I recently lost my old computer. (Still not happy about it). I had to order a new laptop via my company’s worker discount program. And it took about three weeks to arrive. And it came loaded with more “issues” rather than software. It gave me time to catch up on some reading and watching movies. And I want to talk about two movies I saw in this time period.
The first movie I watched because I have some “disease” in my mind that requires watching movie sequels even though I have hated the previous ones. This title is no 
exception. Transformers: Dark Side of the Moon. It should been called the “Brown Side of the Bowl”. I know the Transformers series has been a very popular and successful franchise movie series. Lots of viewers and made a ton of cash. And it has been a series that has done so with NO CHARACTER DEVELPOMENT what so ever. I did not care for any of them. Another problem was this series had no continuous mythology to hold any storyline together throughout the three parts. You can criticize the Star Wars films all you want (especially the “prequels”) but those films remained true to its established mythology. The other problem is CGI (computer animation) needs to be used with some restraint because the filmmakers overloaded every shot with too much of it. It was very hard to focus on any real action that was taking place. The CGI seem to exist to point out, “Hey look at how good we are with this CGI!” or “Who needs a story when we can do CGI like this?” Plus, a loud soundtrack and rapid edits seem to beat the viewers into submission rather than allowing for a storyline drawing them in. If you have not watched any of these films do yourself a favor and avoid them. The metaphor is the following “A really bad paint job on a not really good car to begin with”. I am sure in the future; they will want to re-launch this series because new technology will make the CGI even better. How about redoing the film with an interesting script that has characters and clear storyline?
MEMO to Studio Execs: Regardless of what you think. Or don’t. The story is what matters in the end. Always did. Always will. So make THE STORY.
There was a quote on the back of the DVD case from a supposedly well-educated film reviewer. He claimed it to be “The Best Action Movie Ever Made”. He needs a refund on his film education. And a pile of John Woo directed DVD’s to see the error in his thought.
I do not get to the Movie Theater that much anymore to see new releases. It is usually a 
matter of time. And the fact, many of the films do not make me want to go and see them right away. A couple of weeks ago, I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I read the three books in Millennium Trilogy by the late Steig Larrson. I also watched the Swedish trilogy of films based on them. David Fincher who directed the movie has made some of my favorite films like Seven and the adaptation of Fight Club. It is interesting the various takes on this material from the original book. The latest version I am going to have to watch again at some point. It was a good film but given how well I knew the material I am going to need to do some rethinking to determine my thoughts on it. I must say the Lisbeth Salander character is one the more interesting characters to appear in mass culture popular literature in the last few years. She is better than anyone that appeared in the Twilight series that seems to dominate popular literature. (Note: I never read any of those books and the first film bored me to the point of turning it off. Emo-vampires are annoying.)
I know that films and the books they came from will always be compared to each other. However, the two mediums are totally different in their “execution”. A book can pack out lot information into in. A book is also read by the pace of its reader. A film on the other hand is a visual medium that has to “show” the story. It is also paced to fit into a smaller amount of time. Therefore, the story has to always be in “motion”. There is also the reality of economics between the two. The film cannot possible include all the finite details of the book. The important part is that both can create two unique works based on the same source material. A viewer has to give each a chance to interpret and reinterpret the story. It can be a real deterrent to get “over-hyped” on which one was better.
Finally, I want to talk about the experience of going to an actual movie theater. I like to go to the earliest showing possible but never on an opening weekend for that particular movie. This way I can watch with the smallest crowd possible. I want to have the lowest chance to be annoyed by the bad habits of people. For example, that guy who buys the extra-large popcorn and manages to slowly consume it over the course of two hours. I would mind it. However, this person does not possess the ability to chew popcorn with his mouth shut. The parents who bring their young children to Rated R movies are especially annoying. It is a movie for adults and the material is made for adults. It is unfair to subject a child to material they could not possible understand. I do not go to kid movies in the theater (even though I enjoy the Pixar movies) so keep your kids out of the Rated R showings. However, the one that annoys me the most is the couple who needs to discuss the film as it is playing. I do not mind the emotional response of laughter or fearful screams. It is the people who think their thoughts should be aired during the movie “Siskel and Ebert” style. The coffeehouse after the movie is the place for this discussion. These people always seem to want to sit right by me. And cannot understand why I stare at them or even tell them to “Shut up”. And they found me when I saw The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. The movie is thriller and there are a lot of clues being shown throughout the movie. They could not understand any of them and had to discuss each moment. It is a movie they will show you the next clue. SO SHUT UP AND WATCH. They were out of my voice range and I was not in a yelling mood at the time. And they did see me staring at them and motioning to SHUT UP. And I got nothing. Why can’t these people just wait for the DVD to come out?
You know in the beginning of a movie they have the public service message of reminding people to silence their cell phones. There should be this message. And goes like this. CGI is used to recreate Clint Eastwood circa the first Dirty Harry movie. And says something along the lines like this, “If you are one of those people who needs continuous explanation of movie or has to share their opinions. Get up and leave the theater now! Or people like me are going to find out if we fired 5 or 6 times at your ass.” That is the premise. I know it needs some fine tuning. We can agree that there is a need for this message at movie theaters.
Now that I think about Travis Bickle (Robert DeNiro’s character in Taxi Driver) should deliver the message. You know he was crazy enough to do something about it.
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