Bay interview

[Lord_Zed]

Another thought: when you mention achieving a better story with less, the first director that came to my mind was Miyazaki Hayao. Movies like Spirited Away seem simple enough but are really quite deep and complex. I love how the most pivotal moment in Princess Mononoke was just a single word* whispered by the protagonist (Ashitaka) in under one second. It's so quick and subtle that if you blinked you would have missed it.

But this is an issue with all modern blockbusters, which assume everyone wants more, more explosions more gun cam, more kung fu, fist fights. Much as I enjoyed the new Star Trek movie (with it's crash the time ship into the badguys ship climax), I though the ancient Star trek 2 (with it's 1 on 1 submarine inspired star ship battle) and the not quite as venerable Star trek 6 (with that one torpedo) had more tense climaxes. Generally the pivotal moment in most block busters always boils down to a long winded fist fight or other battle between the protagonist and antagonist, and just when it seems the protagonist is on the back foot they use that tricky move to win. I guess we all crave it and need it, but this formulaic approach does get kinda dull after a while, particularly in the subsequent viewings.

Of late I thought The Dark Knight, Watchmen and District 9 broke away from the standard Formula a bit, most other recent block busters (while some were quite good) to me were just going through the motions.

McG? Blah, Salvation was horrible.

+1

I thought that movie was very much going through the motions, and it also seemed to lack the visceral energy of the first 2 films.