Monday, January 27, 2014

The Giant Beast in the Room


One thing I saw before I nodded off during 47 Ronin was a giant antlered beast. A bulldozer of a beast who knocked down every tree and obstetrical in his path. As if they were made from practical board. This beast of course was pursuing the poor suckers that stirred him from his slumber and then defeated by our hero. Our hero today happens to be played by Keanu Reeves. But, in the past he was played by Chris Pine, Sam Worthington, Chris Helmsworth, and even Bill Hader. Yes, this beast has been quite active lately. In fact, he's been spotted in about two blockbusters a year. I call him the unstoppable charging beast.

Don't believe me, well...



Here he is in 2009's Star Trek:



He rear's his ugly head later in 2009 on the planet Pandora in Avatar:



Not once but, twice in the same scene:



Here he is backing Thor and friends to the edge of a cliff:



And here's two of them at once in John Carter:

Yeah, these guys are in the book. But, my point still stands since they are large CG beast.
He's even in children's movies disguised as the Tacodile Supreme in Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2:



Finally, we bring it full circle to 47 Ronin:

The best parts of 47 Ronin is the creature design and costume design.
What does this mean for cinema? Well, two things: the first is the homogenization of blockbusters and the second point is the limitation of creativity in storytelling due to the advances of computer generated special effects. In turn, making carbon copy films that can just be pumped out every summer. Variety is the spice of life, my friends, an without spice your left with bland goop.

Yeah, like that stuff in The Matrix.

Demand more from your movies. As the ticket buyers you can make change.












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