As displayed above, "rants & raves"... this is a rant. If you look at the highest grossing movies to date in the U.S. this year, Pixar's Up is #1 at $250m. The #2 film of the year is Star Trek, coming in at $246m so far. Plus an extra $123m abroad. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has grossed $200m in 5 days. Foreign gross so far is $80m.
The rest of the top ten grossing films to date this year:
Monsters vs. Aliens - $195m
The Hangover - $183m
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - $177m
Night at the Museum 2 - $163m
Fast & Furious 4 - $155m
Angels & Demons - $130m
Terminator Salvation - $121m
My rant is looking at the list, are we going to be seeing only computer graphics ladened movies from here on. Movie studios will study the list and will plonk good money on sure things, i.e. more CGIs. CGIs are great, but let's have a better spread. Heck, in the end its the voice over guys and dolls who should be raking in the money. You and I know very well that the bulk of the movies cited will never win Best Picture even if its the most heart warming story ever told, or even if its the funniest. Movies is not about just the story - its about the acting, the collaboration of experts and craftsmen in wardrobe, cinematography, music, lighting, editing, the interaction and chemistry between actors, etc...
Toy Story or Ninotchka, Ice Age or When Harry Met Sally, Speed Racer or the Midnight Cowboy, Transformers or Twelve Angry Men, X-Men or The Exorcist ... more balance please or we will lose the plot on making great movies, we will end up with nerds churning out pleasurable shock-hits-wow-hits every 15 seconds on the screen type of movie, which in the end is like a 1 hour rollercoaster ride rather than a genuine movie. The instant gratification factor, the "can we fucking turn this into a computer game" factor... why is movie making shifting this way? Can we stop it, should we stop it?
p/s photo: Stefanie Sun
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