Are They Still Making Talkies?
So, Melinda and I didn't go to the movies Friday night. This is not unusual; we've barely gone to the movies at all this year. In previous years, we might have actually sallied forth to assay Warrior's Way (or whatever that cockamamie cowboy ninja think with Geoffrey Rush is) - I mean, hell, we were there for opening night of Snakes On a Plane - this year, not so much. The last movie we saw was Inception; the last one before that was Scott Pilgrim. Throw in Kick-Ass and Red Cliff, and that's pretty much the sum of our non-revival moviegoing this year. We saw more flicks at the Escapism film festival in one weekend than we have the rest of the year combined.
Part of it is that there are fewer and fewer movies that seem interesting, I suppose. Or more to the point, fewer and fewer films that seem like they're interesting enough to supercede, say, an evening chatting with friends in the social calendar. Some of that's the movies themselves - I mean, I can put a bucket on my head and hit it with a wooden spoon for two hours, and get most of the experience of Transformers 2 (incomprehensible fight scenes yes, Megan Fox's scanty outfits no). Mostly, though, it's the fact that movies are now spoon-fed to us so condescendingly that they're not fun any more. Trailers are shot-for-shot congruent, the lighting clues you in as to everything that's going to happen in the movie (If blue, then scary monsters, check), and everything explodes. There's no magic, no hint that seeing the movie will give me anything more than what's in the trailer except, well, more minute count of everything I've already seen. I don't feel attracted to the film, I feel like I've eaten a couple of Whoppers at high velocity, and I'm cinematically queasy as a result.
Maybe there's an audience out there that doesn't want to go see a movie if they don't know everything that happens in it. Me, I'd rather be surprised occasionally, and with that surprise, delighted. Maybe I'll get that from something coming up. Or maybe not. The sad thing is, I feel like I know what I'm missing.
Part of it is that there are fewer and fewer movies that seem interesting, I suppose. Or more to the point, fewer and fewer films that seem like they're interesting enough to supercede, say, an evening chatting with friends in the social calendar. Some of that's the movies themselves - I mean, I can put a bucket on my head and hit it with a wooden spoon for two hours, and get most of the experience of Transformers 2 (incomprehensible fight scenes yes, Megan Fox's scanty outfits no). Mostly, though, it's the fact that movies are now spoon-fed to us so condescendingly that they're not fun any more. Trailers are shot-for-shot congruent, the lighting clues you in as to everything that's going to happen in the movie (If blue, then scary monsters, check), and everything explodes. There's no magic, no hint that seeing the movie will give me anything more than what's in the trailer except, well, more minute count of everything I've already seen. I don't feel attracted to the film, I feel like I've eaten a couple of Whoppers at high velocity, and I'm cinematically queasy as a result.
Maybe there's an audience out there that doesn't want to go see a movie if they don't know everything that happens in it. Me, I'd rather be surprised occasionally, and with that surprise, delighted. Maybe I'll get that from something coming up. Or maybe not. The sad thing is, I feel like I know what I'm missing.