What have we lost?

Film is an ever evolving medium; starting out with single scenes and a stationary camera, evolving to creating entire worlds with CGI and filling those worlds with animated creatures to perform as extras in a film that costs hundreds of millions of dollars to make. In truth audiences become so mesmerized by sights and sounds to the point where plot and acting ability take a back seat. Then the real question becomes: What have we lost?

                The first real evolution of film was the interdiction of sound to silent films. Suddenly the blond haired, blued eyed Cleopatra opens her mouth and sounds like Suzy from the Bronx.  Suddenly producers were scratching their heads because to maintain an attractive believability actors and actresses had to be more than a beautiful face, while some acting legends like Charlie Chaplin asked for the first time, “What have we lost?” Chaplin was a silent film god and believed that the true art of acting was conveying a thought, an emotion, and an expression without ever having to say a word at all. In his mind, Talkies cheapened the art by allowing the actor to simply say how they felt or explained their intent. Was Chaplin correct? Were audiences now robbed of their imagination by the verbal expression of thought or emotion? It’s hard to say, harder to prove. Chaplin maintained the silent film art form for many years until his film The Dictator. The famous scene from the Dictator, when Chaplin gets up and gives his final speech, has been hailed as one of the greatest film speeches ever recorded. But was what Chaplin feared really true?

                It’s hard to say now. Film’s evolution has picked up speed as digital technology has allowed filmmakers to not only depict scenes never before though possible, but to also recreate worlds that have long since been destroyed. Sci fi directors have graduated from model ships suspended on piano wire to creating detailed ships that sail through digital space and become more reality than imagination. Again the question becomes what have we lost? In recent films plots have taken second stage to effects and the box office has clearly suffered. Examples? Let’s talk about most modern horror films, most PG13 action films, and yes sometimes even the big box office hits. Since I can’t talk about all these films, let’s hit some top named films like Avatar, the recent Star Wars films, and the historic flop Battleship.

                First off, James Cameron has made his bones on creating entire worlds with digital technology. From Terminator 2, Titanic, to his most recent film Avatar, no one has pushed the limits of technology and imagination like Cameron.  The first two films mentioned were both hailed as genius strokes, Titanic even won a few Oscars, but by the time he hit Avatar, Cameron lost some steam. Yes, Avatar was an entertaining movie, but was it worth the five hundred million dollar check it cost to make the film? Doubtful. Now if you ask true diehard fans of the franchise they would say that Avatar changed their lives or some other crazed propaganda, but if they’re truthful they would admit Avatar was a Ferngully with bigger fairies. Yeah the dragon things were cool, seeing the Marines in the mech suits was neat, but honestly the film was about rainforest conservation. Now was the film successful? Sure, it made money, but is that the sole goal for Cameron? I hope not. With a check of five hundred million, Cameron should have spent less time in the green screen and a little more time at the typewriter.

Another let down was the Star War Prequels.  Now let me state, I AM A STAR WARS NUT. I love the original films, I’ve seen them to the point I can quote them non stop, and secretly I’ve been working on my Jedi powers, but even I was let down by these new films. When George Lucas started filming the franchise he was a meager budget, most of the technology he used he perfected during filming, and by the end of it he was far more successful than he originally expected. When the new films were announced every Star Wars fan jumped up and did a happy dance, they waited days in lines for tickets, and they wore costumes to the premiere, but when they left the theater, they felt a little screwed over at what that saw. Jar-Jar Binks? Really? George Lucas produced a film that was filled with glorious fight scenes, epic flight sequences, a real look into his world, and aliens with bad Asian accents. Yeah, totally awesome on the outside, and filled with pg crap on the inside. Sure Darth Maul looked great, but he literally had maybe two full lines in the film, add to the fact that Anikin Skywalker, roughly maybe seven, falls for Queen Amidala who was maybe in her early twenties. Weird much? As the films progressed, so did the technology, and so suffered the plot. Enter Hayden Christensen, the biggest whiner in the film series.  “My mom’s dead, I killed a lot of people, I love you Amidala!” My god, it just goes on and on and on, the point where he’s melting in lava cursing his father figure screaming, “I hate you!”. Now match that with super acting chops of Ewan McGregor and it’s pretty clear George did it for the money.

Don’t get me wrong and put the pitch folks away, I’m not saying George sold out, but I am saying he did accept a blank check (cough 4.5 billion) for his film efforts and the fans suffered for it. In the first film aliens all spoke a different language, not having different accents, the costumes, make up, vehicles and effects might all look lame now but at the time there wasn’t a kid alive that didn’t want to shoot down a tie fighter in their Xwing. The first three films just seemed like George gave all on a gambit and it paid off. Now it really seems like he’s just calls in some script ideas and sits back to watch the money roll in. Now with this sale to Disney, fans are either fanatically bailing out or jumping on the band wagon, praying these next films are worth a damn.

Now when they announced the film Battleship, based on the board game sharing the same name, I didn’t expect much. I was not to surprised when I saw the result did not exceed my expectations. The film’s cast should have pulled through, the effects were millions of dollars to make, the plot surely had some kind of point to it, but the end result was epic nothing.  Surely Michael Bay could have told them that a good looking face and epic digital explosions can’t make a movie ( Transformers 2) or maybe they could have taken notes from Cameron’s success for big blue things with yellow eyes and saw that maybe they should spend some time working on the plot. Nope. The film was a complete disappointment, just another one in the long line of crap movies, crappier remakes, or films laden with computer generated images, actors, robots, aliens, or psycho freaks. Damn, I can honestly say the only films I wasn’t completely angered when I saw how heavy they used CGI would be the Lord of the Rings films.  And just a little more information for you, Hungry Hungry Hippos is happening, god help us.

So in conclusion I would like to say that the other day I went to Wreck It Ralph (totally great movie) and was pleasantly surprised with the silent short Paper Man that came on before the film. Sure it was an animated film, but there were no lines spoken, no aliens invading, no transformers dying, it was just a simple tale of love that Chaplin would be proud of. I was amazed to see how such a simple plot could be conveyed with such heart felt emotion without the use of words or explosions.  I watched this film and felt tingles running up and down my arms, and actually felt excitement as the conclusion pulled through to an end. I think Hollywood needs to forget about the remake, forget about CGI explosions, bad plots made up for by expensive effects, aliens, robots, gadgets or  blue monkeys with yellow eyes and return to a simplistic film concept. I will say that the movies I have recently most enjoyed were smaller budget indy films that might have made a small splash in the box office, but really made an impact at home. So if you’re at the Redbox, look for the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, Safety not Guaranteed, Salvation BLVD, or maybe some off the shelf film neither of us ever heard of. You’ll be surprised, I promise, but much more you’ll be fulfilled and in the end that’s the best, cream of the crop, of what a movie lover can hope for.

                Anyway

Those are just my thoughts,

J.