Monday, February 1, 2010
You may know that a certain James Cameron-directed movie not named “Titanic” swept through movie theaters last month, becoming the second most-grossing movie of all time with over $500 billion in total global revenue.
That movie, “Avatar”, is the latest pop culture phenomenon (an honorable mention goes out to “Jersey Shore,” a program that shouldn’t even deserve quotation marks). It recently won a Golden Globe for “Best Drama.”
Everyone has talked about the film’s stunning visuals and special effects. But, little has been said about the story development and dialogue.
As 3-D viewing experiments are becoming the norm, television and movies are changing forever. But does commonplace 3-D movie viewing translate into a progressive movie experience?
Until the arrival of 3-D movies, one of the qualities of a good movie was whether or not it made viewers feel like they were in the movie. For me, the sign a movie was good was if when the credits started to roll they brought me back to reality.
When watching “The Shawshank Redemption” for the first time, I forgot where I was. Tim Robbins and Morgan Freeman were talking to me as if I was standing next to them in the prison courtyard—just another day. It was one of those movies where thinking was required for the full experience. In other words, I wasn’t paying 10 dollars to watch giant robots based on Hasbro toys blow up one another for two hours.
Most everyone has fond memories of the violent fight scenes in “Fight Club”; certainly the inclusion of these scenes is what makes the movie such a popular one. But, has anyone ever stopped to think why the fight scenes stick out? It’s because of the art in the storytelling.
When Edward Norton’s character gives his famous “I am Jack…” narrations throughout the movie or Brad Pitt demonstrates the inner workings of movie reels, the scenarios are so bizarre that viewers can’t help but think about the character, about the story, about something. Thus, when you watch Pitt and Norton beat the hell out of each other, it means more to the movie.
The problem with standardizing 3-D in movies is that the one element of a good 2-D movie—when you find yourself “sitting” next to Morgan Freeman in the courtyard—is automatically commonplace. This is because, well, you really are in the movie.
How will movies like “Up in the Air”, “Shawshank”, or “Schindler’s List” find a home in 3-D—a genre built for action—next to giant exploding robots? They can’t.
The point here is not to call for the elimination of all genres except drama. I could talk about TPS Reports, Bond movies, or ask if anyone knows where Doug, from “The Hangover,” is all day long; all genres have merit.
The fact that the technology is even available to make a movie like “Avatar” is amazing in itself. But if 3-D, over-lade visual movies become the latest way to make money in Hollywood, expect to be stuck with less “Shawshank” and more “G-Force.”
— Boultinghouse is a sophomore from Girard in history and journalism.
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Boultinghouse: 3-D diminishes quality, art of films
I think you are missing the point here. Personally, I think the 3-D glasses are kindof distracting to wear, especially if you have glasses to begin with. But 3-D movies are pretty damn cool. Part of the problem is that most of the time (especially with movies like Avatar) 3-D becomes part of the selling point of the movie, and not necessarily something thrown in to help tell the story. That's really where Avatar sucked- it had all of these great visuals and killer CGI that really blew my mind and blurred the lines of reality and animation, but there was no meat to the story. Like the grannies in the old Wendy's commercial, I left the theater wondering "where's the beef?" The story line was so rehashed, so tired, so done 5000 times already that it almost killed any great things that having really awesome CGI brought to the film.
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