This isn't specific to any recent film, but is anyone else just
too goddam tired of special effects?
Just flipping
stop it already. I don't want to disparage effects artists—they're damn talented! But holy shit hiring a special effects department is not all it takes to tell a story.
Can we just have a
good story that's well-acted? Is that too much to ask? I can't do another costumed gym-rat on a green screen ripped from a comic book. I'm just done.
Avatar was hailed as a major milestone for special effects but does
anyone even remember that movie anymore? I can tell you it had some blue lizard creature things but beyond that, I don't remember the story
at all.
I think the only recent production i give a pass for this is
Stranger Things. Okay it's extremely derivative of Stephen King but they've got a story! It's compelling! There's character development! The Duffer Brothers didn't just string together a series of CGI monsters and call it a TV show.
Lately I've been watching that "Movies That Made Us" show on Netflix, the episodes about
Die Hard and
Home Alone. Those movies were successful because of their stories. not their stunts (the stunts helped though). Now we're onto Die Hard 17 or whatever and Bruce Willis could just film the whole thing sitting at a desk chair, they may as well photoshop his face into the scene.
I recall a few years some exec at the Scifi channel let slip that they realized no matter how little they spent on their productions, a certain portion of the audience would never leave. Kinda feels like we're doing the reverse now with SFX: no matter how dull the story gets, if you just make sure to blow $10 million on effects, a large portion of the audience just won't stop watching.
Anyways I'm drunk and ranty. Happy New Year.
