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This topic comprises 2 pages: 1 2
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Author
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Topic: Latest trend in movies: defying physical laws.
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Tim Reed
Better Projection Pays
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Posts: 5246
From: Northampton, PA
Registered: Sep 1999
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posted 07-09-2003 02:38 PM
The review of Charlie's Angels made me think of the latest annoying trend in movies these days. Characters can no longer simply kick or punch someone in fights. They must now jump 10 feet high, pause in the air, change direction, and kick on their way back down. Or, if they really want to show-off, they turn a flip while climbing in altitude, stop, simultaneously kick two people while they're up there, change direction, wait for the other bad guy to approach from the front so they can kick him, and then do a back flip on the way back down.
What's with this crap? Are we supposed to be impressed? Are filmmakers doing it to impress themselves? Well, it's not working, it's spoiling a lot of pictures.
You can get the audience to accept most any premise or fantasy element. But even within fantastic situations there has to be a framework, an element of credibility; the characters must remain believeable. And certain things should remain constant - like basic physical laws applied to normal human characters!
Certainly, Luke Skywalker can grab a light saber from across the room, but unseen worlds and the concept of "the force" have been established within that story. It doesn't betray the characters. But if C3PO performed the same feat, or Luke suddenly broke into a song, we couldn't accept it.
Charlie's Angels are supposed to be present-day detectives (or whatever they are). And, yes, I understand that picture's a farce, but the wild wire stuff is defintely wearing thin.
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Ken Lackner
Phenomenal Film Handler
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Posts: 1907
From: Atlanta, GA, USA
Registered: Sep 2001
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posted 07-11-2003 01:27 AM
My $.02:
In THE MATRIX, it falls within the story that a person can jump ten feet in the air, kick two people at the same time, change directions, hold position in mid air and wait for another bad guy to kick, etc.... This is all explained in the story, so it is acceptable. (If you've seen the movie, you obviously know what I'm talking about. If you haven't, just trust me that in The Matrix, and only in The Matrix, it IS acceptable for these things to happen.) BTW, I think The Matrix was an awesome movie. But I do not think that film makers should borrow these ideas and use them in movies that take place in present day with "normal" characters, such as Charlies Angles. It is possible that they are making fun of The Matrix. This was fine when it first came out. The first movie I can recall to do this was Deuce Biggalow: Maile Gigolo. But so many movies have done it since then that it is no longer funny. In fact, it has not been funny for quite some time.
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Christian Appelt
Jedi Master Film Handler
Posts: 505
From: Frankfurt, Germany
Registered: Dec 2001
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posted 07-11-2003 02:47 PM
Ken,
there certainly is a logic within the Matrix situation where the characters can do such impossible things. But when we really care for characters in a film, we do it on a non-abstract level. We accept them as real people within the film`s universe. But although we KNOW (on an intellectual level) that they can jump ten stories down or ten feet high in the air, EMOTIONALLY we react like it happened in a real world. I can speak only for myself, but I couldn`t care more than for a cartoon character that just walked from a cliff.
There has to be some kind of link between our real-life experience and a film`s reality. Remember John Carpenter`s THE THING (1982) ? Around the middle of the film I felt somewhat numbed by the crazy gore effects, and I thought: "What else could they do?". Well, they DID find something. The characters decide to check each man`s blood for alien infection. When a scalpel cut into the first thumb, an audience of 400 people squirmed in their seats! After so much ultra-violence Carpenter got them by the simplest of effects - something which could happen to you...
Well, I thought MATRIX RELOADED was an entertaining film, but what it left fades quick from my memory. Maybe it a question of age, and at 35 I am just too old to have fun with that kind of action...
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