COMMENTARY | Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters‘ trailer has some of the worst visual effects.

Have you ever seen a trailer for a new film and thought, “Seriously? Someone actually thought that looked good enough to advertise?” That’s what happened when I saw the trailer below for Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters. I know the first film was bad, but couldn’t they afford to pay better animators?

At first, the trailer doesn’t look too bad, though later they do throw in some scenes that are obviously meant for 3D rendering, like Percy Jackson (Logan Lerman) throwing his pen as it transforms into a sword. I’ve seen Michael Bay do this effect several times, and much better.

Percy Jackson starts out saying, “I heard there was a prophecy about me?” as he holds up a sword with some of the most obvious visual effects I’ve ever seen.

A centaur, obviously not Pierce Brosnan from the first one, is walking alongside him as he says, “It would seem that the prophecy was referring to our annihilation.”

Then we see what looks like glass shattering in a nice convenient arc pattern as what looks like a gold-plated mechanical bull races toward the screen. It’s all too obvious to me that the bull is a visual effect, and in the reaction shot, two of the kids actually look bored and one of the ones in front isn’t even looking at the same thing, as everyone else appears surprised.

Is this really the kind of stuff you want people to see in the trailer?

The Golden Fleece in the Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters trailer actually looks like a piece of carpet with some gold paint on it until the flashy visual effects try to throw the color in our faces with some glowing fire stuff. Then we see what looks like a plastic lawn ornament and it’s supposed to be some kind of sea creature. And the cyclops? His makeup is so obvious, they might as well have stuck a Halloween mask on him.

Come on, director Thor Freudenthal, your name isn’t enough to convince me with these obvious signs of visual effects laziness. I’ve seen Wrath of the Titans, and that was done at least a year ago. Visual effects are supposed to get better with time. You can’t pass off these obviously fake monsters and expect moviegoers to take your film seriously. Especially after the first film, which actually left out the main villain.

Should we not expect better visual effects at this point than was shown in this trailer for Percy Jackson and the Sea of Monsters?

‘Percy Jackson And The Sea Of Monsters’ Trailer Has Some Terrible Visual Effects [Video] is a post from: The Inquisitr

Marvel hopes Guardians of the Galaxy doesn’t look anything like Green Lantern.

Green Lantern was a terrible film. Ryan Reynolds tried to make Hal Jordan look cool, but it wasn’t enough to distract us from the film having a plot that made no sense and visual effects that looked like someone went crazy with the green neon effects in Photoshop. Ryan Reynolds was the only part of the film that actually made it watchable.

Marvel president Kevin Feige has said that he hopes Guardians of the Galaxy, as dependent as it could be on CG, doesn’t look as fake as other films that had to go the same route. He was, of course, baited into the response by an i09reporter. After the article was published, readers continued to tear Green Lantern a new one, as if we needed to be told again how terrible it was.

Guardians of the Galaxy is essentially based in space, and one of the most memorable characters is a raccoon. Altogether, the CG needed for things like that could be so extensive that it could end up looking like Green Lantern, or even Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within.

Kevin Fiege said on the subject:

“Iron Man 3 has as much CG as any movie we’ve ever made, and I hope it doesn’t feel like Green Lantern. And it’s all about the aesthetic you go for and already we have an art department as impressive as any art department I’ve ever seen in London [working] on Guardians. And it’s, you know, designing things and believing that they’re real when part of the team’s made up of a raccoon and a tree.”

It is possible to make things we know aren’t real believable, as Avatar and Men in Black relied on CG characters and environments that looked real enough. Hopes are high, and we can only wait and see if Guardians of the Galaxy amazes us or makes us roll our eyes at how fake everything looks.

Do you think Guardians of the Galaxy will end up looking fake as a result of excessive CG?

‘Guardians Of The Galaxy’: Marvel Hopes It Won’t Look Like ‘Green Lantern’ is a post from: The Inquisitr

A man returned from vacationing with his wife in Cancun to find out that has been proclaimed dead on Facebook.

According to NBC News, Rusty Foster didn’t check his Facebook account while on vacation. When he returned, he discovered that he was dead on Facebook.

When Foster attempted to log on to his Facebook account, he received a pink box that read:

“This account is in a special memorial state. If you have any questions or concerns, please visit the Help Center for further information.”

Apparently it is quite easy to falsely memorialize a Facebook account, because a prankster had him declared dead while he was away.

After attempting to get ahold of Facebook directly to get his account resurrected (and failing) Foster wrote a note to Buzzfeed asking for help.

When Buzzfeed received the note, what did they do to help?

BuzzFeed’s reporter Katie Notopoulos followed suit with Foster’s prankster and Facebook murdered her colleague John Herrman.

Notopoulos reported Herrman dead as a way to investigate Foster’s claims.

When NBC News asked Facebook about the reasoning behind the memorial feature, a spokesperson replied with:

“We have designed the memorialization process to be effective for grieving families and friends, while still providing precautions to protect against either erroneous or malicious efforts to memorialize the account of someone who is not deceased. We also provide an appeals process for the rare instances in which accounts are mistakenly reported or inadvertently memorialized.”

According to Gizmodo, in order to submit a “memorialization request” all you have to do is fill out a short form including the target’s name, one of the emails associated with the target’s account, your relationship to the target, and “proof of death.”

Proof? How do you prove it? Facebook will accept something as flimsy as an online obituary of the same name, even if it’s for a person of a different age in a different state, who even spells his name differently.

Once your account is memorialized, the only thing you can do is fill out a form saying that you are in-fact alive and wait for a response.

Memorialization doesn’t delete or destroy anything, but it is quite the hassle for those who are virtually killed on Facebook.

Man Finds Out That He’s Dead On Facebook After Returning From Vacation is a post from: The Inquisitr

One of HGTV‘s more popular shows has been facing just the kind of criticism reality shows hope to avoid — charges that the show is scripted. So the question now is this: Is “House Hunters” fake?

Yes, at least one episode was, according to a Huffington Post report. The online news site interviewed Bobi Jensen, who appeared on an episode. Jensen claims that she and her family had already closed on the new house prior to filming, and that the other homes they toured weren’t even for sale, but rather belonged to family friends.

Moreover, Jensen told Entertainment Weekly that the producers of “House Hunters” faked her family’s story. But she added that viewing friends’ homes isn’t the norm, and the couple was unable to find realtors willing to show them homes for the show.

The Huffington Post reached out to HGTV, and the network responded with this lengthy statement:

“We’ve learned that the pursuit of the perfect home involves big decisions that usually take place over a period of time –more time than we can capture in 30 minutes of television. However, with a series like “House Hunters,” HGTV viewers enjoy the vicarious and entertaining experience of choosing a home — from establishing a budget, to touring properties and weighing the pros and cons of each one. We’re making a television show, so we manage certain production and time constraints, while honoring the home buying process. To maximize production time, we seek out families who are pretty far along in the process. Often everything moves much more quickly than we can anticipate, so we go back and revisit some of the homes that the family has already seen and we capture their authentic reactions. Because the stakes in real estate are so high, these homeowners always find themselves RIGHT back in the moment, experiencing the same emotions and reactions to these properties. Showcasing three homes makes it easier for our audience to “play along” and guess which one the family will select. It’s part of the joy of the “House Hunters”‘ viewing experience. Through the lens of television, we can offer a uniquely satisfying and fun viewing experience that fulfills a universal need to occasionally step into someone else’s shoes.”

The non-definitive statement, at least in part, seems to leave open the question of whether or not “House Hunters” is fake.

House Hunters Scandal: Show May Be Fake is a post from: The Inquisitr

The latest fallacy to hit the internet is claiming that Facebook users must copy and repost the “Facebook Privacy Notice” as their status in order to protect their privacy.

The misguided notion stems from the idea that because Facebook is now a publicly traded company, that it will have a negative affect on their privacy settings.

Facebook has always informed their users of changes being made to the privacy notice and have made no such claims about the terms and conditions.

According to the myth busting site Snopes.com, “The bottom line is that before you can use Facebook, you must indicate your acceptance of that social network’s legal terms, which includes its privacy policy. You cannot alter your acceptance of that agreement, nor can you restrict the rights of entities who are not parties to that agreement, simply by posting a notice to your Facebook account or citing the Uniform Commercial Code.”

The idea that a that publicly traded company means your information can be now be publicly shared is in no way true and the entire concept is completely false.

Below you will find the post that went viral on Facebook this past Tuesday:

For those of you who do not understand the reasoning behind this posting, Facebook is now a publicly traded entity. Unless you state otherwise, anyone can infringe on your right to privacy once you post to this site. It is recommended that you and other members post a similar notice as this, or you may copy and paste this version. If you do not post such a statement once, then you are indirectly allowing public use of items such as your photos and the information contained in your status updates.

PRIVACY NOTICE: Warning – any person and/or institution and/or Agent and/or Agency of any governmental structure including but not limited to the United States Federal Government also using or monitoring/using this website or any of its associated websites, you do NOT have my permission to utilize any of my profile information nor any of the content contained herein including, but not limited to my photos, and/or the comments made about my photos or any other “picture” art posted on my profile.

You are hereby notified that you are strictly prohibited from disclosing, copying, distributing, disseminating, or taking any other action against me with regard to this profile and the contents herein. The foregoing prohibitions also apply to your employee , agent , student or any personnel under your direction or control.

The contents of this profile are private and legally privileged and confidential information, and the violation of my personal privacy is punishable by law. UCC 1-103 1-308 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WITHOUT PREJUDICE

Did you fall victim to the latest internet myth?

Posting Of Facebook ‘Privacy Notice’ Warning Is Completely Fake is a post from: The Inquisitr

A while back there were reports of iPads being returned to Best Buy stores that turned out to be fake but this is the first time that I have heard of the same type of thing being done with iPhones.

It would appear that some customers in Canada have been heading back to TELUS store and under the guise of buyers remorse returning their iPhones, except it turns out that what is being returned are in fact fact iPhones.

While there is no official word from TELUS as to how widespread the problem internal documents from the company states that this has been happening at “various locations”.

As you can tell from the two sets of images the fake iPhone 4S has several major differences from the real thing. The display is lighter, the back cover comes off, and the mute button is hard to flip.

It never ceases to amaze how ingenious people can be when it comes to ripping off companies and other people.

via MobileSyrup

Fake iPhones being returned to various TELUS stores in Canada is a post from: The Inquisitr