| {The following article is rated R for Rational} * * * I have a confession to make: I hate most Hollywood blockbusters. It’s not because recycled 3D-glasses gross me out. I’ve really tried to enjoy Tinseltown’s recent summer flicks, but more often than not I feel like an Oscar-less DiCaprio trudging home from another letdown. $20 matinees aren’t cheap for student-loan-saddled souls, but the real cost isn’t just dollars and cents. The truth is: we’re ingesting too much Hollywood eye candy. Today, the silver screen is more spectacle than substance. Superheroes knock down city block after city block—not to defeat villains and save their metropolis—but to dizzy us with endless explosions. Scantily-clad celebrities run in super-duper slo-mo—not to show an imminent conflict— but to accentuate Newton’s Three Laws of Genitalia-Motion. Sure, it looks amazing in IMAX, but spectacle is merely special effects for the sake of special effects. It hits us at a visual-surface level, but it doesn’t resonate or remain with us in a significant way. It’s eye candy. What we need is a more nutritious diet. We need substance. We need eye protein. Movies, at their best, resonate with something deep inside us and remain there for days, months, decades. That’s why we re-watch them: to reawaken those ideas and feelings. Their heroes inspire us to fly higher; their villains warn us be vigilant. Their worlds project our values, and present better ones we thought impossible. By experiencing a movie’s real substance--clashing character values in a logical series of events—we’re able to draw out its message and translate it to our own life. Movies can help us plot our own happy endings—whether it’s summoning the will power to battle through finals week, or striking up the courage to ask out a crush—but only when the characters and plot add up to a take-away message. Of course, there’s nothing wrong with special effects. They’re a perfect way to emphasize a movie’s plot and theme by seasoning them with visual and audio flavors. The problem is when Hollywood sacrifices message in favor of spectacle. It’s the difference between eating a satiating meal vs. a cold bag of popcorn. The next time you leave the movies, ask yourself: “Was that worth the ticket price?” Don’t let the spectacle fool you. You’re hungrier than you realize. * * * |
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