Concept art is what artists come up with to try and sell a game or film. Sometimes it gives you an insight into an alternate direction your favorite media could have taken, and sometimes it’s just boss as all Hell. Here are 10 of the best examples.
10. The Joker’s Thugs Were Way Scarier
Though they only got about 5 minutes of screen time, the Joker’s masked thugs from The Dark Knight were pretty damn awesome. But concept art, released by Rob Bliss, shows that the end product we saw was was far less metal than the original sketches. Just check out how badass these guys look. They look like a Slipknot tribute band that also kill people on weekends. Though to be fair, that’s what Slipknot look like half the time anyway.
9. Prometheus Almost Had A Chestburster
Prometheus was a pseudo-prequel to the ever popular Alien franchise. Though a great film in its own right, with plenty of throwbacks to the original films, it almost had one more: a Chestburster.
As you can see, the film almost had a scene were a Chestburster exploded from some hapless guy’s chest, mid-pounding. It’s safe to say that the scene was cut, not because it was too rude, but because they couldn’t stop the sound guy from layering a guitar solo over the top as it happened.
Oh, and our picture only shows half the awesome. The other half is NSFW, so click this link to see the rest. If you can, and if you dare.
8. Prototype Almost Had An Awesome Protagonist
Prototype was a free-roaming video game that focused on Alex Mercer, a super-powered sociopath who murders half of New York with powers that let him grow Wolverine claws from his own biomass. He’s also a complete weenus, which is a word I made up just to describe him.
However, concept art painted Mercer not as the tight jean-wearing, popped collar frat boy wannabe we got in the final product, but as a more generic, plain-clothed figure. That might sound boring but, in video games, it’s important, as it allows the player to imprint their own personality onto the protagonist. Other art work painted him as a cold, unfeeling monster with god-like powers, which is equally important because it’s awesome.
7. Jurassic Park 4 Might Have Dinosaurs Mixed With People
Jurassic Park 4 has been floating around for ages,and the script has been re-written more times than Mitt Romney’s Wikipedia page. However, one idea for the film seemed to suggest weird human-dino hybrids. Yes, somebody pitched the idea of dinosaurs/humans hybrids, and wasn’t immediately sentenced to death.
Though these images were quickly denied to have anything to do with Jurassic Park 4 (because of course they were,) we wanted to include these images anyhow, just to prove that there is no way the actual film, whatever they choose to do, could possibly be this bad.
6. Darth Vader Had About A Zillion Rejected Designs
Darth Vader is probably one of the most iconic figures in pop culture history. With an imposing seven foot, frame clad in black armor, it’s not hard to see why.
Early in development, Vader went through a number of redesigns, including one with a removable helmet. One of the earliest known sketches of Vader shows him looking like a mass of black robes, intent on tearing out your soul through your throat. Another shows him looking like a Stormtrooper wearing a cape, but by far the best one is Vader with tiny baby legs. It’s almost like the artist realized he’d messed up, and just gave up half way through drawing.
5. Fan Art For Cloverfield Was Better Than The Movie
Cloverfield was an okay movie, which is like saying herpes is an okay STD. The trailer for the movie proved to be way better than the final product, which is proven by the vast swathes of fan art that got mistaken for actual art from the film.
A quick Google search shows a whole bunch of “concept art” drawn by fans of the film that kicked the result’s ass. To be honest, the actual monster in the film looks like a sack of wet dog turds in comparison.
4. Dead Space’s Enemies Were Way More Terrifying In Drawing Form
Dead Space is a game that focuses on the adventures of Isaac Clarke, an antenna repairman who single-handedly destroys a horde of rampaging Necromorphs. For the unaware, Necromorphs are essentially the reanimated corpses of the dead that have only one desire: to turn your torso into raw meat.
Early concept art of one of the bosses look like somebody stuck every horror movie cliché onto an orb of pus, then fed it nothing but screams for five years. The concept art of a creature called The Grabber, shown above, looks like something that would be too hardcore for an Iron Maiden album cover. Then, then you have the Graverobber, which was a creature cut from the anime of the game, that looks like a dog made of melted dolls heads. It is exactly as disgusting and terrifying as it sounds.
3. Metroid Enemies Looked Oddly Different In 3D
The first Metroid game was a smash hit on the NES, and has spawned almost a dozen sequels. Though graphical limitations rendered most enemies as pixels, the concept art from the game breathes new life into it.
Just check out the difference between art for the Sidehopper (they didn’t mess around when naming things back then,) and the final product. It makes you appreciate how much effort went into these early games. Even though we only ended up with pixels on a screen, every single monster and character had a full hi-res mock up made of it. Which is somehow worse than today, because at least today the art looks like the final product. Back then the art was better than the final product, and no one ever saw it.
2. The Spider-Man Film We Never Got
Spider-Man 3 wasn’t a great film, but the first two were pretty damn good, which makes it kind of shame that the fourth never got made. Mainly because it might well have introduced a flying Spidey! Yes, one of the ideas being floated around was Spider-Man utilizing the equipment of the villains from previous films, taking a built-in glider a la the Green Goblin, and combining it with Doctor Octopus arms, allowing him to fight while flying. This would have actually touched upon Peter Parker’s genius, a fact not covered in the other films. More importantly, it would’ve been freaking awesome, and a hell of lot better than him punching out Lord Voldemort with a skin condition, which is what we got in The Amazing Spider-Man.
1. Twilight’s Concept Art Was Better Than The Actual Movie
It’s safe to say that everyone reading this has very strong feelings about just which part of the human anatomy Twilight can suck the hardest. Yes the film is poorly written, and the acting is more wooden than an erection in a pine furniture store. But oh, what could have been.
Some of the concept art looks like it has been ripped straight from World of Warcraft, while others look like they’re from a sequel to The Grey which we’d call The Grey 2 – Taking Back New York, which would star a 30-foot-tall CGI Liam Neeson riding a giant wolf made of other wolves.
Then you have a small child riding a giant wolf, which is a pretty awesome image. If they made that image into a poster it would kill the industry overnight, because we’d never need another one. Looking at some of the artwork, it wouldn’t be surprising if thousands of boyfriends across the world would have simply preferred a slideshow of wolf-punching and a soundtrack of nothing but AC/DC, to the polished turd we ended up with.
1 Comment
You didn’t make up weenus.