Not to harp on movies this week, but I just came back from seeing Super 8 and my question is this – why can’t Hollywood put out more movies like this? A simple story told the right way with care, attention to detail, good performances, and special effects that are used to further the story instead of distract the audience from gaping holes in the plot. In a way, it’s sort of like a Bizarro Michael Bay movie in that way…
Go ahead and make all the lens flare jokes you want, but I’ll say this – JJ Abrams could say his next project is an adaptation of the phone book and I’d be on board. I think what makes his movies different than the shlock that parades through most weekends is commitment. After watching Cloverfield, it struck me that there was never that one character that explained everything that was going on or anything that took the audience out of the premise. The story was told from the perspective of a group of friends making their way through the city, and if that meant no one got to see the monster fully until the final 15 minutes of the movie, so be it. In today’s give-it-to-me-now culture, that’s a pretty big risk and I admire the guy for doing it. While Super 8 doesn’t make you wait as long, it’s the same premise – not showing you what’s roaming in the shadows adds to the movie and the suspense.
Now, I don’t want to take too many shots at Mikey Bay… okay, that’s a complete lie, but let’s move along anyways… but another thing that struck me about Super 8 is that within the first couple minutes of the flick, I began to care about the characters. I watched two Transformers movies and couldn’t possibly care less if someone told me “Oh, by the way, they kill off Shia LeBouf’s character in the first 5 minutes of Transformers 3.” Wouldn’t phase me at all because his character really doesn’t mean anything to me – maybe I’ve watched him save the planet a couple times, but there’s not much there otherwise. Maybe it’s because they’re kids in Super 8 – or maybe it’s some deep, unresolved anger I have towards LeBouf. Probably both.
Fact is, if studios cared a bit more about producing a decent movie occasionally instead of vapidly buying up every comic property they can get their grubby hands on and creating sequels nobody wants to see, perhaps they wouldn’t have to worry so much about pirates cutting into their profit margins. In fact, I’d put forth that about the only way someone would ever see half these crappy flicks prior to their arrival on basic cable would be if they could see them for free. Even then, there are some things that once they’ve been seen cannot be unseen. You know, like Jim Carrey running around with a bunch of penguins desperately pining for our adoration.