This weekend, the two oldest girls and I went out to see the Desolation of Smaug, the latest installment in the Peter Jackson Middle Earth Saga. Our Middle Daughter, who’s read the book, enjoyed it a lot, but turned to me afterwards and said, “I recognized chapter 7 from the book, but where did all of the rest come from?”
Really, quite the comment on the movie. It was what I expected, an action packed movie with some familiar faces, but there was something about the movie that I couldn’t quite get over.
In a lot of (sad) ways, it reminded me of my impression of Avatar when I finally saw it. I didn’t mind all of the CGI – I love well done anime and computer generated action, and I know it can be done. What nagged at me was that in watching it, it was easy to see segments of the movie as boss challenges. Maybe not all major bosses, but it takes something out of the experience when you can watch a movie and visualize without effort, “yeah, this is the part where you have to thumb jam to keep your arm raised against the attack, and this is the part where you have to hit all of your timed jumps to survive. And now to fight this guy to beat the level.” That kind of experience has a way of souring you on action movies.
I’m with you. We enjoyed the movie, but the disconnect from reality was pretty strong.
Unfortunately, we’ve become a culture that pays well to be pandered to by our media. We can complain about oversimplified plots, action over substance,and jarring tonal shifts when fight or sex scenes are stuck in where they don’t belong, but as long as everyone keeps paying for it, they’ll keep making it.
I suppose it doesn’t help that in the scheme of things, making something look pretty with CGI is much easier than making it look pretty with real-life scenecraft and artistry. We, the movie-going public, have shown time and again that we’re willing to sacrifice the potential total immersion of a constructed set, for fantastical but flat cartoon grandeur.
So that’s what we’re stuck with, I guess.
I know exactly the feeling you’re describing, and it’s jarring. When I used to watch movies almost every week, it didn’t bother me as much, but when I went back into the theater after months away, the rules of the art seemed comical.
Pixar’s still immune to this, right? John Lasseter hasn’t written any pod-race scenes… right?
In a scene that couldn’t be scripted, I think Jamie and Andy just agreed on something. WAIT – don’t ruin this moment for me.