Looking for a plot

Last night, while at my Monday 8-ball pool tournament, a discussion came up about movies. The differences between old classics and great films and modern films. This focused mostly on sci-fi films.

It all started with the horribly wrong movie Dragon Wars (please don’t see this, not on DVD or cable, its pitiful). It was part of a line up of ridiculous terrible sci-fi films from none other than the SyFy Channel on Sunday. Not that much more should be expected from that cable network.

But from there we discussed how movies these days, especially those in sci-fi, now rely on special effects as opposed to plot. This is most evident in the worst of sci-fi movies. Like the extremely low budget Raptor Island (starring Lorenzo Lamas – your first clue of how bad it was). It was a CGI rip off of Jurassic Park, with about 1/5th the budget and 1/10th the plot. Virtually every scene in the movie conflicted with some other part of the film. But there was plenty of bad CGI to try to keep you occupied.

Which is why it cannot compare to other films. In fact, those of us a bit older on the team, were recalling the first movies we ever saw. I had the original King Kong (1930’s), another teammate had Frankenstein, another was Nosferatu. Overall we could name several films from our formative years that we had seen and still remember. This was compared to our youngest teammate, who couldn’t recall any film older than Bladerunner, which he saw on television.

Because without a real plot, what is there to remember? Honestly, there is nothing to pay attention to. Movies these days are so dependant on CGI and explosions (which can be great things) that the concept of a plot goes out the window. Thus the increasing number of movies ripping off or revisioning older plot-driven movies. And each has almost completely been a failure.

Hell, even the remakes of slasher horror films have been complete let-downs. The budgets for films like Friday the 13th were exponentially larger than the original film, and the result was deplorable. Because acting, and plots, are substantially reduced in the new versions as opposed to the old – even in movies where little plot was involved.

Or the trend to have movies steal multiple ideas from successful movies, cobbled together in the hopes of making a passable movie. Like the latest John Cena movie, 12 Rounds. The pitch had to be something like ‘Take Cena, who is popular in wrestling, put him in a Die Hard situation with a bit of Speed and Terminator thrown in, and we have a great movie.’ Except movie-goers had the option of DVD’s and Tivo, both of which are superior to such efforts.

Why are there so few films that are compelling these days? Ultimately that was the question being asked last night. Simply because there is no plot in films anymore. And without that you have nothing more than a string of explosions and CGI graphics strung together in a hodge-podge that even a cartoon can do better.

[Oh, for those wondering. My 8-ball and 9-ball teams are leading our league, likely to win both with room to spare. My match last night took 15 minutes total; 4 games with each game taking one turn of me and my opponent. Essentially I ran to one ball or the 8 and then he ran the table and it was time to rack in each game. Talk about 2 players being on fire.]