Month: June 2016

A couple of months back, I posted an opinion piece on extended versions of film and how relevant they are to the theatrical release.  I basically talked about the different aspects of extended cuts that are interesting, as well as how and why they are released.  I will be doing a Best Extended Cuts list later on this week, I hope.  But right now, I want to revisit the subject of extended cuts.  Why?  There were two movies released this year that I want to focus on:  Batman V. Superman and Warcraft.  Why these two movies?  When I saw these movies, it felt like they were missing things and important clues as well as plot points and subplots.  One of the reasons that I bring up Batman V. Superman is because they announced an extended cut of the film before the actual film was released back in March.  The extended version of the film will be released next month, and will feature about 30 minutes of additional footage reintegrated into the film.  I’m not opposed to that, as I think there’s a good movie in there somewhere, and hopefully the extended cut will fix some of those problems.  My issue is with them announcing the extended cut of the film before the movie was even released.  That brings up a number of questions regarding the film’s quality during post-production.

I understand that a movie studio needs a movie to be within a certain run time, between 2-3 hours so the audience doesn’t fall asleep.  But when you release a movie that throws so much material at the audience, you are actually doing damage to the film itself.  If you’re going to throw that amount of story points, characters and events, you need to give the story of the film room and time to develop properly.  Warcraft ran at a little over two hours, but it tossed so much lore and characters at you, it didn’t have time to properly explain what was going on or giving the characters time to grow.  This is why extended cuts or almost a requirement in this day and age, especially for home video.  According to various sources, including Dark Horizons, the original cut of Warcraft was 2 hours and 40 minutes.  That’s an additional 40 minutes that could have been used to further explain what was going on in the movie for your average movie-goer.  So, who is responsible for cutting those movies down to an “acceptable” run time?  Is it the director or is it the movie execs?  In certain cases, it’s the director.  When a director decides to cut a movie down from a previous cut, he’s usually got his hands all over and is his responsibility.  You can tell the difference when a movie has been cut by a director or by a movie execs.  The execs are fairly obvious, because they want to plant more butts into theater seats, so they want to get the movie down to a run time that they feel won’t alienate audiences.  This is what I hate about movie studio executives:  They think that the audiences are stupid.  I can’t even begin to tell you how untrue that is.  With the Internet and social media today, we have almost unlimited access to information.  You know when a studio exec has screwed with a movie.  Alien 3 is a PERFECT example, as is Daredevil and Batman V. Superman.

For movies like Batman V. Superman, it feels like the movie studios don’t have a whole lot of faith in the film that they are trying to produce, hence the extended cut which hits home video next month.  Are the issues behind the scenes THAT bad, that the movie studios have to start interfering with production?  We’ve seen how often that plays out, and most of the time it’s not pretty.  Again, I use Alien 3 as an example.  The studios didn’t trust David Fincher to really get the project done the way they felt it should be done, so they kept getting in his business and changed things without telling him about it.  This had the effect of driving the director off the film.  Don’t get me wrong, I understand that film making is a business and that movie studios are basically gambling on whether or not a movie will make a profit or break even.  It’s kind of like Russian Roulette, in that regard.  Sometimes, though, you have to take a leap of faith and hope that you get it right.  New Line Cinema took a massive risk with Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings movies, and look how well that ended up.  They gave Jackson the go-ahead to make The Return of the King a 3.5 hour film.  Audiences ate it up.  Those movies did so well that the studio pretty much gave Jackson the green light to revisit his movies and released the Special Extended Editions of the films, which added a whole lot more to them.

Extended Cuts serve a real purpose.  A lot of the time, its usually because the director of a particular film feels that his movie isn’t good enough, so he ends up revisiting it later and adds more to the film.  Take Aliens and Terminator 2 for example.  The theatrical versions were GREAT movies, but the extended cuts made them even more special, because they helped elaborate certain plot points and allowed for more character development.  That’s not a bad thing.  What is a bad thing is when you’re trying to release a movie, but you have to announce an extended cut before the actual film is released.  Sometimes, a director is happy with the film that he/she released to theaters, but is entirely willing to show them an alternate version of the film just to show audiences what could’ve been.  X-Men: Days of Future Past is an example of that.  The Rogue Cut of the film was released last year and featured an almost different take on the film with the character of Rogue being placed in some of the more important scenes.  Was it necessary?  No…but it was awesome.

I don’t hate the two movies that inspired this post.  I really don’t.  In fact, I rather liked them.  But the problems that I encountered with them brought them down a bit.  I just wish movie studio execs would just allow directors the latitude and flexibility that they need to give us a proper movie.  If they all did that, then the need for extended cuts would be greatly reduced.  However, the execs only see dollar signs and nothing else.  That can have a serious impact on whether or not a movie turns out well.  Extended Cuts shouldn’t be necessary, they should be optional and a bit of  a bonus for the audience.  The theatrical film should be able to stand well enough on its own without the need to have further edits post-release.

Alright, quiz time:  Who knows what these are?  Any guesses?  Clues?  Alright, I’ll tell ya:  These are drive-in theater speakers.  Every movie drive-in theater up until the mid-90’s had these.  I honestly hope that some drive-ins still have them.  How you used these was you took one, hooked it on to your door or window, so the people in your vehicle could hear the movie.  For the drive-ins that are still in existence, I wish they still had these.  It’s a novelty these days, sure, but way back in the day, these were the only way to hear the movie.  During the mid-90’s, most drive-ins opted for a particular radio frequency instead.  Is there a point to all of this?  Yes.  Yes there is.  This post is not just about MY personal movie-going experience, but also how the movie-going experience evolved/devolved to what it is today.

As a kid, when we went to a movie theater, it was generally a drive-in theater, since those were really the big ones around.  There were two in particular that we went to:  Pioneer Drive-In in Provo, Utah, and Redwood Drive-In Theaters on Redwood Road in Salt Lake county.  The Redwood Drive-In is STILL there.  Unfortunately, Pioneer closed in 2001 to make room for housing developments….dammit.  Going to these drive-ins was an experience for somebody my age during the 80’s and 90’s.  It was very unique.  What you did was you bought tickets at the entrance to the theater and then you slowly found your way to a good spot to see the movie, hoping that somebody didn’t have a huge-ass truck in front of you.  Most of these theaters had just gravel on the ground so it was a bit of a bumpy drive, but it was fun.  At the center of the theater…field was a concession stand where you would buy drinks, popcorn and/or candy.  They also had bathrooms should the need arise.  Generally you ended up getting to the theater about 20 or so minutes before the film starts so you can find a spot.  So, you find a spot, get your junk food, grab a speaker and wait for the film to start.  This is where the experience begins, because it’s not just about the movie, it’s also about spending time with your loved ones or friends, and that’s what the whole movie-going experience was really about:  Spending time with friends and family.

One of the more interesting aspects of the drive-in theater was the double-feature.  We would sometimes pay for one ticket, but end up staying for the following feature.  That’s what happened most times when my family and I went to these drive-ins.  I remember seeing both Batman and The Abyss on the same screen at Pioneer Drive-In.  At Redwood Drive-In a couple of years later, we ended up seeing Batman Returns and Total Recall.  So, yeah, you payed for one movie, but you ended up staying for two.  Obviously, we only did these on weekends or during the summer when school was out.  These are some of the most memorably moments in my life that I will treasure until the day I die.  It’s amazing how the movie-going experience has changed over the years.  With the decline of movie drive-ins, we saw an up-swing of sit-in movie theaters until that’s almost what we have today.  It’s a damn shame, to be truthful with you.  Call me nostalgic, call me old-fashioned, but I still feel that the best way to experience the big movies is in a drive-in theater.  You’re not sitting right next to a complete stranger who may or may not have some bizarre disease, but you were surrounded by fellow movie-goers who were there for the experience as well.  It was an interesting time to be a movie-goer.

Now, with the onslaught of sit-in movie theaters, the whole movie-going experience, at least to me, seems to have been diluted somewhat.  Instead of driving into a theater and watching from a car, you have to go inside a building and in close proximity with complete strangers.  Walk-in theaters have been around since the beginning of film making so I shouldn’t complain about that.  What I will complain about though, is the level of rudeness and indiscretion of your average movie-goer today.  Kicking the back of your seat, talking through the movie and being a complete ass is now the norm.  Whereas, people had respectable from each other and didn’t distract each other with gadgets and shit like that has now been hijacked by this:

Yeah, phones.  Cell phones, iPhones, and tablets are now the “in” thing.  I can tell you right now, there is nothing more distracting that seeing a bright light out of the corner of your eye while something awesome is happening on the big screen.  It pulls you out of the fucking moment.  I don’t get it:  You payed for the ticket to see the movie and you’re on your phone?  There are theaters around the country that will kick your ass out of the theater for doing that, with no refund.  I like that idea.  I always turn off my phone when the lights dim, and I wish other people would do the same.  Even if they do that, they still end up talking through the movie.  As YouTuber Chris Stuckmann says, “If I wanted a commentary, I’d buy the DVD.”  I can’t begin to tell you how many times I’ve had to turn around to tell the people behind me to shut the fuck up.  Literally.  I’m polite at first, but they kept going, so I told them to shut their fucking mouths and watch the fucking movie.

The movie-going experience is not what it once was and never will be again.  With the advent of Video on Demand with services like Amazon Prime, Hulu and Netflix, the entire experience of going to the movies has changed, and I’m not entirely sure it’s for the better.  Not only that, the turn-around for movies to hit home video has been shortened from 6 months to 3 and a half.  So, if you didn’t want to see that movie in the theater, all you had to do was wait a few months.  Things have changed with technology and we have to accept that, but there are times when I miss going to a drive-in theater to see a movie.  I may end up hitting up Redwood Drive-In sometime this summer, and I would encourage anybody who loves movies to find a still-operating drive-in theater and support it as best you can.  Why?  There’s going to be a point when there will be no more drive-ins.  Anywhere.