Signs of the Times
Were losing the message; or the ability to hear one anyway. No message in particular, just message. Either that, or pointlessness makes more money.
H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" is a class novel, a science fiction suspense which uses dread to produce a feeling of hopelessness and a commentary on mans false confidence and pride in himself. We turned it into a movie which might was little more than one big holocaust scene; there isn't enough character development to induce dread, and there are far too many Cruise heroics, and not enough time, to gain anything near hopelessnes; finish it off with a nonsensical hollywood ending and ta-da Blockbuster!
You may think that missing this particular message is inevatible in a book to movie conversion; perhaps, but consider this.
King Kong, originally an epic movie about who the real monsters were (us, humans, just in case you didn't know) has been turned into a 3 hour action flick with so many monsters, such a terrible ending line, and so little coherence, that all you can do at the end is applaud the tenseness it produced, and maybe the graphics; lest you realize that another eighth of a day was subjected to pointless, and mindless, entertainment. Need I say it? Another blockbuster.
Certainly not all movies, or media, are pointless. Nevertheless, think about it.
Were losing the message; or the ability to hear one anyway. No message in particular, just message. Either that, or pointlessness makes more money.
H.G. Wells "War of the Worlds" is a class novel, a science fiction suspense which uses dread to produce a feeling of hopelessness and a commentary on mans false confidence and pride in himself. We turned it into a movie which might was little more than one big holocaust scene; there isn't enough character development to induce dread, and there are far too many Cruise heroics, and not enough time, to gain anything near hopelessnes; finish it off with a nonsensical hollywood ending and ta-da Blockbuster!
You may think that missing this particular message is inevatible in a book to movie conversion; perhaps, but consider this.
King Kong, originally an epic movie about who the real monsters were (us, humans, just in case you didn't know) has been turned into a 3 hour action flick with so many monsters, such a terrible ending line, and so little coherence, that all you can do at the end is applaud the tenseness it produced, and maybe the graphics; lest you realize that another eighth of a day was subjected to pointless, and mindless, entertainment. Need I say it? Another blockbuster.
Certainly not all movies, or media, are pointless. Nevertheless, think about it.
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