Without decent writing, movies don't work

Rating: 1/10 (5 October 2010)

There is no story in this movie, and that makes it deathly dull to sit through. All the action sequences are emotionally dead, because there's nothing really at stake. The actors find things to do but they're killing time without any real goals. It's all just an exercise in cashing in on a guaranteed huge paycheck by doing a sequel to a successful action movie.
Producer Kevin Feige at Marvel Studios is the primary person I blame. His movies are crap. All the X-Men movies, The Incredible Hulk, Spider Man 2, the first Iron Man, and a bunch of others: all garbage in my opinion. If you saw 'em and loved 'em then I guess you're the intended audience for this stuff. It's tragic that he makes so many movies.
I love a good effects movie with a strong story. Great effects support action, science fiction, fantasy, all of which have the potential to be great films.
In the last couple of years I loved Inception by producer/director Chris Nolan, and Ninja Assassin and Speed Racer both produced by Joel Silver. Or the older films produced by Buzz Feitshans (Conan, Total Recall) or James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator 2). These films had strong stories supported by gorgeous visual effects. But they are in the minority.
More commonly today we see emotionally dead special effects movies. These films are costly and control is put in the hands of cautious, lowbrow producers who don't seem to know what a good screenplay is. People like Basil Iwanyk (Clash of the Titans, Firewall), Micheal Bay (Transformers, Armageddon), Jerry Bruckheimer (Prince of Persia, Pirates of the Caribbean). Again, if those are films you love, ignore my review.
I realize these guys make most of Hollywood's dollars, but I think their stuff is crap. Once in a while a pig of a producer finds a truffle like Bruckheimer's Black Hawk Down, but Bruckheimer doesn't then wait for years for the next great project to come along. These guys are in the business of making product. There's a Nick Cage vehicle to crank out.
Meanwhile in the low budget world, directors and actors have much more clout and they also tend to have much better taste.
I don't believe we will ever be rescued from this torrent of big budget crap. The audience does not read reviews. They go on the basis of buzz and trailers--basically marketing, plus some word of mouth. And they follow stars much more than directors or producers. The focus on a big marketing push to get a huge opening weekend shows no sign of weakening. 3D is making matters worse as well by driving costs even higher, causing execs to be even more cautious.
I will take the good stories where I can get them. I prefer a good story to be backed up by lavish production values. Pixar seems to keep their artistic integrity even with Disney over their shouldr. I'm excited to see Enter The Void, an effects heavy French production. But it's the low budget and indie world that cares more about story, so those will be the movies that get most of my dollars.