HBOHBO Forum
glyphstrip  
Halo.bungie.org
glyphstrip
Frequently Asked Forum Questions
 Search the HBO News Archives

Any All Exact 
Search the Halo Updates DBs

BWU Halo Halo2 
Search Older Posts on This Forum:
Posts on Current Forum | Archived Posts

View Thread Reply Return to Index Set Prefs Previous Next
Gravemind is ugly, ugly, ugly.
By:Quirel
Date: 10/31/14 3:20 pm
In Response To: I'm actually not liking it that much. (uberfoop)

And I'm not a fan of what Blur did to the fictional Gravemind either.
Zing!
: I mean, it's technically very well-done, but there's no subtlety at all.
: Literally every little movement and gesture has been punched up to 12, as
: if Blur is fighting a cinematic loudness war.

Most of what I agree with is in the whole Gravemind scene.

Let's talk character design: I don't think giving the Gravemind an actual mouth was a good idea. I get the reference to the Mouth of Sauron, but it doesn't make sense in context. Those meaty chops are thirty meters across! You should hear them slamming together when it speaks. And what's with that second set of mandibles? What's it even doing? Why is it waving around like a cheerleader squad on speed?

I think the driving idea behind the cutscene in the first place was that of a puppet show. It was using two captive puppets to convince two new puppets to do the Gravemind's bidding. And the Gravemind's head itself was a bunch of vestigial limbs folded together into a hand puppet. It wasn't a face. That wasn't a working mouth.

The Gravemind turning to face the Chief also undercuts his characterization. In the original cutscene, he was there and ready for the Chief, like Lucifer at his desk. And now that everyone is flailing around, it's hard to see the Arbiter struggling in particular, or see him react to the Chief's "Relax. I'd rather not piss this thing off."

: Pelicans can't fly out to a city in the horizon, there needs to be dense
: buildings under them at all times, and they also need to make lots of roll
: motions. Miranda can't pose a thought without an aggressive scowl. A
: warthog can't be driving along a road, it has to ramp up onto it. A scarab
: can't enter by crushing a car, it has to crush a building and then crush
: a car. A pelican can't simply tumble out of control under pink AA fire, it
: has to suffer a big explosion in the process.

In isolation, some of these would be great additions to the Halo 2 cutscenes.

: Also, I have to complain about the general framing and editing during the
: discussion with Gravemind. It's very impersonal in the new version, and
: what it focuses on makes no sense. It's especially baffling that the don't
: center around Arby at all during the "your prophets have promised
: you... or all will perish as they did before", which in the original
: showed Arby's train of thought throughout the monologue brilliantly; now
: the camera is focusing on the Chief for some reason, and rather than
: pausing in awe at the appropriate moment, Arby is just sort of twitching
: the whole time. Or when the Gravemind is saying "you will search one
: likely spot, and you will search another", in the original the
: Gravemind gives the semblance and general air of actually addressing the
: group as a team, whereas now he's just yanking them in one by one; he's so
: blunt , not even pretending that his next line will include a
: "this ring will make us brothers."

: The way these scenes are staged and edited just doesn't seem that great. The
: rhythm and ideas present in the originals were sacrificed, and I'm not
: sure what for.

I agree with everything here.


Messages In This Thread

H2A Gravemind cutscene and full level *sp*?Dervish10/29/14 7:28 pm
     Re: H2A Gravemind cutscene and full level *sp*?zofinda10/29/14 8:06 pm
     As much as I love everything so far...ckamp10/29/14 9:33 pm
           Re: As much as I love everything so far...zofinda10/29/14 9:51 pm
                 Re: As much as I love everything so far...ckamp10/29/14 10:11 pm
                       Re: As much as I love everything so far...Jaydee10/29/14 10:16 pm
                             Re: As much as I love everything so far...ckamp10/29/14 10:36 pm
                                   Re: As much as I love everything so far...Apollo10/29/14 11:39 pm
                                         Re: As much as I love everything so far...thebruce010/30/14 9:35 am
     Re: H2A Gravemind cutscene and full level *sp*?davidfuchs10/29/14 11:02 pm
     EYYYYYY! SO AWESOME! *NM*Apollo10/29/14 11:27 pm
     Re: H2A Gravemind cutscene and full level *sp*?Grizzlei10/30/14 2:29 am
     I'm actually not liking it that much.uberfoop10/30/14 4:02 am
           +1Gravemind10/30/14 6:46 am
                 Re: +1Hyokin10/30/14 1:00 pm
                       Re: +1uberfoop10/30/14 1:30 pm
                             Re: +1Hyokin10/30/14 1:57 pm
                                   Re: +1uberfoop10/30/14 2:10 pm
                                         Re: +1Hyokin10/30/14 2:23 pm
           Gravemind is ugly, ugly, ugly.Quirel10/31/14 3:20 pm
                 Trying to look at it like I did 10 years ago.Revenant198810/31/14 3:48 pm
                       +1Dervish11/1/14 10:13 am
                       So many euphemisms... *NM*Grizzlei11/1/14 4:35 pm
                             Euphemisms? *NM*Quirel11/1/14 5:09 pm
                       Re: Trying to look at it like I did 10 years ago.Quirel11/1/14 5:09 pm
                             Re: Trying to look at it like I did 10 years ago.thebruce011/2/14 9:22 pm
     Still one thing irks me... Mirandathebruce010/30/14 9:51 am
           Re: Still one thing irks me... MirandaHyokin10/30/14 12:51 pm
                 Re: Still one thing irks me... MirandaQuirel10/30/14 2:05 pm
                       Re: Still one thing irks me... Mirandadavidfuchs10/30/14 4:59 pm
                       Re: Still one thing irks me... Mirandathebruce010/31/14 9:42 am
           I love itserpx10/30/14 2:09 pm
                 Thank you *NM*Grizzlei10/30/14 2:31 pm
                 Re: I love itthebruce010/31/14 9:45 am
                       Re: I love itIbeechu11/1/14 12:34 pm
                 Re: I love itKermit11/1/14 6:57 pm
     Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...munky-05810/30/14 3:27 pm
           Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Grizzlei10/30/14 5:06 pm
                 Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Avateur10/30/14 9:18 pm
                       Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Grizzlei10/30/14 9:47 pm
                             Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Avateur10/30/14 9:54 pm
                                   Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Grizzlei10/30/14 10:02 pm
                                         Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Avateur10/30/14 10:20 pm
                             Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...JDQuackers10/30/14 10:32 pm
                                   Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Grizzlei10/30/14 10:49 pm
                                         Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Avateur10/30/14 10:56 pm
                                               haha! *NM*Grizzlei10/30/14 11:04 pm
                             Re: Jesus, that Greenskull guy is annoying...Ibeechu11/1/14 12:36 pm
     Gravemind wouldn't look out of place in The ThingMoorpheusl910/30/14 3:33 pm

Sign up to post.

You will only be able to post to the forum if you first create a user profile.
If, however, you already have a user profile, please follow the "Set Preferences" link on the main index page and enter your user name to log in to post.