I’m not sure if this is the right formum for this or not. Mods, feel free to move this thread as necessary.
Is it just me, or are movies going by too quickly these days? And are they made that way?
Here’s my point. I’ve seen The Matrix Reloaded and X2 recently. Both were interesting films that raise some very interesting philosphical questions, tho in typical fashion, they were treated lightly by Hollywood. That’s to be expected.
My point is that both movies are fast-paced action films. No problem with that, it’s good to have fast-pace, especially when the plot demands it. But was anyone else disturbed by how fast-paced some scenes are? So fast it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on and be cognizant of the plot? For example, in Matrix Reloaded when Neo is talking with the Architect, I had a hard time following the thread of the plot as Neo and the Architect threw ideas about reality back and forth. I’m still not fully sure what happened in that scene.
And here’s the germ of my idea: such scene are made deliberately fast-paced so that the movie-viewer will leave confused and think to him (or her)self, “wow, that went by so fast! I’ll to see it again and try to understand it next time!”
That’s the point, the movies are made fast-paced so viewers will come back again and again (rather than wait for the DVD or tape to come out) to try and understand scenes and plots that go by too quickly.
I think the thoery is that a a good mainstream movie is like ride, and if it goes fast enough, or if it has enough twists and turns, the audience will leave satisfied, and want to recapture that by seeing it again.
I find it unlikely that studios are making films so complex and sophisticated that it requires multiple viewings to appreciate them.
It’s probably truer that anything approaching character development, thematic development, philosophy, deeper meaning, etc, just gets crammed into whatever corner the filmmakers can manage or else is cut out entirely.
The theory about studios looking for repeat custom might explain the studios’ love of movies with twists, that require the audience to watch them again to try and catch the twist and see the evidence leading up to it.
I will disagree with Eternal that a good mainstream movie is like a ride; however, a popular movie is like a ride (that’s why I avoid films that use “thrill ride” in their advertising – they’re usually pretty bad, but often do good box office).
BTW, don’t be disappointed missing the philosophical concepts in Freyr – they were all intensely obvious to anyone who finished high school.
Also, the faster they show things, the more likely no one is going to notice it makes no sense.
Finally, there is a sense (in TV, at least) that people who talk fast seem smarter. “The West Wing” and “Gilmour Girls” do this deliberately.
Windwalker: there may be a lot of truth to what you’re saying and I could agree with it. At least it could be one of the reasons movies seem to be so fast-paced.
Eternal: agreed, but when you break it down, isn’t that I’m arguing, movies are fast-paced so the audience can’t catch everything in one viewing and therefore, come back to “catch all the details?”
refusal: yup, another explanation for the fast pace of films.
RealityChuck: ah, it’s all about the medium, not the msg!
Movie-Goer: Wow, I saw this really cool film with all these chase scenes and gorgeous bodies and totally cool special effects.
Non-Movie-Goer: hey, it sounds great. What was the story about?
Movie-Goer: Gee, I dunno, but it had all these chase scenes and gorgeous bodies and totally cool special effects.
There’s different sorts of velocity, though. “Fast-paced” in action movies is pretty much visual velocity–but the narrative velocity in such films tends to be…a…little…slow…paced.
I haven’t seen Matrix Reloaded as of yet, but the first one had the narrative velocity of a snail under tranquilizers. The entire sequence of events came down to:
1: Neo: what is the matrix?
2: Morpheus: this is the matrix. You are the Messiah. You must fight the powers that be.
3: Neo: Am I really the One? What do you think, Oracle?
4: Oracle: Have you seen my spoon? Anyway, have a cookie.
5: Neo: I’m going to fight the powers that be!
6: Neo: Well I’ll be damned. I am the One!
It took over two hours to get through that amount of narrative. Lots of velocity as to kung and gun-fu, but a fast-paced story it was not.
I like deliberately fast-paced scenes and films overall. I also like films in which the details are not all obvious the first time around. I had a real problem with the pacing of some of Kubrick’s films - it was so slow it drove me crazy, even though I remained interested. Someone said that Kubrick slowed it down on purpose to give people a chance to catch all the nuance that he poured into the work. I like having a chance to decide if I want to invest extra time into catching it, but it was like he was saying, “My film is so nuanced you’ll want to watch it again! Here, I’ll save you the trouble by making it twice as long without adding any story!” Without making any judgments as to whether this is bad or good, I’ll say that I didn’t like it.
So, I for one like fast-paced films. Dark City and some of the Star Trek films spring to mind; I also really like the style of The West Wing. I don’t know if there are a lot of people like me, but if there are, then maybe the production companies are just making what people like.