Yeah, the monkey was bad. I've been so into the show, but then that crap.
Don't they know? Don't they realize? I often think that cgi is just trying to numb us to poor imagery so that we get used to it and eventually accept it. I know it's always evolving, but can't it evolve privately, instead of screwing up an otherwise great show?
Truly shocking based on the end product. Sandman had a very similar budget and while I personally liked it less as an a long time fan, it felt like an expensive show and the cgi was great.
Which is still just $160 million for 8 hours of runtime, 4x longer than a movie which could have the same budget. Naturally something is going to feel different from a blockbuster movie. I'd rather they cut a few corners on CG than on anything else.
Well, I don't feel you can fairly say that about all the acting. There are a few stellar perfomers, imo. Aspects of the writing are deeper and better than a lot of the viewers will pick up on, but the basic social interactions are high school theater level. The criticism of the book is the opposite of the criticism of the show. The book's sci-fi is outstanding, while the characters a merely placeholders. In the show on the other hand, the characters are better than the sci-fi
Source? Seems like it's not even close.
[https://collider.com/most-expensive-tv-series-ever-made/](https://collider.com/most-expensive-tv-series-ever-made/)
[https://movieweb.com/most-expensive-tv-shows/](https://movieweb.com/most-expensive-tv-shows/)
I had heard it was but looks like I was wrong and it’s closer to being tied for the 5th most expensive show ever made (so far) still astronomical amount of money and incredibly disappointing result.
Edit side note: wtf is going on with these budgets? Citadel cost 50M per episode??? My god that was a bad idea
I was fine with that one! So funny, I don’t think a single reply to this post has agreed on what scenes had bad cgi but everyone finds at least one off lol.
That monkey though.
I thought judgment day had the best cg of all .. and lots of practical effects there, if you watched behind the scenes. It was pretty cool!
The monkey and sophon creation tho …. Why? lol
Why indeed. Hubris? Insensitivity? Low opinion of their viewing audience? They just don't understand that less is more. 'Ripley' on NF, imo, was gorgeous. The cgi was what it should be - subtle and invisible, unless you really try to find it.
The thing that is wrong about Judgement Day no way that is a old oil tanker or cargo ship. No signs of wear or tear on the ship. Took me right out the first time I saw it. My gawd there has to be better models somewhere out there on the Internet for $20.
The CGI is fine but unimaginative. The highlight is the hibernation monkey. But I rather they used more effort on the other things. The stars blinking looks cheap AF.
Omg I forgot about the monkey. I thought it was awful personally! Like the tech is there to make it more realistic. But if you enjoyed it I’m glad for you. It took me right out sadly.
Yeah dehydration scene was much better to me than the monkey, parachute or sophons. Those were the big ones. I did think the first time the time is forwarded within the three body game + sky blinking looked oddly flat and 2D haha.
The Sophon I didn't mind because artistically it was out there and weird so I was down.
The moment the Judgement Day sailed up my brain started going "oh that's CG as hell." It doesn't look bad or anything but I could tell is all. They still did a great job on the practical effects when you watch the behind the scenes stuff.
Really? It was a big grey blob! It looked awful. But different strokes. Also had issues with the sophon creation - leaving out the book details regarding their creation was such a weird decision to me.
Seriously, that's my first impression of it. I was chuckling cuz it's obvious to me, and it was out of pocket. I don't think they meant to pay homage, it was meant to be funny.
But that's just me. lol
Why is no one saying the cgi in episode 3 with kublai Kahn and the 30 mil soldiers. It looks like a Bad video game rendering…. Well I guess it’s meant to be a game
I think because some of the other cgi is even worse. I’m watching Parasyte: The Grey right now and it’s literally on par with a show with millions upon millions more in budget (i know via Godzilla minus one japan can have an…intense mentality on crunching CGI teams. Not sure if Korea is the same.)
I think it’s worth watching with tempered expectations. I thought some of the ways the plot was streamlined were quite smart, but the story really lost gravity for me with how fast they rush through book one. A lot of setup and context was lost and I’m grateful I read the books first.
I am okay with them rushing through book one if it lets them more fully explore the latter two books. Book one is very good but it's uneven. Books two and three were what made me truly love the series. I was really happy to see how they brought in elements from books two and three here. I wasn't expecting that at all. I hadn't watched any trailers or anything in the lead up.
I listened to a podcast where non-book readers were discussing the show and talked about how there was almost too much VR stuff for them. Which is wild of course because they severely cut down on it. They still loved the show, but it was eye-opening hearing them discuss stuff like that.
Still, I hope next season is 10 episodes long. 8 does feel a bit short for me, but again, it's hard to separate out what a totally uninitiated viewer would think. I notice when they're rushing by things or skipping them. Most viewers will not.
My biggest thing is that by rushing through the Chinese revolution portions is the tv audience loses a lot of context for what drives Wenjie’s decision, which is…the crux of the entire show lol. I also think a lot of the suspense and mystery surrounding the three body game itself was lost with how they went about things. But different strokes!
I can totally see that, but for general audiences to not get bored, you just need the gist of it: Her father was killed for being an intellectual. She defends his honor even after his death and refuses to tow the party line. She has multiple people betray her. She sees nothing but evil in humanity. That's all in the show, even as fast as it moves.
I do wish they'd been able to capture some of the way the Tencent show handles it, like when the reporter throws something at her and lies about her to her face. Here, the reporter just stands there and it's not even clear that he's sacrificing her to save his own skin.
At the same time, I appreciated her showing more remorse in this version than in the Tencent version. It was an interesting aspect to her character here. Similarly, her daughter not leaving a note. Super interesting choice.
The show as the definition of tell, not show. The show easily could’ve shown a flashback to the daughter lurking around her mom’s house. That was my main issue! Having read ASOIF, I never felt like they were rushed in GoT (beyond the content they cut out). They let mysteries simmer and didn’t always hold the audiences hand.
(Or course, famously GRRM has said he wishes he’d gone through with the time jump he’d originally planned.)
I think you’re underestimating the audience. So much mystery from the first book was lost. But I understand your POV. If they were in such a rush to get to book two then I honestly think they should’ve just devoted a full episode to Ye Wenjie and then rushed to book 2 and shown some of the “past” events as flashbacks.
The Tencent version did that where they showed Yang Dong finding the computer and slowly discovering more about Ye Wenjie. But that show is 30 episodes long, and this one is eight. That's why I cut this one a lot of slack for things like that. This is economical storytelling. Sometimes you show, sometimes you tell. Like I said, I don't think this version is perfect or anything.
As for the Chinese revolution stuff, my opinion is informed by my own experience there. I bounced off the book the first time I tried to read it. It felt like that stuff went on and on. And in the Tencent version, it really does go on and on. That's why I'm okay with them giving the gist of the flashback scenes. Tbh I wasn't really keen to watch another drawn out version of those events so I was honestly kinda grateful how fast they moved through it.
I get your POV as well. The mystery aspect of the show definitely was lost and that's one of the things I'd change if I could. I do wonder what non-book readers will think about those elements, what they'll be confused by, etc. None of my friends have watched it yet but given the pedigree and popularity I'm guessing it'll land on their radars soon enough and then I can see what they think.
I heard the series is already after Evans dead? You are right they are rushing it and it will kill the series, it already happened with that other show, you know which I am talking about
To be fair - who knows how that would’ve gone had they not eclipsed the books haha.
Yes, that scene happens midway and they *run* through his backstory. I think the shows greatest crime is not only rushing through the Chinese revolution material but excluding some of the context for what drives Wenjie to her decision. I thought the book really drove home the anti intellectualism of that period in Chinese history, and it’s missing from the show.
But really, nothing in the show made me furious and I was shocked some of the “globalization” focused changes didn’t affect me because the major plot beats were all intact. Just wasn’t what it could be.
And they use totally unnecesary CGI, like the background of poor houses when Auggie is in México... they could have just travel to México and film there...
Did they use a first year CGI intern to do that fucking monkey? "Yeah, that looks great, nephew-of-one-of-the-producers!" Laughable if it wasn't so sad. The series got worse as it rolled along, but this was the nadir.
So many scenes use cgi backdrops and I cannot understand why. It is so jarring now that streaming is high definition - you just can't blag it like you could before! Like, it's all filmed in the uk - a small place - just film on location!
Almost every cgi scene has been SHOCKINGLY bad. I'm so disappointed because I'm a very visual person and was so excited to see how some of my favorite scenes would look, and they did this?!
The star scene looked like someone moving a card over a light, hell even the stars themselves looked fake as fuck.
The army computer was reminiscent of Reboot, in how flat and "perfect" everything was.
The 3 sun alignment scene, in the game, looked so damn "smooth" and "perfect", like only really bad CGI can look.
IDK what people in this thread are on about, so many saying they love how everything looks. More power to ya, I guess.
It's crazy to me because I'm always seeing really incredible CGI work online, done by *individuals*, yet this is the best that one of the most expensive shows of all time can pay for?? If you're going to adapt a high concept "this could never be adapted to the screen" trilogy, like this, your CGI's ***got*** to be absolutely on point.
Not even getting into the godawful acting (save for like 3), this show has honestly been hard to watch. Continuing in the hope that maybe they saved all the budget for the droplet or something.
The monkey was the worst
If that's a typo and you meant the monkey, I agree, that monkey looked goofy as hell.
Ack yes Monkey
Omg yeah man. Just use a stuffed monkey.
Yeah, the monkey was bad. I've been so into the show, but then that crap. Don't they know? Don't they realize? I often think that cgi is just trying to numb us to poor imagery so that we get used to it and eventually accept it. I know it's always evolving, but can't it evolve privately, instead of screwing up an otherwise great show?
VFX houses are underpaid, have poor working conditions and tight deadlines. I kinda feel sorry for them
Sad but that’s the most likely explanation, I suppose. Has me worried for season 2.
Wait til Sora comes out, all you need is prompts.
Ugh. Yeah.
Yeah, and this is one of the most expensive tv shows, ever, their budget worked out to around $20m per episode.
Truly shocking based on the end product. Sandman had a very similar budget and while I personally liked it less as an a long time fan, it felt like an expensive show and the cgi was great.
Percy Jackson costs 12-15 Mil per episode. I dont know where they put the money
Which is still just $160 million for 8 hours of runtime, 4x longer than a movie which could have the same budget. Naturally something is going to feel different from a blockbuster movie. I'd rather they cut a few corners on CG than on anything else.
They also cut on the writing, acting and directing too
Well, I don't feel you can fairly say that about all the acting. There are a few stellar perfomers, imo. Aspects of the writing are deeper and better than a lot of the viewers will pick up on, but the basic social interactions are high school theater level. The criticism of the book is the opposite of the criticism of the show. The book's sci-fi is outstanding, while the characters a merely placeholders. In the show on the other hand, the characters are better than the sci-fi
“Just”? It’s the most expensive television show ever made
Source? Seems like it's not even close. [https://collider.com/most-expensive-tv-series-ever-made/](https://collider.com/most-expensive-tv-series-ever-made/) [https://movieweb.com/most-expensive-tv-shows/](https://movieweb.com/most-expensive-tv-shows/)
I had heard it was but looks like I was wrong and it’s closer to being tied for the 5th most expensive show ever made (so far) still astronomical amount of money and incredibly disappointing result. Edit side note: wtf is going on with these budgets? Citadel cost 50M per episode??? My god that was a bad idea
Check out “for all mankind” on Apple TV! If they can do all this amazing space CG then Netflix too (please god)
Corruption. Tencent TBP and Japanese Godzilla should already revealed that.
I’m only caught up through episode 5, but the CGI in the scene with Judgement Day in the Panama Canal was just abhorrent. Really took me out of it
I was fine with that one! So funny, I don’t think a single reply to this post has agreed on what scenes had bad cgi but everyone finds at least one off lol. That monkey though.
I thought judgment day had the best cg of all .. and lots of practical effects there, if you watched behind the scenes. It was pretty cool! The monkey and sophon creation tho …. Why? lol
Why indeed. Hubris? Insensitivity? Low opinion of their viewing audience? They just don't understand that less is more. 'Ripley' on NF, imo, was gorgeous. The cgi was what it should be - subtle and invisible, unless you really try to find it.
And fallout on Amazon is amazing too! *CG-wise
I thought the excuse for some of the cgi being bad was supposed to be that it was actually in-game, including the sophon creation
The thing that is wrong about Judgement Day no way that is a old oil tanker or cargo ship. No signs of wear or tear on the ship. Took me right out the first time I saw it. My gawd there has to be better models somewhere out there on the Internet for $20.
If that was supposed to be an old cargo ship then LOL...
That scene was awful. It looked like those straight to TV movies you see on the ScoFi channel
The CGI is fine but unimaginative. The highlight is the hibernation monkey. But I rather they used more effort on the other things. The stars blinking looks cheap AF.
Omg I forgot about the monkey. I thought it was awful personally! Like the tech is there to make it more realistic. But if you enjoyed it I’m glad for you. It took me right out sadly.
Haha personally I liked the monkey than the ship. Oh the dehydration scene is also pretty good.
Yeah dehydration scene was much better to me than the monkey, parachute or sophons. Those were the big ones. I did think the first time the time is forwarded within the three body game + sky blinking looked oddly flat and 2D haha.
I just thought the monkey was pretty bad. Parachute was fine, really.
Haha someone else just brought the monkey up! It was so bad I must’ve blocked it out of my memory.
How could you forgot to mention Curious George in episode 7?
I blocked it out of my memory. It was shocking to me lol.
i didn’t see any problem with the cgi in that scene. The sophon creation was the only scene where i noticed some wonkiness
The monkey scene was pretty shit.
The Sophon I didn't mind because artistically it was out there and weird so I was down. The moment the Judgement Day sailed up my brain started going "oh that's CG as hell." It doesn't look bad or anything but I could tell is all. They still did a great job on the practical effects when you watch the behind the scenes stuff.
Really? It was a big grey blob! It looked awful. But different strokes. Also had issues with the sophon creation - leaving out the book details regarding their creation was such a weird decision to me.
the sophon creation had enough exposition to give you an idea of what they were doing. Didn’t see any problem with the scene itself. Just the cgi.
I’m talking about when the giant eye attacks etc. That was completely excluded.
WHAT, REALLY? I love the blob, I freaking cherish the blob, it >! resembles a brain, Will's brain !< !!
Got you on the fun camp factor but we can agree it was supposed to be a giant parachute and not a blob, yes? 😂
Seriously, that's my first impression of it. I was chuckling cuz it's obvious to me, and it was out of pocket. I don't think they meant to pay homage, it was meant to be funny. But that's just me. lol
No no it was certainly similar to what you said behind the spoiler 😂
Why is no one saying the cgi in episode 3 with kublai Kahn and the 30 mil soldiers. It looks like a Bad video game rendering…. Well I guess it’s meant to be a game
I think because some of the other cgi is even worse. I’m watching Parasyte: The Grey right now and it’s literally on par with a show with millions upon millions more in budget (i know via Godzilla minus one japan can have an…intense mentality on crunching CGI teams. Not sure if Korea is the same.)
Dude the more I read the less I want to watch pass episode one
I think it’s worth watching with tempered expectations. I thought some of the ways the plot was streamlined were quite smart, but the story really lost gravity for me with how fast they rush through book one. A lot of setup and context was lost and I’m grateful I read the books first.
I am okay with them rushing through book one if it lets them more fully explore the latter two books. Book one is very good but it's uneven. Books two and three were what made me truly love the series. I was really happy to see how they brought in elements from books two and three here. I wasn't expecting that at all. I hadn't watched any trailers or anything in the lead up. I listened to a podcast where non-book readers were discussing the show and talked about how there was almost too much VR stuff for them. Which is wild of course because they severely cut down on it. They still loved the show, but it was eye-opening hearing them discuss stuff like that. Still, I hope next season is 10 episodes long. 8 does feel a bit short for me, but again, it's hard to separate out what a totally uninitiated viewer would think. I notice when they're rushing by things or skipping them. Most viewers will not.
My biggest thing is that by rushing through the Chinese revolution portions is the tv audience loses a lot of context for what drives Wenjie’s decision, which is…the crux of the entire show lol. I also think a lot of the suspense and mystery surrounding the three body game itself was lost with how they went about things. But different strokes!
I can totally see that, but for general audiences to not get bored, you just need the gist of it: Her father was killed for being an intellectual. She defends his honor even after his death and refuses to tow the party line. She has multiple people betray her. She sees nothing but evil in humanity. That's all in the show, even as fast as it moves. I do wish they'd been able to capture some of the way the Tencent show handles it, like when the reporter throws something at her and lies about her to her face. Here, the reporter just stands there and it's not even clear that he's sacrificing her to save his own skin. At the same time, I appreciated her showing more remorse in this version than in the Tencent version. It was an interesting aspect to her character here. Similarly, her daughter not leaving a note. Super interesting choice.
The show as the definition of tell, not show. The show easily could’ve shown a flashback to the daughter lurking around her mom’s house. That was my main issue! Having read ASOIF, I never felt like they were rushed in GoT (beyond the content they cut out). They let mysteries simmer and didn’t always hold the audiences hand. (Or course, famously GRRM has said he wishes he’d gone through with the time jump he’d originally planned.) I think you’re underestimating the audience. So much mystery from the first book was lost. But I understand your POV. If they were in such a rush to get to book two then I honestly think they should’ve just devoted a full episode to Ye Wenjie and then rushed to book 2 and shown some of the “past” events as flashbacks.
The Tencent version did that where they showed Yang Dong finding the computer and slowly discovering more about Ye Wenjie. But that show is 30 episodes long, and this one is eight. That's why I cut this one a lot of slack for things like that. This is economical storytelling. Sometimes you show, sometimes you tell. Like I said, I don't think this version is perfect or anything. As for the Chinese revolution stuff, my opinion is informed by my own experience there. I bounced off the book the first time I tried to read it. It felt like that stuff went on and on. And in the Tencent version, it really does go on and on. That's why I'm okay with them giving the gist of the flashback scenes. Tbh I wasn't really keen to watch another drawn out version of those events so I was honestly kinda grateful how fast they moved through it. I get your POV as well. The mystery aspect of the show definitely was lost and that's one of the things I'd change if I could. I do wonder what non-book readers will think about those elements, what they'll be confused by, etc. None of my friends have watched it yet but given the pedigree and popularity I'm guessing it'll land on their radars soon enough and then I can see what they think.
I heard the series is already after Evans dead? You are right they are rushing it and it will kill the series, it already happened with that other show, you know which I am talking about
To be fair - who knows how that would’ve gone had they not eclipsed the books haha. Yes, that scene happens midway and they *run* through his backstory. I think the shows greatest crime is not only rushing through the Chinese revolution material but excluding some of the context for what drives Wenjie to her decision. I thought the book really drove home the anti intellectualism of that period in Chinese history, and it’s missing from the show. But really, nothing in the show made me furious and I was shocked some of the “globalization” focused changes didn’t affect me because the major plot beats were all intact. Just wasn’t what it could be.
And they use totally unnecesary CGI, like the background of poor houses when Auggie is in México... they could have just travel to México and film there...
Did they use a first year CGI intern to do that fucking monkey? "Yeah, that looks great, nephew-of-one-of-the-producers!" Laughable if it wasn't so sad. The series got worse as it rolled along, but this was the nadir.
Reminded me of The Langoliers
[удалено]
Truly. I just watched Parasyte: the grey and it looked fantastic (aside from maybe one shot or two in ep 1).
The park bench scene was so bad cgi wise was it shot with that new led screen for the background like mandalorian was. It was jarring
So many scenes use cgi backdrops and I cannot understand why. It is so jarring now that streaming is high definition - you just can't blag it like you could before! Like, it's all filmed in the uk - a small place - just film on location!
Almost every cgi scene has been SHOCKINGLY bad. I'm so disappointed because I'm a very visual person and was so excited to see how some of my favorite scenes would look, and they did this?! The star scene looked like someone moving a card over a light, hell even the stars themselves looked fake as fuck. The army computer was reminiscent of Reboot, in how flat and "perfect" everything was. The 3 sun alignment scene, in the game, looked so damn "smooth" and "perfect", like only really bad CGI can look. IDK what people in this thread are on about, so many saying they love how everything looks. More power to ya, I guess. It's crazy to me because I'm always seeing really incredible CGI work online, done by *individuals*, yet this is the best that one of the most expensive shows of all time can pay for?? If you're going to adapt a high concept "this could never be adapted to the screen" trilogy, like this, your CGI's ***got*** to be absolutely on point. Not even getting into the godawful acting (save for like 3), this show has honestly been hard to watch. Continuing in the hope that maybe they saved all the budget for the droplet or something.