I answered a post just a moment ago, and got off subject by ranting about one or two things about modern movies. Does anyone else find that modern movies are of poorer quality? Not necessarily storyline-plotline, but the WAY it's made Rant 1: watch a movie carefully, and you will see how many times a character will enter a room or house, and NEVER close the door behind them. Rant 2: The camera shakes as if it was a hand-held. What's up with that? Just film the d*** movie. I don't need to feel slightly queasy for an hour and a half, and try to keep adjusting my eyes to watch the main characters interact. Rant 3: Almost any scene outdoors opens up with (and this goes for commercials also)the sound of an Eagle. Not so sure it really is an Eagle, but by playing that sound, you're supposed to understand that you are outdoors. Duh. Desert, or forest. Duh. Outdoors. Duh. Rant 4: The sound level has been jacked SO loud, it takes away from the scene. Yes, I know it's a car chase. I don't need it to be in my lap, screaming in my ear. Rant 5: Why so graphic? I don't need lessons on how to make love. We all know that we usually take our clothes off. And why have the camera perched on a person's cheek to show them kissing and literally eating each other's faces? Why not just fade the scene and let the imagination take over? Why show the brick landing on a person's head and splitting wide open? The sound effects alone will let me know that it was a bloody scene. Anymore rants about movie quality? Or the fact that I must be so old and critical that I shouldn't be allowed to watch movies or TV?
My goodness what kind of movies do you watch? I have to say I think over all things like special effects have come a long way over the years. Last Friday I was bored and did not have my laptop so I decided to watch a movie. I am a huge Godzilla fan so I chose Godzilla 2000. This is one that I have only seen once maybe twice. It has some of the cheesiest special effects I have ever seen and I have to say that is part of what makes it so great. I never noticed things like whether people close doors or not, once in a great while I catch something that makes me wonder what the director was thinking but even that is not often. I am very picky on what type of movies I watch so I seldom chose love stories. I prefer horror movies and action movies. I think many of those special effects are well done, better then long ago. I have noticed that often blood looks fake, it looks like chocolate sometimes, or it might be a bright red thats not consistent with real blood. You would think that with horror movies some of that stuff would make you sick, but truth be told I can only recall a handful of instances where the images bothered me . One that sticks out in my mind is Evil Dead 2, there is a scene where the skeleton monster chick does like a dance and something about it makes me feel sick, something quite disturbing about the way it was shot. I do agree many movies are way to bouncy now, as if they were shot with an IPhone. It has been like this since The Blair Witch and I don't care for it at all. I saw an episode of the Vampire Diaries about a week or so ago that was shot the same way and I hated it. All that motion takes away from the scene and makes me feel a bit motion sick. I will give credit where due, old movies mastered framing a scene.
I also hate the Blair Witch type of filmography, and there seems to be quite a lot of that lately. I know, from the start, that it's a movie, so there's no need to pretend that it's a film that was found somewhere. The thing that kills a movie (or book) for me is when a character does something that is improbable. Coincidences occur in real life but when a movie depends on something improbable in order to carry the plot, it loses me. This is true also when there are faults in the movie, such as when a character does something that they wouldn't do, or that wasn't available at the time that the movie was set in. I have seen this in medical scenes. I was a paramedic and paramedic instructor for more than twenty years, so I know when standards changed and when different procedures were introduced, and they sometimes get that wrong. I've lived in Maine since 2001, and movie or television scenes in Maine rarely get the accent right. Rarely do I see a scene in a movie or television series that is set in a rural area where anyone is allowed to have teeth or anything higher than a third grade education. They always need someone from the big city to come save them, and if someone from a rural area ever does manage to get something right, it is in some hokey manner. I've also noticed that when someone is identified as a Christian in a police show, you can be pretty sure that you've just found the killer.
I think that the film industry has recently seen a bastardization of both action sequences and story. First of all, in every action movie nowadays, during the intense parts, there is "shaky cam", which is used to give the viewers a sense of action, while the actor doesn't have to do things by the book (because of the camera shaking, you don't see his eventual mistakes). Also, the stories in general are rehashed and copied from other movies. There is little to no originality left, and I think that's pretty sad. One good action movie I've watched last year was John Wick, even though that too had a pretty cliche story. I recommend it to everyone who is looking for a good action movie, as that one doesn't have shaky cam, but it does have very good acting instead.
My favorite (and all too common) theme goes like this. A deranged killer is chasing a woman through a dark forest (or dark house). If she were to simply crawl under some bushes and shut the heck up, there is no way that the killer would ever be able to find her. Instead, she takes the steps toward hiding herself, but continues a litany of cries, squeals, and shrieks that inevitably lead to her discovery.
I have not been to a movie house since the advent of DVD. The few ones that I was lucky to view at home were quite entertaining. In fact, i remember the fun, and prefer to forget the negative aspects.
We do not go to movie theaters, although my daughter sometimes takes me out to see a good movie. Most of the movies that we watch are ones that are on Netflix, or at least free; so by the time we actually see a movie, it is not new anymore anyway. However, it seems to me that the new movies are lacking in many things, and trying to make up for poor quality shows by using special effeects. We do have amazing special effects, and sometimes it is pretty hard to see the difference between a real animal or a computer animated one, they can do these things so well now. As we discussed in another thread, movies now go way overboard in thinking we need to see such graphic violence and sex scenes. I have not noticed the shakey camera problem; but that is maybe because i just haven't watched the right movie to see that. Otherwise, I am pretty forgiving in the way movies are filmed. I laugh when it is supposed to be the old west, and an airplane goes flying across the clouds, or something similar that should not be there for the time period. But if the movie is interesting; I pretty much just watch the movie and do not worry if they don't get everything else right.