Okay, time for another rant about movies.  I know, this is a writing blog and I keep talking about films.  But really, if you want to learn how to write tight, self-contained, highly visual stories, then study screen writing.  Good screen writing, that is.  And there seems to be less and less of that out there these days, at least in the realm of Hollywood.

CAUTION!  THIS ENTRY MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS!  YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!  PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK!

I recently had the dubious pleasure of viewing John Carter and Green Lantern.  Aside from having a pulp fiction background and a male protagonist sent into space, these two movies might appear to have little in common.  But actually, they have a lot in common.  They suck.  They don’t suck so bad that they are unwatchable, but with such rich source material it’s almost a crime how not-good they turned out.  The visuals are excellent (as always, with the benefits of CGI) and the acting wasn’t horrible (although Carter and Dejah Thoris had no chemistry whatsoever, which made their romantic scenes laughable), but the screen plays were unfocused and muddled, like no one could decide exactly what movie they wanted to make.  There were actually several similarities between John Carter and Green Lantern that probably contributed to their dramatic failure:

Continue reading “Two Movies, One Verdict” →