You know, I'm thinking that all-CG movies shouldn't be allowed into this category. They should only be competing in the "animated" category because, well, they're just animated. Sure the technology is better and more refined than the old 2-D style, but animated is animated. To say that they're up for "Best Visual Effect" when the whole of the film is technically one long visual effect - I don't think that's fair. Let the contenders work in the live-action realm only, and see how their contributions enhanced the finished film. Perhaps there need to be more categories for animated films (and honestly, I think we're moving towards that), but I don't believe that all-CG flicks should be up for a visual effect Oscar. Of course, I could be wrong, but that's just my opinion.

anyone know which this song is
i heard it when it was showing the mixed clip of
Visual Effects

its a rock song
saw it on starmovies
pls help me

Clearly, Iron Man was overrated.

I think that Hellboy will be nominated. It has the biggest range of vfx types. beautyful designed cgi and practical characters, a full cg puppet sequence.. but its a hard choice. what is most impressive fully digital fx that look realistic or incredible fantacy images.

my vote is for
Hellboy,Ben Button,The Dark Knight

Ben Button was impressive, but The Dark Knight, Hellboy, or Iron Man should come in ahead. My vote is for Iron Man. I'm not positive, but I'd guess the suit is totally digital, and it''s perfectly placed in the battle scenes, especially the one with the F-22s.

The Dark Knight does an excellent job with the first half of the helicopter crash in terms of digital effects, and then integrates the non-digital shots of the second half of the helicopter crash so well, it's hard to see, unless you watch the documentary. Perhaps the greatest travesty in the Oscar visual effects department is awarding The Golden Compass over Pirates 3 or Transformers. Transformers should have won. Though the Golden Compass did have some impressive shots, especially with the animals. and Pirates 3's climax was excellent.

I really liked the Dark Knight but I'm going with either Hellboy 2 or Ben Button.

Button, Hellboy, or Iron Man.

But I don't expect this award to ever go logically, ever again: Revenge of the Sith wasn't even nominated in 2005. WHAT.

I agree, it was quite innovative putting "big budget cgi" into hand held footage. Cloverfield should definitely be on the list instead of "Journey to the Center of the Earth".

if i am going effects wise and now if the movie was good: benjamin, iron man, and hellboy. i think dark knight will get sound effects...

Cloverfield should have been in the final 7.

I understand it was in the final 15 (along with Indy 4 and others) but didn't make the cut. The SOL Head bouncing down the street is worth the nomination alone.

i agree, i would have taken mummy or australia out and replaced it with cloverfield, but the academy does that sometimes...

Good point. Cloverfield did something that no one else did. Aren't movies supposed to be rewarded for that kind of thing?

I was actually just about to come on here to say the same thing. When you compare effects between that and Journey or the Mummy, it really makes you wonder what goes on in the heads of academy voters.

I'll say BB. I'll bet most of us would be blown away
by how much is CG & we didn't even notice...

TDK is fantastic for it's lack of quantity of effects.

This article is great about BB:
http://www.wired.com/entertainment/hollywood/mult...

@Captain Awesome: What do you mean "you people" ?

yeah, both of the Brendan Fraser movies should be wiped off that list immediately.

I'll remind you all that the best effects are the ones you don't know are there. Some of the shots in The Dark Knight would not be the same were it not for that invisible push.

That said, my vote would have to go to Benjamin Button followed by Hellboy.

Did someone seriously say Hellboy II was mostly CGI? They would do well to watch the documentary on the DVD to see just how LITTLE of the effects were done with CGI. Hellboy II deserves the win, no contest.

I absolutely LOVED TDK, it was my favorite movie this year... but the visuals were...eh...not spectacular. Except those with the IMAX cameras...those were nice.

I haven't even seen Button, but just from the previews I think they should get it.

abd tge oscar goes to BB, what is the mummy doing there?

But the monster sure as hell looked better than anything in Journey.

You got me there. Loved the effects for him, too but I still think that TDK shouldn't win.

I still don't understand how green screen movies don't get nominated. Sin City, 300 and now The Spirit. I understand the Spirit was horrible, but the movie IS a special effect.

But there's nothing impressive nor groundbreaking about the effects in either movie. As a matter of fact, some of the CG is pretty bad too.

Very true. The Dark Knight is my favorite film of the year, but there weren't many ground breaking visual effects in it besides Two Face. And The Mummy?

But there's nothing impressive nor groundbreaking about the effects in either movie.

Hell Boy 2 was amazing, i would have to go with that one..

hmm... again what you mentioned is film making technique not VFX

handheld shots are tracked the same way a normal shot would be tracked.. (with just a bit more effort)
Cloverfield didn't have anything new CG-wise.. hell we don't even see the creature more than 50 shots!!!

It's so funny to see people complaining that TDK is going to get nominated for visual effects. I don't know how many times I've seen people claim "Dark Knight doesn't even have that many effects!"

In reality, TDK has quite a bit of CG/visual effects... and it looks so real, people don't even notice! Harvey Two-Face was entirely CGI. The Batpod was CGI. The Joker's nosedive off of the scaffolding was CGI. Batman gliding over the skyscrapers of Hong Kong was CGI.

In my opinion, Two Face is the best VFX of the year all on his own. The fact that some people actually believe that he was the result of prosthetics and makeup is all the evidence you really need.

The CGI on Two Face was fairly obvious whenever Eckhart wasn't reciting his lines through his teeth. Don't get me wrong, it was very impressive, but it doesn't hold a candle to the animatronic work in Hellboy II.

TDK should win this easily. Ben Button was impressive and would have won the award if TDK wasn't in the line-up. The kicker is that a chunk of TDK was filmed in IMAX (not an easy feat) and could be considered somewhat revolutionary. When I first saw the film, I thought "know way is that scene live action" - but sure enough it was. Iron Man AND HB2 were great, but mainly CGI. I liked some of the character design/puppet elements in HB2. I'm pretty sure Journey and Mummy will be the first two that are cut from the list.

Nominees:
The Dark Knight
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
Hellboy II

MUMMY 3 for sure!!!

Not true. Are you forgetting about Two-Face? (i did at first...)

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, amazing work, good article in American Cinematographer on how they did the age effects

I would probably say BB, TDK was good with visuals but not anything spectacular. I'm surprised it made the list.

i think the final there will be
1-The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
2-The Dark Knight
3-Iron Man
and the winner gonna' be The Dark Knight or The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Speed Racer deserves a nod, if not a win. That movie was pure greatness with the race scenes...and more-so the technology behind them, if you care to watch the special features on how they did it.

Deffinetly not TDK! In my opinion how crap Speed racer was that should be on the list rather than TDK. I mean how many VISUAL effects were in the film! Now were talking Post production effects not explosions done on set.

The Academy is just trying to get TDK nominated for as many awards as possible. In my opinion it deserves them...just not visual effects.

With that in mind my votes for Benjamin Button

Hellboy 2 hands down

To me it should be Ben Button, Iron Man and Hellboy 2 and have Ben Button as the winner
(anything that defies Uncanny Valley for more than 5 minutes - in this case 52 minutes - is the winner in my book)

I'd rahter have Mummy3 or TDK instead of Iron Man, but Academy members just love ILM

To me it should be Ben Button, Iron Man and Hellboy 2

I'd rahter have Mummy3 or TDK instead of Iron Man, but Academy members just love ILM

Benjamin Button, Dark Knight, Iron Man

But I really hope they don't overlook Hellboy II. Can't they pick 5 and include that and Australia?

hmm... no!!!

and regarding your comment, Cloverfield didn't bring anything new to the table (it had something new filmmaking wise)!!! and the shot count is so low that it automatically gets off that list

"and regarding your comment, Cloverfield didn't bring anything new to the table (it had something new filmmaking wise)!!! "

Nothing new? Please tell me another movie that was all from POV perspective while using CGI. Blair Witch was the only movie that used POV technique but had no CGI, so how is this nothing new?

Benjamin Button, Dark Knight, Iron Man

But I really hope they don't overlook Hellboy II. Can't they pick 5 and include that and Australia?

with all due respect to the people who keep saying TDK didnt have many VFX shots they are talking complete rubbish 1 vfx company did 700 vfx shots alone. They are just so good u dont even think about it. Believe me I know, I am a VFX artist and was working on Hellboy 2 while the person sitting next to me was working on TDK.

I'm with you, Speed Racer was a real visual eye candy festival. I loved the dripping colors, It's like tripping on LSD

I'd go Benjamin. Or Hellboy

T.D.K. was great effects, regarding they did flip a truck over forwards. Button was good special effects and make up wise. Hellboy II was mostly CGI so its not that impressive. I would have to say. The Dark Knight because of their adjusting to the bulky imax cameras and the use of mostly visual effects instead of digital effect. Make up is Button defiantly.

ehm, Will, have you ever tried to build a character in 3d and light, texture, animate it and then integrated that cg-character into a shot so that it looks like it belongs there? It is a lot of hard work and I find that very impressive, espacially in Hellboy II where they managed to work out a great combination of practical and digital effects. And also in TDK, which has fantastic "invisible" vfx (the truck was filmed as a special effect .. the street under the truck, that was replaced digitally to clean the shot up, that is a visual effect) and, of course, the face.
Haven't seen Benjamin Button yet, but it must be spectacular. Check out fxguide.com for more insights on it's vfx
I am a bit sad though that Cloverfield didn't make it. Those visual fx blew me away. The scene on the Brooklyn Bridge? Filmed in a studio. As was most of the film.