Computer killed the video star

Every now and then John and I get to feeling really lazy, and decide that instead of doing anything the least bit productive we'll have ourselves a movie day. Which, roughly translated, means that we go to a matinée movie (which are priced at $7 here...WTF?!?) and then theater hop to see at least one more movie. I know...bad bears...how dare we cheat the local multi-plex of that extra $3.50 that they'll easily make up on a single 12 ounce soda? But I digress...

So on Sunday we did just that, and headed in to see Transformers and then Ratatouille. The first showing of Transformers was at 12:30, and we were there at 12. The theater we went to is housed in a mall, so we (unwisely) bought our tickets and wandered out to browse a few stores we'd normally never set foot in to kill some time until the movie started.

I say unwisely, because when we finally wandered back into the theater, it was so packed that we had no choice but to sit in the you-can-see-every-one-of-those-pores-that-the-lead-actors'-makup-guy-worked-so-hard-to-cover-up seats. The only good thing was that we were sitting next to this rather hot military looking guy who had some nice tattoos on his rather beefy arms. But even that wasn't enough to keep us in seats that required us to move our heads from side to side just to make sure we were catching everything on screen.

So we left that theater, and waited in line for the next showing of the movie right next door. I have to admit that despite going in knowing it was a Micheal Bay film (and thus lowering my expectations enormously) I was quite pleasantly surprised at certain aspects of the film. The CGI effects were really great, and allowed for some really kick-ass action sequences. They were only ruined when the robots started (shudder) talking. Especially when one of them sounded like he was the whitest kid in the world trying out to be the next VJ on BET. But overall, the CGI effects and sequences out-classed anything the live actors could bring to the screen. I mean, how can an actor compare with a big-rig truck that changes into a 50 foot high robot while skidding down a major freeway, locked in battle with another 50 foot high former vehicle robot thingy?

Which was a funny revelation to have as we headed into Ratatouille...an entirely CGI movie. The only thing that actors were really good for in that movie was the voice-overs. Which, don't get me wrong, were very well done. But it got me to wondering, when one can create such a wonderful and visually rich world inside a computer, how far are we from the majority of movies having come from pixel rendering? The amount of detail and visual beauty that Pixar continues to put into their movies never ceases to amaze me.

After all, a pretty good percentage of the Transformers movie was CGI. And when the time comes when it's cheaper to create an entirely CGI movie than deal with sets, props, and overpriced primadonna actors required for most blockbuster movies...how hard of decision will it be to just go with the computer?

Or maybe all these thoughts were the result of achieving dangerously low blood sugar levels while attempting to sit through nearly 5 hours worth of movies on protein bars alone...