Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Warhammer 40,000

For the longest time I've been operating under the following notion of science-fiction aesthetic paradigms. 
1960's Forbidden Planet through Star Trek -- that sort of colorful but steely look.
1970 2001 A Space Odyssey -- white and clean.  This even includes Silent Running and Dark Star.
1977 Star Wars -- white but dirty
1979 Alien -- very dirty (you can actually see the earlier all-white aesthetic on a couple sets like the interior of Mother and the cryo-bay.)
Nobody ever complains about motorcycle armor on characters. 
And then, you know, that's been that. We've been running the Alien aesthetic ever since. Or so I've been saying to myself. 
But it's not really true now is it? No. There's this Warhammer 40,000 visual aesthetic which we've been running for a while now. The Chronicles of Riddick probably has the finest execution of that look of any motion picture. 
Right now the above left look is what I'm thinking for our next movie.
And, you know, with science fiction there are always visual exceptions. I'd say that Logan's Run is more in the Forbidden Planet/Star Trek aesthetic world than in a post 2001 world.
And facing reality, The Road Warrior had an aesthetic impact which is just as big as any of those other pictures, including Star Wars. And Road Warrior sort of presages that Warhammer look, now doesn't it?
Do all Australian dogs look that feral?

UPDATE: Did I mention that none of the images here are actually from any sort of Warhammer book or game or anything? That's because there's no movie or TV show or anything from Warhammer. They're just books and games. So image credits are Dredd, Dredd, Road Warrior. Hey, can you tell which was made before digital color-correction? ;-)

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