Wonky World Building and JJ
All storytellers have different strengths and weaknesses. In telling a story, they’ll play to their strengths, and hopefully that compensates for their weaknesses. But what happens when a storyteller’s weakness is storytelling? I can’t fault director JJ Abrams’s ability to make visually stunning movies (lens flares and all). But his storytelling is terrible, which is born from his appalling world-building. Word-building is paramount to me. Get it right, and you can sell me anything. I’ll believe immortals are living among us who can only die if they lose their head; I’ll believe an eccentric inventor builds a time machine out of a DeLorean; I’ll believe an archaelogist is retained by…
My Top 10 Meh Movies from 2019
What makes a meh movie? Well, for one, there has to be some expectation behind it. Nobody cares if some low-budget indie turns out to be middling fair, but a big-budgeted movie with a top cast, known director, and studio backing? Or a movie with lots of anticipation behind it? It has to be a movie you walk away from that didn’t entertain you but didn’t offend you, a movie – in all likelihood – that you’ll struggle to recollect in a couple of days. It won’t leave you with an urge to re-watch, or to rant at people about how bad it is, but neither will you talk positively…