The Ho and I just finished watching Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade. What a freaking masterpiece! Ahhhhh. I love that movie. After watching all three of them, I do have to say, however, that the gem of the franchise (and truly of both Lucas and Speilberg’s careers) has to be Raider of the Lost Ark. Raiders is a perfect movie. Top to bottom. Now that I’m a bit older, The Last Crusade has a couple minor issues here and there…all that said…Last Crusade might still be my favorite 😛 It’s hard for me to choose. I just freaking love Harrison Ford and Sean Connery together. Seriously, they’re just so incredible.
I was a freaking tired ass bum today. I took a two hour dead-to-the-world nap after we went and did our taxes in the morning. Yes! That’s right, the day did start off in a somewhat constructive manner; we had our taxes appointment. We’re getting money back. I paid enough in my estimated taxes. We all say hurrah! That was a major learning curve last year, that I should be setting that money aside after every paycheck, so I never even have time to mourn its inevitable departure from my sweaty hands. Or cold electronic bank account…if you want to get technical.
I also watched the movie from earlier this year Predestination. It had been recommended online from a few people, I saw it being just released on Netflix, and so I was like, yeah, I’m in. Let’s see what the fuss is all about.
It was shit.
Muddled, boring, shit. A fun concept, granted, but not original. And, I suppose I don’t actually demand an incredibly original concept. I don’t, actually. I just demand execution. ANYONE can think of an “interesting” story idea…it’s HARD to properly execute a good story. Well, this movie was definitely not that. It was essentially a 55 minute flashback sequence, an hour-long monologue. Fuck, what a stupid decision. Show, don’t tell, people. This isn’t a fucking play where we’re bound to stay in the same room the whole time…and while they didn’t do that exactly because we could see the past as it was being described…we’re still sitting around talking about the past for the entire freaking movie. No REAL scenes, except for like 10 minutes in the beginning and end. No adventure. No conflict. Just exposition. We don’t even get a freaking resolution for the main character or the plot!
I strongly disliked the movie, and I honestly don’t understand why movies like this and Snowpiercer get any fucking attention whatsoever. They’re small-time film festival features in their core, and straight-to-streaming at their best. In Ira’s World, anyway. They’re amatuerish execution. I feel like I can be an asshole and say that, because I’m still in that phase of my own development – the amateurish phase. Hopefully, I pick up the tips and tricks in my travels to get past that stage. It’s a really REALLY hard thing to do…but that doesn’t mean we settle for poor execution and call it “great” in the interim, people. We demand excellent story-telling, which means not only an interesting and exciting concept, but real execution on that concept, with fleshed out, engaging characters who we care about, smart dialogue, and that gleaming polish from somebody who really knows what they’re doing because they’re among the best at what they do.
I’m a sucker for SciFi. I always have been. You write/produce something Scifi, and I’ll invariably be there to watch it, and probably rewatch it because I just love all of it. BUT…I also demand the my Sci fi hold its own amongst the best of any genre of storytelling if I’m going to pour my heart into it and say that it was excellent. It irks me to hear that something is “really good” when it is clearly none of the things that make a movie “excellent.” And, I don’t think execution is a subjective thing. I really don’t. It wasn’t the concept or what Predestination was trying to do that I didn’t care for…it was simply that they did it poorly.
You want a *good* example of a snake eating its own tail movie, watch 12 Monkeys. Spare yourself Predestination.
That’s all the vitriol for tonight 😛 What I will say about the other side of this whole thing that irks me so much, “genre” movies that get called better than they really are…it just tells me that there are a lot of other “genre”-loving viewers out there CLAMORING for content. I’m just saying, let’s demand EXCELLENCE, people, not mediocrity.
Night bitches. See yous tomorrows!