A final movie rant: Don't strangle it
Here is a trend in movies that I hate I feel like talking about to cap off the weekend: I hate when movies strangle themselves.
"Strangling" is when a movie introduces elements that it forcibly resolves to its detriment. Example: every thing that was introduced in, oh I don't know, Avatar, had to find its way back into the movie later in some way, even when no one cared or it didn't help the story. The old village tale, Michelle Rodriguez's entire character...you get the idea. It's like if a coin showed up in someone's pocket it was going to get used later to deflect an energy beam that would destroy a tank and save the day.
A lot of movies do this nowadays because they think audiences are stupid. Many audiences are and cry when they don't get the whole story, even if it would make the movie worse. We've simply been conditioned to want to know it all, and now, dammit, now. And you can tell this kind of movie from its trailer with some practice. When you see the trailer and you pretty much know not only what the film is about but how it's going to end, there is every likelihood that it's a film that's tied everything together too much, that strangled the magic out of the film.
That magic is key. It's what keeps us going back to a film, keeps us talking about what made it cool. It's the stuff we want to see more of but the film only gives so much and we're left writing the story in our heads the rest of the day. You'll see what I mean when I give you this list of things in cool movies you don't know what they mean (or you can't prove its meaning) and made it a richer, better experience for all involved:
- The cause of the destruction in The Road
- What some of the ghosts in The Sixth Sense were saying
- What the Blair Witch looks like
- What the Oracle told anyone else in Morpheus's crew in The Matrix
- The cause of the scar on John Connor's face in The Terminator
- Much of The Hangover
- Why the aliens crashed on Earth in District 9; what was wrong with the ones on the ship; what happened to their leaders; why South Africa...pretty much the whole of District 9
- What Abe from Hellboy is
- What the demon looked like in Paranormal Activity (a movie I didn't like, but appreciated this much of)
- How Rorshach's mask works in Watchmen
- Whether or not Max is bad or genuinely disturbed in Where the Wild Things Are
- Much of Dark City until the last act, but even then...who knows?
- What planet the Alien alien comes from and what it must be like
This stuff is magic, things that, left to their own worlds, can leave wonder in an audience. Kill the voice overs, don't shoot that back story about their mom...leave us something to take home.
"Strangling" is when a movie introduces elements that it forcibly resolves to its detriment. Example: every thing that was introduced in, oh I don't know, Avatar, had to find its way back into the movie later in some way, even when no one cared or it didn't help the story. The old village tale, Michelle Rodriguez's entire character...you get the idea. It's like if a coin showed up in someone's pocket it was going to get used later to deflect an energy beam that would destroy a tank and save the day.
A lot of movies do this nowadays because they think audiences are stupid. Many audiences are and cry when they don't get the whole story, even if it would make the movie worse. We've simply been conditioned to want to know it all, and now, dammit, now. And you can tell this kind of movie from its trailer with some practice. When you see the trailer and you pretty much know not only what the film is about but how it's going to end, there is every likelihood that it's a film that's tied everything together too much, that strangled the magic out of the film.
That magic is key. It's what keeps us going back to a film, keeps us talking about what made it cool. It's the stuff we want to see more of but the film only gives so much and we're left writing the story in our heads the rest of the day. You'll see what I mean when I give you this list of things in cool movies you don't know what they mean (or you can't prove its meaning) and made it a richer, better experience for all involved:
- The cause of the destruction in The Road
- What some of the ghosts in The Sixth Sense were saying
- What the Blair Witch looks like
- What the Oracle told anyone else in Morpheus's crew in The Matrix
- The cause of the scar on John Connor's face in The Terminator
- Much of The Hangover
- Why the aliens crashed on Earth in District 9; what was wrong with the ones on the ship; what happened to their leaders; why South Africa...pretty much the whole of District 9
- What Abe from Hellboy is
- What the demon looked like in Paranormal Activity (a movie I didn't like, but appreciated this much of)
- How Rorshach's mask works in Watchmen
- Whether or not Max is bad or genuinely disturbed in Where the Wild Things Are
- Much of Dark City until the last act, but even then...who knows?
- What planet the Alien alien comes from and what it must be like
This stuff is magic, things that, left to their own worlds, can leave wonder in an audience. Kill the voice overs, don't shoot that back story about their mom...leave us something to take home.