A World Dies

Rating: Null/10 (7 July 2007)

There isn't a single thing to like in this project. No appealing, interesting or attractive characters. No jokes. No cool effects. No engaging story. Nothing.
I think I am giving up on the Marvel producers. They don't seem to know much about making a movie. I'm writing this as it is freshly in theaters and the competition is so strong I do not expect this to last a week. Rottentomatoes has this at severely rotten. So for once, my values overlap with most other folks. Hooray.
I think the problem is simple. If this had appeared 8 years ago, it would be a hit.
The way they make these things is to start from a comic notion. Then derive a comic-like storyboard, after having some high school make a story of course, but stories don't matter in these things. The point is that there's a comic book, flat perspective, key frame oriented perspective in how this is imagined.
But the competition has evolved. Now we have flitting cameras, three dimensional action, overt introspection, occasionally some effective drama. And the competition is created first as a film, and then brought to us through production techniques (like preanimation) that de- emphasize the two dimensional eye.
This form is dead. I suppose it will live for a while in anime, where two dimensions leverages some Japanese pictorial techniques that work. But marvel is dead until they reinvent themselves in film. Modern film.
Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.