RE: Don't say I never spoiled anything for you

["Inman, Don F" <don.f.inman@lmco.com>]

Usually, i am just an observer on this list... But now, on this occassion, i
can truly say that you both missed the point (of this list...)

Beaten down on G-day minus one

Don F. Inman
Engineer        
Control Law Design and Analysis 
Lockheed Martin Tactical Aircraft Systems         
817-763-1550
don.f.inman@lmco.com                                       



        ----------
        From:   Larry Dunn[SMTP:larrydunn@hotmail.com]
        Reply To:       larrydunn@hotmail.com
        Sent:   Tuesday, May 19, 1998 8:09 AM
        To:     dinosaur@usc.edu
        Subject:        Re: Don't say I never spoiled anything for you

        From: Chris Campbell <sankarah@ou.edu>

        >You guys are missing the point.

        I think that depends on what point you're trying to make.

        >  Watch the original Godzilla movies. 
        >You won't find great plots or characterization, except perhaps in
the
        >original (Japanese) film.  Star Wars is a mythic adventure with
space
        >vehicles and alien races as props.  Indiana Jones is one of the 
        defining
        >films of the action/adventure genre.  Godzilla is something
altogether
        >different.  The yardstick isn't good action/adventure or science 
        fantasy
        >films; it's not even crappy big-budget extraveganzas made by the
same
        >people.  The only valid measure here is prior Godzilla work.  If it
        >follows in that tradition, fine.  It's done its job, regardless of
        >whether or not it's done in the framework of a good story.  

        Well then, I'd suggest that it's you who's missed the point.  You're

        confusing how entertaining a movie is with how faithful it is to its

        genre, two *very* different things.

        Just because a movie is a genre movie doesn't require you to judge
it 
        based *exclusively* or even *primarily* on its prior genre criteria;

        Sony didn't make this movie for the fanboys; they made it for a huge

        audience, many of whom are either unfamiliar with the Japanese kid's

        movies or actively dislike them.

        Sony doesn't want you to say, "boy, that sucked and so I'm not
coming 
        back, but I admit it was much better than the Japanese movies;" they

        want you to say "wow, that was really fun; I'm coming back next 
        weekend."

        So when you're in the theater, don't be afraid to ask yourself,
"hmmm, 
        was that entertaining or moronic?"  Forget about genre unless you're
a 
        fanboy.

        By the way, one of America's premier paleontologists has reminded me
not 
        to forget the TV movie GARGANTUA airing, by some coincidence, this 
        weekend.  I think it's Tommy Lee's biopic.  Well, since he says so,
I'll 
        add it to Dinosaur TV Week, coming in the next hour or so.

        Larry

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