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There has always been a divide between quality and popularity in the film industry, but recently the gap seems to be getting bigger. Like one of its high speed chases, the movie industry is condemning itself to a multi-million dollar, barrel-rolling crash, which will undoubtedly end with some kind of expensive explosion.
It’s no secret that the film industry has always been focused on making money, but the recent blow up in demand for technology, like digital animation, is forcing the industry to create movies that revolve around spectacle rather than thought. While semi-trucks transforming into giant mechanical monsters and simultaneously destroying entire cities with missiles is bound to attract attention, most movies with plots such as this only have dialogue as a way of explaining what is going on. Consequently, there is little room left for character development.
To put it simply, we watch these movies for the same reason we watch fireworks: Stuff is pretty when it blows up.
However, the film industry cannot be held entirely accountable for making movies like this. Every time we buy a ticket at the movie theatre, we send a message to the people that make the movie, casting a vote. When millions of dollars are at stake, people tend to listen to the preference of the audience.
It’s a free country, so people have the right to like whatever they want to like. I am not arguing against free will. Audiences simply need to be more conscious of the choices they make when they go to the movies because the alternative is dangerous.
Movie making is an art and one of the most powerful forms of media we have today. If we pay for movies with no message other than how cool it is to blow stuff up, we give up a lot of power for social change.
Take “The Expendables” for instance. An action flick released this past summer, “The Expendables” boasted plenty of gunfire and every action star from the past thirty years. The screenwriter apparently thought the dialogue was also expendable and built the whole movie around cheesy one-liners and bullets, but it still garnered the position as one of the highest grossing films of the summer. If only the rest of the world could solve all its problems with a machete and a bad haircut. Maybe that is where the audience appeal comes in.
This is not meant to be a cynical review of “The Expendables”- I would not want to waste the ink. Audiences should simply be more aware of what they are supporting. I am not saying avoid these movies at all costs; if “Piranha 3D” or “The Other Guys” is your thing, by all means go for it. You should be much more critical of these exploit films I think, no matter what your preferences are.
As a member of the audience, it is up to you to question if you genuinely liked a movie, what you specifically liked about it and if it is worth seeing again. Otherwise, you are allowing yourself to be told what to watch by a bunch of marketing directors that are letting quality fall by the wayside.
If you need more proof that we are letting our standards as an audience slip, just look at the differences in ratings between critics and audiences on rottentomatoes.com or any other movie ratings websites. Our culture is letting entertainment as an art form slowly die. The only place t quality movies are being rewarded anymore is at the Academy Awards.
Unfortunately, when it comes down to whether a movie company would rather have a lot more money or an Oscar, they usually go for the money. We spend a lot of our time watching television and film, why not spend that time wisely?
Bangor Daily News