I've always been a big movie fan in the past and some of my greatest memories are from really getting in to films and the people playing the characters that have truly swept me away from reality.
Recently though I think that's changed, I used to make lists of movies I really wanted to see, now that list has shrunk from 30 a year to maybe 1 or 2 and of the ones I watch throughout the year that I just watch and aren't looking forward to, the really good ones are usually not big budget or made by a major studio and I have a feeling that it has something to do with me getting tired of the hollywood formulae. you know the ones, 'guy meets girl, guy deceives girl, girl gets mad, guy makes it up to girl, they all live happily ever after' or 'baddie does something bad, goodie tries to work out who dunnit, baddie does something else bad, goodie almost catches him, baddie gets away, goodie works out where he is and finds him before he does something else bad, they all live happily ever after' time and time again these formulas are played out with different characters, different scenarios, and different locations but it's essentially the same plot and I guess I've grown tired of it. The films that really excite me these days are movies that break that mould and try and create something truly original, and these days for me the only genres that are doing that are science fiction and horror, but even within those genres there is a lot of rehashed plot lined.
Science Fiction and Horror movies are probably my favourite genres mainly because I think I really enjoy the content, even movies that have been lauded as horrible, like John Carter I quite enjoyed because it's something that interests me, Then there's movies that have been lauded as great which I just couldn't get in to such as Rogue One and that's a big one for me to say because Star Wars is probably my favourite saga ever, for me, I just really couldn't get in to the characters, the story didn't really do a great job of making me want to care about them, I just felt like it was a story that didn't need to be told and the characters were weak and didn't have much substance to them. that's just me though, I know a lot of you probably liked it.
Horror is the other genre I really enjoy and if you don't know why, you should go and read my last blog. It's a genre which can be tired and sore, but now and then movies come out that really make you see how good the horror genre can be. I'm not really one for slasher flicks so much but sure I do love some of them, Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th of course, but it's mainly the supernatural films I really enjoy, movies like Sinister or Insidious and even the Poltergeist movies it just has a lot of depth if the directors and writers aren't afraid to break the mould and create something different.
Take a look at The Blair Witch Project for instance, which at the time I saw it was absolutely terrifying and almost hard to watch. and even though it's not supernatural the original Saw film really gave audiences something they'd never seen before. Those 2 movies changed horror and maybe even film as a whole, it showed that you don't need a massive cast, budget or anything really, it showed that all you need is a good script and the balls to try something different.
I guess what I'm trying to say is that these days the big Hollywood studios and the big execs have been doing this for so long they are getting old, they have no idea what it's like in the real world, they have a formula that makes them money but for people like me it has become stale and boring and I really can't handle much that comes from there these days, even Marvel has gotten boring for me which is kind of surprising as I'm a geek from way back. I'll watch the movies and probably enjoy them but it's not something I'm really hanging out for, I won't see them at the cinema, I'll probably wait for them to come out on netflix or some other streaming service.
I want to see more movies that push the boundaries, movies that make me go wow or sit back and really make me feel something. Actors can be a big part of this, when I saw The Dark Knight at the cinema I was absolutely flabbergasted by Heath Ledgers performance as The Joker, when it ended I applauded, not because I thought that it was a good movie that it deserved one, even though it totally did, but the applause just happened completely by accident I just started applauding before I even realised I was doing it, then other people joined in, movies and performances like that really make me see what cinema can be like but these days I feel like they're stuck in a bit of a creative rut and they can't get out of it, it's still making them a lot of money but it's also making people bored.
Unless I'm the only one, who knows?
Vikinghammer out.
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