Summer Movie Trailer Déjà Vu

Wow! What a selection!

I am often asked why I wind up skipping many of the current crop of big summer movies. My response is that, based on the trailers, these movies don't really interest me at all. This often gets a quizzical look because what works up so many people to see these movies are the whiz-bang trailers managing to hook their interest.

Movie trailers are an odd form. Usually lasting about 2 minutes and change, they attempt to create a satisfying experience to hint at a potentially more exciting experience. Despite trailers often being credited with helping a poor movie reap box office awards, I often find them spectacularly ineffective in enticing me to see a movie, particularly if they are loud and loaded with visual effects money shots and cookie cutter story elements.

Interpretations, Creative Ids and The Limits of Control

There may be mild SPOILERS in this review.

If there is one concept about movies I am dismayed many moviegoers resist, it is that a movie can have more than one interpretation. The relationship between film and audience should be personal to such an extent that it should be inevitable that one's reaction to what they are watching should be unique in some way. In theory.

Of course, that doesn't take into account that many of us can be catharsis junkies sometimes. Demanding that movies can only one meaning. That there only be a single answer to its mysteries. This addiction is often fed by filmmakers, who often feel the need to explain plot and theme, sacrificing the pace of their narrative. There is this false notion that a film fails if everyone doesn't get it exactly the same way.

Part of the fun in watching movies should be the comparisons of different reactions from those bringing distinctive life experiences into the theater. There are those who make the most obvious interpretation and those who will come up with theories that make others scratch their heads and accuse them of being a crackpot. Regardless of how off-base you think someone is, you have to appreciate the discussion a film can inspire.

Who Needs Another Movie Blog?

Presenting my tool of choice for blogging. Tool may be self-applied.

I ask the same question whenever another one pops up. I think there are generally too many out there with very little to say, often chasing whatever they feel will capture the zeitgeist.

It's safe to say that I'm not generally a fan of most sites, as I'm sure some won't be a fan of this one. Outside of blogs like The House Next Door and a handful of others, I do not feel most of them represent someone like me. I can also add that this feeling also applies to the majority of movies released these days.

So, I've decided to set out to do what I feel was the inevitable solution to both matters. I will be writing about movies on this blog in a way that I would like to see more film writing do. At the same time, I am working on my own projects, currently in the writing stage, so that I can make the kind of movies that I haven't been seeing often recently.