S08.E03: Let The Games Begin

[Bella]

 

The remaining 14 artists take part in a deadly predator challenge featuring guest judge Josh Hutcherson ("The Hunger Games").

 

[Bella]

Josh Hutcherson really is small.

This was a typical episode of Face Off imo. Good, because they all are, but it's another combining challenge. At least it wasn't zombies.

[Maelstrom]

I seem to recall past challenges of combining plants and animals usually lean toward, well, suckage, but these turned out better than I expected. Nice to see Josh Hutcherson so into it, he seemed fairly knowledgeable (which isn't surprising if he's a fan of the show - not to mention spending time in Ve's makeup chair over the past few years).

 

Loved the hyena creature, it was definitely my favorite look. I wasn't expecting much out of it during their days in the lab, but it really came together in the end. Using hemp for the coarse hair was very clever and gave a wonderful look to the finished piece (eat your heart out, fun fur!) Definitely agree with whoever on the show said they managed to capture the essence of a hyena without going all anthropomorphic.

 

The cactus ram looked pretty good too, and I can't fault the judges for going with it, but those cactus spines randomly growing out of bone really rankled. IMO it would've worked better if the spine had grown along the crest of the head or somewhere, rather than randomly popping up from the ram's horns. Ah well.

 

I'm glad the format has returned a bit more to normal, and that the whole team challenge won't entirely eat the show. It was nice to see Laura, Anthony and Rayce floating around helping out during lab time.

[Quilt Fairy]

During the workroom scenes, I was ready to rename this season Face Off: Student Edition.  It seemed as if this group of contestants knew so little that without Laura, Rayce and Anthony to guide them it would be a total disaster. In fact I wondered if that was the reason TPTB brought the champions back after they reviewed the level of the new contestants and realized how low the bar was set.  I was pleasantly surprised with the results. I, too, would have gone with the hyena creature as winner over the ram, but the right creature lost and I think the right guy went home. (Nice to see that they're not automatically aufing the female on a losing man/woman team.)

 

I was surprised that Ve referenced the 'mutts' in The Hunger Games as I assumed those were all CGI.

Edited January 28, 2015 by Quilt Fairy

[GaT]

So, we're back to monsters again, are we? Nothing particularly impressed me, & none of the contestants are standing out to me yet, so far, this season is boring me.

Josh Hutcherson really is small.

 

This is the thing that drives me absolutely crazy about The Hunger Games movies. There are 10,000,000,000 actors in Hollywood, they couldn't find one who could act the part and was taller than Jennifer Lawrence? Peta is supposed to be a big strong guy with muscles, not a teeny little person. It was so obvious in the first movie, at least they used tricks to make him look taller in the sequels.

Edited January 28, 2015 by GaT

[morakot]

He's a pocket Peta.

[seacliffsal]

I really enjoyed this episode.  I think there's a lot of talent there that will emerge due to the roles of the 'champions' and, of course, Mr. Westmore.  He really has right on advice for the contestants.  I liked that Glenn told them to not just place flowers on the creature-I think that was a big problem before.  The 'champions' really do help as Emily/other woman really were going in the wrong direction but were able to change course due to all of the input that they received.  

 

Josh really is a pretty big name for the younger viewers and it tickled me that they let him sit by Ve rather than at the end of the judging panel like most guest judges are placed.  I think it really is cool that he's such a fan.  I know that they get a LOT of big names in terms of make-up/special effects directors as well as producers, but hopefully Josh's appearance increased some of the key demographics for the show.  

[Iguana]

I think having the three previous winners as mentors is a real plus for the show. Mr. Westmire's input is always valuable and contestants who do not follow his advice always wish they had later. However, given the relative in experience of this seasons contestants, I think they need the mentors additional guidance and feedback. The mentors can help prevent massive disasters from happening, which is great for me as I prefer interesting and well done work to train wrecks.

I can't disagree with any of the judges decisions this week. The cactus ram and the hyena creatures were clearly the best and while I might prefer the hyena, the ram was very well done. The horrid paint jobs on the bottom two totally justified their placement there, and the blocky sculpt justified this weeks boot.

[Ananayel]

But I had just started to like Alan! Sigh. I should have trusted the show to not do something lame like keep the same teams over and over. While the number of contestants is still so high, I'm sure we'll get more team challenges, and then more individual challenges later. Next week there will be 13 people, so I don't know how it will be divided then.

 

That Ben dude is starting to creep me out, but he did do good work.

[Nutjob]

I really thought Alan would go far in the show, so I was surprised he got the ax. Stupid venom sacs!

[Monty9]

So Ben, if you didn't win a spotlight challenge you wouldn't have proposed? That was......odd.

 

In the previews they have Emily with playing cards in her hair, going with the theme apparently. Emily honey, you did a good job this week but the only thing you should be putting in your hair is a comb. Stop shoving random crap up in there.

 

Agreed with the judges and other posters about the winners and losers, about liking Josh etc. etc. However I thought the eyes were hard to see on the purple flower face thing.

[Primetimer]

The facetestants are paired up for an animal/plant hybrid challenge. How much do you actually need to pay attention to?

Read the story

[GaT]

So Ben, if you didn't win a spotlight challenge you wouldn't have proposed? That was......odd.

 

 

Oh God, I forgot about that. That was absolutely the romantic proposal every girl wants. NOT. "I won a spotlight challenge, so I guess we can get hitched" Yippee

[Kaoteek]

Didn't like that Ram AT ALL. The cowl read more cobra than Ram to me, the face just seemed off, and the cactus spikes really killed any scary vibe this thing could have had. Even worse, as far as i'm concerned, was the warthog, with its vacant plastic stare, and its unreadable paintjob on the face... yet it was safe. Eh.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Kaoteek

[April Bloodgate]

I didn't love the hyena, actually. I just didn't seen hyena in that face.

[Texasmom1970]

Isn't Bens girlfriend a lucky girl, I guess we can get married, boy bet that made her weak in the knees. Just curious do they have to put McKenzie in a skintight dress in every episode? It gets really repetitive.

[needschocolate]

Pairing up contestants without regards to whose team they are on - I knew Face Off wouldn't let me down and become like the other reality competition shows.

 

Oh God, I forgot about that. That was absolutely the romantic proposal every girl wants. NOT. "I won a spotlight challenge, so I guess we can get hitched" Yippee

 

I have never been a fan of very public proposals and I am really glad that the show (assuming Ben mentioned something to them earlier) did not tell us about the chance of a proposal the way most other shows would do ("oh, let's let the viewers know so they can root for him to win" - gag!).  

 

I think most women prefer an intimate, heart-felt proposal, but I think a lot of guys believe that the "grand gesture" sort of proposals are somehow more romantic because the size of the proposal is related to the size of their love. I am guessing that when Ben found out he was going to be on the show, he decided that he would propose on-air and his grand gesture, but any old talking head wouldn't do.  The only talking heads that would draw enough attention would be if he was sent home or if he won - and proposing when you lost is really weird.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I'm not a fan of public proposals, which I realize is my own personal bias, but if you're going to do one on tv could you at least try to sound like you WANT to marry this girl? He made it sound like he lost a bet and had to read cue cards in a foreign language for all the sincerity I got out of him.

 

I must admit that I did see one beautiful public proposal almost five years ago on the closing night of Romeo and Juliet at the San Francisco Ballet. During the curtain call, the artistic director handed the microphone to the dancer playing Romeo, which is very unusual. He thanked everyone for being there and started talking about how special that performance was (it was Mother's Day so I thought he was going to say his mother had died recently or that he was announcing his retirement). Instead he got down on one knee and proposed to his girlfriend who was playing Juliet. It was very sweet. He wrote about it a little here.

 

Anyway, I liked that the two person teams were not just people from existing teams paired up together. Next week there will be only 13 contestants so I hope we get an individual challenge. ITA that having the mentors is really helping the contestants a lot. They are getting some really useful feedback as well as some very specific instruction from them (which they wouldn't get from Michael Westmore). I feel like it does give them an advantage over past contestants who were left to their own devices to sink or swim, but it seems like this group needs it a lot more (in past seasons there were individuals who needed that kind of help but not the entire pool).

 

I almost wish they hadn't included the flowers because they weren't obvious enough in all of the designs. I don't like monster challenges but I also feel like gawd, if you're going to do monster challenges then just do monster challenges. Since only a few of the final designs really incorporated the flowers well, I'd rather save the flowers for another week and maybe have them do flower fairies or goddesses. Hahahaha, can you imagine how annoyed the hardcore monster contestants would be having to do beauty makeup based on flowers? I would love it though, if for no other reason than to give me a break from the monsters and aliens.

[Taeolas]

I'd dare say this was one of the most successful plant-animal fusions they've done yet. The Mentors and Westmore probably helped a lot in that respect, since they've seen/done them before and know what does and doesn't work. All in all, I found the plant aspects really fit in with the creatures they made and didn't end up looking like "animal head out of a flower collar" sort of thing. 

 

The Hyena and Ram were good, and the Batachoke was bad. The losing lizard had so much potential, but the paint job killed it down, even with the model trying his best to help it out. While the Thistlyena didn't have much blatantly "hyenaesque" to it, the overall look and stance (helped a tonne by the model) really gave a hyena wild feel to it IMO. The spines on the cactram's horns I don't have a problem with; I'd just view the horns as being more like a cactus than a ram and run with that. 

 

I know team challenges aren't usually liked, but with this many people (plus mentors plus Westmore), teams are about the only way they can squeeze everyone into the hour block. 

 

I do wonder who decided the seating order of the judges. I don't really see Josh insisting on where he sits, so either Ve asked for it, or the producers decided it would work. As a guest judge, he did work well. He did seem to have an idea of what he was looking at and gave some decent talking points during the inspection. And he was obviously a big fanboy, considering McKenzie handed off the Start of Judging to him. :)

 

As for the proposal, I'm glad FaceOff stayed what it was and didn't make a big deal of it. No drama building excitement for it, it just came out of no where and was left behind . (Okay, couldn't they have found the girlfriend and gotten a response from her at least? I wouldn't mind *that* much at least. :) )

[Drogo]

There are few things in life I love more than the music they play during the Face-Off reveal segment.

[ElectricBoogaloo]

Sometimes I hear it in my head which makes, say, standing in line at the grocery store, seem so much more dramatic.

[Aethera]

Ha I was also amused that Josh got to sit by Ve.  He's her little pet Peta.  And I thought he was a good guest judge.

 

That was quite the dress McKenzie had on there.  Yikes.  I've told FashionItSo that they need to start covering just her costumes in these eps, as they remind me quite a bit of some of the bonkers fashion that showed up on Star Trek over the 80s and 90s.

 

As for actual substance: I didn't love any of the makeups this week, but I did think the Hyena was striking, and professional looking compared to some of the others.  I liked Alan, so I'm sorry he went home.

 

I'm also glad that they didn't feel they had to stick to the Champions Teams thing week to week.  I honestly feel like the Champions thing is making for some awkwardness  - people on one champion's team can be in top and bottom, people working with people on other teams.  But we'll see how it continues to shake out.

 

So far I'm not seeing anyone with a George-style personality (the guy from last season who was so amusing) to enjoy just for enjoyment's sake, and I don't yet have a favorite. Few people are really standing out, and so far, when they do the get eliminated.  Hopefully as the herd thins, people will start to interest me as individuals.

Edited January 29, 2015 by aethera

[Maelstrom]

Hahahaha, can you imagine how annoyed the hardcore monster contestants would be having to do beauty makeup based on flowers? I would love it though, if for no other reason than to give me a break from the monsters and aliens.

Few things give me more of a kick than watching this type of scenario - unfortunately, this show doesn't do it nearly often enough IMO. Though I remember last season when they had the nature fairy challenge how terrified Cig "monsters R us" Neutron was, and his ice fairy came out beautiful. It was actually the first look of his I actually liked. I always enjoy when the contestants are forced outside of their comfort zone and turn out wonderful work.

Edited January 29, 2015 by Maelstrom

[Ananayel]

Since they seem absolutely hellbent on doing two seasons a year, and the pool of available talent, even artificially swelled by fans of the show who likely wouldn't have tried it otherwise, appears nearly tapped out, they're going to have to have at least one more season of returnees. Perhaps we shall see Alan again. I'd like to see Tommy Pietch from season 3 again, and I'm sure I could think of some others.

[Richness]

Judging and opinions are all over the map this season. Last week, I thought the winning look was hideous, but I agreed wholeheartedly with the judges this week. The ram was gorgeous scary, even in the back/top of head view. Though I will admit the cactus needles were a little too random and out of place on the boney horns. Regardless, for Neville to say this is the best look he's ever seen on this show, I think says more about how much these contestants are benefiting from the three mentors advice than the raw talent itself. The hyena was good, but it didn't appeal to me as much as the ram did.

 

On the bottom end of things, big, burly Adam also had a Lurch quality to him that made me nervous for some reason, so I'm glad he's gone. In the mid-ground, the first alien examine on the far left of the stage got a safe ranking, but I thought it was hideous as well. The piranha was also a little off, or derpy as the review states.

 

And on a personal note, while I've come to fear the contestants with weird colored hair, the turquoise lady doesn't bother me yet. The hair that does bother me is Emily's. Every time I see her in a talking head, I have a flashback to big hair days of the 80's. It's fine pulled back and under control in the shop, but is frightening otherwise. This hairstyle choice is surprising on someone so young. But then again, I am on the Fashion and Style police's Most Wanted list for crimes against fashion, so I probably shouldn't comment.

 

Also, glad to have the familiar format back. I was worried that we were gonna be stuck with three teams throughout the show, or however long they lasted. I could have done without the proposal as well. Thankfully though, it didn't take up too much of the show's time. As far as the Hunger Games judge goes, I'm just thankful it wasn't Twilight. Nice to hear that Josh is a fan of the show though.

[hincandenza]

This is the thing that drives me absolutely crazy about The Hunger Games movies. There are 10,000,000,000 actors in Hollywood, they couldn't find one who could act the part and was taller than Jennifer Lawrence? Peta is supposed to be a big strong guy with muscles, not a teeny little person. It was so obvious in the first movie, at least they used tricks to make him look taller in the sequels.

 

Your comment reminded me of The Onion movie critic's review of "Hunger Games: Catching Fire".  Just... just watch it.  It's phenomenal... :)

 

I really thought Alan would go far in the show, so I was surprised he got the ax. Stupid venom sacs!

 

Me too!  Halfway through I was watching him work and thinking "He might be a sleeper this year, he's quiet and seems competent".  So naturally, he was gone this episode; I think a better and more lizard/dragon-like paint job, including one that maybe highlighted the venom sacs as sac-like, might have kept that team safe.  Although I can't complain that the judges were even wrong, and my concerns about this season have basically eroded.  The two-person teams did some very solid work this week, the mentors and Michael Westmore provided more fantastic feedback, and the judges, well... they specifically said to make it more scary than cartoony, and then followed their own criteria during the judging by punishing the team that most did the one thing they were asked not to do.

 

And it was a very good show this week; I thought all the makeups were solid to great, no real disasters and some interesting, well-proportioned looks.  I nevertheless remain- especially with the mentors present- perpetually shocked at how much these teams bleed time, even in season 8.  You'd think more than anything, the mentors would help with that; I know if I were competing I'd be 'petal' to the metal (ha! I slay me... ) on getting something into mold by the start of day 2 at the latest, come hell or high water- possibly even running one mold in polyfoam first then recasting with latex for overnight, so if your latex is broken you know at the start of day 3 that you have a passable mold right there and ready- without wasting precious time as the models arrive.

 

While I get being a perfectionist, they really need to learn how to do things rapidly, and what details are best enhanced with a great paint job or later tweaking versus laboring endlessly in the original sculpt.  Remember how Dina had so many tricks last year like using a cut up popsicle stick to rapidly make those realistic scales on her Serpent Soldier (Alan and Stephanie might have found that handy this week!)?  A few times a season, I'd like to see someone basically enter the lab on day 3 saying "Eh, I got a couple of paint touch-ups, but otherwise I'm so done, I think I'll just go make other cool pieces to really wow them with accessories and minute details".  Actually, I suppose Dina came closest to that a lot last season, which likely is a big reason why she went on to win.

 

I liked the Piranha probably the best personally- loved that waterlogged, creepy face- but that was just safe, and while the Hyena turned out better than expected, I can see why they rewarded the Ram; the shapes and forms of that head and face were spectacular.  I guess it's good that they kept Ben since he's clearly better than those awful hands suggested last week.

 

I still adore Emily as my token eye candy for this season- those hips when she was standing on the judging platform, good god!- and think she has already shown some signs of real talent... but now after 3 episodes, I'm starting to worry she's this season's Sasha.  Both were young and talented, and yet seemed way too quick to get down on themselves or panic to the point of near tears- exacerbated when working in teams.  So far at least she's not been the Angel of Duo Death like Sasha was, but I'm curious how she'll function if next week is a solo week as I expect.

[Canada]

Does that qualify as the most unromantic, underwhelming marriage proposal ever?  Lucky lady!!

 

I don't think I like having the 3 former champions in the workroom all the time giving advice.  I thought these people were supposed to be showing off their own talents, not the talent of their mentor.  I just wonder, when looking at the final looks, how much was actually done by the contestant.  Are some people getting more help than others?  I don't really like it.

 

I don't think Alan deserved to go home.  His partner didn't seem to be all that good, so I expected her to go before him.  I did like the look on his face when they were first partnered up.  Priceless!  I think he knew it was going to be bad.

[Betelnut]

One thing that drove me crazy about the challenge (which had a poor concept to begin with, IMO) was that all the "plant/animal" hybrids were actually "human (hominid)/animal/plant" hybrids."  I mean, hyenas don't stand on their hind legs, fish don't have legs at all and bats have wings.

 

Plus, one of my pet peeves about any animal makeup on this show is animals don't wear clothes--why would these hybrids?

 

Other than that, not bad makeup.