I miss the old days.

I'm watching the extended sneak peek at the next Hobbit film, 'The Desolation of Smaug' (which came with the DVD combo).  While parts are supremely intriguing and fun- it's generally awkward to see Peter Jackson mug a lot in feigned spontaneous interest when a "surprise" cast member pops in "unexpectedly" to say something to kiss Mr. Director's ass.

It's all rather eye rolly material but neat to see how they do so many things as far as the process goes into making such extravagant movies... which I'm certain will soon not involve actual people on a location at all anymore but rather inside a computer program.  So it's very intersting but getting tiresome.  I miss the more tangible quality of movie FX real world applications of decades past, actually- no matter how far they've come.    Take for instance the magic of The Goonies (1985)- Actual locales, real water slides, real 'Goon docks', real mobsters, and a real honest to goodness (and EXPENSIVE) pirate ship for One Eyed Willie to be immortalized on actual real celluloid- later to be digitized for posterity.  E.T. (1982) was REALLY there with Eliott and REALLY wanted to go home -- which I believed was really out there somewehre.

Back in the days when An American Werewolf In London (1981)- had a poor American tourist get a nasty bite and morphed into a werewolf in actual real time through latex and air pumps rendering his bubbling and stretching flesh making room for the devil dog that was within him?  Remember Legend (1985) when they made an entire forest inside a sound stage with flora and fauna prancing about the snow machines and gossamer floating about the set- oh sure, it burned down in an inferno of 1939 Gone With the Wind proportions and Ridley Scott had a ton of damage control to take on, but it was worth it for US.  Hey, he shrugged it off and said, "Well- that sucks."  And that was that.

Furthermore, remember those grandiose matte paintings they would project onto a blue screen (yes, gen Yers- it used to be BLUE for effects shots, not green) of the sets after filming?  --and the artists who did them and how we admired them all?  Well, maybe that was just my super weird nerdy life...Okay, I know it was and still is.

Is it a coincidence that the few sparce movies I mentioned were all eighties movies?  Nope- not at all, considering that I look at that age as the golden age of film- given my age probably- everything was golden and full of potential back then.  Now... that I have reached full adulthood (which is debatable), I find most things that I used to treasure have reached their "best by date" and I missed a boat somewhere, sometime along the way- probably during that nasty bit with college in the grungey '90s when they stabbed my creative soul or some dramatic stuff like that.

Anyway despite all my moaning and groaning, I DO and have loved SO many films since as they DO still spark my creative juices and inspire me to create the art and have given me drive to write MY own epics and stories to produce within my own mind's soundstage.  THAT is all very real and tangible to me.  There's not one bit of motion capture in my head used to promote MY characters who can still believably fight Orcs, touch unicorns and discover lost pirate ships loaded with bounty stuck aground in caves used to save my home.

Anyway- this sneak peek at The Desolation of Smaug which I eagerly anticipated, has really pressed my own buttons in the end, my own personal CGI digigal buttons -which will win for best special effects I'm SURE!  All because I do love this franchise and cannot wait in any sane manner for this December to see this epic realized despite all the computer imaging- I'm an artist; I can find artistry in most any kind of tool used for whatever ends it needs.  I'm also a nostalgia junkie who loves my eighties.

I give this behind the scenes squint and teaser 3 1/2 stars out of five... respectfully.