A Rant That Will Probably Make Me Unpopular

[poliphilo]

I see there is much weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth in fandom.

The movie Serenity (which I haven't seen) has divided the followers of the Firefly cult (I haven't see Firefly either.)

Oh come on guys, it's a story. It's fiction. It didn't really happen. That guy that got killed (and you're all getting so worked up about) didn't really get killed because he was never really alive. That was an actor. He got paid at the end of the day and is sitting comfortably beside his pool in the Hollywood hills waiting for his agent to ring.

It's the religion thing, isn't it? We stop believing in God, but it leaves such a huge, gaping, black hole and it hurts so much that we panic and rage and go round looking for things- any old things- to stuff into the emptiness. And so we start believing in Joss Whedon or that guy who made the LOTR films (whose name temporarily escapes me) or (heaven help us) George Lucas.

And just as true believers make themselves blind to the inconsistencies, impossibilities and stylistic infelicities in the New Testament, so fans convince themselves that their favourite TV shows and films aren't in fact a load of crap.

Look, I liked Buffy. I was sort of in love with Willow. But series #7 was garbage, you know it was.

And Lord of The Rings. I love Tolkien (not uncritically) but the movies kinda highlighted all his faults and failed to translate his real merits into filmic terms. Wake up, guys, those films are dull. As dull as the Pentateuch. And I for one never want to see another CGI battle ever again.

As for Lucas- everyone agrees that the prequels are horrible- so why do you keep going to see them again and again? Are you mad?

Wake up, think for yourselves, think critically. Stop being such sheep!

Comments

[sunfell.livejournal.com]

You nailed it: replacing ideas with 'cool explosions'. That's the essence of the Young Male bias in most media- ideas are boring, so let's have a fight, or a car chase, or a battle, or a sex scene because they're more interesting.

Odd... to me, all explosions, fights, battles, etc. look alike to me, and scream that the writer9s) have either run out of ideas or have been assimilated by the Pop Culture Borg Collective and must mooch for that Almighty Currency.

Feh. I prefer ideas. I like the 'what if?' aspect of SF, and one of the things I love about the SF channel is their 'what if' logo.

Tolkein was a writer of his time, elaborate, but also rather tediously plodding and very enmeshed in details. While his loving descriptions of the Hobbits homes are interesting, (and I'd love to live in such a house), my 'are we there yet? where's the story?' mental naggers start kicking in at around the 30th page of detailed waffle about second breakfasts and such. He needed a good editor.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

There's a limit to how big and loud an explosion can be. Or how fast a chase sequence. And yeah, when you've seen one you've seen them all.

OK, I like a bit of spectacle (I've just watched the Chinese movie Hero- huge armies, elaborately choreographed fight sequences- and enjoyed it) but ideas are what really excite me.

And don't get me started on sex scenes. Sex is so dull to watch. And artistic sex- tasteful angles, golden lighting- wake me up please when it's over.

I read Tolkien when I was a kid and I re-read him a few years back, but that's it; I'm done with him. I very much doubt that I'll read him again.