jueves, 25 de marzo de 2010

Twilight of the gods : Directors with big names and their very bad movies

It was 1975 and a movie named "Jaws" was released. The movie itself was the beginning of a new era in Cinema, it reinvented the way movies would sell, the franchise, Jaws and then Jaws 2 and then 3, why not? If a product sells, if the people buys it, keep on selling it. But the real discovery then was the fact that a director's name could become a franchise itself.
Steven Spielberg was to be hugely printed next to the name of the movie he directed or produced. People would go and watch the movie just because of the name of the director. They didn't need to know what the movie would be about because they knew Steven Spierberg was a guarantee of 2 hours of fun. Steven Spielberg mean fantasy, and meant funny little beings of the likes of E.T. or the chinese boy in Indiana Jones 2, or Gizmo. By the way, he didn't create the concept, it was George Lucas with R2D2 and the Ewoks.

And so, sooner than later, directors' names became franchises; and in the same manner; actors' names became franchises too. Schwarzeneggers and Stallones, van Dammes and Cruises became the new McDonald’s and Burger Kings promising a good quality product based on nothing but a name.
What were we to do? The word they really were selleing was “reliable”.
To that point, I think there was nothing wrong with the deal. I mean, if I wanted to watch a movie in which thousand of people are killed by one skilled man armed solely with a bow and some explosive arrows, I knew Silvester Stallone and not Lawrence Olivier was the name to seek on the movie poster.

But what happens when a name suggest something that isn't?
What if you go to the Red Lobster and they're out of seafood?
What if you go to Chili's and they ran out of fajitas?
That's what I am talking about.
What do names like Spielberg, Lucas, Coppola, Cameron and even Burton mean anymore?

JAMES CAMERON had a lot of time driving his truck in canada and the USA to come up with incredible things such as the plot to some of the best science-fiction movies ever made. The plot for the Terminator, the plot to the Abyss, and even the plot to funny True Lies. But after that; he's been so focused in technological progress in special effects that his movies, beautiful as they are, have no plot anymore.
TITANIC was the story of Cinderella on a sinking ship, with a cute actor on vogue and a love story that made me want to cry shit through my eyes. And now what? AVATAR? Really? Have you people never seen "The last of the Mohicans"? Did nobody notice how much the plot is taken out from "Pocahontas"? If I worked for Disney Media I would be suing Fox for billions of dollars for stealing the plot. It's really shameless. Where's James Cameron the writer?
One last thing: The word "Avatar" comes from the hindi religion and it's the terrestrial representation of a god.
Examples of Avatars are Quetzalcoatl, Vishnu and Jesus Christ according to their corresponding religions.

TIM BURTON