The Enjoyment Of A 3D Remake!

With a market flooded by 3D movies and remakes 2010 has been without a doubt the worst year for movies at the box office in a long time. Movies in 2010 have been boring, dismal, and nothing to tell your friends about. There have been a few gems in amongst the garbage pile, but there just has not been enough movie magic to keep audiences from yawning their way through the summer.

3D or Not 3D, That Is The Question
It seems more so this year then any other that the popularity of 3D movies has exploded beyond anyone's imagination. It is incredible to think that rendering images in a third dimension, a technology which has been around in some form since the 1950's. 3D in fact shared a popular trend during the 1980's up to the early 1990's when suddenly the fad so to speak completely died off. Now suddenly with digital film and increased budgets, more and more studios are starting to deliver their movies in 3D.

Is This What You Wanted?
These days I start to look at 3D as nothing more then a lazy way for studios to accommodate for their absolute lack of originality. When movies like Alice In Wonderland, Clash of The Titans, and The Last Airbender draw audiences solely for their 3D imaging then it really send the wrong message to studios that this is what the movie going public are looking for in their movies these days. No need to worry about a storyline, good acting, or anything resembling originality because we can always just go back, render the images in 3D and charge audiences 3 dollars more to go and see these lackluster movies.

Back To The Drawing Board
When all else fails these days with movie ideas, then it seems like studios have come up with the latest craze of remaking older movies for a new generation. Movies like A Nightmare On Elm Street and The Karate Kid are flocking the market and really offering up nothing new to the original ideas. In fact if you are going to go through with a remake that offers nothing new then the least they could be doing is making the movies fun to watch. The Karate Kid was all but boring with the exception of the acting from Jackie Chan which saved this dull remake from the dark abyss of forgotten movies. Mind you the movie along with many other remakes will soon be nothing more then the 3.99 purchase from the bargain bin at your local Walmart store.

A Guilty Pleasure
So take everything I have just written and call me an absolute hypocrite if you must because what I am about to say goes against everything I have been preaching. Last night my girlfriend Shaunna and I found ourselves at the theater to watch Piranha 3D. This movie is not only a 3D based movie, but it is also a remake on top of it all. The worst part of it all is I did not dislike the movie, in fact I found it rather entertaining to be perfectly honest. Piranha 3D which is written and directed by Alexandre Aja who you may know from his remake of The Hills Have Eyes or more recently Mirrors. It would appear to me that Aja had a very good understanding that the material he was working with was not going to ever be taken seriously, so when in doubt embrace your audience. Piranha 3D as a result of some quick thinking by Aja becomes very comical, graphically violent, and uses an over abundance of cheesy 3D effects to shock the audience. I mean where else can you see a fish swallow male genitalia on screen?

I walked away from Piranha 3D thinking to myself that at least if nothing else Alexander Aja understood that he was making a movie for audience wanting to have fun at the movies, as a result the movie worked on every level and achieved what most 3D movies do not, and that is to entertain the audience. If your core audience is paying that much extra to see your movie then you need to give them enough to walk away satisfied. Piranha 3D is by no means for everyone, and nor is it about to turn any heads in terms of originality, but if a person wants to go to the movies and have a good time then I would have to recommend Piranha 3D solely for that purpose.

Originality
It is tough for me to preach originality and then also to attempt to explain my guilty pleasure of enjoying Piranha 3D but I hope that many or all of my readers will understand where it is I am coming from. Also if you are tired of the lack of originality in Hollywood then try to limit the movies you attend in theaters. Wait for video releases, Netflix rentals, etc or simply wait for the movies to come on to the television and watch them with family and friends at that point. This will force the overall Hollywood numbers down and hopefully get the studios to consider picking up some new and innovative ideas. I don't want to condone illegal downloading of movies on my site but I do feel that if studios want to avoid having this issue then they truly need to work on their original content to draw back their core audiences.

Also write letters, emails, and make your voice heard to sites and studios so that they start to get the message about their ability to fail the movie going public. There are some young new and ambitious film makers out there these days who are dying for the opportunity to get noticed, all we need to do is start directing our attention over to the lesser known movies.

Together we can make the movie world a unique and beautiful work of art like it once was.

Thank you for listening to my rants, please leave any comments if you would like to discuss this post further.

My name is Rob Munson and I say what I think and what I feel, and as a result the people always reply "Good Job Rob!"

Rob Munson (MDotMovieMan) is the former operator of the website M Dot Movie Man Reviews. Rob's new site Good Job Rob! is aimed more at articles revolving around every day life and life in the Hollywood scene. You can check out Rob's blog over at robmunson.blogspot.com. Rob has spent over 10 years working with movies behind the camera and on camera.