8. Explosions > Storytelling?
"Now, that's a movie you gotta watch in theaters!" Vast landscapes featuring car chases, explosions, elaborate stunts, and even love scenes are incentive for people to go to the theater. Watching the Eiffel Tower blow up on an HDTV may look nice, but watching it blow up on a 30 foot tall screen is an experience. Add in the high def sound and you're glad you came. Unfortunately, most of cinema these days sacrifice essential elements of story to make way for these special effects. "Characterization? Pfft, he shielded the girl from the blast and then they made love in the first 10 minutes of the movie. If that doesn't tell you about his character, I don't know what will." Seriously, they probably don't know. "Plot holes? Whatever, did you see the twenty car pile up in the middle of Los Angeles? Crazy. So what if it was 'irrelevant' to the love story? It was awesome." Indeed, indeed. "Story? Ha! I don't know what you're talking about. You're just mad because you didn't see that twist coming. It wasn't robots or aliens. It was robotic aliens. Crazy." Crazy. Crazy stupid. We hate mainstream cinema because it insults our intelligence. Hollywood thinks we don't care about story, so they fill in the mundane void with fluff thinking we'll be entertained and distracted enough to apathy. News flash. We see the fluff. We don't like it. Case in study: "Green Lantern." It was supposed to be a hit. DC comics. Martin Campbell directing. Ryan Reynolds, Blake Lively, Peter Sarsgaard starring, so you knew 1/3 of it would be well acted. Surprise, surprise, the movie sucked. Why? That's right. Lazy characterization, illogical transitions, terrible pacing, and weak character motives. What did they do instead? Special effected it up. Oa looked breath taking, but Hal Jordan in costume was all CG, money not well spent. And the huge misstep was in the misuse of the ring. Green Lantern makes a coil to spring a gas tank truck and creates a green machine gun to blow it up. He also catapults a fireball back at Parallax. What? Why not shoot green laser beams out of the ring for efficiency's sake? Anyway, you get the point. Special effects do not make up for a lax story. Ask George Lucas and Michael Bay.