Wobbly camera strikes again

Rating: 1/10 (11 May 2009)

After the recently terrible James Bond film, and the equally terrible ending to the Bourne trilogy, it appears that the "wobbly camera" disease has spread to another franchise with similar results. There appears to be a direct correlation between the rate of camera wobble and the "pace" of the action scene being shot. We all know that this camera wobble is artificial and often done during editing and special effect overlay, but the outcome is the same and it is unwatchable. It appears to me to be a "technique" used today in many films to prevent the audience clearly seeing the shot, the special effects and the action occurring. Possibly because the audience would see mismatches between the special effects, the action being overlaid and the poor quality stunt work. I gave this film a rating of one out of ten principally because the wobbly camera technique is something we now see in many films, particularly films with large amounts of special effects and it is cheating the audience out of the opportunity to see if the shot actually flows and to observe how the special effects are melded to the shot and the action. Do we really want to come away from every film thinking we have been in a small boat in a rough swell? I certainly don't and I now add JJ Abrams to the list of Marc Forster who created the worst Bond film of all time with "jiggle camera" and Paul Greengrass who destroyed the Bourne Trilogy with "shaky camera". Hang your head in shame, this trio had the opportunity to make great films, each carrying their franchise forward and each in turn has been unable to achieve an outcome without the use of "shaky camera", which is an automatic turnoff for the audience.