Another proof that mediocrity rules for good

Rating: 4/10 (26 April 2008)

Yes, this movie's success is all about today's cinema mediocrity and how people were conditioned to not only accept it, but actually welcome it, and even celebrate it. The new kitsch reigns. Halleluja, the cynical executives got what they wanted, they can dumb their stuff down as much as they like, and still make millions out of it. Just follow the recipe and you're good, whatever the awkwardness, the lousiness of the product. So why even bother to make things right, like in "Azkaban", "Legend", "Dark Crystal", "Babe", or even "Nanny McPhee", when stuff like "Stardust" or the "Chronicles of Narnja" are perceived as great magical movies?
I have totally lost faith in people's ability to resist the cultural brainwashing leading to embrace such appalling, spurious, pinchbeck, mundane movie-making, with so much incoherence and lack of vision that it's painful.
No magic here. Just the usual pretty postcards, with lots of baubles and knick-knack, and a pot-pourri story with all of the usual clichés. And don't start me about the direction and staging. For kids that's about OK (though I'd rather have mine thrive on more meaty stuff like "Legend"), but adults actually liking this? OMG.