... FOR "MARKETING PLOYS AND THE ART OF THE MONEY SHOT"

I happened to catch Independence Day on AMC last week (well, most of it anyway), and was shocked to re-discover how simplistic the movie plays, and how that simple-mindedness works largely in its favor. It's deliberately designed as a callback to those big-budget, star-studded disaster flicks of the 70's, only this time with aliens, and like Earthquake or The Towering Inferno, it appeals to our most basic desire to watch stuff blow up. Each individual character motivation can be summed up in six words or less (Wants His Ex-Wife Back, Wants To Be An Astronaut, Wants To Be A Better President), the special effects (mostly model work, minimal CGI) are impressive in an old-fashioned Irwin Allen sort of way, and its big emotional crescendos ("Today we celebrate... our Independence Day!") are painted in the biggest, broadest strokes. Lump them all together, and it's no wonder audiences went absolutely ape for it.

... FOR "WALT DISNEY'S ANIMATED FIFTY (PART 37 - 'TARZAN' EDITION)"

My continuing foray into Disney's fifty official Animated Classics. As always, don't hesitate to share your thoughts/memories/complaints in the comments section below. Links to previous entries have also been included below.

Title: Tarzan (1999; based on the novel Tarzan Of The Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs)

The Plot: An orphaned baby is adopted by gorillas in the jungles of Africa, where he learns to live as one of them.

The Songs: "Two Worlds," "You'll Be In My Heart," "Son Of Man," "Trashin' The Camp," "Strangers Like Me," "You'll Be In My Heart (Phil Collins Version)," "Two Worlds (Phil Collins Version)"

... FOR "FRANCHISE FACE-OFFS (PART 13 - 'SUPERMAN' EDITION)"

He is easily the most iconic and recognizable of all superheroes: Why, if the red boots, cape, and blue tights don't give him away, then the red-and-yellow "S" insignia at the center of his chest most certainly will. His name has become synonymous with all things "Truth, Justice and the American Way." And few phrases in pop culture iconography bring a smile to people's faces like "Look! Up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! It's Superman!" can. Born Kal-El of Krypton, and later adopting the guise of mild-mannered reporter Clark Kent, the Man of Steel would not only emerge as Earth's greatest protector – he would turn out to be the archetype for all comic book heroes to follow.

This response no doubt took even Superman's creators by surprise. Hailing from the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio, Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster originally envisioned their "superman" (or "Übermensch," as coined by Friedrich Nietzsche) as a bald-headed telepathic villain bent on world domination. Years later, they completely re- jiggered their concept, and in April of 1938, the character as we all know and love him debuted in Action Comics #1, which sold on newsstands for 10¢ an issue (to compare: a mint-condition copy was recently auctioned off at $2.16 million). His popularity only skyrocketed from there, selling millions of comics in multiple languages all over the world. He soon became the star of his own radio show, a string of popular Max Fleischer cartoons, two movie serials, and a weekly television series starring George Reeves. Usurpers to the throne (including Batman, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man and the Hulk) could only look on with envy.

... FOR "CG ATROCITIES" (CONTINUED)

An addendum to last week's post, on the horrors of excessive CGI in modern blockbuster cinema.

One of the things you'll notice when watching George Lucas's recent Star Wars prequels is that the guy is clearly infatuated with all the newfangled technology at his disposal. This is certainly one of the reasons why so many people tend to reject The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith on an intellectual level. It's the opposite of what made the original trilogy so special in the first place, when Lucas was basically forced to invent the FX that would kowtow to the stories he wanted to tell.
 
Especially depressing during Clones and Sith is George's insistence on using digital stuntmen to punctuate his action sequences. Long before the days of Luke Skywalker, apparently, the Jedi had the power to transform into hokey cartoon versions of themselves while doing somersaults through the air. Pretty cool, right? For someone as old- fashioned as myself, however, this is the equivalent of those Adventures Of Superman serials of the 40s, when actor Kirk Alyn would literally morph into a hand-drawn Man of Steel when flying. Which is to say, if you can't make it look right, why bother trying at all?

... FOR "CG ATROCITIES (AND THOSE WHO COMMIT THEM)"

Confession: I don't care much for CGI. At least not in the way most filmmakers tend to use it these days, which is too much and too often. Like any cinema tool – music, art direction, cinematography, editing, costume design, even A-list actors – special effects should always be used as a means to support a story, not as the focus of it. And it's a shame how so many people have apparently lost sight of that.

Granted, it's a tricky mix to get just right. While some directors seem to get it (Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan, even pre-Avatar James Cameron spring to mind), others have simply lost the ability to rely on anything else (cough-George Lucas-cough). We've come a long way since the days of Jurassic Park and Terminator 2, when CGI still had the power to shock and surprise us - to make the fantastical seem fathomable. Now that anything and everything can be accomplished via CGI, from exploding planets to spaceships to kitchen utensils to tabletops, my question is: Should it?