Is the George Lucas Syndrome contagious?
What, haven’t heard of it?
It is our absolute need to feed our mind with endless garbage, with images of Jar-Jar Binks and green little thingies that do absolutely nothing to our existence except, perhaps, make us realize that we are riding our very own Death Star (which is kind of cool, until we realize that the Star thing is just an illusion; Death isn’t).
Yeah… well, I’m talking about the fact that movies that fans throng to are mostly SFX extravaganzas so ostentatious, a single scene has as many extraneous characters as there are aliens in Tattooine. Not convinced? Think LOTR 2 and 3. The Harry Potters. The Phantom (GAG!) Menance. Pirates of the Caribbean 3. They are the Top-Grossing Movies of all time.
Talk about the ultimate nerd-dom wet dream.
What, haven’t heard of it?
It is our absolute need to feed our mind with endless garbage, with images of Jar-Jar Binks and green little thingies that do absolutely nothing to our existence except, perhaps, make us realize that we are riding our very own Death Star (which is kind of cool, until we realize that the Star thing is just an illusion; Death isn’t).
Yeah… well, I’m talking about the fact that movies that fans throng to are mostly SFX extravaganzas so ostentatious, a single scene has as many extraneous characters as there are aliens in Tattooine. Not convinced? Think LOTR 2 and 3. The Harry Potters. The Phantom (GAG!) Menance. Pirates of the Caribbean 3. They are the Top-Grossing Movies of all time.
Talk about the ultimate nerd-dom wet dream.
But it’s not just the nerds. They can only buy so much pop corn and freebie light sabers. It’s the rest of us, trekking to movies that offer a little more than an exercise in testing how much aliens, pirates and homoerotic hobbits we can take.
Now, that kind of makes me think about what kind of movie-going public we have become that we would rather see such cinematic lobotomies as Star Wars and shun pensive, thoughtful, politically-charged movies like Syriana. We would rather see a Gungan with the most annoying accent this side of Naboo than challenge our minds about a enlightening film on non-existent WMDs.
What gives? Have we become so insulated, we would rather be entertained than watch a film that could challenge us intellectually? While corporations all over are busting unions and hawkish leaders are waging wars on imagined evils, would we rather be entertained by our movies rather than be roused politically?
People argue that we watch the movies in order to be entertained.
Fine, I have nothing against entertainment. I believe that one of the primary purposes of a movie should be to entertain us. In fact, one of the movies I’ve watched that I thoroughly enjoyed was The Incredible Hulk, which kind of hits low cerebrally but which is smashingly entertaining nonetheless (bad pun right there).
But a good movie should also be able to move us. A good movie is not just about special effects, good acting, good story-telling. A good movie should not insult our intelligence, pretend to be entertaining, then lull us all to sleep.
That’s just plain highway robbery.
Note: Photos courtesy of IMDB
