Things You Sorely Miss In Modern Media

[cojo965]

As per the title, what do you badly miss in modern media that used to be commonplace? I'll start with these:

A sense of wonderment - When the first cgi dinosaur appeared in Jurassic Park it was amazing because no one had seen anything like it. Now cgi is so all over the place and turns up so much that it has lost a lot of its impact. You know what never lost its impact? Stop motion. It was always a joy to behold because of the time put in meaning it was incredible when it was on screen. Then you have sequences like this:


and this:


and you wonder where is our modern equivalent?

A why the hell not attitude - Why is an alien fighting an elephant in Rome? Why not? Why are there a bunch of cowboys trying to lasso an Allosaurus? Why not? Why is a cowboy killing a Pteranodon with his bare hands? Why the hell not? All of it just made a good picture was all what it was for. So why does almost everything need some kind of grounding in reality now? Where is your swordfight with a six armed Kali statue huh cgi? The most memorable cgi sequence of recent memory was the Hong Kong battle from Pacific Rim and bugger all else besides thanks to that attitude.

So what about you guys?

 

[FalloutJack]

So what about you guys?

Well, on the first part, specifically on the Golden Voyage of Sinbad front, you would have to get a replacement for Tom Baker, who played the sorcerer. They have tried Clash of the Titans and Jason and the Argonauts and your mileage may vary on the part of success there. I'm thinking 'lukewarm' there. For the 'why the hell not' factor, though, I feel that Cowboys and Aliens was pretty damn decent.

A good case of the 'why the hell not' with dinosaurs, I think, is Primeval. It's a series involving bizarre time anomalies that basically connect different eras, with numerous incursions in modern times. Rather interesting. It uhh...did have a bit of trouble working out, but as far as I know they made five seasons, so not bad there.

 

[UnluckyObserver]

A sense of wonderment - When the first cgi dinosaur appeared in Jurassic Park it was amazing because no one had seen anything like it. Now cgi is so all over the place and turns up so much that it has lost a lot of its impact.

As someone who is interested in pursuing a career in CGI and 3D modelling, I feel the opposite holds true for me now. I find it amazing when I see CGI that I can't even tell is CGI. With what you said about CGI having 'lost it's impact', that's kind of the point most of the time - it's meant to immerse you and appear as real as possible. 'Good' CGI, at least according to my teacher in the classes I take currently, is CGI that isn't blatantly obvious.

With that being said though, I can understand why you feel that way. I remember when I first saw Treasure Planet, I was pretty blown away by how well they incorporated CGI with 2D animation. I actually recently watched it again along with all the behind the scenes footage and enjoyed it that much more because of the understanding I have behind CGI. A similar thing is out now with Disney's Paperman, which actually totally combines the 2D and 3D aspects of animation, instead of just having them appear next to each other in Treasure Planet, and I feel pretty blown away now that we can do that now.

But anywho, that's just my take on things.

 

[mistahzig1]

The "tools" of modern media are SLOWER to start now.

It used to be you pushed a button and the TV was immidiately showing... TV. now, you have to wait a few seconds for everything to load.


Oh yeah.. and HITTING those machines to make them work better (THAT was therapeutic I tell you whhhhat)

 

[Barbas]

The "tools" of modern media are SLOWER to start now.

It used to be you pushed a button and the TV was immidiately showing... TV. now, you have to wait a few seconds for everything to load.

Oh yeah.. and HITTING those machines to make them work better (THAT was therapeutic I tell you whhhhat)

ASUS packages some useful software with laptops and motherboards to speed up PC start-up speed. Solid State Drives are said to be invaluable for this as well, allegedly reducing boot time to a few seconds. Still, I do wish that companies would do away with lingering, unnecessary and unskippable splash screens and logos for their games, as well as pre-packaged bloatware for computers. We only need to see such things once before they become tiresome.

 

[mistahzig1]

ASUS packages some useful software with laptops and motherboards to speed up PC start-up speed. Solid State Drives are said to be invaluable for this as well, allegedly reducing boot time to a few seconds. Still, I do wish that companies would do away with lingering, unnecessary and unskippable splash screens and logos for their games, as well as pre-packaged bloatware for computers. We only need to see such things once before they become tiresome.

My biggest peeve is with the digital TERMINALS we use for TV.

I hate it when I want to change to a channel and the terminal's too slow to pick it up. For example, I press the channel 629 too fast and that stupid box inserts 006...and replaces the 6 for the 2, then the 2 for the 9 and I end up on channel 9 instead. Or some times whan I want the menu or a description of a show/movie and EVERYTHING stops in order to load EVERYTHING.

I don't know much about IT, but I never understood why they didn't implement somethign more effective than a TERMINAL where avery action happens on THEIR end instead of mine.

 

[Barbas]

(Snip).

I hate it when that happens. Usually when we get it, it's due to a poor satellite signal on our end. We can't even get the Sony movies channel, which is a shame, because the signal for that one is so bad that it keeps cutting out every few seconds. It does that on a few foreign channels, but not the rest, so maybe they just need to sort their operation out.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

This one is pretty modern but still...as awesome as smartphones are, I hate touch-screens. I absolutely need tactile feedback and, tangible buttons to truly feel in control. My phone for example, won't display the buttons that I would need to press if I'm on the line with an automated kind of call. Then there's the stigma attached to just about everyone who grew up in the 80's, 90's, or decades earlier specifically, you being told to "NOT TOUCH THAT TV SCREEN!" by an annoyed parent.

 

[Eamar]

Practical effects. I know they still exist, and I'm definitely not opposed to good CGI (Gollum? Smaug? Sign me up!), but I do mourn the fact that they're increasingly passed over in favour of CGI. I love admiring the craftsmanship and skill that went into physically building a creature, monster or miniature set (again, I appreciate the skill of people who do CGI, but this is a nostalgia thread damnit ) Plus, no matter how good the CGI, I think most actors deliver better performances when they're interacting with something physical.

To stick with the Middle Earth theme, take Azog from the Hobbit movies. I liked the character design, I thought the performance was good... but I really wish he'd been a guy in a costume, like Lurtz from FOTR or any number of the other orcs in the same movie. I just don't see the need for CGI there.

 

[Flutterguy]

Platforming games. I mean yea we still have them, but they've just lost their charm as consoles improved.

I miss old awkwardly funny commercials too. Ones nowadays are so refined and by the numbers. I mean I could still watch infomercials if I want hilarious poorly made ones, but its just not the same.

 

[Nickolai77]

Heh, well apologies for jumping on the bandwagon but i miss the day's when DLC's (or expansion packs as they used to be called) came out around a year after the initial games release and were intended to enhance a games lifespan rather than the quick cash-grabbing exercise they've become now.

 

[JimB]

I was at a patient's house the other day and some black-and-white movie was on. I don't know what it was. I just know the plot was a nobody decided to get involved in politics because one of his senators went off on a public rant about how no man could ever be elected to the position of judge without his (the senator's) approval, so the little dude decided to run against him out of principle because an American senator should be a servant of the people, not an emperor who uses his power to build his power base.

It made me miss the days when people believed government could be composed of good people trying to do good things.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Kids/ toy ad in tv especially cereal ads. Thanks to the new media regulation/ law thing, they are no longer allow to entice kids into buying their stuff thus cereal ads no longer have the toy promo thing inside it.

 

[Sniper Team 4]

Props in movies, not just CGI (I think this comes from Star Wars originals versus new films, especially their space battles).

Good old 'action' movie. No dark overtones, no soul searching, no anti-social/anti-hero hero. I think the last movie I saw that qualified for that was The Rundown with The Rock.

Respect. Whenever a debate--and I use that term lightly--comes on the news channels now, I just turn it off. It's not a debate, it's two grown children trying to shout over one another and it makes me ill. Granted, I've always found debates boring, but now they're sickening to me.

 

[Owyn_Merrilin]

"optimism"...and maybe "light-heartedness", "playfulness", and i guess "the fantastical" like you infer.

stuff like that.

i hate the fact that everything has to seemingly be "gritty"/"grimdark"/"realistic" now.

full of lots of people frowning all the time...

especially when it comes to modern TV sci-fi (with the only real exception being Dr, "actually made for kids", Who).

where the hell's "the A-Team in spaaaaaace" guys ?...

"In 3072 a crack space marine unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the outer rim underground. Today, still wanted by the galactic government, they survive as intergalactic soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team."

eh eh eh...

This. This this this this this this infinity times this.

It's so weird how the 90's is remembered as this decade of cynicism, because from where I'm standing the 90's was a highly optimistic time. Just looking at the media of the day, it was a time where the good guys always won, and the bad guys were actually bad (worse than the good guys, even -- can't say that about too many villains on modern TV). Ever since 9/11, it's been a parade of awful people doing awful things to people we're supposed to believe are even more awful, but really it's just a bunch of dicks being dicks to each other for no reason. I guess you could say the 90's was cynical compared to the 80's, but compared to the decade and a half since, you could be excused for thinking Buddy the Elf was president instead of Bill Clinton.

 

[BiscuitTrouser]

"In 3072 a crack space marine unit was sent to prison by a military court for a crime they didn't commit. These men promptly escaped from a maximum security stockade to the outer rim underground. Today, still wanted by the galactic government, they survive as intergalactic soldiers of fortune. If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find them, maybe you can hire the A-Team."

eh eh eh...

I dunno if you like warhammer 40k (I know the worst grim dark offender but bare with me) but it sounds like you would REALLY like the Caphias Cain novels. Its about a handsome, (kind of) charismatic but sort of lazy and self absorbed officer in the guard army. Think Zapp Branigan. Pretty much exactly him. Hes brave when he has a gun or a sword but the majority if his decisions are based around making himself look awesome, getting out alive and fuck everyone else or avoiding being punished for his obvious lack of effort in the line of duty. Unfortunately he seems cursed with LOOKING heroic at every turn while inwardly wanting to sit indoors all day meaning he is signed up against his will against greater and greater threats in more convoluted and life endangering missions that he totally laments and hates. The whole thing makes a mockery of the grim darkness by having our antihero behave exactly as we would in those scenarios and constantly ripping on how absurdly unfair all the grimdarkness is.

He has a kind of slow, totally blunt and course aide who reminds me very much of Baldric. Loyal but incredibly naive. So in a sense its like Blackadder if Blackadder was like Zap Branigan.

Anyway he ends up accidentally performing a "heroic" act by attempting to flee the battlefield in a "borrowed" jeep with Baldric in tow and disocering an enemy surprise attack. So its like an inversion of the A team, rewarded for a feat of valour he didnt commit and "rewarded" with dangerous important duties he doesnt want.

That kind of snarky poke is what i miss from modern media. The humour Blackadder brought into something as dire as the war. The frustrating stupidity of everyone more important than the protagonist, the protagonist being a selfish sarcastic bastard and still being the most likeable because hes witty and mostly good hearted instead of being whiney. The line between mopey/whiney and sarcastic protaganist has been lost to time. Either they come across as assholes or unfunny. I love Blackadder. His character is perfectly flawed.

 

[Frezzato]

Practical effects. I know they still exist, and I'm definitely not opposed to good CGI (Gollum? Smaug? Sign me up!), but I do mourn the fact that they're increasingly passed over in favour of CGI. I love admiring the craftsmanship and skill that went into physically building a creature, monster or miniature set (again, I appreciate the skill of people who do CGI, but this is a nostalgia thread damnit ) Plus, no matter how good the CGI, I think most actors deliver better performances when they're interacting with something physical.

To stick with the Middle Earth theme, take Azog from the Hobbit movies. I liked the character design, I thought the performance was good... but I really wish he'd been a guy in a costume, like Lurtz from FOTR or any number of the other orcs in the same movie. I just don't see the need for CGI there.

Yes. There's just no substitution for practical effects sometimes. Best example: Jabba the Hutt. I hold no nostalgia for anything Star Wars related, but in Jedi, Jabba had volume, his movement was tangible on screen. And his giant, dead eyes really made an impact. Also, the alien queen from Aliens. It was originally mocked up with (I believe) four guys in a frame covered with garbage bags. How they transitioned that to the queen I'll never know.

Props in movies...

Do you check out Tested [http://www.tested.com/] on YouTube [http://www.youtube.com/user/testedcom]? I can't tell if Adam Savage is meant to be a permanent member, but he's heavily featured in their episodes and podcasts.

 

[Catfood220]

Cassette tapes. Yeah, CD's and MP3's are less likely to self destruct on you, but there was something sweet about giving a girl (or boy if that's your thing) a mix tape. A mix tape took time and effort to do and there was always the chance it could self destruct at any minute.

Well, it was sweet back when I was a teenager.

These days, its click a few files, burn them onto a CD, done. No effort to make a mix CD.