I'm seriously considering a murder rampage...
Once, there was a comic book movie. A sequel. And, unlike most comic book movies (to say nothing about sequels to comic book movies), it was GOOD. VERY GOOD. It dealt with complex emotions and consequences, had great character development, and most every actor gave what might be the performances of their lives. Despite (or maybe due to) the death of the actor who played the main villain, the movie broke records for money made at the box office. ****, the movie became the first comic book movie EVER to win an Academy Award in acting! Yes, I'm talking about The Dark Knight. The writing is some of the best I've seen in cinema. It's a masterful examination of what can happen to a person who's assumed responsibilities suddenly seem to spiral out of control. Now we've got New Moon. The sequel to Twilight. A movie with no plot, actors who would be more at home in a high school production (and even that's being incredibly nice), and characters with no personality whatsoever. Pretty much the anti-Dark Knight. And what the **** happens? It shatters the box office record for opening night income set by the aforementioned Dark Knight. As an aspiring actor/writer/director who cherishes all of the subtleties that go into a truly excellent performance, this pisses me off more than almost anything. Actually, it's probably become the #1 thing that pisses me off. Yes, it pisses me off more than helicopter parents, more than idiots who replace "Christmas" with "Winter Holiday" and "Halloween" with "Costume Day". More than anything. Because I want to make this industry my livlihood. And it saddens me that someone can crank out any sort of cheap ****, pad it out to 2 hours, and put it up on the big screen and earn hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office. Because there seems to be a cheapening of actual effort made in making movies. Why have your characters develop personalities and have them make life-altering decisions when they can just stand in front of a camera for an hour or so looking pretty? Why have plot when you can just take a camera and follow the actors around for a month, make a couple quick edits, and call it a movie? Movies that look like they've been made with at least some effort are fast becoming few and far between, and that really depresses me. And pisses me off.
If New Moon breaks any more records, there's gonna be a bunch of dead tween bodies littering the streets. ****!!!!!
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Posted Nov 23, 2009The reason these movies get made is because they will make money. The big studios don't care about quality but about dollars. As long as butts are in theater seats the studios are happy and will continue to make these movies.
However, take heart. You won't see these big budget flicks win any respected awards because the industry recognizes these movies don't deserve respected awards. New Moon isn't supposed to win a notable award but just win a lot of dough.
Furthermore, movies like this are not trying to pull any true emotional response from the audience nor advance the art of cinema because that's not what they are made to do. New Moon exists to make money plain and simple. It's not a noble goal in any way but it does allow smaller, more meaningful movies to get made. Just grin and bear it as much as you can and enjoy the truly beautiful movies that are quietly released alongside the blockbusters.
Last point. While The Dark Knight is a wonderful movie don't mistake it as anything short of another cash-grab by a movie studio. Superheroes rake in big bucks at the cinema and the Batman franchise has been making paychecks for many, many years. The studio was just lucky that Christopher Nolan cares enough about his craft to envision more than just another action movie about a guy in tights. They're even more lucky that Nolan cast some talented actors who also take great pride in their work and put up some memorable performances. Remember, it wasn't too long ago that Batman was just another summer big-flick made by and starring people who just wanted another piece of the money pie quality be damned.
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Posted Nov 22, 2009-
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Posted Nov 22, 2009-
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Posted Nov 22, 2009