I have known since I eagerly purchased my copy of Kingdom Hearts II years ago that this game featured a level based on Pirates of the Caribbean. The creators, it seemed, decided to upgrade their pirates from those found in Peter Pan to those found sailing aboard the Black Pearl. Being a huge fan of that particular franchise, I was pretty excited about this level. When a Gummi course opened up to the level that was clearly the PoC world, I was doing a little happy dance in anticipation.
That joy lasted for all of about five minutes after I started the level. The whole thing was just a huge letdown, except for the game play element itself, actually. Normally, I would say nothing else but the game play really matters, but there is so precious little of it in this game, and it is so broken up by cut scenes, that any enjoyment I got out of it was quickly and effectively rendered moot as soon as a "scene" had been played through.
The cut scenes in this level (named Port Royal, even though it is only one of three locations you visit in this world) are particularly tortuous. Because PoC was a live-action movie rather than a cartoon or CG film, the game designers chose to change up the graphic style of the game for that level--but just for the environment and the characters belonging in that level. This was just jarring all around. Sora and his pals, as well as Pete (the assistant to the Big Bad of the game) and the heartless are all still very cartoony, while running around in CG surroundings that look like nothing so much as a bad attempt at CG claymation. The cursed pirates looked pretty cool, I will grant them that, but the models of the characters from the film (Jack, Will, Elizabeth, and Barbossa) were just close enough to be distracting in their inaccuracy. If they got the appearance mostly down, they didn't get the body language right, or the manners of speech (and don't get me started on the terrible job the voice-actors did trying to impersonate the original actors). Everything was just off in a way that I found extremely annoying.
I will take a brief aside to say that this is actually the second level where the game designers decided to change up the graphics style. The first is a sub-level of the Disney Castle called Timeless River, which is a level set back in the original Steamboat Willie cartoon. The level was all in black and white and they explained the different graphic style by pointing out that the characters had actually gone back in time and that's why everything looked different. Sora, Donald, and Goofy even got redesigns to fit into the old-timey look and feel of the place. It was weird, but the annoyance factor was only mild, and was greatly mitigated by the fact that the change was mandated (or at least explained) by the game's story. Also, for sitting through the level you are awarded the most awesome keyblade I've yet come across in the game. That goes a long way toward making it better. Port Royal has none of that.
The bad models and voice-acting were only exacerbated by the numerous and very very long cut scenes littered throughout the level. Many of them were straight up reenactments of scenes out of the movie. But the timing and tone and the way in which people said their lines was all just off and it was so frustrating! Also, the designers clearly failed to secure the rights to the score to the PoC movie, which is understandable, I am sure that would have been costly, but the music they put in its place was just horribly chosen. None of it fit what was going on in the scenes at the time. None of it. If they couldn't have gotten the original actors to voice some of the characters, or at least secured the original audio track from the film to use for the dialogue in the cut scenes, I feel the game would have been much better served for them to limit the amount of dialogue and just use word balloons when there was a lot of talking to be done. Word balloons are just as common as actual spoken dialogue throughout this game, and it wouldn't have stood out had they gone that route.
Sigh. All in all, I have to say that this whole game has just been a big disappointment so far. I mentioned earlier that the story itself is actually pretty interesting, and I stand by that, but it is not enough to carry the whole game. I feel like the design team was told, "Kingdom Hearts was a smash! The games for the portable systems went over well too, make a sequel for the console, quick!" Only, they didn't want to make more of the same, so they tried out a bunch of different things and tried to shoehorn them all into one game under the guise of being part of the franchise, and it just doesn't fit well together.
The more I play this game, the less I want to play it. I am going to finish it, because when I stopped working full time I made a deal with myself that I would get better about finishing projects that I start, be they video games, craft projects, writing projects, or what have you. There are bits of it that are truly enjoyable--some of them are the bits that clearly follow through from the first game and are just basic improvements upon the original system, others are interesting new characters or story elements they've added. I am trying to cling to those bits to get me through to the end. Maybe if I treat it like a treasure hunt (much like my character is hunting for treasure chests in each of the worlds he visits) it will look a little brighter.
Showing posts with label Pirates of the Caribbean. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Pirates of the Caribbean. Show all posts
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
Getting Past the Knee-Jerk Reaction
So, a few days ago I stumbled across this quick little post on io9. It is just a little blurb announcing that the forthcoming fourth installment in the Pirates of the Caribbean film series will not, in fact, be the last movie in the franchise. Seems like Disney is gearing up to make a fifth and a sixth film as well, which it is looking to film simultaneously and then release as two films, similar to what it did with films two and three.
My instant, automatic, knee-jerk reaction to this news was "Oh God, why?" But then something funny happened. I started actually thinking about it and realized that, you know what, I am actually okay with this. I love all three of the Pirates movies that we've had so far. I am truly really looking forward to the fourth one. I mean, come on, they're big epic set pieces with pretty boats and fantastic costumes. Johnny Depp says and does many bizarre and often humorous things. Orlando Bloom is pretty when he channels Errol Flynn. I actually like Kiera Knightly, though I am not sure why. Jack Davenport is all kinds of crazy awesome. Plus, it's historical fiction, which I love. Also, pirates.
Clearly, I am not alone in this, and there are many like-minded individuals out there, or Disney wouldn't be bothering. These movies aren't exactly cheap to make. I am not going to complain. As long as these movies continue to entertain me, I will continue to go see them. People who have not been entertained by previous films in the franchise, and expect to not be entertained by future films in the franchise should not go see them. When people like that start to outnumber people like me, it seems pretty self-explanatory that Disney will stop making these movies.
But that's not really the point of this post. The internet is already undergoing a mild explosion at the news (heck, just check the comments thread on the post I linked to above for all of the negativity spewing forth from people who had the same knee-jerk reaction I initially had). I will leave that be. There's nothing I can do or say to stop it, so it seems silly to comment further on it.
Why do we, the public, get so darn offended when one movie turns into two, or three, or more?
Seriously, give it a moment to kick around in your brain. These days, whenever a sequel is made, unless it is an adaptation of, say, a preexisting book series where we know we've signed on for several films to tell the story, there is almost always a huge public cry of indignation and outrage. Sure, it is likely that a continuation of a story may be unnecessary, but unnecessary doesn't always equal bad. Just because one story in a particular world was told satisfactorily, that doesn't mean that there aren't more stories from that world to be told.
These are the main objections I tend to see to the continuation of a movie franchise:
1) The studio is just trying to milk as much money out of us as possible!
Well, duh. I am completely over this complaint. I am sick of it. Done. The movie industry is just that, an industry. It is completely, utterly, and totally about making money. They are trying to sell a product that they think we, the public, not only want, but will give them money to see. Every once in a while, a big budget film is made that turns out to be art, but that really isn't the goal. When it happens, it is an unexpected, if delightful, side-effect, but side-effect it is. If you want to see art when you go to the movies, move to a town where you have access to an arthouse cinema. Otherwise, understand that what you are getting when you go to see a movie is a product, designed to be sold to the masses.
If enough people enjoyed the original film, there's a good possibility there is a market for more in that franchise. Sometimes, a story for a completely new and spectacular thing gets pitched, and the studio loves it but isn't sure that we'll bite. But they look at it and think that it might work as a story set in an existing franchise, and so it gets made as a sequel instead of its own story. Yeah, okay, this is a little insulting. But apparently the studios are scared to make movies these days if they aren't 100% sure they will sell. Nine times out of ten, that means they are going with the known quantity over the unknown. It sucks, but it is the system. You know it is the system. If you keep supporting that system by going to see the stuff that they give you, then your soapbox for this particular issue is pretty much nonexistent. There are two ways to fight the system: Don't go see the big-budgeted mass-market films you think are crap, and do everything you can to support the unique, independent, truly different films that do manage to get made. Griping on the internet is gonna do diddly squat though.
2) This just shows that there are no original ideas left in Hollywood anymore!
Okay, look. I am not going to deny the veracity of that statement. But if my choices are a new story set in an existing franchise or a remake of a movie that I still clearly remember seeing in theaters at some point in my lifetime (dude, I'm only 30, that's not a huge catalog), well, I am definitely going to take the former. I can get behind extending one movie into a series of movies. The remakes still give me the heebie jeebies unless they are done well and a significant period of time has passed between the original and the new one. Very very few remakes fall into either one of those categories, and so, I don't go see them unless I have a compelling reason to do otherwise.
Also, as I noted above, there are plenty of "new" story ideas being pitched all of the time, it's just that right now new=scary to movie studio execs, so those movies are not getting made. This is sad, but unlikely to change in the current economy. Also, honestly, there really are very few actual new ideas left on this earth. We as a species have been telling each other stories for thousands of years now. At this point, we're just getting variations on a theme. What we're asking for when we want "new" movies is a really cool variation that is unlike those that have come before.
If I would be forced to answer my own question, I would say that the reason people get so upset about a movie becoming a franchise is that a) the follow-up movies aren't any good, and b) the follow-up movies somehow diminish their enjoyment of the first.
Granted, often, the first part of this claim is right. Just because Hollywood is embracing the idea of series over one-shots doesn't mean they have actually figured out how to pull it off. If you didn't like the sequel to a beloved movie, I can see being irritated that you wasted your money on seeing it in theaters. But...that's not the kind of grudge a person really needs to hold on to for more than a day or so, is it? After that, your trust has been lost. There's no point in getting angry about future movies in the franchise. Just don't go see them. Then the only thing about those you have to worry about is the marketing campaign, which, honestly, should be pretty easy to ignore assuming you are capable of turning off your television/radio, changing the channel, not surfing a website you know will be taking about the movie, deciding not to look at a billboard or other print ad, etc.
The second part of that answer, though, that's just bull. I am sorry, but if you liked the first movie, you liked it. The second, third, whatever movies in that franchise are separate entities. You can completely ignore the fact that they exist and just watch the first one over and over at your leisure. If seeing the second one points out huge plot holes you didn't know existed in the first one, well, that sucks, but those plot holes were still there when you watched the movie and liked it the first time around. Chances are you would have noticed them eventually. I know I've addressed this specific topic before, about a sequel's actual inability to lessen your enjoyment of whatever it is a sequel to, so I won't get into it too much here. It just baffles and saddens me, and I think people who use this as an excuse are just looking for a reason to be angry. And honestly, if that's the case, that's a whole different set of problems that need to be addressed. Let's not blame the movies, okay?
What strikes me as so odd about this regular reaction to a movie turning into a series of movies is that it is pretty much the exact opposite of the way things work in the book world. There are plenty of stand-alone one-shot books out there, certainly. But there are tons of series, and no one seems to bat an eye if one book turns into a trilogy or if a planned trilogy turns into an eight book run. People often, in fact, seem to beg for them to do so.
Maybe this is just me, and maybe this is why I have less of a problem with the movie conundrum than others, but I love book series. Most of the books I read are series. Sure, a one-shot or even a trilogy is easier to get into further on down the line, and with an extended series, you run the risk of never finding out how the story ends. But with the really good series, each book is a stand-alone tale. There should be an overarching story arc, sure (one that lasts for just a few books or for the entire series), and the stories should all be about the same person/group of people or at least set in the same universe. This way they can tie together and fit under the umbrella of a series. I think what I enjoy most about these is that when I pick up a new book in a series I am already invested in the world I am diving into. There is less for me to figure out, and so I can enjoy the details more and jump right into the action of the story. I don't have to wonder why this character is doing X while that one is doing Y, because that is just how I would expect those people to behave. It is lovely. Upon reflection, I am sure this is why I have gotten so much more into television series than movies over the last few years. I don't think it is a bad thing for movies to take advantage of this formula.
I guess maybe the better question here would be: Why do people get so emotionally involved in movies that they let themselves get so worked up about more of the same being made? I mean, really, if a movie comes out that you don't want to see, don't get mad that it got made instead of, possibly, something that you did want to see. Just don't go see it. Instead, go watch the movie you did enjoy again. Or pick up a book, or watch a television show. Heck, go for a walk outside and enjoy reality for a bit. There's plenty of originality there, I guarantee you.
Me, well, now that I've realized I have this knee-jerk reaction, I know that I need to work on getting past it. If enough of us can do that, then I think the world will be a much better place. Full of loads of second-rate movie sequels and series, maybe, but also full of happier people. I'll take the first any day if it means I can have the second.
My instant, automatic, knee-jerk reaction to this news was "Oh God, why?" But then something funny happened. I started actually thinking about it and realized that, you know what, I am actually okay with this. I love all three of the Pirates movies that we've had so far. I am truly really looking forward to the fourth one. I mean, come on, they're big epic set pieces with pretty boats and fantastic costumes. Johnny Depp says and does many bizarre and often humorous things. Orlando Bloom is pretty when he channels Errol Flynn. I actually like Kiera Knightly, though I am not sure why. Jack Davenport is all kinds of crazy awesome. Plus, it's historical fiction, which I love. Also, pirates.
Clearly, I am not alone in this, and there are many like-minded individuals out there, or Disney wouldn't be bothering. These movies aren't exactly cheap to make. I am not going to complain. As long as these movies continue to entertain me, I will continue to go see them. People who have not been entertained by previous films in the franchise, and expect to not be entertained by future films in the franchise should not go see them. When people like that start to outnumber people like me, it seems pretty self-explanatory that Disney will stop making these movies.
But that's not really the point of this post. The internet is already undergoing a mild explosion at the news (heck, just check the comments thread on the post I linked to above for all of the negativity spewing forth from people who had the same knee-jerk reaction I initially had). I will leave that be. There's nothing I can do or say to stop it, so it seems silly to comment further on it.
Why do we, the public, get so darn offended when one movie turns into two, or three, or more?
Seriously, give it a moment to kick around in your brain. These days, whenever a sequel is made, unless it is an adaptation of, say, a preexisting book series where we know we've signed on for several films to tell the story, there is almost always a huge public cry of indignation and outrage. Sure, it is likely that a continuation of a story may be unnecessary, but unnecessary doesn't always equal bad. Just because one story in a particular world was told satisfactorily, that doesn't mean that there aren't more stories from that world to be told.
These are the main objections I tend to see to the continuation of a movie franchise:
1) The studio is just trying to milk as much money out of us as possible!
Well, duh. I am completely over this complaint. I am sick of it. Done. The movie industry is just that, an industry. It is completely, utterly, and totally about making money. They are trying to sell a product that they think we, the public, not only want, but will give them money to see. Every once in a while, a big budget film is made that turns out to be art, but that really isn't the goal. When it happens, it is an unexpected, if delightful, side-effect, but side-effect it is. If you want to see art when you go to the movies, move to a town where you have access to an arthouse cinema. Otherwise, understand that what you are getting when you go to see a movie is a product, designed to be sold to the masses.
If enough people enjoyed the original film, there's a good possibility there is a market for more in that franchise. Sometimes, a story for a completely new and spectacular thing gets pitched, and the studio loves it but isn't sure that we'll bite. But they look at it and think that it might work as a story set in an existing franchise, and so it gets made as a sequel instead of its own story. Yeah, okay, this is a little insulting. But apparently the studios are scared to make movies these days if they aren't 100% sure they will sell. Nine times out of ten, that means they are going with the known quantity over the unknown. It sucks, but it is the system. You know it is the system. If you keep supporting that system by going to see the stuff that they give you, then your soapbox for this particular issue is pretty much nonexistent. There are two ways to fight the system: Don't go see the big-budgeted mass-market films you think are crap, and do everything you can to support the unique, independent, truly different films that do manage to get made. Griping on the internet is gonna do diddly squat though.
2) This just shows that there are no original ideas left in Hollywood anymore!
Okay, look. I am not going to deny the veracity of that statement. But if my choices are a new story set in an existing franchise or a remake of a movie that I still clearly remember seeing in theaters at some point in my lifetime (dude, I'm only 30, that's not a huge catalog), well, I am definitely going to take the former. I can get behind extending one movie into a series of movies. The remakes still give me the heebie jeebies unless they are done well and a significant period of time has passed between the original and the new one. Very very few remakes fall into either one of those categories, and so, I don't go see them unless I have a compelling reason to do otherwise.
Also, as I noted above, there are plenty of "new" story ideas being pitched all of the time, it's just that right now new=scary to movie studio execs, so those movies are not getting made. This is sad, but unlikely to change in the current economy. Also, honestly, there really are very few actual new ideas left on this earth. We as a species have been telling each other stories for thousands of years now. At this point, we're just getting variations on a theme. What we're asking for when we want "new" movies is a really cool variation that is unlike those that have come before.
If I would be forced to answer my own question, I would say that the reason people get so upset about a movie becoming a franchise is that a) the follow-up movies aren't any good, and b) the follow-up movies somehow diminish their enjoyment of the first.
Granted, often, the first part of this claim is right. Just because Hollywood is embracing the idea of series over one-shots doesn't mean they have actually figured out how to pull it off. If you didn't like the sequel to a beloved movie, I can see being irritated that you wasted your money on seeing it in theaters. But...that's not the kind of grudge a person really needs to hold on to for more than a day or so, is it? After that, your trust has been lost. There's no point in getting angry about future movies in the franchise. Just don't go see them. Then the only thing about those you have to worry about is the marketing campaign, which, honestly, should be pretty easy to ignore assuming you are capable of turning off your television/radio, changing the channel, not surfing a website you know will be taking about the movie, deciding not to look at a billboard or other print ad, etc.
The second part of that answer, though, that's just bull. I am sorry, but if you liked the first movie, you liked it. The second, third, whatever movies in that franchise are separate entities. You can completely ignore the fact that they exist and just watch the first one over and over at your leisure. If seeing the second one points out huge plot holes you didn't know existed in the first one, well, that sucks, but those plot holes were still there when you watched the movie and liked it the first time around. Chances are you would have noticed them eventually. I know I've addressed this specific topic before, about a sequel's actual inability to lessen your enjoyment of whatever it is a sequel to, so I won't get into it too much here. It just baffles and saddens me, and I think people who use this as an excuse are just looking for a reason to be angry. And honestly, if that's the case, that's a whole different set of problems that need to be addressed. Let's not blame the movies, okay?
What strikes me as so odd about this regular reaction to a movie turning into a series of movies is that it is pretty much the exact opposite of the way things work in the book world. There are plenty of stand-alone one-shot books out there, certainly. But there are tons of series, and no one seems to bat an eye if one book turns into a trilogy or if a planned trilogy turns into an eight book run. People often, in fact, seem to beg for them to do so.
Maybe this is just me, and maybe this is why I have less of a problem with the movie conundrum than others, but I love book series. Most of the books I read are series. Sure, a one-shot or even a trilogy is easier to get into further on down the line, and with an extended series, you run the risk of never finding out how the story ends. But with the really good series, each book is a stand-alone tale. There should be an overarching story arc, sure (one that lasts for just a few books or for the entire series), and the stories should all be about the same person/group of people or at least set in the same universe. This way they can tie together and fit under the umbrella of a series. I think what I enjoy most about these is that when I pick up a new book in a series I am already invested in the world I am diving into. There is less for me to figure out, and so I can enjoy the details more and jump right into the action of the story. I don't have to wonder why this character is doing X while that one is doing Y, because that is just how I would expect those people to behave. It is lovely. Upon reflection, I am sure this is why I have gotten so much more into television series than movies over the last few years. I don't think it is a bad thing for movies to take advantage of this formula.
I guess maybe the better question here would be: Why do people get so emotionally involved in movies that they let themselves get so worked up about more of the same being made? I mean, really, if a movie comes out that you don't want to see, don't get mad that it got made instead of, possibly, something that you did want to see. Just don't go see it. Instead, go watch the movie you did enjoy again. Or pick up a book, or watch a television show. Heck, go for a walk outside and enjoy reality for a bit. There's plenty of originality there, I guarantee you.
Me, well, now that I've realized I have this knee-jerk reaction, I know that I need to work on getting past it. If enough of us can do that, then I think the world will be a much better place. Full of loads of second-rate movie sequels and series, maybe, but also full of happier people. I'll take the first any day if it means I can have the second.
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