[Weekly Update] When is a bad movie not the director's fault?

Watched a whole bunch of movies recently! You can see my reviews for them on our social media pages.

The only good one is Missing. I didn't like the style it was striving for, but it won me over at the end. Would recommend!

CHANNEL UPDATE

I've been struggling with brain fog lately. Having a lot of trouble concentrating, and was never in any mood or mindset to write. Luckily, I was having a break anyway.

In any case, a first draft script for our next video is complete. I'll upload the revised script tomorrow. The video will be about Porco Rosso. I hade to read brain rotting quotes from Mussolini. This video better come out good. My braincells cannot die in vain.

I'm thinking of doing something more opinion based that doesn't require heavy research next. This will allow me to readjust myself, so I can clear my brain fog. Maybe I'll do a 2 parter series on the top 5 fight scenes in Chinese cinema.

Wandering Earth II is now on streaming, but with very poorly made hardcoded subtitles. Guess I'll have to wait until a proper blu-ray release before I can make a video about it. If I'll talk about it at all.

MEDIA TALK

Saw Shazam 2. it was not very good.

Director Ponysmasher aka. David F. Sandberg is one of my favourite working directors in Hollywood. His first three movies, in my opinion, are all very solid outings. Shazam 2 is his first bad movie, and even then, it's an acceptable popcorn flicks.

Interestingly, Sandberg has been pretty vocal about this film, saying that he knew from the start that this movie will flop. And it did.

This serves as a good reminder that, sometimes a project is doomed from the start, and it isn't always the director's fault.

In this specific case, Sandberg is hired to make a movie with a bloated script. The script contains about six different plot lines, which is a whole heck of a lot. Billy alone has like two different stories: his desire to be a leader, and also a subplot about him aging out of the foster system.

The world also faces like four different crisis. The antagonist has a dragon, but also summoned a tree that is basically a sky beam in disguise, but there's also a dome. There's a staff, which leads a golden apple. oh and there are also unicorns. This movie has too many ideas, and all of them half-baked.

It's unknown how much control Sandberg has over this. Chances are, not much. When given a script like this, it doesn't matter what he does, he can't turn poop into gold.

Indeed, if you look at the film closely, you'll notice a lot of strong directorial choices in the details. It's paced well. The jokes land more often than not. The acting performances are all great. And everyone looks like they had a blast.

That is the nature of filmmaking. It is ultimately a collaborative art.

But in this case, perhaps even the writer is not to blame. How much time were they given? Were they forced to include certain elements? Did the script get tempered by producers?

It may sound like I'm being a fanboy and defending Sandberg, but that's only because I am.

But this is something I've noticed a long time ago. Before I wrap this up, let me give you another example, this time from gaming.

In case you don't know, voice acting for video games is difficult. Actors don't get to act together, and they don't often get the full picture of the story. The voice performance is, thus, heavily dependent upon the talent of the voice director.

The best example I can think of is Xenoblade 2 and Xenoblade 3. Spoilers ahead:

Xenoblade 2 has really bad voice directing. According to the voice actors, they were almost entirely in the dark regarding the story. because of this, the actors frequently over or under deliver their emotions compare to their character animations, and it is super jarring.

Xenoblade 3 saw a returning character from Xenoblade 2, and played by the same actress. X3, however, has a much better voice director, and the actress' performance is night and day. She emotes properly. Her intensity matches well with her animation. Her attitude is just right. Even the pacing is better.

A bad acting isn't always the actor's fault either.

Anyway, that's the end of my TedTalk. I'll be handling some personal affairs this week, so our next video will probably be delayed to Saturday or even next Monday. But I promise I'll get it done as soon as possible. In the meantime, hope you have a good week ahead!