Movie Magic

Cinema, flicker show, chick flick, films, movies by any other name. Let me just start off by saying first and foremost, I love watching films. I think I watch more films than regular tv.(But that's another story) But in the industry of making movies, the art is continuously transforming, always improving, and striving to break new ground.

Let's take animation for example. Since the digital age, I don't think there are many handdrawn characters. A lot has upgraded to digital. A new form of art. It gives the artists the capability of making something 2D into 3D. And 3D has broken new ground with motion capture which looks amazing.

Blue screens, green screens. These add so much cinematically and from a business standpoint is a heck of a lot cheaper than real location shooting. Especially, if the crew ran out of time. Which brings me to why I'm writing this in the first place. Green screens can really help visually BUT it can also ruin the movie magic for the audience. Case in point, I just watched two movies last night and both had wonderful actors and good storytelling. Sadly both had sequences with awful, obvious green screen scenes.(Hmm, say that 5x fast) The focus on the actor in the foreground did not match the ongoing motion in the background. The lighting was severely off and it went back and forth from set to location back to set. Maybe I've seen too many films that my eye catches little things but this was so obvious it took my focus away on more than one occasion during the length of the film and my own opinion and excitement to recommend them, I can say does not go as high as I would've liked.

However, I have a vast appreciation for all forms of art and I always look for a positive aspect in a film that I initially find mediocre. Given over time, I can revisit a movie I may have seen once and thought it to be blah but in my return experience something changes and the film grows on me. There have been movies in the past that I grew to like and they have become favorites.

I'm under the belief that there's not a lot of originality anymore. Especially in the storytelling aspect. Do you ever go to the theatre or video store and say to yourself, "'I've seen this before...' or 'This is just like...'"? Well that means they've exhausted the same storyline. I hear others' opinions and they feel like I do. We're more critical now than we were 15-20 years ago. When people ask me about a movie recommendation, I tell them honestly. I, myself, don't want to feel that I wasted $9+ and 2 hours of my day on something I could have waited to put on my Netflix queue or miss out entirely. Some movies you just HAVE to see on the big screen to get the full effect that you know can't be as good the first time around with the 32" at home.

So, we're a pickier and more critical audience. Are we more critical than critics themselves? That I don't know. In my opinion, critics cannot be trusted. I have enjoyed countless films for countless reasons and critics always give the ones I like the best the worst score. Two thumbs down, an upside-down dog, one popcorn, one star, etc. Suffice it to say, I tend to go opposite from critics' opinions. Thankfully, I'm not the only one that goes that route.

Filmmaking is an art form. A way to tell a story. It's still magical for us to escape our everyday lives and enter into someone else's adventure or romance or true life portrayed. It's just a shame that it's harder to please today's audiences who have been spoiled with visual effects, sound effects, wonderful scriptwriting,and beautiful music scores. Myself included.