Hook – 1991
As a movie, it was ok, but as a special effects movie, it was… sadly lacking. I say this because it had the potential to be really spectacular, but some of the effects seemed to be poorly done. Still, on the other hand, the effects that were done well, were done very well. So I guess what I’m saying is that my opinion about the visuals of Hook is divided.
On the one hand as befits a movie about a boy, or in this case, a man who can fly, there was a combination of wire work and blue screening. That took care of most of the visual effects for Peter Pan, and then there was Tinkerbell. There was some questionable size compositing, and some fluttering fairy wings. For that, I thought the effects were done passably well, though certainly not perfect. On the other hand, there were a lot of fun stunts, great lighting effects, and some wonderful matte-paintings. In fact, according to the ILM website, “The film is notable for featuring the first-ever dimensional matte painting, where a traditional matte painting was mapped onto 3D geometry, allowing for camera parallax and resulting in a truly spectacular shot of Pan flying towards Neverland.”
So Peter’s flight came in two different varieties. The closeups were actually pretty good. They had a competent stunt man on wires, doing flips and rolls. And they were able to digitally remove the wires from the image perfectly, although it was certainly clear he was on wires. And they switched between the stunt man and Robin Williams pretty seamlessly.
But the wide-angle shots were where the bad blue screening was really evident. There were times when the actors looked like they didn’t belong in the same image as the background. Some of the shots of Peter flying through the Lost Boys’ camp had some really bad lighting that highlighted him, creating a halo around him that didn’t match the light sources in the image. And a few times a telltale dark outline separated him from the environment.
Tinkerbell’s blue screening was better, for the most part, but even she had some poorly crafted moments. Also, her size seemed to be a little inconsistent. In some scenes, she seemed smaller than in others, in comparison to Peter. But I liked the way they made her wings look, both in wider shots when she was in flight, and when she was in close-up shots, where you could see more detail. But for the most part she was fine. The worst shot was during Peter’s flashback when she first comes to him and takes him off to Neverland. The lighting was all weird and made her image look really fake, like a cardboard cut-out.
A few of the other special effects were geared toward small children, were very silly, and were thus a bit ridiculous. Like when the character of Thud Butt (Yes, that was actually his name) pulled his laughably fake legs up to his head, somehow turned into a perfect sphere, and rolled around, knocking over pirates like bowling pins. Well, they can’t all be winners.