It’s easy to decry Hollywood as the fountain of reboots, sequels and other mind-numbing fare.
Heck, WWTW does it all the time.
But a look at the weekend’s box office tally gives movie lovers a reason for optimism.
Let’s start with “Avatar,” and while it’s hardly a great movie it’s that rare beast - a non-sequel, non-rebooted blockbuster created essentially by a single visionary, James Cameron.
Isn’t that what we want to see, an artist’s vision brought to life without compromise?
And then there’s “Precious,” or rather “Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire.”
That long, clunky title hides a story with zero box office potential, that of an obese teen sexually abused by her father and abused in every other way by her ma.
Yeah, let’s rush right out on a Saturday night and take in that story!
And yet “Precious” has made $43 million so far - and that number will rise once the Oscar nominations rolls in. It’s a lock to grab a half dozen noms … or more.
(Photo: James Cameron broke the bank to see his vision of “Avatar” come to life, and the film’s healthy box office results are now paying dividends./20th Century Fox)
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I'm an award-winning journalist and film critic with more than a decade of experience in newspapers, magazines and the Web. I'm a member of both the Washington, DC Area Film Critics Association and the Denver Film Critics Society.
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Isn’t that what we want to see, an artist’s vision brought to life without compromise?
I guess this falls into the “be careful what you wish for” catagory. We get a new original movie franchise and it’s anti-American anti-technology pro-tree hugger primativist dreck. And popular enough that it will spawn endless sequels.
Mediocre (which only means “average,” after all) story line notwithstanding, I also applaud Cameron not only for attempting (and wildly succeeding!) something original in a milieu that appears to fear the very concept, but also for presenting something worth spending $10+ to see on the big screen - much as he did with “Titanic.”
As Toto has blogged before, technological advances in home theatre coupled with Hollywood mediocrity multiplied by ever-more expensive movie nights equals little incentive to go the movies - once a long-standing American tradition.
~ D.