Posted on 12/05/2014 6:45:07 AM PST by C19fan
I think Avatar is what happens when your ego makes you think your status in LALALand outs you on par with the great minds of history. He simply forgot who brung him to the dance and Avatar was the ultimate expression of that. The guy simply believed his press clippings.
Spot on, and very well said.
If I could nominate that for "post of the day," I would.
Thank you!
Agreed.
“I think the best cinema these days is coming out of cable and pay TV and has been for about a decade. “Walking Dead” and “Breaking Bad” were both better think anything that’s come out of Hollywood in a long time. The same with pay TV shows like “Sopranos”, “Deadwood”, “Rome”, “The Wire” and “True Detective”.”
(Don’t forget “Justified”, “Dexter” & “Ray Donovan” & even “The Killing” and “Top of the Lake”.)
But absolutely agreed. There’s simply no doubt about it. Almost no cinema can touch the story-telling, entertainment quality and production values of these series. Looks like the real talent has fled to cable TV series, where presumably freedom of expression prevails in the absence of dozens of second guessers and “inputers” who reduce original concepts to pablum.
Not to mention that a Hollywood that is now completely devoid of imagination and totally in the iron grip of group-think has pretty much completely substituted computer generated graphics in the place of actual story telling, dialog, plot, and acting.
Plus a series gives everyone involved much better opportunities at character development, particularly the actors. After all, look what Tim Olyphant has done in “Justified”, James Gandolfini in “Sopranos”, Michale Hall in “Dexter”, Bryan Cranston in “Breaking Bad” and Jon Voight in “Ray Donovan”. They could have never done anything like that in a single movie.
I look at the guy today and he really strikes me as someone that thinks that way. After the success of T2 it was all down hill for him. Sure, it was all up financially. But look at his output since. Everything more pretentious than the one before. He seems to think, for some reason, that he’s already made his Citizen Kane, wrote his War and Peace, Climbed Everest (thus his deep sea dive) and he’s now headed for Shakespeare significance.
Yes, exactly.
From 2002 on, his filmography is all Terminator and Avatar:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000116/
Not really. Reese gets to 1984 just like the original, but finds a strapped Sarah Connor who was intercepted in childhood by a reprogrammed terminator and trained to defend herself. This terminator also intercepts a destroys the original 1984 terminator, so its a who!e new game.
Nothing as strong as what you’re smoking. T3 was a stinking pile of $hit and I’m glad I brought a bottle of scotch to see it.
And the concept itself was hackneyed beyond belief. It’s been done many times. Prominently in Ursula K. Le Guin’s ‘The Word for World Is Forest’.
What worries me is that he’s had the Battle Angel Alita thing for a decade. And supposedly Spielberg has the rights to Ghost in the Shell. Either would take a budget that would dwarf Titanic and Avatar combined to do right. And thats just visually. Finding actors/actresses that can do either is gonna be a rough one. Milla Jovovich is simply too old now. 10 years ago she would have been ideal.
If they do what what was done to Transformers and casts the ‘current hotness’, Those movies are DOA. Likewise if they take the smart out of them and do them as straight action.
Thinking Kurt Russel making a last stand in “Escape from Ferguson.”
I’d bet if we sat down and thought about it, we could ultimately find dozens of that story in film and print. Which really speaks to the point about originality.
I really have to wonder if there wasn’t a conscious reason/decision made by Hollywood money to simply rehash old plots because it’s cheaper. It really seems that the will to actually create or break new ground is secondary at best.
I don’t think it is fair to compare 90’s movies vs. GitS as far as depth. The GitS series has 52 episodes or whatever of really great content, a movie is usually 2-3 hours tops at the very most. And the later GitS movies can skip so much info dumping because the audience is going in with so much info from the shows. But yeah, no regular TV shows from the 90s can compare with the best of the anime, and the even the really great regular shows from the 2000s don’t surpass it.
FReegards
Hannibal, otoh, could be one of my least favorite flicks of all time. A terrible disappointment after "Silence".
Problem for The Matrix is it wasn’t even the best “what if reality is an illusion” in that period. Dark City is much better in all ways, and Thirteen Floor had a better structure but lacked the budget to really make the story work.
Often times if you want to find truly great movie you need to look beyond the blockbuster. Go to the art house, or flops (that are often really good but lack the ingredients for mass appeal, Drive is a great example of that, truly an excellent movie, but also not the movie they advertised and never should have been a wide release).
I am not either, I will say that "Ghost In The Shell" and "Akira" are two of the best stories ever put on film. Add the depth of the visuals, and you have timeless peices of cinema. Admittedly, the stories aren't for everyone; that doesn't detract from making them stand outs. Personally, with today's CGI, et al, if done properly, I think both would make breathtaking live action movies.
Hannibal was awful.
No I meant the original GITS movie from the mid 90s. If you include the 2 series, very little can stand against it. Together it’s a Tour de Force. Those series are incredible.
there’s a third out as well. Havent got it yet but it’s looking to be a different animal.
Oh yes. Dark City was all kinds of fantastic. Lost that DVD in a move. Really need to hit Ebay.
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