This particular blog is to create discussion and help us realize why we feel the way we do. That being said this is not to cut down or build up any films. This is not a review. However if you have not seen "The Shape of Water" or "A Quiet Place" this blog contains spoilers so please stop reading and enjoy the films.
Now that the age of professional film reviewers has waned and the internet has opened up criticism for all we can better see that everybody has an opinion on film. Usually it comes down to personal taste - I don't like that actor - I love that monster - I hate films with kids in them. Whatever it may be we have an opinion. But what about the facts in fantasy?
If we give ourselves over to a notion that there is a zombie apocalypse happening what difference would it make if they made airplanes fly upside down in the movie? "Planes don't fly upside down!!" we'd yell. But we don't scream about dead people coming back to life which is equally preposterous. In general we are willing to give into one major setup myth for the sake of the story. Two is pushing it and three we're lost.
The same idea works for the writer's rules. Most of us are happy suspend belief for a good story and go along with the rules the writer sets up for their imaginary world. But most of us get pissed off when they don't adhere to them or change them at the end of the movie for the sake of resolution.
Lito Velasco posted in a recent Facebook message - "Just because it's "just" a TV show or movie doesn't mean the writers and creators can or should abandon logic or intelligence.
I'm tired of people telling me "You take it way too seriously". My life has followed the path to this industry, profession, and town BECAUSE I respect it and take it seriously. So when someone says that or "it's JUST a movie" they're' basically saying "it's brainless and meaningless".
Just because it's "just" a TV show or movie doesn't mean the writers and creators can or should abandon logic or intelligence.
I'm tired of people telling me "You take it way too seriously". My life has followed the path to this industry, profession, and town BECAUSE I respect it and take it seriously. So when someone says that or "it's JUST a movie" they're' basically saying "it's brainless and meaningless".
I completely agree. Now here is my question to examine. Remaining in the same genre of Fantasy why are we willing to forgive one film and not another. If the fault in the writing means that sticking with facts or the rules of a created world wouldn't work why do we, as an audience, allow it? Let's take two recent big films and think about it. A Shape of Water won the Oscar and yet the script has real problems, not the least of which is that she keeps pouring salt in the bathtub where he is living and they end up in the ocean - yet he is a fresh water being having been captured in the Amazon. Is she supposed to be killing him? Because if she is that wasn't made clear. In A Quiet Place aliens that hunt by sound are devastating Earth and yet after showing his son that when they stand by the waterfall and scream the aliens can't hear you over the noise they don't choose the logical choice of living by the waterfall.
So people have actually told me about "Shape" that it was so pretty and romantic it didn't matter. No! this isn't magic realism like Pan's Labyrinth was. Because it was fantasy doesn't mean (as Lito says) it can be brainless and meaningless. People forgive A Quiet Place because it made them clinch their sphincter from tension. We have all condemned some films and enjoyed others despite their errors. What is your criteria? What do you let slide and what is too big to forgive? Can you think of other films you really liked despite their errors? As always, I look forward to your comments.
Now that the age of professional film reviewers has waned and the internet has opened up criticism for all we can better see that everybody has an opinion on film. Usually it comes down to personal taste - I don't like that actor - I love that monster - I hate films with kids in them. Whatever it may be we have an opinion. But what about the facts in fantasy?
If we give ourselves over to a notion that there is a zombie apocalypse happening what difference would it make if they made airplanes fly upside down in the movie? "Planes don't fly upside down!!" we'd yell. But we don't scream about dead people coming back to life which is equally preposterous. In general we are willing to give into one major setup myth for the sake of the story. Two is pushing it and three we're lost.
The same idea works for the writer's rules. Most of us are happy suspend belief for a good story and go along with the rules the writer sets up for their imaginary world. But most of us get pissed off when they don't adhere to them or change them at the end of the movie for the sake of resolution.
Lito Velasco posted in a recent Facebook message - "Just because it's "just" a TV show or movie doesn't mean the writers and creators can or should abandon logic or intelligence.
I'm tired of people telling me "You take it way too seriously". My life has followed the path to this industry, profession, and town BECAUSE I respect it and take it seriously. So when someone says that or "it's JUST a movie" they're' basically saying "it's brainless and meaningless".
Just because it's "just" a TV show or movie doesn't mean the writers and creators can or should abandon logic or intelligence.
I'm tired of people telling me "You take it way too seriously". My life has followed the path to this industry, profession, and town BECAUSE I respect it and take it seriously. So when someone says that or "it's JUST a movie" they're' basically saying "it's brainless and meaningless".
I completely agree. Now here is my question to examine. Remaining in the same genre of Fantasy why are we willing to forgive one film and not another. If the fault in the writing means that sticking with facts or the rules of a created world wouldn't work why do we, as an audience, allow it? Let's take two recent big films and think about it. A Shape of Water won the Oscar and yet the script has real problems, not the least of which is that she keeps pouring salt in the bathtub where he is living and they end up in the ocean - yet he is a fresh water being having been captured in the Amazon. Is she supposed to be killing him? Because if she is that wasn't made clear. In A Quiet Place aliens that hunt by sound are devastating Earth and yet after showing his son that when they stand by the waterfall and scream the aliens can't hear you over the noise they don't choose the logical choice of living by the waterfall.
So people have actually told me about "Shape" that it was so pretty and romantic it didn't matter. No! this isn't magic realism like Pan's Labyrinth was. Because it was fantasy doesn't mean (as Lito says) it can be brainless and meaningless. People forgive A Quiet Place because it made them clinch their sphincter from tension. We have all condemned some films and enjoyed others despite their errors. What is your criteria? What do you let slide and what is too big to forgive? Can you think of other films you really liked despite their errors? As always, I look forward to your comments.
RSS Feed
