The Death Cycle of Art

Computer imagery is an important part of the movie making process these days.  There was a time when the advancements made in the field were impressive.  Remember how amazing Jurassic Park and Terminator 2 were?  But...the spectacle has worn off, my friends.  And not because computer animation is some cold, faceless, point and click process.  There's actually a lot of work that goes into it.  People work long hours building models, adding skeletons, calculating physics...  It can take a week to make three seconds of film.  Well...it used to.  I'm not sure how much faster we've gotten since I was studying it in college.  But it takes a lot of work.  The problem is that people have simply gotten used to it.  Hollywood produces so many movies a year, that you can't help but think its getting easier an easier to build a monster and have it wreck a completely digital New York.  People tune out when they see CGI, claiming that it's like watching someone else play a video game.  That...sounds....familiar.

Let's look at other art forms for a bit.  Painting.  You know all those classical paintings you've seen?  Perfectly rendered human bodies and backgrounds, amazing poses, the light and shadow...  See, most people probably don't even care about all that.  There are so many of those pictures that a lot of us think that THAT is what any artist worth their paints can do.  Anything less than that is atrocious, but anything on that level is simply...on par.  Photorealism?  Even if it's created ith paint, people look for a second and then look away.  It's just too realistic to think much of it.  But have you noticed that anyone who has actually studied art seems far more impressed?

Ever tried to write a song?  Play a musical instrument?  There are so many songs out these days that it's hard for anyone to know what talent is until a new style of music comes out.  Then someone masters it.  THEN we're impressed.  But at that point, no one can get any better.  And all the new students of that style study the masters and...bam.  It becomes commonplace.  (of course, the oldest styles will ALWAYS seem to require the most talent for some reason)  And the only people who really know how hard these musicians are trying are those that have truly tried themselves.

So let's look at CGI.  We've got studios churning out movies with top notch effects.  But no one really knows how it's done.  What's worse is that older people seem to think any youngster with a computer can do it.  I recently read a movie critic's review that said, "Any smart teenager with a computer can create excellent looking monsters.  So why should we be impressed by this movie's effects?".  And...he's got a point.  When decent software is becoming as accessible as a pencil and paper (to people of a certain tax bracket), the wonder of CGI gets reduced to the level of wonder you get when you see a kid drawing a decent looking comic book.  Oh, it's cool for a moment...but only a moment.  And then, the magic is gone.  The money will disappear, too.  So how can movie-makers capture the magic again?

Stop motion seems to be the only thing that gets any respect these days, probably because people don't see it as something that takes talent so much as something that takes tremendous amount of patience.  And, we only get one stop motion movie every two or three years.  And there are only a few studios doing it.  People may forever be impressed by stop motion.  They look back at classic films, and still seem amazed by the skeletons in Jason and the Argonauts.

The sad thing is that audiences are moved only by two things when it comes to entertainment.  A tremendous amount of effort, or a technique they can't yet comprehend.  And only one of those lasts forever.

I wonder what's next?

Avengers and American Ambition

I had the wonderful experience of watching "The Avengers" in Japan, flanked by two young ladies who have absolutely no interest in superheroes whatsoever.  You might think this is sarcasm, but it really isn't.  I'm grateful for the chance to see the movie away from my fellow Americans, dorks and nerds born and raised to know the difference between every costumed crusader and the company that created them.  Out here, superheroes are beyond foreign.  They're jokes, actually.  The people simply cannot connect, and immediately chalk movies like The Avengers up to typical American braggadocio and violence.  So, being out here, you don't get caught up in the hype.  On the contrary, you find yourself defending every little part of American culture (yes, it exists, whether you approve of it or not).  So, after I saw the Avengers, I found myself trying to find a deeper meaning in all the witty dialogue, action and explosions.  And, well...I found something.  Bear with me, because my English has diminished a bit during my stay here, and I may very well lack the words to state this properly.

I'm gonna just say it outright:  the Avengers is the great American connundrum.  On the international stage, Americans hold a lot of power.  So much power it's embarrassing.  Unfortunately, the sources of this power don't exactly work together very well.  In fact, they find themselves at odds with each other on a daily basis.  Avengers takes these four main sources, and personifies them each with a different comic book hero.  First up we have our patriotism, obviously embodied by the US Ideal, Captain America.  Next would be our religion, perfectly summed up in the self-righteous, condescending Thor.  The third , our wealth and the arrogance it breeds, is found in Iron Man.  And finally, our internal conflicts that rip this country apart and bring out such anger...anger that becomes ambition, are carried by everyone's favorite green meanie, the Hulk.

As our movie starts, and even before, these four sources of American Greatness are split.  They are comfortable in their own worlds, and have no time for each other.  And in their isolation, we have an excellent symbol of a manipulative government, Nick Fury, taking charge of all sorts of clandestine activities.  That eyepatch, is at once a metaphor for the limited vision of the government and the hiding of its true intentions.  The eyes are the windows to the soul, after all.  At this point, the Liar, Loki, enters, spouting about his thoughts on freedom.  Freedom...which is such an important facet of American culture, and he just turns it on its head.  Give it up, and we will be safe and secure.  The first to fall is Hawkeye.  As cheesy as it seems, Hawkeye is our eyes, our compass, and it is his blinding that kicks everything off.  He is misguided and mislead to perpetuate the lie, even though some part of him knows it's wrong.  Oh, I'm sure we can draw lots of parallels to our nation's moral compass once the wrong people get a hold of it.

Enter Black Widow, who I'm gonna call our "ears".  The master interrogator.  The interviewer.  The one listening to what's under the underneath to find ulterior motives, expose it and hopefully get everything back on track.  In a perfect world?  She's the press.  The perfect press.  Hey, maybe she did a few things wrong in the past, but ol' Hawkeye saw that she could be used for something good.  And now she's working to get him back.  The first person she visits?  Anger.  Hulk.  Literally the sleeping giant.  She doesn't force him, and she doesn't instigate.  She just calmly gives him facts, and a choice.  Luckily, he joins in.  It'd be nice if our own media were so kind...

Next up, Patriotism, Captain America, an old fashioned notion who blindly follows Fury's orders to get to Germany and stop Loki.  But once one of those sources of American Greatness jumps in, they ALL have to jump in to show who's more awesome.  Yep, Iron Man and Thor both come rushing forward to show off who is the most capable of bringing in the Liar for questioning.  And even...to whom the Liar should answer for his crimes.  

Of course, bringing Loki in the midst of our heroes triggers the big conflict.  And a little argument over who's doing what becomes an all out battle to repair a sinking (falling) ship and keep destructive anger at bay.  Those four big sources of American Greatness are trying to get things under control, but they just can't...not until all the chaos results in the death of the Common Man, Agent Phil Coulson.  That was a heartbreaking moment for me.  But it galvanized the team.  Sure, Fury manipulated it a bit, but...that's good...right?  And finally, Widow knocks some sense into Hawkeye, as the press should do, and he was ready to keep them all aware of their surroundings during the final battle.  Huzzah.

So, what am I saying?  I'm saying that The Avengers shows us that those four disparate wells of power that we struggle with every day, the slowly kill us all as they fight for control...if we could find a way to bring them together, we really do become an amazing nation.  But is that a good thing?  The questions raised at the end of the film are very poignant.  Yeah, the Avengers came together and saved the day against some faceless alien army (and you know America loves fighting faceless foreign armies)...but they opened the door to all sorts of new problems.  And...was the coming of that faceless enemy their own fault?  Does our struggle to achieve greatness and protect the world cause more destruction?  How does the American dream hurt the rest of the world?  I'm glad they didn't try to answer those questions yet.  

But I'll tell you one thing: few people in Japan can see the meaning of the struggle in the Avengers.  They just know its destroying their culture and their kids brains.  Life imitates art, I guess...