Monday, July 11, 2011

Conan The Barbarian: It's All In The Details

The more clips I see from the upcoming Conan movie the more interesting it appears, at least as a swords and sorcery flick. Whether it's Howard's Conan remains to be seen.

The one thing that's been really bugging me this whole time (besides the contemporary 'metal' music played during the preview, which, at least in one version has been removed) is Conan's eye color.

Jason Mamoa, playing the northern-born Cimmerian, has a naturally shaggy mane and brown eyes. I'm sure he'll be great in the role he's been asked to play but the devil is in the details, son. Our Cimmerian needs those steely blue eyes, no?

A very, very subtle thing but very important, IMHO, to solidify the actor in the role.

Now, contacts? Why not? Simple fix.

Color Mamoa's eyes blue in post? Totally possible.

All of this has been done before....


Brown eyed Jessica Alba and Blue eyed Susan Storm

Giving Sue Storm blue eyes didn't make or break these mediocre films of the worlds greatest comic but it was a nice minor detail.

So what about Howard's barbarian?

I've lifted a couple of stills and altered the eyes (I know, how obsessive is that?).

Click to embig

Again, hardly a noticeable change but it's those minor details that can nail the film character more into the vision of Howards warrior. I may be grasping at straws here, after-all the post-production CGI animator may have more important things to do like making the monsters more dramatic, or tweaking that walled city in the background a bit. Come on, Nispel, toss a few more dollars his/her way.

Will this happen? We'll only know once we pay the ticket price and sit down in our seats with our pop-corn and sodas waiting for that first scene.

But.....

It's all in the details.....

PS, I'm not the only one pondering this....

7 comments:

  1. Frankly, I couldn't tell the difference in the photos. I don't think it would matter to me in the film (except, maybe, in a close up. But I even doubt it then.)

    But photos of Jessica Alba are always nice.

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  2. I don't even know what color my own eyes are!

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  3. Geez, I guess you guys are right. Maybe I'm making too big of a deal about this. Next thing you know I'll be commenting on his hair style!

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  4. Everyone notices different things. I know certain things bother me about movies that don't bother/aren't noticed by friends and family. Things like anachronistic firearms in Westerns.

    In this case, for me, eye color isn't make or break.

    For Conan, it will be more of the "feel" of the movie. If it doesn't capture the atmosphere for me then it won't work. From the trailers and such that I've seen, it's doing ok so far.

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  5. The film makers seem to be listening to fans on this thing and they are really apparently trying to please us. I would imagine that they will digitally blue them, since this has been brought up several times over the many months of filming, and they are probably still working in the final film cut. Who knows.

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  6. I suppose if the 'feel' of the movie is whacked then a blue eyed barbarian really won't matter. ; )

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  7. I enjoy little details like that. If I saw another actress playing Wonder Woman, and she didn't have blue eyes like Lynda Carter, I'd notice.

    Happy Almost Weekend, Bliss.

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