Filed under: General Musings | Tags: Aromathus, Jeff, Journal, Movie, Novel, Offringa, Personal, standards, Stargate: Universe, stories, TV
Recently I’ve been pondering a couple things: First, that a great many of my posts and reviews lately have been negative, or at least not complementary, in nature; and second, I’ve begun to wonder if my standards for television and movies are too high.
I’ve been thinking about the first for a while now. It started when I realized that I haven’t unabashedly liked anything I’ve reviewed since the I finished the last Robert Jordan novel last winter. Then, when I went and saw “The Wolverine” and “Pacific Rim,” I found myself asking “What am I missing that everyone else is loving about these two movies?”
It culminated when a friend of mine posted on Facebook that he was going to see “The Wolverine.” As this man is a former pastor of mine, I posted that I was very curious what he thought of it. I said it was an OK movie, but just pretty…. meh.
A few hours later, he responded with a simple “I liked it. It wasn’t a great movie but it was pretty good; you’re standards are just too high.”
Huh.
I’d like to think that my standards aren’t “that high,” that I’m merely expecting writers to treat me (and other viewers) as intelligent enough to expect a movie not to have huge plot holes, nor to rely simply on more and bigger special effects to achieve a money making movie. Or, put another way, I’d like to think that I just hold people to a good, not “too high,” standard, and that I’m not turning cynical in my old age. I mean, really – is it too much for me to ask of James Cameron that he come up with something less insulting that the “unknownium” that he uses in Avatar?
I’d like to think not. But maybe I am becoming a cynic.
And then something unexpected happend.
To explain: I’ve never been a fan of the Stargate franchise. I did see the movie when it came out, but wasn’t terribly impressed by it. Sure, it wasn’t awful, and it was entertaining, but to make a series out of it? I just never got into it. Then, when I heard rumors from friends who were fans over the years, my ability to suspend disbelief kept me from starting to watch it as well. I mean, humanity gets giant starships, transporters, and fights a galactic war against the Big Bad Evil Guys, yet 99.9% of humanity never figures it out?!? Huh? You know, we can see satellites with a telescope. So how come we can’t see a giant Starship in orbit?
But I digress. My point it this: because of the “your standards are too high” comment, I took up another friend’s advice and started watching Stargate: Universe. I remembered him raving about it when the show was on the air, but because of my prejudice against SG:1, I never watched the show.
I wish I had listened to him at the time.
In short, the show avoids most of my problems with SG:1 by the simple fact that the characters are stuck on a starship half way across the universe. And unlike so many other SF show (like Trek) the ship isn’t perfect, the crew doesn’t get along, and there is real drama. In fact, as I began blowing through season one, I kept (and still do keep) thinking “This is what Star Trek: Voyager should have been.”
Really! The crew doesn’t get along. They’re not supposed to be there, and most of them don’t want to be there – just like Voyager. But here is the key difference: In Voyager, they started to meld after Tuvok spends an episode training them, and after they survive a crisis or two, they are one big happy crew – after only a few episodes. All that vaunted Maquis – Starfleet tension? Gone!
Not here. The civilians in the crew really, REALLY don’t want to be there. And when they deal with very basic problems such as “How do we get the air purifiers to work on this ancient starship none of us know how to use?” there is, as I said, real drama. Everything doesn’t end up happy by the end of the fifth episode. All those tensions are still there, and the crew soldiers on fixing the air filters, dealing with the fact that they have little food or water. They’re bored, homesick or lonely – or all of the above. Toping it all off is the fact that the only person on the ship who really understands it likes being there and doesn’t care that he’s across the universe because he’s doing what he loves. So can you really trust him?
Well, I didn’t intend to go on about SG:U for this long; suffice it to say that I’m loving the show and wish more than ever that the “Sy Fy” channel hadn’t decided to stop showing SF in favor of wrestling and “Sharknado.” What I will say is that SG:U proves that well written SF on TV isn’t dead, or at least doesn’t have to be. I mean, yes, I hold writers and producers to a high standard. But they can do it. SG:U is intelligently written. The plots are deep and the stories well written. They’re are very few explosions, and the drama comes not from coming up with a bigger and bigger threat of death our heroes have to overcome, but from (GASP!) the characters.
I don’t know what it says about society that we increasingly seem to settle for whatever provides a bigger boom, but we don’t have too. We can have good stories that have no plot holes, entertain us, and give us great SF. And do so without comic book movies repetitive fight scenes or insulting plot holes.
Don’t settle for mediocre stories, folks. Hold out for the good stuff. It is out there.
Filed under: General Musings | Tags: Aromathus, Jeff, Movie, Novel, Offringa, original, Personal, sequels, stories, transformers
Oh, sure, a part of that reason is because the new Transformers movie just came out. I went to see it with my niece and nephew the other day. Both of them were very eager to see the new movie, but neither of them is old enough to remember Transformers. Not, at least, like I do. I grew up on Transformers “G1.” They are both children on the 90’s, obviously more familiar with Pokemon and the like than what I grew up on.
I fondly remember the old 80’s Transformers cartoon show; there were many, many days that
I would come home from school and watch GI Joe and Transformers back-to-back. I collected transformers as a kid as well; I had a little “geek flashback” when I saw Sideswipe in the new movie, seeing as how he was the first Autobot I ever had. Heck, I’ll even admit to shedding a tear or two when Optimus Prime died in the original Transformers animated movie, back in 1986. Then again, I was eleven, and when I re-watched that movie a couple years ago, I realized just how campy – no, just plain bad – those old cartoon shows were. In fact, I realized that my older brother was a saint for sitting through that movie, seeing as how he was a decade and a half older than me. Ah, the things we do for family….
But I digress. The point of this entry isn’t to review the movie: I will do my thoughts on that another time, perhaps. For now, I’ll just say that Revenge of the Fallen is just like the first live action movie, only more so. More explosions, more silly comic relief, more of Megan Fox running in slow motion. If you liked/hated the first one, you’ll feel the same about this one.
Nope. The point of this entry is nostalgia. Or, rather, why is it so hard for Hollywood to come up with a truly new script anymore? Oh, don’t get me wrong. I’ve said here that there are no truly new stories out there – that everyone borrows. That’s still, and always will be, undeniably true. I’ll also admit that I’ve seen all the movies of which I’m talking about here this summer, so I’m rather a hypocrite here.
Even so, think of it: What are the four movies I’ve seen this summer? Transformers. Star Trek. Wolverine. Terminator: Salvation. All four are, at least in some way, sequels. And all of them are also worth seeing. Yet… none of them are new ideas. Every one of them is based on something at least twenty years old. Is this a bad thing? Oh, I suppose not. But whatever happened to coming up with something new, rather than re-opening the nostalgia closet to sell movies?
I understand that when a movie costs “a million dollars a minute,” as I heard on NPR today that Transformers did, that you want to guarantee you make that money back. And mining the nostalgia closet means you’ll make that money back. Yet…
Take two movies from the past that are on heavy re-play on a couple cable channels right now. Two weeks ago I saw both Aliens and Alien: Resurrection, one on AMC, and the other on G4. Aliens (and yes, I know that’s a sequel) is already considered a classic. DISH network, my satellite provider, rated Aliens as one of their rare four-star movies. This is even more remarkable when you consider that Aliens is a sci-fi shoot-em-up; not your typical 4-star movie.
It is that good, if you haven’t seen it. Lots of gripping action, yet there is real character growth. The plot doesn’t have huge holes in it; major events are foreshadowed, but nothing occurs that doesn’t make sense. In other words, even though the movie is over twenty years old, it holds up both as a sci-fi movie, and as creepy-scary movie; one the top twenty movies I’ve ever seen – maybe top ten.
Alien: Resurrection, OTOH, was shown on G4 (I’m never quite sure what their target audience is, but I digress. Again.) What did G4 sell it as? One of their “Movies that don’t suck.” Hrrmmm. OK, I know that G4 also shows movies like the original Terminator under that banner, but I think that’s rather indicative of that movie. Alien: Resurrection wasn’t terrible, but is certainly wasn’t good. In fact, other than that Wynona Ryder (a favorite actress of mine) was the co-female lead with Sigourney Weaver, I remember very, very little about it – even after re-watching most of it. In other words, sequels are never as good as the original.
So why does Hollywood keep going back to twenty year old TV / Cartoon shows for it’s blockbusters? Well, like I said – part of it is cost. A Transformers movie will make money. Heck, A Dukes of Hazzard movie will make money. (Yet no A-Team movie. How sad….) OTOH, that seems to be all they do these days. Look at the biggest hits of he last few years. Batman. Lord of the Rings. Star Wars. Yes, I know there are exceptions. In fact, one of my friends who is even harder on movies than I am being here told me he particularly enjoyed “The Hangover”. And I, as a writer who admits to borrowing plot ideas, really shouldn’t rip on movies. Heck, I’ve enjoyed all the movies I just listed. Yet… I can’t help but wonder where all the original Hollywood movies have gone.
Oh well. Maybe I should just shut up and watch, eh?
Oh. One last thought. Why do I wish my car was a transformer? Heh. Then my car battery wouldn’t wear out and die like mine did at the movie theater Friday night. Bumblebee never had that problem. Then again, Bee isn’t eight years old with over a hundred thousand miles on him, either.
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