Come December, I believe we’re going to be in the middle of a full-fledged war.
No one will be killed, but something may be decided about the future, or at least a few years of it.
We’re going to find out whether we can actually stand a movie that has so much special effects that it gives our eyes the equivalent of visual diabetes.
That movie, of course, is James Cameron’s Avatar, which will be largely rendered through CGI. And in 3-D. And in IMAX.
If there’s a gimmick he’s not using, please tell him now so he can work it in. My vote is for scratch and sniff cards for certain parts of the movie.
Of course, this movie has one big problem: the test audiences and people who’ve gotten to see the short previews seem to be indicating that it’s garbage. Maybe we don’t want to go to scratch and sniff cards after all.
I believe that Cameron, and directors in general, are facing the crucial moment of evolution in the science fiction film genre: the moment where you either go bigger, or you find a way to go better. Call it George Lucas Syndrome, or GLS for short.
Why call it GLS? Because much like Lou Gehrig, George appears to be our most famous victim of a debilitating disease. It’s a disease that causes the ego to believe that the more you can cram visually into a film cell, the more interesting and stimulating the cell becomes. Unfortunately, the ego does not check itself in time and the cell collapses from overstimulation or lack of any real content. For George’s sake, though, I could have also called it Wachowski Overstimulation Complex (see Speed Racer).
Truth be told, there are a LOT of offenders. Plenty of times recently I’ve found myself exiting a theater from a sci-fi spectacle wondering why they spent so much money on either a) bad-looking CGI effects, or b) special effects and explosions at the expense of storytelling. Once you find yourself making excuses like, “The story was terrible but the explosions were beautiful,” it’s time to step back and reconsider your film-going options. I could honestly have written the genre off in the future were it not for the saving grace of one film.
Ladies and gentlemen, the film that will save the science fiction genre is District 9.
If you haven’t seen it yet, please do so. It’s gotten rave reviews and good box office for a reason. I have not heard personally from anyone who said it was a bad film. It’s also teaching us a few valuable lessons that could save future films if I’m right and Avatar turns out to be a disaster. And just to qualify things, I’d call that a huge “if” based on past spectacles and what I see as a similar set of issues.
1) More is almost always less in the effects department. This idiom should be carved in stone and placed on the corner of Hollywood and Vine. If there’s anything I want to put across from District 9 to show why it’s the future of science fiction, it’s this: do a few effects, and do them well. WETA Digital did such a fantastic job of blending the Prawns into the landscape that you forgot that you were watching an effect for most of the movie. That’s not hard to believe from the guys who gave us Gollum, but if they can do it why can’t everyone else? These guys are simply taking ILM and associates to the woodshed.
I really feel like this was the ultimate failure of the Star Wars prequels. It was all green screen and you had to create every environment and a LOT of the characters with effects. What you got was, pardon the pun, alien. Nothing fit with anything else. There was just so much CGI the whole thing became a case study on the Uncanny Valley.
Bottom line: it’s only worth calling them special effects if they’re SPECIAL (meaning a few of them).
2) Tight story will always be a better sell than a good explosion. I’m staring directly at Transformers on this one. District 9 put you in a league of your own in terms of failure. It had no stars, it had no senseless giant fights. It didn’t try to sell me the fact that a couple of illiterate robots who call people “pussies” and threaten violence against them are acceptable to show children.
The only thing you can even try to sell me is the fact you made bigger box office. Go back to 1 and notice bigger ain’t better and pull the other one…
The movies with the better stories were clearly up above everything else this summer. Star Trek was well done, and sort of our gap-bridger in this case. It had a good story and good effects. The reason I can’t put them in a category unto themselves is JJ Abrams and company are already stating that they’re going to go to a deeper place in the next movie, which I think puts them more towards a District 9 future. Harry Potter doesn’t really qualify one way or the other, as a fantasy movie really. Still, heard a lot of complaints about the story in that one, but those were artistic changes made by a director who clearly was more concerned with teen sex angst than anything else.
And the less said about Terminator: Salvation and X-Men Origins: Wolverine, the better. Not necessarily bad effects, but stories that remained a step below fan fiction doing an incredible disservice to the original materials.
3) Finally, I would like to say that star power isn’t everything. Think about how many big name actors were in District 9. Now think of how many people crammed themselves into the Star Wars prequels. If the scoreboard looks a little like 1 billion to my chances with Natalie Portman, it should be all the evidence you need.
It wasn’t always like that. George took a bunch of no-names into Star Wars and we sure as hell all know who they are now. Sometimes adding a name is more of a marketing move than a move in the interest of making the best picture possible. And again, it was less of a problem with Star Trek, but I think our “big names” in that picture were chosen for good reasons. And yes, Zachary Quinto, I just called you “big name.” Don’t get ahead of yourself, though.
In the end, I don’t think I’ve asked all that much. Give me a good script done well, a set of visual effects that are blended as well as possible and not overbearing, and don’t get stars in your eyes too often. I think everyone benefits from directors and producers attempting to put the best film out every time and not just once in awhile.
Oh, and parting shot to the producers: compare the budgets on all these films. If that doesn’t convince you of the future, nothing ever will.
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