1. Abrams Delivers On Spectacle & Story
Before I begin this last bullet point, let me state that it won't be long until I'm out of Hollywood's coveted 18-35 age bracket. Soon, I will be sitting on some park bench, yelling to any kids who will listen (and possibly thereafter, their concerned parents or the authorities) that, back in my day, we didn't have none of that there CGI. We had to optically composite scale models in the snow uphill both ways... and that's the way we liked it! Now that we have that out of the way, let me ask you this: Has modern cinema lost its sense of wonder? Are special effects no longer special, now that we can fill the screen with any number of wonders? Now that we can digitally alter an almost sixty-year-old Bruce Willis into unstoppable killing machine who can survive anything? I'm not sure, but I can tell you this: when I watch Star Trek and Super 8, I'm reminded of all those great movies I grew up with from the early '80s. Movies like Raiders Of The Lost Ark, The Empire Strikes Back, and Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan, which knew how to balance spectacle and story. Abrams' enthusiasm and love for movies is contagious. He's a guy who still believes in movie magic. He still has some trouble nailing the third act of his films, but the first ten minutes of Star Trek pretty much sums up why I go to movies. I nearly shed a man tear (*) in theaters more than once during Star Trek, to say nothing of Super 8. Abrams keeps his focus on the story and his characters, while still being an excellent showman. There's a Half-Life movie out there that's scary, thrilling, and possibly even affecting. And that's what we get out of J.J. Abrams' movies. *A man tear is a single tear that runs down a mans otherwise stoic face after a momentous emotional experience. It can be found in dozens of movies, and is used over 50 times s in Peter Jacksons Lord of the Rings movies alone. It proves that the man is sensitive enough brave enough, even to cry a lone tear, while communicating, without any doubt, that he is not a wimp. Agree? Disagree? Think that the author deserves a headcrab to the face? Leave a comment below.
Jeremy Wickett
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Jeremy Wickett was raised from an early age in one of Broken Arrow, Oklahoma's classier opium dens. A graduate of The University of Oklahoma, he now resides in Phoenix, Arizona - where the desert heat is oppressive enough to make him hallucinate that he's a character in Star Wars.
And of course he can speak Bocce - it's like a second language to him.
His so-called musings can be found here: http://geekemporium.blogspot.com/
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