On Movies

     I want to see something good.  I want to see a new movie-- the plot of which I don't already know-- that will be well-made, exciting, non-offensive, with likeable characters.  I do not want to see a movie that I feel like I have to fast forward multiple parts, a movie that feels like I am watching a video game, or a movie where the characters feel more paper-thin than the most overused of stock characters.
     I guess I'll be waiting a really long time, then.  It doesn't look like many of those are coming any time soon.  Most of the movies that come to the theater I either don't think I'd feel good watching, or I don't think I'd enjoy watching.  They say "Don't judge a book by it's cover," but the average movie trailer isn't a cover, it's more like an interview.  It is made so that you can judge the movie.  Why would you go see a movie if you didn't judge that it was worth seeing?  Only, in my case, most trailers make me say, "Well, that looks like the Hollow Man of TS Eliot and Evelyn Waugh as a movie.  No thanks."  Most of the movies seem to ride on special effects, violence, and sex/innuendo.  Take those out of a random movie, and you may not be left with a whole lot else.

     I wonder: is an hour and a half really enough time to flesh out a character?  Is an hour and a half enough time to get to know a character and decide whether or not you care about him?  It is so much easier to become attached to the characters of TV shows, miniseries, and multi-part movie series because you have hours and hours in which to learn about the characters.
     It is also easier to love these forms of media because there is a variety of characters.  A movie that is only ninety minutes long can only have so many characters, and the characters it has can only be known so well.
     An example:  there are about 14 important characters in Pride and Prejudice.  The film versions of this story that I have seen have been 2 hours, 2 hours, 2 hours, 4.5 hours, and 5.5 hours long.  Clearly, you can tell a lot more story and flesh out a lot more characters in a more full way in the longer miniseries than you can in the shorter 2-hour movies.  (On a side note: I find it very strange that the 2 hour Bollywood musical adaptation felt less rushed than the more artsy Keira Knightley version.)