• Light/Dark

Movies that have slow motion battle sequences

signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
41,068
Why did movies do this? It never looked good and looks stupid still. I don't know if this still happens but when I think of films that have them, they are a bit older (e.g. Gladiator, Fellowship of the Ring).

Is it in-universe lore meant to represent that there is so much action going on, the FPS of reality itself is lowering??
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
32,692
It's just an interesting visual way of selling the gravity of a situation / varying the pace of the sequence.
Maturin said:
I'm not keen. It's worse when the sequence wasn't shot at high speed to slow mo looks awful.

They often seem to be cuts where the director wanted that part to be a bit longer but didn't have a regular shot long enough.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
No one is accidently ending up with a sequence in slow-mo.
 
Skel1ingt0n

Skel1ingt0n

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,756
Always felt like bullet time in the matrix was done so well, it was a more affordable way to mimic that (and done poorly).
 
Maturin

Maturin

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,196
Europe
I'm not keen. It's worse when the sequence wasn't shot at high speed to slow mo looks awful.

They often seem to be cuts where the director wanted that part to be a bit longer but didn't have a regular shot long enough.
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
41,068
Strings said:
It's just an interesting visual way of selling the gravity of a situation / varying the pace of the sequence.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Selling the gravity of the situation is one thing, but in my mind this happens when someone suddenly dies and you get a slow motion zoom in on faces to see the reaction or something. Warriors charging and sword swinging doesn't seem to merit any slow motion, at least imo.
 
reclaimerzzzzz

reclaimerzzzzz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,168
signal said:
Selling the gravity of the situation is one thing, but in my mind this happens when someone suddenly dies and you get a slow motion zoom in on faces to see the reaction or something. Warriors charging and sword swinging doesn't seem to merit any slow motion, at least imo.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
It's just kind of a way to make sure the audience sees a moment they think is cool; age of ultron has a slow mo scene at the beginning with all the avengers in frame that looked like something you would see in a comic book.
 
Spring-Loaded

Spring-Loaded

Member
Oct 27, 2017
19,904
You need to present specific examples and point out what doesn't work, otherwise this is just a "I don't like thing" topic
 
tangeu

tangeu

Member
Oct 27, 2017
2,371
Mainly it just looks cool. My favorite is from Night at the Museum 2 doing a parody of this:


Or possibly in the immortals where the Dead bodies go slow motion to show how fast they are all moving
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
32,692
signal said:
Selling the gravity of the situation is one thing, but in my mind this happens when someone suddenly dies and you get a slow motion zoom in on faces to see the reaction or something. Warriors charging and sword swinging doesn't seem to merit any slow motion, at least imo.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
One of the better examples I can think of semi-recently is from The Hobbit of all things:




Can't be bothered scrubbing through all the fight scenes (so I just went with the first one that came up, though from memory almost every encounter in the movie does it in different ways), but Hero (2002) is shot by the god-tier Christopher Doyle and features his particularly gorgeous use of slow-mo to mess with the tempo and transition between phases of choreography:

 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
40,344
I had to stop watching the 2nd lord of the rings movie because it was just dudes slow motion screaming for like 2 hours in battle sequences. I know some people like that, but I was watching it with my dad after he was on the mend after hip surgery and both of us were like "..... this is pretty boring..."

Adding this to cover my ass: I just don't like LOTR movies, I don't think they're bad or anything, they're probably amazing, I just don't like LOTR 2 & 3, and having not put a lot of thought into them in 20+ years, I dismiss them flippantly as a joke. I'm sure they're pretty good if I sat down and watched them again, but as a freedom loving american I'd rather be stubborn and wrong than open minded and right.
 
Last edited:
Mona

Mona

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
26,151
signal said:
the FPS of reality itself is lowering??
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

you mean increased

The Albatross said:
I had to stop watching the 2nd lord of the rings movie because it was just dudes slow motion screaming for like 2 hours in battle sequences. I know some people like that, but I was watching it with my dad after he was on the mend after hip surgery and both of us were like "..... this is pretty boring..."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

giphy-downsized-medium.gif
 
Silvergun-Blue

Silvergun-Blue

Member
Oct 26, 2017
10,218
I thought it worked well for this scene in 300.


The side on view and the almost still shots of action were like the Greek fresco's, carvings and pottery art of the era.
blackfigure.jpg
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
32,692
signal said:
Some moments in:

Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

That's kind of a war movie cliché, where it's used to disorient and sell the futility of battle by slowing it down while turning up the soundtrack. Not knocking it - I love the effect, but yeah. My favourite parody of it is this scene from Edgar Wright's Spaced:

 

Deleted member 82064

User requested account closure
Banned
Sep 29, 2020
596
I remember being amazed by the action scenes in V for Vendetta when it first came around. Saw it last year and the shooting scenes feel out of place. In 300 they slow motion still worked.
 
Last edited:
Skade

Skade

Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,283
It's an aesthetic choice often used to portray tension. There's nothing wrong with it when done well.

And i'd recommend OP to never watch any anime then. As most anime fights feature metric tons of slowmo or slowmo equivalent, often with 10min long flashbacks stuck in the middle of the slowmo sequence.
 
captive

captive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,325
Houston
The Albatross said:
I had to stop watching the 2nd lord of the rings movie because it was just dudes slow motion screaming for like 2 hours in battle sequences. I know some people like that, but I was watching it with my dad after he was on the mend after hip surgery and both of us were like "..... this is pretty boring..."
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
The Albatross said:
slow this amazing gif down by 500%, jack up the contrast/exposure, soften the edges, and you have a classic lord of the rings battle sequence facial
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
oh. my. god.

..how old are you?
 
Chairman Yang

Chairman Yang

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
2,587
I love slow motion shots and think they're usually used well. They're a useful counter to the overly busy, quick cut, shaky cam action that was in vogue for a while.
 
The Albatross

The Albatross

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
40,344
captive said:
oh. my. god.

..how old are you?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Old enough to know that I don't have enough time left in my life for slo-mo close ups of Bilbo baggins!




(The LOTR movies is one franchise that I just really dislike. I liked the first one enough, and fucking hated the 2nd and I think... I might have never really watched the 3rd, I can't remember. It's one of my many 'what's one of your unpopular opinions' that I bring up in those threads)
 
Pikachu

Pikachu

Traded his Bone Marrow for Pizza
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
6,402
I am very partial to the battle in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. When it's silent and it's just the big cats running towards each other. I don't even know if there's slo-mo there.
 
captive

captive

Member
Oct 25, 2017
17,325
Houston
The Albatross said:
Old enough to know that I don't have enough time left in my life for slo-mo close ups of Bilbo baggins!




(The LOTR movies is one franchise that I just really dislike. I liked the first one enough, and fucking hated the 2nd and I think... I might have never really watched the 3rd, I can't remember. It's one of my many 'what's one of your unpopular opinions' that I bring up in those threads)
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
so you really haven't watched it, cause Bilbo Baggins is in LOTR for all of like 5 minutes.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
32,692
Some more fights with a generous heaping of slow-mo and a gorgeous sense of rhythm to them:




 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
41,068
I actually like most of the examples posted here, not sure why those two negative ones in the OP were all that came to mind lol
 

Deleted member 9932

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,711
Clarification of the shot, enhancing a moment or simply representing that time isn't flowing through the shot at a normal speed.
 
Lucky Forward

Lucky Forward

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,565
signal said:
Why did movies do this? It never looked good and looks stupid still. I don't know if this still happens but when I think of films that have them, they are a bit older (e.g. Gladiator, Fellowship of the Ring).

Is it in-universe lore meant to represent that there is so much action going on, the FPS of reality itself is lowering??
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
In the specific case of Gladiator, Ridley Scott was running out of light at the end of the last day of shooting the Germania forest battle. He had no choice other than to go to a slow, blurry shutter speed on the camera or he wouldn't have gotten those scenes at all.

But he seems to have started a trend.
 

Deleted member 9932

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
5,711
Gladiator looks weird because several of its action sequences were recorded with a 45 degree shutter and he probably undercranked on top of it (and overcranked others). Ridley did this several times in his career, it's very distinctive.
 
TheBaldwin

TheBaldwin

Member
Feb 25, 2018
8,485
Fully agree op, especially the slow mo in lord of the rings it looks horrific

all it does it make the action way less impactful and ruins the pacing. For older films the frame rate looks abhorrent.

blame the matrix
 
OP
OP
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
41,068
Lucky Forward said:
In the specific case of Gladiator, Ridley Scott was running out of light at the end of the last day of shooting the Germania forest battle. He had no choice other than to go to a slow, blurry shutter speed on the camera or he wouldn't have gotten those scenes at all.

But he seems to have started a trend.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
True Savior said:
Gladiator looks weird because several of its action sequences were recorded with a 45 degree shutter and he probably undercranked on top of it (and overcranked others). Ridley did this several times in his career, it's very distinctive.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe it's just this then. Both my OP examples have this lower shutter speed look and aren't simply 'slow motion'
 
You must log in or register to reply here.