hopes for Avengers, it was supposed to be everything I had learned to love over the past year merged together by the man who had made several of my favourite television series, it sounded too good to be true. I was in the middle of the final months of a production at the time, but I had told my entire team to take half a day of and join me at the cinema for the Avengers world premier. I made up some speech about how it would boost team morale and that they all needed a break, but I just really wanted to see that film, and I didn't want to wait any longer. The lights dimmed, the Marvel logo spun, the tesseract showed its glory, the alien scene played and I was enthralled beyond my wildest expectations. Every scene tested my attention, how much I could actually pay it, I hung on every word dropped from every breath, I watched every movement made from every thought, I didn't study it, I was engulfed by it. I wanted to know everything, I wanted to see everything, everything was so great, even though a row of unwieldy teenager behind me made every attempt to draw my attention to them, I couldn't. The experience was beyond anything I had ever had before and I doubt it'll ever happen again. Seeing the likes of Iron Man and Thor side by side, was more than I could've ever dared dream of. I wept tears of sorrow and I wept tears of happiness, I let out laughs of relief and I let out laughs of resent. It was and is the best hundred and forty three minutes I've ever spent at a cinema, and it saddens me just a little bit that I'm likely to never experience that again. On my way out of the cinema I was so dazzled that I actually tripped and fell flat on my face, bruising both my arms and numbing my upper lip for the better part of a day, but it was still an amazing event. I ended up watching Avengers six times total at the cinema, I learned to love every line and every eye twitch, it was amazing.

It has been with a slight pain that I have now had to over a year for the continuation of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, all I've had in between are a few mediocre episodes of television series to keep my appetite whet, but finally Iron Man Three tickets appeared available for purchase at my local cinema, and I went straight ahead and got myself a ticket for the UK midnight premier.
I had pretty high expectations to Iron Man Three, not as high as to The Avengers, I never thought it could hold that throne warm, but I expected it to kick of the next phase of Marvel films for a good start. A great start.

The lights dimmed all the way down and a voice started speaking over the blackened screen ahead of me, Tony Stark spoke with a voice not of confidence as he normally would, but with a voice of concern, a voice of self-understanding, a voice of wisdom. The Marvel logo spun on, and the film officially began. From the very first time I saw Tony, till the very last I was stuck in a stare at the screen. It was magical, all I had to do was sit there and watch as the screen played the most wonderful image sequences to me. The film was great, perhaps even spectacular. There wasn't a moment in the picture where I thought to myself that something could've been done better, I was just sat watching, taking it all in. The first fresh smell of Marvel in a year, it was beyond my expectations of the film. It was not as great as Avengers, neither did I think it'd be; and it was not better than the first Iron Man, however much I would want it to be. But that's no disgrace, the fact that two such great films are better does not make a bad film.

One of the better things about Iron Man Three is that it isn't as much about Iron Man as it is about Tony Stark, more so than it's two predecessors. The main antagonist of the film is, I would say, Tony's struggles with the aftermath of what happened in New York. Of what happened when the Avengers had to save the Earth from a mighty alien invasion all on their own. Tony is exhausted, he can't sleep without dreaming of New York, he spends every moment working on his Iron Man suits, making one for just about every occasion he can think of. All he really wants is safety, safety from villains, safety from the media, and most importantly safety for Pepper. Pepper is all he truly cares about in the world, and the reasons he saves it is her. She is his world, but he can't always be there for her when she needs him most, and that kills him. The fact that with all the power he has in the world, every child in our world knows his name and his suit, he has more money than money can buy, but when it comes right down to it, not even his personal army of Iron Man suits can stop the bad men of the world taking Pepper from him. Tony is helpless, he is far from home, and he needs to save Pepper. That is what this film is about, it's a step down in scale from the intergalactic war that is Avengers, but it's a step up in scale in terms of its emotional score. There are things you can do with characters in these individual films that you just can't do in the big team films where half a dozen characters are fighting for the main light. There is just Tony. And that is more than enough.

Now, of course, it wouldn't be Iron Man without a huge fight between Tony and the main human antagonist towards the end, and Iron Man Three does not disappoint. Not one, not two, but closer to forty five Iron Man suits end up surrounding Tony, the main bad guy Killian and his army. All the suits are working together at Tony's will and JARVIS' power, it's a spectacular sight, and seeing all those different suits is a treat for anyone who's read a few Iron Man comics. You will definitely recognise a few of the designs, I'll guarantee that. It's all very fun, but not as sweet as the actual ending. Tony is finally feeling better, he's got Pepper safe now, he's got himself safe now, and he's knows that Pepper can take care of her own safety now should Tony not be able to. It's a sweet ending, and it would be kind of fitting for the end of a trilogy. But even though I am usually a strong believer of not making more films than necessary surrounding the same characters, I'll make an expectation here and really hope that there will be an Iron Man 4 some time in Phase Three. It would not be the Marvel Cinematic Universe if Tony didn't have his adventures represented throughout.

It's April twenty-fifth, twenty thirteen, twenty-two past five in the morning and I just got back from watching the UK midnight premier of Iron Man Three. I thought it was great, and I highly recommend that you go watch it (in cinemas) as soon as you possibly can. It is a must-see this year. Tony is safe.

Managing Expectations and Being a Good Audience Member

If there's one thing I have learned over the years it is how to manage expectations, when you watch a few hundred films a year you learn that being disappointed a few hundred times a year isn't really that much fun.

Most people out there don't watch as many films as I do, and most people out there don't know how to best manage their expectations and be a good audience member. This is because most people only watch a few films a month, if not even less, and when they do watch them it's because someone, at some point, has told them that the film is worth watching. The problem is, that the reasons one person has for a film being worth watching very rarely correspond to another person's reasons of worthiness.

This last year I've watched more films with a group of friends than I have previously. I used to either go on my own, or with a single friend who I knew what liked and wanted from a film. When you go with a large crowd, when you stand outside the theatre and discuss the film with a large crowd, you see where people go "wrong". A recent example I have is from when I went to watch the film Hansel & Gretel - Witch Hunters. One of the first comments I heard immediately after the screening was: "That wasn't exactly [Cloud Atlas]" (which we had seen the night before). I got his point, he didn't like it as much as he liked Cloud Atlas, and I thought that was everything to it, but when explaining his opinions it sounded like he was after something very different than the film advertised.
He wanted a more realistic, more hardcore, fantasy tale, a more "serious" film. It seemed like he wanted something more along the lines of, yes, Cloud Atlas or Lord of the Rings. It's perfectly fine wanting a film like Fellowship of the Ring, but not when you go into a film by a renown splatter director who enjoys parodies. The trailer itself was a redband trailer, it showed a lot of gore, it showed guns, it showed stupid jokes, it pretty accurately represented the feel of the film. All you had had to do to have a more suited mindset was watch the trailer, or at least read up on the director. I went in with all this in mind and found the film to be totally alright, not horrible, not great.

When you learn how to manage your expectations you need to learn how to be a good audience member, watching a film might seem like a one-way type of deal, but it's as two-way as any media. Opinions normally don't get me angry, but they can very easily get me angry if the person expressing them hasn't understood this two-way street watching a film is. I can't count how many times I have heard people complain about a film being absolutely horrible, when the only thing wrong is the people's demographic. You cannot go into a film aimed at ten-year old girls as a forty-year old man and expect it to cater to your tastes and life experiences. When you watch a film, you have to judge it on its own merits, it's like compearing apples and oranges. If you bite into an apple wanting a nice, sour, citrus taste, than you're out of luck. It is not the apple's fault that it doesn't taste like an orange, it's your fault for eating an apple expecting an orange.
You see examples of people orangewishing every day, forums are flooding with people just exiting their teens complaining that the children channel's they used to love hasn't grown up with them. They don't realise that there is a whole new generation of children watching now, with new tastes, new demands and new feelings.

When you want to watch a film, do your research. I'm not saying you need to read the director's seven-year blog detailing every aspect of the production, but see who's involved, read the pitch and if you want to, watch the trailer. Don't completely relay on the picture you piece together from this, though, it's not a big secret that film adverts these days not necessarily are perfect reflections of the film they advertise. You'll learn soon enough what the different pointers in a trailer really means, and whether it's something for you.
And please, please don't go into a film not aimed at you if you have no intention of watching it for what it actually is. A children's film is a children's film, a girly film is a girly film, a boyish film is a boyish film, you cannot change that. If you can't embrace it for what it is, then it isn't for you anyways, move on and find a film you'd rather watch.

Hashtag Visual Effects Protest

If you have any connection to anyone in the VFX industry you've no doubt seen at least a few green-screen green avatars around lately. If you're reading this you've probably heard a lot about it already, but I want to express my own opinions on the matter, I want to tell you how I feel right now, paying thousands of pounds to a university so that I myself can go work in the VFX industry.
If you're not interested in that, you can read either this article from YaHoo! Movies or this from /Film. They're both great articles that will tell you why people are angry.

First of all, nothing of what is happening now is new, this has been going on for years, at least for as long as I've been paying attention, and likely a lot longer before that. The reason this is coming up now is because BAFTA and Academy Award winning VFX house Rhythm and Hues went bankrupt making one of the most critically acclaimed films of 2012, Life of Pi. VFX houses have done this before, but Rhythm and Hues is a widely respected business, and frankly it was just the last drop in the bucket.

Just two days before Life of Pi won its Academy Award I was lucky enough to be in attendance of Hans Rijpkema's Animex talk on how it was to work at Rhythm and Hues and in particular on how it was to work on Life of Pi. He didn't talk about the state of R&H as is, but he gave a very good talk on exactly how much work went into Life of Pi. First of all, let me just give you a number, the eye catching headline whenever someone writes about VFX. The final render of Life of Pi took a combined 1633 years. This is not including setting up the renders, testing the renders, renders that went wrong, different versions, man hours that went into making the things that were to be rendered, just the final render itself. And you know, if you're doing it well, it takes longer to make the thing that needs rendering than it does to actually render it. One thousand, six hundred and thirty three years. That's a lot of time. It's such an amount of time that people have a hard time comprehending it, if you sent one of R&H's average render computers back in time to render Life of Pi on its own it'd had to be sent back to the year 380(ish) to make sure it was done by Life of Pi's release.

However, the real time spent is not spent rendering, it's the extreme amount of research and development done leading up to a project. In order to create a photorealistic, no, real tiger, R&H has done years of research. Animals is the trademark of R&H, they created the animals for Cats & Dogs, Scooby-Doo (2002) and Aslan himself for Narnia. Creating the famous Richard Parker wasn't something thrown together over night, it's taken years for R&H to at all be able to make him.
You probably weren't surprised when you first heard there was a CG tiger in Life of Pi, but I think that is mostly because you expected it to be. You knew they couldn't have made a tiger act like that on a set, but did you know that there is actually 23 shots of a real tiger in the mix of Life of Pi? I sure didn't before Rijpkema told me. They spent ages fine-tuning every detail of Richard Parker, making every last thing just right. He showed off some test renders, which I wish so hard I could show you, where they had taken a shot of the real tiger and matched the animation. The first shot he showed us I had to comment to the person next to me: "I think he has messed up, obviously he's shown the same shot twice by mistake." And I wasn't the only one, Ang Lee himself had gone past a technician working on a shot and commented "nice reference footage" only to have the technician reply "it isn't a reference, it's a render".

It's really hard to convey to you without the use of actual work-in-progress shots how much time went into every last detail of that film, and I'm far from understanding it fully myself. Hundreds of people around the world spent their entire days for years to make sure this film was made just right, and what did they get back? They lost their jobs. When a VFX artists does her job, you're not supposed to know she was ever there, and because of that they are forgotten. Film studios don't want to pay large amounts of money for something "someone has just made on a computer".

Digital artists can and are being replaced, most of the time we don't really have to be at an office, we can just sit at home, make what we're supposed to and then ship it across the world where some poor bastard lost her job because I, on the other side of the world, was willing to do her job cheaper. VFX houses keep having to underbid themselves to get work, it's not as much about how well they can do a job, it's how cheap they can do it, and now they want us to do the same job even faster, a film has to be made in three years, two! There is no time for preparation, but there is plenty of time for over- and crunchtime.

Nothing of this will change if all we have are words, action has to be taken. If films all of a sudden look like this webpage does now, will the industry get what it's worth? Or will the cheap and willing emerge even more, making it impossible for anyone to work and live in proximity of the film they're supposed to work on? All I know is that in a very short amount of time I'm going to, hopefully, enter this business full-on, and whether or not if I survive will rely on what will happen at the living wake of Rhythm and Hues.

A thing that is scaring me about the next generation of VFX artists is the way we are being educated on the industry. I've been in school studying 3D film production, computer character animation and various other fields for several years now. What software we are taught, how to use them best, what being creative means, it all differs from country to country, from school to school, from teacher to teacher, but a few things remain throughout:

1. Do not expect any recognition.
     - Fair enough, I'm not making pretty pictures on a computer in the pursuit of fame.

2. You will work overtime.
     - I will work overtime? Isn't it just then "time"? Oh, you mean there will be a set schedule when I will work, but it will be broken all the time because people want their films done quicker than we can make them? Great.

3. You will work crunchtime.
     - Crunchtime? How does that differ from oveOH! You want me to work all the day, every day, for months on end? Not just overtime, but basically slavery? I am expected to work till I actually develop psychological problems. At least the pay is good.

4. You will either get paid very little, or nothing at all.
     - Well, that is just dandy, isn't it? You want me to work my ass off for months at the time so that you can pay me barely enough to afford food and rent? Or even better,  you want me to do this for free because, after all, it's such great exposure for me. People will see my work on this one thing in these three shots and they will come throwing money at me. No, they won't, see number 1. I will have to pursue them, I'll have to show them this piece of work, I'll have to tell them I did it for free, and then they'll probably expect me to do a similar thing for free because I've already done it for free once. Brilliant. I think I'm going to like it in this industry.

But as much as we complain, and we do complain (read: making our voices heard) a lot now, we do love what we do. Otherwise we wouldn't do it. No sane, normal person says to herself: "I am going to go paint pixels and drag cursors twenty-odd hours a day!" We grew up watching the same awesome films you did, and we want to make the kids today grow up watching even awesomer films than us! But we can't do that if you won't let us, we can't do that for you, but we will continue to do it for us. We will always do what we do, and some day, some beautiful day, maybe we'll start making our own films from scratch. I think it's time more VFX studios lose the "VFX" from their name. They already make the majority of the film anyway, take it that little step further, hire the screenwriters, hire the directors, hire the actors, make the films yourself.

Oscar 2013 Predictions

Update 25.02.2013: I've added the winners of each category with a few comments to go along.


It is that time of the year again, in just a few hours the Academy Awards ceremony is starting and the grandest film event of the year begins. Now, there's a lot of films to go through, but before we get to it I want to explain my categories to you.


There are often major differences in what film I think will win, what film I think should win, and what film I just want to win. I seldom share my opinion with the Academy's voters, but that doesn't mean I can't understand what films they are going to vote for. That's why I differentiate between will win and should win. For added subjectivity I also add what film I want to win, it's often enough different from the two previous categories that I use it to share which I'd vote for.

And now, in the order of the listing at http://oscar.go.com/nominees, here are my predictions:

Best Picture

Amour, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Silver Linings Playbook, Django Unchained, Zero Dark Thirty, Les Misérables

Best Picture is the biggest award of the night, and the one there's often the most controversy over. I have seen all of the nominated films in this category apart from 'Lincoln', and oddly enough that's the film I think will win. It holds all the traits of an Academy Award winning film, and all the buzz around it makes me think it actually will win. However, there's another film I both think should win and I want to win, Silver Linings Playbook. When I watched it I was spellbound from beginning to end, the acting is magnificent, the story is wonderful and the directing is fantastic. A small part of me think it actually will win, but it's not big enough to throw off the part of me which believes Lincoln will win.

Winner: I was not expecting this one, Argo took home Best Picture without being nominated for Director. It's apparently the fourth time that has ever happened. I'd prefer Silver Linings Playbook winning, but Argo was not a bad winner.

Lead Actor

Bradley Cooper, Denzel Washington, Daniel Day-Lewis, Joaquin Phoenix, Hugh Jackman

There's two performances on this list I haven't seen, Daniel Day-Lewis', and Joaquin Phoneix'. I am however completely conviced that Day-Lewis will in fact win this one. There's been talk about it happening since before the film was even released, and the only way I think it will be possible for him not to win is if everyone decided that they didn't want to vote for the obvious one and went for another.
I think Bradley Cooper should win, his performance in Silver Linings Playbook was absolutely amazing, I never saw him as a quality actor, but apparently there is something really big inside of him that David O. Russell managed to get out, I don't doubt we'll see him nominated again.
Here I want Hugh Jackman to win, even though I found Cooper to be fantastic, there was something about Jackman's role in Les Misérables that just stuck in me. I also just really want him to finally get an Academy Award, as I think he's long overdue for one.

Winner: Yeah, of course Day-Lewis won, let's move on.

Lead Actress

Jessica Chastain, Quvenzhané Wallis, Jennifer Lawrence, Naomi Watts, Emmanuelle Riva

I've been able to watch all of the performances in this category, and they're all really good, though I don't really think they all deserved to be nominated. I think, and want, Jennifer Lawrence to win, she was glorious in Silver Linings Playbook, really bringing her character to life to the most minute details. Sure, you can recognise the way she plays the character from other roles she's had, but I think overall she made Tiffany a real-life character.
Now, I've put Emmanuelle Riva as who I think should win. And this is a bit more for "political" reasons than actual quality and talent. Do not get me wrong, her acting in Amour was as good as flawless, but the main reason I put her as 'should' is that having an elderly, French woman winning the award would be really great for the Academy. She's just different enough from the norm of Oscar winners that it could help the Academy evolve from the rut it's getting itself into.

Winner: Jennifer Lawrence won! Probably the best part of her winning was seeing how excited and surprised she were. Then again, she did just win the price for Lead Actress... Nah, I'm sure she was genuinely excited and surprised.

Supporter Actor

Robert De Niro, Alan Arkin, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Tommy Lee Jones, Christoph Waltz

Christoph Waltz. I don't even think I have to say anything more here, if you've seen Django Unchained you will understand, if you haven't, get the frak to it.

Winner: Christoph Waltz won! Much deserved.

Supporter Actress

Amy Adams, Sally Field, Anne Hathaway, Helen Hunt, Jacki Weaver

Same goes for Anne Hathaway as did for Waltz.

Winner: Of course Anne Hathaway won as well!

Animated Feature Film:

Frankenweenie, ParaNorman, Brave, Wreck-It Ralph, The Pirates! Band of Misfits

Wreck-It Ralph will win, I'm ninety-nine percent sure of it, and so is Disney. In fact, when I attended Animex this week (blog post soon to follow) a speaker from Wreck-It Ralph went as far as to say: "I hope you will all follow the Oscars on Sunday and watch us win." I don't think it should win, however, no matter how much I loved Wreck-It Ralph another film was just far superior. 'The Pirates! in an Adventure with Scientists' (as it's properly called) was just charm from frame one right up until it ended. It's the best animated film I've seen in years, and I really hope it actually will win.
Side note: I think it's really great that the majority of the nominees are stop-motion films, even though I'm mostly a CG animator myself I think it's taken a bit too much over lately.

Winner: What the frak!? Brave won!? I've got to be honest with you, I did not see that one coming, at all. In my personal opinion it was the weakest of all the nominees, and I sincerely believed Wreck-It Ralph would take it home. I've never been so surprised over an Academy award.

Cinematography

Anna Karenia, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

I've not seen Anna Karenia or Lincoln, but I don't think I have to. Life of Pi's visuals are stunning, and I think it will win this award even though the main reason it is stunning is its VFX. A Rhythm and Hues speaker at Animex went as far as saying "[Life of Pi] is nominated for cinematography, and even though it probably is great and all, I think we [, Rhythm and Hues,] should get that award as well should the film win it".
Django Unchained is the worthy winner of this price, in my opinion, it may be a bit of filmmaker porn, but isn't the entire Academy Awards that to begin with?

Winner: This one was far from surprising, Life of Pi took the award home. No mention of Rhythm and Hues, though.

Costume Design

Mirror Mirror, Snow White and the Huntsman, Anna Karenia, Les Misérables, Lincoln

I don't really care much for this category or have strong opinions, but I've placed all my bets on Les Misérables.

Winner: Anna Karenina was the winner here, I have yet to see that film, and to be honest I probably won't see it for a long time.

Directing

Amour, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook

Directing! The second biggest award of tonight, I'm actually really unsure which film will win this award, though I'm really sure which film should win. I landed on Lincoln for directing, just because I thought it'd win Best Film, really. Silver Linings Playbook should win, though. That film is just marvelous, and I won't talk so much about it here as I have earlier. I just want to say, I really loved Silver Linings Playbook.

Winner: Ang Lee won for Life of Pi. He was my third pick for winner after Spielberg (Lincoln) and Russell (Silver Linings Playbook). Many VFX type people around the world were hoping for him to mention what Rhythm and Hues has gone through while making his film, filing bankruptcy and all, but no. He didn't even mention the VFX which featured in... Well, of the shots people actually remember from the film it was probably all of them.

Documentary Feature:

5 Broken Cameras, The Gatekeepers, How to Survive a Plague, The Invisible War, Searching for Sugar Man

Haven't watched a single one of these films, I chose The Gatekeepers because Wheezywaiter thought it'd win.

Winner: Searching for Sugar Man won this one, and I sort of thought it would do that, but another wrong, another day.

Documentary Short:

Inocente, Kings Point, Mondays at Racine, Open Hear, Redemption

Not watched any of these either, but Redemption sounds like a film that could win.

Winner: Incocente won this one, not much to say.

Film Editig:

Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook, Zero Dark Thirty

I thought Argo was brilliantly edited, and I think the Academy will think so as well. I don't really have much more else to say, I'm pretty sure about this one.

Winner: Argo won! YAY!

Foreign Language Film

Amour, Kon-Tiki, No, A Royal Affair, War Witch

FIRST OF ALL! I hate that Amour is nominated for both Foreign Language Film and Best Film, that means that it will win Foreign Language, if it was in the top nine of all films, why would it lose out to these four films which weren't? I do want Kon-Tiki to win, though, I haven't watched it (yet), but it's Norwegian (as I am) so it'd be real neat if it won.

Winner: Of course Amour won, moving on.

Makeup and Hairstyling:

Hitchcock, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Misérables

Don't have much opinion on this one, think Les Misérable will win though, and I guess it deserves it.

Winner: Les Misérables won, as predicted.

Music (Score)

Anna Karenia, Argo, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

Neither Argo's nor Life of Pi's score really stuck out to me, I can't hum any theme from any of them. I honestly think Skyfall will win solely because of Adele's song.

Winner: Here's another I didn't expect, Life of Pi won. I honestly can't really remember any music from the film, even when people on twitter linked me songs I couldn't quite connect them up to the film's experience.

Music (Song)

Chasing Ice, Ted, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Les Misérables

Yeah, there isn't really any competition here.

Winner: As predicted, there was no competition, at all. Skyfall just won.

Production Design:

Anna Karenia, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln

Lincoln will win because it's Lincoln, but Les Misérables should win because of the way it brilliantly merged theatre style sets with film style sets. It didn't put me out of the story, but it was fun to see how the sets where built up as for a theatre, but filmed as a film.

Winner: Lincoln won this one, like I've said I haven't seen the film, but I guess it isn't really an unworthy winner. These sorts of prices tend to go to period pieces anyway.

Short Film (Animated):

Adam and Dog, Fresh Guacamole, Head Over Heels, The Longest Daycare, Paperman

No doubt Paperman will win this one, the way everyone has talked about it, but I found it to be rather average when it comes to its story, art and direction. Its technology, mixing 2D and 3D animation, was amazing, though.
But Adam and Dog should win, it was heartwarming and heartbreaking, it was beautiful and it was ugly, it was the best animated short I saw last year.

Winner: Paperman took home the undeserving win here, as predicted.

Short Film (Live-Action):

Asad, Buzkashi Boys, Curfew, Death of a Shadow, Henry

Haven't watched any of these, but Buzkashi Boys sound like a winner, I suppose.

Winner: Curfew won, guess that title sounds kind of like a winner as well.

Sound Editing

Argo, Django Unchained, Life of Pi, Skyfall, Zero Dark Thirty

I think Life of Pi will win this one, the sound sounded like it had a vision, Ang Lee knew what he wanted and he achieved it. I'm rather unsure about this one, however, but I don't really see any other clear winner. Perhaps Argo.

Winner: Here's another shocker, something I didn't even think was possible, both Skyfall and Zero Dark Thirty won. It was a tie! It's apparently only happened five other times in the history of the Academy Awards. I've got to say, it seems rather odd that they couldn't just get some new person to come in and settle the tie. Something! But oh well, this was one really threw of people's Oscars predictions, that's for sure.

Sound Mixing

Argo, Les Misérables, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Skyfall

GAH! I'm not much of a sound guy, and I'm finding it really hard to justify my choices on these categories. I'll just go for Argo.

Winner: Les Misérables won this one, guess it sort of makes sense with all the music and sounds mixing together. But, alright.

Visual Effects:

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey, Life of Pi, The Avengers, Prometheus, Snow White and the Huntsman

This is more like me! Life of Pi will win, no doubt about it, it's stunning, it's beautiful, it's technically well done, and everyone loved it. The Avengers should win, though. I don't think many realise, but the very most of this film was complete CG. That battle in New York? They weren't even in New York for most of the time. Sure, Life of Pi handled water and pictures of skies well, as well as their trademark photoreal animals, but The Avengers was a technical marvel. Pun intended.

Winner: Of course Life of Pi won this one, Rhythm and Hues, in particular, did an amazing job on the film. I'll talk a bit more in length about their work on this film in my blogpost about Animex 2013.

Writing (Adapted)

Argo, Beasts of the Southern Wild, Life of Pi, Lincoln, Silver Linings Playbook

I think Argo will win, because the Academy will want to give it some awards, but I think Silver Linings Playbook should win. It just works so much better.

Winner: Argo won! Best Film and Adapted Writing, not bad for a film not nominated for Directing.

Writing (Original)

Amour, Django Unchained, Flight, Moonrise Kingdom, Zero Dark Thirty

Django Unchained should win, because it's frakking amazingly written, but I think they'll actually go for Zero Dark Thirty because of its real-event story and closeness to a really proud moment for the USA.

Winner: Wish I'd gone more for my guts on this one, Django Unchained won, as deserved. Don't really know why I went for Zero Dark Thirty anymore, seems rather obvious now that the Academy would go for Django, oh well.



Results: I got 12 out of 24 categories correct, half and half. From what I remember, that's a bit better than what I did last year. Maybe in a few years time I'll master the art of predicting the Oscars and starting making the complete opposite films. Maybe.

Cindel and Wicket Back Together?

The rumour has been floating between various blogs for weeks now, starting with Zack Snyder going to make a film about a group of Jedi warriors, and now it has all (mostly) come true. Disney has confirmed that they're developing a slate of stand-alone Star Wars films to be released in the same time period as the new trilogy.

Many speculate that the first stand-alone is going to centre around Yoda, exactly what time-period Yoda we're talking about no one is certain, and this speculation has its merits. Lawrence Kasdan, writer of The Empire Strikes Back, which introduces Yoda, is one of the screenwriters set to write a stand-alone. Bring me all the hate you want, but as fun as Yoda is, I think his story is much better left in mystery. The way he is introduced and shown in the original trilogy is so fantastic. We have no real idea who he is, other than he's supposed to be a great Jedi master, and we never learn who he is before he passes away just shy of training Luke to his prime. He is a great character indeed, but I believe he is great because of how little we know of him (as far as I'm concerned, he wasn't in the prequels).

I am a fan of Bob Iger 's(Disney CEO) wording when it comes to what the films are going to be about.

"[We] are working on films derived from great Star Wars characters that are not part of the overall saga." -Iger

It could sound like they're making films about fan-favourite characters from the films, and that the films are not going to be a part of the main saga, but to me it sounds like they want to make films about characters that hasn't been in the main saga. And I have to say, the latter sounds much more interesting. As much as I want to learn the origin of Wuher or the final demise of a certain Binks, it'd be much more fun and interesting to see characters from the extended universe come to life in bigger budget films.

I have recently watched some of the old stand-alone Star Wars films (for reasons which will be apparent in future), and I have to say, I really want Cindel and Wicket to meet up again for a stand-alone. If you even can call a third story of them two a stand-alone.
For those of you who don't know, Cindel and Wicket were two of the main characters of the Ewok Adventures films, Caravan of Courage and The Battle for Endor. Cindel was a young human girl at the age of eight or nine at the time, and Wicket was a young Ewok boy roughly the same age (at least mentally). I believe that a story that brings those two back together could capture the imagination of the viewer.

Perhaps one could be set around the time Cindel turns sixty, she is all alone, her family long gone, and she never found anyone she thought she could spend her life with. She watches her holovision (or whatever it is they're watching in The Star Wars Holiday Special) and sees the news that the moon of Endor, and the Ewok people has entered into the new Galactic Alliance.
   - We can add something about how their bravery during the Battle of Endor contributed to the membership despite the Ewoks's obvious long way to star travel -
The first Ewok congressman is an adult Wicket, who now speaks quite fluently Galactic Basic Standard, who promises he will fight for the Ewoks's rights to the entirety of the Endor system and for congress to grant them schematics for hyperdrive engines so that they can travel freely within the Alliance.
Cindel immediately recognises Wicket despite all the years they have spent apart, and she goes on a quest to find him. She has to get to Coruscant, but it's not that easy getting to the capital of the relatively newly formed Galactic Alliance. The planet has been off-limits for off-worlders for decades, unless they're elected congressmen.
   While she is doing all the sneaking about to get to Coruscant, we learn that Wicket himself is looking for Cindel. One of the main reasons he went into galactic politic was so that he could find his childhood friend once again.
   Cindel is left stranded on Tatooine after a trafficker robbed her of all her credits and took off, leaving Cindel with nothing but the clothes on her back. Sat in a crowded bar (yes, it's Chalmun's Spaceport Cantina, alright?) she is on the brink of tears, she has no idea what to do. She then hears the bartender shouting something. "HEY! We don't serve furry bastards around here." Cindel looks up, and sees Wicket standing in the door. She gets up and runs towards him. "How did you find me?" "Oh, it wasn't so hard." Wicket then points to wristband she's wearing. "I remember the serial number, it was how you learnt me to count." Cindel gets teary eyed and hugs Wicket again. They leave the cantina together.
Or something like that.

There you go, Lucasfilms. Please go make "Smuggler of Truth", I know I'll watch it.

Original confirmation source.